Miss Richfield, Farewells, & SevenPeaks

Where do I begin?? Let's see... first of all, I ran for Miss Richfield saturday night. It was SO much fun! I had tons and tons of support and that right there made it all worth it. However, the entire experience was sooo worth while. You create friendships that last a life time (pageant sisters for life!) and you learn things about yourself that help you to become a better person. Miss Richfield is an awesome experience and I would recommend it to any one!

 

Yes, that is a harmonica, and yes I played "Piano Man" by Billy Joel.

 

 

"What's your idea of the perfect date?"

 Waiting to hear the results. . . .

"Third runner up... Contestant #6, Katelin Jensen!"

 Congrats to Anna Kruegar (Miss Richfield), Kourtney Smith (1st attendant), and Julia Arrington (2nd attendant)

 My best friends rock. Love you Tiana & Alyssa!

Kambry is buff, what can she say.  

 Fantastic and handsome escorts, Timmy & Deven.

So Miss Richfield was great. I received tons of congratulations and hugs after the pageant. Now I get to hand out popsicles after the kids' parade on the 2nd of July, then I get to ride on the float on the 4th as well as perform again on the park! This year is going to be a blast serving the community with the new Miss Richfield 2011-2012 royalty. I can't wait!

Sunday morning Tiana, Alyssa, and I drove up to Bountiful to Alyssa's house (where we would be sleeping that night) and then we headed up to Tremonton for our friend Hayden Hess's farewell!

 Gonna miss ya buddy!

 We got to pick fresh strawberries right out of his garden! They were delicious.

 

 --milk mustache--

We also got a tour of his dairy farm (stinkyyyy!) but way neat! Then we got to drink some 100% whole milk! YUM!

 

 The next day (monday) Tiana & I spent the day shopping around in Orem. We ended the night at Krispy Kreme doughnuts! We slept in the Hampton Inn and headed to Seven Peaks for Candace's birthday the next morning!

This is me, Candace, Whitlee, and Tiana on our way up to Draper to hang with some of our friends after spending the day at sevenpeaks. We had so much fun together!

We went to Transformers 3 that night at 12am and it didn't get over till 2:50am! It was soooo long. We decided to drive home because some of us had work the next morning and we figured we might as well drive while we're still awake and not very tired. Sooo... yup I drove us all home and everyone zonked. It was the hardest thing of my life! Ha ha! Tiana attempted to stay awake to keep me up but once in a while she would fail. hahaha, it's okay though. we made it home safe by 6am! I got to watch the night change into day. Pretty neat I guess.

So I tried to get some sleep yesterday after I went to teach tennis. Now I'm just listening to some Justin Bieber and chillin in the tub. It's great.

I work tonight and then I'm headed down to St. George on Sunday to say a final goodbye to one of my best friends--- Cody Patterson. It is his farewell! I'll just go down for the day and head back home that night because it is the fourth of July the next day.

But let me just share some of the fun things we did this past week when he and Robby came up to spend a couple days:)))

We went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant tuesday night then came home.

 The boys drove back up to Manti the next day to do a session in the temple and they loved it! Then when they got home, and after I had gone to tennis and Miss Richfield practice, I took them up to the canal and we jumped in!

After that, we decided to be spontaneous and go up to Fishlake to spend the evening!

 We visited the famous Bum Rock!

Then we took a fourwheeler ride up to the overlook at sunset. It was gorgeous. The boys absolutely loved it!

This is Cody, Robby, and myself. I love them!

 We had a sleep over on the pull out beds. Ha ha, it was funny.

 The next morning I took'm to the lake and we hiked around for a bit. This is an attempt at the self timer. haha!

On our way home we got stopped in construction so we decided to document the moment. It was such a fantastic trip, we all had so much fun together, and I hope that Cody and Robby enjoyed themselves while they were here!

Well now my bath water is cold. hahaha.. soooo... i'm gonna be done now.

K bye.

Fishlake, Father's Day, & Priorities

I had such a great time with my family this weekend at Fishlake!! We played tons of games, roasted mallows, visited the lake, endured the freezing cold sacrament meeting that we attended at the Lodge, ate lots of delicious food, made some bracelets, and went on a hike with my dad and Konner. All the while we had the accompaniment of our relatives, the Jensens! The entire weekend was just wonderful and there was never a dull moment.
My familly is a hoot and a hollar and if you know anything about them, they sure can be extremely goofy. We were laughing almost all the time! It was great, laughter is medicine for the soul :)
So the hike that I did with Konner and my dad was an extreme ADVENTURE!!! We could have used snow shoes, hiking boots, rain boots, etc. to help us out along the way, but nooo... All I had was a pair of bright orange vans.
Let's just say I wasn't expecting to go on  such a rigorous and interesting hike full of adventure and fun. It was about a 4.6 round mile hike with inclines ranging from mild to slightly intense. We had to balance across many many logs to get to the other side of the trail. We had to slosh through flooded meadows, slip our way through muddy run-off creeks, and stomp our way through snow drifts up to our knees. It was insane!!!! It was like we experienced the earth in its form for every season. Summer= dry. Winter= snow. Spring/Fall= wet. It was crazy, yet very cool.
After two hours of huffing and puffing and fighting to find the trail that was burried under snow, or lost from all the run-off water, we finally made it to our destination! (PS. did I mention the mesquitos?? They were everywhere. I HATE them! We sprayed ourselves with bug spray three different times!! But I still happened to get bit... those dang buggers.)
We hiked up to a lake that was apparently in bear country, yet I didn't realize it until we were leaving because we ran into a foot print that was large and unidentifiable!! It was either a mountain lion's or a bear's. Either way... I wanted to get out of there asap! Scary!! But let me tell you... the sight of that lake was such a great feeling. We had worked so hard to get there and had been through many difficulties to the point that we had wanted to turn around and go back. Yet, we still kept moving forward having faith that the lake was near and that we would be able to find it. Just like life, I imagined that the trail and experience up to the lake is like our experiences here in this life. There are going to be soooo many difficulties, trials, hardships, ups, and downs... But we just always gotta remember where we are headed. We cannot lose sight of where we want to go or else we will get lost. Also, we gotta know where we're going or else we won't get anywhere! And once we get to the place that we strive so hard to get to, it will be such a good feeling. We will realize that those trials and difficulties made us a stronger person. And that because of them, we were able to learn, grow, and become the people we are. The ending would not be as joyous, it would not be as worth it and it would not be as sweet if we hadn't experienced the bitter or the downfalls. It was a pretty cool realization. :)
Anyways!
We packed along our fishing poles and the tackle box, we got to fish for an hour, and then packed everything back out with the addition of twelve brook trout!!! That is an average of about one fish per five minutes... except it wasn't really like that. Konner would cast his pole out, get a bite, reel it in, and my dad would take care of the rest. Then I would cast, get a bite, etc. This happened over and over again. Konner, then me, then konner, then me. hahaha! My dad hardly ever got to cast his pole because he was busy with the fish that we kept catching! It was so funny and so much fun!
We arrived back to the cabin a few hours later and my mom was so glad to see us back safe. She was so worried--she was about to send out our relatives to come find us! ha ha!!!

