Tornado, Temples, T Parties and The Rest of Summer So Far

I've been home for a month now and I have had a blast being home!

My sweet roommate came down to North Carolina! I could hardly believe we were in the same state! I got to meet her mom and her friend Nancy! They were all so sweet to me. We just hung out and of course went shopping! Only five weeks till I get to see her again!

At school I'm use to having the Temple 5 minutes away. Here at home it is a little bit further. The Young Single Adults went and did Baptisms this past weekend. It was nice to go since it had been awhile.

My sister Rachel and I went with our friend Haley to see the final Harry Potter. Of course we dressed up and were all set to go. We are sitting waiting for the movie to start and no one is yelling or cheering. I was baffled, this was the final movie!!!! Where was the excitement?!!? So the movie begins and still no one cheers so I decide to....I'm the only one in this massive theater to scream....then dead silence. I was like oh crap no one joined in and my sister is making the face "Why Emily?! Why do you do these things!?" But then suddenly everyone starts clapping and cheering. It was the best feeling in the world! I felt like i had started a movement!!!

Mine, Rachel's, and Molly's Tea Party

My sister has three kids, two boys and a girl. Now I love her two boys more than anything but playing with Molly is so much more fun to me sometimes. I much prefer Barbies and Polly to Bionicles and Star Wars. Rachel and I pulled out all our toys from when we were little for Molly to play with but honestly I think we may have had more fun then she did!

My sister and I decided last minute to go to the Taylor Swift Concert. It was great! We had floor seats and were super close to the stage. It was so much fun!

Australia!

So I apologize that I haven't updated in two months...but my lovely laptop was being repaired and I could not access all of my photos. Anyways I spent a month Down Under. There is no possible way that I could write about all my adventures and stories I have from traveling there but below are just a few of the photos I took! It was amazing and I had such a good time. It was a really good experience for me and I learned a lot!

This is Nicole and me. While there I became addicted to gelato. Oh my gosh it is so good. It is quite depressing that it isn't on every street corner here like it is there.

I spent a lot of my time on boats and ferries while there. I love being out on the water. In this pic we are on our way to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. I hate and am really creeped out by fish. So this was a big deal for me. I ended up having a blast! However, unfortunately my water bottle went all Titanic on me and fell into the ocean. My friends were freaking out because they had it drilled into us "not to pollute the ocean"! Hopefully no sea turtles died because of me.

I got to meet aboriginals and listen to them play the didgeridoo. I also got to throw a boomerang and a spear. I actually didn't do to bad with the boomerang, I didn't catch it but it went well for my first time. However throwing the spear was a different story. When you throw the spear you use a launcher type thing, you're suppose to hold on to this after you throw the spear....I didn't and almost took out an aboriginal. oops!

We went to this beautiful beach called Whitehaven Beach. We ocean rafted out there. It was perfect! The wind rushing through your hair, music playing and the sun shining! The sand there is almost pure silica so it appears white. This was probably one of my favorite days. Except the seagulls there were wicked, vicious creatures. They attacked us. They were just as annoying as the ones in Finding Nemo. Also on this day I accidently stole a wet suit from the company we rafted with. I don't really know why these things happen to me but it sure does make life more entertaining!

So when you imagine Australia I'm sure you think sand and sun right? Wrong! It was freezing and wet and overcast over half the time we were there. This is the best the could express how we felt about this situation.

We went rappelling in the Blue Mountains. This was so much fun! I loved just bouncing right down those cliffs!

The first two weeks I was there I volunteered and we went on Koala Surveys. This is a horrible thing to do. You don't go and observe adorable Koalas like I imagined. You dig around in the deep rain forest, getting covered with leeches and tics, searching for their poop. It is really glamorous! Well we didn't see any signs of them while surveying in the first two weeks. So when I finally got to see and pet one I was just thrilled! They are so cute and cuddly! I also got to see lots of other animals like kangaroos (I actually ate one too! What country eats their national animal!?) and wombats. I've decided I want one of these! They are so ugly they're cute!

We spent a day in Sydney. I saw the Opera House, the famous bridge, their huge aquarium, and the botanical gardens!

We also went up into the Viewing Tower they have. You can see all of Sydney from up there. While trying to get up there I walked into someone's office by mistake. I definitely was not suppose to be in there!

This is Nick! I love Nick! The first two weeks we planted over 1,000 trees! We got to name some of the trees. We chose names from family members, friends, and characters from books. One of the names I chose was inspired by my friend Mattison. Firestar. The host family loved it! It was definitely their favorite. They were cracking up. That tree has a lot to live up to.

This is Katie. She was my bunk mate and one of the people there I became closest to. I loved waking up in the morning and discussing all of our secrets and having someone to travel outside in the dark with at one in the morning! We had so much fun together.

