Oh......blogging.

I have decided...I really don't like blogging! Well, maybe that's a stretch...but I am just not very good at it! I don't really feel like anything I have to say is very interesting. In fact, I'm pretty sure this whole thing got started on a dare! Go figure! :) Granted, this blog has served it's purpose and then some, and I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the opportunities it has brought me....but alas...I am still not the blog world's biggest fan! I like reading other people's, but mine....not so much!! So why you may ask am I even posting? Well, as much as I don't appreciate blogging, I also don't like being one of those people with an idle blog that just wastes space on the internet. So...for all those people who don't even read my blog......let's get our fix for the next 6 months shall we!

So....what have I been up to you may ask!

Well...I had some Louisiana family come and we took them to Yellowstone!

:) I really like this picture...even though my face looks kinda weird! This is Jason and I at the Paint Pots.

We also went to the cabin.....my absolute most favorite place on earth!


Just messed around at home...

I guess I became a Boston fan! :)

We went down to the river.....yes....we even fed ducks!

All at Yellowstone! :)

Back in December Jason came for the first time! We did alot of cool stuff then too!!

I became an LSU fan! :)

I absolutely HATE this picture of me.....but it's the only one with both Jason and Caroline in it!

At my violin Christmas Concert

And the rest of my spare time I do a whole lot of nothing! I went to girls camp a couple weeks ago...but I don't have pictures of that yet. And mostly I just do stuff with my friends....like take random pictures and post them on a meaningless blog entry! :)

I definately believe in this quote!!!

(Jason and I at the river....I LOVE this picture!)

(do you think we look similar?)

Well....I just liked the "effect" on this one.

Oh...there's me...in a tree....

Kind of random quote I guess.....but I like the weird color effect.

This picture was a total accident! I was looking up at Britt, who was taking a picture, while she held the camera lower. I started laughing at something stupid she said.....and here ya go. A picture I kind of like!

Well, I have honestly had a really interesting 8 months or so since I last posted. Around the last time I posted, I came into contact with my birth dad. That has been a really incredible experience! It has been awesome to get to meet him and all of his family! And within the last week I have also gotten in contact with my birth mother. Both of them have really been a good thing for me. I am really glad to be out of school! But...I miss having something to do! (Obviously! because I get so bored I blog!)

I have decided one of my most favorite "quotes"...or I guess line...is "Carpe Diem" or "sieze the day." So...take that for what it's worth...and have a fantastic day!

DEBATE!!!!

well i have to admit...i am COMPLETELY addicted to debate. i CANT get enough...i am constantly trying to learn new things about it and get better. i have practiced debated with some varsity...and it was the scariest thing ever...but totally awesome at the same time! i have decided to do a kind of debate called policy which is lots of fast talking....cross examining and fast arguments. its tons of fun! today i had my first debate tournament! it was at IF and was just a congress tournament. which basically means you sit in a room for 3 hours with the same 15 people giving 3 minute speeches as you want to and questioning. in congress there is also an honorable speaker...or presiding officer. i got elected PO in the second session...but i was a little bummed that i didnt win best PO of my house. but it was still fun to be in charge for a while! next weekend is a novice tournament in south fremont that i am BEYOND excited for! my best friend is going to be my partner and we are going to DOMINATE...i hope! so ya...i sound like a total dork talking about debate so much...but i can't help it...its so much fun...and there is alot of friends in debate!
this is my debate outfit...i am wearing black pants and black heels too...which were killing my feet by the end of the day! i think i like wearing the clothes almost as much as i like debating! hillcrest has a kind of dress...outline called hillcrest best and so we looked way good and professional! our team is HUGE and really really good. when people asked me what school i was from and i told them...they would just get super quiet and not really say anything more...we won TONS of awards today! it was lots of fun! so ya...now you all know how totally addicted i am to this!

3 words...for once its all i got!

