Recap of past travels.

I went to the UK last summer.
This is one of those things where time got away from me and it was never blogged about. But that trip was most assuredly the highlight of the last year of my life. And my parents are currently in Scotland picking up my brother from his mission *insert high pitched squeals of jubilation* and all of their pictures have made me reminisce about my own trip. So I will take you through some of the most highlighted parts of my lovely holiday with my lovely friends.
Two of my roommates were going to be in England last summer for academic trips and there was a bit of overlap between when one arrived and the other left, so I decided to join them for some frivolity across the pond. Jenna and I flew over together and had a day just the two of us exploring Kensington Gardens and seeing the sights.

Then we met up with Andee and Jonathan and all of their friends from their program in Oxford. We spent that day exploring the main attractions and then saw Phantom of the Opera that night.

And then it was off to Scotland! We dropped Jenna off at the University of Glasgow for her study abroad, took a quick stop at Loch Lomond, and then headed to Edinburgh. Oh how I wish we could have stayed in this beautiful country for more than just the two days we were there. It is by far my favorite place I've ever visited in my life. So much beauty and so many hilarious, sarcastic, and genuine people. 

One train ride back to London and we arrived at Kings Cross Station. Maybe this was one of those moments of my trip that I was most looking forward to: finding the entrance to platform nine and three quarters. It's fine, I found the Hogwarts Express.

Then we went to freaking Wimbledon! It honest to goodness just so happened that we were in London during the Wimbledon Championships, so obviously we had to take the opportunity to try to go. We had to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to take a train out to Wimbledon and then sit in the standby line (the English call it a queue) to get a ticket. The first 6000 people in line were allowed in first thing int he morning, and we were afraid we wouldn't make it - that's how many people were in this ridiculous queue! But we made it and we got into Wimbledon, never again will I have such an incredible opportunity. And I thought Andee was going to die of excitement/anticipation/happiness.

And we also went to The Harry Potter Studio Tour. Let me run that by you one more time: THE HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR!!!!! This is where the filmed most parts of the Harry Potter movies and it is where all of the sets and costumes and other props are currently housed. I almost died of happiness during this tour. Jonathan and I were like little kids at this place and Andee graciously allowed us to geek out as much as possible. I think I will do a blog post about this tour one day, so just one pic will suffice.

And then here are some more pics from other random moments of the trip. Like Camden Lock, one of the coolest markets I've ever been too and where I bought the most delicious orange juice in the entire world. That one time when we went to Abbey Road and were the Beatles for a day. And the Tower of London. And watching MacBeth in The Globe Theatre. And St. Paul's Cathedral. And Tower Bridge.

This trip was the real deal. We had a complete blast and we pushed ourselves to the point of exhaustion to see everything we wanted to in the 9 days I was there. You may notice that our group of people we were with was constantly changing, and that was so fun. I was able to meet some fun new people and meet up with some good old friends. Overall, best trip ever. I know it's been nearly 9 months since I was there, but I just had to share the love and the pictures. I am so blessed that I was able to go. And don't you worry, I will be going again sometime in my life.

Weekend update!

Hello folks! Guess where I was this last weekend? CALIFORNIA! Road Trip!!!
We spent an entire day just chilling on the beach for 7 hours. We laughed our heads off. Literally. [it was super uncomfortable.] We shared life stories - particularly dating stories. We bonded so very much. We played football and soccer on the beach. We got our feet wet. We didn't get enough sleep. We didn't do any homework. We played liars dice in a jacuzzi. We saw the San Diego temple. We ate delicious food. We played games. We sang songs. We got sunburnt. We did lots of driving. We had absolutely no plans at the beginning and the whole trip was so spontaneous. We remembered what it was like to see the sun and to be warm. We strengthened our friendships.
Yes, overall it was spectacular. I went with 3 of my wonderful friends and I just love them even more after this trip. The weekend was way too short for my liking.
Here's a quick pic of our beach partying:

And here's our tooth brush partying:

Now I'm back in school, and struggling. Ever heard of senioritis? Yeah, it's a real thing. I have not wanted to do homework EVER this semester. Bad news bears, if you ask me.

Recap of the birfday.

So I had a birthday last week, right? Well, let me tell you: that was one of the best birthdays I've had in a very long time. I think a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that it was a Friday. A lot of it was also because I have the best friends, family, and coworkers in the world.
My roommates brought me out of my room at midnight, as soon as it was my birthday and gave me gifts.

This is when I opened The Lord of The Rings Collectors Edition Pez Dispensers!!! You may not know my love for pez dispensers, but I definitely have an obsession there and this was the best edition to it ever. Favorite part? That the hobbits, Gimli, and Gollum are shorter than everything else. Bahahaha! THIS was a great gift from my roommate KayJoy.

