Senior Pictures

Well, not much of note has happened since the last time I blogged. I have gone to school, gotten some new violin students, met my neighbors, gotten sick a few times (actually, I'm starting to wonder if I was ever better!), and laughed a lot at unreasonable hours of the morning. But this last weekend, I got to go on some adventures with my friend and get some pictures for my senior recital poster. They turned out really good! It was fun having people ask what I was doing, or just giving me weird looks (or stares in a couple cases). What can I say, when I am expecting attention I rather enjoy it! (On the converse, if I am not prepared for it, I hate it.)

Anyway, here are some of my favorite shots and edits.

















Some of them I obviously won't use for my poster, but they were just fun shots. It's a good thing I have until late March to pick the ones I will use, because I like so many of them! Gotta narrow it down to 4.

Well that's all for now. Bye bye!

The end of summer and beginning of school!

Well, it's been quite a while since I have blogged, and quite a lot has happened. I guess the first thing that I should mention since the last time I wrote is the family reunion!

So, me and my family went to Montpelier Idaho, which is very near Bear Lake, for a little family reunion with my dad's side over the weekend of the 24th of July. It was really fun to see my family! Friday night we went to a relay for life. It was neat to see all the people there gathered together for the same cause. My grandma died of breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease so it was in her memory. Saturday we watched a movie with my cousins, and then went to a cave. It was really fun. The cave picture is stolen from my cousin Jason. After the cave we played games for a really long time and then went to bed. Then Saturday we got up and drove home. I know, that's really really interesting.



When we came home I was sick for three days and once I got over that I got something else. It was weird.

Anyway, my next adventure was with Tyson. We went looking for locations for my senior pictures and ended up taking a few shots too. It was a very adventurous day to be sure. Here are my favorite shots.








The moonlight ones are for my senior recital, since the theme is dreams, fantasy, mystery, etc.

The next week, I went to the lake with Jason and jet skiied for the first time. It was really fun! I have always like the water and it made me feel very free! I also really had fun with his adorable little sister. I just like their family in general. Anyway, after the lake we went to Olive Garden and had a delicious dinner. In our lake clothing, ha ha.

That was my last adventure of the summer, sadly, but it was definitely a good one!

After that, I spent a lot of time getting ready for school and to move out. I am now moved in to my cute little basement apartment. I have great roommates, and the landlords upstairs take really really good care of us! It's a really good situation. They have really cute triplet 2 year old girls and are just way nice and helpful and patient. Maybe I will be like them one day.

Hopefully I will have pictures of me and my roomies soon. We have already had some pretty good times!

School has been pretty easy so far. I am taking 2 of my classes online so I can work at my own pace, once I get money to pay for the books for them of course. I hope to have them all finished by week 10.

Well, that's it for now!

Fun Summer Stuff

Well, the last three weeks have actually been much more eventful and exciting than the whole of the summer so far! Three weeks ago, I went to my ward's FHE, and that's where all the fun began.

I went, expecting just a regular old family home evening. We went to the local distribution center thing or whatever it's called and put together literacy kits. Emilie and I worked with 2 silly boys (though Em thought one was cute) and one who was nice and friendly. After we finished, they didn't really speak to us anymore. So we left, but as we were doing so, another guy from the ward caught us and asked who we were and we had a little conversation. He had been conversing with the Sunday school president, who knows me, and who asked if I had a calling yet. I said no, and he smiled his little evil smile and said ok. And then we left.

The following Saturday, I got a phone call from the second counselor in my bishopric. I was not surprised. I had an interview on Tuesday and got called as a gospel doctrine teacher. Yay! I start next week, with a lesson on avoiding the deceptions of Satan and not falling into personal apostasy.

But the Monday before I had the interview, I went on a date in St. George with one of Carl's friends. It was a double with a girl who I knew when I was little. It was really fun. We made up fake names for ourselves, and then played mini golf. Turns out I am not very good at that (not like I didn't already know), but since my date cheated for me, oh, and Carl a couple times, I ended with a very decent score. It was fun. Then we played laser tag, which was way fun! I died a lot, but I did kill people a few times, and I didn't get lost, which is a plus. After that we went to Dairy Queen where me and my date got Arctic Freezes which were really quite good. We talked about some fun things and had a good time.

