Taylor...

Well guess what friends? Yep, I went to Taylor Swift this last week and the final verdict on the concert: AMAZING. I have been to some pretty great concerts in my day (OK so really just like 4, but still...) and I have to say that Taylor's concert was the best. Now do not go assuming that I say this because she out sang Carrie or Rascal, but the whole show she put on was absolutely amazing.

Let's just put it this way, I was/am obsessed.

I am just going to give you a few highlights, and then to get the full effect, you are just going to have to see her live!

• She started off the show with "You Belong With Me", (if you have not seen this music video...please go watch it!) She came out in a marching band outfit. Complete with the tall ugly hat. It was hilarious.
• She was so chill about everything. I probably spent more time getting ready that day than she did. She looked amazing the whole time, but her hair was just frizzy (after coming out of a hat) and she could of cared less.
• At one point in the concert, after it had blacked out for a costume change, she came back on the screen to start singing and she was not on the stage. We were all so confused because we did not know where she had gone. We look over to one of the sections and there she is. Just singing at the top of the stairs in between 2 sections. She sings "Hey Stephen" (ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SONGS OF HERS, for reasons other than the fact that it is just amazing) finishes the song and there is just a little instrumental break and she walks down the stairs. Greeting fans. She probably gave out 200 hugs throughout the night. She hugged, shook hands, signed autographs, took pictures, it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. There was this boy, who looked to be about 15 who got a hug from Taylor. He was hyperventilating. Jumping up and down, screaming, it was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen! He was just cute. So she walks down the whole stair case, just letting people flock to her. It was so cool. She said she was sad that she would not be able to meet everyone in the audience who had come to support her that night. She is adorable.
• After she sang White Horse, a terribly sad song that she sounds absolutely amazing during, the Energy Solutions Arena was as loud as I had ever heard it. For ten minutes the cheering, screaming, clapping continued. It was the most incredible thing I had ever heard. Taylor (isn't that weird to just say Taylor...like she becomes someone completely different when you leave off the Swift..) did not say anything. Just looked out at the crowd with tears in her eyes and a huge grin on her face. After a while she said, "Salt Lake City, I promise I am never gonna forget that. Thank you, thank you." It was amazing. I almost wanted to start crying with her. You can just feel how humble she is just by being a mere fan in the audience. It was absolutely amazing.
  
• Oh, I was with the best people ever!!! Star, Annie, and Cali. It totally made the concert and I was very grateful for their presence.
• So basically writing everything I loved about Taylor Swift would take a lot longer than I had though it was going to...so now I am just going to stop and post some pictures and a video or two for your enjoyment!!!

I L-O-V-E them!

Mara Whittier.
Kyrie Ann Dangerfield.

We have all been friends since about...hmm 6th grade. Anyway, once we graduated from high school and stuff, just like with a lot of other things, it is hard to stay good friends and hang out a lot like you used to.
Mara moved to Logan and Kyrs moved to Provo with me. Anyway, we all live in Provo for the summer which is great and we got to all hang out last week! I say got to because Mara has a boyfriend and for some reason my friends sometimes have a hard time remembering the whole "Sisters before misters" saying ya know? ;) Anyway, we went to Olive Garden and drove to the park where we played and I tried to teach Mara how to do a head stand, but she just refused to learn! But it was so fun just relaxing outdoors, and being able to not freeze! I love Provo in May...most the time! Yea for good friends! :D

I told Kyrs NO butt shots...and what does she do? Rude.

Talk about skills! I have come a loooong way in a year! ;)

Meeker, Colorado Ladies and Gentlemen!

So, Memorial Day weekend was rapidly approaching and I had nothing going on. Cali had invited me to Lake Powell...with her, Nate, and 2 other couples. Woo hoo. As much as I love Lake Powell, I love being a 6th wheel a WHOLE lot less. So that was a no go. But I definitely appreciated the invite! France is in Costa Rica and those are all the roommates I have currently! So I went to my fantastic cousin Starla and asked if she would like to accompany me to the great town of Meeker, Colorado. She willingly accepted and plans were made. My sister and brother-in-law moved there in January and just recently moved into a new home (new to them...not really new) Anyway, they moved in and are doing some renovations! So, being the HARD WORKER I am, I volunteered to come up and help them paint! It was so fun! My niece and nephews are absolutely adorable and my cousin Mary just happens to live in Craig, which is just an hour away. So we also got to see her and her beautiful baby boy Trey! Janae loved having us there and made us feel so good about our decision to go to CO for the weekend! We partied, stayed up way later than parents should ;), painted the living room green, and ate a lot of food!

Here are just a few gems from the weekend!