Well we're home now. I'm exhausted.
Relief society was about journalism today and during the lesson I was impressed that I should stop writing in my journal that I have had for the past two years and to begin a new one. Like my life, it is a new fresh start. :) It will be nice.
Now it's time for MISS RICHFIELD!!! Gotta practice practice practice. Gotta put my priorities first.. I'm also going to try harder to put God first this week and see how things turn out. I know that if I dedicate time for Him, he will bless me and be with me more than he already is! So along with that, tennis camp every morning, along with four hour long Miss Richfield practices, I gotta figure out my casual wear outfit, a formal to wear, and what to wear for interview. Plus! My friend Cody from St. George is going to come up and we're gonna go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant! He's going on a mission soon (July 6) so it will be fun to spend a lil bit of time w/ him before he leaves.

Let me end by letting ya'll know how much I love my father. He is such an amazing person. Such a hard worker, so kind, so loving, so strong, so smart, so fun, so great. I absolutely love him with all my heart and I couldn't have been blessed with a better father! He is such an amazing example to me of the type of guy that I need to marry someday. We are such good friends, we can talk easily, and we get along really well. We always have fun when we're together and I couldnt be luckier. I hope he had a fantastic Father's Day because he deserves the best.
:)

Summer SLOW down

WOW what a summer so far! It's been a blast! A real quick update:

I'm the tennis instructor for Richfield Recreation's Tennis Camp this summer and I instruct everyday at 8am!

I also am score keeping for the softball games, both children's games and adults. It's a blast! They are little simple jobs, but they are so fun and I am having a great time!

My grandma was diagnosed with cancer. She is having her first dose of chemo tomorrow. She is in my prayers.

I went to Yuba Lake with some friends the other day. It was fun! I learned how to wake board.. I loved it!

Umm... I've made a new friend. Went to his homecoming on sunday. He served a mission in New Zealand. He is a nice guy:)

I went hiking up Cottonwood Canyon the other day and ran into a rattlesnake! So creepy!

I am running for Miss Richfield. Yep... I am. :) I'm excited, it will be fun!

So I will be busy and in "Miss Richfield" mode for the next two weeks.

This is my picture from Miss Richfield last year. Ha ha! funny.

Live by Faith, Not by Sight

Okay, so I am in love with HE IS WE. Definitely my all time favorite band EVER. Their lyrics are truly genius. They just released a new demo called "Tell Me" so I listened to it once.. listened to it again.. and then decided to type down the lyrics as I listened to it for the third time. I was amazed... I was in complete awe. I realized this song was a prayer! It was beautiful. I listened to it 7 more times I feel like. Ha ha:)) Anyways, I love the style of He Is We's music, I love their lyrics, and I love how I can relate to almost every single one of their songs. I just wanted to share that. Here are the lyrics from my new favorite song "TELL ME"

Stand in the mirror and

Try to imagine forever

What does it look like?

Facing my grey years endeavor

Suddenly close my eyes

Hands up for the very first time

I’m closing my eyes

Tell me you don’t give up

Tell me there’s someone out there

 Give me pure love

Give me a forever that we both can share

Show me it’s okay

Show me it’s alright

That I’m far from crazy for living by faith and not by sight

Will he be proud of

All of the things I’ve done?

My mistakes

The things that I regret

Wishin’ that I could forget

My heart breaks

Suddenly closing my eyes

Hands up for the very first time

I’m closing my eyes

Tell me don’t give up

Tell me there’s someone out there

Give me a pure love

Give me a forever that we both can share

Show me it’s okay

Show me it’s alright

T hat I’m far from crazy for living by faith and not by sight

Eyes can only see so far

Tired of wishin’ on all these stars

 So I close my eyes and pray

Nothing comes to mind so I’ll let my heart say

Tell me don’t give up

Tell me there’s someone out there

Give me a pure love

Give me a forever we both can share.

 I absolutely love it. & I love the gospel... I love that we can pray and receive strength. & I love that the Lord blesses us with people in our lives so that we can learn and grow from them. Life really is beautiful, even through the tears! All ya gotta do is live by faith, and not by sight. With faith, everything can be and IS beautiful.

Love,
Kate