Disneyland

Oh what a magical place! So it all started when about a month ago my sister asked me if there was anything I wanted to do before my mission. Jokingly I laughed and said, go to Disneyland. Later that day Aubrey text me and asked if I wanted to go to Disneyworld....it seemed like fate. Well after trying to plan Disneyworld we decided it would be cheaper to just go to Disneyland, espeically since Aubrey had realtives that we could stay with. The next few weeks were spent researching hotels, getting ticket prices, and just being super stoked to go. We decided to invite our friend Theresa and my car was voted the vehicle to take. Just to warn you this is a long post and I don't blame you for not reading it all. Here is the breakdown:

Day 1: Sunday our adventure begins at 11:00 as we head out on the road with lots of good tunes in hand, oh and mountain dew for the girls.

We hit rain, traffic, and bathrooms. Overall it was a fun time but we were all sick of driving.

California was perfect temperature and Aubrey's aunt was super funny. She stayed up and chatted with us even though it was late there. DaisyMay their dog was a big lovable dog, one of the most well behaved dogs I have ever met.

Day 2: The first day in the land of happiness.

Seriously Disneyland is so great: music all the time, people cleaning up after you, characters, fun rides, and smiling children.

First family we met were from Heber and they were super fun and had beautiful children we got to talk to them for half an hour as we waited for the new toy story ride which I thought was pretty awesome.

We are hard core Disneylanders and stayed in the park until 11:00 p.m. (over 12 hours) we even ate at a pretty nice Mexican restraunt in Frontierland.

Some highlights....tower of terror, splash mountain at night, T driving us in Indiana Jones, Screamin, the haunted mansion "That is awful"and big thunder mountain.

Day 3: Best day, so much goodness!

We got up super early even though we were tired and made it to the park by 8:30. This is so we could get in line to get our tickets for the new World of Color show.

Space Mountain was the first destination....man I love that ride.

Then we headed back to California Adventure to wait in line, luckily Theresa got in a fast line and was able to make it in line quickly. We only had to wait for about 45 minutes to get our tickets, but the end of the line wait was probably about 2 hours.

Man did we ever work the fast passes today. Bouncing between parks to optimize on our fast passes. I bet we crossed back and forth between parks at least 15 times.

There are just so many highlights from this day...seeing T so happy about getting a few pictures at Angels stadium, The worker at Tower of Terror....he was super creepy and wouldn't smile but as we waited he finally cracked and everyone started cheering, once he shut the doors we know he busted out laughing, The world of color. WOW. I have never seen anything quite like it a must see, and the best part of probably our whole trip.

Yesterday we had spotted these delicious ice cream cones around the park. We all knew that we had to have one and so we got one (cookies and cream for me, yum!) and headed to a spot to sit and chill. We sat by the rapids ride in the shade it was perfect. People watching is one of my favorite things and it doesn't get much better than watching in Disneyland. Our first encounters were with the young ones who I just about gave my ice cream to because their faces were so heartbroken. Next came an Asian man who walked by and said, "Beautiful, beautiful." We didn't know if he meant the ice cream or us ;) This was not to be our only encounter with the Asian tourists. Another group came by and one of the lady's came and sat down on our bench and since there was already three of us there she was sitting pretty close. She searched through her backpack and I thought she was just organizing her stuff until she pulled out a camera and said, "Picture, picture." We laughed and said yes. Then she quickly jumped up and a man jumped right into her place....placing his hand on my leg we took another picture. The next lady held my hand. By this point I think I was just in shock that we had now become the attraction. They started to walk away and we noticed that the faithful picture taker had not gotten his own picture so we said, "Do you want one too?" He got so excited and said, "Yes, Yes!" He sat down smack dab in the middle of us and was just thrilled. As soon as they walked off we couldn't contain it anymore and we burst out into laughter. I had tears rolling down my cheeks. We did fill a touch bad as they passed by us again and we were still kind of laughing.

Day 4: Sea World

This day was a bit more chill in going to sea world, which was good because we were all pretty exhausted.