Singing... I am not really sure what. But obviously I am feeling it a lot more than Star is.

Cutest kids of my life!


Nope, not at a beach. A parking lot actually.

Allie, Trent, Tyler, and Trey (2 out of 4 looking at the camera...not too bad.)

How adorable are they? These are their funny faces!

haha I love my little man!

Craisin fingers!! (She thought she was hilarious!)

This video is amazing! While we were in Craig shopping on Saturday there was a killer rain storm! This is us in the Safeway parking lot...there was so much water it was ridiculous! Don't mind my super annoying narrating voice!

Tramps, Trees, and Hammocks

And of course when I say tramps, I mean trampolines...! But a one syllable word always wins over a three syllable word. Anyway, two weekends ago I was home (I hate when I start a blog post and then don't finish it). I keep telling myself I just need to get out of Provo, when really, how long am I ever actually here? Since school got out, and I have been working full time, I was here for 2 weeks and then went to New York. Then was here for like 5 days and needed another break, so I went to Cedar. It rocked.

One bad thing about living in Provo, on Condo Row, where the only grass you have is on 7th North, is the issue of... having no place to lay out. For someone who is trying to deny the fact every day that she is white, not having a place to lay out is HORRID! The thing about 7th North, is you go to even lay on the grass to read a book, and people honk at you and yell things at you like you are trying to sell yourself or something. This is no good for me. Definitely can not lay out on that grass! So it was exciting to be able to lay out in a back yard while I was home! Anyway, I love going home and being able to just chill. Not having a time frame or any schedule to stick to! It is just so good! Here are some photos from our shoot...and from our slumber party!!

Oh, some motivation for going to Cedar was the end of year choir concert! Man, I miss those things like crazy! The end of the year one was always the best because it was right after festival was over with and we got to choose our songs! A nice break from the intense songs we had just sang. It was amazing! I love Cedar High Choir! Madrigals and A Ca and even Lyricals sang tons of songs that I sang during high school. It made me a bit melancholy...but just for a second! It was so fun to see my sister (who is now in Mads) and my brother (Who will be next year!) singing the songs that I once sang and wearing the hot choir robes that I absolutely adored! ;) Anyway, it was real good. Here are just a few photos for your enjoyment!!

Man, I LOVE climbing trees!

Peek-a-Boo! (Sorry this picture is sideways..I just could NOT figure out how to switch it!)

One of Saryn's many hidden talents, modeling.

"I have to cover my eyes to protect them from the flash!"

Watch out Karate Kid!!

All this time we thought Larissa was the dramatic one...

In high school I went through this real weird poetry phase...I blame Mrs. Esplin. Anyway, during that time I decided that expressing my feelings was a whole lot easier on paper. So I averaged about a poem a week. I know, who even knew I had that many feelings! Not me! Anyway, I had lost the notebook... or just could not find it when Saryn wanted to put one of the poems I had written in her poetry portfolio. I was rather upset about it because it had acted as my journal during my senior year of high school, and it was just gone. Since that time I have searched everywhere in my house for that notebook...no where to be found. This last weekend when I was home (more on that later) I found a random box that had my name on it when I was rummaging through the crawl space under the family room. I opened it up...and WALA (is that how you spell that?) there was my notebook!!

Well I have been going through all the poems today and typing them up so I can keep them all in the same place and I came across this one. Those of you who knew me in high school, this will make sense. But if not...it is still an awesome poem! ;)

Ugh

I don’t know what I want

I just know how I feel inside

I really want something to happen…

But do I want you by my side?

Asking you to trust me again

Is more than I can do

And who’s to say that if I did,

Again I just might hurt you.

It would be rather selfish

And probably more than you could stand

If we got back together,

and again, I gave away your hand.

At this pivotal time in my life

I will try to continue on

But without you here with me

I feel like everything is gone

Talk about dramatic! haha Reading through this, I remember exactly how I was feeling and how I felt like my life was resting on this one decision I could make. Now, I can not figure out for the life of me why something as small as it was had me tossing and turning at night, and not being able to focus on anything! I think this will be good for me to look back on when I am raising my own kids and say, "Remember what it is like to be a teenager Kendra. Stuff like this really matters to them."

But as for my own life, thank goodness for growing up and maturing...a little bit... since then! :)

After 16 months...

Well everyone, I got released from my calling yesterday! :( I have been a Relief Society Instructor for almost 16 months and just last month I came to the conclusion that I love teaching. Weird. I feel like I finally got what God wanted to teach me, and then releases me...hmmm.

Anyway, I got a new calling. I got called as a Co-Chair for the service committee. We are supposed to have a service project once a month. For my entire ward. Yeah. Basically I just need a lot of ideas for service projects that can involve anywhere from 35 to 50 people. Any ideas?!?!