We also went white water rafting!!! So much fun! We went down head first, on our stomachs, piled on top of each other at the front of the raft down one of the rapids. It was a blast!

The guy in the picture with us is Erik. He is from Holland. So that's what we called him, Holland or well sometimes I called him Blondie. The four of us plus this French guy became really close. Oh and he normally doesn't dress like that....we made him.

Can you believe they let me use an ax! According to certain people I know I break things, so it was very brave of them to let me do this. No one was harmed. However speaking of breaking things I have to make a confession. So the family we stayed with the first two weeks were real hippies. All about saving energy and water conservation. So what do I do, I almost flood their kitchen! I was in there cooking one day and I went to just use a little bit of water but the knob breaks off the sink and I can't shut the water off! I'm freaking out because I broke something that's not mine and I'm wasting water!!! After a few minutes this girl named Emma who works there fixes it. Crises averted!

This is Shannon this is one of the other girls I became really good friends with. Katie, her and I spent all of our time together. Our favorite past time was talking about Martin, the french kid. Shannon had a big fat crush on him!

This is Martin! He is from France. We became good friends. He tried to teach me French but apparently I have a terrible accent. He didn't even know what I was saying to him when I exclaimed Bonjour! I feel as though all those years of watching Beauty and the Beast were a waste! But his American accent wasn't that great either! Communication was hard sometimes and at the beginning I felt like I was playing charades, but by the end we understood each other pretty well!

Myrtle Beach

Every summer my family takes a vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I love it there and have been thinking about the beach since early March. I love the snow in Utah but after months of that beautiful white stuff I was ready for some sun and sand. We've started making a habit though of going during biker weeks...I don't really know why but I saw hundreds of Harley Davidsons. It was fantastic!

Me and my man Andrew

My friends John, Al, and Melissa drove down and spent the afternoon with me. We went to this museum called Wonder Works. It was cool, it had rides, exhibits, and bubbles! We had a blast!

I also convinced my baby sister to go parasailing with me. She is real scared of heights but she was brave and came along. I loved it! It was so much fun, even a little relaxing. I texted my roommates telling them that they had to go with me again sometime! The rest of the time we spent on the beach or at the pools.

Danielle and Molly

Ryan

Two of my favorite boys in the entire world

Rachel and I went to the hotel bar one night and sang ourselves a little karaoke. It was great fun. I can't wait to do it again.

Me and Ry- guy

Molly giving Chad kisses

Mommy and Molly Pop

Me and Molly. We love each other....we had a rough start though. At the beginning of the summer she screamed every time she saw me. However now she realizes I am apart of the family and not a baby sitter, so we are real good friends now.

Moving

So my family has moved into our new house....finally! So a majority of this past week we have been unpacking and sorting through everything.

This is how our house looked for the good first part of the week.

So the bad thing about moving to a new town is that all my friends are two hours away from me. However 2 of them are real sweet and have taken time out of their busy schedules to come see me. Nathan came and stayed the night and was a real sport when I forced him to go shopping with me. Oh plus I know he has that ugly thing on his face in the picture above but he was a wise (and kind) man and shaved that thing off before he came to see me because he knows how much I hate it!

Even my love Della came and had Sunday dinner with me and my family. We had a real good time. We had a good talk, sang a lot, fought over my room decor, and she spent the night. I love her more than bacon!

Then one day I made the journey to go see my friends. My dad had to testify in a murder trial. I watched part of it, I felt like Olivia and Elliott from Law & Order should have been there by my side. So after viewing part of the trial I spent time with my best friends from high school. We went to Chili's and my friend John hugged me of his own free will. Now granted we have been friends for over seven years....what can I say he moves slow. So
I do everything in my power to make him uncomfortable. Like sit really close to him or grab his hand in public....he hates it. After lunch we all went and hung out at Della's house watching movies, eating junk food, and going through all our past yearbooks making fun everyone. Then the boys left and the girls stayed up late discussing the coolest places we had ever made out....my sister, Rachel definitely won!

So when you get a new house you also get a new ward. I love my new ward and I'll tell you why. 1. Now I usually don't like family wards because our last one had children that screamed so loud that you couldn't hear the speakers. I always wanted to go back to the Puritan ways and have someone there with a stick to bop children on the head with when they were misbehaving. I prayed that they would make that my calling in our old ward...the ward stick hitter. Instead they made me a Nursery leader. This ward however the children are cute and I just make faces at them during sacrament meeting.

2. Our organist wears a bow tie every Sunday

3. I'm not told every Sunday how I should be dating, not hanging out, and that I should be getting married.

4. My favorite young women's leader is in our ward now.

5. We have cute little black woman who wears a big hat every Sunday and during the lessons she yells "Amen" and "That's Right" in her adorable southern accent!

