please excuse this ambiguity

perhaps it'll be the first time [in nine months] i've been even relatively nervous.

perhaps.






but no perhaps about it
i know it will be beautiful.
the sky was especially cerulean today.
the leaves were fiery.
and the air was like biting into an apple:

sweet, refreshing, and alive.

lately

look at what i've been doing recently.

hiking the y...at night.
that's cliff. he's awesome.

starting fires.
at the epic camping trip with my girls.

more starting fire business.
you like my plaid?
(from left, excluding me: nae, autumn, mauri, and sexy sadie)

here's me.
shooting an ak-47.
and there's cliff again.

lastly, there's me and sexy sadie (i'm at the bottom), epically
jumping 35 feet into oblivion.
the thunder clouds in the background were an added bonus.

to you naysayers:

i conquered a mountain today.






literally.

i've got the sunburn on my neck and the back of my legs to prove it.

carpe diem

it has been one cuh-razy week.
for whatever reason, zest has been spicing my life and making me excited to be alive. so excited.
the idea that i've got this list of things to do before i turn twenty-one has ignited some sort of something in my soul where now i feel like nothing is limited for me. it's refreshing, really.

i'm going to guess that maybe exercising all this week and cutting back on the no-good foods has had something to do with it.

life is miraculous.
there really is so much to be grateful for and so much to be in awe of.


and i fully plan on spending as much time as i can making the most of it. especially right now.

[weheartit]

i'm giddy. still.

enough said.
cross that off the bucket list
(and the 21 list)

give peace a chance

one of my life's goals?
hear paul mccartney sing let it be.

life goal achieved without even planning it.
more to come.

welcome to wyoming

nothing says "boredom buster" like a trip to wyoming.



i wish i had some profound metaphor or statement to go with that.
but i don't.
although (not profound) we dedicated the trip to wyoming boy after we heard this song when we passed through midway. which lead to the discussion about why i will never understand why kid rock became a country singer.
happy summer!

"are spiders insects?"

cuneiform tablets?
check.

pedicab by the washington monument?
double check.
using up your cash so you can't buy a hot dog
from the vendor the pedicab drove you to?
irony.

rocking hard at the hard rock cafe because
you had no cash for a hot dog vendor?
rock on.
they even played a billy song!

seeing the star-spangled banner.
check.
p.s. it was dark. this picture has been touched up. lots.

being that close to michael jackson's fedora?
oh man, check.

and seeing a smithsonian misspell nastia liukin's name?
yeah.
the day was successful.
they switched the "i" and the "u."

fireflies and hydrangeas

a shack outside the back window.
it was raining.

i'm not sure where the east coast specifically the virginia/dc area has been all my life. it's like the first time i went to paris. i couldn't believe that such a secret had been kept from me. the cobbled streets, the architecture, how incredibly remarkable the eiffel tower is.

that's how i'm feeling about dc right now.

i was arrested by humidity the second i walked outside. and then i was overcome by the man trying to get us to take a shuttle instead of a taxi. we took the taxi instead.

pretty sure we passed the pentagon on the way to where we're staying.
also pretty sure i lost a year of my life on that taxi ride. not that he was scary. i'm just paranoid. and totally from utah. not used to riding in a taxi with a strange man at the wheel.

the man ended up being a tender mercy.
we didn't know where we were going, and he didn't either. he was patient as we drove around town until our friend called us. then he knocked off some of the charge for the baggage. bless him.

and then there were the hydrangeas. i remembered france. there was a yard where there were pink ones and blue ones and purple ones.

they're my favorite.

and i saw a firefly for the first time. right by the abandoned iron on the lawn in the park that reminded me of my second home in england.

oh dc. where have you been all my life.

to read more about my escapades, check out sadie's blog.

countdown

tee minus eleven hours until i board a plane to go to d.c.

pretty excited, to say the least.
drama shall be put on hold (that's right missionary. eat that.)
work shall continue to go on without me (sad to leave sanskrit, though who is a person, and who is kind of my go-to guy right now since all of mine are on missions)
and sadie and i will be eating cupcakes next to the washington monument. ha.