T was navigating us to lunch and she was sure she had found a McDonalds. Aubrey and I were kind of sceptical about if we were really going to find this place. We turned a corner and instead of McDonalds we found Wendy's haha it was super great.

Shamu was pretty fantastic and the seal show was very funny. We also watched this acrobatic show which was pretty cool. I then made Aubrey and T go on a water ride and they both got soaked...oops!

Dinner was fantastic and then we had some adventures. The hot tub was broken so as we sat in luke warm gross water we were all shocked when a light just magically came on. Yet that was not to be the only unexplainable mystery. We went to McDonalds for late night ice cream and as we were waiting the ice machine just magically turned on and poured out ice haha it was a funny night.

I went to bed while Aubrey and T stayed up into the wee hours of the night watching youtube and the bachelorette :)

Day 5: Lucky lucky lucky

This was the day to go home, which is always bittersweet. I did a lot of the driving in the morning so Aubrey could get a little shut eye.

The pit stop we decided on was at Buffalo Bills in Primm, Nevada and man did it treat me well. I did end up putting a dollar in the penny slots and walked away with 16 dollars in my pocket. The good luck didn't stop there though because as we were waiting in line to ride Elderado, which is intensly fast, a lady just gave us these passes for free all day rides that were each worth 30 bucks. Let's just say I walked away feeling pretty fantastic.

We finally made it home and had our final jam out to some of our favorite tunes from the trip!

Happy Birthday!

It has almost been a year since my mom passed away and I miss her every day!

Happy Birthday Mom

Thank you for teaching me how to be a more patient, kind, loving, and positive person

Oh the joys....

Today I am going to post some of the joys I have experienced since I have received my call.....

• The joy of weekly mission prep classes
• The joy of being done with student teaching but missing all of the wonderful friends made there
• The joy of GRADUATING (well almost I technically don't graduate until the summer)
• The joy of mission shopping and a sister who keeps me focused
• The joy of sleep! :)
• The joy of close call driving experiences that I actually survived! (running into a street sign, having a deer hit me, brake lights out, registration expired, fun times!)

But the greatest JOY which I could ever hope to experience has come from here....

I hope they call me on a mission....

Wow this has been quite the journey, it was only about a month ago that I decided that I was going to move forward with my decision to serve a mission. I met with my Bishop and the papers started. The first night my sister and I sat down and had them all filled out so then I just had to schedule doctor and dentist visits. Those fell into place so quickly and I knew that I was being blessed. There were a couple of bumps in the road but then the papers were in. After talking to my stake president about the process of the papers I thought that I had it down to the day it should come. I thought that it would be no sooner than the 31st or if I was lucky April Fool's Day. So when I got a call Friday afternoon saying that I had a big package from the church my heart started racing. My call had come a week and a half after submitting my papers! I had already planned to get ice cream with some friends and so I decided to stick with the plan. The whole time I was a bit anxious to get home and open it. In my mind I had decided that it was probably stateside and I was very comfortable with that. As I was driving home different places started popping in my head. Sitting down to open it I pulled it out and started reading. Now it takes a lot to bring me to tears but I did start to cry a bit as I read these words. "You are assigned to labor in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission." And then this, "You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Danish language." I am overwhelmed and extrememly excited! I have ancestors from Denmark and Iceland is included in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission. Although I don't think they will start sending sister missionaries to Iceland this was as close as I could get to my ancestors homeland :) Here are just a few things I have to look forward to:

Time

Well blogging every three months is not horrible, and at least I am pretty consistent at it. Now I could say that I made a New Years resolution to write on my blog better, but well I didn't! But I do hope to post more....I am trying to come up with an idea of some weekly post that stays the same. So any suggestions are welcome! So about time...why is that we can have a hundred things on our to-do lists and we know we must get them done but we end up just wasting the time. Such as how I have a stack of laundry on my bed, emails I need to write, to-do lists to make, and what have I done for the past half hour? Oh you know I just worked on my blog and created a new header thanks to my sister. Ironic isn't it?

