nineteen

On Thanksgiving I turned 19! Wahooooo

my cute little brother Caden took these at the lake near our house! he's so good

プラット長老 : Elder Pratt

My brother, Landy, has been serving in Japan for almost five months now & this morning I was looking through my camera roll when I came across some videos from before he left! They made me miss him so much. (remind me to not do that again)
But with me going on a mission too, it'll be just a little over two more years before I see him and I cant wait!
These videos most likely, will not make you ball like I did, but still, they make me so happy!
Also, they were mostly all saved snapchats, so excuse to awful quality ;)

JAPAN on FILM

high school grad

long time no see my blog buds.

a lot has happened since march ninth (last post)...

ha whoops, i've become rather lazy.

i graduated from high school last month.

eeekkk. 

dont know how exactly.. the last month of school i got pretty lazy and didnt do a ton. 

again... whoops

im beyond glad that i graduated from sky view.

this school and these people have become so special to me.

im so happy i got to spend my senior year and graduate longside amazing people. 

school has been out for two weeks and summer is two weeks in and in full swing!

i havent done a ton, though it sure has been great!

ive stayed in the valley pretty much the entire time (except 3 days where i went down to mtn green to visit cousins). cv in the summer is LOVELY. except its lovely year round! 

wednsday was bittersweet-

i took my sweet brother to the mtc.

the rest of my family was in hawaii and seattle and since im the only one in ut, i picked him up from the airport and drove him to provo the next day. it was a special two days as i got to spend them with landy. i couldnt be more proud of him as he a decided to serve the Lord for two years..in tokyo!

i know he will be blessed as he acts as the Lords hands here on earth. i am so excited all that he accomplishes for him. saying bye for two years was sad, though knowing that it is for the Lords work made it joyful.
im so proud of him.
:)

19 days

nineteen days until i graduate.

kinda not down with that.

holy cow.

........

life is rad though.

the days have been spent creating new memories and having lots of fun.

ive been taking senior pictures for friends and thats been fun.

lets see... im trying to remember what ive been doing these last few weeks.

well today sal and i went to the crepery and then drove up green canyon. 

then we went and played some volleyball with friends in the rain. so fun. cold. but fun

yesterday after school got out, jake and i got a slurpee and headed up the canyon to bear lake. first we stopped at ricks springs and had a blast with the selfie stick. then we decided it would be fun to see tonys grove. ha. the car got stuck. so we had to (more like jake...i tried to help but i didnt know what to do lol) dig the snow out from under the car. the snow was soaking through our clothes, it was way fun. - oh side note, there was a guy there who we kinda blocked in, he had a truck and it took him like 20 min of struggling to get the car out when he walked over with a rope and pulled us out. though by that point we were wet &poor jake was soaked. ha

but we headed back down the continued to bear lake. i guess bear lake is the place to go here. so jake took me there for the first time. and whoa its huge. i guess its probably just about the same size as lake washington, but there werent any trees or houses surrounding it, so it felt way big. we hung out there and continued our fun with the selfie stick. endless fun!

driving up the hill leaving the lake, jake realized the gas was at the line. ha oops. we were about 45 minutes up the canyon so that was funny as we freaked out if we were going to make it home in time or not. we did by the way.

so ya that was yesterday.

we've done some pretty fun stuff though- like lava hot springs, eating mangos, sitting on dirt roads talking, kayaking, hiking, singing along to the country station, hammocking and lots of other fun stuff. 

yay

until next month (bc i stink at this whole writing thing) 

caden and i went over to north bend to hike rattlesnake ledge

my good pal, josh got his mission call to lviv ukraine!

saturday was junior prom! got to go with my friend eyan, and it was a blast!

Sky View's Exec  2014-2015

A few pics from my trip to seattle

little b got baptized! 

