Happy Memorial Day!

I love Memorial Day..always have and always will. Usually, I'm still in school when the day comes around, and it is a much needed day off before exams. However, I really love it because it officially marks the beginning of summer. I absolutely adore the smell of bbq's, swimming all day, and just being outside on a warm, sunny afternoon. When I was younger, we would always go boating/tubing/jet-skiing on the lake with my whole family, which is a memory I'll always cherish, and probably has a lot to do with why I absolutely love Memorial Day. Anyway, I wasn't expecting much since none of my familia lives here, but it ended up being a wonderful day, filled with swimming, good food.. and even better friends :)

I woke up at 6 a.m. (I know, shocking), made myself a fried egg sandwich, watched a couple episodes of Law & Order (new obsession), went on a bike ride around the neighborhood with Beth, then we decided we wanted to do something American so we went and picked up hamburgers from Five Guys and watched A Walk to Remember (I mean, honestly, how much more American can you get??), then later I went and played 3 hours of water polo at Sam's with a bunch of people. It is a vicious game, that includes a lot of dunking, kneeing, scratching, biting (Taylor....) and jumping on top of each other, yet it is also the funnest game I've ever played. I'm already feeling the bruises surfacing, but it was so worth it. So yeah, overall, it was a fabulous day, and the best part is..no school for me tomorrow! Woo! I love summer!

the water polo players..minus 2. Sorry for the awful quality, it's taken from my phone :/

And since Memorial Day is a day to remember all the soldiers who have lost their lives serving our country, I just want to say I am so so soooo grateful for the military and what they sacrifice to keep us safe. I often forget that there are thousands of men and women who are risking their lives each and every day to protect us. I just wish I could thank all of them personally! If you feel like crying, watch the following video. I saw it on facebook today and bawled. Seriously..sooo touching!

Week of snaps

Prom 2011

With the middle school BFF on the last day of school

They may or may not have been out of small/medium cups at 711 that day......

Ahhh, good ole' yearbook signing

Classic.

And on a side note, I cannot wait for this to come out. Seriously.. I'm counting down the days. :)

Ramblings.

I'm obsessed with listening to this:

And looking up pictures and dreaming I had one of these:

And trying to take this advice to heart:

That is all. It's been an incredibly stressful week. I went prom dress shopping, had a relief society event (weird to say..) me and Vannah stayed up til 4 a.m. doing 40+ makeup assignments for seminary one night (I know, we're slackers), had to make a senior slideshow for an assembly, finished my online class (hallelujah!), went to the exchangettes banquet, got a mani/pedi with Taylor and Brooke (okay, so that wasn't stressful), but yeah..prom's tomorrow, and I still have mixed feelings about going, but overall I'm pretty excited! And then my last day of high school is Monday. I can't believe it. I swear I was just a freshman like last week. Time goes by SO fast! 

Exchangettes banquet

Upcoming events in the next two weeks: prom, last day of school, senior field day, grad rehearsal, family in town, GRADUATION, seminary graduation, parties galore..CAN'T WAIT! 

Shoutout to my mama

Unless I teach my mom how to blog stalk (one of my favorite hobbies), chances are she's never going to see this. I know I'm a little late, but with this past Sunday being Mother's Day and all, I feel like I should write 18 reasons why I love my mom. (18, because that's how many years she has been mothering me...okay, well the word "mothering" sounds extremely weird..but you catch my drift eh?)

-She's thoughtful and caring

-Sensitive to my needs and my occasional outrageous mood swings

-Practical

-Is always willing to play card games with me

-Organized

-Motivates me to be organized (*which sometimes works)

-Has an excellent taste for interior design

-"Classy, not trashy" is her motto

-Patient, oh so very, very patient

-Willing to drop everything to do something for me

-Is an excellent chef and baker

-Has a burning desire to travel the world

-Fearless

-Supportive of anything and everything I want to do

-Always puts family first

-Makes the very best cinnamon rolls and caramel corn on the face of the Earth

-Makes sure others are happy before worrying about herself (extremely selfless)

-Loves me unconditionally

On Mother's Day, we had brunch at Pat and Teresa's house, where we enjoyed sausage egg casserole, sticky buns, fruit and banana orange juice. A breakfast fit for champions. Afterward, we just hung out, and I enjoyed my time with my beautiful mom. It was wonderful to spend the day with my entire family. Days like those remind me of why I'm so excited to move out west..I can't wait to see my family more often and not miss out on special holiday traditions.

