Good News!!

Well, some of you already know this, but about a month ago our dance studio held auditions for the main solo in our upcoming concert. So, a couple of us tried out for it. I felt like it went really well, and the next day I found out that I was doing that part for 2 out of the 4 concerts. Then, the next day I found out that the other girl had quit, so I am now performing the piece for all 4 concerts. The part is called "Dying Swan". It's a really difficult solo that usually only professionals do, but I'm doing it at age 14!!!!!!!! It's pretty exciting!!

Shakespeare Festival!

This weekend the school dance company went down to the Shakespearean Festival/Competition. The first night I lost my wallet and we saw Macbeth. It was so cold outside that it was hard to enjoy the play. The second day (Friday) we performed our dance in front of the judges. We were really excited because the judges didn't give us one bad comment!! Then the rest of the day we just went to dance classes. That night my friends scared me really bad. They pretended that one of our friends had gone missing, so of course I was freakin' out. Then, as I went near to where she was hiding she popped out at me and screamed. I screamed and ran into my room. I literally almost cried it scared me so bad. Anyway, we were showcased which means we got to perform in front of all of the schools. We also placed first in our division!! It was a super fun experience. 

More Pics from Dance Concert!

Sorry this one is side ways!
This was from my ballet solo that I did for the concert. It's called "Le Sylphides". It is a very classical and artistic and old ballet. The cool thing about it is that pretty much the majority of it was on pointe. It was a killer. 

Summer Dance Concert

These are some pictures from our summer dance concert. We did a jazz dance to "Zero to Hero" from Hercules. It was probably one of the funnest dances I have ever done. I really want to put the video on, but we still don't have the right cord. Sorry!

I'm the one in the middle.

Alpine Days!

Alpine Days was very fun! I did my booth of earrings for pretty much the entire day on Saturday. They told us to be there at 8am to set up, but the breakfast was still going so we had to wait until it was over. Finally, at 9:30 everyone was done eating except for one table that, of course, was right on my spot. In another couple of minutes they were done, and I got to set up. I sold about 27 earrings and I got to my goal with money!! It was a great experience. I did have pictures of the booth, but I can't find them.

Hooray!!

I don't have much news, but I did get accepted to sell my earrings at Alpine Days!! I have now reached a 100 earrings (minus the few that relatives bought at the family reunion)!! Yay!

Ballet Camp!!!

For the last 2 weeks I was at BYU for a ballet camp. I went with my friend Megan Blake and we stayed overnight together. It was a super fun experience. I didn't really learn anything new, but I hope I improved. On the last day, my teacher asked me and four other girls if we would want to do the variation (solo dance in a classical ballet) we had learned. We of course all said yes and we did it together in the performance. It was neat because only four people were chosen out of sixty. I can't go into detail about everything, but I will tell you this, the food is delicious!!!!! It was a great experience!!

Lake Powell!

This years Lake Powell trip was great. I accomplished many things. I got up on the slalom, I got out of the wake on slalom and on double skis, I did a 360 and got out of the wake on the kneeboard. It was great! 

It's kind of hard to see, but we're all jumping off a little rock ledge in the canyons. For our traditional canyon trip we decided to go to a different canyon. It didn't have as many amphitheaters, but we found a pretty good one. There were also some good climbing spots.

The amazing sunset.
Shawn and I lookin' awesome during our little hike!
Me trying to do the splits between the rocks, but afraid if I go down to low I will get stuck!
Some of us went on a fun little hike up the rocks. It was really pretty. 

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

Here are some pictures of my recent dance recital. It was based off of the book "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters". It's kind of like an African Cinderella. I was the King's messenger and that is why I look kind of snotty in some of them (the red dress pics). It took me a lot of practice to be able to get into that "I'm better than you" kind of character. However, I had a lot of fun and am proud to say that I did not forget my solo for one concert!!  These first two pictures are of our village celebrations. We had a lady come from SLC to teach us, and there were also live drummers. I have to say that I don't especially like dancing to live drummers. It is very hard.

I will soon have a video of my dances on here. I hope! 

