pink hair don't care

i have always wanted pink hair. or lavender hair. i would take either one. with going to byu, this was impractical and generally against the honor code. there was NO WAY i was going to bleach out a strip of my hair, and dye it the color i wanted. i was absolutely not going to do that because i have very strong feelings against it. so, after much contemplation, i realized i was going to be away from work for almost a whole week during the fourth of july, and that was the ideal time to do it. all i needed was pastel chalk and water. unfortunately, right after you do the chalk in your hair, it's the most unmanageable beast in the world, but that's also when the color looks best. boo. i have this thing where i absolutely have to be able to control my hair (whether it be the cut, styling, or color), so this gave me major anxiety. however, having pink hair rocks. the chalk washes out pretty fast, and I did this on july 1st, and my hair still has a little hint of pink. i'm in love. and if i ever dye my hair brown/darker, i'm totally trying out lavender. that would be sick!

life lately

hello people.

so... i can call this two months of me not blogging a "blogging cleanse" and that makes it alright, right? haha

anyway. here is life lately. next weekend i'll be in St. George, UT with the family, so i'll make sure to take some cool piccys and stuff, and actually blog them.

^^^i got a new supervisor position at work, and the blanket was included (hashtag joke)

^^^this sweet girl from my work got married, so a few of us carpooled to brigham city for her reception. we somehow ended up matching, catching part of the bouquet, and looking like her bridesmaids

^^^caitie came home for a jam-packed weekend of outdoor plays, shopping, and concerts

^^^my cousin kyra is having a baby! we anticipated baby evelyn's arrival with a baby shower and this fruit baby. i mean, fruit baby. 

^^^ladies, benji came to college. he wants to hang out with me everyday, it's exhausting to be in such high demand (hashtag LOLOLOLOLOL)

^^^he's living in the new heritage buildings, and they are so huge it's disgusting. i'm pretty sure my old heritage apartment would fit in one of his bathrooms

home

//visiting my old high school will always be super weird
//practicing piano
//trying to roast marshmallows, but the wood was wet. we made a valiant effort
//playing mom
//sure mom i'll babysit, sure

to look at all of the beauty around you

"a few years back, as i was driving home from work, i had a silly thought that suddenly turned straight genius on me. i realized that all i really wanted was for my life to be beautiful. i wanted my home to be beautiful, i wanted my thoughts to be beautiful, i wanted my feelings to be beautiful. i wanted to create beauty in my life. if it was worth doing, i wanted it to be done beautifully. life didn't seem beautiful at the time, but i wanted it to. it was silly and shallow, until suddenly it wasn't. god created for us an insanely beautiful world. beauty around every corner. music, art, science. all beautiful. and loving families, a passion for learning, and a sense that we can have an impact on what surrounds us-- to me, that is beauty. and holy, for sure. so i stopped considering that desire shallow. i started to think of it as a way of honoring god, who is the one who created beauty to begin with, after all."

from Natalie// found  here

i have a dream that looks a lot like green gables, and i look a lot like anne shirley, but without the red hair, of course, because nobody likes being called carrots. she's a pretty littlewhite house settled in between green, green, green; and it's not the green in these utah mountains, it's the green of the place i call home. it's the kind of green that you can't imagine until you've seen it. 

there are 70-year trees and 80-year trees, even 100-year trees with wrinkles like laugh lines in their bark. a wrap-around porch is complete with swings, chairs, and ferns in between each column, and a door the loveliest shade of red you have ever seen. 

there's a garden out back full of squash and tomatoes and peas-even strawberries! i'm wearing a loose sundress and my hunter green rainboots carefully examining each fruit to see if it's ripe and ready to pick, and if she passes my inspection, she's placed into my basket for dinner later that night. 

the sun is gloriously warm! it shines on my fair skin begging each freckle to reveal itself, the wet air curling my crown of baby hairs around my head. it's summer and it's hot, but it is beautiful. 

as i am busy in my garden, the inside of my house is singing through the open windows, big armfuls of knock-out roses fill every vase and pitcher i own, filling the house with an aroma of summer. i have two little kittens named howard and francesca (howie and frannie for short, naturally), ham and beans in the dutch oven on the stove, and fresh bread rising on the counter. 

but the quietest part of the house hold the best secrets. walls and walls of books, old books, new books, borrowed books, lost books. where future littles can hear stories, their giggles are carried in the wind. 

isn't it perfect? 

dreaming of summer

costa maya and last boarding call (cruise part 6)

our last day of ports was in costa maya, mexico. by this point, we were exhausted. i mean, did you see all of the sweet stuff we did all the other days?!? and we were only here for a couple of hours, and there was hardly anything here considering it had all been wiped out by a hurricane a few years back. however, it was still beeeeauutiful. we came into the port, and did a little shopping. after that, we drove into town and walked down the beach.

^^^just trying to fit in with the locals, you know.

^^^i happened to think this sign was hilarious. xanex?

^^^we also got to see some dolphin friends

later that night, we had a dress up dinner again (aka i was rose, obviously), and we went to bed. friday was another day all at sea. we played a little put put, and watched some movies. we also really enjoy piling on top of each other in my family and making fun of each other in the most loving way possible (cough....cough...). so there was lots of that, too. 

^^^i had to make sure the life jackets were safe and secure. this was titanic 2.0, after all.

by the end of the trip, we were exhausted, but the good kind. and even though i didn't find some hot rich boy to fall in love with (let's be honest here, i only wanted to be rose if jack was a young leonardo dicaprio), but it was an amazing trip. saturday morning we docked really early, got off the boat really early, then drove a couple hours, and then had about 7 hours of flight time, and i was back in provo. ready for new adventures.

this place is unbelizeable (cruise part 5)

belize was a little different than all the other ports. we had to dock in the middle of the ocean and get on smaller boats in order to get onto the land. belize was beautiful. it was probably my favorite place we visited besides honduras.

when we got to the city, we had to take an hour bus ride to the river we would be travelling on later. the guide told us all of the history of the country, which made it one of my favorite places. everyone fell asleep on the bus. 

when we got to the river, we had to take an hour boat ride to the Lamanai ruins.

on the way we got to see some cute monkey friends 

i seriously drank so much coke while we were on this trip, and i don't even like coke! it was puuurty good though.

when our tour started, we got to have an lds tour guide. he was telling us about the history of the lamani ruins referring to the book of mormon. experiences like that make everything more real, and i loved it so much. also, check out those huge palm fronds. it felt like jurassic park and that we were midgets in a giant forest. 

they say if you kiss a giant mayan ruin head with big lips, you'll have good luck, but i don't know if i belize them or not. 

we climbed to the top of the high temple. it was insane. we had to use the rope halfway up, and then crawl on our hands and knees the rest of the way.

^^^this is totally rad. i mean, look at that sky, it doesn't even look real.

the view from the top, but it doesn't even do justice

^^^we climbed to the top of that

along with our friendly spider monkey friends, there were some not-so-friendly howler monkeys. the sound they make is unreal. t-rex's much?

///tropical paradise.