JAPAN TOKYO SOUTH

guys!

he's going to the japan tokyo south mission!

so stoked for my brother! he is going to do so much good and impact so many lives.

christmas of 2013 we were IN tokyo and its so fun to think he'll be there for his mission!

our mom is from southern japan and so the japanese culture has always been part of our lives, so that makes his call all that more fun! 

actually, our mom and step dad have a house just a few miles outside his mission! crazy huh?

so!

landy face timed us and we got everything set up! as he was opening it/ saying "dear elder.." IT CUT OUT. i flipped. but then it came back! i was kinda bummed i couldn't be there in person but it was still so fun. i may or may not have cried like a baby. so proud and i love landy so much.

the gospel is an amazing thing and he will change lives for the better. I'm so excited for him and this experience he's about to embark on!

d&c 4:2

grilled pineapple

good 'ol sunday.

i truly look forward to sundays.

time to unwind, relax and prepare to wind back up again.

church was lovely. my sunday school teacher is awesome and does so well at teaching us each week! today we talked about grace. the ability to receive strength and assistance. i love that! i love knowing i have my savior there to help me in all things, and that when i do fall short, he is there. i love the boost i get each sunday and the feeling of the spirit when i am there. 

today i am feeling especially grateful.

my brother landy got his mission call in the mail and will be opening it in ONE HOUR! 

ah.

if any of you know landy, you know how truly great of a missionary he will make. i am beyond proud of him and his decision to do so. its crazy to think in just an hour, a new road in his life will begin.

i've been pondering a lot today about him and missions in general. i admire his patience as he has waited for the time until he was ready to go. i'm so lucky to have had him as my older brother growing up. assuming he will leave this summer, we will be out on our missions at the same time& be getting home around the same time! how exciting huh? 

golly the future is sooo exciting! 

anyways-

yesterday was a party! actually everyday is really a party!

but yesterday dallin, braden, emma, jake and i all headed down to kaysville to watch The Cronies (a super rad band from our school) compete in battle of the bands! THEY WON so holler to them! it was way fun and we headed down to farmington station after and that was a party cuz shopping- yay. 

i also had this lovely burger with grilled pineapple and i felt like i was eating at kuiaina on the north shore- it made me really happy. i also had some delish pineapple for lunch and went hot tubbing in my pineapple swimsuit so that was awesome. 

emily's parents were out of town so i slept over two nights in a row. the first night we were supposed to read fifty-five pages from our history book, so thats kinda the main reason i slept over, but that didn't happen. so we just had fun. then friday we went to a school event and it was a color festival! golly gee that was a PARTY, even if i thought i was going to suffocate from inhaling all the chalk. still fun. after, emily, katie (emilys sister) and i headed to first dam. its this little dam at the opening of logan canyon. other people were there to jump in and get the chalk outta our hair, noses and ears! side note- the water is all snow runoff from the mountains so you can imagine how cold it was. i got peer pressured by my friend jake into jumping off the bridge...so we did (sorry parentals). it was darn cold, but soooo fun wow. after freezing our bums off, emily katie and i headed back to their house, showered off more and ate pizza. then we just plopped down on the couch and had fun and talked while some other friends came and went. then i slept over again and we fell asleep watching the cheetah girls. lolol. 

also i have an awful case of senioritis... and its probably not a good idea that I'm taking four college classes. at least i have seminary to balance me out! ps my sem class rocks& brother heywood is so rad! 

ok well i probably have more of my boring and uneventful life to write about, but its 7:13 and landy is supposed to open his call at 8 SO I GOTTAH GO AHHH!!!!!!!!!!

also! I'm going to junior prom with my good pal eyan! don't know if i mentioned that or not but super stoked!!

OH PS-
my computer says the space is filled (should probably delete the stockpile of pics on here) sooo i can't post any pictures with this post. my apologies.. but you probably don't care to see them. ill try and post them for another day.. AND ILL MAKE SURE AND POST WHERE LANDY IS HEADED FOR TWO YEARS!! AHHH wajgpoweGHPOwhrjh!!!!!!!!!

as of now

life is pretty swell right now.

so here's some pictures to account for that.

last week was kinda stinky (thats another story lol), but i've got some of the best pals around and they sure have made life awesome. 

 

+ two fridays ago, ashely dougie chad jake and i went up smithfield canyons and adventured up there. it was pretty exciting and thrilling as we ran for our lives up a mountain

+ drove up the canyon one day- needed some alone time& snapped this pic of the mountains. looove ut

+ ash and i went up the canyon together- way more fun to go up with a friend. made a rad video (check the previous post)

+ SK8 CREW. on saturday, a ton of friends got together, go some scooters, and went up to campus and rode around. that was probably one of the most fun nights of my life. it was so fun to just ride around and have good fun. we went to the ampitheature and layed down and saw a shooting star- that was way neat! then we had a dance party to t swiss blank spaces. such a fun night. i love high school life in utah

+ went hot tubbing with some friends. fun fun. the juniors had to take the act the next day so us seniors didn't have to go to school the next day. thus party party in the hot tub. 

week nine. twenty fifteen

five months since i moved to logan

three months until i graduate

northern utah has become my home. a year ago i would never have pictured myself here, but i am here. & am so glad to be here. 

from ca to japan to hi to wa and now ut. ut will always have a special place in my heart. the people, the experiences, my school, the feel of the air and the way of life. i love it. im so glad i had the opportunity to come here and now as three months are left and i hope to experience it to the fullest.