Titanic-the daunting tradedy

Last night I watched Titanic for the first time. I have decided that it is one of my favorite movies.  It is also the first movie I have cried in (everything was there except the tears). My heart just aches whenever I see people fall or die or drown or whatever. It just makes me so sad. What made it worse was thinking the whole time that it actually happened. People really died like that. I just couldn't help but internally cry. It was one of the saddest, yet best movies I have ever seen.

My Earring Business!

I make a lot of my own earrings, and one day as I was showing them to mom, she suggested that I start selling them. So, I have now sold 4 and am hoping to do more. I go around house to house selling them,  either right there or by an order. I'm also planning to get a booth at Alpine Days and sell them there too. So, here are some of the ones I've made. Sorry it's kind of hard to see them all good.

I love you mom!

Mom, you are the greatest. I love you so much, and I could never dream of a better mother. You have taught me all that I know. You are the greatest example to me. I hope that I will be as good of a mother as you are. You've taught me or have given me:

A-agency

B-baking

C-choice and counsel

D-Divine Nature

E-easy going

F-family, faith

G-girly stuff

H-happiness

I-integrity, individual worth

J-just so much

K-kindness, knowledge

L-loving

M-manners

N-nearness to Christ

O-to be outgoing

P-patience

Q-quilting

R-to read, responsibility

S-spirituality, support

T-trust

U-ultimate love

V-virtue

W-worthiness

X-example

Y-yard work

Z-zealous

I love you so much, and I hope you enjoy this little list of your great example to me!

Luna Sin Agua!

In our ward they are doing this emergency preparedness activity. Each month they pick a part of the ward to do some survival(ish) thing. This month it was going without water for three days. You have to live off of the water that you have stored. Well, after church we decided that we wanted to do all of them even if our part of the ward wasn't picked. So, we are going to be Luna Sin Agua (Moon's without water-roughly translated). We got everything ready and we have already started. I am so excited. It is like one big adventure!

Nice To Know!

So this is again on Friday night. We were at Home Depot when we ran into a friend of dad's from high school. I guess he had dated mom a couple of times. We sat and talked for a long time. I couldn't believe they could still recognize each other. Well, on the way home mom and dad talked the whole way about there high school days. They talked about prom and about the kids they knew. It was really fun to hear all about it. Usually we don't just hear about that kind of stuff, so I had a really fun time listening to them. I was also surprised that they could remember so many people, let alone their first and last names! I don't think I will be able to. P.S. The picture above isn't exactly what I wanted, but I couldn't find any pictures of them as teenagers. 

WOW!

On Friday Mom, Dad, and I went to a new healthy restaurant called "The Blue Lemon". It is actually really good. Well, anyway, guess who we saw there? We saw David Nibley off of The Best Two Years. He plays the character Elder Johnson. I saw him first and I told mom and dad, but I was thinking there's no possible way he would be there. As the night went on however, we all figured that was him, and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.  That was our amazing story of this week.

More Pictures!

This is a picture of me on my birthday!

These two are more from the fort. We were having a read-a-thon.

This is a picture from the Young Women mutual about virtue that I organized and put on for one of my Personal Progress projects. It turned out really well.

Pictures to Catch up!

Above, is the fort Chantelle and I made over spring break!

This is my friend birthday party at the cabin.  In the second one we were making ice cream.

Pictures to catch up!

Spring Break!

We didn't go anywhere this spring break (except Shealyn), and have just been hanging out. It's just Mom, Dad, Chantelle, and I at home and things have been pretty quiet. "Strange things are happnin' to me" because lately I have been an organizing freak. I literally wake up in the mornings and think, "I am going to organize today, what should it be this time?" It's crazy. I organized and cleaned out the book case( AAAAHhhhhhh), and we are getting rid of probably half of them. However, now it looks fantastic. 

Well, the other day Chantelle and I built a huge fort(to moms surprise). It covered the majority of the playroom. Then we read for about 2 or more hours. We called it our little read-a-thon. Other than that we've just played Dance Dance Revolution and read all day! Yeah! It's been a great break, and it feels nice to just relax and be lazy!

Hopefully there will be pics soon, but I don't know how to do it on the new Mac.

