HALLOWEEN

I absolutely love dressing up, so naturally I love Halloween. It gives me an excuse to dress up and not have everyone lok at me like I am crazy. This year I dressed up with my best friends at went to our ward roller skating party. For this, several of us went to DI and got random things to throw together for a "costume." I don't think Lindsey and I ever really decided what we were. For other Halloween festivities, I wore the Dorothy dress that my mom made for me in the forth grade. Somehow it still fits. Of course it was much longer on me when I was nine, but personally I think it fits better now that I am twenty. Haha.

My family saw Wicked when it first came out. I loved it so much! Lindsey loved it more than any of us and can probably sing every word to every song. This year my family went and saw it again. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. I guess that is one of my flaws; I forget things easily, mainly books, movies and plays. Anyways, I loved seeing Wicked this time even more because I had learned so many of the songs. The performers were phenomenal and I could see if a hundred more times and never get bored of it. If you are looking for a good musical, jump on the band wagon and go to WICKED!

Journey to East Asia

This past summer I went with my Mom and Dad to go pick Nathan up from serving in the Singapore Mission. I loved being able to travel and learn about these cultures; most of all I loved being able to see Nathan as a missionary and see the people whose lives he had touched. We started in Singapore, went to East Malaysia, West Malaysia, Sri Lanka, then stopped in Hong Kong on the way back home.

We got to Singapore while Nathan was still serving as a missionary. While he was out preaching during the day, Mom, Dad and I toured the city of Singapore. It was busy, spotless and humid! This is me with the Singapore skyline in the background.

One of the most tender and memorable moments of this trip happened in East Malaysia when Nathan took us out to visit on e of the families he had taught. When we arrived, the children came running out yelling "Elder, elder." They were all so excited to see Nathan. We were able to spend a few hours with them and learn about their lives. We were so humbled to see their living conditions and how little they had. Despite the lack of worldly thing in their lives, they were all so happy and full of will to press forward.

In West Malaysia, we spent a lot of time in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol. We climbed 272 steps to the
Batu caves to see the monkeys. These creatures were so accustomed to humans, that they came up to us with little or no hesitation. They took food from visitors whether they were planning on sharing with the monkeys or not. The caves have significance to the Hindus and a festival is held here each year. If interested, check out the Batu Caves website.



Sri Lanka felt like a whole other world. Driving, eating habits, and lifestyles were all so different from what I know and felt were normal . I said several silent prayers over mysterious food and many prayers of thanksgiving for what I am blessed with. This picture shows Nathan and me with some children he taught. We are standing on the edge of the jungle that they live in. My favorite tourist part of this trip was in Sri Lanka when we visited the Elephant Orphanage. We rode elephants, bathed them in a stream, bottle fed a baby, and watched them travel to and relax in a river for their afternoon.























We finished up our two week adventure in Hong Kong. Nathan hadn't been to the temple in two years, and wanted to have our layover in Hong Kong so he could go to the temple. I was able to go and do baptisms while the others went to a session. It was so neat to see the blessings of the temple touching people all over the world.

Though I was sad to see this trip come to an end, I was excited to get back to America. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to take this unforgettable trip.

VACCINATIONS!

Last Monday I went into the BYU Health Center to get several shots. Before I am able to go with my parents to pick up Nathan from his mission, I had to get my vaccinations. I had four done; yes, four metal objects were jammed into my arm. I was really scared, but feel that I was a trooper. I was so good that the nurse gave me apple juice and a lollipop when I was done. Those, along with the Looney Toons band-aids, helped me through the rough times. :) It will be all worth it once I am in Southeast Asia visiting Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Hong Kong. I'm so excited for the trip!

Ballet West

Austin is the sweetest guy! For Christmas my parents gave me a dress that I absolutely love, but didn't know what to wear it to. I felt that it was too nice for church, but didn't know what to wear it to. I mentioned it to Austin and he said something about going to a ballet or an opera. On our six month "anniversary" he took me to see Ballet West perform at Capitol Theatre.
When I was younger I drove past a sign in San Diego for a ballet and developed a fantasy-like desire to go to a ballet. I think I liked the thought of "going" to a ballet, not so much actually sitting through one. When Austin and I were in our seats I realized this and got a little worried, but ended up absolutely loving it!! I knew he took me because I had mentioned wanting to see one before, but wanted to know if he enjoyed it too. When I asked him, he said he enjoys stuff like that too. Not many guys are into that stuff and willing to take you to it. He may just be a keeper. ;)

I used my professional photography skills to take this shot. I got really brave and asked a stranger to take the lower one so the dress could be seen.

CAMPING

Being the adventurous person that I am, when I heard that some people from my ward were going camping, I decided to join. Because it was kinda last minute, we made it really simple. We got subway sandiches and went to a campground up Provo canyon. We ended up right next to a boy scout troop and got to hear the hour long knife safety talk and have eleven year old boys trample through our camp all night long. It reminded me of Andrew and his eleven year old personality. We had a lot of fun and were able to laugh about the scouts. The high-light (or not so high) was when the girls went to set up the six man tent and found that there weren't any poles. Steve was kind enough to let us four girls sleep in his three-man tent and sleep in a single man tent himself. Needless to say, us girls got really close that night.

Happy about the tent before realizing that it was without poles.

A little blurry, but I wanted everyone to see how amazingly buff I am! I can lift a two person house above my head, balanced on one foot, without any help! yeah-yuh!

Jessi, me, Jessica and Jodi all crammed into the three-man tent. Trust me, it was mislabeled. It really is a two man...

I play on an intramural team with some of the girls from my new ward, the tenth ward TIGERS. I haven't played since about eight grade, so it is nice to bring back the memories from my favorite childhood sport. We had our second game today and DOMINATED, 20-11. SWEET. Our first game wasn't so hot, so it felt good to come out on top. We decided to take a "team pic" like back from the little league days, mitts in front and all. Isn't it so precious! :)

I went with my roommates to Provo's semi-annual Llamapalooza this weekend. It was a lot of fun. Several live bands were there, along with a DJ and LLAMAS borrowed from the Hiro Krishna. Of course we had to take pictures with the llamas. This one smiled for us. The white Llama wasn't as photogenic.

I finally have a BLOG!!!

Yes, I finally went through the strenuous process of getting my own blog. :) Michelle told me about it over a month ago and I finally sat down to do it. I have been so busy with school. Finals start in a week and a half. I'm not excited for finals, but so ready to be done with this semester. I will be taking two classes this spring: cooking and world religions. I am so estatic about the cooking class. I actually need to take one more credit. If anyone has any suggestions for a good/entertaining/easy one credit class that would be great!

WICKED

My family saw Wicked when it first came out. I loved it so much! Lindsey loved it more than any of us and can probably sing every word to every song. This year my family went and saw it again. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. I guess that is one of my flaws; I forget things easily, mainly books, movies and plays. Anyways, I loved seeing Wicked this time even more because I had learned so many of the songs. The performers were phenomenal and I could see if a hundred more times and never get bored of it. If you are looking for a good musical, jump on the band wagon and go to WICKED!