Then my family came and took me to lunch that day. It was rockin. We went and Pita Pit it up and they are hilarious and wonderful. These are the two youngest of the brosephs - love them: 

Then my writing class was fun and they gave me treats, it was like I was in elementary again! :) And then one of my lovely friends took me out to dinner and even talked the waiter into bringing me a free eclair! And finally, that night was the beginning of the celebration of Halloween. I was Scary Spice and we fake party-hopped... I saw one of my VERY best friends of all time for the first time since he's been home from his mission! I was so so so happy! And then we went to multiple different dance parties that were lame and ended up just throwing our own in the living room. It was perfect. Seriously, I love birthdays. I love the extra attention that comes to you on your birthday and I love friends and gifts. SO GOOD! I'm 22!

California. Here we come.

I do cool things in my life. Like take awesome road trips to Northern California.

I seriously have the best friends in the world. And we had more fun in those 5 days than most people have in a full year. We left Tuesday night, right after work and got back to good old Provo Sunday night. 4 solid days in California.

The initial reason we went on this road trip was to go see the wedding of dear Cebre and Hiram Jacob. And the wedding was INCREDIBLE. On top of that, we made it a full on vacation. We celebrated our nation's independence by watching many firework shows through the beautiful fog in Santa Cruz. We spent an entire day in San Francisco. We bon fired at the beach. We made more memories and inside jokes than I can count.

I love those girls more than anything. It was the 4 of us girls: Kaylee, Kaylee, Jenna, and Jennie. Yeah, we confused everyone that we met. And is was great! I learned so much about myself while talking to these girls this week, and I think we all reached a new level of crazy. Upon calculating it, we spent more than 36 hours in the car over that 5 day span, so it's a good thing I like these girls. We kind of took up some usual spots in the car. I drove. Most of the time. Jenna directed me. We sometimes got lost, but overall, she directed me exceptionally well. And the Kaylee's sat in the back. They cuddled, they slept, and they kept us entertained. We had a pretty good system set up. I was a pretty big fan of it. I really do love driving.

We stayed at Terra and Cebre's house the first night. We were SO excited to see them!

Best part of all of San Francisco: Tandem biking across the Golden Gate Bridge! It seriously was the most fun thing I've done in my whole life. It took me and Kaylee a couple of blocks to get the hang of it. Let's get real, those first few blocks were completely terrifying and we screamed our heads off and were plenty of free entertainment to our fellow tourists. But by the end, we were pros. And once we got to the bridge, we ate PB&Js in the middle of the GGB. It was so cool!

We went to China Town. It was radtastic. And I bought awesome things: a glow-in-the-dark Buddah, a mustache ring, and a wooden sword. I realized that I find great joy in incredibly random objects.

We went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, this adorably quaint town full of little shops and cute things. With a beach.
We went to a giant bon fire on the beach. And we wore our matching tourist San Francisco sweatshirts. That beach was beautiful. And the surfers were exciting.

Then we weddinged it up on Saturday. This is us and the beautiful bride. It doesn't get much better than this. Cebre and Hiram are so lovely and happy and perfect for each other.

Summing up the trip: We maimed the schmeagle Jack.

As of late.

Sometimes life can be a very surreal experience.
I can have a serious conversation with someone I hardly know. And the next moment I will have nothing to say to a good friend.
Maybe it's just me.
It's probably just me.
But life is weird.
Somedays your brother is a normal human being, and then the next he is a missionary in Provo, and the next day after that he is on a plane to England. Yeah, this is real life.
True that. My brother became a missionary last Tuesday night and it was amazing experience. I know that the gospel that he will be teaching is the truth and I'm so stoked for him to teach it. Then on Wednesday, due to the lack of visa-arrival, we dropped him off at the Provo MTC (missionary training center). It was sad, but it would have been way more sad had my family not been the most ridiculous and hilarious individuals in all of Provo. Then, blessings of the Lord, his visa arrived Wednesday afternoon and they threw him on a plane and shipped him off to the Preston, England MTC on Thursday
He leads quite a life. And because he is the luckiest person in the world, things just tend to work out for him.

So that's been an interesting adjustment without him. Thus far, I'm not a fan. Though I am a fan of him being abroad. Missioning and things.

