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.