Wanderlust, Graduating, and Other Fun Things

Shoutout: A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Marinda and Jaydyn on this, the 2nd day of April!!!! Love you both :) and so happy you were put into our family!

The weather has been either rocking or dreary. As Glen doesn't have much time for anything, I usually find myself reading a book in my hammock at the beach or reading a book on the living room floor. 

I just finished the book Schindler's List for the first time. It was an interesting read. While home in CA, I was looking at our books to take some back with us so I could have new ones instead of reading HP again (which is still totally acceptable, but probably hindering my ability to have a normal conversation with muggles). Glen recommended several of his that I had never read and Schindler made the cut. The book starts off a bit confusing with all of the new names for things and the general lack of easing into a story line. The book goes off of interviews from people who knew Schindler, either as a savior or a friend. Personal accounts of history can be hard to follow and that's how I felt in the first few chapters, but after that, I became comfortable with the language used and the way the stories were strewn together. 

In other news, Bruce and Marinda (brother & sister-in-law) are having a baby!!! But everyone knows that by now. Because I can't stop saying it :)

Okay, still catching up the rest of February and then March. 

We have been spending more time outdoors together because Glen actually sometimes rarely has time for it! A coastal hike up the road with dinner in our backpack was a lovely time. 

Quite some time ago, I commented on the way horses look picture perfect every time I see them. Then Glen commented that they probably look like that to me because that's just how they normally look and people take pictures of them being normal. Interesting argument. I still have not retorted. But it's coming. Some time in the future.

We hiked until we couldn't, found a place to sit down, and had dinner. Which was really good because we ate falafels. The recipe comes from a lovely person called Amy. She showed us how to make them and we never forgot. mainly because it's on her (dormant for now) blog about feeding her husband, Chase. She also took our pictures last Summer because she's awesome.

Glen was talking to me about one of his professors and how amazing his back story is. It was cute.

At the end of February/beginning of March, we had the marvelous opportunity of enjoying Waderlust. I volunteered for the weekend and got into all of the yoga classes and concerts for free! It was definitely an experience that pushed me to accept people that I'm not familiar with. I try to be an accepting person, but when there's only "different" people around, it becomes harder to keep it together for me. I feel that it gave me perspective and an expanded ability to have an open heart and mind. Which is always welcomed.

In this picture (if you can pick me out), I'm telling a woman I just met and danced with that I love her as a sister in God... which was also new for me. I stepped into the whole experience knowing it would be different and I am glad I prepared myself for it; it made me feel comfortable putting myself out there.

(These pictures are not mine; they can be found -- with other photos from the event -- here)

This next class was so good! It was conducted by Seane Corn with DJ Drez dropping some mad beats -- hah. I'm somewhere in that tree pose chain hanging onto an 88 year-old woman's hand and a 20-something's too. This grandma was so cool, definitely an inspiration and super funny!

You can see the old woman in the hot pink tank in this photo; bottom right-ish. And here, we are shaking out all of the bad feelings or grudges we have pent up within us because they don't do any good for anyone.

An aerial view just because.

Finally back to my own photos. I didn't want to be distracted from the experience by trying to get pictures while doing yoga. I'm positive I'm not good enough to do that at this point. The concerts gave me the photography opportunity, but didn't really do it then very much because it was too fun dancing. Donavon Frankenreiter was one of the headliners for the weekend. 

At the end of his set he invited a young lady up to sing and she butchered it, but was cute so she has that. Afterward, she admitted in a loud voice that he had extremely bad smells coming from him -- especially his armpits. What a dirty hippie.

It was such an awesome weekend! Even though I was exhausted after everything, I am so grateful I got to go. Glen was able to come for a day and for this concert with me. It was a taxing week for him in school, but he spared Saturday to spend it with me and 5,000 yogis. The wanderlust folks are awesome and I'm really happy to have met a few of them through this volunteer opportunity.

Our library had a small carnival and it was awesome! I've always wanted to sumo wrestle. This is probably as close as I'll get and I loved it! The laughter was seriously killer though; I think I lost just because my body gave up from laugh-exhaustion.

There it is. My flat back fall. Embarrassed, but determined, I emerged with necessary helping hands and challenged him once again.

I got the final win. He didn't fall on his back, but I still pushed him out of the circle. It merited me a strength compliment by the sister missionary pictured in the background of the above photos.

Dunk-a-Librarian. Let's just say, my softball days have long been forgotten. It showed in the dryness of the librarian.

BYUH sometimes tries new things that are old things for others. Really old. But new for us! A chalk dance. Even though they didn't really have enough money to buy the amount of chalk needed to actually be legitimate and it started raining on us mid-way through the dance, it was good fun.

We went to the temple the next morning with Jorey and Lauren (who got engaged last post) and the chalk was still apparent on us. As you can see, I was mostly chalked green. That ended up making me look very sickly in all white. I was asked several times if I was feeling okay and if I needed to sit down. Only realizing after everything that it was because of my green appearance. Nice.

We graduate next week. Boom! It has come so fast and slow at the same time. We are excited to be here for another 5 months, sad to be leaving so soon, and glad to be moving on (we think hah). My Grandpa, Uncle Robert and Ashley get here next Thursday and Glen's parents get here the day after. It's going to be a busy week and a half for Glen, just like it's been all semester except worse. Hopefully we survive.