So... this might be cheating a little bit, but today I'm going to drive by the MTC and be the crazy sister checking out every single missionaries face as I sit with my camera posed to take a picture, in case one of them is actually him.. Stalker, I know, but stalking is fun right, plus I've never done it in my life, so might as well get it out of my system on someone with whom it isn't completely creepy. So, I just took a huge break from this blog to write a frustration blog on my other blog, I feel slightly bad, but if I didn't get that stuff out somehow, it might turn into an ugly roommate confrontation, which I have done one too many times to either enjoy or benefit from. I have learned that it never works to confront a roommate, such as the one I currently occupy my apartment with.
The name of the post, does have a legit meaning though, no worries. I was going to tell you about the playing/fun stuff I have been doing. It is absolutely beautiful here this week. The temperature has been perfect, for the most part, minus the few little, rain showers here and there. The trees, fall colors, and mountains are also extra beautiful this week. I don't know if I am just more observant, because I have decided to take a step back and recognize the things that make this life great, or if they are just extra beautiful.
Actually, lets back up a little bit. Last week, Brent, Eric and I drove the Alpine Loop in the first snow, and Eric saw his first Utah moose. He was so excited and Brent and I finally have proof that there really are Moose in Utah! No one believed us, but now we have a picture. The canyon was fantastic, the colors were spectacular and we had a lot of fun. We also found a little area called Cascade Springs hidden in the mountains. It is an area about a mile long with little cascading waterfalls with paths winding through them. Then later last week, Brent and I went on a double date with Angela and Daniel up the ski lift at the Sundance ski resort. While we were on the ski lift, and at Cascade Springs in the canyon, I got two of my favorite pictures of Brent and myself. The first is from Cascade Springs and the second is on the ski lift.
Fast forward again to this week. Monday night, Josh, Angela, Eric, Kymberlee, (Ali's Cousin, that was slightly awkward) and then me and Brent, went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze in Alpine, Utah. About halfway through the maze, my tummy started killing me so Brent and I once again cheated our way out of the maze. Don't worry though, before we leave Utah we will make it through the legit way. By the time we made it out of the maze I realized that it was only because I took aspirin right before without eating. :( Boo. It was fun though, I got a picture of myself in Cinderella's carriage though which of course made it all worth it. Plus, I got to be a big horn sheep, even though Brent insists it was a billy goat, and I get to sit in a giant rocking chair, that fits about ... 8 people...ish.. Tuesday night, as everyone is already aware, Kevin flew in to prepare to leave for his mission on Wednesday morning/afternoon. I threw a surprise party for Kevin at Kiwanis park that night in which we roasted hot dogs and s'mores over a fire. There were about 20 people there, as demonstrated in the previous posts. He seemed to have fun. Wednesday, Casey, Kevin's roommate, went with us to run errands for Kevin and his mission. Brent, Kevin, Casey and I all went to lunch at Chili's after that, went and took group and individual pictures at the temple, MTC and Rock Canyon, and then went and dropped him off at the MTC. I only shed a few tears, until later that day of course. :)
I feel like I'm rambling again, and I'm about out of things for this week. It has been a fun week, minus the roommate issues, and Kevin leaving. I also just want to say, we are praying for a family friend the Brown family. If anyone knows Michelle, Angela and Jessica Brown from Olney, IL and haven't heard, Jessica was killed in a car accident early this morning. Our family is keeping them in our prayers, as well as Marisa Aguirre who is close to our family, and one of Jessica's best friends. We love you both, and wish the best for you and your family. God be with you till we meet again Jessica.
So, I am editing some stuff on my individual blog and I came up with this picture. It kinda makes me happy. Because I edited the whole thing, including writing the copy :) I got a letter from Kevin (Elder Rothert) today. He seems to be having fun and doing well. Leave me a comment if you want to write or wish him happy birthday!
I wrote it all by myself. Anyways, I only cried a little, I am sure there are more tears to come in the future though. He looked very spiffy and he was definitely ready to go when the time came. We all wish him luck and send him with lots of love. 
He commanded Brent to take care of me, which was also very cute :) Watch for updates about his mission on http://whatiexhale.blogspo
Go Elder Rothert, you'll do great!
First of all. Many of you know I have been waiting extremely anxiously to find out where I was going. The worst part was is that I gave them the wrong address! I didn't know when/where/how I would receive my call. Luckily my old room mate Kris was living at my old address still but it was maddening to not know what was going on. Not to mention that I was going home and I couldn't just go over to my old apartment to pick it up any more. So, I left Provo, I was in the 5th week since I turned in my papers and there were moments when I thought I would die if I didn't have my call within the next hour.
