Reasons I Love My Hometown

I've loved being home this summer. Mostly because I love my family and I'm soaking up the last bit of time and hugs I have with them before I start on this crazy grad school adventure. 

However, I also have loved this summer because I LOVE my hometown. 

Reasons why? 

1. The View

It doesn't get much better than the view from the middle of 65 acres. I'm telling you. Especially during a lightening storm like tonight. Gorgeous. 

2. My Neighbors

Really, it doesn't get much better than having your grandparents, favorite aunt and uncle and cousins all living next door. Best part? You always have people to play catch with a football. 

3. Mint Fields

I adore - ADORE - the smell of mint fields. They are a gorgeous green color and I love driving past them on a cool summer evening when they are damp and smell delicious. 

4. Cropdusters

There is something so comfortable about the sound of a crop duster flying overhead. Plus they are absolutely amazing to watch. Their daredevilish stunts that are actually their job take me away from the real world for just a moment. 

5. My Home Away from Home

I love this house, this family. They are my favorite. My best friend, someone who loves me like a daughter, little sisters I can borrow since mine has bummed out to get married [what's that about? geez.], and the man who cuts our hay. Couldn't ask for more. Especially since their mom let's us invade her kitchen for our girl's night brownie traditions. :]

6. Trucks

Do I really have to elaborate? Trucks are the epitome of hometown for me. Driving, riding in the back. We have a beautiful new Dodge on the farm that I am just itching to drive. 

7. Haystacks

Haystacks are right up there with trucks in screaming home to me. But this summer I especially love haystacks because we had a sleepover on top of one. That's me at the back. And you can see the staircase Jess's dad build so we could get up. It was fantastic. :]

8. The Shooting Range

We've discussed this before. But a list of why I love my hometown would be incomplete without me including the shooting range. I thoroughly enjoy shooting things. The only two games I really play on our Wii: MarioKart and Top Shot Arcade [a shooting game].

9. Movies in the Park

Every other week my hometown has been putting on movies in the park. Free. Just bring a blanket or a chair. I love it. I feel all community like and get to have fun too. I see no problems with this scenario. 

10. The Snow Cone Shack

This is close to my favorite thing about where I live. I have tried a good many other snow cone shacks and very few have even come close to meeting the expectations set by my snow cone experiences I've had growing up here. Grape. Always grape. 

11. Floating the Boise River

What more do I need to say? Except that really it's much better on a hot hot day and not a almost chilly day. We were frozen when we got out. But I love everything about it. The water. The sun. The huge bruise on my butt from hitting a rock. 

12. Boise

I love the city. The trees, the downtown, the people. The football team. And for reasons such as the Boise Music Festival. He is We and Andy Grammer live? I don't mind at all. :] 

13. Canyon County Fair

There are few things I love more in this world than the smell of the pig barn at the fair. Except maybe the view of the fair from the top of paratroopers. It's my very favorite ride. I just learned so much at the fair. Changed and grew so much. And the smell and the sights and the sounds take me right back. Plus I love my once a year heart attack inducing fair food meal. 

14. Back Roads

The thing I love very most about where I live though is the back roads. Windows down, radio blasting on a cool summer night. There is no better feeling in the whole entire world. 

Right there in that moment I am the me I like most. The girl I want to be every single moment of every single day of my life. The girl who lets her hairdo gets blown out. The girl who sings at the top of her lungs. Because she honestly doesn't care what other people think right then. The girl whose cares and stresses and worries can be summed up and then carried away in a country song or two.  

When I'm in that place life is simpler, solutions are within my grasp and I just don't give a darn what any one thinks of the crazy girl with blown out hair and music too loud. In my car, driving with my music, that's my happy place and I love how much I get to drive on the back roads to get to where I live. 

p.s. meg's wedding is this coming saturday. that's why i've been noticeably absent from this blog and why i will be absent for a little while longer. as far as that goes. i still have mixed feelings daily but i'm in a good place. i know that i'm where i am supposed to be in life, doing what i am supposed to be doing and for now that's enough for me. i'm trusting, hoping, and learning patience. 

p.p.s. other things worth noting in the time I haven't written: i got an iPhone. i swear it is smarter than i am. but i love it. i saw harry potter 7 and cried through about the last half hour of it. more on this later.  i paid off my car. i am totally debt free. [for two weeks til i take out my student loans. but still]. and i have an accepted offer on a house! i don't have to live in a box in las vegas! 

