I am 20!

woot woot its true... im getting... OLD gasp! Except not really, I feel just as young as ever :) My birthday this year was pretty awesome. I got to go to lunch and shopping with my mom and Kris, and then since my Dad and brothers were at scout camp, I went with Ki up to his old mission companion Chase's cabin for a double birthday party over Friday and Saturday (since it was Chase's birthday too) We all went four wheeling, played games, tried to sleep amidst Chase's dads chainsaw snoring, and then the next morning we went shooting! I am getting better at this shooting guns thing :P Maybe one day I'll hit the bottles that I am aiming at :D I wish I had been on the ball and gotten pics from the weekend but... I was majorly slacking and didn't even get one!

opening presents with mom and kris :)
Ki leaves for summer sales on Friday :( so now I have mr. snuggles

Then last night the whole fam, went to China Lily to celebrate mine and Andrew's birthdays :) It was a lovely birthday. Thanks to everyone for the facebook messages, texts, phone calls etc. Wishing me happy birthday! I have the best friends and family a girl could ask for! :)

St. George/ Zions :)

So I am finally updating about my family's spring break :) i've been dragging my feet on this whole blogging thing lately... not quite sure why lol. But I figured that the least i could do is upload some of the pics.

Because of my finals I couldn't drive down with my family on Thursday, so Ki was kind enough to be my sidekick for the weekend so I wouldn't kill myself driving down on Friday night. (I am pretty sure I would've been just fine, but it was a good excuse to request his company on the trip and it put my parents minds at ease lol) We drove down to Cedar City, and stayed the night with his family, and then met my family in Zions for some hiking on Saturday. It was pretty much the most perfect day for hiking ever! not too hot, just pleasant and sunny. I absolutely loved it.

the great outdoors :)
takin a break... well.. actually more like waiting for the parentals to catch up ;)
hiking with my family is more fun then just hiking. if you find a 20 foot arch you dont just look at it, you find a way to climb up it. Do you see what i've had to grow up with? Being the one thats afraid of heights has its down sides in these certain situations, but i almost NEVER let my little brothers and sisters show me up. i just suck it up and do whatever they are doing lol.
the fam on top of the arch.
the kids
canyoneering :)
on the way back down

Then after a long day of hiking, we head back to the hotel to do some "relaxing" in the hot tub and pool. But someone had the bright idea to have chicken wars in the pool :P which were a blast... when I wasn't busy practically drowning, but they were pretty much the opposite of relaxing :D Lets face it unless you were on Ki's team you were doomed to lose. And with competitive little andrew on my shoulders It was all I could do to keep my head above water :P Even when we would both go down in the water he refused to get off my shoulders until I struggled to stand and push him back up with my neck... I pretty much couldn't move my head the next day haha... poor little neck. But it was a blast just the same.

the beginning with a smile still on my face
towards the end... barely staying afloat :P

After spending time with my family we headed back to Cedar City to spend Sunday with Ki's family and cheer on the Jazz. The whole trip was a lot of fun, and I dont regret not studying the whole weekend... not even a little bit.

*Note to Self*

Never. never. NEVER again, save the hardest and most important final for last.

And to those of you who read my blog, I'll update about St. George soon :) Just as soon as I find the motivation to force myself to study for this last final! Its almost over! wahoo!

I'm sick of studying... so i'll blog!

Hello! So classes are officially over for 4 months woo hoo!!! The only thing still between me and my freedom is finals. Which will be over before I know it. And as this semester comes to a close. I find myself saying things to myself such as, "next semester I really ought to put more effort into that class" or "next semester i wont procrastinate studying for tests" or "next semester I will go to class EVERY day" yada yada yada. well I guess I can hope that one of these coming semesters in my education that I will do just as well as I intend to and be the "on top of it A" student that is hiding somewhere deep down inside of me.

As for my life next semester, I will be going to England! it is finally confirmed now that cougarette tryouts have passed and I have once again found myself lingering in the tryouts until the last round and then getting cut... sigh.. haha. But I did my best so I feel good about the outcome :) It was an insanely competitive audition this year. Probably the toughest yet. 77 girls fighting for the 3 open spots on the team! It was really a fun audition though :) congrats to my long-time friend Caitlyn Southwick who I danced with from the time we were little 6th graders - t0 12th grade for making the team! She is a beautiful dancer with flawless technique and I am SO excited that she made the team :) As for me... maybe next year? ;) haha or maybe i'll just take the past 3 years of auditions as a sign that maybe Cougarettes isn't for me lol. But what the heck.. no hurt comes from giving it a try anyways!

