Time?

Where has the time gone? How can it already be the end of November? Well let's see if I can come up with anything good to finish out the month. Of course we had Thanksgiving. It was so great. I didn't have to drive all the way to Rexburg on the crappy roads. We decided to go to Tremonton and do Thanksgiving with my mom's family at my cousin's house. It's always so fun to see my cousins. This year we had a couple new additions. My cousin Emma who is from Pennsylvania was there since she is at BYU going to school. My cousin Jon also has a new baby and he is SO cute. All smiles and chubby cheeks. I made a pie. That was fun. The four of us adult girls were each assigned a pie. My sisters was definitely the ugliest but it was by far my favorite as far as taste goes. I am now a guilt free Christmas music listener. It's long been the rule at my house that nothing Christmas happens until after Thanksgiving dinner. Last year we cheated and watched a Christmas movie like a week before, this year I did okay on the Christmas music with only a few Josh Groban Christmas songs in the mix. But even though I don't live at home and I'm 25 years old, I still feel a bit guilty for breaking dad's rule. It's nice to be able to just listen to it now without the worry that dad might catch me. :)
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that your Christmas season is full of the Spirit of Christ.

So much to be Thankful for

Here it is Tuesday again and although I feel like there are some things in life not going how I'd like them to, there's so much to be thankful for.
I have a place to live.
I have great friends.
I have a job.
I have a wonderful, hilarious family.
I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have a car.
I am healthy.
I got to go to Disneyland this year. :)
I have had many opportunities to serve and make new friends.
I have seen people I care about make important changes.
So I guess I'll just keep plugging along, trying to make the best of what I have and always remember there's so much to be thankful for.

Return from the Magic Kingdom

What a weekend! It was fantastic! I decided to not go home until Friday morning since our flight didn't leave until 2. That meant that I got to go with the Relief Society Presidency and Elders Quorum Presidency to the Bishops store house. I've been before but I'm still amazed by the spirit you can feel there and just how amazing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is. I obviously have a testimony of it's truthfulness by the spirit but you can tell a lot about a person or organization by their works. It's amazing what one church can do. Friday morning I left early and headed home. Then my brother took my parents, my sister and myself to the airport. Then we were off to sunny California and sunny it was. 75-80 degrees. I'm surprised I didn't get fried. So Friday we just hung out at the hotel. An elder from my mission lives close to Disneyland so I told him I was coming and we went and hung out for the night. It was fun to see him since I hadn't seen him since he left the mission. We went to Downtown Disney, walked around, played in the arcade, and then just chatted for a while. It was really fun.

Saturday morning we were off to the Magic Kingdom. It was just so great. My mom broke her foot this last summer so we rented a wheelchair for her, since being on her feet and walking around all day would have killed her. It was a great investment since it moved us to the front of the line quite often. In the afternoon we went to California Adventure. Dad and Julie hadn't been on Tower of Terror yet so that was a must. The newest thing at Disney seems to be the upcoming release of Tron: Legacy.
At my house we love Tron. Dad always makes sure we see nerdy older movies. We love them. Julie and I got matching Tron shirts and wore them on Sunday. The highlight of the night was the discovery of the new water show in California Adventure, World of Color. By far my favorite thing of the trip. I took video on my phone. I'll have to post it when I figure out how to get it from my phone to a computer.

Sunday (don't judge) we were back to Disneyland. We started our day with Splash Mountain and then headed to Pirates of the Carribean. Good choice. We go through the exit (mom's in a wheelchair) and we are standing there waiting our turn. This huge group comes in the exit. I was way confused. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with these 20 kids. There are also 6 adults with them. I being the girl I am start checking out the guys to determine if it's worth Julie's time to check out the guys. :) I'm such a nice sister. So I look at the one guy, determine he's worth her time, and just as I'm turning to tell her I get a better look and say to myself, "he looks familiar" so now I'm kinda staring at this guy and then it totally clicks. I couldn't do anything. Star struck.

Now I know he's not super famous but for a girl that was obsessed with Young Hercules it was pretty exciting. That's right, Ryan Gosling was standing a foot away from me. He smiled at me as he walked past. I'm not imagining things. I was the only one standing there unless he was smiling at my dad. I think not. I finally turn to my sister and in a quiet freak out voice tell her that's Ryan Gosling. To remove any doubts, the kids that had entered with him are in their boat, waving and saying "hi Ryan!". I debated if I should just wait outside the exit and be a complete stalker, but I went with no. That was my brush with fame. I know, really exciting.
We took a break during the day and went to the beach. It was SO COLD. The air was nice and the sand was lovely, but that water! Julie told me to just keep walking out. Not the greatest plan ever. I did finally make it out and play around but man it was cold.

