EFY

Last week I had the chance to go to EFY. I went to EFY in Utah at BYU. I got to sleep, eat and live on campus for a week. Nothing like going to college there,but it was still fun to do. I roomed with my cousin Emma and we had a fun time. It was such a spiritual week but also really fun because you got to meet so many amazing people. I took SO many pictures and am posting a lot of them because my blog is a journal to me.

Me
Our room wasn't quite to clean...
So, time for a little story. Me and Emma were down a hallway looking for out dorm room. A girl pops her head out of the door and I see her and I'm like "Lexi is that you?" and the girl is like "Marianne?". Well Lexi and me are 2nd cousins and turns out she was on my floor! She wasn't it my company but it was fun to see her. And yes we were surprised!

Well that wasn't the end of surprises! After we got to our dorms we got to meet our girls group. Everyone was nice and we got to know each other. (Below is our girls group).

After that we got to meet our company. (2 girl groups + a guy group).
This is our whole group on the last day. (Including some random kids that obviously wanted to be in our picture.)

Well when we met our whole company I found TWO more 2nd cousins! (I already knew my 2nd cousins but didn't know they were coming). It was so funny, so surprising and crazy.

Me & Marin (2nd cousins)
Me & Sofia (2nd cousins)
It doesn't even end there!! Below is a picture of Kylie. I met her and me & Emma were talking to her about Texas. (That's were she's from). After having one conversation we figured out we were related by marriage. We were all stunned and were laughing! It's amazing how we got into the same group.

Okay I'm done with my stories of relieves. :) Moving on.

We had an amazing couple, Brother and Sister Murphy that got to speak to us everyday. They gave the most inspiring talks and got to know you personally. They were awesome!

This is Madi. She was my counselor! I liked her and she was fun.

This is Becky, the other girl counselor. She was way more fun than Mandi, so I'm glad she was there. So each morning after our group devotional (Witch was WAY to early) we would have a company devotional and then our personal scripture study.
I read my scriptures here one day. It was so pretty!
One morning we woke up to a sky filled with hot air balloons!
Two girls from my ward were at EFY in a different session but we were able to meet up with them a few times and we went and got Ice cream with a girl who was in our ward but is now up there at BYU for college. It was really great to get to do that. :)
Yes the ice cream was great too!

Me
Most of our company at lunch time

One of my other friends Larkin was at EFY too! (But in a different session). It was still fun though because we go to got to some classes together, eat dinner together one night and she came over to our dorms while me and Emma packed all our stuff up. :)
Me and Taylor. We became really good friends!
Me and Emma
And these two. Identical twins. I'll be honest I still can't tell you witch one is witch!
Maddy, Sarah, And Emily. Maddy and Sarah are from Vista!
Tye and Preston. They were best friends and did everything together!
Nolen eating a hamburger.
Mallory and Kate. I got to know Mallory really good.
The other Girls group. My Camera died right as we were taking pictures of our group.
A picture I took while we were walking up to dinner.


There was only one night that I didn't like. Game night. Outside. In the pouring rain. With shorts and T shirts. With lightning and thunder. So fun. BUT we made it! Until they let us all go back to our dorms because there was so much rain and lighting. (All of us below at game night before it started raining bad.)


Our company got to be with each other almost every moment of the day and it was really fun. By the last day everyone was really good friends with everyone. Our group was really close and we had so much fun together. At lunch we would eat and play games together and even during our free time we did stuff together too.

Getting ready to jump...
Playing games.

I am so glad I go to go to EFY! It was an amazing experience for me and I want to go again for sure! Of course I didn't post all the pictures or write out other fun things we did but this was part of my experience at EFY!

What makes you happy?

Yesterday marked 6 months since my wonderful sweet grandma leaving this earth. I am sad. But I know I have much reason to be sad. One of the most elect lady's has left us and returned to our father in heaven. She is happy and I know wants me to be too, even though it is really hard. I know she is right now doing something that brought her much joy in her life. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know she is helping others to learn of this wonderful church. She is being very patient and loving while she does this too I know. It is amazing to imagine. I will try to do my best to also share the gospel with others, so that they can feel the joy and peace that I have!

My Grandma was a LOT of fun. She was always telling us stories, or making us laugh. She loved to laugh! She taught me how to make her amazing brownies, and always showed us what she was sewing. A lot of the things she made for us! She was the queen of games and loved a good game of phase 10 or scrabble. She would always sing some pretty funny songs to me and she always encouraged me and was there to talk to me.