Also exciting in my life: Spontaneous road trip to St. George this past weekend to the the solar eclipse. Yeah, it was sweet. My fabulous roommate, Jenna, and I were just sitting in our apartment on Saturday afternoon and within a matter of 30 seconds, we went from having no weekend plans to deciding to go on the 3.5 hour trip down to St George. SO FUN. We also went with some fabulous human beings. This is us looking at the eclipse (as stolen from Josh's fb album):

This is all 8 of us (Josh is in the picture via shadow). We were a little short on astro-glasses, so some of us went blind. Also, our names were a treat to list off: Jake, Jenna, Jennie, Jared, Josh, Kaylee, Halie, and Spencer. Someone stands out like a sore thumb...
Basically, it was an excellent 24 hour trip filled with laughter, games, banana stranglings, accent speaking, piano playing, singing, mission call opening, sun staring, driving, accent to apple inventing, and other shenanigans. I have good friends.

I'm a fan of the summer in Provo; people are always outside doing fun things, and craziness is always right on the brink of occurring. I don't even mind that I am taking a class right now. Though studying outside isn't nearly as productive as one would think.

Also, I love my job. We get some crazies up in there.

Pictures of Elder Lever departing are forthcoming. Prepare yourself.

This post was a random culmination of thoughts and events. Jumbled, it may be, but that's what my brain is like right now, so you're just experiencing my real life via blog.

Volleyball

Volleyball is life.
Seriously, if I could play volleyball every minute of every day for the rest of my life, I would do it for sure.
You know what volleyball-oriented thing I especially love at this time of year? BYU Men's Volleyball. Really though, it is exhilarating and fun and just all around excellent.
The season is now over, which saddens me. But I will certainly be watching reruns on BYUtv, because they have those quite often. And let's get real, I'm already looking forward to next volleyball season! The games really are that much fun. Cheering, dancing, laughing, and watching some AMAZING volleyball - all of my favorite things.

So for now, I will just content myself with playing volleyball every chance I get. It truly is the best sport in the world. So if anyone ever wants to play, I'm all over that. Seriously.

Toniiiiiiiight. We are young.

Toniiiiiiight. We. Are. Young. Gonna set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the suuuuuun.

Don't worry that song has been stuck in my head for a solid 4 days. It was definitely the theme song for the weekend, and it would appear that it will also be the theme song for my week. High quality music, if you ask me.

What did I do this weekend that would make it require a theme song? Why, I only had the best weekend in quite a long while, of course. Took a little tripsy to St. George with some wonderful friends. Did some food eating, game playing, sun enjoying, angel's landing hiking, and wonderful laughing. It was rockin.
Here's a little photographic evidence of the hike (as stolen from Andrew's fb):

There's 7 of us, in case you missed one in your counting. We're all artistic and stuff. No big deal. Anyway, so this hike may or may not have exhausted me and made me sore even now, more than 2 days later, but it was SO worth it. I might be terrified of heights, so I might have been more terrified on this hike than ever before in my life, but I survived! Angel's Landing was beautiful. If you're ever in Zion's, I would highly suggest taking the couple hours to go on this hike. But make sure to hang on to the chains. We wouldn't want anyone taking a little tumble off the cliff.
Favorite part of the weekend? It's so hard to choose! But I think I'm going to have to go with nerf wars at 3 in the morning. SO FUN. Except for the part where we woke up every person in the house; that was embarrassing.
In summary: It was a perfect weekend and I have amazing friends.

We like to party.

Wednesday was the celebration of my birth. It was pretty normal day: work, class, funny friends, eat, try to nap. But then the night came and life got exciting.

Kendra and I bought tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance live tour back in July. This was my birthday gift to myself. It was a brilliant move on my part. The day had finally come and this is our excitement as we were leaving the apartment that night:

We have a tradition of eating Chinese food while watching SYTYCD, so naturally we ended up eating Vietnamese food while driving to the SYTYCD tour. We were in a hurry, so I had to eat on the road. Don't worry, we didn't die.

**Edit: in response to the many people that were freaked out by this picture, I must offer a word of reassurance. 1- I was only eating at red lights. 2- I put the food away once we got on the freeway. 3- hahahahaha! I promise I'm not a terrifyingly dangerous driver. End edit.

Then we finally arrived. This is our ecstatic faces right as we got to our seats. Note the SYTYCD sign directly behind us. Yeah, we had ballin seats.

Then they danced and I went crazy. It was AMAZING! This is when I splurged (again) and bought myself a sweet t-shirt:

These human beings are so incredibly talented. It just amazes me what they've trained themselves to do and I love the fact that they are sharing their talent with me. The show was amazing! I love my Kui, and I'm so happy that she went with me! This is when we met Mitchell (one of the amazing dancers) and he gave me a hug because I said he was adorable. It was great.

So basically. I lost my voice. I watched some dancing. My mind was blown. I laughed a lot. I danced a lot myself. And my birthday was FABULOUS!