Student teaching starts in a week and for some reason I am nervous. I have been having dreams about these huge classrooms and rowdy children. Hopefully my dreams do not come true! I am back down in Utah County now to try and avoid some of the frigidness of Cache Valley. Before I left though we ended the semester right with a wonderful ugly sweater dance party! This is Wendi and I feeling a bit, awkward should I say? :)

Go Team GB2!

Wow I guess I must not have really been meant for the blogging world because I am not very good at keeping my blog current. But finding myself with some extra time (rare occurrence) I decided I might as well post something. This semester has been going really well so far and while there have been a few ups and downs everything seems to be playing out. One of the things I have been most grateful for are my awesome roommates. We have adopted the title of Team GB2 standing for Gray Brick #2 where we live. Our adventures have consisted from dance parties, roommate dinners, random singing while studying, burning crushed red pepper, game nights, and many more exciting things. We are particularly good at clapping and we bank on any opportunity to practice. A clapping band may be in order, I think we could be famous. I also have to give a shout out to our lava lamp, which has been introduced in lieu of a TV. We occasionally sit and watch it while adding in beautiful sound effects, it is a great source of entertainment. Our living room has also been dubbed as an art gallery we have many fond admirers, unfortunately I have not contributed yet but I am working on it. On Monday I head back to Kindergarten....for all I know I may never step back in a formal college class again, that is a little crazy. I am excited to start my practicum, and I can't wait for student teaching. It just amazes me how quickly life can speed by. Now I am trying to sort out what to do after graduation but I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I have included a few pictures from our roommate photos which were quite fun. I also put one up from a fiesta we went to! Anyway I may try to keep my blog more current but I can't make any promises :)

When it rains, it pours!!!

\Well sometimes no matter how long it has been since you have blogged (and mind you it has been a VERY long time) there is a story that just must be shared!

Background: For the summer I have been trying to get in better shape, and since I am fortunate to have time on my hands it seemed like it should really work out. Luckily I also have a very motivated 15 year old niece that has helped keep me on track. We have been running around 3-4 times a week. Well this week she was leaving for a family reunion but told me that I needed to still keep running or she would be better than me.

Experience: So being a good aunt and deciding to not be lazy I thought it was time to really challenge myself. I had already committed to taking care of their dog by putting it in each night and taking it out each morning. Since there house is a couple of miles away I decided I would run up, put the dog in and then run home. I talked myself into it, telling myself that if I got tired I could walk. Stepping outside I saw a large gray cloud in the sky and tiny little sprinkles of rain coming down. I figured it would be ok though and it wouldn't start pouring for a while....boy was I wrong! At about 1/2 a mile it started to rain and by 1 mile it was POURING! I decided that my only option was try to run faster so that I could make it to their house sooner. A nice man pulled over on the side of the road and asked me if I wanted a ride, it sounded really nice but I just couldn't give up my run. After I declined I realized I was in for quite the final mile. It just kept pouring and pouring and pouring. I just had to laugh. Finally I made it to the house and into the garage. Everything was dripping wet. I went to check the clock and was happy to see that I had actually ran at a decent pace for me. After finding a towel to dry off with I decided to see what the weather was like now and of course it had stopped raining, just my luck. While I knew that I could probably run I decided to take a bit safer route and ride one of their bikes. Yet my troubles weren't quite over I still had to battle puddles and tree limbs that I thought were high enough to duck under. Nope they weren't and I got a nice wet tree limb in the face hahaha!

Conclusion: Of course as they say "if you want to see the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain." Fortunately there was a beautiful full rainbow in the sky that I was able to run towards as I was getting poured on. Then as I road home on the bike I was able to splash through the puddles like a little kid with no worry about getting wet. There was also a beautiful sunset to marvel at. Also it gave me new resolve to reach out to others as I thought of that kind man who took a minute out of his day to offer me a ride. Overall it was a great experience that will give me a few chuckles in the years too come, and hey one more positive it may have brought me back into the blogging world!

This is sort or what it looked like :)