Road trip part deux.

Being from Canada does not mean that I love the cold, or that I am immune to it, but I think I have built up a tolerance for it and I know how to deal with it.  The heat however... I am not used to the heat.  It was pretty much summer temperatures in April.  Boiling all the time.  The first night, when I laid down in bed, I couldn't move because as soon as I did I would heat up.  So the next morning Alix and I decided to go to the airconditioned mall while Elisabeth was doing student teaching stuff.  

Once she finished, she met us at the mall and we went to Sonic's for dinner.  Once we had some delicious food in us, we tried to find the YSA Family Home Evening but the first building we went to was empty.  We used our GPS to find another address and I am actually glad the first one didn't work because the one we ended up at was really fun.  There was a boy there that kind of reminded me of Bumper from Pitch Perfect, and we played candy cab.  It was like the show cash cab but you got candy for the answers you got right.

Afterwards we drove about an hour to get to Elisabeth's old roommates apartment.  It was a really cute apartment with a walk in closet attached to the bathroom.  That night we watched Amazing race and slept on air mattresses (Elisabeth fell asleep on the couch though so I got the big air mattress to myself!)  Then we headed back to Mesa to go on the internet in the institute building.  

We may have been feeling a teensy bit facebook deprived.  The institute building is right across from Mesa Community College, so we went over to the campus and walked in the rose gardens.  I was just about convinced to transfer there.  They have palm trees and cactuses on the campus, cute boys everywhere, and it is never cold there.  It is just so far away from Canada.  

 That night we went to Tau's families house.  It was probably my favorite night.  His family was so kind and hilarious.  Everyone told me that polynesian families are incredible and I found out how true that is.  We had dinner at his house and then went to QT to get slushies before driving around Mesa and talking.  We stayed at his Grandparents house because they are serving a mission right now, and his aunt is watching their house.  One of his other aunts brought fruit pizza cookies for us because she heard Tau had friends over.  

We attempted to watch a movie but within five minutes everyone else was asleep. (I may have been asleep too but I woke up and watched more of the movie.  Tau's sister came over at one point and her and I talked for a while before I went to bed.  

In the morning Tau was feeding us breakfast and I asked if they had any rasin bread while Elisabeth asked if they had cinnamon bread, or monkey bread.  He looked at us and asked who would have any of that before turning around and finding all three of our requests.

 Before we left Arizona we had to take pictures with palm trees and cactuses so we went in one of the neighbours yards and snuck some pictures.

Once we left Mesa we headed on to California with a few adventures along that path.  We traveled on a path that took us right by the Mexican Border and it seems a lot scarier than the Canadian border.  There was a giant black fence running across the entire thing.  At one point we had to stop at a patrol point on the highway and the guard there seemed like he was just waving us on so Alix kept driving but then he yelled at us to stop.  He asked for Alix's license and then told us to go park beside the car that was being searched by a dog.  

When we parked they asked what country we were citizens of and while Alix and Elisabeth said America, from the backseat I chirped Canada!

He asked to see my Visa and Passport and luckily I packed them but unluckily Elisabeth thought we had somehow ended up at the Border and that we were crossing into Mexico.  She doesn't have a passport so she panicked and yelled "OH NO!"  she will deny how panicked she was but she was. Trust me though.

I had to get out and dig through my bag to find it and I may have pulled out all of my clothes in front of the guard but I found it and explained the situation to him.  When he found out we only had one day to spend on the Californian beach he said that sucked and sent us on our way.

(Dirt devils kept flying across the road and knocking the car around, when I first saw it from a distance I thought it was smoke from a wildfire)

We made it to the beach about an hour before the sun set and had the second longest night ever.  But that must wait for part three, "Beaches and Sardines".

road trippin it for spring break part uno

Two weeks ago I left for my first ever road trip. with friends. for spring break.
It started out with a few long nights before we left.  We had to pack, move, scrub the apartment, and hit the road.
We left Rexburg at 2:00 Saturday afternoon to drive to Mesa Arizona.  My roommate Elisabeth is student teaching there in the fall and had to go meet the school.  We were pretty sure we just had to drive down to Las Vegas and then go over to Mesa.
Elisabeth drove for the first 5 hours and I passed out.
I woke at one point to her screaming because the tumbleweeds were attacking the car and she was yelling, "the tumbleweed army is coming!"  When I woke up there was a beautiful sunset and we were really excited to be on an adventure.  Although, we didn't really know it was going to be so much of an adventure in one night.