And I like it that way

Let's talk about country music for just a second. I love it. Adore it.

It regularly can summarize my life quite nicely. 

Take Tracy Byrd for example:

I do like it that way. I like my life.  [Thank you to my Dad, my Mom, my Uncle Scott and Aunt Jodi for making it so I can live the way I do. I have a spoiled life and I'm grateful for what they do for me.]

We go shooting for our branch home evening. 

We go shooting on Friday night. Just because we want to.

It's vanilla root beer. Come on people.

Emily wins the prize for most quoteable of that night:

"Do I have to put my headphones on?"

"I didn't even look. I had my eyes closed."

and

"Wait. Do I have to aim this thing?"

This girl cracks me up.

Also she blogs. Go check her out.

However Aubrey comes in as a close second with:

"I tried in multiple positions and I still couldn't get it."

and

"I'm not your friend or a girl."

I really like this girl. Also. She introduced me too Pterodactyl the movie. So bad it's good.

And let's just take a second to talk about how much I love this girl. 

I've known Jessica since we were like 12. 

She makes me laugh always. ALWAYS. 

She gets me. Better than almost anyone. She knows where I'm coming from and where I want to go. 

We can pick up where we left off no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other. 

She's probably the person I am still closest with from high school. That's saying something.

I adore her. [And just look at this picture. How could I not?]

We have family campfires and roast s'mores. 

And I get to hold a new kitten on my lap. 

The fire pit was my uncle's birthday present. On Sunday when I went down my attire was pearls and irrigation boots. I'm classy like that.

 We go to Succor Creek for branch home evening and get ridiculously excited to take pictures with the Oregon state sign. 

We had hot dogs roasted over the campfire for dinner for this activity. Delicious. Nothing quite like a fire cooked hot dog.

We hike up a steep mountains to caves and slide back down on our bums. 

Let's all take a minute and appreciate Emily's face in this picture. Fantastic. 

In summary: 

I'm from the country and I like it that way. 

Summer Thunderstorm

I'm home. And I'm currently listening to a summer thunderstorm. There are few things I love more. Lightning and thunder make my top ten list for favorite things in the world. 

I love being home. I love my family. They've been clingy. Apparently they missed me or something. My sister was home this week with her boyfriend. We had a blast. We played paintball on Saturday. Who knew pain could be so much fun? :) 

Sundays are a little different here. I'm going to the single's branch. There's maybe 40 people. maybe. I love already knowing everyone. But it's odd. It's not enough to really be vibrant and living. I wish they'd combine singles branches from the other stakes into one huge ward. We might have to drive a little farther to get to one central building but it could be so worth it. After the branch which meets at nine I drive over to the Stake Center and hang out in the Nursery. My parents are the nursery leaders right now so I just get to play with 18 month - 3 year olds. I could just go home but I'd rather hang out with the little kids than be at home alone!

I just posted like five posts from my last month in Provo. I wrote most of them in my head but I was crazy busy and never got around to it with social adventures, final papers, final exams, graduation and getting sick. And once school was done I just never really wanted to sit down and do it. Turns out blogging is one of my number one ways of procrastination but I once I graduated I no longer had anything to procrastinate. So I never blogged. [Sorry Beth - you had to wait for pictures for eons. :) ]. So tonight you got a pouring of posts to match the rain I'm getting here.

Summertime!

