Mutual at the Sharp's Cabin

For Young Women's this last Friday, we went to our Bishop's lake cabin and celebrated the end of the summer. Even though I couldn't swim (and when I could, I didn't feel like changing), I had a blast just sitting around and talking with everyone. It was good bonding time :)

This is Alyssa being Alyssa... and Superman.

The models of the day, Alyssa, Noelle, and Abbey

These are Joette's feet. Isn't that tan line awesome?!

The crazy diaper girls: Shelby, Cam, Erin, and Joette.

I love how Champ is chasing after them off to the side :)

Cam with her friend, Kenna

Abbey, Lyndsey and me just chillin'!

Calie and Joette, sister's-in-law and both some of the funniest, most amazing people I know!

Shelby and Sheila, like mother, like daughter :)

Abbey and me showing off our scraped avocado skins... oh yeah, not really.

Someday, this napkin will be famous and worth millions. It has the signatures of Calie, who's just plain awesome!, Emilee (I don't know what she's going to be, but she'll be something cool), Brianna, a future famous photographer, Noelle, the famous dancer, Abbey, the worldwide-known chef, and Alyssa, the funniest comedian of her time!

And to finish the day at the cabin, Sheila with Champ hanging off the front... he's so adorable!

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things."

There's a photographer named Melissa Jill that I love to learn from. She's a wedding photographer and has a blog where she posts all of her weddings, engagement shoots, tips, photography secrets, and personal things. She tells her blog followers everything. One of the things she does is "MJ's Faves," a post every once in a while where she talks about a few things that she loves, so I decided to steal her idea and do it too!! Except I'll call my posts "These are a few of my favorite things..." So, starting now is my first official post for this!

#1 -- The Sound of Music

This movie has been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little girl and I figured it should be my first "favorite thing" since I'm using part of a song from it for my post title. :) The music is wonderful, the fun is fantastic, and the romance is beautiful!! I just love every little bit of it!

#2 -- Weddings!

I haven't been to a temple wedding for a few years, but just the last two weddings I've been to have been so beautiful, even if one of them took place on the coldest, rainiest day of spring/summer. :) They were both my cousins getting married and each one of them were so happy about getting married to the man they love. I love seeing how joyful newlyweds are!! I just can't stop smiling whenever I go to a wedding because of all the beauty and love. It's amazing!

#3 -- Julian Smith

Surprisingly, I found a normal picture of him!! This guy, like I've said before, is the funniest videographer I've ever seen (He's always making weird faces so that's why I've never seen a normal photo of him). His videos are totally and completely random, but they make me laugh every single time. And it's always nice to get a little laugh in every once in a while, right?

#4 -- Cross Country

Yes, I'm crazy to like distance running, but I really do. Like they say, "Cross country is a mental sport -- that's why we're all insane." Really though, being in shape feels nice. Racing is amazing too because just when you think you can't go any farther, all of the sudden a boost comes and you start gliding. Then, before you know it, you're sprinting for the finish line and crossing that finish line is the best, most accomplishing feeling ever. Then after that feeling of accomplishment, you're dead... but the strength comes back and it feels GREAT! Also, being part of a team and having the best coaches ever gives a sense of belonging and I know that I'll always have something or someone to turn to if I'm ever feeling down. Cross Country is really an amazing sport!

#5 -- My Family

"Families are like fudge --  mostly sweet with a few nuts." --Unknown

One of those nuts would be me, but what would a family be without those crazy people who get all the weird looks? Yeah, it would be a bit boring. My family has helped me so much though even if they do think I'm weird. :) I know I can always talk to one of them and it's just nice knowing you have people who love you no matter who you are or what you do. I love my family dearly, even if it's hard to show sometimes, and I know they love me. Families are pretty great!

And there's my first "These are a few of my favorite things..." post. It's hard to stop once you start, but I better keep it at five each week. Get ready for next week's post!! It's sure to be filled with things I love and hopefully you will too... maybe.

A Spectacular Blog

There's this guy named Julian Smith who makes the most hilarious little videos that I've "followed" (online... I'm not a stalker. :) ) for about a year now. If you want to check out his work, it's at juliansmith.tv , but what I'm really making this post for is his wife's blog (they just got married). It's a cute little blog with pointless videos (like mine) and fun little personal facts that she does weekly. I just discovered it about ten minutes ago and thought I would share it with all of you even if you don't ever check it out. Her web address is theoneinpink.com. Here's one of the many interesting things she has on her blog:



Enjoy!