HIGHSCHOOL IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

School shopping, registration, and a scary stalker cousin! :)

well...since i am sure you are all more interested in the last part of my title...i'll start there! Just as a little defense to my self...lately i had been getting a TON of calls from a number with some weird area code that started with 4...i never answered because i was at girls camp...then i would have my phone on vibrate...and i just never answered until i kind of figured that it was verizon trying to call me. so...now the calls had stopped....until last night...at 8 or 9 when i get another call from a weird number...with an area code that started with a 4....i didnt know if it was the same number...but i saw the 4 and assumed so. which confused me...because obviously verizon isnt open late on sunday nights....so i answer. and in response to a confused "hello?!" i get a rather legit sounding "Bueno!"........hmmm....now i am really confused....so i say hello again. and then they say...."Hows it going!"....sounding like they knew who i was.......so this freaks me out...and i quickly just hang up! now i am thinking i have some weirdo stalking me.... So i tell my mom and she just starts laughing and says "Oh it was probably just Dane!" and now everyone out there reading this that is related to me...understands. so fortunately dane decides its a good idea to call back on my moms phone this time...so that someone would actually answer. and of course...im sure he is thinking he is soo funny at this point....huh dane?! :) and how do i know this...well because britt and him decide it would be FUNNY to try it again....an hour later! but this time i am prepared...and he couldnt get me! ha! so...unsurprisingly...to prevent any future embarassment...i have a new contact in my phone! thanks dane for the entertainment!

Anyway...moving on!

I thought school shopping was a blast! my mom...not so much! but i did a good job and we got pretty much all of it done in ONE day....so my mom can be grateful that we didnt drag it on forever! We did good...and i was happy with what i got!...i should have pictures...but i dont....ill post some after the first day of school...which is in a week...scary!

Then came registration! i already had my schedule and it was PERFECT...so all i had to do was pay my fees...get my picture taken....and get a locker. my locker didnt end up being anywhere near any of my friends...but i had the spot picked out for a while....and it was on the way to all of my classes...where my friends lockers werent...but its ok....its not like you spend a ton of time at your locker anyway! then we went on to get pictures taken! im thinking this is going to be pretty painless....because my friends helped me pick out an outfit...ha ha...i was thinking all i had to do was sit there for a few seconds....smile while they photographer says weird things....and wait for my card to print. and that is pretty much what happened....but my mom was soo worried about getting a "natural smile" that she decided that it would be great if she stood behind the photographer and made weird faces and noises.......i felt like a four year old....and some of my friends where in the room when this was going on....but the picture turned out pretty good...and at least my mom liked what she got!
so this was a pictureless...to many words...boring post...but hey...its what you get!

HIGHSCHOOL IN A WEEK....scary...exciting....we'll see!

NEW HAIR!!!!!!!

SO!!! well, first off...my fourth of july was really low key, but fun! we went camping for a WEEK with my aunt and uncle...it was really good to have them there "] !!!! But it really was a ton of fun....we did lots of riding...and relaxing....my kinda time! so...back to the original point of my post! well...i got my hair cut a few saturdays ago! its really short...not what i had originally planned on...but i loooove it now!!!! i told my cousin i wanted an a-line without really specifying length...so its my own fault that it ended up..shorter than i origanally hoped for....but i realllly like it now!

ICK! this is what my mom calls the "cute, natural smile" i call it the "ugly smile"....whatever it is...lets look past it and just focus on what the hair looks like
hmmm...i dont think i reallyy ratted it this day...o well

so anyways, thats my new hair....definately a big change...but i really do love it!