No Groaning

So here's the thought of the day: 

If you are about to groan, laugh instead! It will make life so much easier to live through.

Trust me, it really works. I've been trying to work on it, and ever since I have felt so much happier. Give it a try and maybe it will work for you too!

I Made It!

In February my friend and I went to a BYU audition for the ballet summer camp. It was really fun trying out. Well, we've been waiting and waiting for the mail to have a BYU letter. That was really the only thing that was motivating me to get the mail on my way home from the bus. Finally it came 3 weeks after auditions. I made it!!!!! My friend and I also made it into housing with each other!! The weeks of the camp are July 6-17. I am so excited!!

Auditions!

A couple of weeks ago our school had Dance Company auditions for next year. If any of you don't know I am on it this year. I tried out, and boy was it easier than last year. I definitely wasn't as nervous. Well, I made it! Now we have early morning practices an hour before school to learn a dance for the concert. Yahoo!

African Dance

On Saturday, some teachers from my dance studio and I went to Salt Lake to take an African class. We did the class because we are doing an African concert this spring. It's a little different but I'm excited. There is a lot of flailing and torso movement involved in that class. It was quite hard for us ballerinas to just let go like that because we're not used to doing that. It was a good experience though. My arms felt like they didn't want to be arms by the end. I could barely lift them up by the end!! Anyhow, it was a lot of fun! My arms, shoulders, neck, and back are all terribly sore now! Oh well!!

This is a picture from my studio's recent recital. Actually this is taken after the concert and I'm just posing. I thought it was a pretty good picture though. Our recital was based on a book of poems called DREAM. I really liked it. I thought it went well!

My big, nasty bugger blister

This is my extremely nasty, big, bugger blister(as mentioned above)! I got it the day before my dance concert. The tape around my toe slid off while I was dancing and created this bugger. It didn't start out so bad, but then it started to swell and almost my whole toe is red and purple. It is also sinking into itself(if that makes sense)! I've tried positively everything. Even putting the inside of an egg shell on it. Nothing seems to be working. We think it might be infected but who knows.

You can't really see it that well because the camera wouldn't focus, so it doesn't look that bad, but it is!!

The rest of Peru!

The week before that we spent going on tours and going to orphaneges. We went to a girl's center where we played with them and taught them toothbrushing. We also painted and what not. We put on a little program where I danced on point shoes and others did their talents. They performed some songs for us too. We also made gingerbread houses with them, which was totally foriegn to them. It was fun to see them break down the houses and try to get the most candy. We went to a handicapt center too. We helped them do some gardening type stuff, and a few of us painted tables. We also did a performance for them and gave them all hot chocolate and sweet bread.
On Sunday we went to Macchu Picchu! Our tour guide gave us a few weeks worth of history in about 45 minutes. We were all extremely bored. However, it was really neat to see the whole city. There was a lot of fog when we got there, but after her 45 minute background on the city it lifted! I will just tell you now that when I saw Wina Picchu I had serious doubts about if I really wanted to go. After our tour we climbed Wina Picchu!! The whole entire thing is stairs. By half way up I was just about to turn around and go back down. I didn't want to see another step. You might think that's a little dramatic, but if you had been there you'd know what I mean. I did end up getting to the top, but when I got there everyone was ready to go back down. Oh well I suppose! That was a really fast run down on the main points of the trip, so I hope you have fun reading it!
P.S. I felt like I was on top of the world. The view was spectacular!!!!!

Peru- Patabamba and Quennco!

On the last night in Patabamba they made a big "feast" with lamb and potatoes. ( Just for the info, the lamb was a previous friend of ours by the rooms. In otherwards, we had seen the lamb tied up). Anyway this is what they cooked it in. It's like an Incan dutch oven.

Above- These were the rooms we slept in at Patabamba. They had a really nice facility to room in. They even had bathrooms with toilets!!

Above- In Quennco, part of the service was to transport and crush bamboo for the roof. We also took dirt piles and flattened the bottom of some rooms.

Above- We went on horses from the village Patabamba to Quennco. We decided this is dad's ultimate cowboy picture (on his little pony)!

This is only one part of the trip. No worries I will get to the other ones. I thought I would do them at different times to save you some time!!