Goodbye Summer!!

Summer is my favorite season. It includes my favorite temperatures, colors, vacations, and above all a feeling of pure, sunny, happiness!! So typically I'm always sad when Summer comes to an all-to-soon end. This summer has been amazing! I've had so many adventures with Tyler as well as the greatest friends in the whole world! Mona, sliding rock, Lagoon, photoshoots, movies, hot air balloon festivals, trek, family time, stargazing, movie making, firepits, swimming, biking, hiking, and so much more! Yesterday was pretty much the last day of Summer for me (even though I have a whole week before college classes start) because Tyler starts school tomorrow! It was the best day ever, and the perfect way to end Summer! We made a picnic lunch, hiked up to a lake, found a shady grove by the lake, and ate our lunch! It was a total blast! We ended up swimming in the lake and then getting yelled at by these two older ladies screaming, "LIVE YOUR LIFE!! Don't let your inner child be locked in a CLOSET!!!" Then they told us we were a cute couple and went away. Pretty good advice if you ask me! I will never lock my inner child away ;) So after, Tyler and I went out to Dinner at our favorite restaurant, Fratelli's, which is an AMAZING Italian place AND where we actually had our first date EVER! :) Then soon after we went and watched Hairspray at Sandy Amplitheatre! It was darling!! I was SOO mad I didn't audition! I'm going to have to audition for something really soon to make up for it! Then after the show we sat in the hot tub with the rest of the gang! SUCH a fun day/night! And it was the perfect way to end the Summer! Spending it with my best friend :)

 Nothing like old fashioned soda bottles and a fun little picnic!

 We tried to take a picture with the lake behind us :)

 The perfect way to end Summer!! :) Can't wait for next year!

"There's No Business Like Show Business"

Well, you all know that I love photography and that I would love to have a successful business in that area some day, but I have another thing that I love to do that I can't just give up. PERFORMING!! :) I love theatre (Musical Theatre especially!)  I'm still in a constant battle with myself on what to major in in college, Musical Theatre or Photography! My ultimate goal is to be a Young Ambassador at BYU in a couple years! It would be so much fun! I've been in many shows and have had many different parts! It's so fun to be someone else onstage and to make an audience laugh, cry, or even think about life in a different way. My favorite production I've been in thus far has been a musical called "42nd Street." It was my high school's fall musical and I was actually the lead, Peggy Sawyer. It was my FAVORITE part of high school and I'll never forget it! It was a musical full of tap dancing, hard dancing, incredible music, hard tap dancing, a beautiful story, and did I mention a lot of really hard dancing and tap? Ya, it was definitely a challenge but I'll never forget how much fun I had! I'm going to keep doing theatre and musical theatre because I just love it! I love singing, dancing, and of course acting! Below are a few of my favorite pictures of some of the shows I've been in! (There are a lot!) :)

 "42nd Street" This was one of the HARDEST dances to learn in the show, the song was called "Go into Your Dance" and it was a killer tap routine! But through blood, sweat, and lots of tears, we nailed it!

 "42nd Street" This was during such a beautiful song, "About a Quarter to Nine"

 "The King and I" I was in the chorus for this musical, but hey! I got to be asian! I can't tell you how much spray tanning and how much black spray paint I used for this character! A LOT!!

 "The King and I" This is me with my "Daughter" Alaina :)

 "Pride and Prejudice" This was SUCH a fun roll! I got to play Lydia Bennet who is a crazy, self-obsorbed, boy-crazy, giggly, bubbly, hyper girl who runs off with Mr. Wickham in the end of the show and almost destroys the Bennet family's reputation! Woot woot! :)

 "Pride and Prejudice" Mr. Wickham and I :)

 "Pride and Prejudice" Kitty Bennet, me, and Mrs. Bennet! Such a fun threesome!

 "Oklahoma!" This was SUCH a fun musical! I was also in the chorus for this one but it was a total blast! This is my best friend Jessica and I getting ready before a show!

 "Oklahoma!" Jessica, Dhane, Conner, and me before the show

 "42nd Street" This is at the end of the show after Peggy takes Dorothy's place on Broadway. Parker and I had a total blast!!!

"42nd Street" The finale! Soooo much dancing and tapping!! but so much fun!

 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" This was such a fun, beautiful play. I got to play a fairy and basically just prance around on a beautiful set that was basically just like a playground!

 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" all the fairies together, gorgeous costumes right?! :)

 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" everyday before the show we would all eat TONS of pixie sticks so we could be hyper and have a ton of energy to dance around the stage and be lively fairies.

 "The Crucible" This is one of the more serious plays I've been in. I got the opportunity to play Mary Warren who turns against her friends in order to tell the court the truth but under the pressure of Abigail she has an emotional breakdown and turns on John Proctor sending him to his death.