7 days later, $650 poorer...

I am back from New York! Oh my gosh was it the trip of a lifetime...I have many of those, but this one definitely made the Top 10! I am a little camera happy, so you can imagine the amount of pictures I took on a 7 day vacation with two of my best friends.

Well I guess we should start at the very beginning, because that is a very good place to start! Thursday morning I went and picked up Mara from her grandparents home in Springville. After trying for quite some time to get her suitcase to zip, we were on our way. Francie was so gracious and agreed to take us to the airport, in my beloved cousin, Stars, car. (Star is always so amazing when it comes to us borrowing her car, I am forever indebted to her and sure do appreciate her willingness!) So we get to the airport a good hour and a half before our plane is supposed to take off. Everything goes smoothly we check our bags (so lame you have to pay a fee for that now-a-days. Apparently the airports want us to pack lighter or something, put everything in our carry on) make it through security safely, and sit and wait.


This whole waiting thing becomes a HUGE part of our trip to New York, and patience definitely was developed. We had a connector flight in Phoenix...yes it makes so much sense to fly more west to get to the east coast...don't ask. So we make it to the Phoenix airport after a 30 minute flight...or an hour and 30 minute flight if you account for the time change, which Mara and I had a hard time doing. Genius. So our layover in Phoenix was about an hour and 15 minutes. We decided we were hungry and after the 6 hour flight to New York and not eating anything for lunch or dinner was not a good idea. So we go to our gate check things out, everything is still the same, so we decide to go eat. We ate at this really great Sports Court and had an amazing pulled pork sandwich...mmm. Well all of a sudden it is ten minutes before our plane is supposed to leave. We hurry and pay and run to our gate. Little did we know that while we had been enjoying our food our gate had been moved from A17 to A27. If you know the Phoenix airport, then you know that those are the farthest away two gates can be from each other within the same airline. Well to make a long story short, Mara and I looked really great running a mile through the airport to get to our other gate with our carry on and purses flailing everywhere...we missed out flight. We went and talked to customer service and the very nice lady took pity on us and gave us new tickets for free for 9:30 that night. It was 3:00. How lovely. Not only did that put us in the airport for FOREVER, but also complicated things with Larissa picking us up from the airport. Because of the time difference, we would get into JFK at about 5:30. Riss still had to work on Friday starting at 6:30 am. After we figured out a way to work the shuttles and busses, and Larissa freaking out because she did not think we could figure it out, her very nice employer Dan, volunteered to come pick us up! What a heaven sent!

We finally got to New York after our 5.5 hour plane ride, all the while meeting people who..uh...really enhanced out flight. Learning why women can't read maps and guys can't listen to listening to a presentation complete with a power point from the guy sitting next to me about an advertising company called Yodel, that he was presenting at a Dentist convention the next day. Man, it was an interesting flight!

In the end, Mara and I spent a total of 32 hours either in the air or in the airport. Ridiculous.

We finally arrived in New York and at the house in Chappaqua at about 7:00. It was SO great to finally see Larissa. Man, from seeing someone every day to not seeing them for 4.5 months... it is pretty emotional when you are finally reunited. As you can imagine. And we are not even emotional people...right. ;) After our flight, and not sleeping at all through the night, Mara and I went and took a shower and went to sleep in the carriage house, where we would be staying while in NY. Larissa bathed the kids, took Brie to speech therapy, played trains with Nate and other things until it was time to take the kids to school, we were supposed to be up and ready by this point. We took the kids to school and then just basked in the joy of being together! haha We ate some food...a trend that becomes way to popular on this trip. I am pretty sure we ALL gained at least 10 lbs. while there, and it was only 5 days! Sick. Well that night we went to Palisades Mall... Wow. Is the only word to describe it and that hardly does it justice. There are like 5 floors and we got through about 1/3 of them in the 2 hours we were there. I bought some cute clothes and then we went and saw a movie. After the movie we were a little too hyper and this was the result...

Palm Trees!!!!!

Comparing length of hair


Please note Larissa's face in this photo...haha

Attempting Elvis lips... clearly I am a pro and Mara and Larissa...novice?

By now I am sure you guys are getting worried about how this post is going to take you 5 days to read because I am being so detailed...don't fret, from here on out I will just do highlights and post lotsa photos!

Saturday we went into the city! This was the only day that was forecasted for sure to rain..turns out it was the only day that DID NOT rain. hmm

Grand Central Station!

Rockefeller Center

Broadway play; In the Heights! Amazing!!!! Thank for the recommendation Becs!

