Easter Weekend

I started the weekend off by surprising my family with a little treat. . .

 Kylee helped me make them the night before!

They were delicious! And so cute:)

I went to lunch with my family in Cedar before heading down to St. George for the weekend. My friends Alyssa and Mekenzie joined us at Applebees and it was a great time!

St. George was a blast! Sunny, warm, and wonderful! It was especially great to spend time with my family, grandparents, and cousins.

We drove back to Richfield Saturday night so we could spend Easter Sunday at home. It was fantastic day full of candy, family, and fun. But the most important thing was not forgotten... Christ's Resurrection! I spent the week reading about His last week of life and it made Easter mean so much more to me! I love the gospel, I love Jesus Christ, and I am so thankful for the atonement. The gospel brings me so much joy and makes me so happy. I love it.

Did I mention that I have the best family ever? Well, I do.

Sorry for the delay in blogging! It's the last week of class-- next week is finals week! I just barely finished a ten-page research paper and handed it in today. It felt SO good to be done with it finally! I literally sat in my closet yesterday for 5 maybe 6 hours trying to work on it... crazy, I know. But it's done! YAY.

Finals week is going to be borrrrring... I have a test on tuesday and then two tests on thursday. Besides studying, I'll probably be trying to pack and shtuff cuz I have to be moved out of this beautiful home of mine on the 6th (next friday). Bitter-sweet!

Ok bye now.

Highest of Highs & Lowest of Lows

Who woulda thought that I would have so many adventures in one week?! Repelling to begin the week... and then Angel's Landing at Zions, and caving at Snow Canyon to end the week!

I feel like I can do anything.

The impossible is now possible.

I reached heights I never knew I could reach.

(& I used muscles I never knew I had...)

That big mountain straight ahead is Angel's Landing..
& yes, I hiked to the very top of it!

5.4 mile round trip hike. Two hours to get to the top, and one hour to get down! I felt so accomplished!

This is Alyssa, me, & Chantel.I love these girls!

Missed Tiana though :(



It was hot and extremely strenuous, but the beauty of Zions made it all worth it.

This is the slightest glimpse of some of the switch backs we had to vigorously climb

The shade felt great. This was the group I was with (Alyssa & her friends that live in the dorms)
[I am fourth from the right]

^
We were a little more than half way at this point.
About to hike the actual ledges now, holding on

for literally dear life.

The most narrow part of the trail. Both sides were

drop offs being hundreds of feet high! Talk about SCARY.

Angel's Landing is definitely not for those fearful of heights.

We finally made it! This is Kat looking off the edge. :) SO HIGH UP!

Me and Alyssa

The sun was SO bright! Cool pic though huh??

Me, Hayden, and Alyssa just chillin on the edge of the cliff. No big deal.
You can see the backbone of the trail we took to get to this point!

The TOP of Angel's Landing!!!

Just hangin out on top of the mountain :)

Ah yeah, you can see me in her shades!
ps. notice the background! It was unreal.

Notice the steep edge of the cliff... it was so crazy.

The way up the mountain was intense... having to pretty much rock climb and pull yourself up &
holding on to the chains for fear of falling. I was nervous to head back down. But we conquered it and it was actually a blast going down the mountain!

Incredible. Steep. Adrenaline.

I did it. And loved every minute of it.

I reached the highest of highs. I felt like I was on top of the world!

After being physically burned out, the day STILL wasn't over. We made our way over to the great town of St. George, swam for a while, ate some dinner, then headed over to Snow Canyon. By this time, it was dark. But the desert was lit up by the light of the full moon.

We met up with a group of other friends, hiked out into the desert until we found the cave, (looked like a huge hole in the ground) and climbed down into it.

SCARY!

It was dark. Only some of us had flashlights. There were bats. And it was chilly. But I continued to follow the others---crawling, climbing, tripping, and hitting heads on rocks that poked out of no where. It sure was an adventure!

After a while of climbing lower and deeper down into the cave, we got to a big opening. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen! The entire room was glowing! It looked like outer space. Stars everywhere. Except it wasn't stars.... it was splattered glowstick. :)

We eventually broke open our glowsticks, splattered them everywhere (including on ourselves) and then we played hide and seek! It was sooo fun! If you sat against the rock wall and didn't move, you became invisible. It was so neat!

So there ya have it. I went to the top of the world, and below the earth all in one day. I conquered fears I never knew I had, and now I feel like I can do anything.

Life is one big adventure. Embrace it. Love it.

Let's fall off a cliff.

