Keep Portland Weird

Yesterday, my lovely friends took me on a celebratory trip to Portland...specifically VooDoo Doughnuts!

(however, they were closed for remodeling...how convenient) 

Still! It was awesome! Even after living here for almost 19 years, I had never been to VooDoo Doughnuts. And BAM, dream come true.

   I love how perfectly our shoes define our personality. You can probably guess which ones are mine...

...and we strive to do our civic duty, and KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD

 but that wasn't all the fun. We went to H&M, F21 (bought some fake glasses, i thought i would never do that...but i did), Nordstrom Rack, Great Harvest, rode the max, and went to the other...VOODOO DOUGHNUTS

(and notice the license plate says EFY--its a sign!)

and that wraps up the best time i've ever had in Portland. EVER.

first day of summer=success!

greetings from the burg'

FRIENDS. COMRADES. FOLLOWERS. LOVERS.
This has been the best weekend in the history of "the sisters" life!
Which is saying something...because you and i both know we've had a non-deprived or shafted life. ever.
All in a matter of three days I/we have done:
-partying at The Beatles Tribute concert (more to come on that)
-baptisms for the dead at the Idaho Falls Temple
-eating some Local Flavor (aka: hamburgers and shakes) at Sammy's.
-stuffing my face with some girls at Craigos. (yes, my mouth just salivated alittle just by thinking about it)
-walked the Rexburg Temple grounds
-ate out....ALOT.
-watched The Italian Job
-talked until like 3 in the morning....bad idea when you have 9 AM church.
-attended a Marriage class with Julia (i almost feel asleep)
-had the famous HOT DOG FRIDAY with Olivia, Malia, Janessa, Julia, Stefan and I. It was so good.
-and now, I'm converted to the BYU-IDAHO campus....(yes, partly because of the hot dogs).

----BEST FOR LAST: I PUMPED GAS FOR THE FIRST TIME YESTERDAY. I know what you are thinking. Even at the ripe age of almost 19, you would have thought i've pumped gas by now. But, alas no, I'm an Oregon girl, what can you expect?
(minor technicality: I may or may not have jumped ten feet with a high pitched scream when the nozzle clicked that it was done....i'll leave it up to your imagination. Lets just say, I sat down to check my pulse afterwards while other people mocked me from their cars.)

if you can top this weekend, let me know.
because this weekend rocked.

i'm hittin the road, jack.

WHILE I CURRENTLY RESIDE HERE.

i'll be driving 12 hours until i reach here....

and than on monday morning. I'll turn around...and i'll sing "Ireland ,Oregon, I'm coming home!"

SEE YA WHEN I GET BACK. 

and if you are lucky, i might, just might post some cool things about our adventures.

final sights from D.C.

i'm on my final victory lap around the D.C. trip. I can't believe its already come to an end, but so happy that i was able to go. a huge fist pump to Ondalynn who didn't kill me for living with her and her family for 11 days. thanks a million sis! 

On Saturday, as a fam we went to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's Estate! the grounds were beautiful! And as we drove in the car, my love for Virginia grew immensely. A crush wouldn't justify it. Mt. Vernon is a must see if you go to the East Coast. The museums were kid & adult friendly and the least overwhelming--you just enjoy everything!

{right: George Washington's tomb/coffin, with Martha W. on the left. Vance Co. and I in front of Mt. V}

Friday: the JIMMER FREDETTE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR MR. B

of course, basketball, football, baseball brownie/cupcakes were on the menu, with alot of other sugar as well. 

it would be an understatement to say he was estatic about his new basketball hoop. Or...to prounce it as mr. b does it would be a "baketball hoop"

we love mr. b aka the next jimmer fredette.

the trip was so wonderful. and i realized vacation life is ten times better than reality life. but oh well. that will be my last vacation in a long time. and it was absolutely the best place i could have gone. all the sights were wonderful, but the best part was being with my family.

its cheese, i know. 

but true.

so go grab a kleenex now, or two.

the end.

READY FOR CHANGE

friends, for clarification, the caps of the post title are not me yelling at you, but just for emphasis.
























I think I'm ready for some change.
Major change.
Like enough change to cut off 23 inches of your hair. when you only have 25.5. That kind of change.

(no my hair isn't cut here, just put in a bun)
but honestly, i'm not brave enough to do it.
my mom says i should lose weight first.
but....i'm sick of finding things in my hair like i did yesterday (gum wrapper, dried salsa, toothpaste, and more salsa) yeah, i've about had it.
My hair is so long its getting in the way of everything.

So this is me asking you....should i DO IT!?

adventures of the super tourist: days 3 & 4

everyday here is jammed packed with fun things. i mean come on...its D.C. and the Vance family. So put those two together and combined they make a great pair.
yesterday we went to the "fireworks art cafe" which is just a place to paint pottery or fuse glass. pretty legit and experience. but something everyone needs to do once in their life. its about the memories right!? and last night was, of course, spent watching the INCREDIBLE win of BYU over Gonzaga. Zags got Jimmered for sure. And you aren't into this Jimmer-mania stuff than....leave now.
Today we visited the Washington D.C. Temple. Magnificent doesn't give it justice. It was so incredible.

And at night time...it was so beautiful. People around here call it "emerald city". Okay, i really could go on and on about it. It is so much better in person than from the look of pictures. Truly!

and i love the one above because it looks like a painting....

Sorry for the overload on pictures of the temple. But really....it's been like one of the best sight i've seen since i've been here!

