The great thing about working at a school is keeping that school schedule, breaks and all. For my spring break, Dallin held down the fort at home while I visited our families in Arizona. I arrived the same day that Dallin's mom Jordie and stepdad Jim moved into their new flight school building, and the same week that my parents were busy volunteering at the Easter Pageant.  I was kind of just along for the ride, tagging along on my mom or Jordie's errands or just hanging out at the house, sorting through old photo albums or *attempting* to make boba with Sophie.  Jordie insisted on buying baby clothes, although Dallin expressly forbade any of us women from buying baby things before we moved over the summer. "That's ridiculous!" Jordie disagreed. Even though it was April, Utah was hit with another snowstorm while Arizona had perfect in-between-seasons weather. I went on frequent walks with my parents and enjoyed sunbathing, of course covering my baby belly to protect that fragile skin!  Later on in the week, my sister Olivia and her fiance Tanner arrived for her bridal shower.  There I got to see many familiar faces from my childhood, as well as my grandma Lundgreen who will turn 93 the same week my baby is due. Because of my parents' volunteer position, we were able to reserve really good seats at the Easter Pageant, but we still had to arrive several hours early. I ran into Dallin's dad and stepmom Rachelle, so while waiting for the performance to start, Rachelle and I waited in line for BYU Creamery Ice Cream. It was worth the wait, and fun to hear from her updates about the house that's being built where the old house burned down two years ago. On my last day in AZ, my family attempted to go to the lake, but our plans were foiled both by the crazy crowds met by the sign "LAKE FULL" and by sudden problems with the truck that was going to pull the boat...turns out some critter had gotten under the hood and chewed through a bunch of wires. But no matter! It was a beautiful drive full of desert wildflowers and an otherwise relaxing afternoon.

 So I sit here in bed, sipping a milkshake after a month without sugar.  Double fudge brownie never tasted so good!  I am still a little disoriented, but not nearly as much as when I woke up and realized I'd slept through part of class {thank heavens I'm just an auditor}.  I guess that's what happens when you stay up till 3:30 on a Thursday night.

Last week brought a variety of adventures:

• playing beer pong and various other would-be-alcoholic games with Mountain Dew.  As someone who almost NEVER drinks soda, taking so many shots of the sweet caffeinated drink left me high on energy, and at 3:30 in the morning I could only force myself to go to bed because my roommates were asleep and my computer wasn't working
• watching the Seasiders barely lose basketball game 
• miraculously squeezing 20 people into 2 tiny five-person cars
• discovering beautiful new beaches with giant teal waves and soft sand {that is STILL in my hair, dang it}
• stumbling upon the amazingly talented and inspirational Bethany Hamilton surfing
• relaxing on the shore with the glow of the full moon and orange light dancing on our faces
• lying in bed reading for hours

     Confession time: I analyze everything.  One minute I'll be totally smiling and the next minute I'll be stressing about something that probably means nothing.  The thought of getting in people's way worries me so much, but I still want to be social, but whenever I am I feel like I say all the wrong things {or is that just me over-analyzing again?}  Words just have a tendency to fall out of my mouth-- as someone who is both a storyteller and also not very secretive about the way life has shaped me, I guess that could only be expected.  I never have bad intentions and would never say something that I thought would bother another, but does it happen anyway? I honestly have no clue.
     Ironically, I received a superior score on my analytical skills when I took the CCTST last week, so you'd think that I'd be able to apply it to my real life and analyze just so I can know the way things REALLY are, not the way I hypothesize them to be in my mind.
    This week has had a lot of plain ME time.  Although slightly disappointed I didn't get to explore all the nooks and crannies of this island like I planned, I've enjoyed some great relaxation, discovering beautiful new sights within walking of where I live.  I've gotten up early and jogged to the Point to watch the sunrise; laid out on the beach with a book; written fiction at a gazebo in an ancient cemetery; strolled through the forest following baptisms at the temple.    I love the sensation of waves lapping at my legs and sand sifting through my toes, the sunshine beating and and the breeze thick with salt. This week the words have finally broken through the stubborn dam in my brain and trickled through my fingers as I've written pages and pages of my novel, listening to the beautiful Game of Thrones soundtrack while I do so {I've never seen it but wish I could}.  Maybe today will offer adventures, but maybe it won't-- and that's okay, because my imagination creates plenty.

