birthday celebration round 2

i have always wanted to drive the Alpine Loop in the Fall because i hear the colors are so pretty.

well my good friend Matt was so nice and took me on that drive for my birthday tomorrow. 

and let me tell you, "pretty" does not cut it. 

i thought i had seen some stunning fall colors in my life (being from Utah and all) 

but THESE WERE OUTSTANDING

i am so so so so so happy i got to do this before i leave BYU, 

this is definitely one of the best things i have ever done. 

it made me fall in love with Autumn all over again, it really is my favorite season. 

so now enjoy some of the most phenomenal colors you will ever see: 

(the pictures don't do it justice)

we know how to fully take advantage of Utah falls

 it had been raining earlier that day. 

the mist/fog made everything more beautiful

 yellow aspens are my favorite 

 i mean, seriously?

i just love Autumn in Utah. 

thanks again Matt, such an amazing birthday present. 

ring in the birthday celebrations!

my 22nd birthday is this wednesday (yay!) and we started the celebration this weekend.

i saw a Chihuly art exhibit as a young baby girl when it came to Salt Lake years ago.

ever since then i decided i needed to go to a glass blowing factory. bucket list!!!

 last month i found out that there was a glass blowing factory / studio in Alpine.

 i knew i would use my birthday card and use it for a roomie outing to make glass art.

(that is the best part of having a birthday- picking something and everyone having to do it. not only doing it but having to pretend they like it.)

we got to the studio and got a tutorial on how we were going to make glass flowers. 

 this is us being taught how to make glass flowers and being wowed. 

so first you pick 2 colors of crushed glass - a color for the stems and a color for the petals. 

the guy starts off by dipping a pole in a pot of molten glass and then rolls the bulb of liquid glass in the crushed up colored glass. then back in the fire it goes to mix in the color.

then he brings it over to you and you make the flower!

 megan went first and she chose green & ivory

miriam picked blue and gold 

so excited! 

hannah did white and orange 

first you have to made one end flat like a plate

then you get big pliers and start pulling out tiny petals
(i did light aqua blue for my petals)

then you keep going and pulling bigger and bigger petals. 

to make the stem you then pull the other end and roll it, cut it and there you go. 

here is our awesome instructor 

for lunch we hit up Mountainwest Burrito, 

i had never been there before and was happy to finally try it:

needless to say i got a giant chicken chimichanga to ring in my birthday celebrations!

be a peach

last friday after class Hannah and I hit the road.

we went to Brigham City for the new Temple Open House. 

I love temple open houses. It makes me so excited and I can always feel the Spirit. 

This temple was beautiful. It has a real sense of belonging to the community here.

Throughout it had a theme of peach blossoms because of all the neighboring peach orchards.

It became a fun game to see if you could spot all the blossoms.

they were in the door handles, wood work, tiles, rugs and ceilings. 

it was amazing. 

my best friend Katie who lives close to Brigham City drove to meet us.

i love it when i get to see this girl. 

she is such a peach. 

25

well my big sister is 25 today. 

and to quote a family classic movie Some Like it Hot:

 "twenty five. that's a quarter of a century- makes a girl think."

stefi really knows how to do 25 right- she is graduated, has a masters degree, working as a legit SLP and is married living in a dream city. 

yeah she's got it covered. 

she is my best friend and i feel so lucky to have her. 

 

there are lots of things i could say about stefi but i think what she will appreciate most is the lack of blackmail pictures in this post. (power rangers people. power rangers.) 

thanks for always letting me be your shadow and letting us have a Barney cake for our birthday party one year. you are the person i look up to the most and want to be like.

love you so much and happy birthday keki!!!!!!

long weekend

i feel like blogging- as part of not doing my boring homework- but nothing new has really happened since this weekend. so i am just putting up pictures from the road trip. 

and i can do that because its my blog. 

 prize winning pumpkins. 

with my outfit it made me feel like a country cinderella

 going up the canyon

 the crew getting ready to hit the road

 salt flats

 delicious mexican food. 

northface twinners

(because obviously owning a northface means you go on lots of adventures)

together forever

this holiday weekend a big group of friends and i went on a road trip.

it was all my room mates and this apartment of boys we met last year and have been best friends with ever since

miriam invited us all to go home with her to Elko Nevada to celebrate the weekend we all met last year and to celebrate one year of great friendship. 

we joked and called it our family reunion because last year we were also in the same FHE family.

even though we aren't in the same FHE group any more we still call each other FHE bro and sisters. 

we had such a great weekend. honestly. so great. 

we went to the County Fair (which is a big deal and really fun) and went up to Lamoille Canyon for a cook-out

as reading rainbow says, you don't have to take my word for it:

at family prayer Mir's family does this cute little hand /cheer things where we say "together forever"