so fat. so happy.

my last week as a not-missionary has been such a good one so far.

first of all:

it's been a FOOD week. I don't know why but I just keep eating so much great stuff. pastrami burgers, costco gelato, and not pictured: the best pizza, vietnamese food, fish and chips, chick fil a, and all the ice cream and shakes. these people are spoiling me.

secondly: watching the craziest lightning storm from the capitol, hot springs, movie-watching, and reminiscing. all with sam. i'm sure it's the fact that i'm leaving so soon, but these last days we have spent together have been some of the sweetest.

last week.. last vacation

i spent all of last week rollin with my homies at lake powell. just keepin it real. it was the bomb.

(the phrases that we said the most on the trip? "rollin with my homies" "keepin it real" and "it's the bomb" a la clueless).

the weekend

we went to st. george for the weekend to enjoy some red rocks, watch some theatre and fireworks, and swim a lot. oh, and eat frozen custard aka YUM.

and it's off to lake powell tomorrow morning. my parents are trying to squeeze in as many trips as possible before i leave on my mission, i think. i'm not complaining.

4th of JOO-ly

i'm wearing america today, and i'm about to go watch some barbecue and eat some fireworks!
you read that right.

summer recap

i'm packing up. headed back to college in a couple days.

i was just sitting here thinking, "what the. i didn't do anything with my summer. i'm such a bum!" but not so. looking back, i realized it definitely had some major high points:

a trip to southern utah, read some good books (this and this were my favorites), worked (obvs.), the imagine dragons concert, skyped this guy i met at college until he headed out on his mission, i cleaned my room with magic, i made my first animation and it turned out pretty nice, got my eyes checked out and started sporting these babies, went to the mountains and caught 22 fish, watched all of downton abbey season 1 in one day, spent the weekend in wyoming with roommates, celebrated america, went crazy with a sewing machine, fell in love with andrew garfield, saw this greek guy in concert and totally loved it, played with a chalkboard wall, batman at midnight, redid our playroom (which included 12 hours of stenciling walls by hand), watched every olympic sport every day and loved every minute, saw 9 plays (including les mis!) in cedar city and st. george and logan, watched every episode of friday night lights and got a texas accent (that post is probably coming in a few days), and had a stellar week at lake powell.

all that and more! i'm not a bum and there is the proof.

summer 2012, you were weird and different but i liked you a lot.

you knew there was a video coming

i didn't take a whole lot of video,

because honestly, pictures and video can't do that place justice.

it really is so beautiful and so huge. amazing. and so much fun. go there.

i would like to dedicate this video to

my awesome family, john wesley powell, and wes anderson.

and if you can name the movie the song came from, i'll be real impressed.

home again

all that and more for 4 days, and i'm not even sunburned.

night

there are few things i like better than a summer night. tonight the air was such a temperature that you couldn't actually feel it on your skin, and the comforting (and loud) sound of crickets chirping away was the soundtrack. living in the moment isn't easy, but it all of a sudden becomes natural when you're looking up at a black sky, barefoot in the grass. it doesn't get too much better...

the white house

this is the ooold house i'm living in this school year. excited to go back to p-town with my gals. excited to actually be in my major and not taking ge classes anymore.

but summer's not over yet. i'm going to enjoy my last month of sleeping in, working (and not being in school at the same time), watching olympics and friday night lights episodes until the wee hours, mama's cooking, having a car, and being so lazy all the time.

fish lake

i've been at fish lake all week.

fishing. relaxing on the boat. reading. eating. getting kinda sunburned.

good week.

here's a short little video of the trip. you can watch last year's video HERE.

this week...

i read that. on a boat. shiz got pretty real out there.

more on what i did this week to come.

oh, i like him.

he came to my orchestra concert last night. nice of him.

isn't he handsome?

rockin the plaid.

we watched fireworks on the fourth of july together.

as we were watching them, we noticed that all the different kinds of fireworks were like people we knew. some fireworks are loud and colorful. some are more subtle but just as pretty. some go off in groups. some are just super bright flashes of light. we compared our friends to fireworks for a while.

then a gold firework went off. you know the big glittery ones that sparkle and spread out really slowly?

he said, "that kind is you. because it's the best kind."

i don't know if he remembers that. but i remember it.

back in july

once we tried writing our names with sparklers.

not as easy as we thought.

week in review

pictured this week:

forehead peelage. darn you, sunburn.

not pictured this week:

a bike ride on sidewalks being sprayed by the sprinklers.

losing a chalk fight. someone tried to convince me i drew all over my own face with chalk. he's remembering it wrong.

new red jeans. they are spicy.

a fire pit with a lot of people that i like. awesome.

the driving range with my homies. and the three of them are coming to college with me! yes.

this week? stellar so far.

fish lake, ut.

remember when i went to the mountains last month? here is the video documentation.

it's nothing too special as far as editing goes. i sort of edit all day every day at work, so editing at home too hasn't really been a priority.

but here are some clips thrown together without any real rhyme or reason. and with edward sharpe playing in the background.

life as we know it.

1. we went to ikea and a concert. he claims to be allergic to cameras. ha.

2. sammy's. before getting caught in a crazy downpour.

3. we made a cake today. happy birthday mr. potter.

we golf for fun

and we love it.

in real life

I just got home from spending a few days at a cabin at Bear Lake with my extended family.

I felt like I was living Dan in Real Life the whole time.

And it was so fun.

because everything would look good as a polaroid.

pretending like we actually had film to put in that camera.

one day we will be able to afford it. we made some big plans.

we also bought some post-it notes and drove to cailey's house to borrow a pen.

saw a vivid double rainbow and drove to the end of it.

watched parts of 3 documentaries.

listened to elephant love medley. it would be a perfect song to be playing while riding a roller coaster.

and realized we have great old person brooklyn accents.

i'll miss evan when he moves to logan. good thing there's skype.

it's the hot time of year.

summer has been good to me. i have officially been working at my job for one month and i've gotten two saweet paychecks. i like that boy and he treats me like a princess. i have been reading harry potter books and listening to enya, bon iver, and edward sharpe nonstop. i watched ryan reynolds be a super hero. i got dirty feet from playing barefoot in the grass and have slept in a fort. i almost pulled an all nighter and have eaten a lot of otter pops; only the green ones. i went to a rodeo and drove in a jeep. i chalked the bk and hiked to a waterfall.

my days have been busy.

they have been good too.

and i'm going to the mountains to hang out at a lake for the rest of this week.

oh hallelujah. let's stop time for a while.

sometimes kirsten sneaks pictures of us, like the one above.

i'm glad she does.