Snowball and Panther

My family has two cats.

Their names are Snowball and Panther. 

Snowball is mine and Panther is my sister's. 

These cats are absolutely insane! 

I love them to death though and think they are the cutest ever. 

Snowball thinks he is a wild lion and the king of our house,

and Panther thinks that everyone and everything is out to kill him.

One of their favorite activities is getting massages from my brother Paul.

They also enjoy fighting and licking each other.

I wouldn't trade these little guys for anything in the world. 

So here they are! 

This is Snowball

This is Panther

This is me in my cat sweater that Hannah gave me for my birthday.
I LOVE IT.

This is a cat pillow my mom surprised me with!

This is what Snowball and Panther did to my puzzle.
This is what I meant when I said they are insane!

South Africa

My brother, Paul, went on his mission to Johannesburg South Africa.

When his mission was over in August of 2008, my parents, my sisters and I went to South Africa to pick him up. 

It was an amazing experience. 

We went around and talked to some of the church members and converts my brother taught and was close with.

It was a very humbling experience to see how happy they all were when they lived in dirt floor huts and had nothing, and I was never content and happy with all of the many objects I had in my life.

One women I remember specifically was in labor and she gave up her chair to my father because he was a guest in her home. 

The humility and love that everyone had was beautiful and unforgettable. 

On our way to Africa we spent a day in London and so I included a couple of photos of us there. 

Please enjoy London and Africa:

Hannah going into a phone booth!

Just a fun street

Big Ben!

Protest against war

You can see here the love we have for London

This place looked pretty... usual

Me petting a lion cub. No big deal.

The whole fam on a lion cub rock

A women lion drinking

A cute little boy playing in his yard

Riding a bike

The norm

Also pretty normal for Africa

Add caption

They don't see white people very often

Aids awareness

Babies in the orphanage 

ZEBRA

Eating elephant

Monkey in a tree

Baby Monkey

Elephant family

A grooming mother

Monkeys 

Baby elephant eating

Yeah. That's a bathtub on her head. No big deal

This is me with a four day old baby the orphanage found in a trash can.

At church

Sister Mary's house

Graffiti panorama

Decatur, or, A Round Of Applause For Your Step-Mother!

Along with being the title of my favorite Sufjan Stevens song, the title of this post is associated with the place I lived in Georgia. 

Which is Decatur!

Decatur was a highly beautiful and diverse city. 

One part of town was very white and hipster, complete with bearded men on bikes! 

The other part of town, though, was scary and ghetto and filled with black people. 

I suppose I lived in the crossroads of these two scenes. 

I lived in an all black neighborhood, but it wasn't extremely ghetto and scary.

The worst of it was my neighbor who lived across the street, he would stare at me. A lot. 

So the reason I moved to Georgia was because I was having a very difficult time living in Provo Utah. 

I had friends that had very different ideas and views and weren't encouraging me to do good things. 

I had traveled a lot with my family, but I had always lived in the same house my entire life. 

So It was time for a change. 

My sister, Shelley, moved to Georgia so I thought it was an excellent opportunity to get away. 

I drove across the country with my mom and arrived at my new home in late August. 

 I was planning to stay quite a while and I got a job at Toys R Us. 

Since I had lived in Provo Utah my whole life I was very naive as to the sorts of people in the world.

In Georgia I met very different people than I was use to.
There were a lot of very great people that I miss, but there were many who were not very stable.
Extremely scary and hurtful events took place while I lived there, but all in all the experience was worth the impact it made on my life.
An impact that caused me to make drastic and life altering changes. 

I do miss Georgia sometimes.

Especially the city of Atlanta. 

It was absolutely gorgeous, one of my favorite things to do was drive and just stare at the city. 

I also enjoyed my nephew Joel a lot. I miss him more than ever. He brought so much joy to my soul.

So. Here it is!

This is Najee

Here he is again

This is the set of Vampire Diaries, one of my favorite shows. It's filmed in Georgia

Atlanta from the view of Georgia Tech campus

I ate a lot of chick-fil-a while in Georgia. Probably why I'm vegetarian now...

This is Joel

This is Kitty. I never knew her real name

She was fun to photograph

Joel and his mommy, Shelley

Happy Joel 

Adorable Joel!

And me with Joel. I miss the little guy.

Hawaii

This was even longer ago than Thanksgiving but Hawaii was so freaken beautiful! 

So my family generally goes on a trip every summer with all the kids who are living at home during the time the vacation occurs. 

This past summer, we decided to do something extra fun to celebrate my graduation (because it was a MIRACLE that I graduated) so we went to Hawaii! 

It was an amazing vacation and I am so grateful for my dad and all he does that makes it possible for these fantastic trips to happen. 

We had so many fun adventures including shave ice at Matsumoto, snorkeling/scuba diving with manta rays, visiting the talent filled Polynesian cultural center and sooooo many more awesome experiences!

I wish I could share and share and share some more but.... once I get started I never stop and I don't feel like typing forever. 

Here are some pictures and videos of my experience in Hawaii!

Hannah in the Salt Lake International Airport

Hannah in our first hotel at Waikiki beach

The view of Utah from an airplane

What Hannah was looking at in the picture above

Waikiki beach up close

Me in our hotel room on our first night in Hawaii. I was pretty dang stoked.

Our backyard view from the house we rented

The Cafe in which 50 First Dates supposedly took place in. 

Hawaiian Mountains

Brother Paul doing some photography on cliffs by the ocean

Pearl Harbor memorial

Inside of Matsumoto 

Hannah in front of Matsumoto