last minute.

  So many of you know my brother, Michael, was sealed for time and all eternity to the woman he loves, Courtney. They were married & sealed in the Newport Beach temple in California. They seemed as in love as could be, and I couldn't be happier for them. Courtney grew up in Mexico, and Michael met her while doing summer sales for vivint in north carolina. SMALL WORLD. 

  well leading up to the wedding was pretty chaotic. Let's just say, spray tans & make overs were in order, and that was just the start of it. We drove down to california on thursday morning, and started the big weekend event there. we got there and immediately went to rubios. (a fan favorite in our family). after several hours of pillow talk + josh, we finally retired to bed. 

  the next day was the first day of festivities. we held an open house for the bride & groom that night to celebrate their upcoming wedding the following day. after seeing many friends & family at this occasion, and setting up many lights & other decorations, we finally ended the night by getting ice cream. (aka golden spoon) the promise ice cream. 

  on saturday it was finally the big event. THE WEDDING. it was my first time in a temple for the wedding, so it was a pretty cool experience to have with my family. michael and courtney were stunning and couldn't have been more perfect. the wedding was beautiful and the weather was beautiful, it was just a perfect day. we then all hurried over to islands and gorged our faces while michael and courtney went and took wedding pictures. after islands, we drove all the way to sprinkles. sprinkles is a sacred experience. best cupcakes & ice cream ever. we then ended the night with a family dinner & sending courtney and michael off on their honeymoon. what a night.

  we then drove all the way back up to utah on sunday. i begin my full-time missionary service on wednesday. it is so surreal for me to be leaving, but i am so excited i can't wait! i know this gospel is true & it brings happiness to all who draw near unto it. i would not be giving up school & work if i didn't know with every ounce of my heart that this gospel is true. i'm so excited to get to lubbock, and i'm so excited to be speaking in spanish! God works in mysterious ways, but i know i am meant to be going to texas to preach the gospel. i'll see everyone in 18.

Orlando I LOVE you!

  These past two weeks i got the amazing opportunity to travel to atlanta georgia and orlando florida! i went down to the south to go visit my sisters: tiersha & tahnee, and of course their kids. and i also went to work for tiersha. tiersha works for a business called lularoe, so of course photos & videos were the bane of our 2 weeks together. we modeled everything from dresses, to shirts, to leggings! they really do have it all.

  the first weekend i was there we drove down to florida to go to disneyworld and harry potter world. WOW that's all i can say. it was so amazing. harry potter world is literally everything you have read in books & seen in movies come to life in this amusement park. at universal studios you start by being in a town in london, & then you move through the bricks into diagon alley. it's exactly like the movie. i had a couple tears here & there just because of how breath taking & magical the experience truly was. we went on the gringotts bank ride first, and that ride was amazing! it's like you're actually on the cart that would be in gringotts & you ride your way through the bank & you see harry potter and all the other cast members!

  once we had finally seen everything in dragon alley, we took the hogwarts express over to hogsmeade. this is where i had my first butter beer. oh my word, nothing has ever tasted so amazing before. we then went on the dragon ride, where it portrays the dragons from the 4th movie. of course we chose the hungarian horntail. after this ride, we walked over to hogwarts & rode the ride there. oh my word, so many emotions. we actually got to walk through the castle & experience student life. it was oh so incredible. we even went into the classroom that the class 'defense against the dark arts' usually takes place in. this ride had you 'be on a broomstick' & you basically flew all over hogwarts & helped harry defeat voldemort. the ending of the ride was so good because it had the traditional harry potter ending music & it was just so nostalgic. i love harry potter. shortly after harry potter, we made our way through the rest of the park by starting with 'jurassic world'.

  as we were in orlando, we couldn't not go to disneyworld! so we made a quick stop that sunday at the most magical place on earth, and wow i just love disney. we decided it would be best to attend the 'not so scary mickey's halloween party' which meant, our hours in the park would be from 4-12. this was plenty of time! especially for how not crowded it was. we got to go on every ride that we wanted to (except pirates of the carribean, yes still bitter), but the only thing that was killer in orlando was the humidity. it feels like a warm wet blanket is wrapped around you & it just gets hotter as the day goes on. you can't escape it.

  after the fun in orlando, we made the trek back up to atlanta to finish our lularoe gig. we took so many pictures, i had to download my camera film 3 times. we also shot over an hour worth of video, so that was fun to edit down to 3 minutes! we also made stops to our favorite places, aka sprinkles, devinci's donuts, & shake shack. we also got to go walk along the belt line. this was a highlight for me in atlanta. i love the idea of old vintage things, & the belt line was just that! there was also this old sketchy piano along this path, & so of course i had to stop & play!

  this trip to atlanta/ florida was something so fun to me, i had the greatest time with both my sisters. from pictures, to church, to surviving the humidity in orlando, this trip was a great last vacation before i leave in 23 days for my mission.