Lauren

Today I had lunch with Lauren. Lauren is one of my greatest friends. She and I met our first year of college cleaning bathrooms together at 5am in the Tanner Building. The combination of being sleep deprived and working with chemicals in what were often messy situations (and I mean that literally) made us bond in a very special way.

My freshman year of college is like the black hole in my life, probably similar to what every normal person's middle school life was like (I'm not included in that group. My middle school experience was great!) I don't remember too much from that year besides feeling down a lot of the time. Lauren was the one bright spot in my day. I doubt the bathrooms in the Tanner Building will ever hear as much laughter as they did the few months we worked to clean them.

We joked about people wearing spandex and we talked about chick flicks. One day we created a verbal outline for an exercise video that we called "The Potty Training Program," which included many of the tasks we had to perform to clean the bathrooms. I loved Lauren for her spunk, her love for life, her ability to really listen and be open, and for being there when no one else was. I loved her so much that I pulled her along into my second and third way away from home and made her my roommate.

Lauren and I don't see each other much any more, but I will always be grateful to her for how she enriched my college experience and pulled me out of some pretty dark holes. And as with all good friends, if she ever needs an ear to hear or someone to swoon with during a Jane Austen film or a buddy to laugh with, I'm in. That's what friends are for.

My Inner Hippie

This morning Jessica and I went shopping at Ross. I was really tempted to buy what I tried on:

Whatcha think, Jon?

Silver Lake Flats Hike

Yesterday was a blast! Jessica, Jon, and I went on a hike to Silver Lake up American Fork Canyon. We started our hike at a horse trading site, below where the trail for this hike usually starts. From there, we hiked to Silver Lake Flat, and then hopped onto the trail for Silver Lake. There and back, the hike ended up being somewhere between 9 and 10 miles.

Jon and I before the hike began:

This yellow line is the path we took to the lake:

We were really glad that we hiked the extra little bit before Silver Lake Flat because it provided some of the prettiest scenery. One section of the trail was pretty much a little stream that we had to hike through...it was like The Narrows part two!

After hiking through the stream/trail, we made it to Silver Lake Flat! This is a beautiful, serene place that anyone can drive to. Just look at Jon. Doesn't he look so serene here?

In the background of the picture above, you can see the mountains that we sorta climbed from here. The trail from the flat to Silver Lake was 2.5 miles. The view along the was was amazing:

Finally, several hours after we left our car, we made it to Silver Lake! Man, it was gorgeous! 

I just wanted to stay and camp there for the night! I almost tried convincing Jon, but he loves school so much and I thought he might cry if I suggested missing class the next day, so I didn't say anything. Plus, we were missing a tent.

So instead of setting-up camp for the night, we took silly photos of each other. 

First, a nice group shot of everyone:

Then, some of Jon standing by the lake:

 Then, a nice one of Jessica and I:

Followed by many attempts to get a goofy picture of Jessica and I, which failed because Jessica always moved away too quickly (note Jon photobombing in the background):

Finally, we were successful!

And here's Jessica being Jessica:

Jon found a cool tall rock and climbed on top of it:

...And then jumped off it:

We stayed just long enough to watch the sun set over the mountains (holy moly!):

...then went back home. It was a very good day.

Dinner with Jess and Sarah

Yesterday I got to see two of my favorite people for the first time in nearly two year...Sarah and Jess! Sarah and Jess both recently returned from serving missions for the church. Sarah was in Montana and Jess was in El Salvador. Jon and I knew these girls when we lived at Campus Plaza. They were both Jon's FHE sisters, and I worked with Sarah in the Relief Society presidency and visit taught Jess. It was so good to see them!!! I love having all my long lost friends come back from serving their missions!

We spent the evening eating chicken pesto wraps (one of my favoritest meals ever!), watermelon (one of Jon's favoritest foods ever!), and yummy chicken flavored rice (compliments of Jess; it was some of the best rice I've ever had...teach me your Tex-Mexican ways!) While we ate we talked about life and missions and school and being brown and just enjoyed the feeling of feeling like only two days had passed instead of two years. After dinner, we played an epic game of Rook. Turns out, Sarah's family loves this game and she's pretty good at it, so I felt lucky to be on her team. Jon and Jess barely came out on top, but we didn't play to 500 points, so we can't really say anyone won....

I was happy because I took a bunch of awesome pictures on my camera and was excited to put them on here so that I could remember the evening. Unfortunately, someone changed the settings on my camera to Spanish and I have no idea how to change them back. So while my camera was screaming:

"I HAVE NO MEMORY CARD!!!"

 at me all night, all I saw was:

"No hay tarjeta"

Which looks nice and polite and all, but doesn't do much good for the white girl who took ASL in high school and college. Hopefully, someone fixes said camera tonight so that this mistake does not repeat itself.