Ready and Rarin'

Since when am I ready for school to start!? I can't wait, it seems so far away, and I just want to get started and into the swing of things. ARGH.

quick status report.

It's 12:30, I am at the Big Sky Lodge in Rapid Falls, South Dakota. My parents are sleeping. My dad is snoring a little.

This trip has been amazing so far. I am completely falling in love with America. It really is astounding how huge it is, how many places there are, and how different each place is. So many gorgeous thing to see, and fun things to do.

We started drove about 10 hrs the first day and paid a visit to Kirtland, Ohio. Cleveland is a pretty cool city too. We visited the temple, which was kind of weird. It's now owned by the Community of Christ, formerly the RLDS. For a place where so many amazing spiritual things happened, it really almost felt devoid of the Spirit. After we toured there, we went to historic Kirtland, owned by the LDS church. We stepped foot in the visitor's center, were greeted by an earnest missionary couple, and my parents immediately started to cry. The difference was palpable. That tour was so wonderful.

Then we stopped in Chicago. Hot, sticky, sweaty and AMAZING. Maybe my new favorite city. My life was changed when I finally saw, in person, a Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat in the Institute of Art.

Then it was 13 hrs across the gorgeous farmlands of Wisconsin and Minnesota all the way to South Dakota. I spent much of this time conked out, leaning against the cooler that takes up more than half of the back seat which i currently feel like I'm living in. Fun though, I loved it.

Today we toured the Black Hills. The scenery was breathtaking. I think my favorite thing that we've seen so far is the Crazy Horse memorial. I'll write more about that later. We also drove through Custer Park and saw the amazing Mount Rushmore. Then we came back to our little hotel and sat in the hot tub for a much needed relaxer. Tomorrow we leave at 7 to drive to Yellow Stone! Please bless we don't get eaten by bears


I don't know if this made any sense. I'm going to sleep. Goodnight and I love you all! ...whoever reads this blog, and cares anyways haha

Out on the Open Road (For real this time!)

So now I bid goodbye to the land of green trees, rain and thunderstorms, the best pizza in the country, the ocean, humidity and some of the best people ever. The summer got off to a slow and impatient start for me. I wanted to go back to school immediately. I missed everything I'd left behind in Utah (well maybe not everything...my dorm room comes to mind) and was counting the days until I could leave. The summer turned out to be wonderful. I made new best friends, spent good time with my family, worked a cool job, learned to appreciate New Haven Connecticut, spent time at the beautiful beach, ate the best ice cream, had a wonderful calling, cut all my hair off, and ended up counting the days in trepidation, looking at the time when I would have to leave. Don't get me wrong, I'm really really excited about going on this road trip with my parents, and I'm so excited to go back to BYU and see my best friends and family, and progress in school, but this summer really was a winner (not in the sarcastic sense) it really was wonderful. Of course, much of this is to do with Ian Hansen, a new best friend that I met this summer. I'm very glad I came home this summer, and got to spend this time back here in Connecticut.
and we leave tomorrow at 6 AM!

Peter Pan? Tinkerbell? Whatever, I love it.

Before!


and...AFTER!

Hair.

Okay. So, since I chopped my hair senior year, I've realized that I generally look better with short hair. Since last fall, however, I've decided that I desperately want long hair, and have been longing (ha! pun) for it ever since. Now, don't ask me why, but the other day, I got a sudden urge to chop again. This time, though, even shorter. Like really short. Like boy short. Like pixie cut short. This is simultaneously terrifying and exciting. My hair can make or break a day for me. That sounds really shallow, but my hair reflects and influences me (probably more than it should, but oh well). My appointment to get it cut is this Thursday, and I have to admit, I've started to have second thoughts.
This was my original goal, before the chopping urge:

Annnd this is my new goal:


I don't think I'll back out, but I'm still having those nagging second thoughts, especially since my hair is the longest it's been in a couple of years, and happened to look good at church today. Also, cutting my hair that short will condemn me to short hair for at least the next two to three years while it grows out, not to mention some awkward growing out stages. Oh well, I'm still excited! Also, this will be marvelously easy for my road trip.