And because I'm a good sport, here's a picture of us with mom on her day. I know, I know..I look 9 months pregnant, am forcing out a fake smile, and my eyes are hardly open so I appear to be mentally ill. I know.

Stephen, Mom, Me, Rachel

Finally, two years later..

The summer before my junior year, me and my cousin Aubrey wrote a list of ten goals or things we wanted to happen during the upcoming year. We folded them, hid them and were supposed to open and read them the next July. Well, that following summer was busy and we completely forgot about it. Then we didn't remember at Thanksgiving, or Christmas...and we finally read them this past weekend. Let's just say..my list was rather embarrassing. What was I even thinking?!

Goals for Junior Year:

1. Have my first kiss

2. Study the scriptures more diligently & seek to have a closer relationship with Heavenly Father

3. Walk along the beach holding hands with a guy I actually like

4. Score a 30 or higher on the ACT

5. Sneak out of the house in the middle of the night

6. Go clubbing (*I wasn't even turning 18..clearly I'm an idiot)

7. Not procrastinate everything I do

8. Lose 20 pounds

9. Go camping on the beach with friends and no adults

10. Learn to love life and live it to the fullest

**Now obviously not everything on the list came true, but it was fun to see what my goals were two years ago, and how they've changed. I currently have an envelope in my nightstand that says "Open Christmas 2014." I wrote the letter inside a couple years ago, and I have no memory of what I wrote. I challenge whoever is reading this to take some time today and write a list of goals, seal that list inside an envelope and write directions for yourself on when to open it on the outside. It could be in 3 months, 1 year, 5 years, or even 30 years. It is so rewarding to see the personal growth you've achieved and reflect back on the desires you once had. You won't regret it..I promise.

Setting the bar high

Crap. Stephen graduated college..which now means my parents expect ME to graduate. Just kidding, I have every intention on graduating. Just the thought of four more years of school makes me cringe. However, I'm super thankful Stephen decided to be smart and graduate from the University of Utah this past weekend, which meant..vacation for me! Mitch Albom (author of Tuesdays with Morrie) spoke at the first commencement ceremony. He was inspiring, funny and I'm a big fan of his books, so it was easy to stay awake. However, by the time the second ceremony rolled around, this is how me and Rach felt..

Even though listening to a professor (whose voice creepily resembled the SNL announcer) announce every graduates name was rather boring, it was soooo worth the 8 hour flight to Utah to see Stevie get his diploma. I'm so proud of him! 

The Famila

Me and Stevie..wow, we really look nothing alike

After both ceremonies, we had a combined graduation party for the class of 2011 graduates. a.k.a..Stephen and I. It was a lot of fun, and almost all of our family was able to attend (even those who live in Idaho came down!) as well as most of Rachel's family. It's so fun to visit with all my aunts and uncles, as I hardly ever get to see them.

Cafe Rio + 3 different flavors of cupcakes + Family = Perfect night

I like it, I love it

On the last night of spring break, me, Kelsie, Lauren, Beth and Kellee went to the Tim McGraw concert at the amphitheater. To sum it up, he was incredible. The Band Perry and Luke Bryan opened up for him (who were both amazing), but Timmy boy took my breath away.  He really engaged with the crowd-I don't even think there was a time when he just stood on stage and sang a song straight through..he was constantly interacting with his fans. Also, he looked amazing, especially for being over 40 years old! So much so, that me and Lauren added him to our list of dilf's (dad's i'd liked to flirt with, geez pervert) ;)

Sorry for the blurriness. Ah, I just love him so much!

It was so much fun to spend the night with Kels and Lauren after they abandoned me for college this past year. Love, love, love that their home for the part of the summer!

Kels, me and Miss. Match

Best Friend.

The concert crew :)

Afterwards, we went to Checkers (tradition) where it took homeboy a good 30+ minutes to get us our food. So this is how we entertained ourselves while we waited:

I love Tim McGraw. I love my friends. I can't wait til summer so we can do this every night.

The end.

And they lived happily ever after..

