Road Trip

This past week, two of my close friends and I went to California for a few days. This was the first of seven consecutive weeks in a row that I will be out of town or on vacation!!!

We spent a few days in Palm Springs where we lounged, swam, tanned, watched movies, ate, ate some more and shopped. It was WONDERFUL!

We then headed to LA to stay at Brit's house. We ate, shopped, watched movies, and went to the beach,  aquarium and the LA temple. Overall it was an amazing trip until I came home and started peeling because I got burned so badly :(

Redondo Beach

 Long Beach Aquarium

 LA temple

 Venice Beach

My Someday

Since before I can remember, just about every church lesson has been focused on the temple and the importance of staying worthy for that someday  when you could attend the temple.
Well my someday came!!!
 This past Thursday I had the wonderful opportunity to go through the Salt Lake Temple.

Just in case you didn't see it on Facebook, Twitter and instagram I thought I'd put it on my blog as well : )

It was an amazing afternoon spent with a lot of people that I love.

My parents, 

Aunt Nancy, 

Uncle Wayne, 

Cousins Anne and Jim, 

my sisters Jamie and Jenn, 

brother-in-law Spencer and 

two of my best friends from high school Karli and Emily  

all joined me in the temple. 
I am truly blest to have such a great family and amazing friends!

The temple is truly is the House of the Lord.
 I can not wait to attend the temple again and again. 

In my preparations for attending the temple I read a lot of great quotes and thought I'd share a few of my favorites with all of you.

"Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father."

—Brigham Young

"When you come to the temple you will love your family with a deeper love than you have ever felt before. The temple is about families."

—Richard H. Winkel

"What a glorious thing it is for us to have the privilege of going to the temple for our own blessings. Then after going to the temple for our own blessings, what a glorious privilege to do the work for those who have gone on before us."

—Howard W. Hunter

"The temple is the house of the Lord. The basis for every temple ordinance and covenant…is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Every activity, every lesson, all we do in the Church, point to the Lord and His holy house."

—Russell M. Nelson

"I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed; life will be better for you."

—Gordon B. Hinckley

"It is in the ordinances of the temple that we are placed under covenant to Him….[If] we will enter into our covenants without reservation or apology, the Lord will protect us. We will receive inspiration sufficient for the challenges of life."

—Boyd K. Packer

"At the temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we can 'see' things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known."

—Boyd K. Packer

"I urge all who have not yet received these greatest of all blessings within the walls of the temple to do whatever may be necessary to qualify to receive them."

—James E. Faust

My parents and I 

My sisters and I (Jamie, Me, Jenn, and Raye Ann)

Everyone at The Garden Restaurant

Karli, Me and Emily

St. Geezy

Last week a few friends and I headed for a short vacation to St George. 

We hiked, 

ate, 

lounged,

watched movies, 

swam,

and just had fun. 

Natural Water Slide

Bear Paw Diner

Just sitting at an antique Coca-Cola table drinking some cold coke

Though I was only gone a few days and it was only St. George, 

it was the perfect little getaway before having to start my summer job.

You are the weakest link

If you know me, you know I'm not an outdoorsy person. 

But this weekend I went on a camping trip with a class to Goblin Valley. 

Thursday night we played capture the flag in the valley

and

Friday we hiked Ding and Dang Canyon. 

I'm not much of a hiker so I definitely struggled over the many obstacles and was the slowest one of the group.... and I may have cried......but I had a lot of fun!

 I'm just proud of myself for surviving.  :)

Goblin Valley

Called to Serve

Wednesday was probably the most exciting and emotional day of my life thus far. 

For starters, my sister-in-law gave birth to my new niece, Kinley Ann.

Then later that afternoon while studying in the library, my mom texted me to inform me that my mission call came.

I immediately started crying...... in the middle of the library.

I was so nervous and excited and scared and anxious and a whole lot of other emotions.

Wednesday felt like the longest day ever as I waited for 7:30 to come so I could open my call and see where I will be serving for 18 months.

My friends from Provo and my family from Sandy met at my sister's house in Lehi to hear me read my mission call.

"You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the  LOUISIANA BATON ROUGE MISSION. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months."

"You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 22, 2012. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the SPANISH LANGUAGE."

In the days leading up to receiving my call I had countless number of people ask me questions like "Where do you want to go?" "Where do you think you'll go?"

I really I had no idea nor did I care but I NEVER would have guessed Louisiana!!!!!

I am so excited though!!! I can't wait for August 22nd.

I should probably start learning Spanish though :) 

 

 

one direction

I have recently become obsessed with this lovely British/Irish boy band.

They are so adorable and yes I do realize they are all younger than me. 

I think my London friends will greatly appreciate this music video and recognize most places!

Liam is my favorite. He's the one that starts the song and wears the grey suit.

Who's your favorite?

Bizarre Saturdays

So this past Saturday I woke up thinking it was going to be a normal typical Saturday...

And I got just the opposite.

I ended up helping buy and prepare NINE breakfast casseroles!

After the casseroles were done we set up two tents in our living room for our camp-in to celebrate my roommate Ally's 21st birthday!

Some how the poles to the two tents got switched and we didn't realize this until we had attempted to put both up. So it took a little longer than expected. 

 Before:                                                                                    After

S'mores

What's the fun of camping without s'mores? 

Happy Birthday ALLY!!!!!