Washington DC

     this past week i was able to visit america's capitol, Washington DC. i went only with my two parentals and we left for maryland at 5 in the morning and arrived around 4 pm. we quickly hit the aviation and space museum located right next to the dolles airport. after getting our rental car for the week we headed straight for the museum. the museum closed at 6:30 and we didn't arrive until 5:30 so we had limited time to see everything before it closed. naturally i started snapping pictures the minute we walked in. and WOW what a museum, i was blown away. planes as old as the 1900's to new space shuttles filled the rooms.

     after the museum we went and checked into our hotel in downtown DC. once we were all settled, we knew it was time for us to eat. i suggested (a fan favorite) cheesecake factory. we stuffed our faces w/ food & cake and then soon started back to the hotel.

     the next day we woke up early in the morning and headed to g. washington's house at mount vernon. this incredible experienced opened my eyes on how people back in the day lived and went about things in life w/out technology & normal appliances. g. washington was such an inspiring man who had so many hopes & dreams for our nation. he was a humble man and never let the power get to him.

     later that night we decided it would be a genius idea to go to sprinkles cupcake in georgetown. wellll we got there and asked what cupcakes remained, and they informed us that the only cupcakes left were gluten free & vegan, so we quickly vetoed that idea, & went to georgetown cupcakes (aka DC cupcakes) we each grabbed our favorite flavors after waiting an hour in line, & then headed back to the hotel to eat our delicious treats & to watch the olympics. (s/o to michael phelps)

     the next day we woke up early in the morning again & began a long road trip to monticello virginia. on the way there we stopped at an lds church and attended a ward in charlottesville. we quickly got back in the car after sacrament meeting and got to monticello. monticello has thomas jefferson's home in their little city. it was blistering hot, but luckily they had just added air conditioning units into thomas jefferson's humble abode. we saw where he lived, where the slaves worked, and things that the people in that time era would do for entertainment. we didn't get home till 7-ish from monticello so we decided to stay in & to watch the olympics while eating our second helping of georgetown cupcakes from the previous night.

    on the third day, we woke up around 7 am and quickly got ready for our tour of the united states capitol building. we scheduled a tour through our senate and got a VIP tour with a intern from university of utah. when we met the rest of our tour guide group we ended up being with a girl (and her family) that i had met on instagram because she had recently been called to my mission! we freaked out and got to tour the whole capitol together! it was such a tender mercy being able to meet someone going to my mission before i got to the mission.

         

    then after the capitol we took an uber over to the holocaust museum. what an amazing & humbling experience i have ever had. i got to see a little glimpse of what life was life during the wwII era. i was in complete disgust w/ the nazis and the lifestyle that was lived then. i'm so grateful for the end of the evil power hitler possessed. many tears were shed through this museum, but i have a heart full for the people of germany.

    the following day me & my mother decided we wanted to sleep in while dad went to business meetings. our day consisted of sight seeing & touristy travels. we went all over DC from the museum of natural history to the abraham lincoln memorial. we took tons of pictures and lived off of ice cream cookie sandwiches. yum. my favorite museum was the museum of natural history by far. i loved this stop because i loved learning about the heritage and innovations of our ancestors. the way people lived in the 50's excites me so much. the inventions our founding fathers came up with to the iphone steve jobs created, all of it is thrilling.

    our last day was jam packed with traveling. we got up early in the morning to try and go see the money museum, but w/ no luck we missed our chance. so we ended up just taking some cute pictures. we then had to call an uber to take us back to the airport. our plane ride to slc was a bit chaotic. we hit turbulence coming into the slc valley, and almost couldn't land at the slc airport. the pilot informed us we would be circling for awhile and that due to the turbulence it was going to be a bumpy ride. he sure wasn't lying! we landed safely after an hour of trying to land, we finally made it safely.

     this trip opened my eyes to the history and heritage of america. my love for this country continues to grow and will always because of the sacrifice of my founding fathers. i love america and i loved going to DC. this trip will always be a special one in my heart.

sports camps.

