Foster The People - Helena Beat

So I was just browsing iTunes when I decided to go to "Albums under $8" when I found this band. Um...ya. I totally love them. Let me know what you think :)

Memorable Memorial Day...Part 2

Here are the pictures of the flood that I promised. They aren't really in any particular order, but you can see that it was quite the ordeal. We got there at 6 AM and worked until about 11:30. It was pretty intense.

A Memorable Memorial Day

Like most families, we have an annual tradition for Memorial Day. We always go up City Creek Canyon. It is soooo much fun! I think my family would die happy people if we could just be in the mountains all the time. Seriously though. We just love it so much! So it makes sense why we would go up there every year. Well, the weather here in good ol' Utah has not been cooperating very well. It was rainy and cold and snowy at points so we just planned to go to my Auntie's church.

Now that you've had some background, let me get to the real story.

So last night I was skyping my most lovely friend, Miss Jebbica, until the wee hour of 12:30. (Ok yes, that's not really that late, but whatever.) After we said our goodbyes I found myself browsing the web for no apparent reason. To be honest, I don't even remember what I was doing. Needless to say, the next time I checked the clock it was 2:30. I thought to myself, "Well poop. I best get to bed since I have to get up at like 7 to help pack up stuff for the day." Little did I know what awaited me this morning. At 5 in the morning my mom comes in and says this, "Laura, Heather's basement is flooded and we are going up there to help. Do you want to come?" My first thought was obviously me wondering if this was a joke, but I soon realized that it was not. Poor Heather and Shane! Their basement was full of water that was 4 inches deep...EVERYWHERE! I quickly got up, my dad packed up some shovels and tarps and off we went to their house. Well...jokes on us! It was raining and snowing and hailing this morning! That seriously does not help when there is already a ton of water all over the yard and down in the basement. So anywho...we get there and seriously there was sooooooooooo much water everywhere. From what I gathered from the neighbors, the city had broken some drain thing a while ago and never fixed it and it floods up the elementary school's yard/field thing and then floods the neighborhood. Basically there was a small lake in the yard of the school, and it was rapidly flowing into my sister's yard and flooding the basement. We immediately got to work getting sand bags and piling them up to keep more water from going downstairs. My brother-in-law's dad was a genius and took off the toilet so a ton of water was going down the drain. Thank goodness for that! After we had got the basement blocked off an the yard all sand-bagged, we got to cleaning. We threw away a ton of stuff that got ruined. Luckily though, there was a lot we could save. One sad thing though, her laundry was on the floor in the laundry room and it was completely soaked!! We had to take a journey to the laundro-mat. Ya...we did 17 loads of laundry and got it all cleaned and folded. We were at the house working for a good 5 hours. It was intense. I took some pictures so you could kind of experience it to the slightest degree.

On a happier note, it really sucks that their basement got flooded, but it was so fun to be with the family. We were working hard and really just enjoying life ha (minus H and S). Leave it to my family to make a bad situation better with humor :) Later today we went bowling which was quite hilarious, ate at El Matador's, and then we came home and just relaxed after a long and eventful day.

Here are some pictures from the day...

We are nerds.

Ya...I'm kind of a creep haha.

Aren't they just adorable?? :)

My mom is pretty good as well :)

Julie had excellent technique! She only got less then 7 like twice :)

My dad is pretty good at bowling haha.

Typical Tanner and Carissa being weirdy's!

Cute Ben and Julie...the parents to be :)

My Dad got his highest score bowling, EVER, today :) And please notice how they spelled "Lollipop" haha.

It definitely wasn't the Memorial Day I was expecting, but we had fun and I don't think I'll ever forget it :)

PS...to those of you in my family that went to the church, I love you all and missed you today!

PPS...I can't get the pictures of the flood to work, so I will post those tomorrow when I'm not exhausted.

Rain, rain...don't go away :)

So I have done it...I found something that I love and that I want to blog about.



Rain.





I found this gorgeous picture online and it just made me remember/realize how much I love the rain. It is amazing. I know that a lot of people are getting kind of sick of it, but I just can't get enough of it. (Honestly speaking though...I am sick of the cold haha) There is something so beautiful about rain. I love the way it enhances and brightens all of the colors of the trees and mountains and houses. I love the way it clears the air so there isn't that nasty smog. I love how I feel so clean when I go outside, like the rain is washing away all the gross things of the world. I love how I can take a deep breath and breathe in the water. I love the smell of rain probably most of all though. It's so crisp and refreshing, and I never get sick of it. I love the rainbows too. I miss the days when rainbows only represented something beautiful and sacred...no judgments towards anyone/thing, but it's true. A rainbow is a reminder of a promise that God made to us, and I love to see them. I am all for all things colored, and rainbows just make me happy inside :) Everything about the rain is fantastic. What it represents and how it just makes the world more beautiful than it already is. So I suggest to all, that instead of moping and crying about the rain, enjoy it and love it, and remember what it means. Soak it in...literally (said in British accent) haha.

lame.

