Florida trip with Emily!

Leaving SLC...on a jet plane...Emily and I planned this sister trip a few months back. We traded our parents Marriott time share week in Park City for one in Florida. We then booked tickets to Disney World and Universal Studios and then planned a day at the beach and a session at the Orlando Temple.

Em and I at Epcot, Disney World! They had their annual Flower & Garden festival going on while we were there. It was fun to see our favorite characters!

My main tow truck...Mater!

Defending Goofy in soccer!

The circle of life! Lion King.

You've got a friend in me! Woody from Toy Story.

And my favorite Disney movie, next in line to Frozen now...Beauty & the Beast!

I miss London!

Bambi & friends!

Em & I at Magic Kingdom with Cinderella's Castle!

I love this photo! I look so intense, "oh yeah" I think is what I'm screaming! And Em is in her usual mode, casual! This makes us laugh every time we see it!

Em and I in front of Universal Studios!

We love minions!!

Beautiful palm trees on the grounds of the Orlando Temple!

Orlando Temple

Selfie on the swan!

Em and I on our swan paddle boat on Lake Eola! Another bucket list item checked off!

Lake Eola in the center of the city of Orlando, Florida!

Enjoying a chocolate covered mouse cream bar!

Scared out of our wits to ride the Tower of Terror ride! Not really, but it made for a fun selfie!

Em and I are in the top left corner, great picture!

Em and I at Clearwater Beach!

Clearwater Beach, Gulf of Mexico!

It's so fluffy!

Hogwarts, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I love this place. I enjoyed just soaking in the atmosphere and hoping to never leave such a magical place!

Butterbeer is so good! Non-alcoholic may I add! I had two in one day while we were there, you just have to get it!

I love Harry Potter!

Hiking Angel's Landing with best friends!

Zion's National Park (view from Angel's Landing)! My friends and I planned this trip a few months back. We were excited for months to camp for a few nights and hike as much as we could for one day. It's hard with all of our schedules and getting work off for 4 nurses. We only had a small time frame to work with. We drove down to Zion's after church on Sunday, March 30th and camped in Watchman's Campground, site F5 for 2 nights. That night, we got in around 8:30p, set up camp with our headlamps, and then got the briquettes ready and cooked pizza sandwiches in these cool sandwich cookers Joy had bought at Walmart. The next morning, I used my dutch oven for the first time, lined with tin foil, we cooked cinnamon rolls for 20 minutes! Perfection! Joy, Lisa, and Amber commented they were better than cooked at home. We then packed our lunches, or Amber did for us, and we drove into the park. Parking was pretty full, but we found a spot on the side of the road and got on the trail early to hike Angel's Landing. Even though I've hiked Angel's Landing many times, it never gets old. The view of the canyon is spectacular and always leaves me in awe of the beauty of God's creation. We ate our lunch on top of the summit, which was pretty windy and cold, causing us to put our jackets back on for the trek down. We then hiked to the middle and upper emerald pools. On coming back to camp that night, we got the briquettes ready once more for tin foil dinners and for our peach cobbler. Yum! I lined my dutch oven once more, dumped in 2 cans of peaches, sprinkled a yellow cake mix over the top, and added 1/2 a can of sprite, cooked for 50 minutes and wala...perfection! We had such a great time! We told stories around the campfire, deep secrets, laughed, and took lots of pictures! These girls are my best friends at work and I am so grateful to have their friendship in my life.

Amber Sherwood, friend and fellow RN co-worker, and I keeping warm while we prepare our morning breakfast of dutch oven cinnamon rolls and oatmeal.

 JoyAnne Clayton and Lisa Nielson waking up!

The girls and I with our perfect, succulent cinnamon rolls cooked in my dutch oven.

JoyAnne and I with the sign warning of a "strenuous climb", "cliff exposure", and "narrow route"!

Selfie!!

Our attempt to do a "newsie" side heel click jump picture at the upper emerald pool, what do you think? I really can do it, just didn't capture it! :)

Me ;)

I love these plants, not sure what they are called, but they make for a great up close texturized photo.

The girls hiking down a narrow area at Angel's Landing.

