A week in Paradise!

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This past week I had the opportunity to go home to my amazing little town of Panguitch, Utah! I loved being home. It was just the perfect time to be there when the farmers are getting ready to cut their hay (fresh cut alfalfa is one of my favorite smells in the world). Along with the amazing smell of the fresh air, I love the quiet. Unlike being in the middle of a city where you can hear things going on at all times, I had time to just sit and enjoy the peace and quiet.

The balloon festival happened to be taking place while I was at home. Another one of my favorite things is waking up and watching the balloons every morning. I love the sound that hot air balloons make. It is almost relaxing. This year was especially exciting because for the first time a balloon landed right by my house. My mom, Cameron and I got to help take the balloon down.

I also had the opportunity to go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti while I was home. One of my best friends and I went one night. The last time I watched the pageant was when I was in third or fourth grade, so I didn't remember a whole lot about it. It was nice to go refresh my mind on what it was all about. Watching the process of the Restoration of the church along with scenes from the Book of Mormon strengthened my testimony so much. Something about seeing it acted out right in front of me made everything so much more real in my mind. It was definitely a very amazing experience.

My week was made complete on Saturday night when we went to the balloon glow. It is always my favorite part of the balloon festival. I love seeing the balloons glow in the darkness!

It was an amazing week. Definitely a very good week to choose to go visit my favorite little town!

The Joy of BYU

Today I had some free time after I finished all the homework I needed to get done. So since it was nice weather outside today I decided to take my scriptures and Ensign with me to the duck pond. It was so nice to just sit on the grass and read words from the prophets. My ward gave us a challenge to read a session of conference each week. I cannot even express the difference my life has seen since I have started doing this. My days seem to go by so much smoother and I have a much happier mood. It is amazing to me how much actively learning about the gospel changes your day.

As I was sitting at the duck pond I realized just how lucky I was to be here at BYU. This is such an amazing school. How lucky am I to be able to go read my scriptures in the middle of public without people walking by giving weird looks. I could not ask for a better school to be at.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend has been full of hearing stories about ancestors. I went up to Layton with my family for Memorial Day. A bunch of us got together and went to the Bountiful cemetery to see the graves of ancestors. My grandpa Parkin told us a bunch of stories that he knew. It was fun to be around all the family and hear fun stories about the past.

Above: The whole group in front of my Great Grandparents Grave (my grandpa's parents)

Tausha, Grandpa, and My dad by Hyrum Parkin's house (my great-great-....grandpa)

Tausha, Grandma, and my dad at the hospital where they were born

Aubry at the Bountiful Cemetery

Katelyn and I at the cemetery

Grandma & Grandpa with some of the grandchildren

Cameron & Ty being the crazy cousins that they are

Swim Time!

Battle wounds from playing water basketball

So today was actually kind of warm enough to go swimming. My roommates and I decided that we would go swimming. We spent a little over an hour playing water basketball. We didn't play with any rules, which got pretty intense when we were guarding each other. I will just let you imagine a bunch of us hopping on each other's backs to try to get the ball.

There were a couple times when the ball would end up on the sidewalk and we would all race to see who could get out of the pool fast enough to get to the ball first. Which is how I ended up with the battle wounds on both of my legs.

It was a way fun afternoon, and even though it wasn't the warmest day ever it was nice to be outside and not see snow!

I am actually doing this!

Well I finally did it! I am starting a blog. Here you will read all about what is going on in my life and the crazy things that go on. I have never been good at keeping a journal, so this is my attempt to make journal writing exciting and something that I want to do frequently. So we will see how well it works. Hopefully knowing that people are going to be reading this helps me stay motivated to write.