Wow, was the whole month of October just crazy!  As I'm busy writing essays, applying for college, and working, it's fun to remember the most relaxing vacation I've ever been on: Puerto Peñasco, México.
If you're going to visit Rocky Point, I highly recommend you stay at Bella Sirena Resort.  Although the other hotels are all right smack dab on the beach, this one is set back just enough to have several pools of varied temperatures.
 We spend almost the whole time either in the water or splayed out in the sun {or both, since the ocean was so calm we could take tubes out}.
 Vendors sold homemade tamales and jewelry and lime-sprinkled mangos carved like roses.

Whole schools of fish would pop out of the water, and I even had these two absolutely tiny fish {so clear that I could see florescent organs} that were unafraid and apparently fascinated by the bright color of my swimsuit, since they kept nudging me.  I literally sat there is the shallow sea for ten minutes as the pair refused to leave my side.
At low tide we would visit the tide pools, where boys caught sting rays in cups and I got pinched by a crab.  Rachel and I managed to rescue 10 starfish that had gotten trapped in shallow water and walked in the dark through the rather trecherous sea terrain to a deeper pool.
Our cousins were staying in the same resort, so Paige and I spent hours together in the jacuzzi or beneath the stars on the beach just chit chatting about life and making fun of drunk college guys who tried to hit on us.  That darn girl also got me hooked to Gossip Girl as we stayed up till who-knows-when on Netflix one night as well as a few other chick flicks.
Other adventures ranged from riding on the banana boat {where Sophie was so proud for not falling off when some of the older kids did} to venturing out to the city.  Little shops lined the streets with empenadas and clothing and trinkets.
My birthday is 10/10, the date everyone always says is "lucky."  Weird as it may seem, this year I turned 18, which means that I'm now terrified that I might get framed for some crime and thrown in REAL prison.  Fortunately, it also mean I can buy goldfish, I can give my own permission to get a massage, and I no longer have to abide by city curfew {as if I ever stay out that late haha}.  

the great thing about fall beach vacations is that you can go to the mall where the swimsuits are discounted to $2.97 a piece.  we bought so many it was ridiculous.

I asked my parents to wake me up early that day so I could watch the sunrise.  There is hardly anything more beautiful than the orange sunlight shattering on the sea with that morning breeze tickling your cheek... as we watched, my parents told me {again} my birth story of how, since I was the first baby, my mom had no idea she was in full-blown labor despite the awful contractions because the doctors sent her back home telling her she was full of it {sorry Mom}.
The biggest adventure yet?   We hopped on a boat and went parasailing over the Mexico coast.  I love heights.  How exhilarating it was to be practically flying, nothing below me but the salty wind and a bird's-eye view of the never-ending ocean and the city and the fishing boats with the hundreds of seagulls perched on their sails.   I had Lorde's Team stuck in my head the whole time, so I think I'll have that wonderful memory engrained in my brain every time that song comes on the radio.

that itty bitty shape below is in fact the boat

Birthdays are also a terrible excuse for so much junk food but heyyy it's vacation.  I was also shocked beyond belief at the gifts-- not only a gift card to get my nails done and another for a session with a makeup artist, but I got a new phone!   Thank you thank you thank you!
 
Seriously though, if you're wondering about a nice, relaxing vacation, I HIGHLY recommend Rocky Point.  Despite the rumors, it's safer there than in Phoenix and honestly, tourism is one of their top sources of national income.  I absolutely loved it!

  What do you do when you have two weeks of summer and feel like you're about to melt in the 115 degree weather?  Why, pack up the car with six girlfriends and some boogie boards and head on out to California.

  I've always wanted to be a California girl.  Idk why, but there seems to be something so fantastic about being a blondie from the sea-view hills of America's southwestern coast.   So what I'm just some Arizona chick wishing she could escape the desert heat? At least I'm only 2.5 hours from the border of the famed Hollywood state, which means a wave-tossed trip every summer.


{psstt, I've fallen in love with vintage swimsuits.  gimme target, shabby apple, someplace to shop those adorable modest retrowears with the high waists or sweetheart necks or polka dots!}


 These girls are so adorable.  Although I don't have the picture, they begged me to pose hipster with them in their hoodies so we could say "KT & da gang."