Bishop Potter told me that my stake president from Provo, President Ford, was also on the line. I just thought it was bad news. We went through the "How are you?" stuff and then they gave me the news. If I hadn't been on the phone I would have been yelling from excitement but since I was on the phone I decided all I could do was jump up and down in the living room. Dad was in the attic and mom was in the garden so no one knew yet. When dad came down from the attic and mom back inside I finished my conversation in my bedroom and when it was over ran into the middle of the house and announced it.
another day, we got together with our friend John who is in the coast guard and currently stationed in Sacramento, about 30 min from where the Dahlin's live. We also got to go to San Francisco, the town that never ceases to amaze me. We went to a Spanish Catholic Mission, the oldest building in the city, we drove down the main drag by Pier 39, we went to the Cable Car Museum, the Rose garden, and Japanese Tea Garden, and the Asian art museum. I'm sure I'm missing a stop or two as well. Then, I helped Brent drive back to Utah, I'm not sure how much help I was though, I love sleeping on car rides.. :) I was home for about 3 days, then I drove Kevin (more like Kevin drove me) to Colorado to meet with Mom and Dad so they could take him home for about a month until he leaves on his mission. He got his call by the way.. I'll let him post on here all about that, if you haven't already heard from Facebook, or some other random source. Anyways, we spent the weekend together, most of which I was sick boo!
I developed a fever, so I was feeling pretty gross the whole weekend, but it was great to spend some time with 
the family. It was a good month. I posted a few pictures of each event.
This was taken at a ward activity. It was night in the movies. I was Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible Movie. I'm next to "the Rrunnaway Bride" My room mate Trevor and his girlfriend Sarah went as Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. They are both really cool. The ninja is my room mate AJ. Hermiony Granger all the way on the left is Anna Nichols, she also a really good friend of mine. (We are Harry Potter and Kelly Clarckson buddies.)
Above is a picture of me, my old room mate Casey Stoddard, and our good friend Jen Palladino (who just recently got engaged). We are at a wedding reception of our friends Vashti and Steve Porter. Jen was there all the way from CT!
Now, this is an awesome group. These are the cholas! On the top is Kelsey Mortensen on the left and Lauren Hungate on the right. On the bottom row (left to right) is Kaitlyn Mortensen, Natasha Singh, and Nikki LeFever (who is leaving for her mission on Wed! (the 15th). We are all really excited that she is going to Poland) This picture was taken at a Kelly Clarckson concert. Anna Nichols (Hermione in the earlier picture) and Kelly Uhariot were also there...but I think this picture was taken before we saw them. It was a blast!
In this picture I am attacking Shannon Wilde with her laptop (this is staged by the way). She was here for a week and a half visiting. She used to live in the ward but she left for the summer before going to Prague.
Kris Swinson, my old room mate and current room mate (aka my short room mate, aka the dwarf, etc.), Lauren, Shannon and I all went to Diego's a Mexican restauraunt. It was fun and you don't get too many pictures of Kris so I thought this one was important. I also got to drive his car for about 10 seconds. It was crazy. Because Kris is a dwarf he has extensions on the peddals and his seat has a HUGE extra cussion on it to boost him forward. I could barely drive it becuase I was so scrunched. It was pretty awesome.
Forest, which was beautiful. It is amazing how many different landscapes one state can be home to. That was fun, we were joined before the pageant by Brent's brother Eric, his girlfriend Ali, and 
her friend visiting from Texas, whose name escapes me right now :( Yikes. Anyways... the pageant was good at always and there was quite an interesting protester crowd including the "Jews for Jesus" who told us they had the same beliefs as us, but we were wrong.. yeah.. figure that one out...Anyways, it was a great presentation as usual, and Elder Perry said the opening prayer. For those of you out there who don't know who that is, he is one of our twelve apostles, like in Christ's day and the pageant is about how the Book of Mormon came about and the restoration of our church, and Christ's appearance in the Americas. As for those of you who do know all of that stuff already,it is a fantastic pageant and you should all check it out sometime if you get the chance. Second,
the "jungle". Brent's family came to visit this past week on their way back from Yellowstone and Eric insisted he show us this place him and Ali found that they call... the "jungle." I suppose it is because it looks a little bit like the television show LOST, which is obviously a jungle, and it was raining and misty on the first day they came. I will say it is more swampy and wet than the majority of Utah and Utah valley, but still didn't meet the "jungles" of Indiana in my opinion. The mosquitos however thoroughly enjoyed me being there so I had to wear a hoodie in the middle of summer so they couldn't devour my flesh. Third, for the fourth, work was so slow they let me get off early, and I went with two of my roommates to see the fireworks put on by the Stadium of Fire/Freedom Festival at the BYU football stadium. I would have to say I was expecting a little more, but they were pretty good. I got some pretty sweet pictures anyway. It started sprinkling a little during them, and that morning during the most ridiculously crowded parade I've ever sat through it did pour, also adding new meaning to the phrase "It's raining on our parade." The parade was about 2 hours long, complete with giant floating Madeline, Paddington Bear, and a giant Eagle, about 12 
high school marching bands, Hawaiian/Tongan Hula dancers and their own Polynesian band, and 3, yes THREE, Bagpipe bands. I didn't even know there were three in the United states... but..alas, they are all in the Utah Valley I guess. Anyways, people were lined up 24 HOURS in advance to mark their spot for the parade which happened to be going by on the main street that I live on, so there were piles of people sitting outside of our complex all night, kind of amusing. Anyways, enough rambling.Pictures included yadda yadda... Oh P.s. I have included some pictures (at the end) of Alpine Loop, which goes through the Provo canyon/Sundance, which is fantastic. There are trees with carv
ings from the 40s
I'm sure from BYU students, and some really cool waterfalls, etc. The day we went it was raining and absolutely stunning. Also you should be able to either single or double click the pictures to see larger versions of them. Not sure which so just mess around with it... :)
