up,uP, UP and away

Tonight my sister, Morgan, Maura and I went to find the 'UP' house. Getting to the house was quite the adventure. I am usually really bad with getting anywhere in Utah without my GPS but tonight the GPS failed us and couldn't find the address. So we were left on our own to find our way there. After many wrong turns and a few arguments we finally made it there in one piece.

I saw the movie UP once and didn't really enjoy it. I've never really been a huge fan of cartoon movies except for the Disney Princess movies. Even though I didn't like the movie, I loved the house. It is such a cute house with all of its bright colors and white picket fence. I'm sure glad I don't live there though since strangers would just come over to your house all the time to see it....and creep in your windows...

Park City

This past weekend my Singles Ward went on a Singles Ward Retreat to Park City. Our ward clerk is building a new resort up at The Canyons so we got to stay in a fancy, brand new, never been used and not yet finish hotel. It was probably one of the nicest place I have ever stayed. 

Friday night we had a delicious dinner followed by a fireside. The fireside was absolutely wonderful and was given by Elder Clark from the Seventy.

After the fireside we had a fire and made s'mores. Like most people, I love s'mores but hate the messy mess they make. 

Saturday we woke up ridiculously early.
 like 7:30 early. gross.
I am NOT a morning person especially on Saturdays.
They woke us up early because they thought the gondolas opened at 9. Turns out they don't open till 10. I was not happy about that. At least the Bishopric made us a yummy pancake breakfast.

Once we finally got up the gondolas, it turned out to be worth the wait. The Canyons ski resort is beautiful in the summer. We hiked around for a bit then headed home. 

Feel the rhythm. Feel the rhyme. Get on up, IT'S BOBSLED time....Cool Runnings!!

I felt like Lady Gaga!!! 

Though it was short, it was a lot of fun. I never ever would have guessed any singles ward activity could be fun, but it turns out they actually can be....... good thing I move out of this ward in a week....... 

Yup, that's right, I move back to Provo a week from today :)

7 years

As of today I have officially lived in Utah 7 years......meaning I have officially lived in Utah longer than I have ever lived anywhere else. (If that's not depressing I don't know what is)

My family lived in Oakton, Virginia (which is just outside of D.C.) for 7 years.  That was the longest time my parents had ever lived in one place since they had been married. We lived in a gorgeous red brick house that I absolutely adored from the first moment I saw it. It even had the cutest little gazebo right by the stream that ran through our yard. It was too perfect!

Our old house is currently on the market and I really wish I had the money to buy it and move back. Yes, I do know this because I periodically google our house to look at pictures of it. I'm a dork, I know!

To see pictures of the inside check these out.

 When I was 13 years old my family moved to Sandy, Utah. The move was definitely rough and took a lot of getting used too. I sure do love the gorgeous view of the mountains from my bedroom though!

I'm sad to say that I have not been back to D.C. since we moved. I love D.C. and everything about it (except for the humidity, of course) I love the history, the museums, the culture, the metro, .....the list could go on and on......

There have definitely been pros and cons to living in each place but I still miss D.C. and will hopefully return one day.

Also, today is my dad's birthday!!! Happy Birthday DAD!!! 

America's Favorite Pastime

BASEBALL..... more specifically Bees Baseball. 

For the 24th of July holiday, my single's ward went to the Bees game last night. Baseball may be America's favorite pastime but it sure has never been mine. I can easily count the number of baseball games I have ever been to  

1 Braves game

4 BYU baseball games

and 5 Bees games. 

As you can see I've been to lots of games : ) 

(and I have never willingly watched or followed the games on t.v.) 

Although it rained almost the entire game, it ended up being a lot of fun and I even learned a thing or two about baseball. I may have to watch more games in the future... just maybe. 

I absolutely LOVE fireworks, which is the main reason I went to the game!

Happy late Pioneer Day Utah!!!

