Lately- preparing for the mission

When life is boiled down to reading the scriptures and shopping for mission items- you find ways to entertain yourself.
But really it is quite fun to never have homework- only to shop and read spiritual things and hang out with your family and some friends that occasionally visit. I like it anyways.

Idaho will be Idaho.

There are certain things in life that remain the same no matter what.
For me, Idaho is somewhat of a constant.
The people- they like their guns (protesting amidst all this political talk of taking them away) among other outdoorsy things.

The weather- will find ways to push your day around (getting stuck in a driveway for an hour and having all the neighbors come help).

Poor little car that had to deal with all that snow, and me, inexperienced snow driver at the wheel.

The clarity- it will always find a way to help you clear your mind and bring you peace. Maybe it's just the gorgeous scenery and wide open spaces, or the people, or the fresh air. There's just something that gives encouragement to me every time.

In short it was a weekend of visiting friends, sliding around in the snow, having fun (at green canyon, the Academy of Comedy- say that 10 times fast, and acoustic cafe), having some personal time to reflect on the things that try to worry me, and staying up late and sleeping in- laughing and talking. Laughing a lot. Thanks to Zoie and Aaron for letting me come stay with you.

North Carolina round 2

So glad I got to go spend a week hanging out with my brother and his family before I go. What's not to love about spending time with people who cook fantastic meals for you, have the cutest baby ever, and love to have you. Mostly we just hung out around the house and talked and played with the baby- which was fine by me. I got to read through most of my brother's missionary journals, which really helps me, as I'm preparing to go to go and seem to have all these weird little fears creeping up when they can, to see the fun and spiritual moments that someone else has gone through and to know it'll all work out. We also went to the state park (Raven Rock) and hiked around there, and went to some museums, walks through the neighborhood, replacing the lyrics to every song in the world with Miranda's nick names, walks through campus, made a birdfeeder, and stayed up watching tv and youtubes and eating way too many toaster strudels in one night.

Some pictures and videos from the week. 

The robot in the new library- it gets your books for you. And my brother the goof. 

Oldies movies- now I know where they got it.

Mohawk baby!

Miranda always knows when there's a camera and she stops whatever she's doing to look at it (and then try to grab it of course).

 My favorite moment was in Sarah's primary class when she asked "What did you do this week to choose the right?" And one kid answered back "well...I didn't steal." :)

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Wow- I know I do a lot of posts about traveling, and boy do I know I'm spoiled in that area. Humor me for two more before I leave on my mission.
Once upon a time 5 years ago my mom started working for jetblue. I immediately set to work researching all the places they flew and discovering that if I could only go one place on that list I wanted it to be Puerto Rico. I set to work writing essays for my parents of why we should go, why it was the best place to go. After a while I was convinced that it was pretty much out of the question. 5 years later I find myself at the end of my flight benefits, but with a last minute plan to finally go to Puerto Rico. So was it all that to get my hopes up about? Yes, I believe it was.
It kind of reminded me of Hawaii, except everyone spoke Spanish, the food was Mexican, and it was much less touristy.


Meet the party bus. You thought school buses were just for children on field trips? Well this one travels downtown blinged out and looking for people who want to party- I actually don't know it's real purpose, but everyone cheered each time it passed.

 Streets full of little taco and churro busses and all sorts of snacks. The best tasting is awarded to the dulce de leche churro. The weirdest snack eaten out of a bus goes to....strange fried banana scone filled with unknown fish and what tasted like tomato paste. Not bad though.

 What a better way to spend a Saturday than walking around Old Historic San Juan- filled with people flying kites on the open grass, statues, many many island cats, beautiful views and cemeteries, and an old fortress (who's pictures are scattered).

Now it's occurring to me that I probably should have turned some of these into collages...oh well. 

Many colorful simple houses packed everywhere. 

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Seriously, there are cats running wild everywhere. We even saw the policeman playing with one- of course when he saw us he went right back to his post. 

people flying kites

 Best statue award goes to the sheep with the flag.

Erika- these sheep statues remind me of something you would like.

 If you stare at this tower too long- you will be convinced it will fall on you.

Another day of boogie boarding and being lazy on the beach. 

 A day of hiking and driving through the jungle and finding waterfalls and great views.

And then the last day which includes no pictures of zip lining and midnight kayaking at  the bio luminescent bay. 

Zip lining for me certainly shoved out the door the possibility to still be afraid of heights. Especially in those moments when I got stuck hanging above the canyon and would either have to pull myself in or wait for someone to come get me. But I love that feeling of flying through the air over the canopy of lovely trees and smells and rivers. 

And the bio bay- in case you don't know what it is, is a river covered by mangrove trees and lake full of these micro organisms that glow when they are moved. They light up like little stars under your hand- it's incredible. Really it's  an awesome experience that I can't quite explain. 

And here's a video of some music being played on the streets (which really was everywhere, the people are just so happy!) But be warned, you should just listen to it, and not actually watch it, because it will make you motion sick to watch- I wasn't quite paying attention to holding the camera.