me and Caitlin on the Carousel in Central Park in 2006 after competing in NYCDA nationals

the one thing I did realize after Cougarette auditions however was.... just how MUCH I really am out of shape! I couldn't even walk the day after tryouts lol. And I think my knees were even more bruised then they were last year after auditions :) So, since I now fully realize how out of shape I've let myself get, I have recruited Ki as my personal trainer to get me back in shape. He took me to the gym on Monday and said he would "take it easy" on me since i was still sore from cougarette tryouts (yeah right, I can't believe i fell for that one) haha cause if I couldn't walk Sunday I REALLY couldn't walk yesterday! But sore is good :) even if it does make me whine a bit.
Monday after we worked out, we got to go to the Jazz game! It was a lot of fun :) I still think that I must be a good luck charm for the Jazz, because every time I go they end up winning. The only downside to the game were the guys sitting on my right. While they were pretty entertaining in a lot of the things they said throughout the game, they were a bit tipsy and each had a few too many beers to drink. In fact the guy sitting immediately to my right became so tipsy that he dropped his beer on the ground right next to my feet! It was so gross, and it got all over my shoes. So you can imagine my relief when he stood up to leave the arena for what i hoped would be a search for some paper towels to mop up the foul smelling liquid that was all over the ground in front of me. But it turns out that while I had hoped he was going to track down a mop, he really had just gone to buy yet ANOTHER beer. As if spilling beer all over my shoes wasn't enough as he went to sit down with his newly purchased beer he sloshed a good portion of his new beer all over my lap! Lol I just looked to my left at Ki and made my "wo is me frowny face" to which Ki and all the people to his left responded by just laughing and laughing (I suppose I probably would've found the situation highly amusing too if it wasn't ME getting spilled on all over the place haha)
Even though we had such good company in our regular seats (mild sarcasm) Kiley and I tried to move to what we thought were empty seats down in the lower bowl during half time. Haha turns out they weren't empty though so we ended up playing musical chairs like 7 times before the Usher spotted us and kicked us back up to our regular seats next to the.. not so graceful, loud drunks we had been sitting next to during the first half of the game... aw well. it was worth a try :D

Me and Ki in our matching Jazz Fan attire

Then we went on a walk to temple square to avoid getting stuck in the post jazz game traffic. Our photographer for this picture was awesome haha. He laid on the ground just to be able to get this shot. It was pretty awesome.

It was a beautiful spring night.... no signs of any snowstorms in sight. I can't wait to escape to St. George this weekend with my family for their Spring Break! (yes yes, I know... I am going on vacation in the middle of finals haha. sounds like me yes?) But the warm weather will be glorious! I cant wait to escape the snow!

so...

I hadn't had any vaccinations up until today since i was 4 yrs old! So when I had to go get my physical (leave it to me to find out at the VERY last minute that they are requiring physicals in order to audition for cougarettes this year...) today, that meant I had to get 4 shots AND my blood drawn! Not to mention i have to go back next week to get more. Yuck. lol I was proud i didn't cry.... and then Ki pointed out that it probably would've been pretty sad if a 19 yr old cried because they had to get shots :D nah. they weren't too bad. but my arms are kinda sore haha hopefully they are functional tomorrow.

Also, I am EXHAUSTED I dont sleep enough these days. But most of all I am so so nervous for tomorrow! Which is stupid... because really it doesn't matter whether or not I make cougarettes or not. cause if i dont make it, then i dont have to choose between dancing and study abroad. But on the other hand... its kinda been a life-long dream to be on that team/ I kinda just want to finally succeed after trying out so many times lol. I hate failing. who doesn't!? But i realize its necessary, and not everyone can make the team, and maybe its just not something i am supposed to do yada yada yada. Sorry if this post doesn't make any sense, mostly i am trying to make sense of my thoughts. But earlier when I was freaking out about tryouts (remember how my confidence is pretty much shattered after last year?..) well anyways I opened my bible and this is the scripture I came across :) St John 14:27 - "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Wow. call me crazy, and emotional, and roll your eyes at my cheesiness all you want.. but after reading that i KNEW that it was exactly what I needed to read at that moment! A tender mercy, and I seriously just burst out crying because it is amazing that moments like that happen just when you need them the most. So now even though just thinking about auditioning again tomorrow makes me want to puke, I feel a certain level of peace. That no matter what happens its going to be OK. I tend to over analyze, over think, and over stress about things that aren't important in life. But I am determined that no matter what the outcome of tomorrows audition that I will be happy with myself and how i did. NO MATTER WHAT I will not beat myself up and tear away at my self-esteem like I did last year. Because even though I used to think dance defined me and who I was, now I realize that although dancing is something I love, its not what makes me important as a person. Its not WHO i am, but something I do. I think for most of high school being on Sr. Company at the studio, and on the high school dance team was a lot of what I thought was ME. That was why I mattered, because I mattered to the team, because I was good at what I did. I am glad that I danced as much as I did all growing up. Dance has ALWAYS been my passion in life, and been one of the things that has always brought me the most joy. But I am glad that I can finally see that just because I didn't make the team last year, or the year before doesn't mean I am not important. That there is more to me then just being good at dance and being on a competing team and excelling in that part of my life.