-----

also, I've been reading this book. it is wonderful and its about being happy like christ. i would highly recommend it. it tells us how we too can become happy as the savior by being like him and following his example. i truly know that it's by following him and his commandments that we can find happiness in this life. each chapter focuses on a different attribute of the savior- so far this year, I've really been trying to follow these attributes and implement them more into my life. they are: being happy, holy, spiritually minded, humble, knowledgeable, serviceable, prayerful, peaceful, faithful, obedient, loving, forgiving, long suffering and dedicated. anyways as ive tried harder to reflect these attributes in myself, i really have found myself to be happier and wow what a great thing that is- to just be happy. genuinely happy! 

a day in salt lake

yesterday i left school early and headed down to salt lake. it was about a hour and a half drive down, but i stopped at target for an hour really fast so it didn't feel like a long drive. anyways- i was going down to salt lake to meet up with my friend josh (we became super good friends back in junior high when we both were living in wa). josh somehow managed to get walker boyes to meet us there too. i was pretty ecstatic because walker is one of my favorite photographers! seriously his work is AMAZING.

we met up at the capital building and began shooting. that building is gorgeous, and the lighting! oh the lighting! 

walker taught me a few things and it was soo awesome to learn from him. its so neat to be able to meet these talented individuals and learn from them. 

after that, we hit this way cool alley way with this crazy graffiti and got some good shots there! then we went to a rooftop and shot some photos as the sun was going down!

it was just a super fun day and it was such a privilege to shoot with walker and meet zoe and courtney! & any day i get to see josh makes for a good day.

also josh has some sweeet work, so check out his ig! 

heres walkers ig too! 

photo by josh

courtesy of timer cam

january

i wrote this last week and never published it....sooo its a little out-dated. but not really...although it is february now..


jan.

it came

and it went

and now its the twenty-fifth and idk how that happened.

january has been pretty great though. im actually kinda living up to my goals for the new year so go me! emcor and i have been going to these classes at the sports academy and wow i never knew my bum could hurt so bad. lol. actually i kind of forgot what happened this month, so I'm currently going through my camera roll so i can remember... oh ya i got a new phone. that was awesome. now my phone will actually survive past lunch. hooray. its a pretty lil thang, that iphone six. lets seeee... oh ryan's tire popped, so i got to watch him change it- that was pretty eventful because i had no idea how thats done and now i do.. so hit me up if you pop a tire! i got recruited as team mom for the one and only Holy Shoots basketball team and I've made 1/3 of the games so far, so that shows how great of a mom ill be in the future #goellie. about two weeks ago, the fog here in the valley was nuts.  ash em and i went out and took some pics, i was pretty pleased with how they turned out. then that next morning ryan and i went out and got some cool shots too! oh ya i got really sick! that was neat. I've never felt so weak and out. i ended up having the flu. they drew my blood and shoved this thing up my nose, it was lovely. then, whist at the doctor being tortured, they decided i should get my tonsils out... so that'll be happening on tuesday! (PS MY FAV ICE CREAM IS COOKIE DOUGH OR MINT CHIP). i was cleaning my room and i found an sd card, so i popped it in my camera and BOOM all my pictures from my exchange trip to japan last year. wow oh wow that was a good day. it was fun to reminisce my adventures from then. that was such a good time/ adventure! 

a little more on recent adventures- last night, ash, ben, other ben, curtis, sheldon, josh and preston + i, all went on an icy, deathly, spontaneous hike. we went up to the wind caves in logan canyon. we started at 8:30ish, got to the top abound 10:30 and got back down at 11:30. wow that was crazy. it was a pretty easy hike. just kidding, it was NUTS. ice was everywhere and I'm soo surprised no one went off the edge, although we each fell at least a dozen times. it was so neat though to be up there and see all the stars! beautiful! it was just a good wholesome time minus the times we almost died! ps WHEN SIGNS SAY TO STAY ON THE TRAIL, STAY ON THE TRAIL. ps this event can pretty much be related to any gosple topic, so next time i have to give a talk, ill be set. ex: staying on the straight and narrow path/ holding to the rod, the light of christ, etc.... IM SET.