I've been realizing that my posts have been getting progressively worse over time. I can't figure out why. Perhaps I am just becoming a boring person (I would like to think that I'm not). I just don't get it though. Is there nothing to talk about? Am I really just a crappy writer? Do I just have no profound thoughts ever? I think I am going to try and analyze more things in life so that I can blog about them. Haha...but seriously. If I can't find something to blog about then I'm not looking hard enough. There is so much goodness and such to share with you who read this and I'm not doing a good job. So, at this time I would like to apologize to all who take any interest in reading this here blog. I will do my best to find things that are fun and wonderful and beautiful to blog about so as to keep your interest, and keep me from feeling dumb. Yay! So anywho...I'm off to read before I sleep. Good night!

lalala human steps "amelia"

Basically this video is amazing. I have recently discovered a love for contemporary ballet and this is epic. I love the filming and the editing and the choreography! The dancers themselves are amazing. A lot of people find this very weird and don't like it. That's totally fine! I will say that I think it's beautiful. Let me know what you think :)

Better.

I am going to be...


-a better dancer

-a better friend

-a better daughter

-a better sister

-a better cousin

-a better niece

-a better Latter Day Saint

-a better example

-a better listener

-a better communicator

-a better pianist

-a better organizer

-a better person

I think I pretty much can thank Whitney for helping me think of all these things tonight. I know that it may seem like a huge list of things to work on, but if I take this one step at a time and I can do it. I want to be better. Better at everything I do. I want to try harder and get more out of life. There is so much to learn and accomplish, and I feel like I just take it all for granted. I don't want to be like that anymore. I have so many talents and opportunities given to me from a Heavenly Father who wants me to learn and grow, and I'm going to take full advantage of it. So starting right now...I am going to be better.

There's nothing like...

A Daddy who cares.

Just the other night I was heading out of the house to hang out with some friends. My Dad seemed uneasy and so I asked if that was ok and he said to me, "Laura, just don't be out super late ok." At first I kind of laughed to myself and thought, "Oh Dad, you know I'm not stupid." Instead I told him that I wouldn't and that I loved him very much. So off we went out to play, but I couldn't stop thinking about those words that he said to me. He knows I'm an adult and that I would've probably done what I wanted, but I just couldn't shake it from me. And then Whit said something along the lines of, "That was the sweetest thing that your Dad said that to you." That's when it hit me. I know without a doubt that my Dad cares for me more than I could ever imagine! Here I am thinking I can just do whatever without thinking twice. I just want to have fun...but sitting at home is the sweetest man alive worrying himself over what his daughter just might be doing. Goodness. Where do I even begin to repay him for the love he has shown me?? I absolutely love my Daddy. He is more amazing then ten amazing things!! I am so happy that I have a Dad who cares about me enough to worry and wonder where I am. I am glad that he keeps me from getting into trouble. And I am so glad that I can come home to him and know that he doesn't have to be disappointed in his little girl. I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today if I didn't have him. I love you Dad!

Spring is Springy!

Well geez. It sure has been a long time since I've had a good post. (In my opinion...those who read this may feel that there never was one ha.) So I suppose I had better get to writing. I think lately I just haven't been feeling it. There was nothing that I really felt like writing about. I am pretty sure that everyone has those phases where they don't feel like blogging at all. Well I just had mine. Hopefully I can snap out of it though. I really like this whole blog business :)

Ok so let's get to the real deal....

I'm so excited!! Do you know why? Because it's Spring, and Spring = babies and marriage! Woot woot! Two of my best dance friends are getting married as well as my lovely sister! And my cute sister-in-law is having a baby!! Can you believe it? Me...an aunt. So weird. I never thought it would happen! Haha. Ok...I lied. I did think it would happen, but now that it's hear it seems so unreal. Granted, I am technically a "step" aunt, and I do love Austin oh so much, but this is different. It's like a biological niece/nephew (we don't know the gender yet). Babies are just amazing to me. The other day, the "parents-to-be" brought over some ultrasounds and we got to see the little baby! It was sucking its thumb and kicking out its legs. It really is so beautiful. I can't even begin to say how excited I am for those two. They will be great parents and I can't wait to see this baby join our family...this November! Yay for Spring, and babies, and rain, and marriage, and life! :)

DiSnEyLaNd!!

Here are some pictures from our "fantasmic" trip to Disneyland! Enjoy! :)

Daft Punk - Derezzed (from TRON: Legacy)

TRON + Daft Punk = Genius! <3

~RelationSHIPS~

Do you think that the word 'relationships' is significant? I recently was thinking about all my "relationships" and the thought popped into my head that they are relations with other people, but sooner or later they tend to sail away. (hence the SHIPS at the end of the word) Sometimes I think it's good that relationships change and such, like lover relationships and some friend relationships, but sometimes it kind of sucks. It's super hard, and quite frankly I don't really know how to handle it. Is that normal? And then I started thinking, maybe it's me who sails away. Good relationships can last forever if you want them too, but it takes effort. Perhaps I just haven't been putting in enough effort to really keep them. How lame is that? Sheesh. So anywho...I'll stop rambling now. The point is that I am going to make a goal to make my relationships last. I'm not going to sail away and let the good times and the strong bond fade away. Obviously all these people mean something to me, and it's rude of me to just let it go because of time. I love you all, my dear friends and family and everyone and I will be better at keeping in touch. I promise :)