A beautiful snapshot of indian paintbrush, growing through a crack of sandstone on Angel's Landing.

Zion's Canyon...and me!

Zion's Canyon with indian paintbrush growing on the left side.

Another jumping picture! I don't know why I can't seem to smile, control my arms, and legs all together while jumping. I just can't! :) 

I love this picture! We decided to do a ninja jumping photo! I love that I'm in a sense..."kicking the camera" but my face isn't quite what I wanted it to look like. It's ok, I laugh every time I see this picture!

My tin foil dinner.

Our tents set up in the beauty of Zion's National Park. My favorite thing is driving there in the dark and waking up to the beauty of the red rock and green trees!

My instagram post!

My roommates (Angela Astle's) beautiful wedding in St. George!

Sunny St. George!! I met Angela in May 2012 when I trained her on my unit (Infant Unit). Angela was a part of the float pool, thus they are trained and then work on each unit for a few months. After a year, they work on their own in whatever unit needs help. I had told her I was moving soon and didn't know where to. She then said she had just moved to Salt Lake City and didn't like her roommates. I told her we should move in together! But I didn't think she'd take me seriously. About a week later, she asked me when we were going to start looking for places to live. I was stoked! We clicked right away and the rest is history. We've been the best of friends for the past, almost 2 years! We've had lost of good memories together, including camels, ice castles, sushi, boba, shopping...lots of shopping, crafts, and men! She beat me to the altar, but I know my turn is close behind!

 They were married in the St. George Temple!

Angela Astle & Tyler Aston = Mr. & Mrs. Aston, est 3/21/14

 A selfie with the cute couple! Congratulations Angela & Tyler!!

Angela's wedding colors were turquoise and coral pink, unique, but turned out to be beautiful together!

Angela's younger niece, Eleanor! I just loved on her the two days I was down there!

Angela's cute niece, Evelyn! She has so much energy!

My instagram post of the happy day!

What have I been up to?

Well I learned how to braid my hair in the front from Pinterest! What would I do without it?

I held the best 'stache' party ever on February 1st! I love how funny mustaches are, yet I don't really like them on guys! But we had a stache cake, stache cookies, staches to wear, and we 'pinned the stache' on Tom Selleck (the only man who can get away with a mustache)! I had the best time ever, had a lot of friends over for food and games!

Stache Bash!

Friends with our mustaches, fingers, etc!

In February, my roommate Angela and I visited the Midway Ice Castles! It was truly spectacular!

Angela and I with Olaf!

 And in between hosting 'stache' parties, working, and ice castles...I snowboard at Brighton!

And with the spring weather approaching, I went hiking up Bells Canyon with a friend, Jeremy Mathis on March 15, 2014. The view of the valley from the trail was amazing, yet the trail was more so ice than dirt! My hands were incredibly sore at the end of the day from holding onto the twigs and trunks to steady my feet so I didn't fall down the trail.

 The Salt Lake Valley from the entrance to Bells Canyon!

And then just a few days ago, my roommate Allyson Merrell and I attended the Utah Opera! We saw Turandot, which has the amazing song 'Nessun Dorma' in it and I finally know what it's all about! Turandot is a Princess from China who challenges her suitors to 3 riddles and if they get any of them wrong, they face the axe. A Prince get them all right, but afterwards the Princess won't keep her promise. He tells her if she learns his name by dawn of the next morning, then he will sacrifice himself. The Princess in a desperate attempt to learn his name, finds a slave girl who knows and questions her. The slave girl, kills herself to keep his name secret because she loves the Prince. The Prince then kisses the Princess and she learns he's not like other guys and all is good in the end.

And Disney's Frozen came out yesterday, March 18th, life is good! I love, love this movie!! I may be hosting a party for it on March 28th. Pictures to come! I guess I like to host themed parties!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am thankful for...

It's that time of year! I am going to write down something I am grateful/thankful for in my life. Here it goes...

1. my Family
2. the Gospel of Jesus Christ
3. Temples, which allow my family to be together forever
4. my education and career as a nurse, which has allowed me to do amazing things!
5. technology
6. music - I love instrumental music, scores from movies!
7. books, which allow me to enter another world!