 (The cheshire cat moon) 

At about 11:30 we stopped for gas and there was a petting zoo with an alpaca and a zebra!  They were closed so we tried to take pictures but the zebra was playing with a horse and the alpaca ran away.
I drove after this and then we got a teensy bit lost. In the mountains.

 We drove through a town with beautiful white trees all lit up but the road took us to a mountain pass.  In the middle of the night in the pitch black.  Elisabeth and I may have screamed a little bit as we travelled along our path but Alix calmed us down, put EFY music on and got elisabeth to sleep.  Then she made up stories to tell me to keep me calm.  It just so happens I hate heights and there it alternated giant rock faces on both sides of us, and steep drop offs.
Then came one of the most beautiful scenes of my life.  We stopped in the middle of nowhere after the mountain pass while we were in a flat open space, turned off the car and all the lights, opened the sunroof and poked our heads out to look at the stars that surrounded us.  They were beautiful and majestic.  I have always loved the stars and this was such a beautiful place to be.  I wanted to stay forever but we still had so far to go.
Alix switched me and drove so that I could sleep, and before I fell asleep we stopped at a circle K to get gas and go to the washroom.  I would just like to say, sketchiest bathroom I have been in, in a long time. When we were getting back in the car, a really creepy guy was standing in the doorway of the store so we jumped back in and panicked as we drove away.
About 2 miles out of town we hit a detour and had to drive through a Reservation to go around back to the regular highway.  Our GPS was telling us to go down a dirt road in the middle of the night and I didn't like it so I went to sleep. When I woke up we were on said dirt road turning around because the GPS was wrong... of course.
From that point on the GPS kept telling us that we only had three hours left until our destination.  This started at one and we didn't arrive until 7:30 in the morning.

 The sun finally came up when I was driving again in Arizona.  When it rose it was gorgeous.  There were fields of cactuses everywhere.  They just grow in the wild like a forest.  I was highly impressed with them.  When the sun was rising I made Elisabeth switch with me because we were once again on a mountain, and I wanted to see the sunrise.

When we got into Mesa we realized how wonderful Arizona is.  There are palm trees and cactuses (or cactupuses as elisabeth started calling them) lining the streets, and the architecture is incredible.  Every building followed the design of the area, and everything just fit together.  

We were so tired and needed to sleep so the only safe place we could think of to park the car and sleep for a little while was the Visitors center at the Temple.  So we parked under some palm trees, curled up and fell into the deepest sleep I have ever had.  We woke up when the security guard tapped on our window and asked if we were okay.  We just explained that we had driven all night and needed to sleep for just a little while.  We asked if there was anywhere we could go to find out about where the singles ward met and he said we should just go to one of the church buildings and ask for directions.  He also said just one of us should go in so we weren't embarrassed.  At this point we were in our pj's and were running on little sleep.  So we got cleaned up as much as we could in the car and changed into church clothes. 

The since it was Sunday and we were trying to not break the sabbath we went into a church building and made hotdogs in the kitchen microwave. 

We found the right church after a while and went for two hours but once Elisabeths head wouldn't stay up we decided to head out.  We stayed the night at Elisabeth's old roommates families house and they took us for a delicious dinner at their grandparents house.
Stay tuned for the next episode in this three (or four) part series.

Conference

This year I have decided to stay at school for the spring semester, which I am really excited about, and my mom is really excited about, but she is sad too because I won't be going home anytime soon.  This meant that she needed to come see me and so she came for General Conference (An annual conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) She had never been to Utah before so it was an exciting adventure involving being lost, going to two sessions of conference, making new friends, delicious food, chasing mountains, and quality time.

My momma decided to go for a walk while I was sleeping Saturday morning and when she saw the mountain she decided to walk to it.  A later statement on mountains she made went like this "it  is like chasing a rainbow!"  She walked about 5km each way and didn't quite make it to the mountain.

After the first day of Conference I went to the mall in Sandy and I managed to get lost for about an hour trying to get there.  On my way I met a ton of very... interesting people.  At one point when I was walking I thought I saw a mirage of a forever 21 sign but it turned out to be real.

We ate breakfast at the Little America buffet and it was the most amazing buffet I have ever been to.