New addition

Yesterday was a joyous day. Morgan Catherine Lincoln moved into our house. Morgan is my sister, Raye Ann's freshman roommate and she will be living at our house for the next few months as she does her student teaching. Many adventures are sure to come with the new addition to our home.

Also she has hair extensions with real human hair. They kind of freak me out a little 

An ending and a beginning

I know I'm a bit behind with the blogging world but I just had to write about July 14/15.

The Ending: Harry Potter 7 pt 2.

I have never been obsessed with Harry Potter but it has definitely been a big part in my life.I have so many great memories of Harry Potter throughout my life.

-I remember sitting in the car waiting for the bus as a 7 year old while my mom read me and my sister the first Harry Potter book every morning. And then reading to us again when the 2nd book came out.

-I remember reading the books by myself for the first time and realizing my mom had edited some choice words and scary parts out.

-I remember seeing the first few movies and my mom would bring my niece who is 10 years younger than I am. I remember I would be scared and freaking out while my niece was perfectly content and enjoying her popcorn.

-I remember sitting on the front porch of our house in Virginia waiting for the mailman to deliver the 5th book and he made fun of me when he saw how excited I was for the package.

-I remember sitting in the front room of our house here in Utah reading the 6th book all in one day and crying while reading a book for the first time as I read about Dumbledore's death.

-I remember going to see the 6th HP movie for my 18th birthday with two of my best friends. And yes we did dress up and act like idiots the whole night. It was my first midnight premiere ever.

-I remember going to a Harry Potter dance my freshman year at BYU with my favorite girls from the dorms.

- I remember the best/worst day of my life. I woke up at 3am in the morning to take a night bus to Leichester Square to sit around in the freezing cold and rain for 18 hours for the HP 7 pt 1 World Premiere in London. I remember seeing Draco Malfoy and Neville in real life and realizing how attractive they both are. I also remember stealing signs and parts of the red carpet :) For more on this amazing day see this blog post.

-I remember going and seeing HP7 pt1 for the first time with my sister and Olivia at the Odeon Theatre where the stars actually go and see the movie.

- I remember seeing HP 7 pt 2 for the first time with my family at 7pm July 14 for my birthday then again at midnight with some of my favorite London friends.

July 14th was also a beginning because it was my BIRTHDAY!!!!  My 20th birthday to be exact. It feels so great to no longer to be in my teens.  

So here's to being 20....to a new beginning, a new decade, and to new adventures!

Making my birthday wish :)

Sweden

For the final week of our trip, we were in Stockholm, Sweden for my dad's meeting. I absolutely LOVED Stockholm. Stockholm is made up of 14 islands and has a archipelago made up of over 30,000 islands. So pretty much there is a LOT of water.

These lovely ladies had two suitcases  full of rats.... and they were in our train cabin from Copenhagen to Stockholm.

This is the Royal residence of the Swedish Royal family. The Crown Princess and her personal trainer husband live in another palace though. I've been surprised by the palaces and castles in Scandinavia. They are surprising ugly, plain and fake. Nothing is real and very few of the pieces are even copies of originals.

We got to tour City Hall where they have the Nobel Peace Prize banquet each year.

Um, someone is about to lose their bike.

We went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was Sweden's largest warship from the 1600's. It set sail in 1628 and capsized within 20 minutes, never even making it out of the harbor. It sat in the harbor, completely forgotten until it was salvaged in the 1950's. 

Skansen is the Europe's first open air museum.

I love roller coasters so we went to the Tivoli Amusement Park and went on the craziest ride I've ever been on. The rides name is INSANE which describes it perfectly.

The swings have always been my favorite : )  Swinging over the water was crazy though.

Our last day in Stockholm we took an 11 hour cruise through the archipelago. It was beautiful day with incredible sights.

Overall, we had an amazing 3 weeks in Scandinavia. In 24 days we went to 7 countries, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden. Out of every day of our travels, we spent all but 4 days on the water in some way or another.