    School is important.  I get it.  I love learning because, even if we lose everything, no one can take away the knowledge we use to sculpt our minds.  But let's get real here.  Who doesn't love time to be a little free, have some independence, soak up the sun?  Cause I do.
   Well, with more time on my hands, I can be more flexible to exercise/eat right, draw, blog, swim, write songs/my novel.  I've already read two books, drawn some headshots of three of the main characters in my book, and have started developing a workout routine.   It's great too because, now that I know I want to get into graphic design, it's okay if I spend my whole day using my creativity.
 It's kinda funny.  Bryan is going to Italy for eight days with his parents for his senior trip {I know, right?  JEALOUS.} and I leave for the Grand Canyon for five days the afternoon of the night he gets back.  But before the two week period during which neither of us will be able to see or speak to each other, we managed to sneak in some time at the Salt River.  {You can tell who I am in the picture because I'm way shorter than everyone, including Bryan, who's somewhere between 6' & 6'1" while I'm somewhere between 5'& 5'1".  Tragic right?} It's at times like this that I love Arizona, because the blazing heat can make any freezing cold river feel like pure paradise as you float lazily down the current in tubes.  We tied all our tubes together and sipped our drinks and tossed the leftover giant marshmallows that we didn't eat at each other as the music played calmly from the canoe.
  Suddenly we struck some rapids-- my tube was at the back, and when we jolted over the boulders my tube got sucked under and I fell off while the rest of the people raced off in the frighteningly fast water.  Now I was stranded, trying to maneuver my way through some not-so-friendly river that, while not very wide or deep, was jagged with boulders and rapid water all the way across and blocked off by wild thorny brush on both sides.  Far ahead Bryan abandoned the safety of his own tube to come rescue me.  I wasn't trying to be damsel in distress at all, but I felt very distressed when, while trying to get to him, the water got too high and I lost my footing, getting whisked away into the dangerously quick current.  There was no way for me to avoid hitting rocks and, try as I might, I couldn't get regain my footing.  My best bet was to try to abstain from cracking my head on the rocks because then no bueno would very quickly become muy malo.  Finally I managed to get up.  Bryan, what a guy, had already been wading against the current to reach me, and we met up carefully in the middle with a long embrace.

    "I feel like this is something that would come out of a Nicholas Sparks book," he laughed.  "I hope you give me a really good kiss when this is over."     
   Well now I was no longer alone, but we still had the dilemma of getting out of the rapids and swimming who-knew-where to find our friends.  We tried to edge our way sideways for control, like he'd taught me back when we went skiing. Unfortunately, we realized we hadn't even seen the worst of the rapids when we reached a spot where the water plunged over a row of thick boulders.  We already had an abundance of battle scars, and even just standing there, the suction power was so strong that I almost pulled Bryan forward as I clutched his arm {trying not to lose him again}.  Bryan thought we'd have to succumb to the current like I'd accidentally done earlier if we ever wanted to get out, but luckily I found a branch to grab onto and we {thank heavens} eventually got out.  Finally, in the calm water, we were able to very tiredly swim to the shore where our friends had parked the canoes and collapse.  I gave him his well-deserved kiss.
  "Wow," I moaned, pointing to an inflamed area on my ankle.  "I can't even tell if that's a bruise or a scrape."
  "Oh, that would be a hematoma," Bryan explained.  "Pretty much a blood leak right underneath the skin."
  I raised my brow.  "You're not even a doctor yet, yet you already know these things..."  We know who's "right-brained" and who's "left-brained" in this relationship {although I recently found out this theory is a myth!}.     
   Even if I did have to go through a semi-embarrassing damsel-in-distress moment, it was a great start to summer.  At some point as we all floated relaxed on our tubes with the sunshine on our faces and the cool water on our legs, someone shouted out "WE'RE SENIORS!"   Wow, did realization strike.  One more super-fast-flying year, and then the childhood we thought would never end will draw to a remorseful close and we will be Adults, out in the Big World to meet our Destiny.

  Our second leg of the journey was in Oahu on the North Shore.  This time, instead of staying in another resort, we lodged in an adorable three-room beach house.   The backyard was literally the beach, which meant every morning we got to wake up to the sight of the ocean through the windows.  We decided to chill more than run around, so we'd spend a lot of time relaxing by reading, kayaking, tanning, eating dried pineapple. I found that I was able to break through a mental block and begin writing a new novel, which was really exciting for me.  At night, we flicked on flashlights and crab-hunted. 
Our parents spoil us when we vacation.  At least food-wise.  They cooked up Spam {since apparently that's a Hawaiian thing to do} and Kalua pork and hooked us up with plenty of shaved ice, friend bananas and macadamia nut ice cream.  Oh, and we found out that birds like food a lot too when this little duo would not leave us alone and even snatched a bag of Doritos.
  We were only five minutes away, so we visited both BYU campus and the temple.  Man, would I love to go to college here.  Us older people had the opportunity to do baptisms for the dead; the design is beautiful and as always the Spirit could be felt.
Snorkeling and scuba diving were most definitely amazing experiences.  Like I've said, it was magnificent catching a glimpse of some exotic sea animal, even if sea urchins crowed the rocks and we had to swim carefully.  But look!  I never thought I was a good swimmer till I swam all the way to that cove in the photo below and back, probably a distance of 1-1.5 miles altogether.  Angel fish, sea turtles, sea stars, unicorn fish, ten dozen creatures I can't name... I've definitely never experienced anything like that. 
  On the last morning, Mom and I decided to get up early and watch the sunrise.  Boy was it worth it.