And then that night when I got home, Kaylee and I decided to have our annual all-nighter. Here's a sneak peak picture just to spark your excitement and curiosity:

Sometimes I forget.

Sometimes I forget how much I love college.

Sometimes crazy things happen. Mostly because I'm crazy and I have crazy friends.

Sometimes we randomly go to 80's dances in Salt Lake, even though I have work at 8 the next morning.

Sometimes (or every night) we have roommate dinners that end up lasting for hours filled with laughter.

Sometimes we break into random song/dance in our apartment.

Sometimes Kui and I lay in bed to go to sleep at night and then end up talking for hours about life and everything.

Sometimes I see my brother on campus and we take a stroll around the library.

Sometimes we have game nights and die of laughter.

Sometimes we go to Spoon It Up and J-Dawgs way more than is healthy or financially feasible.

Sometimes I end up watching hulu instead of studying (ok, this is like everyday..).

Sometimes we do outrageously spontaneous things.

Sometimes I laugh so hard my abs start hurting.

Life is fabulous here. Until classes actually start... then I have a bit of a problem. That's when I remember why I was dreading returning to college. But alas, I endure the torture of homework and reading way more pages then I actually understand. All of the ridiculous, hilarious things make life beautiful, no matter how much work I have to do.

I teach.

I teach swimming lessons.
I love teaching swimming lessons.
Sometimes I get sunburnt when I teach swimming lessons.
I always put put on sunscreen.
But sometimes the sun decides to evade my layer of UV protection and burn me anyway.
But I still love teaching swim lessons.
Small children are funny.
They are particularly funny when they think they know how to swim.
Usually they don't actually know how to swim. At all.
This is why I teach them.
I enjoy swimming long lengths on my back.
I also enjoy pretending to know how to do the butterfly.
Mostly I just enjoy teaching swimming lessons.

Pool party, baby. It was a cool party. Cool pool party. Lalalala

Sometimes I have pool parties.



And they are fun. We dance. And chat.



We go to the dollar store and buy pointless things.



Like silly string. And sombreros. And monkey's named Enrique. And florescent plastic shot tubes/glasses. But not alcohol.



Then we party and it is fun.

Lever's are Funny

If you know me, then you most likely know my family. And if you don't know my family, well then you're missing out, but I can assure you that you pretty much already know them because they are exactly like me. We just plain crack each other up all the time. Probably the most accurate description of them would be this:
My family is the funniest group of human beings I have ever met.
Really though.
I just spent the last 3 days on a stay at home vacation with them. This was most likely the best thing that has happened in a while. I wish that people could just follow us around and see the ridiculous things we do and say. I am always entertained by my family.
We saw some Asians, a lost goat, and a huge tire at Kennecot Copper Mine. We fit 6 humans in a tire at the Copperton Park. We made a spontaneous stop at an arcade, stuffed our faces with pizza, and I played more than my fair share of skee ball. We hiked Ensign Peak and got THEE most beautiful view of the valley. We sang/made up songs while being accompanied by the subtle sounds of a uke. We alpine slid down a mountain. Twice. We laughed a ridiculous amount. We took a brief reprieve from each other about halfway through the vacation. Half of us nearly died while hiking up to Timp Cave (ok.. mostly Dad, Adam, and Kade practically ran while I nearly died. Still fun though.) We became airborne via an outrageous number of trampolines. We cheered for the Bees of the baseball variety; we don't appreciate bees of the insect variety. We celebrated Christmas in June, except the celebration was only in the form of cheesy Christmas music and a skinny Santa in red shorts throwing candy at us. We were attacked by gnats while viewing a spectacular fireworks show (really, it was incredibly splendid). And most of all we enjoyed the fact that we are the most entertaining family. All in all, I say it was a successful weekend. Well done parents.
I adore my family.

And now for the photographic proof:

This tire was not as big as it appears. It was a squeeze.

Sometimes we pose on tires.

We are unique.

I win at skee ball.

The reward of the hike.

I'm a child at heart.

There are some things in this world that are fun no matter how old you get. Maybe I'm just immature, but there are many things that were tons of fun when I was a young lass, that I still enjoy excessively.

Puddle jumping and kite flying are two such things.

Also, walking around in the mud with bare feet. It's just so squishy.

Also, sticking my head out the window and yelling "SLURPEEEEEE!" on my way to 7-11.

Also, watching Pocahontas over and over again every day and never, NEVER getting sick of it.

But mostly puddle jumping and kite flying. I've done both within the last week or so, and they never get old. And they still hold their old exhilaration.
I will always be a child. At least on the inside