disneyrrraaaand

here are the six pictures i took at disneyland:

okay so i didn't take this one.

 and here are the others:
(thanks kal and ry!)

this is what happens when you ask a worker to take pictures for you:

 = cheeese fest

 if you were wondering, wearing neon shirts was the best idea we ever had. 

we could always find each other and every group of three people or more was way jealous.

and it was the perfect day to go! the longest we waited in line was thirty minutes for the toy story ride, everyone is way obsessed with that one and i vote it gets a fast pass.

loooved the new little mermaid ride

and this

i love everything about his picture

 kalie said they were on the bachelor/bachelorette? 

either way she is looking classsssy and either way they loved smiling for the picture.

brynne i told you!

(we really just wanted a picture of that sweet old lady behind me)

ryan was supposed to act happy in this one but he forgot

 nothing has made me happier than world of color.

annnd this is what i woke up to the next day and laughed so good that they all fell asleep with their neons on. walt wore us right out! 

i really love disneyland. which is why i actually have to go back next month.

yesssssss.

please just watch the most inspiring clip ever

i love sundays. seriously, they are the best.

today consisted of going to ryan's ward, then my sister's to see her family sing in church (which was the cutest), eating family dinner with the margetts, playing freeze tag outside with their fam (and red rover. and mother may i), eating grandma gareth's famous birthday cake, hearing stories about the murray man trip to powell and how they almost died from flash floods, cleaning up (i really do like doing that, especially with ry guy by my side), and now to end the night successfully we are watching the prince of egypt. for the first twenty minutes ryan kindly let me bounce around on an exercise ball to 1. stretch out my sad body because it is still dying from the 10k we did yesterday and 2. because i'm obsessed with this movie and i needed to get out some of my excitement.

and now i would like to share with all of you my favorite part. whether you have or haven't watched this movie, you should definitely watch this clip. it starts getting good at about minute two.

on my mission we could only watch one movie besides church movies. 

prince of egypt was it.

before the mish i hadn't really ever watched it but let me paint you a picture.

you have been out on your mission in oh, let's say, taiwan for months now. the only movies you have watched is the twenty minute restoration video, finding faith in Christ, and the occasional awkward lds short film made in the 80's on being honest or about picking up snakes. (and all those are dubbed over in chinese so you haven't really seen anything in english). then, one great day, your mission president gives his approval for your zone to watch the prince of egypt together. it was like the best two hours of your life and you cannot remember being more obsessed with a movie or being happier on a preparation day. a good message, great soundtrack, a little romance, funny jokes - what more could you want? 

anyway.

i'm going to stop speaking in third person, i think you get the idea. at that time in my mission i watched the specific part above and really related with moses. at times the Lord calls us to do things we don't feel that we can. we don't feel adequate or good enough or qualified. maybe that is a new calling or to be a mom or a new job. for me, i've never felt more inadequate than being called on a mission to another country and being told to speak mandarin chinese. so, like moses, i too wrestled with the Lord to try and reason with him and explain that he chose the wrong person. there had to be someone better suited! but the Lord's response for all of us is the same. we are to do as he commands and he will be with us. i love how he kind of put moses in his place and then lovingly says just that, "moses, I will be you". we are to just trust him. moses trusted him and ended up saving his people. when we do the hard things we are commanded to do we can part our own red seas and make the difference the Lord intends us to. i didn't want to forget that so i took a video of it with my camera and would watch it on preparation days when i was losing faith or felt somewhat depressed and it always reminded me of the Lord's love and how he believed in me and what i was doing and helped me keep going. funny how i was so comforted and inspired by dreamworks rendition of moses' story! but i'm grateful for it.


aaaaand if you feel like one clip wasn't enough, here is my second favorite.

  

oh just everything else we did in california

*feel free to not actually read the captions because they are boring

soooo..

after this blessed occasion kalie and spencer arrived and we all stayed at shealee's for the night then packed up the next morning to head to vegas

(but not before leaving money for the milk we used! i know. so thoughtful.)

when we arrived (not before sitting at discount tire for an hour though) 

we ate at the oh so classy sweet tomatoes

(ps it wasn't even as gross as i remembered that place to be!) 

upon entering vegas we really only had one priority:
to go here.

which was a fairly successful shopping trip for all of us.

after a few hours we were back on the road to go to LA!

(worst picture ever but maybe it is the only one i took during this part of the trip)

that night we arrived at brynne and tanner's apt at about 9pm to say hello then headed to our old friend rachel's to stay the night to rest up for.. 

..this happy place!!!

(i only took like 5 pictures (this being one of them) besides those taken at club 33 so i have to get others from ryan and kaaaaalie)

so..disneyland happened friday, it was the best ever.

then - saturday we did the following things:

went to the beach!

(more pictures of the beach found heeeere)

mmmmm

ryan and ellie just loving the waves!

(okay so you can't tell from this picture but trust me, they were)

bnotd = ellie came up from huntington to be with us!

(ellie was my roommate freshman and part of sophomore year)

and was kind enough to take a picture of the four of us

(could my hair be any more out of control?)

and this of course wasn't awkward at all.

the beach was really great and so were the shops and everything else around it!

we felt sad to leave but we were happy we could go be with b&t!

dinner with the frei's and other friends was delicious and much appreciated after eating out for days

mhs pride!

what is not to love about this brynne and this apartment?

or this guy.

afterwards we headed to third street promenade which brynne did a nice job of talking about here.

and saw a girl (whose name i can't remember) that plays sometimes with ryan's brother ben!

stripes for life! or maybe i should say stripes 4 lyfe.

and the award for keeping your eyes open in a picture when you usually have a hard time doing it goes to tanner!

after we parted ways and said goodbye to b&t (which was sad sad sad) kalie and i snuck into forever 21

(literally. like we slowly walked behind ryan and spencer, ducked, and then ran into the store. who knew they would hate shopping so bad by the end of this little trip?)

then we actually had to head back to rachel's because we were all so tired!

and take a picture with her before going to bed. we are so grateful she let us stay with her!

(sunburn anyone?)

the next morning we woke up bright and early, packed up the car, headed back to vegas, changed into church clothes in a walmart bathroom, went to sacrament meeting (which was the best thanks to all those cute young women talking about girls camp!), went back to walmart and changed into regular clothes, headed to st. george, dropped kalie and spencer off at their car, waved goodbye to them and to the little mermaid, then drove all the way to murray (passed two cars that had rolled off the freeway!) without stopping and got there at about 8:30 pm.

it was a fast yet very delightful trip!

and in closing,

 it only seems appropriate to end on this uncomfortable note:

...