I've now reached a point in my adulthood when going to bed at 11pm is "early" ew

I've been looking for an excuse to post this somewhere

Lest you think I have completely fallen off the wagon (ha, what is that phrase), I'm still writing. Mostly poetry. For my thesis. And I've been reading. Mostly poetry. For...yeah, you guessed it.

Other things I've been doing besides blogging:

• walking to and from the grocery store and exercising my arm muscles but mostly getting those weird sweat driblets from my arm crease? Woof.
• hammocking on Old Main Hill. The right side of the hill is immaculate and beautiful, while the left side is totally gross. It's a funny story. During the school year, someone put weed killer all over the newly planted grass instead of fertilizer. Hence, now there are dead, brown patches and other parts with weeds growing like they came straight outta Jumanji. It's bad. So I hammock on the right side, obviously, for aesthetic.
• driving to Idaho. jk, Houston drove to Idaho. but I was in the car. and it was my idea. also, Idaho isn't that far from Logan (try 20 minutes). I could probably suggest a trip to Sudan and he'd be like "sure, why not?" everyone should have someone like that in their life. well, not someone who would willingly go to Sudan. merp.
• eating my weight in string cheese and hummus. when summer comes, I no longer want meals-- just snacks. it's weird.  and it's not a weight thing. srsly.
• re-watching The Office. for some reason I never actually watched the episode when Michael leaves? Now I know why. Cry-fest.
• starting to work in the temple again. technically I don't start until next week but I got set apart and after that they said, "Welcome home!" :''''')

and now, pictures! I should probably put these first so you guys are lured into the blog post and then can leave whenever you want. whoops.

mi amor, Kyrbo, taking a pic of the sunset #candid

that rock I'm staring at in the distance=Angel's Landing. yeah we hiked the mountain ABOVE it, which is nothing short of hellacious, mostly because there's no shade and it's 8ish miles uphill. but we dID IT, amen.

me on the last day of school picking up thesis books from the library. I have been to the library three more times since then. YEAAAAAAAAA 

on the way home from St. Jorge, we got caught in a storm

on the Idaho border, woo

SHMAE came to visit!!! We went to Morty's, the D.I., walked around campus so I could convince her to come to USU (it worked) (I think), and then went up the canyon. Houst was a great third wheel.

me: "ugh, I look so short."

houston: "yeah. I look so...tall." 

me: -_-

timpernougat: the time our knees became shredded barf

If you don't know what "shredded barf" is, I won't tell you, but I will direct you to this video and tell you that it's not what it sounds like. Promise.

I want you guys to know that I DID smile and laugh on this hike thanks to my homies Trent and Shae, bless them, but gosh it's hard to laugh at 11,752 feet. There's no extra air up there for laughing the way that I do (whole body movements, bending over, etc). You can't ralllyyy bend over on top of Timp, or you'll fall over on top of Timp, and then suddenly be on the bottom of Timp.

Here is a brief list, conjured from the broken shards of my brain, of things that were said on this hike by various persons (no names will be mentioned to protect the innocent/also I can't recall exactly who said the thing. Make it a game! Guess who said the thing!)

"This protein bar has 35 grams of protein."
"35 grams?! Wanna hook up?"

"Can we slide down the glacier?"
"Not unless you don't ever wanna have kids."

"It would be nice if there was a zipline right here {at the summit}."
"It would be faster."
"Another thing that would be faster is if you just rolled off the mountain. Cuz then you'd be dead, and wouldn't have to finish."
*blank stares*

"Ok but who put these rocks here."
"WHO PUT THESE ROCKS HEEEERE."
*upon seeing more rocks*
"Cuss word." (I'm not gonna write it, duh, this is a family blog!)

"Are you on your period?"
"No...why would you ask me that."
*gross smile*
"??????????????????"

"My hands are swole. Like little sausages."
"My hands have DIMPLES. They shouldn't have dimples!"
"Himples."
"You guys are on your period."
"*Jim Halpert face emoji*"

"I can't slide down any more dirt. I just bought these leggings."

