You Always Make me Smile

This summer I was part of the Worlds Largest Water Balloon fight! Great experience being with 4,000 other people throwing waterballoons like crazy!

This artist, Kyle Andrews, decided to make his music video with this as its scene. You can't ever see me in there, but I am there somewhere! I love this song, super cute!

"Anything you can do, I can do better"

I watched Rocky last night with Ginelle, Tomo, Corey, Steve and Reve. After the movie finish, we were all inspired by the music to get up and do something. I am still a little confused at how this subject came up but somehow Corey was making a bet with me. He bet that he could get a six pack before me. I think I must of been on some kind of high from the movie, so I not only agreed to the bet, but I did it with extreme confidence that I would win. Loser has to take the winner to dinner.

Now that it is the next day and I don't have the Rocky music in my head anymore, I have come to the realization that winning this bet is not in my favor. I already have a great disadvantage seeing as he is male, I am female, he is a little more muscular then I am, so he has a nice little head start. So most likely I will be buying him dinner... but I won't go down with out a fight!

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Yesterday, Ginelle and I had started texting about something random. Ginelle had mentioned something that had made her happy. Then I came up with this fun thing for us to do, to text each other something that made us happy that day.

We did this back and forth several times and it made my day amazing! We would just text each other little things that made us happy, like I was happy I finally was able to have enough time to each a bowl of cereal that morning!

My day was amazing yesterday, and I think it is because the whole day I was constantly looking for something that made me happy. I challenge you all to look for at least five things that make you happy that day!

Today I am happy because:

1. I got to talk to my mom today on the phone

2. I am going to ride my bike to class today

3. Two of my roommates are super happy about something exciting in their lives

4. I found a new song to be obsessed with, Love like woe, and have listened to it many times

5. Last night I watched a movie dumb and dumber a movie that everyone has been trying to get me to see for a long time, and I watched it with some of my favorite people!

On the Road Again

Well, about a day after I had been home from my first Zions trip, I was invited to go on another hike. Of course I could not turn down that opportunity. So after two weeks of stressful school work, I was ready to have another little weekend getaway.

This time, I didn't really know most of the people going. It was my friend Becky who had invited me to go and it was her friend Andrew who put the whole thing together. So it was mostly Andrews friends. They had a couple extra spots, so I invited a couple of my friends to come as well.

So Friday afternoon, Marie, Curtis, Reed, and I all packed up the car and started our adventure south. After about five hours, (an hour of which Reed and Marie freaking me out about ax murderers getting us in that dark middle of nowhere area) of driving we arrived at the cabin we were staying at. It was one of Andrews friends cabin and his dad was there with all of us. I met all the people that would be going on the hike and then we went to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up early to get ready for the hike. I was a little nervous because I had been getting sick, but I wasn't going to let sickness stop me from going on this sweet hike. The hike was so much fun! It was a gorgeous hike and had lots of different crazy challenges. First we had to get down into the Canyon, so for a little bit of it we were pretty much going straight down the cliff, hopping down from rock to rock. Once we got down there, the water challenge began.

The water was so cold! The kind of cold that as soon as you were in the water, you could not breathe or really even move! So, that made for an entertaining 25 ft. swim in an extremely narrow area. At one part, it was a foot wide! So talk about swimming fears, cold fears and Claustrophobia all at once!

I even cliff jumped at one point of the hike. Andrew and Shaun had both done it and they convinved me to join, I am happy I did! Cliff jumping is a blast. In the actual subway, there are lots of little pools and little waterfalls that lead into them, which served as waterslides for us! Shaun and I took advantage of this and slide into the pools multiple times! The subway was so cool and gorgeous! It was one of those experiences where you start to think about how everything is formed and how nature works.

A little later on in the hike, there was another water slide moment. This one was pretty steep so it was scary to start off going down it. And of course, I went down the wrong part so I got some good air and bruised my butt real bad! But it was fun!

The hike ended with a steep exit out of the canyon! Not the most fun part of the hike, but it was a good little challege. We went back to the cabin after and Pauls dad had made us all chili, which was delicious! Then Curtis, Marie, Reed and I said goodbye to everyone and we left for Provo.

It was such an amazing weekend, and I greatly needed that break. Thanks to everyone who put that together, Andrew for getting the permit and putting the whole thing together, Becky for inviting me and Paul for letting us stay at your cabin.

Here is the adventure caught on film! (My camera's battery died, so I had to just take everyone elses from Facebook and Marie took most of them and she hasn't put them up yet. So I don't have all the moments caught on film yet...)

You can't see it but I cliff jumped from the rock to the right of this picture into that water!

The Subway! Right here was where Shaun and I enjoyed sliding down multiple times into that water!

Four Beautiful girls

The whole group

Amazing waterfalls! Loved this hike so much!

Starting our descent into the canyon.

Love this girl so much!

