22

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday. No, I am not going to be one of those young people that say they feel so old, and older people respond with, "you feel old, look at me." I don't feel old at all. In fact this week, I've felt like more of a little girl than most. The only thing weird about being 22 is saying it. I'm 22. Weird.

 

My roommate Jessica and honorary roommate Dani took me out to eat at The Pastry Pub.

I have noticed that it is popular to put lists in blogs, so I have decided to write a list. It will be called 22 things I am grateful for. This list isn't in any particular order, it just contains some things I have been thinking about lately.

1. My Savior's love and the many ways I feel it around me
2. My mom and dad because they provide me with such good examples of testimony and love and strength
3. Gabe and Sidney because they are so sweet and love me so much even though I'm just an annoying older sister sometimes
4. Dwight, who is a good big brother to me and who I look up to when it comes to dealing with difficulties in life. He's always happy, and I don't know how he does it.
5. Cousins who send me thoughtful texts and e-mails containing words of encouragement and love
6. Aunts who tell me nice things that make me feel good about myself
7. Kind roommates who take care of me and made sure I had a fun birthday despite difficult circumstances
8. Church leaders such as my old bishop, President Adams
9. Priesthood blessings to provide me with the extra comfort that I can't get on my own sometimes
10. The scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I won't ever stop reading it because it's what keeps me close to the spirit even when I am confused or scared
11. School. It's been a busy four years, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to get an education and in May, I will have my Bachelor's degree
12. Living away from home because this experience has taught me so much. I have learned to love and appreciate my family more, and I have realized that I will never fully understand the level of sacrifice my parents have made for me to be able to reach my goals in life
13. Talking to friends who understand and let me vent and cry, because we girls just have to do that sometimes
14. Certain material things that I will try to never take advantage of again, such as a computer, a car, a good job...
15. My student Anastassia, because she is so cute and thoughtful. She got me purple slippers for my birthday because purple is my favorite color and I had mentioned in one of our random conversations once that I loved slippers, but didn't have any
16. Having the opportunity to work with my teacher Dr. Gliadkovsky. He is amazing and I am so lucky
17. Prayer. I have said many prayers, and they help me calm down, sleep, and realize that everything is okay when I tell Heavenly Father how I am doing
18. Thinking because I am gradually learning that my good thoughts come from the spirit
19. Phone conversations with my family because living here, that's all I get sometimes and it keeps me close to them
20. Words of inspiration from prophets and apostles because they give me faith in the future
21. The gospel in my life, because I honestly don't know how people live without it and I hope I can be braver in sharing it with others.
22. Someone who has been and still is very special to me and taught me a lot of things I needed to learn about life and myself and will always have a special place in my heart

Kevin

I've decided to blog about my little bird, Kevin. If you've seen Up, you'll know that is why I named him Kevin. I thought it was a fitting name because when I first got him, he was a baby and I didn't know if he would be a boy or a girl because the little band above his beak where his nose is hadn't changed colors yet. It's a yellowish color until they get a little older and then it turns blue if it's a boy and pink if it's a girl. How fitting is that? Well, he is for sure a boy, so Kevin is a good name for him, but if he had been a girl, it would have still been funny. "Kevin's a girl?!" Here are some pictures of the little guy. 

This is him in his cage. He was about to take off out the door.

Here he is after he took off out the door. He flew to the top of the kitchen cabinets. He likes to get some flying time in every day.

Close-up. He's a cute little guy:)

Concerts!

The past week I got to go to two (non-classical) concerts! The first one was Mae, Allred, and Terrible things. I wish I had gotten some good pics at that one, but unfortunately missed my opportunity and only got some not so good video footage. But it was a very fun concert and I had a good time.

The second concert was last night with my roommate Jessica. Bryan Adams on his Bare Bones tour. We had fourth row seats! They were great. Before the concert, we gorged ourselves at In n' Out, another favorite food stop in St. George. Fortunately I got some pics last night.

It was hard getting a picture because security were getting mad at people taking pics. But I sneaked one anyway.

Trip To Reno August 2010

This past August, I got to go home to Reno. I went home to pick up a car, which has been a huge luxury since I have been without one the past two years I have been as SUU. My mom finally was able to talk my dad into letting me have the little commuter car. Jk, Dad. Well, kind-of jk :) So Anyway, I had to go home to get it and spent 5 days there.

Such a pretty lake.

Don't know what Gabe is doing here.

The moms, or Aunt Jill and Aunt Robin.

Sidney and Shelby playin' in the water and some lady.

The boys on a rock. Dwight is the blonde Native American.

The cousins

We also hiked to the top of Mt. Rose, which has an awesome view of Tahoe and tons of other lakes.

Awww, so cute.

Gabe was pretty tired by the end, I so wasn't.

View from the Top

It has been quite a while since I've updated this thing,. My roommates Jessica S. and Jessica D. took a little trip to the Grand Canyon over the 4th of July weekend. We had a great time! We drove down there on a Saturday, stopped at a cute little restaurant at David Lake for lunch, made a couple other stops for various reasons, hem hem, and our last stop was our first look at the Grand Canyon. Oh, along the way we drove through Zion National Park. When we were at the booth to buy a pass to get through, the lady seemed personally offended that we weren't staying in Zion's. She kept telling us, "There's a lot to see here, you don't have to go there,"... and "Zion's is beautiful right now." Things of that kind. And I'm pretty sure she sighed as we continued on our way. She was right though, Zion's was very beautiful as we drove through. And it's always fun to drive through the super long tunnels. 

These are some of the pics I took on the way. Zion's, the very long tunnel, and of course a driving pic! (Don't worry, we were stopped right then so it was okay that Jessica wasn't looking.) The drive was pretty long, but the scenery changed a lot so it was always interesting. The temperature changed quite a bit too. We would 

go up in elevation and it would get nice and cool. Some of the drive was even foresty, which I didn't even know existed in Arizona. When I think of Arizona, I think of blistering hot massive expanse of dry and dreary desert. Not so. It has some lovely, cool, forest areas, such as David Lake. As we approached the  South Rim of the G.C., it began again to become forest. The drive was pretty much desert, forest, desert, forest,... you get the point. Here is a picture of the Jessicas. Pictures don't even do that place justice, let me tell you. It was absolutely amazing. We decided that from now on, whenever people talk about cool places they've been, we will be the obnoxious travelers who are like, "Well, it's no Grand Canyon, but it's okay.'' Of course we were only joking, but seriously, it was astounding how huge and beautiful it was. There were people from all over the world there. I recognized Russian a few times, there were Asians, Europeans, probably some Canadians, but they tend to blend in pretty well. And it's not wonder they all want to see it. I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. But I am glad that I waited until I was old enough to really appreciate it's magnitude.

Pretty awesome, yeah?? But like I said, pictures just can't do it justice.

"And here we have the Grand Canyon, known for it's visually overwhelming size and colorful landscape."

I will post more pictures soon!