senior year is going well. except i have a hard time actually wanting to go. I've gotten in this awful mindset that i do not need school and ill be better off without a hs diploma. sorry mom and dad. jk i promise i go to ALL my classes! (minus that one time corry, daniel and i went to mcdees first hour...HASHBROWN WASNT GETTING DENIED!) 

tonight- there was a devotional up on usu campus, so ryan and i went to that. it was great! it was given by Elder Cook. what a guy! he had some really great things to say. i really loved what he said about staying of the path of righteousness and how important that is. - it really is! (lol could totally relate that to the wind caves/ staying on the path haha!, again, so set for my next sacrament talk!)

i met with my stake president last sunday, and one thing we talked about was going on a mission. crazy how near thats getting! i can turn my papers in on july 26th! which means i can start them earlier! ah.

ahhhhh.

ah.

AH.

lds hymns of worship radio has been on my phone throughout the days and i looove it. holler to aux cord &pandora.

oh i got to work a shift with kris last week. that was quite the experience. she works at a candy shop. devil of a place. i downed waaay too much sugar.. #goellie. but it was way fun, i showed up just to hangout with her then ended up bagging some gummy lips by the pound and sweeping. fun fun.

i drove over to the temple one day and it was closed..sad. so i ended up sitting out by the fountain and kind of just reflecting on life/ thinking/ praying. I'm so grateful for the temple. it really is a blessing in my life. I've had the opportunity to go a lot before school, and wow, what a difference that makes. i don't have seminary this trimester, so that extra light in my life really does make a difference. 

oh sweethearts is in less than two weeks. whoooohhooooooo.

stoked for that!

january has been pretty great, so 2015 you've been good to me so far, thanks, much love

home.

today has been a bit of a homesick day.

its strange how often they are coming.

my heart is so heavy as i type this. 

so many memories and thoughts of home flood my mind-

the smell of those tall covering evergreens

driving down old windey 

walking home from school 

the rain

the smell of rain

pine needels.. everywhere!

my room

our soft carpet

my car. oh my car

the muddy pathway that i learned to navigate so perfectly on my way to seminary before the sun ever came up.

walking to seminary in the cold

hills 

more trees

dan barking

seeing the olympic mountains from our driveway.

target & going there for no reason just to go

caden. oh my sweet caden- i miss that kid so much. ah my heart. i miss him calling me from school to pick him up after swim or track. i miss driving him to the gym and picking him up at 11pm. i miss driving him to his friends houses all the way on the lake. i miss just spending time with him. jamming out to music. i miss our little competition of who could make it out the door to seminary first (to which he always won). i miss his loud and obnoxious friends over. i miss seeing his face. i miss my caden.

i miss wa.

i snapped this picture the morning i left. our sweet home. twelve years spent there. i can close my eyes and see every corner, every little piece of decoration. &i hope those memories don't fade.

a bit behind

im kinda behind here, so fourth post today/

today was really really great.

i didn't do a whole ton, or stay out past curfew because i was having too much fun.

no, i just kinda hung around.

i woke up suuper stressed out because this video i made of our trip to mexico got erased off my computer. oh my heart. soo much time and exactness. 

but

by some miracle it was on my external hard drive thing- no idea how it got there. 

but there it was. i cried. happy tears.

2m57s, who knew that would cause me sooooooo much distress.

so i got that all uploaded to my vimeo.

then i went to the temple with ryan and kendall.

that was the highlight of my day.

love the temple. & loved going there with friends.

ya thats what made my day really really great.

it was so nice to just sit and read the scriptures while we waited. the scriptures are truly amazing and hold so much truth.

oh and i did homework. leaving school for a week to go to mexico isn't that easy.

then got sushi with sally and some other people.

then came home and did more homework.

&&&im home on a saturday night which is weird. but this blanket that i took from grandpa and grandmas house if making my night cozy and warm, so I'm okay with that.

today was just so good. 

and now I'm sitting at my computer eating an orange pepper-- weird

oh and church starts at 11am

idk how i feel about that..

my heart belongs to 9am

oh and i ordered a new phone. hooray

hooray for january third

mexico pt2