I Miss her a LOT. But I know she's busy somewhere on the other side smiling.... and when she smiles YOU smile. I know she would not want me posting about how sad I was here but instead finding something else to be happy about. So here are some things that I am happy about that have been going on in my life or have made me smile.

I am happy about completing our Classical acting play "Two gentleman of Verona". It was so much fun to do but the joy definitely comes in the completing of it! My mom was the director and she did an amazing job. She spent more than 12 plus hours a day for a few weeks on this play!

Evan, My mom and Me


Here is just one of me..... Don't you love that creepy hand in the background... Megan. :)


I was happy that I got to spend Natalie's birthday evening with her. It was on the night of the play. Here she is opening the gifts I got her. I got her a bunch of our "Favorite things" we like to eat or do. And just some random stuff too, but she liked it. Sorry the picture is blurry.

This picture So makes me smile!!


I am really happy because I now have a garden!!! For one of my classes we have to plant a Garden and I finally did it. It is a hanging garden made from shoe organizer. Sounds weird yes, but I think it it pretty cool! I am growing, 3 kinds of flowers, carrots, rosemary, cilantro, green onions, lettuce, and spinach.

I also planted this pretty flower that has an AMAZING fragrance!
And.... A raspberry bush! We havn't planted it yet, but it's outside and it does look better than it does in the picture. (That's a picture from when I first bought it.)

I am happy because on Sunday we are leaving for a little vacation! My dad has work in Arizona and we are staying at a really nice hotel! This is just ONE of the pictures (I found on there website) of the pools where we are staying. They have a lazy river too! I can't wait to go get in that pool....


In my new swimsuit from lands end!
Isn't it cute?!


But I'm smiling even more because some of my favorite people are coming and meeting up with us in Arizona!! Susan, Dave, Josh and Holly! Were excited!

Evan, Susan and Josh on new years eve.

I am happy for this pretty picture of some flowers in my Grandparents backyard after General conference. Conference was awesome!

And I was so happy for the great hike me and Evan went on yesterday. It was so pretty!



And lastly am happy to share a sneak peak with you of some cookies I made today!

Okay and now I am happy because I finally got got up with some stuff I've been doing! I'm not at all caught up with my flicker but at least I am with my blog! :)

Happy Birthday to Me! (Can you see the pictures now?)

FINALLY! I spent a long time trying to get the pics to show up... so I'm hoping they do. (Oh and after the last picture there's a little white box that won't go away. Just so you know it's not a picture that you didn't see or anything).

So my birthday was back in July and I never blogged about it so I guess I will now. I had no idea what I wanted to do on my birthday and no plans which is so not like me at all. But it all it was a good day.

I started the day off with cinnamon rolls and then opening some presents. My first gift was an I pod! My mom got me a purple one but then I changed my mind and wanted a pink one so we went and exchanged it for a pink one. I also got the I home.. sorry not pictures.

I also got this super cute book written by the same people who wrote Hello cupcake. You will want it!
My next gift was.... (No not cupcakes) but these amazing cupcake wrappers that stay bright and don't fade when you bake them!! I got like six boxes of different kinds. :)

(Homemade Raspberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting made by me in amazing non fading wrappers)

To see more about these wrappers and to look at the different kinds go HERE.

Then we were off to visit two cupcake shops! The first one we went to was called "Baby cakes". Here is my and my friend Natalie.

Here we are again.

Some yummy cupcakes....


And more yummy cupcakes!

Next we went to another cupcake shop this time called "Heavenly cupcake".


I took more pictures here.

Don't you just love cupcakes??
We then went to In In out for lunch! (My pick).

Then we sampled them..... My lemon raspberry cupcake from heavenly cupcake.
Me, my mom's, and Evan's cupcakes from Heavenly cupcakes.

And my Red velvet cupcake from "Baby cakes". SO after eating our cupcakes (During different times throughout the day) we decited that we all liked "Baby cakes" cupcakes the best!

Then I had an easy going afternoon at home and we exchanged my I pod for the color Pink.

For dinner we had take out PF changs lettuce wraps (THE BEST THINGS EVER!)

And ate at this beautiful little park that was hidden away.
It has a waterfall and ducklings! By the way the ducklings loved the brown rice we gave them. :)
And since we were so close and I love this store we stopped at....
Me in Crate and Barrel

Not great pictures but my favorite colors!


Lime green!

And just because my mom let me get two from the pile below. (For cupcakes of course!) I got the little balls (We found they have chocolate in them!!) and the green sanding sugar.


I had a great day! Thank you mom and Dad!


Then on Sunday we had a Family dinner and A Nothing bunt cake. White choc raspberry.. SO good. And that was my birthday!