"Here Comes the Sun"

For the entire summer, Ginelle and I have been wanting to go to Zions real bad! Every time we thought we could go, something came up and we couldn't. Finally we decided that no matter what, we were going to go Labor Day weekend. A few days after we decided this my friend Bekah called me and told me she got a permit for this sweet hike in Zions on Labor day! How perfect is that!

So Sunday after church we all left for Zions! Ginelle, Zach and I all went in one car. It was a peaceful ride down, we did have to stop for a half hour because I randomly got a little car sick and needed to be on solid ground for a little bit. That night we made some delicious dutch oven enchiladas. And then we slept under the stars that night.

Every since we did laundry with these, we have bonded with grocery carts!

Labor day we woke up and made some baggy omelets, and headed into the park. After an hour ride with 12 people in a eight seater vehicle we were ready for the hike. Two miles into the hike we realized that the permit that lets us on the hike was still in the van. So Sara and Jacob ran back and saved the day and got the permit.

The hike was amazing! We had to go through the river, repel down waterfalls and many other boulders! It was crazy and so fun! I loved every minute of it! We of course sang many songs on our way through. The water was on the cold side so everytime we could see the sunlight we would get excited and sing our favorite, "Here comes the Sun". It was a beautiful site!

After the hike was over at about 7:20, four people went home in one car while the other eight of us loaded into Zachs tiny car to drive an hour back to Bekahs car. A tad bit claustrophobic but a great time. Once we got ourselves in seperate cars, we had to stop for Bekah who also happened to enjoy the feelings of being car sick. We started up again and I guess were all really tired or just enjoying ourselves way too much and missed the turn we needed to get home. We somehow ended up way far away from where we should have been!But we finally were able to get some food in our stomachs and we figured out how to get back to Provo, it was midnight and we still were 150 miles away from home.

So on the road again, we continued this trip till Zach realized he was getting extremely tired. Problem, he drives stick and Ginelle and I don't know how to drive that! So pulling over on the side of the road we figured out that Bekah can drive stick. So, I drive Bekahs car while Bekah drives Zachs car. We continue on for a little over an hour, Ginelle and I singing and loving life, when Bekah also gets too tired to be able to drive safely. So pulling over into a gas station, we decided to take a nap. An hour later, everyone was well rested and we continued our trip onward to Provo. Finally, after almost 9 hours(when it should have been 4) we had made it to our wonderful home the Riviera! I don't think I have been so happy to see that place! It was a really entertaining night and I would not have had it any other way!

"Surfin' USA"

Okay, so maybe I don't know how to surf but I relearned how to wakeboard this past weekend! My friend Andrew has asked me at least 10 times to go wakeboarding and every single time he did, I had something going on. For example, my parents are only in town for one night and he asked me to go that night! Anyway, he finally caught me at a time I could actually go, and I had a blast! The last time I went wakeboarding was about 6 years ago, and I had only been able to get up. So, I pretty much had to learn how to get up once again. But I did get up and I was amazing! Haha.

Okay, so really I was only able to get back into the wake and back out again. But that is a huge improvement from six years ago when I couldn't figure out how to get into the wake once I was out!

I hope to be able to go wakeboarding more often and actually learn some cool things to do!

Andrew, my friend who had invited me to join on the boating adventure. Thanks again!

Jeff doing a sweet trick.

Cambria and I with Mark behind us!

I look a tad bit scared about this....

But I was successful!

"Your my best friend and I love you"

Weezer has this song that a few years ago I heard for the first time and I fell in love with it. It might have been the way my TA played the song and what he said to think about when listening to it.

He said to think of the first part of the song as it is us saying a prayer to our Heavenly Father. Then at the break, it turns into our Heavenly Fathers response to our prayer to him.

When everything is wrong I'll come talk to you

You make things alright when I'm feeling blue

You are such a blessing and I wont be messing

With the one thing that brings light to all of my darkness

You're my best friend

and I love you, and I love you

Yes I do

There is no other one who can take your place

I feel happy inside when I see your face

I hope you believe me

Cause I speak sincerely

and I mean it when I tell you that I need you

You're my best friend

and I love you, and I love you

Yes I do

Right here is Our Heavenly Fathers response...

I'm here right beside you

I will never leave you

and I feel the pain you feel when you start crying

You're my best friend

and I love you, and I love you

Yes I do

You're my best friend

and I love you, and I love you

Yes I do

Yes I do...

Yes I do

When I listened to the song in that way, it really hit me pretty hard. It made me realize what this song says is true, that our Heavenly Father loves us and he does feel every pain that we feel. We have him in our lives all the time, we just need to reach out to his hand. Too many times in my life, I live as if I can do it all by myself, but I need him. Everytime Its a huge humbling experience whenever I realize this and it opens my eyes to all the many blessings I have in my life like how He also put all my best friends in my life now for a reason. I am so grateful for all the friends I have, each of you have changed my life for the better. You may never realize how much you have lifted me up and built me up but you have. Thank you!