Mountains to Lakes

On Tuesday night Adam and I went on a adventure of a sort to take pictures of the stars. After driving an hour and half to get to clear skies, we arrived in a bank of fog. Yeah. We still shot some pics and I got startled by what turned out to be noisy and curious white tailed deer. Not the yeti I had envisioned, darn it. haha So we went down the road and found this spot to shoot from.
It was slightly hazy still, and the moon was out so the stars weren't really visible but we still shot away and got some pretty coolish pictures anyway.
Today we met at Donely Park in Turlock, after work, to feed the ducks and geese and boy did Jake enjoy that! His throw with saltine cracker was somewhat short but the people-friendly birds seemed to do alright.
The crackers in the water did more than just attract birds... fish! This is a shot I got of a fish trying to get the cracker from out of a Mallards beak. Either that or I stumbled on a private moment... awkward. haha
We had a good time playing around the lake and then the others went to the playground for a bit so it turned out well. I went to visit less-actives and was successful (YES!!) while the ABSs packed up and left for Riverside. In fact they should be somewhere around Bakersfield right now... Anyhoo, the next family on the list is the Haymonds in 3 weeks! Woot!

My Family

Its all about family. Adam and Liz have been staying with us since Friday night and its been a lot of fun. We visited Grandma and Grandpa yesterday and got to spend some time with them. Today a high councilor gave a talk about families and their importance. I feel overwhelmed by how awesome my family is. We're not perfect, and we have a dysfunctional way of showing love and concern but we all love each other and love spending time together. We all live the gospel, and my brothers and sisters are raising their children in the gospel. I don't deserve a family as amazing as mine. I certainly don't deserve a rich heritage of faithful members giving their all to the church in spite of what life throws at them. I can't wait for the day when I will get to be in the temple with all my brothers and sisters and see what Heaven is like. I love my Family :)

Cali isn't so bad in the spring

On Friday, Monique and I went on a really fun and adventurous date to Black Diamond Mines. We Arrived a little before 4 and explored around the main facility before blazing trails and running down crazy embankments. After finally making it to an actual trail, we ran into a large entourage that were "taking pictures for a catalog." Yeah right! They were shooting film, and we KNEW they were lying.... all lies!! From there we headed up the mountain with the goal of making it to prospect tunnel some 2 miles away. Yeah... we instead decided that we didn't want to hike all that way with our limited amount of time...

... so we decided to hop a barb wired fence and had a lovely picnic here! I totally spaced on taking a picture of the remarkable view from there but trust me, it was pretty phenomenal.
After a yummy lunch with egg-shaped sugar cookies we decided to head back down the mountain and check out the cemetery. Before we left we stopped and snapped a couple of shots of the beautiful view from the top.
As we got near the cattle gate, Bessy the cow decided that she didn't care for us much. She (a fatty fatty cow) first climbed up onto the road we were walking on and stared us down. When that didn't stop our advance she retreated to higher ground and proceeded to give us the most evil cow-eye I have ever seen. Evil cow!
We survived that encounter and made it to the cemetery. We noticed the "catalog shoot" (liars) had moved locations and we attributed that to them realizing that we were onto them... The cemetery was pretty cool but also sad because the majority of the people buried there were just kids... Came across a "Davies" there and I have been meaning to ask Emily if she is distantly related or something. From there we hustled back down to the parking lot and sped towards the exit. I kid you not, the park ranger came and locked the main gate about 30 seconds after we made it out. That was CLOSE. haha We headed back to esaclon and watched "New in Town" and spent the rest of the evening talking to each other with a Minnesotan accent. Not gonna lie, it was hilarious at the moment. haha Made it back to the house about 10 minutes before Adam and Liz arrived, and then crashed after a very fun, adventurous, eventful, awesome day. :)

Manresa Beach... was awesome!

For our regional YSA activity the Merced ward organized a beach trip. In winter. Yeah. On Friday the weather was bleak, gray, and very wet. However come Saturday morning, the weather was GORGEOUS. Got to Manresa about 12:30 and there were about 15 of us there in total. Turns out that the beach was really warm- warmer than the valley was that day. So unfortunately for everyone else on the beach, I felt like going for a run up and down the beach. Felt SO good. When I got back from my exercise, there was about 40 of us there so we started to play games. Made some new friends- Monique and Chantal, (pictured above- i already knew scott) and had a blast playing catch with a football.