At temple square we met two kindred spirits and made wishes in the fountain with them.

I may have forgotten to bring church shoes for conference so this is what i had to wear instead.

On our way back we may or may not have gotten lost and ended up hours off course by Twin Falls.  I fell asleep and when I woke up I had no idea where we were and I had an assignment (final project) due online at midnight, that I had put off submitting.  So we stopped at a McDonalds and stole some of their internet for me to submit the project and then we made it home just before midnight.

Lions don't lose sleep...

I have been going to school in Idaho for three years now, which means this is mainly where my life is, and for the first time my mom is coming to visit me and see everything here.  I cannot wait for her to get here because I love her so much and it is just easy and fun with her.  The one thing though, is I just want her to know I am doing good, and I am growing up.  I have changed a lot over the past few years, and while I have gone home in between semesters, I am in my element here.  This is my home and where I do best.

I hope I have done the best that I can and I hope I am making people proud of me.  I never want to disappoint the people that I care about.  The truth is that I know the people that care about me are going to be proud of me and like Dr. Seuss says, "those that matter don't mind, and those that mind don't matter".  

I have also been loving the saying, "Lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep".  We don't need to worry about what people think of us, as long as we are doing our best.

What to do, what to do...

I find that there are times when I really want something or I really want to do something and it just doesn't quite work out.  This weekend I was going to go to Utah for the Festival of Colours, but I got sick on Wednesday and I thought perhaps I would be fine and i could still go.  The problem though is I kept getting the feeling that I was supposed to stay home.  I don't know if there is someone here who needs my help this weekend, or if it would have just been a bad trip, but I knew I not to go.  I think perhaps I got sick to keep me from going.  It is hard to stick to what you know you should do when there is something you really want to do.  

It would seem life is always like that.  You have to decide what is most important.  Following what you know to be right, or straying and doing what you want.  I kept thinking perhaps I was wrong and I am supposed to go but in the end I stuck with the smart decision and stayed home.  I feel good about my decision now because Elisabeth and I went on an adventure and I have just rested today.  I cannot wait for summer when we can just do fun, random things everyday.  I want to get a bike so that I can just go wherever I want and do the things that make me happy.

P.S. in just a few short days my dear sweet momma, will be here to visit me and we are going to go down to Utah for General Conference!

Birds of a feather

There was this one time when I had a solo in a choir concert.  I get really nervous about singing in public, but I made it through and afterwards someone asked me where I learned such a beautiful vibrato, and I said, "I was just shaking, there was no vibrato..."

This semester this problem came up again.  I was asked to do a duet with a boy in my ward.  I don't know why I said yes to this but I did.  

The date for this kept getting pushed back for weeks and finally today was the day.  

Once again I got up in front of a crowd and sang the best I could and I think my nervous vibrato may have escaped.  

The whole time I just had to keep telling myself that it wasn't for me or for any one else that I was singing.  It was for my Heavenly Father.  I hope I made him happy today by praising him in song.  I am grateful that I had the chance to share my testimony through song, but I am very happy I am done.

After church I came home and made dinner for my roommate Rachel who was looking for some real people food (and not college student food).  It turned out quite delicious.  I made Turkey Tetrazzini and corn on the cob, and then we had ice-cream pie for dessert. 

Then Elisabeth and I went and fed the ducks at the pond.  They were waiting for us to come and give them their dinner.

Shoot for the stars and even if you miss you will end up on the moon.

Sometimes I forget how far I have come.  It is easy to lose sight of the finish line and also the starting line when you are in the middle of things.  Lately I have been feeling like I am where I have always been, so my brilliant friend suggested I write out what I have accomplished.  I liked this idea but took it a step farther than she intended.   

 I may have stayed up until 3 in the morning writing out where I was, where I am, and where I am going.  Then I thought of 70 things I want to do.  Some of them are easily attainable and others may take a while.

  It is good take time and get perspective on things.  While doing this I realized that although I have grown and changed, I am still the same person I used to be.  Just more developed.  I have always been sassy, smart, funny, ridiculous, mischievous, and beautiful.  I have just made all of these qualities even better.  

There are so many things I want to do and I need to figure out what they are.  Tonight my roommates and I performed in the Ward talent show.  We sang popcorn popping and it was just fun.  I don't want to worry about what people think because I just want to be happy.