First off, let me quickly make it clear why I have been blogging lately:
It has become my new journal.
It is easy to record my life.
It is entertaining to upload pics & be creative.
It gives my friends & family the slightest idea of what my life is like!
It is especially great for my family so they can see what I am up to :)
It is a great way for me to share my ideas & thoughts & to possibly be inspirational.
& last... I simply just love blogging.

Okay now that we have that clear, let me share with you a great new adventure that I took part in tonight.

REPELLiNG

at Three Peaks!

For family home evening, our ward went repelling! What an adventurous activity. Decided we should give it a try---heck what did we have to lose? Its not like we could die from falling off the rocks or anything... ;)

 This is the peak that we repelled off of. Not the best quality picture, but you can get an idea of the size and shape of the cliff thing. Scary!

All harnessed up! I was pretty nervous, but super excited!

Tiana and I on top of the peak-- you could see the entire valley!

 This is a skinny dog named Summer that randomly showed up to climb the rocks and repell with us. We have no idea where she came from . . . I thought she looked like a hyena. But she turned out to be a very nice dog. Ha weird. 

 I may or may not have been straddling tiana at this point. . . ha ha we were on a steep rock. No big.

Check out her electric green eyes though! Crazy cool!

 Off we go! Literally. . . "off the edge of the cliff!"

 I loved it! Tiana on the other hand, was quite nervous.

 Just making our way down the edge of the rock.
It was like walking straight down!

 Look I can do it one handed!

 This is what the rope did to all our hands. Hm :)

We repelled until there was no more sun. Then we built a fire and roasted hotdogs, marshmallows, starbursts, and crescent roll things! (intended for pigs in a blanket)

But I decided to try a marshmallow in a blanket! It was a little doughy, but gooey from the mallow and quite delicious.

We left smelling like a camp fire. The entire night was a blast! It made me super excited for summer and for the [hopefully] many fires that we will be having!

Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go repelling again someday!

Didn't Buy It

One of the best feelings in life is to know that you are loved.

 And so this is why I love in return.

My best friend, whom has a month and half left before leaving to serve the Lord, came down to Cedar yesterday for the Brian Reagan show! It was fun to see him. :) Ps. He went through the temple for the first time last week! He has a different glow about him now. It's incredible.

This is him! Future Elder Jimmy Allen.

so.. .. ..

LiFE iS GOOD

School is almost over. Only about 15 school days (give or take) left! I have a 10 page paper to do and work on, [blahhh] and I am in the process of figuring out whether I will be involved with SUUSA (SUU student association) for the next year!

Yesterday was my amazing father's birthday!!! He's now 41! He's getting so old ;)
I got him a card and sent it to him and he received it yesterday! It worked out perfect! I was sad that I wasn't able to be home with him and my family to celebrate with them, but it all turned out okay. The card that I sent him was sooo funny! I thought it was perfect considering I'm a poor college student.

This is what it said:

"I heard you were looking older, but I didn't buy it.
I heard it was your birthday, but I didn't buy it.
I heard you wanted a gift, but I didn't buy it. Happy Birthday!"
ha ha love it.

Well I am happy and enjoying life. I have great roomates, great friends, a great family, and a great life.

I love life.

One Day Without Shoes

TOMS shoes organization has set aside April 5 as "One Day Without Shoes."

On this day, TOMS encourages people all around the world to go without shoes to spread awareness about the kids in third world countries who walk around barefoot.

 Leaving for school! I love TOMS.

 Clean feet :) But not for long!

 Here I go! Off to Institute.

 Gotta love Institute!
Tiana says I could be a "sun child" . . . whatever that means hahaa.

 I honestly love going barefoot!

 SUU was supporting! Yeaaah!

 Soakin up the sun just before class!

 Math class? Our teacher was thrown off because hardly anyone had shoes on!

 Ewww. . . . bathrooms!

 Love the sun. Love going barefoot.

 "Hey Tiana! Take a picture of me jumping!" . . . .fail.

 Thought my reflection looked RAD!

 Joined more barefooters in a parade down mainstreet for awareness!

 I kinda felt like a hippie protesting with a bunch of other hippies. ha ha it was fun though!

 Cydney (my date for the evening while our other two roomies went on actual legit dates) came with me to walk! Barefoot freaks her out though so she kept her sandals on. :)

 Oh how I love her! Ha ha, this is us sitting on mainstreet waiting for Tiana to come pick us up!

 Gotta document as much of my day as possible!

 Driving barefoot. . . :) I heard it was illegal?

At the end of the day!! No more clean feet. I love it.

The entire day was a blast! I had so much fun going barefoot. The sun was out and it was warm, and people were everywhere joining in on the same cause. It was a beautiful day.