Beautiful Moments

I was once inspired by a lady I never knew. Her name is Natalie Holbrook, and I read her blog. One day she made a post about her new years resolutions and what she really wanted was to create a life full of beautiful moments. Here is her exact quote "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 beautiful. life didn't seem beautiful at the time, but i wanted it to. it seemed silly and shallow, until suddenly it wasn't anymore. our god created for us an insanely beautiful world. why is that, i wondered? he created beauty around every corner. the earth, the animals, and music and art and science. all beautiful. and loving families, a passion for learning, and a sense that we can have an impact on what surrounds us--well, 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." 

And there you have it. Now I am determined to create a life full of beauty. To me, that means a life full of happiness and no regrets. I'll do what I must to be happy, and I'll follow my heart through life. My personal mission statement in life is this. To never be satisfied without trying my hardest to make a difference in all my surroundings. To lift the burdens of others. Love passionately and be bold and confident in all my relationships. To have an eternal perspective at all times. To create beautiful moments and memories. To chase after any dream worth pursuing. And to never stop improving myself and my knowledge. And so I begin a blog about my adventure of a life. It's more of a journal with pictures really, for myself. And if anyone ever stumbles upon it and finds themselves a bit inspired, I'd be honored. 

And now a bombardment of more pictures than anyone should ever have in one post. This is a combination of moments in my life I consider to be beautiful and a way of introducing myself.

The Salt Lake temple during Spring

Love this time of day

Favorite work of Art. Turner's Slave Ship. It's in Boston

This from the trip to Boston. I love cities!

My big brother. He and his wife are SO in love and SO perfect for each other.

Spending two days in the sun with my best friend playing with Chalk.

Saturday morning fishing trip

Paragliding at sunset

Tai Chi in the park in China

A semester with the best roommates ever.

Me and my sister up at college together

Late night talks on the railroad tracks watching the stars with my roommate

Living in a small town

The best picture of my dad smiling

Children and bubbles. There's just something about it.

Dad can always find a work project. And though building fences and working on cars is not my favorite thing in the world. I do love spending time with my dad.

Sunrise. Tent camping on a beach at Lake Powell

Seeing my sister this happy and this in love.

And art. Art is my inspiration.