Smellin'

1. The Ranch in Hiko. perfection. it smells hay, the bathrooms smell like metal paint. The gravel road smells chalk. i can close my eyes and picture myself on the porch swing. cement, grass, rain, chalk, hay, the mountain, all those smells in one place, It's the best.

2. I had this old bag that i used for Water Polo and that i take to the beach. It's old, so it smells like old cloth. then add a little chlorine and shampoo smell. plus sunscreen and sea salt. so happy.

3. My grandma Hansen has these old yellow cups, and they have a very distinct plastic smell. When i think about it, i automatically picture myself walking through her front door. I can smell the mashed potatoes and the roast beef, the plastic cups and the old old old rusty metal tv trays we eat on in the living room.

4. The back dressing room at my high school smells like makeup, sweat, hairspray and paint. and the couches have a very unique 'rats definitely live here' smell. I still napped there like everyday. awesome.

5. glade + chocolate chip cookies = Brandon Paul's kitchen, one of m favorite places in the wooooorld.

6. Ginger ale immediately wooshes me back to kindergarten. I'm under a table on Jason's deck in a towel fort we made, and we're still dripping wet from the pool, and he offers me a ginger ale and i sip it and literally gag. He laughs and i made the worst face possible.

7. my mom's lasagna. best. smell. ever. ohhh, with biscuits.

8. The carpet in my old room. in the winter, the sun would come through the window and make a patch of the carpet warm. I'd curl up there and read, and it smelled soooo good.

9. Babies. the end.

10. this is gonna sound creepy. Katrina, don't judge me. hahaha. when Katrina was gone on her mission, I would keep one of her pillow untouched so that i could smell it every once in a while and it would still smell like her "Amber Romance" perfume. So when i was having a bad day, i'd use her pillow that night, and i would miss her and read one of her letters, and feel better. And i still love that smell. It kind of makes me mad though when i smell it on other people, though. haha i'm like, Katrina is the only person allowed to smell like that, ever.

Illinois pt. 1

Amish boys driving a horse and buggy! too cute! they waved to us :)

And excuse the window pictures. 

This is on a bridge crossing the HUGE mississippi river!

Our next stop was Carthage Jail in Illinois

Joseph Smith was hated by people who thought that his beliefs and preaching were threatening to their way of life. on many occasions he was arrested on false charges by wicked men who only wanted to lock him away for a few days or weeks to crush his spirit and intimidate him. On one of these occasions, he and his brother Hyrum were taken to Carthage Jail and there they were killed by an angry mob that rushed the prison. 

I have so much respect for Hyrum. He stood by his brother always, regardless of the consequences. 

I love this song about the two of them:

ignore the weird pictures...this was the only version on youtube i could find!

This song is about Hyrum and Joseph, and I think it's amazing. The church is built on people like Hyrum. Quietly doing good. obedient and faithful. 

This is the Jail. 

Joseph, Hyrum and two of their friends were held here. They sang and prayed and wrote letters. They knew when they left their homes that they would be killed. 

In the end, the mob rushed in, the four men tried to hold the door. The mob shot through the door and hyrum was shot in the face and killed. Joseph fell to the floor with him in mourning. Then Joseph ran to the window, and tried to climb out but was shot by two bullets coming up from outside, and two bullets in the back from the doorway. 

He was killed. He fell to the courtyard.

Being in the jail, and in the room where Joseph was killed was moving. also a little fond. How do i make tat sound not weird? Being there wasn't sad. I didn't cry. No one did actually, It was more an uplifting time. We all knew what happened there but it was calm. no sadness at all, only hope. I think that's why we call it a martyrdom. Because he died for a cause, and his murder, while it was supposed to smother the church actually propelled it forward. The saints moved on. 

That's because although Joseph founded and lead the church through one of it's hardest times, and he did so much, he was just the beginning. So his death was and is the driving force behind the church. He was a Prophet of God. I can never thank him for all that he did.

When we got to Nauvoo, we took all of our things into the hotel

One of the professors, brother Black, brought his 11 year old son Joseph on the tour and whenever the bus stopped Joseph asked his dad to play catch. they always did, and it was adorable every time.

In old Nauvoo, There are senior missionaries (volunteer missionaries who are married and  over 50 years of age.) who put on a cute little play for us. It was about the older saints leaving Nauvoo. too cute, honestly. My mom and Dad need to serve here! they would LOVE it. My mom told me that it's their dream mission. 

after that little rendezvous we walked "the trail of hope". The trail out of Nauvoo toward the mississippi.

The mississippi smelled. I took some picture to prove i was in it! haha

The trail was touching, all along the way there were quotes from the people who had to walk it, leaving behind their city. I cannot believe that they had to leave. I don't know how they did it. But more on that in the next post, because i have a lot to say about it and this post has been long enough.

Pismo patience

First of all:

Legacy (n)
anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor:

Also, I know that God knows me. Because he knows i'm not patient, so he makes me wait for things. And it makes them all the sweeter when they finally come. Even when the wait is painfully long and difficult. Some things I still don't see the sweet side to yet, and those things are hard to endure. But i know Heavenly Father is just helping me learn to be more patient and happy with what's happening right now instead of worrying about what may or may not be coming around the corner.


Finally, I took a spontaneous trip to the beach on Saturday. (That seems to be the only way i get to the beach, in the spur of the moment.) It was REALLY fun. It was a split second decision, but i'm glad i went. perfect relaxing day that i needed. I laid out on a towel all day reading, journaling, talking and laughing. Janelle and I walked all the way to the end of the pier to spit into the ocean. I left my phone in a jack in the Box in Atascadero, and half an hour later when i realized it was gone and we turned around, I prayed and prayed to get it back. Thank God for good people who turn in things instead of stealing them. I got my phone back. We sang a lot. And I actually made friends, and bonded with old ones, which i love.

Then, When we were almost home, we turned onto an old back road and went stargazing.

It was a good day.

Six Flags

no pictures today.
just a tiny story.

Sometimes you need a crazy spontaneous out of the blue trip.
sometimes you need to cross of something from your "I've never done these things because they're crazy" list.
Sometimes you need to ride a roller coaster.

I've never ridden a roller coaster before, so it was awesome. I went with my Brothers Donny and Derek, Donny's Girlfriend and too of my good friends; Rory and Trey.

I've never had such a carefree happy trip. We all woke up early, my brothers and i laughed the whole time we were getting ready. the car ride there was a blast and the whole time at the park, we never fought or got (visibly) angry. Beside the 2 hours in each line, the trip went silky smooth!

I Love my brothers.
I love my friends.
I love my fanny pack.
I love in-n-out and WATER.

I love roller coasters :)

p.s. because we had Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve, Derek decided to continue the Christmas "days" and the day we went to six flags, the day after Christmas, is now called, "Christmas Seth"