We went back to Disneyland rode a couple rides and then headed to California Adventure. Mom loved the Toystory ride so we did that again and then we went to watch the World of Color. This time from the front. If the back was amazing the front was just indescribable. It was SO AMAZING!!!! It was the perfect way to end our trip to Disneyland. Monday we packed up and headed home. My brother brought me my car so I could just leave from Idaho Falls and drive to Orem. All in all it was a fantastic trip and i'll be returning sometime in 2012 for the new attractions that were under construction, assuming the world hasn't ended by then.

One trip home please

So this last weekend was fantastic as I made the trek home for annual family pictures. Friday I left work early to head home. Katie decided to make the trip with me and take advantage of the Collin Raye concert. Yes my friends he came back to BYU-I after 7 years. I went to the one 7 years ago too. It was fun. We got to put on security passes and go in for the sound check. We were pretty darn close. It was fun. We sat in the truck and watched since it was a pretty packed show. I got to run a camera, but it was just a boring robo cam from the truck.
Saturday morning was pictures. It's always an adventure. We've had the same photographer take our pictures for 22ish years now. We know all the sayings and now we say them to him before he says them to us. Fuzzy pickles, Dad has stinky feet, Kevin kisses ugly girls, money, and on and on.
After pictures we headed to Rexburg for the grand tour of the new auditorium. It's pretty impressive. It's too bad I never got to work in there, but everything has it's time and place and that wasn't mine. It was still awesome to go in and see it.




After the tour we went to the bookstore and then I went to the temple since I had missed my temple day for that week. After the temple I headed to the oh so great city of St. Anthony to hang out with my friends Denae and David in her classroom and help her get stuff ready for parent teacher conference. It was fun to be in her classroom and help her out and be with my friends. Then I went home and went rock climbing with my sister. Ouch. My poor leg. My sister being the great motivator she is told me I should try the harder course, then told me I'd have to jump to reach one of the hand holds. It turns out that I'm not ready for a harder course as I slammed into the wall and hit a ring protruding from the wall and now have a gigantic bruise. She thought it was quite entertaining.
After climbing we headed to Sammy's which was packed so we opted for Millhallow where I had a sandwich with my highschool friend Danizza. We had a lovely chat. I ended the night falling asleep to Labyrinth. Sunday wasn't too exciting but it was nice to sit and chat with my mom.
The ride home was fairly uneventful except for my aunt calling to tell me she wanted to set me up on a blind date. The story of my life. :)

So it's Tuesday and apparently I update my blog on Tuesdays. :) Sadly I don't have pictures with me to add but maybe I'll add them later.
Friday night I went rock climbing with my friend Heather. She is the greatest. I just love that girl. I'm very much not a climber but it was fun. Previous to climbing I delivered halloween/birthday treats to some people in my ward. MISTAKE. I knew it was. The birthday side of it anyway. Do we remember boy with a girlfriend, then no girlfriend? It was his birthday. We'll call him Rodrigo. After praying he wouldn't be home, I headed over with the cupcakes. Hurrah that prayers are answered. He wasn't home. Let me just say that I was not looking exactly beautiful having woken up late therefor no shower and no make-up, but I was goign climbing, what did I care? So his roommate asked me to stay but I declined saying I was going climbing. Don't tell the gossip boy your plans. EVER. There we are, Heather climbing, me belaying, and I look over and see Rodrigo's roommate, and behind him . . . RODRIGO! Then the roommate I had talked to earlier came over and chatted. Then they were gone. Hurray. By this time I was done climbing. My poor arms just couldn't do anymore, but Heather was still going strong. So we headed to another wall and she climbed some more. Then she gets down and says "I found them". I turn around look up and there is Rodrigo and his roommates looking down at us and waving. Please kill me now. They come down to chat for a bit. Remember how I didn't shower and I'm not wearing make-up and how now I'm all sweaty from climbing? I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. No such luck. They invited us to go to the movies with them, but we declined. What a night. After climbing we made smoothies and watched Hocus Pocus and fell asleep on the floor. Saturday we had pumpkin shaped shaped pancakes. I was suppose to go to Layton to see a friend, but seeing as how I slept on the floor and had gone climbing I wasn't feeling super great so I decided not to go. I went with my friend Katie and her two kids to a halloween thing. Hayride, cornmaze, pig races, that kind of thing. After that I took a nap and woke up to rain. So we got the kids ready for trick-or-treating and went to the mall since it was raining. FAIL. Everyone went to the mall since it was raining. We decided to bag that idea and brave the rain, luckily it had pretty much stopped. I've decided I don't like to take children trick or treating. It's a pain. :) Maybe if it hadn't been raining and they hadn't been so tired and cranky. After that I did nothing. Sat on the couch watched a movie don't judge me, it was Titanic, but just the end, it was on TV, and then went to bed.
Sunday was great. We had a special Stake Conference with Elder Costa. The first great thing about that is that church was at 10 instead of 1:30. Second great thing, Elder Costa and his wife are hilarious and really gave great talks. Third great thing because I got out of church at a decent time I got to take a nap. Delightful. Ward prayer and some girl talk finished off a great Sunday.
What a lovely Halloween.