I LOVE THESE CRAZY KIDS SO MUCH

{pictures taken by matt clayton photography}.

Happy happy birthday to these two cuties.
He's 13, she's 8.
He's a teenager & starting middle school, she's getting baptized.
He got braces, she got her ears pierced.
It's so crazy how old they are getting!

THE STATE FAIR

 

good times, good people. ▲

THIS ONE'S FOR LAURA

Once upon a time, Laura asked me to dedicate a blog post to her. I said "sure thing!" but since I'm basically the worst blogger on the face of the earth...it never happened.
But guess what? This girl turned the big 1-6 on Tuesday (even though, if we're being honest she's been the big 1-6 for awhile now...)
So here ya go, LSK! This ones for you!

 

Reasons why having a Laura as your best friend rocks:

 

-She has the best fashion sense ever and an endless amount of colorful gap tees, and she (almost) never minds when I raid her closet and steal things and don't give them back for months.

-She's got great taste in music and will be your concert going buddy till the sun goes down. (not sure if that just made any sense...?)

-Also she listens to terrible music sometimes, but makes it seem awesome and cool and I don't know how she does it? Like, I've never seen someone dance and sing to Fergie quite like Laura does.

-She's basically a member of the family because she comes with us on all of our family vacations and thus, has to put up with my dad's endless teasing.

-She's the only one I can talk in hashtag to without automatically feeling stupid and wanting to take it back. #indatub #wifey #handsineachothersbackpockets #holla #hashtag

-We both hate the same things. It's great.

-She puts up with my teasing her about her age. She's 1 1/2 years younger than me and I never let her forget it...

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA! ▲▲▲

 

 

HERE'S A LITTLE DITTY ABOUT MY 4 BEST FRIENDS

 

I'm the type of person that tends to get along with guys a lot better than girls.
There's not really a reason for it, I don't think, but 90% of my friends are guys. That's just how it worked out.
My guy friends are seriously amazing. But sometimes you just need a girls night, you know?
So here's to Laura, Cassidy, Cerena, & Whitney.
I am so very thankful for these four.

CHT//DAY ONE

Redeye from PDX to JFK, 4 hour delay (& I'm sure NSA just looooved us), then another short plane ride and we were there, in Palmya, New York; the place where it all started. We quickly changed into our church clothes in the airport bathroom (easily one of the most uncomfortable things I've done), hopped on the big green tour bus, & went straight to the Palmyra temple.  

 

{Wet hair & no makeup=temple swag}. 

 //The Palmyra temple is such a gorgeous temple. It's really small too, so we had to split up the boys from the girls & do separate baptism sessions. Having the whole baptismal font room full of girls was such a great experience that brought an amazing spirit.

//The Hill Cumorah.

 

 

 

//The Whitmore Farm. I loved looking at all the different art that were on the walls at these different places.



 

 

//The Book of Mormon publishing site.

 

 

Day one was great. It was tiring, I mean reeeeally tiring. When you're going on almost two straight days with absolutely no sleep (trying to sleep on planes is just the worst, you know?) it can make it kind of hard to focus on things & feel the spirit, however the difference between our physical bodies & our spiritual bodies became really clear to me that day. Even though all of our physical bodies were tired, our spiritual bodies were wide awake and ready to go! 

 

///Many, many more pictures from the church history tour, plus a few words, coming soon.

 

 



LATELY

The church history tour posts are coming soon, I can promise you that. But until then, here is a little list of current happenings/things I'm loving lately:

 

-This poem by Sarah Kay. (the rest of the video is pretty good, too). (yay for TED talks).

-Planning new upcoming photo shoots.

-This documentary, because I love photography & I love fashion & I love old men & I love documentaries in general, so this one is basically made for me.

-How everyone is wanting to set me up with their friend/nephew/coworker/boy they took braces off the other day. Is this what being almost 18 feels like?

- I'm really into the work of Tyler Knott Gregson lately; he's attractive and has some rad tattoos and is a pretty great photographer, but mostly I just love his poetry. Check out some of my very favorites of his here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here. Also I'm really excited about the new book deal he just got! Definitely buying that one. 

-Photographing a wedding.

-Old friends that move back to Oregon (Hey Haley! Here's your shout out!)

-This blog. Not only is LL cute & stylish, but she's also a super inspiring writer. I may or may not have started following her on instagram & twitter, too. & she may or may not be my newest girl crush.

-Knee length destroyed denim skirts. (two of my favorite examples found here & here). I mean, 90s much? Fantastically terrible much? I'm in love.  

-& last but not least- this is the story of my life.