Bad llama

I went to the Llama fest the other day with my best friend. It was so wonderful! While we barely missed watching the llama's go though the obsticle course, we had fun looking at all the llama's and getting Henna Tattoo's. Henna is so cool! We both had put Henna on ourselves before, but there was a woman from India there that was doing it for people, so we paid to have her do it for us :) Way neat.

I looked up, and saw many family members sitting in the tree with me

Last week, we had a family reunion :) This is one that we have every year, and it is tradition to have homemade ice cream there! So good. There were so many interesting, but good flavors there. A woman even made a grape flavored ice cream! Very interesting.... My favorite though was the one that my dad made: Chocolate with raspberries. Mmmmmm..... so good!

At the reunion, one of my dads cousins took all of the children on a "Lion Hunt". There were many adults that went along, and it was so cute to see how the kids would react to this very animated man! We travled through a pretend river, up a mountain (it was a hill), under the "Jub-Jub" tree, through a patch of pretend fire ants, and finally through some quick sand. Then we found the make-believe lions! Right as we were about to shoot them, the man eating "Pigmies" came out, and we had to back track through everything we had just gone through. Very fun :) In the end, a little boy started crying because he thought it was real, but everyone else was fine, haha.

I love family reunions! They are so great :)

More than a moment, more than a memory

One upon a time, there was a young woman that lived in a town not well known to the rest of the world, let alone the rest of the country! This young woman enjoyed being happy and having fun. While she still considered herself to be a "child", she recognized the many things that she had been blessed with in life, and the many wonderful truths she had learned. Life had become a joyous ride for this young woman. It was full of laughter, suspense, friendship, action, fear, content, adventure, learning, pain, wonder, success, and ultimately joy. What lay ahead of her in life, she did not know, but she was ready to tackle it full on, with the Lord on her side. Her life was evolving into more that just a collection of memories...

Oh, but to paint! What else is there?

Last summer, I had a job where there was a lot of free time, and if you weren't careful, you could find yourself playing on the paint program on the computer. I wasn't careful ;) One of the greatest joys I had at this job was mastering the skills of Paint!!! After talking to one of my friends, he challenged me to paint a picture of Peter Pan. That became one of my greatest achievements! Here are most of the pictures I created. I still have one I need to finish of two missionaries in Africa. We'll see if (when) I can get that finished :)
Enjoy!













The masterpiece!



Self portrait of me at work :)

"Every hero becomes a bore at last."

Have you ever gone to a clothing store and tried on clothes even though you already knew you did not have the money to buy anything? Well, I did that the other day, and I loved it :) I found some shirts that I really liked (and they were actually were a decent price), and I decided to just snap some pictures of them while trying them on. While I cannot own the shirts, I can at least look back at the pictures and remember how nice they were :) (and comfortable too!)

"Every hero becomes a bore at last."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Abide with Me

Today, my dad and I sang in sacrament meeting, and my mom played the piano for us. It was a wonderful experience. The song we sang was Abide with Me arranged by Sally DeFord. At first, I wasn't very enthusiastic about singing this song, but the more I practiced it and studied the message, the more I began to love the hymn. While singing, it was wonderful to look down at all the smiling faces of the members in my ward. As I looked around, from face to face, I saw my best friend and her little sister sitting in the back. It made me so happy to see them there! While my throat tends to go dry when I "perform"/sing in front of other people, I feel as though my mom, dad, and myself did a very fine job :)
I encourage you all to read through the words of that hymn. I believe it's number 166 in the hymn book. I hope you all had a lovely Sabbath Day!
(The art pictured is by Simon Dewey)

"Use it or Lose it"

I have been doing a yoga class to help me stay fit over the summer. It is so much fun! Some days I come home sore, but most of the time it's not that bad :) When I was younger, I used to look at yoga as a sissy thing meant for old women. But boy, I'll tell you what, as a dancer, I even find it difficult at times. It really stregthens your core, tones muscles, and also stregthens muscles. Sometimes when my alarm goes off at 5:50 in the morning so I can go to yoga, I just want to roll back over and fall asleep. But when it all boils down to it, I'd rather "use it than lose it". It's like, if I don't take care of my body now, who knows what will happen to it in the future! It keeps me going :)
Well, here are some pictures of some of my favorite poses :)

Warrior 2

Triangle

Tree

Downward Dog

Dancer

Crane

Childs Pose

Frida Kahlo---The Artist

I was not intending to blog about this today, but when I went to the Google search engine, I learned that it is Frida Kahlo's birthday. Friday Kahlo was a famous Mexican painter. A long time ago, I was in a bookstore with my mother, and I happened to pick up a book of Frida's art. I hadn't looked at her art since then until today. While her art is very unique, and she depicts herself in an exagerated way, it's interesting to understand why she paints the things she does. She said, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." Well, I hope you all can appreciate her art!