my wildflowers

I'm just so blessed to be friends with the type of people who are sitting around hanging out on a rainy evening and then say, "Let's go pick wildflowers up in the mountains." Ummm, yes. always yes to picking wildflowers in the rain. And not only did the wet, flowered mountains smell amazing, the hanging clouds and the gorgeous light were a picture taking dream. (first and fourth shot by me, second and third shot by Austin Terry)

You can try and tell me you don't think this looks cool, but I wouldn't believe you.

I'd say I want to spend every day for the rest of my life romping through fields of wildflowers, but then I'm afraid it would take some of the magic out of it.

What is this a Lord of the Rings set or something?? Geez the clouds shouldn't be allowed to look this good.

Thank you mountains for bringing me such endless joy this summer as I've been trying to gain a little perspective on life and figure things out for myself.Whenever I need to feel a little rejuvenated, I am so grateful to be surrounded by such beauty. As easy as my summer has seemed (and yeah I'll admit I can't complain too much), that doesn't mean everything in every aspect of my life has been going perfectly, and sometimes breathing the air in the mountains is just a little easier than anywhere else. 

peace. love. and wildflowers.

my positive energy

I've talked before on my blog about positive and negative energies, how I think that they effect us, and how I believe that we control how much positive and negative energy we allow into our lives. But, something that I have been coming to accept recently, ok always/my entire life, is that I can't control everything, and I really wish I could. I am very controlling, and if I could control every minute detail of my life, I would be so down with that. But, I can't. I can't control what the people around me do, or how they feel about me, or what choices they make. I can't control everything that happens throughout my day, and I can't always control when things don't go the way that I want them to. This is something that is sometimes HARD for me to accept. So pretty much what I am saying is that no matter what I do there is going to be negative energy in my life, and I can't stop that from happening as much as I want to sometimes. What I do always have control over is the positive energy in my life.

I'm kind of caught in a weird position right now where I have no idea where my life is headed. As one of my friends described it, my life is one huge question mark right now. I don't know when or where I am going to find a job, and let's be honest I don't even really know how to find the right job or how I want to be spending the next few years of my life (and yes, as a controlling person, this is driving me crazy). So even though right now I can't control the negative energy in my life, I can control the positive energy, and my goal recently has been to infuse my life with as much positive energy as possible. This has led me to make trips to the temple, go on hiking excursions, find a yoga studio, bake lots of yummy treats (dear roommates, I'm sorry that I'm trying fatten you up), and lots of other things that just make me mentally, physically, spiritually healthy and happy.

Below are a few pics from some adventures I have taken to Antelope Island and up Provo Canyon...

My life recently has been all about finding balance. I know that I am never going to have everything figured out. I accepted a long time ago that that is a complete myth and nobody has their life figured out no matter how much it seems like anyone has their shiz together. But, even if everything is confusing, and I have no idea what I am doing, at least I'm trying my best to fill my life with positive energy so that maybe I can be a positive energy in other people's lives too.

peace. love. and energy

my saturday shoot

Last Saturday Chelsea and I were sitting on her bed, completely ignoring our homework, and feeling super bored. Since it was so perfect outside, we decided to go for a little mini adventure and go exploring up the canyon. We drove up a little ways, parked the car, and started wandering. But, let's be honest, it mostly turned into a photo shoot. I've been really wanting to start playing with my new camera, and I have so so so much to learn, but I figure the more I mess with it the better I'll get. Right? Or some kind soul could just teach me (yeah? anyone?).

I love when candid shots actually turn out.

Snow capped mountains against blue skies are quite possibly one of my absolute favorite things in the world. I am in love every time I see them, which luckily is quite often when you live in Utah.

Oh hello. My roommate is perfect. Get at her boyz.

Can't stop the sass.

Chilly air and sunshine. This was a good day. A real good day. Even if I didn't get as much done as I needed I survived the week, so I guess that's what really counts.

peace. love. and a tad bit of spontaneity.

my fresh air

It's no secret that I actually like the winter and snow, and I'm almost a little disappointed that it's kind of already over here in Utah. But watch, now it will snow again, and I'll be mad about it or something cause it's also no secret that I'm insane. Oh well. One of the glorious things about it warming up again is that I can once again participate in outdoor activities. Oh boy! This last weekend I went on an adventure up around Upper Falls (above Bridal Veil Falls for anyone familiar with the area). It was a bit icy, but it was still a great hike, and it was incredible to be outside and exploring new things again. Luckily my friend Austin Terry not only takes me on great adventures, but also takes lovely pictures of adventures and was kind enough to share them with me so I could share them on my blog.