Lunch was pretty decent, and you could not have asked for a more beautiful day. I went on several more walks accompanied by friends and I just had an all-around good day. :) The sunset was spectacular and its a good thing that I listened to Monique about getting my camera because I woulda regretted that BIG time. My car was packed to the brim with two additional persons and off we went. Made it home by about 9:30, stuffed my face with food, and then hit the hay. Good times!

Ps. I am no longer pasty white!!

My Passion

Since creating this blog, I have found that I feel a greater desire to share thoughts and feelings that normally I might just keep to myself. I guess its a good thing to see my thoughts written out because its like I am learning more about me.

Music is such a powerful thing to me. I know some individuals that music is practically meaningless to them and I just can’t relate to them in that sense. Take a powerful conference talk, put it to some beautiful music, and the message seems to grow in intensity. Take a miserable day and go for a drive or a walk listening to a favorite song and the world’s problems seem to melt away. Take a boy who is excited for the future and give him a moving and passionate score to listen to and his feelings become all the greater. Music is such an integral part of me- I just wish I could create the kind of music that inspires and uplifts others.

I have often mused what it would be like to have a soundtrack to life- every mood or situation would be mirrored by a brilliant score. As I write this, I am listening to a soundtrack that is a personal favorite and I feel motivated to go do something amazing. Its truly remarkable how it can affect me, and often does affect me. I am passionate about music, and life.

The Future Looks Bright

Tonight I met with Brother and Sister Rawe to discuss potential careers that I might pursue and find something that I might be good at. We did not arrive at one profession that was "perfect" but I came away with a renewed perspective on life and a "can do" attitude. I feel like I literally can do anything! I finally have the right perspective- I just need to have faith that I will be led to make the right choices for me and for my future family. The gospel is so amazing and its such a wonderful feeling to feel that overwhelming sense of gratitude that just permeates your entire being. I love life. It keeps getting better and better all the time, and I can't even fathom what awesome experiences Rexburg might hold in store for me!

Stress, Fun, and Sun

My weekend started off on a less than ideal note with the car trying to die on me. I spent pretty much the entire afternoon trying to take apart the Pontiac to replace the valve cover gasket which appeared to be leaking. No luck. Not only did I not succeed but I noticed an orange, oily/watery substance in the resonator which led me to believe that perhaps the head gasket was blown. Yipee. I put the car back together and to my much dismay, it ran really rough, and died often. Yipee. So I called Bobby's (the mechanic) and he told me to bring it in Saturday morning. Brought it in, and he pointed out right away that a vacuum hose to the air intake manifold was broken so it wasn't giving the correct amount of vacuum. Sure enough, the car runs really smooth and the repair was only $100 instead of $1000 for a head gasket.

The car even was fixed fast enough for me to run down to Merced (late, of course) to go on an trip with my friend, Joy. AKA "felicity" to some of the fam. haha Our ultimate goal was Yosemite via the 140 but we took a more meandering route that took us to some really pretty places and some awesome vistas. We eventually made it back to the 140 and I must say that I really enjoyed the drive. It was really pretty and followed the Merced river for a ways. The 120 is pretty lame in comparison. Sigh. We went ice skating in curry village for a while (didn't fall ONCE), saw some mormons (a 14 year old wearing a BYU shirt...i asked him haha) and then drove around the park for a bit. We hiked around exploring random places until it started to get dark. At this point we decided to have an impromptu snowball fight that lasted over an hour. When I say "impromtu", I mean she threw a snowball at my face. haha I won. lol Started to drive back to Merced, stopped in Mariposa for some pizza, and then headed back.

Cameron and I had a good conversation on the phone on my drive back to Mo-town (used a headset, so don't worry) and I must say that I am getting REALLY excited to go to school next month! We shot the breeze for a while, caught up on each other's lives a bit, and talked about the near future. Im stoked!!

Woke up this morning to a cloudless sky and the sunlight streaming through my window. Not too shabby. I am looking forward to today seeing how it is Fast Sunday and for an added bonus there is a CES fireside tonight. So the weekend began on a less than ideal note but seems to be getting better and better as it goes. Tomorrow is career counseling with the Rawes (Bob and Kathleen) Im optimistic about what the future holds for me, and it certainly helps my optimism to have a freshly dry-cleaned suit for today! haha Now if you will excuse me, I do believe that I will go and listen to some Mo-tab and pretend like im the conductor. Gotta love it!

Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light , not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of god. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make and manifest the glory of god that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson