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.

 

 

CHURCH HISTORY TOUR

I've spent the past week and a half traveling around the country in a giant green bus.
We visited all of the historical sights of the early lds church, and on the way my testimony was strengthened, I made so many memories, and I met new lifelong friends.
I can't wait to share all of my journeys with you in many more posts to come!

CURRENTLY OBSESSING OVER...

I'm currently loving the band The New Electric Sound, especially their live video shout outs.
They're like a mix of The Beach Boys and The Strokes, so basically the most amazing band ever.
Hope you enjoy!

P TO THE R TO THE O-V-O

PROVO YOU GUYS. Provo is basically the coolest town ever. I spent the last week staying there and I absolutely loved it. Last summer I visited Utah for the first time in my life, and stayed in Salt Lake City. I had a blast and really enjoyed my time there, but it was nowhere near how much I loved being in Provo.
I love how everyone is so nice and considerate. (However they are terribly rude drivers. What is up with this?) I love all the stupid Mormon stuff around town, like the "sexy modest" boutique or "CTR clothing" or the missionary mall with the giant blowup missionary on top of it. I love how 90% of the cars have BYU bumper stickers on them and one time I even saw someone with a license plate that said "LDSGIRL." I understand why everyone thinks we're so crazy now. ;)

Here are a few I-phone pictures from the trip!/////

 

This little girl's name is Willow. We both pre-boarded at the same time and she was having such a hard time getting on the plane. Not only was it her first time ever flying, but she was all alone. She kept crying and running back to hug her dad-I felt so bad! So when she sat down in a row I asked if my mom and I could sit next to here. She hesitantly said yes, and I could tell she didn't really want anything to do with me at first...she was still so scared! But as the plane ride went on we became fast friends. We shared magazines and talked about Disney channel shows and our plans for the fourth of July. She was the cutest and I'm so glad we got to get to know each other!   

 

 

I brought so many cameras around with me, it was ridiculous. One time as we were getting our bags checked before going into stadium of fire (click on that link for an awesome video of me singing to Kelly Clarkson. It's pure gold, I tell you) the man laughed at me and said, "what? do you have a different camera for everything?" And I was like, "yeah....pretty much."

Utah seems to have a shaved ice stand on every corner. Whoever came up with this idea is a genius; shaved ice is delicious! I'm seriously considering starting up one of my own here in Oregon because we have zero. It should be a crime!
Also: do you see the t-shirt I'm wearing? I got it from the vampire weekend concert last month and when I put it on that morning I wasn't really feeling it. So I changed into something else, but then something in my head said, "wear the vampire weekend shirt." so I put it back on. (wow, this sounds really dramatic already...) anyways! long story short, I saw this really cute guy at Walmart that night in the SAME. EXACT. SHIRT. So of course I had to say something, right? I told him I liked his shirt and he didn't get it...haha awkward.

So here's to you, awkward vampire weekend t-shirt wearing guy-I know it was late at night, but it still shouldn't have take you that long to get what I was saying. Good thing you're cute.

BYU stuff is everywhere, you guys. I especially liked this camouflage BYU hat. My mom wouldn't let me buy it...how lame. // Everyone seems to rides motorcycles here. It's great for someone like me who's obsessed with motorcycles. And what's the only thing hotter than a nice bike? When they guy riding that bike is in a kilt...  

 

I loved being able to spend time with family that I don't normally see. My cousins are the best!

Provo does the fourth of July like no other. My favorite part of the parade was the stampede of missionaries that came running through the streets Everyone started standing up and yelling and trying to find their specific elder. They were all so cute, too!

 

 

My favorite part of the trip was being able to get family and senior pictures taken by Matt Clayton. He's a photographer that I've been a fan of for awhile now, so being able to have my pictures taken by him and pick his brain on photography a little bit was awesome. I'm so excited to get the real images back soon!  

So moral of the story- I love Provo. And I hope to maybe possibly move here after graduation? We'll see.\\\