hello temple square.

sunday night, my parents and i drove down to salt lake city where we went to the famous temple square. temple square is beautiful! pictures don't do it justice. there are so many lights and it's just gorgeous. people from all over the world come to look at the pretty lights. i probably walked a little faster around the square though... it was cold!

hello, it's been awhile.

so sorry i've disappeared for awhile there. finals were crazy. but after loads of energy drinks and all-nighters, i successfully finished! another semester done. saying goodbye to my friends was surprisingly hard. i know i'll see them in a few weeks, but i'm moving houses so it's tough to know i wont live with all of them this next semester.

luckily though, i was fortunate enough to get permission from the dean of my school to take some of my finals early so that i could fly to idaho and surprise my sister for her graduation from byu-idaho! my parents first arrived at her house as i hid in the car. my sister then went to give my dad a tour of the house and my mom ran out and grabbed me. i sat on the couch and waited for my sister to come down the stairs. as she walked into the living room she had her back turned to me and was looking up something on the computer. everyone was sitting and waiting for her to turn around and notice that i was there. finally, after a few minutes she turned around and the rest went something like this... "AHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GOSH!!!" (runs over and gives me a huge hug--screams again--hits me--screams again--hugs me--hits me) we have an abusive relationship... haha. needless to say, she was totally shocked! it was perfect. 

while our visit was short it was definitely worth it. my brother was there too which was the first time our whole family has been together in 3 years. it was grand :) 

i was somewhat in shock the entire trip because of the weather change. i literally went from lying on the beach thursday, in 80 degree weather. to walking in snow in 20 degree weather. the biggest shock was probably when i woke up sunday morning to 9 degree weather... 9?! crazy. it was so freezy outside. everyone in the airport just gave me the look as if i was an alien as i walked in with my flipflops and capris sweatpants. sorry people, i do not have any winter clothes in hawaii. 

i need to take a minute and just boast about my amazing sister. i am seriously so proud of her for graduating college! it took her almost 9 years to do it.. but she did it! my sister is the most amazing person i know. she is so strong and she's my best friend. the person that keeps me going. she gives me strength. i'm so blessed to have her. and to have my little monster hayden as well. i know jacom was smiling down on us this weekend, and i know he is so proud of beka for all her amazing accomplishments :)

there are so many stories i could tell but i'll just leave it at this. it was wonderful. i love my family so much. if there's anything i've realized this last year, it's just how important family is. 

i have lots of updating to do, but here are some pictures from my time in idaho. i must say, although the beach in hawaii is beyond beautiful, idaho is gorgeous in it's own way as well. enjoy :)

buhh-byee idaho.

L

hello christmas bells.

xoxo
L

hello the simple things.

5 things that i've loved about today:

1. i walked home from school with beth and sonny

2. i went to pipe masters

3. i talked to my sister 

4. i got an extra hug from rachy

5. i'm currently eating banana bread

hello pipe masters.

the final competition of the vans triple crown, pipe masters. the waves were huge. they said it was the biggest its been in about 10 years. pipe is the #1 best wave in the entire world. it's also the most dangerous wave in the entire world. more people have died at pipe then any other surf spot. it sure does make for quite the show. love how it's finals time and yet everyone makes time to go to the surf competition. life of a college student in hawaii. i love it.

hello sights and sounds.

i'm slightly in love with this video. so beautiful. we are surrounded by this type of beauty every day. we are all just so lucky. 

L

hello great questions.

today some of my roommates and i were pondering the questions of life. these questions quickly transformed from what you would take with you on a stranded island. my response being mcdonalds. and then it quickly changed to wondering if it's possible to fit into a toilet. it's obvious that we're really mature over here. so we decided to type all our random questions into wiki answers. unfortunately, most of our questions weren't answered. we were all quite baffled as to why others don't ponder the questions such as how many body parts can you cut off until you die? these are common right? but we did find some other pretty funny questions and answers that people had asked. one of my favorites was probably this:

Question: How many years is one million years?
Answer: Believe it or not, there are actually One Million Years (1,000,000) in One Million Years, but don't tell anyone, lets keep it our little secret.

oh people, i find so much entertainment out of the simple things of life. happy tuesday friends. enjoy these pictures for the turtle bay sunset i saw yesterday.

xoxo

L

hello new projects.

my wonderful friend and fellow blogger mckenzie has ventured off on a new project.

the paper crane project.

go ahead and click on that link. 

read. subscribe. love.

she's wonderful and this blog is such a great idea and i can't wait to see how it transforms over the next while. 

you can go ahead and thank me, because you'll love her. and if you want more of her, check out her personal blog

xoxo

L

hello kki.

today was a hat day for a few reasons.

1. i woke up too late and could not locate my brush.

2. i woke up too late and could not manage this mess of hair.