We didn't get a lot of sleep that night.
  First off, trying to get eight people ready for a week-and-a-half long trip kept us up late enough.  But the plane was scheduled to leave at 4:45 AM, which meant we had to get up at 3.  Not as if we minded.
  I love airports.  There is something about the suitcases, the smell of coffee {even if I don't drink it}, the vast types of people scattered through pricey gift shops and exciteable boarding lines.  Maybe it's just nostalgic for me.  Whatever it is, I could hardly contain my excitement, especially when we took our seats aboard the plane and opened up the windows.  With our luggage stored overhead and seatbelts fastened, we listened to the sound of the pilot on the intercom and braced ourselves for the takeoff.   Whoosh!  Our stomachs lurched with that beautiful feeling of leaving ground and then we were soaring.

  Several hours later, the plane touched ground.    When we stepped outside the airport... well, our jaws dropped.  The air was cool with a breeze {if slightly humid} and the world was green.  We certainly weren't in Phoenix anymore.
  Hawaii is as tropical island as any tropical island in the movies-- but better.  Even in the many urban areas, you just get that sense of exotic.  It's jungly with an abundance of thriving trees, lots of coconuts and passion fruits strewn about, and a bouquet of rainbows.  Little fruit stands are scattered along the roads and you get to eat lots of seafood and macadamia nuts.  The water is so blue that it literally looked like someone had photoshopped it, post-card perfect.    
  The resort?  Oh my freaking gosh am I ruined.  It was seriously the most beautiful little hotel in the world, a Westin in Maui to just make you feel tropical and romantic and relaxed and like you never ever want to leave.  I fear I've been too spoiled to ever be able to stay in another hotel again.
  The top two picutres are the views from different sides of the hotel.  We stayed on the tenth floor, so it was gorgeous.  The back of the resort included five pools, a slide, a waterfall, three or four restaurants, venders, a connected mall and whale museum, and not to mention the beach.  Oh, and the flamingos.
When we weren't exploring the hotel, we were enjoying the hotel proudly.  We slept in beyond-comfortable beds, read/tanned next to the pool {we were all arguing over The House of Hades}, ate Hawaiian donuts and tropical smoothies, talked to birds that said "Aloha" when you said "Hello" and "Hello" when you said "Aloha," got tossed by the waves, meandered around the lovely place barefoot.  Etc.  At night I'd sit on the tiny balcony and chat with Bryan till my phone locked.  Oh man the painful irony... We were in Hawaii at the SAME FRIGGEN time but went to Oahu on different legs of our trips!  


People ask me what my favorite vacation has been.  Here's my response to that question:  Are you stupid?  I am absolutely in love with the East Coast, with California, with Colorado, with Escalante, with Peru, with Hawaii.  To have to choose a favorite between so many amazing moments of my life is simply impossible because they were all unique.  I have a passion for travel because setting foot in some place new emerges me in new knowlege, new adventure, new soul.  Hawaii was very  breathtaking though, I will give you that.

  The last piece of our journey was out of a little teeny tiny town in the heart of Colorado called Wiggins.  Of course, this wasn't before stopping to see my mom's good friend from college, Debbie, and later that night Aunt April-- my mom's half sister from her dad-- with Uncle Jordan, who coincidentally happened to be in Denver from D.C. for a wedding. We got ice cream from an adorable milk jug before reaching our destination.
I really had a lovely time spent with the family.  And away from society for a little bit.  And enjoying nicer weather than the raging desert heat-- though of course it poured for days in AZ and shut off the faucet as soon as I got back {it has yet to turn back on too}.
  Once we left, we were anxious to get home.  We had to fit a full-grown golden retriever in an eight-seat car filled with eight people and all their stuff, and  after three {wonderful} weeks I really missed my friends.  I was pretty sure those were some of the longest fourteen hours of my life, but I decided not to complain because technically at least we can travel a thousand miles in a bit more than half a day while sitting.
  It had been a three-thousand mile journey overall.  And one I will never forget.