SO.. with that said. Even though I am nervous, I am going to try and look at tomorrow not as an audition, but as an opportunity to take an AMAZING class from amazing teachers. To have fun doing what I love to do. Not a dreaded audition in front of judges who are picking apart all of my flaws and comparing me to the rest of the dancers that go to the audition. Because I finally realize that nobody's opinion of me matters as much as my opinion of me, and my heavenly fathers opinion of me, and the opinions of the people I love. Welp. Now that I am done being all serious and such I really ought to get to bed :P tomorrow is a big day thats going to start early!

oh yeah! hello!!!! April Fools Day :)

So I forgot all about april fools. And wow. Well lets just say, Holly and Chels got me GOOD this year! First of all, I got home late/early in the morning on April Fools and when I went to start brushing my teeth all of a sudden I started gagging :P lol they had put salt all over and inside my toothbrush bristles! It was so gross. Salt and toothpaste aren't a good combination together! Then I went to get inside my bed after I finally got my teeth brushed and my mouth unsalted and my sheets were put the wrong way! so that my sheets were tucked in at the top of the bed, then my blankets were under the sheet, tucked in at the bottom of the bed. Now normally this wouldn't be too hard to fix but since Chels was asleep and I couldn't really turn on the light to see what was going on I was quite confused and it took me forever to figure out what was wrong with my bed.
THEN since my first class that day had been canceled I was still asleep when Chels and Holly left for school. So when I woke up at 11:30 instead of 10:30 like i had wanted to i was really confused! Cause I could've sworn I had set my alarm for the right time! But nope. Chels and Holly had changed all the clocks in the house to be an hour ahead! They even managed to change my cell phone clock while i was asleep facing towards them! (luckily for them I am a deep sleeper) For atleast 3 hrs I was all sorts of confused, going to classes at the wrong times, wondering how in the world I woke up so late, and then finally it clicked when I went over to Ki's house to use his printer (since ours was out of ink) and his clock said 1:30 when i thought it was 2:30. lol good one guys! i'll have to get you back next year. you better watch your backs! Anyways that was Aprils Fools day in a nutshell. The day I missed 2 classes, because of the mass confusion they caused me. (haha as if i dont miss class enough as it is!)

so much going on and so little time to blog about it....

but this post is my attempt to inform my curious readers of my life lately. Last week, or was it two weeks ago.... hm. well either way awhile back I had my very first experience ever shooting a gun! Ki and Luke got new guns so we all went to a shooting range to shoot them. It was fun :) surprisingly... haha I haven't ever been a huge fan for guns because the loud explosive noise scares me every time lol. I blame my dad for passing me his super jumpy genes. I only shot the gun 3 times, but I hit my target paper every single time! I was quite proud. So i took a pic to prove to my future posterity that I really did hit the target :)
Then my cousin Lisa came to town, so all the girl cousins got together for a girls night out! It was a blast. So fun to be all together again! It isn't very often that all 5 of us are able to be together all at once since Amy and Lisa have lived in far away states/countries for our entire lives haha. The night of course started out with dinner, because we were all starving! Well I was at least, but I find that I eat more then the average human being... ask anyone i've ever lived with haha. It was delicious. then we tried to go hot tubbing again. It wasn't very successful because we had only been in the hot tub for a couple minutes after taking a good 10 to climb the fence, when we got kicked out :( so... we improvised. And tried to cram ourselves all into my bathtub lol. It made for a lot of good laughs. Then we just watched a movie... kinda lol. More like I watched the movie by myself after everyone else fell asleep. Then they all came to church with me the next day :) they were a big hit! haha and many of the boys in my ward were disappointed to find out that half of them were still in highschool. But probably the most monumental thing that occured that Sunday was..... I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting! For the first time since I was like 13 or something. I hate public speaking, but if there is one thing i hate more then public speaking, it speaking AND crying in public haha. But I just felt like I should so I did. It was probably long past due since I dont have anymore girls camp testimony meetings to take advantage of.

The fabulous 5 (aka: the 5 oldest grandchildren, best friends for life)
Left to Right: Lisa, Amy, me, Kris, and Lauren

kris, lisa, and lauren at pizza factory. so many good inside jokes were formed! :D

me and amy at pizza factory :)

our make shift hot tub

haha another awesome self timer pic. lol you can see all the way to the back of their throats they were laughing so hard :P

I am trying to think If i forgot to mention anything else blog worthy that I did... just lots of school, and lots of playing :) Hopefully I make it through this next week. I am really nervous for my anatomy lab final and for my last, longest speech for public speaking. But what I am nervous for most of all, is that on saturday I will be trying out for cougarettes... AGAIN. yes again. Maybe 3rd time is a charm, and if not well whatev cause I'll just go on my study abroad :) I decided to try out again this year really last minute. really really last minute. Like i'm not even in good enough shape to be trying out, but we'll see how it goes! It seems I'm just not quite ready to give up trying yet.