Sometimes God Gives Us Exactly What we Asked for,

rain

And then follows it with somethings we definetally didn't ask for

(corner of bed frame falling directly onto knee cap, smell of smoke enveloping the apartment, scratched DVD)

The trick is to remember the rain.

God is so good.

Summer Decisions...

Summer is full of difficult decisions. The one I'm currently debating:

Do I buy this lovely dress,

these wonderful Sperry's,

or this mustard cardigan?

As trivial as this question may seem, it's been a great internal debate (complete with pro/con list) in my head. PLEASE give your opinion, advise, counsel, etc. ASAP.

(Clothes and shoes make me smile... a little superficial, but also a little worth it)

England on My Mind...

Lately I've been thinking England. And stalking these 2 things:

1-The final Harry Potter world premier in London last week

2-My favorite British couple's North America tour

And I've been craving galexy bars and jelly snakes. A walk around Notthing Hill. A trip to Trafalgar. A ride on the train to Blackheath and a quiet, cloudy evening meeting in the sitting room of 27 Palace Court. (I'm not craving the meal that would follow such a meeting however)

But those things make me sad so lets focus on these....

(maybe they should have put dan rad on the step above the other two..)

Wow, my favorite spot in the city turned into a beautiful premiere.

Don't you just love all the umbrellas?

I am in a never-ending state of awe when it comes to her.

And I love it with the jacket as well... such class.

Tom.. so attractive

but Rupert has my heart

Did I ever tell you she was my neighbor in London... some of my friends ran into her a couple times... at the local pub, walking with her tesco bags and starbucks. yea lonodn was that awesome..

touching...

And now for my favorite photo...

It's crazy to think this is the end of the Harry Potter movies. I grew up with Potter. The first movie came out when I was 11-a would-be Hogwarts first year. And here it is, all done.

And now on to my very favorite (and the most fashionable) princess..

A good princess also looks stunning going casual. (Beauty and the Beast taught me this)

love the sleeves on this next one

Ok this next one was my favorite, until she got to California.

love the cut of this one, and she knows how to rock a hat a lot better than the cousins

Ah... this one is my very favorite. She looks absolutely magical.

So, it's decided. I need a pair of nude pumps. She pairs them with at least three of the outfits above! And can I also say that she has the most beautiful princess hair.

oh england, my love.

It's been awhile. I know.

But I've been busy. (by busy I mean working, reading, and watching tv)

I've been baking cookies, making french toast, and heating pasta. Plus there is all that time spent in the car driving to Sandy for the weekends.And lately my skin has been dry, so I've had to actually blow dry my hair completely. Do you have any idea how long it takes to blow dry all this hair?Also I've been on a Harry Potter kick. ABC Family Harry Potter marathon was just what I needed this weekend.

To top it all off, my computer got sick. Apparently it was just a virus, however for awhile we were thinking it was (gasp) it was the hard drive.

Well, now my computer is fixed (thanks to my amazing cousin) and I guess I'm out of excuses so here is a little update on my life.

.........(crickets chirping)

..................

(still chirping).........

Ok so nothing majorly exciting has happened (perhaps another reason I haven't posted lately) but that doesn't mean life isn't good.

In fact it has been just lovely and here is why:

Hunger Game series read in 6 days.Fireworks. 4 of July BBQ with our favorite family (and playing with the cutest kids).Stalking Kate's North American Tour Wardrobe. Midnight in Paris. Smores. Awesomely painted toe nails. Rainy summer days (ah my absolute favorite). Finally watching Roman Holiday (oh audrey, to have your class). Celebrating Dad's birthday! the Voice, although in my opinion Dia should have won. Harry Potter marathon on ABC family. L o n g phone calls with f a r away friends. Getting a Provo library card. Nights spent visiting my cousins.

See, just lovely.

Now I'm off to Moon Lake. I'll be battling the heat, mosquitoes and of course (shudder) the moths. Wish me luck with that.

I've got to admit though-I haven't been this excited to go since I was a child.

Roaming.

Last night I was in Rome again.

Well at least in my dream.

We only had a short amount of time and I'd convinced Mom that we needed to see the Coliseum. So, off we went. We had big backpacks full of our stuff, the hostel I'd been to before was closed until December. And we hadn't checked into a hotel yet. So, with our backs heavy we took off walking.

Did I ever tell you that in Italy we took the metro... once. The morning we wanted to be at the Vatican early. Every other outing was walked to. Really, honestly, it's the very best way to see Europe. Walking the cities.

So it was in my dream as well. I felt the cobblestone beneath my worn out Sperry soles with each step I took. It didn't take long for us to get a little off schedule.

Mom ran into someone she knew. Then we got going and we had to stop at a church to use the restroom. All of a sudden we realized the church we stopped out was one of our churches. (as you know I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.) We took time to check out that building, so different then the domes that dot the skyline of the eternal city. We even met a few of the local young women, who tried in their broken English to help us along.