Waiting in line for 2 hours, trying to get to the top of the Empire State Building... why would they not have a gorilla to take pictures with?

*Funny Story! While you are in line they take your picture against a green screen that when it comes out it is this amazing photo of the Empire State Building and you in front of it! We took ours and when we looked at it, turns out Larissa's dress was the exact same color as the green screen. So in our picture she just had a floating head. It was soooo funny!

NYC...beautiful!

Did you guys know that the top of the ESB moves? Yeah...its cause of the wind. ;)

SUNDAY:
We went to church in Connecticut! It was so great and I love feeling the spirit! Good time at church!

*Funny Story: So we had decided the night before that we really wanted to have brownies and ice cream for dessert on Sunday. But we remembered not while we were at the store, so we did not buy brownie mix. Luckily Dan and Nicole had some that we took. When Larissa went and got the brownie mix, she forgot that we also needed eggs and oil to complete the brownie making process. She runs back over to the main house and brings back one egg (when it requires two) and some oil. Well I am in the process of making the brownies, cracking the egg when I think to myself, "Man this egg shell sure is thick..." Oh no, actually the egg was hard boiled! Thank you Larissa! hahaha It was so funny. Needless to say I had water and oil to make brownies with...they turned out really really gross. After 25 minutes of cooking, they were boiling...bubbles actually popping, in the middle of all the cupcake sections of brownies. It was disastrous! haha But so funny!

As most of you know, when Mara, Larissa and I get together a water fight ALWAYS seems to break out. No matter what. This time was no exception. After a few minor casualties that resulted in me growing an extra medial malleolus, throwing Larissa in the shower, and Mara getting repeatedly sprayed with the hose from the sink, this is what we looked like!

We decided after this photo Mara should never go on ANTM! haha We love you!

My extra malleolus. It was super bruised and swelled up immediately, it was awesome!

MONDAY:
We set our alarm for 7:00 and none of us woke up. We ended up waking up about 10:00 instead and still got to the city at a fairly decent hour with enough time to do everything we wanted. Here is a slideshow of Monday!

Walking back to the hotel on Monday with our gourmet meal and dessert in hand we were stopped by this man who asked us, "Where do they breed superhuman women like you?" We did not really know if it was a compliment...but we took it as one! haha We slept in a hotel in Manhattan on Monday night and it was so nice, to be able to stay in the city and wake up the next morning and not have to worry about taking a shuttle there (Thanks Bret and Margo for allowing us to use the time share!) It was an great night (besides the fact that there was no hot tub..what a conspiracy!) and once again we woke up an hour later than we had planned! What can we say? We were completely exhausted!!

TUESDAY:
Another great day in the city... and by great I mean pelting raindrops on our faces and the wind blowing 25 MPH...but we were in New York with each other, which ALMOST canceled out the freezing weather! Between Monday and Tuesday the three of us stood out like a sore thumb (what a weird phrase...who really notices sore thumbs?) Anyway, we are already 'superhuman' as stated above and way taller than everyone around us, not only that but all of us only packed shorts and flip flops for the freezing weather and we are all wearing bright colors as opposed to the New Yorkians style of gray and black! People were giving us weird looks everywhere we went! Here is what went down on Tuesday!

We got home Tuesday night and Dan and Nicole offered to buy Chinese food for us! They are so kind! P.S. I did not even tell you how cute Larissa's kids are. And they are just that, Larissa's. I am pretty sure they love her more than their parents...which is awful, but it is all so evident! Anyway, they are stinkin cute! So Tuesday night we had chinese with Dan and Nicole and then went and watched Baby Mama while eating Ben and Jerrys (tribute to Garren and Trevor!) We ended up going to 'bed' at about 2:30 and woke up at 3:45 to be to the main house by 4 so Dan could get us to the airport by 5:30...rough morning! So we boarded both our planes without any trouble and arrived in Salt Lake City, UT by 1 in the afternoon. Yes, we got to be in 3 different time zones all in the same day. Super confusing to keep up with!

All in all it was an amazing trip! It was so good to get out of Provo first of all, but it was good to get reacquainted with each other. To get really caught up on each others thoughts and feeling and not just events that were happening. I love these girls so much. I have been incredibly incredibly blessed by such amazing friends throughout my life! Not just Mara and Larissa, but so many who influence me for the positive every day and who I think of and want nothing more than to develop some of the qualities they possess! What can I say? I am a lucky girl!

I have now been home for 2 days and I really do love Provo! I love my job and the people I work with, my roommates and those that don't actually live with me but are like my roommates. It is good to be back home.

Holy longest blog post of my life..sorry..I will not be offended if you tell me you just went through and looked at all the pictures. But you really should read some of the stories. They are quite comical!