3. i woke up too late and could not shower with enough time.

i feel like i have a habit of starting monday's on time...

but despite my late start to school, i was more than happy to wear my hat today. this is not just a typical hat you buy at forever 21. let me introduce you to one of my most favoritest companies, ever. 

krochet kids international.

kki is awesome. it started off with three guys in high school growing up snowboarding. they learned to krochet hats to wear when they went and it quickly became a trend at their school. soon they were making hats for all their friends. long story short, after making a trip to uganda, they formed a brilliant idea and a company was made. 

they have taught a large group of women in uganda how to make these hats. by doing this they have given them a sustainable job that keeps them living. they make the hats and then ship them back to the states where we can buy them. each hat is individually signed by the lady that made it. and then you can go online, and read the profile about who made it and even write her a thank you letter! awesome. 

i am so in love with this entire company. this idea is so simple. but doing so much good around the world. i love people that are inspired to help others. everything this company stands for is so amazing and i completely support them. you guys should definitely look at their site and get something. i've already got 2 hats to my collection and i love them. plus the holiday season is arriving, such a great gift to give. the gift of love :)

xoxo

L

hello saturday sun.

yesterday morning i woke up bright and early and headed to a beach clean up. this clean up was hosted by the kokua foundation and method. the kokua foundation is a foundation that jack johnson actually set up. it's a foundation that works in hawaii to educate kids about the environment. they are all about cleaning, recycling, and reusing. method is a way cool company as well. they are a soap company, making laundry detergents, hand soaps, sanitizers, etc. however, they collect plastics from the the beach, recycle them, and that's how they make their bottles. a few weeks ago a few of us met with the method team so they could train us on what types of plastics they can use to recycle so that we could help show others at the event yesterday. their entire process is awesome!

needless to say, it was a great way to spend saturday morning. i love both of these companies and completely support what they stand for. not going to lie though, i was really hoping that jack johnson would show up because he has in the past. but no jack this time. maybe i'll luck out and see him at the beach like my friend did last week? :)

xoxo

L

hello 15 minutes of fame.

so i told you all i was up to something fun these last few days and now i'm here to share :)

let's bring it back almost a year ago when some friends and i decided it would be fun to go down to the hawaii 5-0 tv station and apply to be extras. we headed down there, filled out some paper work, got our pictures taken, and they said they would call us. many of my friends began to receive phone calls asking to be extras. not me. i also want to point out that i was the one out of all my friends that wanted to do this more than anything. i would ramble on about how badly i wanted to be an extra, over and over again. finally... that glorious day, i receive a phone call from hawaii 5-0 asking if i want to be a waitress for their next episode. AND I'M IN GEORGIA, COMING TO HAWAII IN 3 WEEKS. FAIL. i seriously wanted to cry i was so bummed. let's also take a minute to rewind back to my younger years as a child where i wanted to be britney spears and marry lance bass from nsync. (yes.. i know what you're thinking...) my only dream in life was to be a famous actress and singer. fast forward back to last week. i'm in the middle of taking a shower and i hear my phone ring, i slowly open the shower curtain to look out at my phone on the counter to see who's calling and i see the words Hawaii 5-0. please use your imagination to picture the next 10 seconds of me frantically throwing the shower curtain open, slipping, and struggling to slide the arrow across on my iphone. keep in mind, wet fingers and iphone screens do not work together. low and behold, i missed the call. 

devastated. 

but with a promising voicemail and a number to call back, my luck turned around and i was asked to be an extra for 2 days of filming hawaii 5-0. 

dreams came true.

my roommates can attest to the hours upon hours followed by days of dancing around my house, singing, "i'm gonna be famousssss" over and over again. so glad they put up with me. 

i worked wednesday night. i spent a good 6 hours filming at the beach. my role was to act completely wasted at a beach party. for those of you that know me, know that that is totally my scene... haha. it was so fun though! there was a band and a huge bon fire and we had to dance around and talk and party like teenagers do. 

thursday night they told us we would be filming a pep rally. ummm yeah... we get there and come to find out it's not a pep rally, rather an assembly where they tell us that our classmate is dead. so we exchanged our peppy for sadness and the cameras went rolling. dano was there in our scene which was pretty cool to see. my roommate rachel and i got asked by the director to be extremely sad and try and pull out some fake crying because the girl is our best friend. both nights i lucked out and i'm pretty sure i got some good shots on the camera because the director placed me there. but i guess i will just have to wait and see once the episode airs. 

overall it was such a cool experience. i could ramble on and on about every detail of the experience but i dont want to bore anyone. it was so cool though. getting to see all the work that goes into a tv show is crazy. i can't wait to see how the episode comes together. i think it's supposed to air on january 2nd? it's episode 13 of hawaii 5-0. i'll be sure to keep you guys updated. i'm really hoping i'm on the screen because then i can check something else off my bucket list :)

L

hello finals.