Para-para-paradise :)

This is the story of an Adventure of a Lifetime :)

It all started with a once-in-a-life time offer from some amazing people with some amazing connections, and then it just snowballed from there. 

We went out to one of the most beautiful places EVER - it all felt so surreal! The whole day we all kept singing "Paradise" by Coldplay (or the Jon Schmidt/Alex Boye version), and Paradise is definitely one of the best ways to describe it. 

I would definitely say that it was one of the BEST days of my life!

To start of this incredible adventure, we went horseback riding!

This was my Missouri Foxtrotter, Tinkerbell.

She was kinda funny...she would go super fast and then all of a sudden she would go really slow until she decided we were far enough behind the group, and then all of a sudden she'd go fast so we could catch up! All of my "go Tink!"s did not make her budge at all, no matter what my tone was.

Learning how it's done...

Chelsea and Maya, Angi and Boston

Ryan, Lincoln

Clayton, Ashley and Ethan

Happy Trails!

Right after this picture, we went out into the fields on the left, spread out, and let the horses gallop. 

It was so amazing! We all felt like we were in some classic western movie or something - the only thing missing was the sunset :)

Despite Lincoln's best efforts, we couldn't get our horses to all line up neatly - at least we were all relatively clumped close to each other!

4-Wheelers! Probably one of my very favorite parts - we got them going pretty crazy!

We had the girls drive first on the easier trails, and looking back on it, we were pretty timid :) 

As soon as the boys got in control we went lots faster, spinning out all over the place - it was so much fun! As we went along I definitely got a lot braver and my speeds got higher.

The colors were so incredible - it looked like someone had dropped gold coins all over the ground.

 Rappelling! I think almost all of us got at least a little bit freaked out when we first walked over that edge! There was definitely some positive peer pressure involved with this :)

My Momma! She was one of the stars of the day - she kept everything going smoothly. 

Also, a HUGE shout-out to Andrew, Dustin, and Jessica.

Thanks for taking us all over the place, helping us out, and making us some DE-licious food :)

You guys are the best!

Dinner on the back patio...such an incredible view. 

We had the sun going down over the mountain, a little creek running just behind/below us, and brilliant fall colors all around us. 

Some of the best friends anyone could ask for :)

 Thanks for making it one of the best days EVER!!!

*if you click on the pictures, it makes them bigger - just in case you want to get a closer look :)

Our "theme song": 

{Peponi (Schmidt/Boye version of Paradise)}

because we're just cool like that.

sometimes, you just have really good days.

like when you leave school with your best-est friend during lunch and go to her house.
and when you start laughing uncontrollably because you both think her "nacklace" is nicely coordinated with her earrings :)
and then you not only have an excellent lesson in seminary, but you also go to the temple with some of your best friends, and the workers look at you funny because you can't wipe that huge grin off your face.
and then, miracle of all miracles, you somehow convince your best-est friend who is an "XXCR" (ex-cross country runner) to come running with you...say what?!
and afterwards you end up talking to some of the funniest people you've ever met. and you ride in the back of trucks while singing Nacho Libre. and then you eat snocones, even though it's a little bit freezing outside.

I mean, who does that?
oh, just the coolest people in the world, that's all.
some days are just too good to be true :)

good news - my closet doors can close again.

I finally cleaned my room tonight.

"Well carpet, it's nice to meet you again! Since I haven't seen a full square inch of you since school started!"

just ask the almost-cat-lady

a long time ago in a galaxy not too far away from here, a girl faced a problem. this problem however was unlike most other problems. it wasn’t with other people - it was against herself, her heart versus her head. and sometimes, that can be the worst kind of problem.

she and her bestest friend both quite agreed that “boys are just frustrating a lot” (if you try to work that sentence into proper english...well, take my word for it and just don’t). 

this girl struggled with an almost-cat-lady un-romance. 

you see, she wasn’t a true cat lady. this was not because she did not have any cats (though indeed she didn't), but because her fortune had been somewhat better than other known cat ladies. however, she still felt many of the pains of a true cat lady, and therefore can be classified as an almost-cat-lady.

it was definitely an un-romance because she didn’t really like this boy...only kind of. and yes, there is a difference between liking someone and kind of liking someone. just ask the almost-cat-lady.

survive or thrive

it's like this.

sometimes I feel like I have this whole huge waterfall inside of me wanting to come out, like I just want to pour my whole soul out on the page. but the I sit down and the raging torrent slows to a drizzle and then a trickle, until soon it's no more than a dry creek bed, dry like the desert. but the ocean is a desert with it's life under ground so how do I find the life I've been looking for?

and then I remember that life is busy, but hasn't it always been busy? and I look forward to that day when I can finally slow down and think, until I realize that it probably won't ever come because things keep going faster and faster and faster. can i go as fast as light? everything around me sure thinks it can.

but what about being happy? not the world kind of happy - that's just happy. but real happiness? that's what matters. and it's the people that matter not the things. and loving and giving and laughing and learning. and can you make yourself intelligent? cause i sure am trying hard but I feel like I'm running around in circles and hitting the same cement walls every time. and Jane Austen sure doesn't think so. why can't I just be Elizabeth? witty, sarcastic, but hey, she gets the boy. or Jane would be good too; to have your looks just automatically compensate for anything else. sure she is sensible and accomplished, but smart? that's up to personal interpretation. but Mary. Mary just kinda gets picked on. She tries so hard to learn and be intelligent, yet she is always shunted to the side, quietly laughed at by all the others.

Me?
I'm trying.
is it working?
I wish.

can you teach yourself to be intelligent?

have my cement barriers just pushed me down into a desert I didn't expect and now I just need to find my ocean with my real life underground? I think the point of life is to get a life, a real one. so where is it? is it found in all of the running and driving and homework and chores and work and exhaustion and standardized tests that I find myself wrapped up in?

"If you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

[I tried to find a nice quote or a picture that would sum up how I feel, but nothing quite fits my thoughts....no surprise. my mind is kind of like a tangled up ball of yarn that just kind of keeps turning and weaving all over the place with no beginning or end. so instead I chose a quote by Mr Darcy because he is oh-so-incredible.]

Oh Mr Darcy, where are you in real life? 

"All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough. It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kid's eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of live." - Anna Quindlen