Martin's Cove <3

Okay so as I'm sure most of you know i had the opportunity to go to Martin's cove this last week. I definately wasn't the most excited to go, but i am REALLY glad that i went, and it was probably the most spiritual experience of my life. When we got to the visitor's center we watched a little video. in it President Hinkley said that martins cove was probably one of the most sacred places he had ever been in, and was one of the most sacred places on earth. If you think about all of the places he has been, that is a really huge thought to think that a patch of sagebrush between two hills, in the middle of wyoming could be the most sacred places on earth. When i saw that movie, I didn't really know if i would think that too, but now i definately know that martin's cove, the patch of sagebrush, is definately one of the holy-est places i have/will ever been. SO! this post has LOTS of pictures, but i really wanted all of them on here so you could see my experience! so here we go! Well, we had to be at the stake center at 4:30 AM!! it was crazy...so after only 4 hours of sleep we left at 5 oclock. We drove for about 2 hours, and got about 25 miles out side of soda springs when we pulled over into some random man's front yard because our bus was making a beeping noise. We found out that there was a problem with some water valve and ended up being stranded for 2 hours waiting for a part...lovely. so that put us 2 hours behind on our trip. and also our 10 oclock stop for breakfast behind....we were STARVING by the time we got to rock springs! So anyway we had some fun at this man's house

This is my family: from left
1:Pa:Floyd, Ma: Suzy, Cassidy
2: Andrea, Brekah, Amy , ME (i look yucky)
3:Brady, Tanner,Preston This is the man whose house we ended up at! ha ha! his neighbor called him and told him the Amish people were all in his front yard, so he had to come out and investigate. Ended up we were all just a bunch of crazy mormons dressed up as pioneers, and he ended up being mormon, so he understood....kinda

After another 3-5 hours we FINALLY ended up in rock springs for breakfast. This is Brekah and I in the ever-going wait for the bathroom!

After about 9 hours on the bus (I HATE TRAVELING by the way...it was not so much fun) we finally got there, and got pulling, the boys actually did help, but we were headed towards the womans pull here so they weren't with us. The carts werent that hard to pull but as you can see we had a very wet trip, and went through alot of puddles. But the trail really wasnt mud, just wet sand, which was ALOT easier to go through than dry sand.

here we are on the womens pull, this picture is kinda small, im in the back, but it is alot harder than it looks. And all of the men are at the top watching (they "went to war" so they could only watch us struggle up the hill, and not help) we ran up the hill, so we did pretty good, but it was really hard!

Once we got to the top all of the boys surrounded us and sang a really pretty song to us about the importance of women, it was really neat!


After three miles of hiking in the rain, we were totally drenched, and our feet were freezing...i was really thankful to see our little tent city all set up for us and dinner waiting for us to eat!

The next day started off really windy and cold but by the time we got on the trail it was really sunny, so we could cross the sweetwater and go into the cove...it was really great! So the story of the sweetwater is that when the pioneers reached this river, they had already lost around 14 people to the crossing of the platte river, and it was 22degrees outside so they knew they couldnt survive another river crossing. but 4 young boys stepped foward (one was as young as 16) and carried everyone across the river in safety. The all consiquently died. We usually all cross the sweetwater, but the river was too high, so about 6 men carried some girls across..this shows you how high the river was...it was about waist height and was a pretty wide river...

after you cross the river there are 3 monuments showing the 4 men that risked their lives for their comany...this is in front of one of them...its our entire ward and leaders...our ward had 2 families total.

after we crossed the sweetwater we took our handcarts to handcart parking so we could eat lunch and go through the cove (w/o our handcarts) well when we got lunch we ended up with a huge, weird, hard, stale cracker, super tough jerky, dried apples that had been rehydrated, trail mix, fruit snacks, hard candy, and a drinkk....it was a very...interesting meal...but we didnt really want to complain...because we'd rather eat that than the 4 oz. of flour the pioneers were rationed....as you can see by the red haired boy towards the back right, we didnt really enjoy the cracker!

here we are walking towards the Dan Jones cove to have a fireside, before we walked up the hill into Martin's cove, we had a really nice fireside, and it really set the spirit for the upcoming hike!

here we are in the actual cove, it was a really really spiritual place, and i could definately feel the person whose name i had brought with me, in my presence. it was amazing!