Oh how I love summertime. I have been at home for a week and a half now and it's so wonderful to be home. Very different. But so happy. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

I never told you about Jord's wedding. It was absolutely fantastic. Everything was just lovely. On Friday night we went to a dinner for her at Magelby's which was almost awkward because it was all of us girls in a corner and then a whole lot of people that we didn't know. That night we stayed at Sam's house and had a sleepover. It was so much fun. We all crashed out on the floor together in the couple blankets we managed to find and actually slept pretty well. We got up around 7:00 the next morning and Leah did Jordan's hair. Once Jord left the rest of us got ready and then drove together to the Mt. Timpanogas temple. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. Absolutely perfect. Jord and Greg came out about noon and we all took big group pictures. Jord has never looked so beautiful. She was just radiant. After watching Jord and Allie I've decided there must be something about being a bride that just makes you glow. Because they were gorgeous all day. We had a few hours in the afternoon so I ran home and put together their wedding present and then I left for Springville. Jord's reception was at the Springville Art Museum. It was so pretty. But we had a lot of work to do to get things ready. Us girls got there at 4:30 and we didn't stop until the guests started to arrive at 6:30. Then we basically just hung around and washed dishes for the two hours of the reception. We didn't really know anyone but eachother so we just sat together and helped with what we could. One of those things was providing Jord with her Diet Coke. She was so tired. And I don't blame her. Jord and Greg left and we cleaned up until about 9:30. It was a long day. But so worth it. I was so happy I could be there with Jord and help her. I love that girl.  Here are a few pictures.

The next morning I went to Sacrament Meeting with Lyss and Eva and then drove home. I hadn't seen my sister until I got home so I was very happy to be back! 

So now I'm home and it's summer! So what am I doing with my time? Well....

I moved into my room!  I know it's only for a little while but it was long enough that I wanted to be HOME and not in boxes and suitcases. Yes I am sleeping on an airbed. My little sister took over my old bed and yes my nightstand is a tote. But look at the windows!!! I guess I should explain that this is not only the first time I have been home for longer than a couple days since high school but this is also the first time I have really lived in our new house. I'm pretty excited, I love my room. And look at the sunset! Mmm. I love Idaho. 

I also renewed my membership to the local YMCA and have started going everyday with my little sister and cousin. I'm taking a jogging class through BYU independent study so I'm working on that as well as doing a lot of biking and 3 days a week attending yoga. I love yoga. So much. It is one of my very favorite things to do. 

I've been spending a lot of time outside working in the garden and helping around the farm. I spent a long time with the kids and their fair steers too! I'm so excited for the fair. It is one of my favorite parts of the summer. I missed being outside so much last year when I was working 8-5. And I am so happy to be getting tan (okay, I never get tan... but less white)!

I spent a lot of time watching movies for a couple of days because my little brother Karl had to have his appendix taken out! So he isn't really going anywhere too fast so I've been spending time hanging out with him. Karl and I decided to start a club since we are both missing organs now. For some reason the rest of the family doesn't really want to join though. I can't imagine why not. :) 

We had a pretty laid back 4th of July this year. Since Karl was down we just stayed together at home rather than going off to other places. Dad was working a 24 hour shift but he did get to come home for a bbq so we just spent the evening as a family. Luke and I were the only ones who wanted to leave so just the two of us went into town and found a place for our blanket and watched the fireworks. I love fireworks so much. My favorite is the BOOM! I love being really really close to watch. 

I'm spending a lot of time with my sister. I love her so much. She is my best friend in the whole world. Even when she is driving me CRAZY. (pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty.... please!) You are welcome to make fun of me but we went and saw the Hannah Montana movie at the dollar theatre. And I loved it. Everyone will probably think I am ridiculous for saying this but I love Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. Her music is fun and easy to listen to and perfect for blasting with the windows open. Last night I felt like I flashed back to high school. My little sister and her friends had a movie marathon here and I got to be the "cool big sister" (ha.) and hang out with all of them. It was strange to be in that environment again. Not bad. I loved our high school hanging out. But so weird because I haven't seen people act that way for so long. I love my sister's friends though and I'm so glad that she found such good ones to be with. They are some pretty fantastic people. I'm also really glad that my sister and I are friends now. There was a long time in high school when everything between us was a battle. But she was even willing to let me hang out for the girl's night part of the evening and the game of "truth." And that meant a lot to me. Because she means a lot to me. 

I've been doing a lot of letter writing, a lot of reading and a lot of random nothings. I have a feeling that I will be ready for school come fall and I am kinda missing London (and quiet time! ha. I'd forgotten how loud home is.) but for right now I am just LOVING summer time at home!