My Summer...

was awesome!! Fantastic!! Inspiring!! I had a wonderful summer that just didn't last long enough. Here are some of the things I got to do:

Abbey and I met Taylor Lautner!!

I went on a hike for Girls Camp with the Young Women...

I helped pass out all of these and tons more at Ironman...

...with the help of these Roman/Scottish guys:

I enjoyed the 4th of July with barbecued ribs and fireworks at our Nana and Pops Smidt's house!

My family and I went to Boise and spent every single day by water at some point. On one of the days, I learned how to double ski, then slalom ski... it was hard, but I finally got it!

And we went to the zoo and had fun being crazy! Oh, and we got to see my grandparents' neighbor's newborn calf.

I had to be with these freaks... :)

I celebrated my birthday with a party with Jeff and went to the airshow at Fairchild.

I got to babysit these awesome kids, Brookey and Austin, with Noelle.

I finally got to go to Glacier!!! I went with Linda and Dave, Shawn, Chelsey, Callie, Reese, and Laurel...

Laurel, Callie, and me:

We floated the river with Linda, Laurel, and the Fagans...

Jacqualine, me, Laurel, and Noelle:

Cam, Jacqualine, Noelle, Kayla, me, Jaynie, and Laurel:

I went to Girls Camp!! Cassidy and I got to do our "Bagle Quest" too!

Those two, Olivia and Brook, in the upper left corner are hilarious!!! All of the princesses did a fantastic job and made me cry. Fred, Earl, Sampson, and Bubba reunited and... I got a picture of some friends :)

We got to shoot rifles too!! And in the bottom right corner, that's me, Abbey, and Jessie with our tent sign "The Other White Meat."

Upper Left Corner: Buddies!, Upper Right Corner: More Buddies!!, Lower Left Corner: Even more!!, and Lower Right Corner: My running buddy during Girls Camp, Malia!

We went to the Sharp's cabin and rode their "ski doos," as Sheila calls them :)

I spent most of my summer with these two crazy cute boys!

My mom's friend, Tina, visited us and we picked her up from the airport dressed like so in the upper left picture... then, later that day, I got to go with Tina and my mom to the Highlands spa as a birthday present from Tina. It was so nice and I loved the foot massage stuff! We spent the next day at Boulder Beach and Silverwood!

We played some tennis... I know you're jealous of our looks right now, whoever you are.

I attended Princess Emmalee's royal Sweet Sixteen birthday party!

I had a fun day at Kendrick Nagel's cabin with the Cross Country team and we played an intense game of Duck, Duck, Goose!:

And my family and I got to go to Boise again for my cousin's wedding! This was her cake:

The candy bar (there was also popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, french fries, watermelon, and corn dogs):

The beautiful ceremony: Nicole was such a gorgeous bride!

My family: The cute little girl in the upper right (Olivia) was the most adorable flower girl ever! And we had a blast dancing and being the crazy people we are :)

In the upper left corner: My cousin, Trevin, holding one of the neighbor's chicks (the same neighbors with the calf), Upper Right: Me with my cousin's wife, Debbie, in my uncle's Jeep, Lower Left: Noelle with our cousin, Kylie, wearing awesome Asian hats, Lower Right: Mandy, Noelle, Kylie, and Me (Our names for the night were Emma, Roxy, Angelica, and Georgia) at a Boise Stake Dance... it was SO fun!

Our last day in Boise: (Upper right corner is Knightley, one of the cutest little boys ever, and his little brother below him, Mason who is just as cute!)

The cross country team at Gooey's (the theme was 80s prom night, but not many of the girls dressed up. the boys did though!):

Just me being crazy with team buddies!

And that's my summer up to this point!! I hope yours was just as fun!

P.S. I went on my first date too!! It was super duper fun!

Kendall and Amanda being Freaks!!!

Handy Website

Today at church, a friend told me about this cool website that her aunt found. It's called StereoMood (www.stereomood.com) and you can click on the mood that you're in on the main page, then it comes up with songs that can relate to that mood. I'm just about to try it out, so it should be fun. You can too and tell me how you like it!

Summer!

Well, the time has come for school to finally end and summer break to start. I must say that I am super super relieved that school and those nasty things called finals are over, but it really doesn't feel like school's out! Hopefully, I'll realize that I don't have to worry about homework soon so I can feel relaxed and at peace. I can't wait for the surprises and fun activities that this summer is going to bring me though!!! Hope your summer is just as good as mine! :)

(Wild flowers at Mudhole on the Priest River.)