I Got a Very Slight Tan!

Well, I finally have the pictures of Destin up! It was almost a month ago that I went!

The water was a bit kelpy the first 2 days, but it was very clear and blue the farther out I went. BE-A-UTIFUL.



Shannon, Andrea, and Ashley:



We were waiting for our table at Outback. While we were waiting, I asked this man to take a group picture of us -- BAD idea. He was a bit tipsy, I think, and dropped my mom's camera. (It didn't break, but the LCD panel was badly injured . . .) Anyway, the picture he took turned out all fuzzy, too, so I just took a picture of the group without me in it afterall. As you can see, I was still shaken up about the camera when I took the next shot.

April, Shannon, Andrea, Ashley, and Laura:



Sisters Jenean and Janessa -- we were being goofy in the car on the way to a Hibachi grill.





Goofiness turned into all-out camera madness. We probably all took about 20 pictures each waiting for lights to turn green. :) Oh, the fun you can have waiting in a car.







More waiting . . . at the restaurant this time:





Ms. Cool California Girl -- check out those monster glasses! (I love 'em on her!)







I thought these dips looked neat. I'm such an amazing photographer . . .



The cook -- Hibachi grill artist might be a better term -- said he was a Japanese cowboy. I quit taking pictures of him and his grill because I wondered if it bothered him.



The whole dinner was for Ashley's birthday. Happy birthday, Ashley!



We decided to take a fun walk down the beach.



Laura is really good at taking pictures of herself and others -- a skill I'm terrible at. Incidentally, Laura is going to law school this year, so she won't be in Atlanta anymore, which is too, too bad because she is probably one of the funniest girls I know!

Also, Andrea put a bunch of make-up on me that night, which was nice of her, but weird for me because I'm not really used to much make-up. I look so strange to myself!







In a similar picture to the one above, Laura told us to pose like models. This started a LOT of silliness! I wish I could post all of our model pictures on here, but I think the girls would kill me . . .









Happy Birthday cake for Ashley:



A picture of all of us:



That was a fun trip, you guys, and I'm glad I was invited and able to go! Happy birthday again, Ashley!

Thing I'm thankful for: Yahtzee.

I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry . . .

Hi, guys. I'm sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I think it's been about 3 weeks, now -- minus the Tosca post.

I just haven't had time! Crazy, I know -- I ALWAYS make time to blog! But it's difficult when you have to upload about 50 pictures, and the Blogger server keeps shutting down.

I think about my lack in blogging everyday. It's a major point of concern in my brain. So rest assured that I will try to be "up and running" very soon, and I'll tell you all why I've been so super busy and cryptic in my blog posts about a month ago.

Thanks for reading or regularly checking my blog and hoping for posts. It makes me feel liked and appreciated -- quite possibly the 2 most wonderful feelings in the world.

Thing I'm thankful for: YOU!

A Night at the Opera

A better title for this post would probably be "An Evening in Traffic." Because mommy and I spent about 2 hours in traffic trying to get to the Atlanta Civic Center -- a drive that would normally take about 50 minutes. Darn that road work on I-20!

Well, I bought mommy tickets to the opera Tosca for her birthday. It's one of the most famous operas, and it's Italian. Can you guess who the composer is? One of my favorites and one of the greats: Puccini.

Anyway, the opera started at 8:00, and at 7:50, mommy and I weren't even close to the Civic Center.

See? We hadn't even gotten past the exits to I-285!


So we decided to be silly and take pictures, of course. This is me:


This is my best friend, mommy:


This is how fast I was driving:


At the tail end of the traffic jam (or I guess it would be the beginning), we finally saw what all the fuss was about.



You're not allowed to take pictures during the performance, so sadly, I have none. I even forgot to take pictures of the set and the elegant Civic Center chandeliers!

But mom and I took pictures of each other at Fellini's, which is where we went to eat afterwards.

My pretty best friend, mommy:


Me. I look like a 12-year-old, of course -- those darn fly-aways . . .


Thing I'm thankful for: quality time with my mom. I'm really gonna miss her when she's dead. :)

I Have a Great Love for the People of [Insert Name of Country Here]

Yesterday in church, I heard a very good, tear-inducing testimony. The girl started talking about her mission in Brazil and how she loved the people of Brazil. "Aww, that's nice," I initially thought. "I sometimes wish I had that kind of missionary memory."

But as I was listening to her testimony, it occurred to me that returned LDS missionaries often say things like that. The guy who served in Russia will say he has such a great love for the people of Russia. Or the guy who went to Mexico has a great love for the people there. And I get it. I understand what they are trying to convey -- that when we faithfully and generously serve a people, we develop an outstanding amount of love for them.

I also noticed, however, that this sentiment is probably more pronounced in missionaries who served outside of the U.S. So I just wanted to say for the record that even though I haven't served a "full-time mission," I make my own little missionary efforts here on the homefront, and I have a great love for Americans. In fact, I want to say that I think we should all extend that love to people all over the world. I know we all have special fond memories of places we've actually lived, but I think maybe Heavenly Father wants us to develop a love for anybody and everybody, even if -- and probably especially if -- we haven't been able to immerse ourselves into their cultures.

So. I have a great love for the people of the world! Go world!

Thing I'm thankful for: my fun purple Anthropologie dress.