I'm not one of those people that bought William and Kate commemorative plates or figurines of the happy couple, but I admit I was pretty stoked about the royal wedding. Lucky for me, their big day was on the Friday of spring break. Therefore, I was able to watch all the specials TLC played leading up to the exciting moment when a commoner would become a princess on live television! These included "Untold stories of a royal bridesmaid", coverage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' wedding, "The making of a royal wedding", and Lifetime's movie depicting Kate Middleton and Prince William's love story. It's really embarrassing thinking about it now, but the whole ordeal seemed to engulf my every thought. I was SO excited to witness an ordinary girl marry her prince and become royalty! This is every girls' dream since they are little, and it was so inspiring to see it actually happen!

Like I said, the wedding took place over spring break, so me and Kelby woke up at 6 a.m. to watch the footage in the comfort of our pull-out couch bed in the hotel room.

Needless to say, we were pretty excited!

Kate (or should I say Princess Catherine?!) looked STUNNING! Her dress was absolutely beautiful, elegant, classy and timeless. Her beauty was glowing and she truly looked like a princess. 

Comments made during the royal event:

"Oh my gosh! She is beautiful!!!! What an amazing dress!! Lindsey, are you watching?!?!!?!"- Kelby

"Prince Harry is so hot. When did he get so hot?"-Lindsey

"Ew, William is definitely going to be bald. Look at that receding hair line"- Lindsey

"Awww, this is so magical! I'm just so excited!"- Kelby

"Wow, Pippa is stealing the spotlight. Who made the decision that she should also wear white at her sister's wedding?- Lindsey

"Harry and Pippa should get married, look at the way he's gazing at her"- Kelby

"Are they seriously going to sing another song??? And who prays this much at a wedding?"- Both of us

"Harry is freaking attractive."- Lindsey

"David Beckham is also looking rather dashing"- Lindsey

"Harry is perfect. Harry is perfect. Harry is perfect. Chelsy Davy is fugly."- Lindsey

"Wake me up when they kiss"- Lindsey

Okay, so maybe not all of those were actually said out loud, but whatevs, you get the idea. One last picture to make your heart melt. Sighhhhhh...

Spring Break 2011

Spring break should always be a blast, include sunbathing and great friends and that's exactly what it was. Sam's mom got us a hotel suite on Sand Key beach, which is about 50 minutes south. It was exactly what I needed. School and life in general have been so stressful lately, so a mini vaca to the beach with some of my best friends was truly wonderful.

We also hung out at the amazingggg pool at the hotel

We went out to eat at the Palm Pavilion on Wednesday night and the famous French's Rockaway Grille on Thursday, both located beachside on Clearwater beach. Afterward, we went over to pier 60 to browse all the little treasures each vendor has for sale. Later, we got ice cream at this little Italian shop right next to our hotel..white chocolate raspberry gelato...Mmmm..

 

Overall, it was a wonderful few days and I am so grateful to have amazing friends that are so fun to be around. 

Coming up: Tim McGraw concert and the royal wedding (I know, you can't contain your excitement)

What's a blog?

I have officially started a blog, and let me tell you..I am SO excited about it. I made it a long time ago, and have been waiting patiently to start publishing posts on it. I wanted to wait until graduation, because I feel like it's weird to have one in high school. However, the more I have been thinking about it, I realized it doesn't matter..this blog is mine and I can do whatever I want with it and whenever I want. (Besides, I'll be done with high school in a month! Woohoo!) Anyway, I have always been horrible at keeping journals. I probably have 10 or 11 "started" or "half written" journals in my nightstand, but I've never actually finished a journal cover to cover. It's been one of my goals since I was little, and trust me, I've tried everything. I've started one on January 1st, the beginning of the school year, the start of Summer vacation, etc. and NOTHING works. I've come to the realization that I'm just not a very consistent person..and I'm just not okay with that. Therefore, this is one of my desperate attempts to record the happenings of my life. If you know me well, you know that I am a blog stalker. Yes, I am shamefully admitting that to the cyber world. I can't even pinpoint what it is about blogs that I love. Everyone has a different perspective of how to display their blog. Some people post a plethora of pictures each time and hardly any writing, others pour out their thoughts and feelings in text, some write inspirational stories and quotes. A blog is personal, yet available to everyone and anyone who desires to read it. So as of now, I don't know what my blog is going to be about..so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what lies ahead.