Clearly this takes me much more concentration than most.

Shout out to Ben for making sure that I never slipped and died with all the ice and rocks that really brought out my clumsy side. But, let's be honest, I don't think I have a non-clumsy side.

Glad to have great friends, great adventures, and great places to go exploring. 

I guess if warm weather means more adventures like these, I might not be that mad about it. I might even be excited about it. Okay. You caught me; I am excited about it. (Seriously I just jinxed us all. Now it's going to get freezing again. I'm sorry!!)

peace. love. and hikes.

my Utah appreciation post

When I first moved out to Utah, I was excited to be at BYU, but not so excited about living in the midwest. It's dry, there are way fewer trees, and it gets real real cold in the Winter. But, Utah has proven itself to have a lot of positives, and I would even say that I have to come to love living in Utah (but Georgia will always be my home of course). This weekend Utah provided me with some great outdoor adventures.

Adventure number one was a hike up to Stewart Falls

It was a great little hike, with a good friend, to see a lovely view.

 I look real awkward in this picture and my eyes are closed, but this is the crew I went on adventure number two with.

People keep asking where I went for adventure number two...and I actually don't even know where I was. We drove way up the mountains, did a little bit of off roading, and then found a rive and started hiking up. We were walking through the water, and it was so frozen, but it was fun anyways. (I apparently have a thing for half face selfies. sorry I'm not sorry)

Found a little spot to wait while the boys were climbing trees. I'm more of a small tree climber...none of those huge ones. 

And driving there and back the view was perfect the whole time. 

Utah, you have treated me very well this spring. I am gunna admit that I am actually pretty bummed to be leaving Utah for the summer, but excited to enjoy the wonderful humidity of the south. 

peace. love. and Utah. 

my weekend of wonders

Let's pretend for just a couple of minutes, that perhaps today is Sunday. So if needed imagine that you are in your pajama's, it's Sunday evening, you just finished a glorious week, and you are getting yourself all ready for the next one. You there yet? Perfect. Then in that case, it's not like I'm posting this late at all.

Brooke, Kari, Hilary, me, and Emily on the field!!

Well it only makes logical sense to explain how terrific my weekend was if I start with the beginning of it on Friday, which was seriously just a day so good I could giggle. I'm not really sure why, yeah good stuff happened, but really it was just one of those morning where I woke up smiling, kept that smile hanging around all day, and fell asleep with it still on my face. I mean it really didn't hurt that BYU won their football game in an epic final 20 seconds, and that we then got to storm the field. Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah.
and don't worry, I have evidence of this happening...


But no fears, the weekend of wonder did not end there, it only go better with guess...just guess..GENERAL CONFERENCE. The older I get and the more understanding that I have for the wonderful gospel the more and more I absolutely love General Conference. For those of you not familiar with what this is, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Twice a year (in April and October) we have General Conference broadcasted all over the world for members of our church and ANYONE who is interested (you can still check it out at www.lds.org). Our modern day Prophet and his apostles deliver messages in 4 different 2 hour sessions, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Which seems like a lot, but every second of it is a blessing! On Saturday evening to keep the spirit around Emily and I decided to go for a drive up through Provo Canyon, and it certainly was STUNNING! Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, I love the colors and weather...and my birthday is in the Fall so let's be honest that helps a little too. Anyways, to celebrate the beauty of the canyon..and our beauty of course we had a little mini photo shoot...

so lovely I just can't stand it

seriously though...your thinking right now of somewhere
 beautiful you can go for a drive arn't ya?

Emily and Me just lovin' up the Provo Canyon

But seriously, somehow the greatness of this weekend did not end here. Lucky me, my friend Kari had some friends drive up from her hometown for General Conference and they happened to have an extra ticket and guess who got it. And oh yeah it was me!!! I got to attend the Sunday afternoon session and it was positively  fantastic. :) Afterwards, we took a little walk around temple square which was the perfect end to such a fantastic weekend.

Me and my friends Rachel, and Kari just after General Conference with the Salt Lake City Temple behind us.

the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple

p.s. so excited that they are building a second temple in Provo and a temple in Paris, France. So. Cool.

p.s.s sorry this was late, hope you had a great time pretending that today is Sunday. You may now go back to your regularly scheduled programming