The next weekend, my family and I went to Orem to see the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. First, we went to Mike and Amy's, some of Carl's friends, where I met Mike for the first time. He is very nice and hospitable. I also met their pug Lily, who was a little exuberant and got hair all over me, but fun and funny. We then left for the hotel to put some stuff away and then went to the temple.

First, you go into a tent and watch a video about temples, especially temples in Utah. Two of my relatives were mentioned, Archibald and Robert Gardener, and my mom was pretty excited. And I was a little excited too. There were girls in back of me that were apparently related too, but we didn't talk to them.

Then we went into the temple, which was beautiful of course. The hilight was the sealing room that we actually got to sit in, and heard a little message from a couple who lived close by. John tried to count how many times he could see himself in the opposing mirrors, and my mom cried at seeing our family in them. Here are the pictures we took outside the temple.





The next day, our family plus Mike, Amy and their baby Sophie, went on a little adventure. We went to Cabela's to see the fish, which was pretty fun. They were big and some had strange defects. There were lots of. . . whats the word. . . well, stuffed animals. Zebras, mountain goats, deer, birds, rodents, it was all there. It was fun. After that we went to Thanksgiving point. It was cold, windy, and rainy, but beautiful. I am glad we went. Michelle and I took tons of pictures there.


A Georgia O'Keefe like edit of one of the flowers we took a picture of.


Michelle was trying to take pictures of little Sophie but she just wanted to play with the camera. That is her little hand grabbing the lens.


A mystic dreamer that was in the scent garden, or whatever it was called.


Koi at the pond behind the rose garden. There were tons of them! And they were huge! And actually, very peaceful to watch. Until we fed them.



It was the first time I had seen real lily pads.




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This gorgous picture was taken by Michelle.

Emilie, Michelle and me in the rose garden. So pretty.


The swirly rose!

I really like this one, though I am not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the water? Or the color?

I just thought this would make a cool shot. It reminds me of Rivendell.

A cool view.








Sophie having fun with my hands.


The next noteworthy event happened this past Monday. Well, that's where it started. I went to FHE, and an old friend from high school was there. We hung out a log my senior year in high school, and he took me to prom. We talked a lot and it was just fun. I also threw rocks at one of my dumb old neighbor boys, which was also fun. Then Wednesday I went on a date. We went to dinner at Chili's, which is always fun since you can play tic tac toe with the coasters and the tiles on the table. We had great food. Then we went to a park and swung, or swinged, whichever, which I like to do. Then we went to Transformers, which was good, but I was disappointed at how many dirty little things it snuck in there. If it hadn't been for those things, I would have thought it an excellent movie. Anyway, it was still fun though.

Next thing happened yesterday. I had a recital for all my students. It was very fun and rewarding. They were all terriffied and all played very well. Photographs by R. Tyson Vance


Trio by Miranda, me, and Michelle. It is a very pretty song, and it went quite well for how little we had rehearsed.


Michelle played Meditation beautifully. And she looks lovely in my skirt :) She also has a gorgeous violin.


Cammie has only been playing for 6 months and is sounding very very good. She plays well in tune and tries her very best.




That would be me playing something. Mostly I like this picture because it shows just how powerful a pair of shoes can be. Yes!


So cute!



She always plays well, and is fun.



Another great young violinist.


Ah, he is SO cute! And played really well, even though the poor little guy was terriffied!


She is such a perfectionist. She messed up and was very upset. But nobody played perfectly. Hopefully she will learn to not be too hard on herself.


Playing the Bach Double Conerto with a lady who has stuck with me for a long time.


John, who figured he needed to entertain everybody at the expense of acting properly as he was instructed, and even getting through his whole song withoug being "funny". Oh well, he will learn.

The whole crew! Aren't they just so cute? Yes, yes they are.