"Can't believe this is paved for so long. I wonder what kind of Eagle Project on Steroids that was."

"I blinked my balls. My eyeballs. I probably shouldn't say that unless we're taking a picture."
"Or you're blinking."

"GET NAKED! I mean...what?"

*to the wide expanse of rock and ice*
"STOP SAYING PER-PER!!!" (it kinda echoed, guys)

"We've burned 3500 calories today."
"Is that it?"
"That's like 2.5 days worth."
*thinking of all the food I can eat*
"Is that it?"

"You did this to me."
"It's not my fault you decided to hike this pregnant."

"Why did I buy these nectarines? What are nectarines?"
"It's like a PEESH, but harder, so easier to carry in a backpack."
"I don't like these. It's your fault I bought them."
"It's not my fault you don't know what a nectarine is!"
*deep conversations at the summit, part five*

"What's wrong with my legs?"
"It's all the lactic acid building up."
"Should I put my feet up or something?"
"Just eat a huge plate of spaghetti with broccoli."
"I only have noodles."
"Same difference."
*grabs cereal*

"I can't stand for very long because my legs are...they have..."
"Jelly bones."
"What an accurate description."

*talking about a movie*
*someone mentions Christian Bale*
*someone down below us goes "Yeah?"
Maybe you had to be therrreee.....but really that was funny! ha! HAHAHAHAHA I'm DELIRIOUS.

"I think you'll have a six pack tomorrow because of this."
"Eh. Not worth it."

"Is that a baby goat? A BABY? A BABY GOAT! IT'S A BABY GOAT EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS TINY PERFECT SPECIMEN OF A GOAT." -everyone said this as they passed the baby goat, let's be HONEST.

And now, a picture dump before my computer dies, along with my phone, and me. Huh? I didn't say anything. May you all be wiser than we were and take an elevator to the top of Timp.

the back of Shae

do you see the eyeball!?! this is funny because a) LOTR reference and this mountain is basically Mordor and b) we said the word "eyeball" like 50,000 times on this hike

those humans were sliding into the lake from the snow, yay for them, and yay for us for not doing it

THE GOOOOATS

here is is a more terrible pic of the goats but srsly the baby one was just chewing and staring at everyone I NEED ONE

my face is so swell (as in swollen) (and I'm grimacing) (but I am happy to be at the top por fin)

the back of Shae, the sequel

I like black and white too, sowhatwhocares

get the lump OUT OF HERE

I like being hot, ok? so sue me (not what you think)

♫you arreeeee so beautifullllllll to meeeeee♫

I've been thinking about heat lately. About how I hated it when we moved here from Oregon, hated that dry static fire that clung to me all day from June to August, those coils digging into me and making me a perpetual human oven. I did not like being warm. Then winter would come and I breathed a brief sigh of relief. The reprieve was short because I didn't like snow, either. What a weirdo.

Maybe growing older also means adapting to whatever place you're in and liking it. I can say with full confidence that I could now 100% live in the desert, and I do mean Arizona or Southern Utah or whatever desert biome you wanna slap me into. That's right, universe. If you want to take me somewhere warm in the near future (please let it be the near future, because the distant future is not good at keeping in touch--never calls, never writes), I wouldn't breathe an ounce of opposition.

But don't keep me away from the mountains, either. Is this too difficult of a request? Also are you writing this down? You should probably be writing this down.

I prefer my Future to take notes. That way the plans don't get thrown in the junker, you know what I mean? Open communication is the llave, the key. Don't want your future getting busted, kids.

(like I really know anything)
(eyeroll emoji)

yay stinging nettle yay

 my mom says I can't go hiking alone anymore and that's just silly you know because I've only seen a bear once and that thing was tiny!

this was after I waded into the seaweed that feels like coagulated jelly under your feet to get Ellie's fly that was tangled in the weeds hashtag true love. ew.

I'm always in the mountains these days. To escape socializing the heat.

my entire summer in selfies

If I was going into 5th grade this year and had to write my "What I Did This Summer" essay, it would just be a compilation of selfies. Conceited? Mmm....no. Because with each of these pictures comes a story which perfectly sums up the summer. And while we're on the subject, why did summer have to go so fast anyway? August 19th?! EW.