we walked to the top of the cove and had another little mini devotional...this guy you cant really see him so great in this picture, but he reminded me of my Grandpa Hunter SOOO much! he looked like him a little bit, he talked like him, he told stories awesomely like my grandpa does, he had little mannerisms like grandpa...it really made me smile alot!

like i said, our trek was REALLY wet, but on the second day it was sunny. well when we got back to camp on the second day it started to cloud over, and we had this HUGE hail storm...it was sooo big that we had to hold our tent up from the inside. we got probably a half inch of hail in about 10 minutes...it was CRAZY!!!!! it ended up giving us a little hole in the bottom of our tent, and there was so much water under the tent from the storm that it flooded our side of the tent...the holes were right under my sleeping bag, so it got really really wet. fortunatley they had drying tents with cash cookers and things to dry them out, and our support couple had extra sleeping bags! but this is how much hail we got....

and this is what our camp looked like after it melted....it was pretty much a huge marsh!

oscar the dog!!

when we got to the visitors center on the first day they told us about this huge white dog that lives around here, he doesnt bite, wont eat human food, doesnt bark, and doesnt come to his name. But every once in a while he picks a group and will follow them everywhere, sit in their devotionals (w/o making a peep) and will protect everyone from coyotes, rattle snakes, and any other harms. Well on the last night he showed up in our stakes camp and followed us around for that night. Well that evening we could here some coyotes getting really close...but oscar (the dog) came to everyones rescue and chased all of them away! :) he was really neat!

On the last day on our way home we stopped at independance rock. The pioneers would use it as a landmarker, that if they hit this rock by July 4 (hence the name) then they would miss the winter storms by the time they got to salt lake...there are alot of really cool names and years that they carved into this rock...but we got to climb it...thats right i climbed clear to the top of this rock! it was sOOOOO hard....you start on the left side of the rock and just climb straight up to the top...it was soo steep! but it went really fast and i felt soo accomplished after i climbed it!

see how little the people look...ya its that big!

this is the woman whose name i took to the treck! I LOVE THIS WOMAN! she was such an amazing person, and is such an example. Her name is Tamer Washburn, and she was an amazing person with an amazing life to read her history go to this website and scroll down until you reach her name! it's really interesting!

http://wildingbowles.blogspot.com/search/label/Tamer%20Washburn

She really is an amazing woman and i was so glad that she was with me on my trip to help me! it was soooooooooooooo cool! I had a blast at martin's cove! sorry this post is really long but i just had to get it all written down! LOOVE loove looove martins cove!

Schools out.....Scream and Shout!!! "]

Hey Hey Hey! I know its been a LONG time, but i have to write so much for school, that i dont really want to when i get home. So I've done alot since my birthday, but the most exciting was when i went to lagoon with the Orchestra! Now some of my closest friends are in the orchestra and to get to spend an entire with them was AWESOME! i got to do some of my favorite things, play violin, be with friends, and RIDE THEME PARK RIDES!!! yay! we played in festival and did AWESOME, but the judges gave us Silver, so i guess thats ok! SO anyway, to the fun part! I had never been on the wicked, or the collasus so it was pretty awesome! i didnt have a camera, but i got some cool pictures of the rides on line! So everyone knows you cant go to lagoon without doing the classic white roller coaster....


We went on the wicked, which was AWESOME!! LOOVE IT!!

more wicked!

probably my favorite, was the colossus! idk why, but it was awesome!

and even though it wasnt scary though, i really liked the bat, because your feet dangle the whole time....pretty fun

So anyway, we had a tooon of fun, and go to ride on hoiday buses which made the ride super fun ha ha! here ya go mary! :)

ps! check out my new favorite way to do smileys.... "] if you cant see it, its not sideways...the quotations " are the eyes and the bracket ] is the smiley, to the side! ha ha i know pretty cool, well i like it! "]

~kEnNy LyNn~