ROADTRIP PART THREE: A BIRTHDAY HE WILL NEVER FORGET.

            On August 8th we decided to go canoeing for Canden's (my little brother) 12th birthday. He was now an official boy scout, and he desperately wanted to get his canoeing badge.
          When we arrived at the river all 20 of us got situated, organized, and into our separate canoes. I went with Canden and Jack, our 10 year old cousin. We didn’t get very far down the river when we decided to stop and wait for the rest of our family. Another one of the canoes (caring two of our younger cousins and a foreign exchange student from Japan) paddled up to us to also wait. They lost control, and ran into the side of our canoe.
            Out of nowhere, I hear Canden yell, “My finger! It fell off!” Yeah right. I thought to myself. Canden was notorious for being overdramatic about things and besides, the other canoe barely hit ours. I looked over at Canden just in case, and to my dismay saw blood everywhere. I stood up and leaned over him to get a better look at his finger. You know when you cut a hotdog in half long ways, and both sides just kind of flop over? Yeah, that’s what his finger looked like.
            My instincts (and multiple years of first aid training) kicked in. I quickly took off the T-shirt I was wearing over my swimsuit and wrapped his finger up with it to try to stop the bleeding. Fearing he was going into shock, I hugged him and whispered, “It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad. Everything will be fine.” An ambulance then came and rushed him to the nearest hospital, 2 ½ hours away.
           The doctor said the canoe must have hit his finger just right, because it literally exploded. He fractured the bone and had a partial amputation, but his tendons, muscles, and arteries were in perfect shape. Long story short, it was a miracle.
           While he was at the hospital with my mom and dad, my cousins and I threw him a little surprise birthday party. We decorated the whole house with balloons and streamers, the whole getup. All of our younger cousins drew him pictures and made him cards, while us older cousins wrapped presents and made food. When he came home a few hours later, we turned on the lights, jumped out at him and yelled "surprise!" Even though his finger was all wrapped up and he was clearly still pretty out of it from the drugs, he was so happy! He couldn't stop smiling and laughing and telling us all about the new chuck norris jokes he made up. Oh, that little boy.

PERFECTION.

ROADTRIP PART TWO: MORE IDAHO

          After we left our first stop, we drove up to rexburg to stay with some more cousins. And oh, rexburg. We had quite the adventures while staying here.
          We went to the sand dunes, which was a total blast. Once everyone was ready to go home, we went down to our cars to see that all of our shoes had been stolen. After saying a prayer, we had the feeling that we should start digging around in the sand. We started finding shoes here and there in various places. After an hour or so we gave up and went home, still missing two sets of shoes. I was so mad!
         We also went shopping, took a tour of the BYUI campus, ate lots of junk food, and went running every day. I loved going running there. We had this perfect path we would take. Four miles, starting and ending at Lanie's (my cousin) house. We only passed by a few homes, which was perfect because I always feel really self conscious when I run. And they whole way you could see the temple lights out in the distance. It was beautiful.
    

ROAD TRIP PART ONE: IDAHO? OR...

Over the summer my family and I went on this big road trip for five.weeks.

First stop? Our cousin's house in Idaho! Unfortunately we were only able to stay for the night. I did, however, manage to do a little exploring while we were there. I ended up finding some really cool places!

 You can just call me the horse whisperer.

WE COULDN'T TAKE A GOOD PICTURE IF OUR LIVES DEPENDED ON IT.

Well, it's official:

I am getting old.

All of my friends are leaving on missions. This kid left 3 months ago. He got out of the MTC Tuesday and is now in Ukraine! Speaking Russian! In Ukraine! This is so crazy.

And now with the new age change, many of my friends will be leaving within this next year.

Sometimes I can't help but think how fast my life is going.

I leave for college in one year. I leave for my mission in two. This is so crazy.

Good luck to you, Elder Knighton! Ukraine wont know what hit 'em. ;)



YOU DONT KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL

The other day I got to help out my friend Whitney make this video.
You guys, Whitney is honestly the best. She's so creative and cute.
I mean, this video! It is awesome, am I right?
I was basically just there to yell at the boys and get them to pay attention.
I also interviewed them, obnoxiously ate a cookie, and provided comic relief (which you can see in the bloopers.)
There's no need to congratulate me. I did it out of the kindness of my heart. Really.
Okay, onward.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you...
the priests and laurels of the council creek ward! At their finest!
(ps, you should really watch this in HD. So much better.)

 

 

ROSIE THE RIVETER

I've been working on a really fun photography project lately where i re-create portraits of iconic women.

 This one is of me, posing as Rosie The Riveter.

I've also done one of Twiggy, Marilyn Monroe, and Lucille Ball.

Check them out at my photography blog, if you want to!

 

A PLAYLIST FOR YOU

coconut skies//damien rice

such great hights//iron & wine

outside villanova (live)//eric hutchinson

all the pretty girls//fun.

the last time//taylor swift feat. gary lightbody

re:stacks//bon iver

hey ya//obadiah parker

by and by//brett dennen

what i wouldn't do//a fine frenzy

bulletproof weeks//matt nathanson

THAT TIME I CRASHED A HALLOWEEN PARTY AND IT WAS THE BEST DECISION I'VE EVER MADE.

We dressed up as robbers.
Everyone thought I was a French girl.
We helped out at the ward dinner and then crashed a halloween party.
It sounds a lot cooler than it actually was.