Home Sweet Home

This week I arrived home in North Carolina! I got to start off the week by seeing some extended family. Some of which I hadn't seen in over ten years! It was a lot of fun!

So my Daddy just retired from the Army so we've moved to a new city and my parents have bought a new house! It's all quite exciting! I love our new house. However we are not living in it quite yet because the military, being their lovely selves, as still of yet not delivered our household goods! So right now nine of us are living in my sisters house until we get our stuff. It's a party!!!
This summer I have a list. A list of 40 things I want or need to do this summer. Strawberry picking was on that list. I love strawberry picking (not blueberry picking ....that takes way to long to fill a bucket)! We hit up this place close to my sisters and got us some delicious strawberries!Then this past weekend my sister and I went on a double date with our two adorable nephews. We started out at this place called BounceU. It has inflatable bouncers everywhere! Then we went to dinner and finished off the night watching Tangled together. I'd say it was quite a successful date. However I've never been on a date in my life where I needed so much energy or had made my date cry....okay maybe the later has happened before but that's a different story. Anyways we had a good time and I sure do love those boys!

Live Like We're Dying (at least trying)

Finals are finished and summer has begun! So my roommates and I were not quite ready to leave each other so we planned our own little adventure to start the summer off! We planned to go and stay at Nalani's house in Reno for a week to celebrate her 21st birthday! We planned activities such as white water rafting, roller coasters, and sky diving. It was bound to be an awesome week! We started the week off with Easter! Aren't our eggs just gorgeous!?

Nalani's mom was real sweet and had Easter baskets hidden for all of us all around the house. I would like you all to know that I was the first to find my basket! I was real proud!

After finding the baskets we had Easter dinner together. After that we played this egg rolling game that Nalani's family plays every year. You roll the dyed eggs down a ramp and try to knock them into everyone else's eggs. If you hit someone's egg you get to take a penny away from them. (Everyone starts out with ten). Whoever has the most pennies at the end wins. Nalani won the game - only by beating me by one penny!

So Monday we started our adventure packed week with white water rafting! I know you think we look super fine in our wet suits! Our guide started off by telling us that we WOULD fall out of the boat and that it was normal to do so. I was determined not to fall out - that water was cold! However Nalani did fall out. We hit this rock and my sweet roommate Supermaned it right out of the raft. She didn't come up for a while either. It was reaffirmed to me at that moment how much I love her. Don't worry, she's fine. She finally resurfaced and we pulled her back in. And I'll have you know I didn't fall out of the boat except at the very end when I was trying to get out and tripped over the edge of the raft. My mom does often tell me she is so glad she didn't name me Grace!

The American River in California. Where we Put in!

So the next couple of days we made "chill" days. My roommates and I had been going a week and a half straight without a break. These days consisted of Disney Stories, a movie marathon (we planned to watch 15 movies, we got through 5 in 3 days), shopping, and sleeping!

Thursday was Nalani's birthday. Our plan was to go out to lunch and then go do this ride called the Ultimate Rush. They drop you from really high and then swing you around. A couple days before I convinced myself I could do this but then my roommates showed me the youtube video - go watch it. I started freaking out! My poor roommates, I don't think they had ever seen me freak out like this - they started freaking out. Because of this ride I had a real testimony building experience. So like I said I was real freaked out, so I prayed to the gods that tornado winds would come and the ride would be shut down. You wanna know what happened? We went to do this stupid ride and it was closed because the wind levels were to high. I was thrilled! So we went to the park and played instead!

Celebrating the fact I wasn't dropped to the ground and swung around!

Nalani's little brother showing us some of his cool tricks.

On Friday we planned to go to California and go sky diving. I was thrilled ( I know it doesn't make sense that I am okay sky diving but not doing the Ultimate Rush, I can't really explain).

So we hopped into duct taped Franklin. This car took us everywhere. I am really impressed but hey he is a Toyota! We drove three hours to California and went and talked to the crazy haired man in charge. I told him that "I would like to jump out of a plane". He told me he would too but that the winds were to high. Can you believe that!? They very thing that had blessed me so greatly the day before was now cursing me. I was crushed. Then the crazy haired man called my Tori fat. I think he was trying to be funny, but he didn't execute his joke very well. But anyways, I have to wait to jump out of a plane. But not to worry, I am determined to make it happen this summer!

The river we stopped at on the way back. We saw a real otter! (we at first thought it was a snake) It was adorable! Nalani said it was the best day of her life. We ended the trip at Tahoe. It is beautiful! I could have sat there all day. I had such a fun time, even though half of our grand ideas didn't pan out. It was a great beginning to this summer.