   My FAVORITE job finally ended. Literally crying. I was so heart broken and upset when I left work for the last time. This Summer I worked at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah as a sports camp counselor along with 200 young adults my age. This job requires us to entertain the kids when they're not at practice and to escort them EVERYWHERE. Wake them up for breakfast, take them to practice, pick them up from practice, take them to dinner, take them back to practice or counselor time, and then nightly activities. Then at night we give a devotional and had lights out.

  Through this job I met some of the most amazing people. I met 90 girls who are all aspiring athletes and all trying to make it big. Their stories were inspirational and I've never learned so much from people in such a short amount of time. My girls looked up to me as their role model, and so it put a lot of pressure to be the best I could around them. These girls taught me it's ok to have fun in stressful situations, it's hard to be patient, and it's the biggest blessing to be their adopted mother for the week!

  I also met some counselors that CHANGED my life. I was really panicking about serving a mission and I just needed help and/or advice and the counselors had my back. I had just had surgery when I came into this job on my shoulder, and I couldn't do much. I was in a lot of pain, but they were there for me even when I didn't know who they were. From volleyball to field games to the dance to 7 peaks, these counselors are my FAVORITE people. None of us really knew each other before coming into this job, but I can honestly say I think I met some people that I will remember forever. They have helped me so much with mission prep, dating advice, school, and so much more, I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay them. I love those counselors so much.

   Sports camps was literally the BEST job I've ever had, and I can't even begin to describe how sad I am that this summer job is over. I truly was blessed with the best and loved every minute of it. (even when I had to go to the talent show 5 times in a row) I love the girls I had (even if they said they hated me one week) and I'll never forget this experience.

Boys.

   I know, the one thing us girls lovvvve to talk about. But I wanted to focus on something a little different. My whole life I have been taller than most boys my age until I got to college. Still, even in college, I'm probably taller than 50% of the young men here. This has made dating a difficult challenge as I would like to potentially marry someone taller than me. For my own self conscious reasons, I want to marry someone my height or taller.

   So what? What's the blog post for? Well despite the height challenge, it's been hard finding boys to date. I feel like a boys first impression of me is: intimidating. So, of course, they don't dare go for me. I am loud, and bigger than most girls, but I promise I don't bite. I've run into a lot of guys that are my "type" (I know it's horrible to have a type) but instantly I'm a "bro" to them and I'm friendzoned. I like to play sports and be outside a lot, so you think I'd get a lot of dates? Wrong. I am constantly searching for why I've never been the "hot girl" boys are always digging. Is it my breath? Is it the height? The sarcasm? The loudness? My hair? What?!
 
  I don't drown my face in make up, and nor will I ever. That's not me. I'm tired of boys expecting me to always look better than I should, when in fact, I think I look better with less make up. I'm tired of explaining that I don't have my ears pierced and that I never will because jewelry has never been my thing. The less I have to do to get ready the better my day goes. I'm tired of being asked, "is it hard to date being 6 ft tall?" as if it's not already obvious enough.

  Whenever I get introduced to other people (usually by boys) they introduce me as "This is Annie, she's super cool". Why am I super cool? Why aren't you dating me then? I've tried so hard to figure out this whole dating thing, but I'm out of luck. Keep in mind, these things were happening long before I announced I was serving a mission. Once I got my mission call I was pronounced dead in the dating world.

   Something I have noticed though is people need to get to know me. Yes, my first encounter with you I will probably be dead silent and super awkward. I have a couple guy friends from back home that would do anything for me. But I asked myself, why are my guy friends treating me so much better than boys in Provo? It's because they know me. If my dating experience was based off of all my first dates I'll probably be single forever. When a boy actually takes the time to get to know, rather than taking me on a first date and then being done, then I think I'll have "advanced" in the dating world.

   This blog post is all over the place and kind of me just rambling, but it's how I have felt in the past with dating. I'm not saying it's any boys fault that I'm not getting asked out on dates, this has just been my past experience with dating. xoxoxo