Changing the World

My family rocks. Seriously. I've been SO So lucky to live with my aunt and uncle the past few months and I have learned so much from them and appreciate them more every day. Ann served her mission in South Africa and then lived in Nigeria for another 3 years doing humanitarian work. She has such a great heart, I love her so much. She got lucky and married one of the greatest guys ever. John is a rock star. He fully supports her in everything she does and now they both work with the The Ouelessebougou Alliance.

They left yesterday for a 2 week trip to Mali to help evaluate the needs of the villages that the foundation supports. She sent me some of the photos from their trip last year and I am obsessed with them. She is a great photographer. I edited quite a few of them for her and these are some of my favorites. Sometime I am going to go with them and help. Don't those faces just melt your heart?

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." ~Desmond Tutu

Well.... I'm back with Glad. I sure do love this little lady. She is so kind and so polite, I learn a lot from her. We've already watched a couple Audrey Hepburn movies and I am really starting to like her (Audrey). For some reason in the past her acting kind of bothered me. Anyways, I was looking through a magazine and found this quote by her:

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;

for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;

and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

Isn't that wonderful? I like her even more now.

Go. Go see it.

This is the best movie I've seen in a while. Everyday I have to restrain myself from going to see it again. The Johnny Cash song at the end of this trailer is perfect. I wish I lived in the Wild West so bad.

Wow.

This has been quite a month. I've loved every second of it. We kicked it off with a trip to the cabin with the gnomes. It was lovely.

I didn't even bust out my camera which is very unlike me. I stole this one from Kya. We had some good times. I love these girls.

Ryan invited me to go hang out with Lebron. Even though the Jazz lost, it was awesome.

We made our annual trip to the lake on Christmas Eve. We missed the daylight somehow and had to visit the pole in the dark. It was still fun even though the lake wasn't frozen. Maybe next year mother nature will get on the ball and freeze it for us.

Earlier in the day we hit up the Grand America for breakfast. It was as delicious as ever, and afterwards we hung out in the lobby hoping some of the classiness would rub off on us. I don't think it worked.

We got to see David Archuleta sing with the Tab. It was wonderful. I don't really listen to him but he was so cute. I wanted to go up and squeeze him after. His hair was fantastic.

Here we are trying not to freeze to death before the show.

This is Dex, Katies puppy. I'm in love with him.

My parents won "best ugly sweater" at the Nielson Christmas party. My Dad did not disappoint.

-I don't know why that text up there is so messed up.

We went back up to the cabin on Monday and got all sorts of snowed in. The snow plows couldn't even get in to plow the driveway so we were forced to stay an extra couple days.

We didn't mind.

Here is the "early morning crew". Everyone else slept till noon all the time. Notice my Dad's ridiculous shirt he sported the whole week. He thinks he is a pretty big deal.

The power went out in the storm and we were forced to stay warm by the fire. My Dad got on the rafters to spin the fan by hand to blow some of the heat down to us. He is such a good Dad.

Check out that snow!

I still don't know how my Mom did her hair without any electricity.

My furry sister.

Candlelight dinner.

Notice my reflector snow pants. They were awesome. I thought I loaded a picture of us snowshoeing but I guess it didn't work. Too bad.

No power equals a lot of reading.

And writing.

It was a pretty good time. No it was a really great time! I loved it. We tried to leave thursday morning after they finally plowed, so we started heading down the mountain. We got down to the resort only to find that the canyon was closed due to an avalanche. So we trekked back up to the freezing cabin. Luckily, a miracle text went through Claires phone at 4:05 saying that the canyon would be open at 4:30 for a half hour to let people down, then it would be closed for good. We were not going to let the window of opportunity close, some of us were getting cabin fever. So, we booked it down the mountain and made it out. It has been quite a week. We probably played 10 hours of Banana Grams. I'm obsessed. When I close my eyes, I see tiles.

Ryan decided to be a punk and skip out on the snow and head south to Grand Cayman. Ugh... Anyways, I think we only have two pictures of us in existence, so I thought I would put this up. I'm ready for him to come back already.

Happy New Years Ya'll!!

100 Awesome Clubs

So yesterday was a day I'll never forget. It all started at 12:30 a.m.. I wanted to meet President Bush in Sandy and have him sign my book. I wasn't planning on camping out but when I saw a line forming the night before I decided to grab a sleeping bag and wait with the crazy people. There is nothing like sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the Costco in the middle of November. I think I got 45 minutes of sleep out there. It was windy and crazy and I had to stand in line for six hours without ANYTHING to do, (they said we couldn't have any purses, books, phones, or anything. The secret service wouldn't allow it.) I felt like I was being tortured. Standing in one place for that many hours seriously blows, but it was worth it. I wish they would have allowed cameras in there. President Bush was wonderful. I tried for the six solid hours in line to try and decide what I should say to him. After ruling out about 5 conversations that made me seem crazy, I finally decided to ask him what his favorite book is. I know he and his wife love to read and I've always wondered. After shaking my hand he said, "My favorite book?... The Bible." It kind of caught me by surprise but I responded with, "Good answer." Then he said, "Well it's the truth." Then he smiled at me and I walked away. It was crazy. He is so great and I'm excited to read his book.

I would like to thank Kylee, Jordan, the mail man, the quiet man behind me in line and Costco for making my dream come true.

After I got home I had to put on my game face to cover up my, oh so tired eyes. Ryan invited me to go to the Jazz game with him. His family is a member of the 100 Club. I had never heard of it but it rocks! We got to have dinner in that fancy restaurant up top before the game and then sit court side! It was wonderful. The last and only time I went to a Jazz game I was in the nose bleed so this was a completely different experience. I loved every second, especially having D-Will practically fall in our laps.

It was a Good day.

Good News!

He is going to give us a New Years present!

Kiss Each Other Clean

January 25, 2011

Bad news: I think he may have cut his hair.

It's true!! He can fly.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.