By the time we got going again we were rushing. We were panicked because not only were we running out of day light, but for some reason we were not getting any closer to the Colosseum. I thought I knew where it was. But maybe, just mayeb, I'd... forgotten.

Did I ever tell you that I never could figure out that map of Rome? I'd have been hopeless without the others.

And now here I was with Mom, and I realized that I couldn't find my way around this city that I'd come to love so much. I couldn't even show her the things I loved there.

And then, I woke up.

Very confused, sad and kind of just... scared.

What scared me the most was that sometimes the dreams feel more real then the reality. I really did go to Rome. I roamed the cobble stone streets, I ate the pasta, I stood in awe at the Colosseum. But sometimes that feels more like the dreams. A distant, hazy dream.

All I Want to Do...

- Eat S'mores. For some reason I haven't been able to get them off my mind the last few day. All I know is that I want to make lots and lots of them!





-Paint my nails all pretty (like my friend Grace)



-See Midnight in Paris (I've been waiting soooo long for this, and still have not found the time to go!)



-Visit Blickenstaff's because it looks like so much fun and what could be better to make s'mores with than a Galaxy bar?!

-Read the rest of the Hunger Game series. I read Hunger Games in a day and a half and I'm dying without a copy of Catching Fire (this will hopefully be resolved quickly!) Remember in elementary school when we used to have read-a-thons. Well I would just love to have my own. I want to build a little blanket fort, fill it with pillows, blankets, and get lost in District 12.

Don't' these all sound like bliss?! Anyone want to join me?

Sunshine and Summertime

Basically my family is the very best. And I can't thank Dad enough for finding me a flight to Vegas, so that I could meet up with them all earlier. I hate missing out on things (especially for work) and it was so nice to be able to get there so quickly and be with them.... even though a longer-than-I've-ever-seen line at security nearly made me miss my flight.

I got to Vegas on Thursday evening. We spent the night chatting, eating, exploring Cesar's (the mall obviously) walking(actually limping) the strip, getting big diet cokes at the coke factory, laughing at all the drunk people, and buying a few way too overpriced m&ms.

Friday we got to sleep in (it was amazing) and then we headed down to the pool for some tanning, swimming and relaxing. The 100 degree weather felt amazing, and I loved just laughing with my mom and sisters as we took quick dips in the pool, then dried off. After that we packed up our room, checked out, went shopping (oh man was H&M good to me) and then we proceeded to have the best lunch of my life.

Oh how I love you Max Brenner.

(Mostly your chocolate.. .the smores sunday Abbie and I split(pictured above) was seriously indescribable)

I even tried my recently-turned-21 hand at the slots. I put in exactly $1 and decided to cash out while I was ahead...

(obviously taken in a casino... doesn't it just look gross)

I ended up with....

$2.25!!!!

Yes this did made me very excited. No, I'm not ashamed to admit that.

Vegas was fun. I forgot how gross/nasty/horrible the strip area is. But it was sooo good to be there with my family. I loved that.

Friday afternoon, after Dad got done with meetings, we drove to St. George. After freshening up and a quick Pizza Factory dinner run we headed to Tuchan for The Little Mermaid!

Three summers ago on our infamous trip to NYC we saw The Little Mermaid on Broadway. It was with much anticipation that we headed to Tuchan to see this show, we had very high expectations. Luckily we were not disappointed in the least. There is just something magical about they way they are able to use the water at Tuchan. It was absolutely stunning.

If you live in Utah or anywhere near by... go.

On Saturday we slept in, and headed down to the pool again. After spending our morning laying in the sun we hit up Smash Burger for lunch, took dad to get his free father's day Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcake and went back to the hotel to nap.

And watch Never Say Never. ( I can't believe Megan had never seen it)

That night we went back to Tuchan and saw Grease. Now I didn't really have as high of expectations for this one, since the night before had been so amazing. But it was very very well done, and was a lot of fun!

Sunday Mom woke up early to take Dad to the airport. He had to speak for the first time in a singles ward as part of his new calling, and he thought we'd sleep in, drive back and make it home around dinner time. Little did he know we had a surprise up our sleeve.

At & 7:00 we were packed and ready to go. We made it home around 11:45, where we creeped up to the back door. Shock covered his face when he realized we'd lied to him. He, having called only 30 minutes before, believed us when we said we were hours away. It was nice to be able to surprise him, and be there to support him as he spoke in church.

The rest of the day was spent opening fathers day presents, napping, and enjoying a wonderful dinner at Aunt Debbie's.

It was the perfect weekend. Lots of laughs, good entertainment, delicious food, my favorite people, a nice tan and....

(My H&M goodies...)

What more could a girl ask for?

Thanks for making this happen Dad and Mom. It was so nice to be there with you all! I love you.