My family went on a 2-week trip to the PNW, so I chopped off my hair as a passive-aggressive response. Nat'rally. And by the looks of it, my eyebrows are gone, too. What the actual heck.

That one time I used Tinder to show everyone on the internet that I could make faces like this. The eye-crossing trick is genetic. Thanks mom! 

I got this weird sore throat virus...in May. Honestly. So I sounded like Liza Minelli for a few days, which was super great, except that not many people in my generation know who that is, so the reference was lost. However, what wasn't lost during this dark time was my ability to make the turtle face (this is also my "I just got asked on a date via text message by someone who referred to himself as my future husband" face).

90's dance party you say? Put on red lipstick I shall! And curl my hair. By the end of the evening, it was completely flat on one side. I guess that's pretty true to the 90's style. Also, this was the night I discovered a Rita's in Provorem, and I think I told everyone in the car that "I wanted to be alone" with my dessert. #bless

For my mom's birfday, she just wanted to hike Cecret Lake. So we did. And it took me way longer than necessary because I couldn't stop taking pictures. My #1 favorite part of summer is hiking! And post-hike napping of course. 

Have you ever tried hamping? 10/10 would recommend. Simply shine your lights into everyone's tents on the mountainside at 1am until you find a suitable spot! Actually don't do that. It's kind of rude. Buuuut it was unintentional on our part. 

Sarah y yo went to high schoolz together, but we didn't reunite until this very year. This night we (me, her, and Caitlyn) ate an entire carton of Graham Canyon. This was our second bowl I think. But who's counting. 

The summer of live shows. Twenty One Pilots has yet to be beaten. I like these pictures because there are about 50 of them, and all of us are moving around and shtuff but Trent's face does not change. Ever. Thumbs up emoji.

On this fine day, I was sitting on Caitlyn's bed, telling her a great story about candles, and got excited, jumped up, and banged my head on the bottom of her bookshelf. Hashtag concussed. I dunno what I said that night but I'm sure Caitlyn has immortalized it in her phone. She supposedly has lots of blackmail on me??? Just found this out, BTW. Sigh. 

The hike of all hikes. Timp. This time I swore I would sleep beforehand. But did I? Oh heck no. Hence this face, somewhere between exhaustion and a complete mental breakdown.

Grotto Fallz! After this hike, I sped home to a mission-call opening. Heather's mission call opening! Also, plz note Kenzie's face in the background. And just so you know, I wear my backpack in the front like a mama kangaroo because I like it there. 

Ran 9 miles. Drank a gallon of Powerade in about 2 minutes. Went to see "The Fault in Our Stars." Cried out all the Powerade. 

WHY AM I AWAKE ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN AT 6AM?!

4th of July week was insane in the membrane. I bought this wolf t-shirt to compensate. Then I wore it in the woodsen like a real Portlandia nerd. Gosh, who am I?

After-temple selfie. I'm not mad, I just tried to look serious and that's what happened. I've given up on making similar faces for my future engagement pictures. I don't want to look constipated in those photos. 

Also, the temple. It took me all summer, but I'm no longer in training. And it really is the best non-job job I have ever had. 

The summer of eating too much not enough pizza

And chips and salsa. Here I am at one of the many wedding receptions I frequented this summer. Oh, Utah.

My friend Caitlyn got her endowments on this day! Afterwards I foolishly went to work in my church clothes. And heels. Such smart. Very wisdom. 

I finally got a new bike and broke it in when I joined the ward's biker gang. Note: do not attempt selfies while biking. You'll probably die.

It takes me approximately 2 days to drink one of those half gallons of juice. Here is my "I don't regret carrying this juice around with me" face. All summer long, baby (p.s. wearing a beanie because it rained, and that justifies beanie wearing).

We hiked Dixie Rock and I made a dinosaur face while nobody was looking. What else is new. P.S. that girl on the far left is now murried! I went to her reception too, in case you were wondering. I'm sure you were('nt).