California! Here we come!

A couple of my roommate's and I decided to take a trip to California. Elise goes to school at UVU and had fall break and she decided that she wanted to go to California. Kerissa is from California so she went so that she could go home and I went cause... I wanted a break! I think I have been on about two real vacations since I was three and I have never been on an extended friend road trip. So, road trip to California!
We left Wednesday morning and drove about ten hours to Loomis where Kerissa is from. We had a delicious dinner with her family and then planned out our next day adventures. We got up the next morning to Kerissa feeling worse (as she was already a little sick when we left Utah) so Elise and I caught the Amtrack train and journeyed to San Fransisco while she stayed home. We used the bus system to get around which was really handy and not that expensive. Plus our day bus pass worked on the trolleys so we got to experience that too! We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and back and then went to Golden Gate Park to eat lunch which it turned out to not be a real park in our sense of the word. At least the part we were in, it was more woodsy than manicured lawn. We found a patch of weeds and ate our packed lunch and then headed to the Palace of Fine Arts... which was under construction so we couldn't get right underneath it. After that, we headed over to Pier 39 and walked around a bit before going to China town. We wandered around Chinatown, experiencing some of San Fransisco's hills and went in a shop where Elise and I both bought skirts that were on sell and then I bought a china bowl for 99 cents (which I broke right before we left Loomis) and Elise bought a beautiful wind chime (which is still whole and hanging in our living room). We ate in Chinatown which was delicious and caught a trolley back to the pier. We wondered around the shops in the pier until it was time to catch the bus to take us to the train.
Friday, Kerissa was feeling better and we went to the Sacramento Temple with her dad and did some baptisms. Afterward, her dad drove us to Sacramento and he took us to the capitol building. It was so beautiful! I discovered I kind of have a thing for architecture. We then went to Old Town which was really cool. I would love to live in a town that looked like it is the set of an old western! But if building's look like that today they are usually for tourists. We ate lunch at Jo's Crab Shack and then went on the search for a vintage store. We found a really cool one and Elise got some great clothes!
We headed back to Loomis, visiting Kerissa's one set of grandparents on the way. That night was just relaxing. I fell asleep while Elise took family pictures for the Poulsons and then we had dinner and later a fire with s'mores. Saturday, we got the official tour of Loomis and also stopped at Lake Tahoe on the way back to Provo. It was so beautiful at Lake Tahoe! But shhh. Don't tell anyone because we don't want everyone to know. We discovered that Lake Tahoe is what Elise's heart looks like. The three of us are thinking of buying a house in the future that our families can go and stay in... when we have families that is. Elsie went crazy taking pictures and got some really great ones! She is such a great photographer!
We made it safely back to Provo, only forgetting Elise's and my leftovers from Chinatown and now all three of us being sick. Even though I now cannot breathe through my nose as I'm so congested, it was a great trip!! I'm so glad that I went!
Now back to school...

I love to see the Temple and I'm Singing in the Rain

Monday was such a great day!! I decided that morning that I wanted to go to the Temple after classes. I wore a skirt and everything but I wanted to do some homework, so I didn't start for the temple until about 3. It was lightly sprinkling but that wasn't anything to stop me from going. Part way there, about the middle of Heritage, it started to pour! I decided that I really wanted to go so I just kept walking. The further I got, the worse the weather became and the brighter my attitude got for some reason.
As a side note, when I was little, I HATED thunderstorms. Then when I got a little older, I thought they were still the scariest things ever, but I liked how excited Heather got over them and that she would make me sit on the porch swing and watch them with her. Now, I don't know what happened, but I really enjoyed Monday's thunderstorm. I think its Heather's fault. So yes it, was also thundering on my walk, along with the pouring rain and crazy wind. And I was smiling the whole time. I passed people that were going as fast as they could through the rain and were upset at the storm, and I just smiled. I don't know what was going on. I then got Singing in the Rain stuck in my head and really wanted to jump in the puddles like Gene Kelly. It actually wouldn't of made a difference as my shoes were already soaked through.
So I get to the temple sopping wet with a smile on my face and I wonder how going into the Lord's house sopping wet would work, but I went up to the door and it was closed. I then remembered that it closes early on Mondays. Which I found amusing and it didn't dampen my mood. So I plopped down and just watched the rain, listening to the thunder around me.
I do not sing by myself in front of people. Especially if I don't know them and there isn't a radio blasting next to me. Pretty much, only my car gets the privilege of hearing me sing acapella and that is also a fairly rare occurrence. But as it was raining and no one was at the temple, I felt like singing. So I started singing the Storm is Passing Over from choir my freshman year. After a few minutes, I look over and there is a couple standing there watching me. Yep. No idea where they came from and they were about 3 feet away from me. The guy just kind of stared at me with the weirdest face the whole time until I left, which wasn't much later. When I got home, I took a hot shower and put on sweats. See I am taking care of myself, mom :)

During that whole afternoon though, I realized that I have so much to be grateful for. I have a wonderful family who are so supportive and loving. I have fabulous friends that have open doors whenever I need to talk. Great roommates that I often find in my bed;). I go to a great university and I am learning so much from the classes I get to attend. I have the gospel in my life which is such a strength and guidance to me. I have the opportunity to live in this dispensation with the restored church and the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Bible at my fingertips. I am blessed with talents that are my own and I am able to use them to help others. I could go on and on but those are some of the things that I am thankful for.