Luau- He Huaka'i Aloha

This year's Luau, He Huaka'i Aloha, talked about the journey of the missionaries to the Polynesian islands. I was in the Hawai'i section and danced the Pa Lua- couples dance :) It was so much fun! So here are some pictures from the show! Above is Shelby and me.

Eva, Eileen, and me. Eileen danced in Hawaii too, but the slow dance of Auana (I might not have spelled that right).
Roomies!!! Lynnell, Eva, and me.
Rachel Ann, Rachel, and me :) The other girls also danced in New Zealand and did amazing!
Kumu Keoki- he did great as Eva's dance partner :)
Rachel and me again.
Me and my dance partner, Erwin :)
Eva and I and some random guy. But seriously, he said that we should take a picture of the 3 of us and hopped right in :)
Me and Eva :) Luau is so great and even though I won't miss getting up early on Saturday mornings, I'm already looking forward to next year!

Girl's Night Out With Shelly

Shelly and I decided to have our own little girl's party Friday night. We saw "Leap Year" and then went out to Chinatown restaurant!

Good food, good fun, good times all over the place :) Thanks Shel for being a great sister!!

Living Legends!!

Since I am in charge of enrichment in my ward and can do whatever I want, I decided that my girls needed to discover their inner brown. That coupled will a large, leftover budget last year prompted me to buy our Relief Society tickets to Living Legends. It was awesome as only Living Legends can be!!! Thanks to all who came and especially to the dancers!! You are amazing!!

The girls with Eva after she beautifully sang Go My Son.
My hooper, Cheyenne, who hit both circles tonight!! Whoot whoot!!

The magic backstage coordinated by our own Lauren :)

Eva!!! Rockin' the dances and shining on stage; she was awesome :)

Jake was full of energy as always and did a spectacular job!!

It's been fun getting to know more people in legends thanks to Eva and Jake. Loving every minute of it and I can't wait to dance my own performances in Luau and Pow Wow this year!!

Christmas With The Fam In Arizona!

Christmas at home this year!! Fun times with the fam :) I wasn't always great at taking pictures, but here are a few to give you an idea of what crazy shinanigans occurred at the end of the last year.

Dad discovered long boarding.

Phil decided to be a deranged lumberjack (it's actually my ax and I'm so excited to chop some wood with it!).
Jenny- the point of sweetness in our rather sarcastic family.
Reading all the books we got for Christmas!!

Since in AZ Christmas is fairly warmish, Shelly Dad and I went on a hike to Picacho Peak. This is the trail starting point.

We kind of wore Dad out just a little, but he kept trucking along. Mostly cuz we made him :) Love you Dad!!

The northern side of Picacho before we crossed to the other side and ascended the peak.

Dad and I at the Saddle.

Did a little rock climbing on the hike :)
The trail is pretty up and down and steep all the way up. Fun times!
The southern side. I love AZ!
So steep they even installed cables to help the weary hiker :)
Shelly and Dad pondering the view from the top!!

Now the actual view :)
Love the AZ sunsets!

The shadow of Picacho on the valley floor. Mmm pretty sunset.

We finished our hike right as the sun finished setting and the moon was ascending over the peak. Such a gorgeous 4 hour hike! Christmas break was great and I'm so glad I got to spend time at home. Love you fam and Happy New Years!!

BIrthday Fun Times

My 27th birthday fell on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so only Lynnell and I were around to celebrate. And this we did by watching BYU defeat the U of U at the football game!! Oh the sweetness of a birthday victory!! Lynnell invited me over to her sister's house after the game, and Cami made me a birthday cake with candles and everything :)

After everyone got back from vacation, we decided to go to the Texas Roadhouse in Lehi for some tasty treats :) This pic is of us before leaving for dinner in front of the Christmas tree we put up. I love Christmas!
Every Texas Roadhouse has a unique mural painted specifically for it. The owners of this one thought that natives were more American than cowboys, and we all agreed :) So this is Lynnell, me, Kaylan, Candace, and Eva. I always forget how pale I am until I see myself in pictures with them. I guess I just think my inner brown should be more obvious than it is :) Thanks for the awesome birthday guys!!

Best Trip Ever with Naomi!!!! A Journey in 3 Parts-Part 1

At the end of September I journied to Chicago to visit my best friend Naomi, Kevin, and Brooklyn. From Chicago Naomi and I were going to drop off Brooklyn in Ann Arbor with Brian and Natalie and then take a road trip across the northeastern part of the country. But before we left I got to spend some time with them in Chicago :)

Brooklyn's potty training and doing an awesome job thanks to her super amazing Mom! We had a fun giggle one day when she successfully went potty!

They say kids eat strange things and Brooklyn proved that true- cream cheese on a potato chip anyone?

Oh Panera bread how I love thee!

We ventured out to the "waterfalls" near Kev and Omi's house. For being artifically built they're actually not too bad. And we saw a water snake. And skipped rocks. A successful outdoor adventure for sure :)

I'm not sure Naomi was thrilled when I suggested this pose for the pic. But fortunately she's still talking to me.

We could totally pass for twins :)

Brooklyn decided she liked wearing my shoes.

The Saturday before we left, we took a trip downtown. Much better than my previous forays into town!

Naomi and Kevin suggested we take the river boat from the train station into downtown. It was awesome to see the buildings from the river!

Chicago Sun Times- want to watch some Early Edition Mom? :)

Larger than life: American Gothic takes Chicago.

We stripped Brooklyn down and let her run around a fountain place. She wasn't too thrilled with us at first, but of course by the end she didn't want to leave!

These large towers were on either side of the pool. Pretty :)

The famous Bean with Chicago reflecting on its side!

View of Chicago from the top of the Sears (now Willis) Tower.

Standing in the Ledge-the glass box over Chicago!

You can't see it, but Brooklyn is laying on glass that looks straight down to the street from the top of the Sears Tower. We all went out on it-awesome!!!

Monday morning Naomi and I left on our adventure! We dropped off Brooklyn, picked up our bikes in Cleveland, and then made our way to Kirtland! We drove around the sites Monday night, but actually took the tours on Tuesday.

In front of the Newel K Whitney store in Kirtland.

On the upper floor of the store Joseph and Emma stayed when the first came to Kirtland. It was also the location of the revelation room and the school of the prophets.

School of the Prophets room.

Joseph and Emma's room. Sleep tight! :)

The Ashery- it's the only one in north america.

The saw mill-actually a replic resting on the old foundations. This is where they cut wood to build the temple.

The Whitney home was across the path from their store. This is the family room. That metal object in the crib? Old fashioned baby bottle made from lead and pewter. Genius.

Split rail fences were a very common, and to me very cool, sight!

After going through the church owned sites we went over to the Kirtland Temple. What an amazing place when you think of everything that happened there! So glad I got to go inside!

After Kirtland we drove to the John Johnson farm in Thompson where Joseph and Emma stayed for a year.

For my labor friends-this is the "borning room" where women would have delivered their babies. Not a lot of room to move around in there-glad our rooms are a little bigger!

Elsa Johnson was an awesome lady, but somewhat eccentric in her painting styles. This one is feather painting, which was found on almost every wooden surface in the house.

That is a wood plank floor painting to look like...a checkers board?

Omi and I standing in the room where Joseph received several revelations in Thompson, including section 76. So cool!

Before we continued our drive to Niagara Falls, we stopped for dinner at a yummo Amish restaurant. Awesome!!