A beautiful place

Hello again! It's been a while. Tooooo long for me. So lets get going again, sound good?

Last Saturday was my birthday! I got to do a lot of fun things and had a great day. One of the places I went was sprinkles cupcakes. Yum!

Then I remembered how close the San Diego temple was to sprinkles and decided to go to the temple grounds. While I was there I had my brother take some pictures outside with me. I'm so glad I did. Because the temple means SO much to me. I love the peace and joy I feel when I go to the temple. I love the wonderful feelings I get there. It is amazing how even outside on the temple grounds how you feel. My favorite primary song has always been: "I love to see the temple. "

(Picture by me)

"I love to see the temple".

1. I love to see the temple.

I’m going there someday

To feel the Holy Spirit,

To listen and to pray.

For the temple is a house of God,

A place of love and beauty.

I’ll prepare myself while I am young;

This is my sacred duty.

2. I love to see the temple.

I’ll go inside someday.

I’ll cov’nant with my Father;

I’ll promise to obey.

For the temple is a holy place

Where we are sealed together.

As a child of God, I’ve learned this truth:

A fam’ly is forever.

This song means even more to me now that I have been able to go to the temple. And I can not wait for that wonderful day when I can be married and sealed in the temple to my eternal family. I am so grateful that I am sealed to my own family!

It was a beautiful Saturday and I'm so glad I had that chance. It was a perfect thing to do on my birthday!

Click HERE to read a poem I wrote about the temple a few years ago.

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!

The fair!

On Thursday we went to the Fair. I have never been before. Ever. So we went! This year my mom bought our family the passes were you can go as many times as you want.

Brianne came with us too! And of course Ryan & Molly.

Aaron, Ryan, Brianne, and my mom. Oh yeah, and Peaches the pig. That's who they're all looking at.

Me..... with a palm tree!
The lambs were really fun to look at.. they were so cute!
I think I'll call this picture "Three".

It is Crazy how many games they have! And how many stuffed animals!

Me & Ryan went down the slide ride they had. (It was funner than I expected!)

And the carousel.... It was okay. :)

We also went on a water ride, looked at the vendors, and looked at the photography exhibit!

And I didn't try any crazy fair food either. I went home and me & Aaron got Chipotle for dinner. Wayyy better than fair food!

AND I got a pink Chevrolet water bottle & I won a Dannon tote bag.

And that's all I've got for you today. :)

Happy Saturday!

My question for you is: Have you ever been to a fair?

Don't you love the beach?

Where I live is a beautiful place. It is mostly always warm, sunny, and well beautiful. We are also lucky enough to live near some pretty cool beaches that aren't too far away. Yesterday was my brothers 19th birthday (Happy Birthday Aaron!) So in the evening we met up with Ryan, Molly, & Brianne at the beach to celebrate. It was a little cold (I said it was mostly warm!) but we had a fun time.

Aaron taking pictures (He is an amazing photographer!)

This picture screams beach to me.
Isn't this view great?!
Cutest baby in a hat ever..... to bad she's not your niece!
Oh my, beautiful.


Evan brought his kit along... it was awesome!

One of my favorite pictures. Ryan & Evan laughing about something, WITH the beach in the background.

AND my favorite part of the beach! The seagulls! Nope, just kidding. But I do like chasing them! :)

Cute baby feet
And a cute smile!

I love this picture I got!! I got it right as the kite flew by me.
A while before we left it started looking stormy but I liked it because I knew I could get some cool pictures.

And my family loves to play Frisbee. Especially at the beach.
This is my dad getting ready to throw.

So now my friends you have seen my pictures from the beach. But now I have something to ask of you. I would love some comments. I mean really, I have 20 followers and many others who I know read my blog. So feel free to leave me a comment, I love getting them!
Ideas: tell me your favorite picture, how great my pictures are :), your favorite thing to do at the beach, or how much you love the beach! Have a great weekend!