And it's been chilly here, so we fixed that with a delish cup of cocoa. of course. thats what girls do when their together. eat chocolate. 

so thats your day 3 & 4.

chow.

the adventures of a super tourist: day dos

Greetings from D.C.
first off, you need {yes, a necessity} to know that there aren't very many things cooler in this world than D.C. OK that doesn't say alot since I've been sheltered most of my life, but, from what i have experienced in this 18 year old self....is that D.C. is awesomespice.

the kiddos with their favorite auntie em on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

We than visited the Korean War Memorial. Which was awesome. It was a series of life sized soldier statues of different nationalities who helped served. "Freedom is not Free."One of the coolest parts was the flag precessional they performed with sons of vietnam soldiers. They laid an honorary wreath and played "Taps" on a bugal. 

the gold stars behind us represent those died in WWII. Each star represents 100 soldiers lost. 

than we took a picnic and played a "rough" game of Vance Family Football.

And than we were craving some LOCAL FLAVOR. So we stopped for a burger. Correction. This was not ordinary burger.

it was a HELL burger. Literally. We stopped at "Rays Hell Burger." {you might be interested to know that President Obama took the prime minister from some country there too....} yeah. This place was a hole in the wall. No exaggeration. They shared the same entrance with a mexican restaurant! But holy smokes. I could feel my arteries clogging just by smelling the air from the outside. You get the idea. 

i've never ate a hearty burger before in my entire life.

the adventures of the super tourist: Day 1

Greetings! Today marks the first day on my 11 day journey on the east coast.
I've been in Maryland for nearly 2 hours now, and have already fallen in love with it! (Thanks to this cute family, aka my sister Ondalynn--they are showing me all the must see's of D.C.) So essentially if you have ever been here and want to suggest something...please do.

The run down of Day 1:
1:32 AM finish English paper (on a book I didn't even read...thank you SparkNotes!)
5:34 AM finish paking for the 3rd time (1. exceeded weight limit 2. zipper problems 3. switch suitcase)
7:46 AM wake up
10:48 AM Board plane for Kansas City
4:33 PM Arrive in Kansas City--hot, tiny airport (avoid at all costs....okay, it wasn't that bad...but next time airport...but more than 2 stalls in a girls bathroom, seriously, you should know better).
9:03 PM Final Destination...land in Baltimore!

tomorrow: ALL D.C. Monuments and White House and anything....because everything is magical in D.C.
(tomorrow i'll post pictures!)

announcing the big news....

i'm going to....

WASHINGTON D.C. for 11 DAYS with this adorable family of 6.

Am I stoked, pumped, excited, estactic or what!??! 

Yep, its my graduation present from the "old things".

I fly out the day after they fly out for the Bahamahs Disney Cruise. 

jealous much?

me too.

three claps, I'm going to the District of Columbia.

who wants to hear about my vacation....

Humor me, and say you do. Even though you probably won't. But out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to recap my summer in a series of weeks rather than days...because than by the 5th day you wouldn't be subscribed to my blog anymore.

WEEK 1: GIRLS STATE
Location: Willamette University: Salem, OR (across the street from the Capitol)
Who: 300 Girls from across Oregon
Why: To learn about government, hone public speaking skills, learn to run on no sleep, and have fun
Rating: 8 stars

Top 3 Coolest things at Girls State:
1. Got to be a House of Representive member --essentially debating bills, passing them, or submitting them. It was cool to speak with Parlimantry Procedure (the way you talk), however, I won't miss those 4 hour legislature sessions!
2. Girls State Dance Party---i've never gone so crazy with the best food
3. Campaign Rally--instead of splitting people by demos and reps they split us with Nationalist and Federalist. I was a NAT and they we're so intense with people cheering and music and dancing

Waiting for General Assembly to start (BORINGEST THING EVER)

Eva my roomate

FLAG presentation

Our counselor was a hulu dancer, and taught us, than we performed

Taylor & Hilary (the 2 people that helped me survive Girls State--Taylor got elected for Girls Nation!)

4th person in from the back

3 of the GHS girls,and have been friends since 6th grade Ariel & Allie

Tour de San Francisco!

Concert Choir departed Gresham, Oregon on Friday morning (3/19), setting sail for Destination: San Francisco!

I luckily got on the smaller charter bus w/ less annoying people, making the ride a bit more tolerable than I thought. :) Let me take you along all of our series of events.

Day 1: Medford, Oregon

-Clinic at Southern Oregon University by Dr. Frank--no offense, but completely nerdy, but I learned SO much from him, it was really interesting to listen to him talk, because, suprisingly, he really knew music (i would hope so, if he has a doctoriate degree!)

-We made it to the hotel in Medford and "chilled" thats what High Schoolers do, right?

-Then we went to the mall to eat. I was already sick of eating out by the first day, since we had chinese food for lunch, and subway for dinner.

-I choose to go ice skating instead of bowling as must students. The best part was having the ice rink rented out for ourselves. It was the 2nd time i have ever gone, and it was so much fun! Although that night, I got down to pray and feel over because of the ginormous brusies already swelling on my knees...they are still in pain! Chessy sidenote: the choir held hands in the middle of the rink and sang all of songs...tender, I know.

Practically an olympic figure skater!

I was using her to balance...hence my lack of standing next to her!

-After ice skating the girls in my hotel room (Alexis, Krissy, Julia) and I were hungry so we walked across the parking lot to Pizza Hut at 10:30pm. Our curfew was 11, and we made it back at 11:00:15! ha ha! And we ate a large pizza, pop, and breadsticks...it was so tasty!

Day 2: San Francisco, California (part 1)

-We woke up super early the next morning to finish our travels in CALI! The sunrise on the way down there was beautiful and to see different scenery than Oregon was really neat!

We passed a ghetto bus in dowtown San Fran.

And this was my bus buddy, Heidi, during the trip!