Antelope Island....without the Antelope

This past week Kev and I went to Antelope Island in Salt Lake. It was a pretty darn fun trip. As you can tell in the above pics, we saw some bison/buffalo roaming around, had a bison burger (yum! although very expensive), and floated in THE GREAT Salt Lake. Yes, It's true. I've lived in Utah for 4+ years and I've never floated in the Salt Lake. All the rumors I had heard were true- you can float effortlessly in the lake because of its high salt content. You can even read an Ensign article in the meantime, as Kevin demonstrated. I highly recommend this unique experience. Although I must say, they should probably change the name of the island. Those poor bison aren't getting any credit.

Parades, Art, and Bike Rides

So Kevster and I have had lots of fun the past few weeks. These pics are from Springville Art Museum, a bike ride we went on, and the Fourth of July Parade.

Lunch has never been so fun.

Mother of all sandwiches. And Kevin. That's what's up in my life right now; rumor has it, Kevin and I are officially "dating" now - sweet! I really like him. We have a lot of fun together and he's really easy to be around and to be friends with. What a swell young fellow.

Kevin is from Rochester, Minnesota, served his mission in Mongolia, likes to run and do stuff outdoors like me, is really kind and easy to be around, has a calm disposition, but also likes to have fun and be crazy, and he has a strong testimony.

I also started Chinese camp this past monday - which means I get to party it up with kids at night and see Kevin during the day. I keep pretty busy these days, as I am still doing my internship tues/thurs during the day. It's a good life. It will be nice to have Chinese camp over, though, and have my weeknights and weekends free again. Nonetheless, it's a good experience and I love teaching.

All in all, life is great. Happy.
Signing off

The Real Way to Party in Vegas

10 ways to party it up in sin city. Without the sin.
1. Go to your former companion's (Kelli Angulo!) sealing and reception (!!!)
2. Stop at gas stations on the 5 hour car ride to mimic wooden falcon statues
3. Mimic random posters of supermodels
4. Take jumping pictures
5. Find your inner-ant
6. Eat frozen yogurt
7. Play with cacti
8. Go to the temple
9. Watch the sweet water fountain shows they have
10. Tour the Bellagio and don't gamble. Yeah!


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Mustache.

Things I am grateful for today, May 17, 2010:

1. Work in any form. I don't care if its shredding for 3 hours at work - I have come to appreciate the value of work. Maybe I can understand a little more why mom was always working, even when she didn't have any reason to, or income. It feels so good to be productive. It's been a struggle lately to feel that. I've learned a lot.

2. Giving and receiving sincere compliments. Yesterday I was feeling kind of down, and someone walked up to me and gave me a sincere compliment on something they thought was my talent. For some reason, it meant the world to me and totally lifted my spirits.

3. Running and then eating a good meal. Most of the time, I'm not motivated to cook a good meal unless a) I have someone to eat it with or b) I'm actually really hungry. Saturday I ran 8 miles with my friend Maranda, and came home feeling like I had earned a good, solid meal instead of 10 pieces of toast like I usually eat. I made some yum stir fry and devoured it. So so good.

4. Temple. There is nothing like the peace inside the temple. I don't think it's possible to find that kind of still, calm feeling anywhere else in the world. It can't be compared to anything in the world. All of the cares of the world seem to melt away when I go to the temple. Biggest stress reliever ever.

5. My Family - I really don't know what I would do, who I would be without my siblings and parents. Yesterday I got to talk to Emily and Angela and it helped me so much. I'm pretty sure 85% of my decisions that I have made in my life are made solely on the fact that someone in my family told me to do it. HA. Terrible. But true.

And lastly, I am grateful for anything that can make me laugh. No matter how trivial it may be. For example, we passed this sweet dude with an even sweeter mustache on the way to Salt Lake City on Saturday. I managed to snap a shot of him on my cellular device. Check it out:















Peace out, dudes!

California Dreamin

So one time, I went to Disneyland with four of my friends. My friend Sarah invited me (from my ward) and I went with her and four of her friends. On Thursday we drove down (crazy car ride, as you can tell from the above pictures), stayed at her house in Claremont, then drove to Huntington Beach and played all day Friday. Luckily, we got to each lunch with my sweet Bro Ryan (THANKS for coming down, Ryan! if you read this!...you da bomb!), then we played some beach volleyball and built the biggest sand castle ever. The next day, Saturday, we went to Disneyland itself and rode on all sorts of rides. We brought Sarah's guide dog (for the blind-thats the dog in the picture with me above) that her family is "training" currently, and got into all the rides without waiting in ANY lines (Sweet!) It was a fun trip to say the least. Although I do admit, I don't feel a bit deprived for never going when I was five. I've always preferred the mountains, anyway...

The Red Coat gets the Worm.

My two former roommates and I decided to reunite and go to Conference in Salt Lake for the Sunday session. It was a blast. I love Conference. It's a new tradition for me to go to a session every time in Salt Lake, atleast while I am here in Provo. Every time, we stand out on the sidewalk with a sign that says "We need tickets," and beg someone to give us there's. Other people are catching on to this method, and I've noticed that there are now multiple people who do this. Fortunately, we still got tickets to both sessions this year. We asked our "friend" why he chose us to give them to (with all the competition, you know), and he responded that it was because of my red coat. Talk about good outfit planning. Matching isn't always best, folks.