 "The Crucible" Mrs. Proctor (Alex) and I in a scene.

 "High School Musical" This was my very first play/musical that I had a supporting lead in, instead of the chorus. I got to play Taylor Mckessie who is Gabriella's best friend. It was such a fun musical! Cheesy... but fun! And I made most of my closest friends that I have today through this musical :)

A Blast from the Past

So the other day I went and saw the movie, "Captain America" I LOVED IT! The biggest reason why I think I enjoyed it so much was because it took place around the 1940's and World War 2. This is my FAVORITE time era! If I could choose to be born in any other time it would be the 1940's. I love everything about this time in history! The fashion, the music, the dancing, everything! I still wish to this day that people would swing dance more often because it is so much fun and I think it's way cool! I could honestly listen to 1940's music all day! It is so upbeat, happy, and romantic at times. One of my favorite movies of ALL time takes place during this time era, "The Notebook." AH! I love everything about that movie. For some reason, people in the 1940's just seem so genuine and and the romance seems so timeless! The 1940's will always be my favorite and if you're into that kind of vintage stuff totally watch The Notebook or Captain America :) You'll LOVE IT!! :)

 World War 2 Poster ads were so effective back then, advertising has changed so much.

 The Notebook... I love it so much! And the fashion in the movie is just amazing!

 Swing dancing is so much fun! I wish people would do it more often :)

 Captain America is such a fun story! Go see the movie! It's awesome!!

Yes, this is completely adorable and sweet! Ah!! Love it!

A Little Less Wisdom

So monday was an exciting day because I had the lovely opportunity to get my wisdom teeth out! I honestly hate going to the doctor, dentist, or anything that has to do with blood or sitting in a chair while someone you don't know prods you with sharp objects. So I was VERY nervous for this appointment. For some reason the idea of a chemical putting me to sleep without my consent didn't settle well with me. And to make it worse, they give you a tutorial before and tell you that it could be "potentially fatal" WHAT?! I mean that's the worse thing that anyone could have said to me right before I have to get put under! So for moral support my mom, sister, and my sweet boyfriend Tyler all accompanied me to the procedure. They brought a video camera to film me after I woke up to capture how I would react to the "sleeping drugs." I told them all that I was probably going to act perfectly normal and I wouldn't be emotional or loopy or anything.... but boy. was. I. WRONG! As you can see in the following video, I'm probably the most loopy and especially emotional, diva, four-year-old in the entire world!!! This video is super embarrassing, but I thought it would be good for a few laughs :)

Pretty embarrassing right? But good for a few giggles ;) so in the end my recovery was super fast! The day I got them out was the most painful but after that I hardly felt any pain! I only had a little swelling and I was actually able to go to Lagoon with Tyler and his family on Thursday! So my recovery was pretty quick! The whole experience was one of the weirdest things of my life but also one of the most memorable.

                                                            
Watching "Tangled" with an ice pack :)

I have the best boyfriend in the entire world who stayed with me all day! Love him!! He's the sweetest.

Life is a Trek

So Monday through Thursday I had the opportunity to go on Trek... for my second time... so since it WAS my second time, I wasn't too thrilled to be going. But I am so grateful and happy that I went, because it was the most spiritual experience I've yet to have in my life so far. My first trek was a blast but I really didn't get anything out of it, it seemed so easy! But this year was completely different! It was sooo much harder! We walked close to 40 miles, the Woman's pull itself was close to two miles uphill, and it was just plain exhausting! I have so much more respect for the pioneers after this year's trek! I KNOW that they must have had heavenly father helping them because if we were having such a hard time (boys and all) in the heat?... I can't imagine how they conquered that journey in the freezing snow. I can't even begin to imagine burying my husband or my children in the almost-solid earth and having to walk away from them. It truly breaks my heart.

But this trek also helped me to realize that our entire lives are just one big trek. One long, hard, BUT rewarding journey back to our heavenly father. Sometimes there will be hills we will have to climb, and we might even stumble and fall, but the lord will always be there to catch us when we are falling and we don't think that we can go any further. I'm SO grateful that I had the chance to go on Trek again and I'm even more grateful to be apart of this beautiful and true church of Jesus Christ. It just brings so much happiness to my life :)

                                                      

A Picture is Worth a Thousand words

As I've said doing photo shoots for Teens is one of my favorite parts of being a photographer. So I decided to show some of the photos I've taken from photo shoots this year and some from last year. It was so hard to just pick a couple pictures from each person because they were all so good! But here are a few of my favorites :)

"A picture can say a thousand words", and these all express youth, beauty, and excitement for the future. Every single person was so much fun to shoot and I can't wait to do more :)

"Life through a Lens"

So after reading all of my friend's blogs and seeing how much fun they had with blogging, I decided to give it a whirl :) so far it's pretty cool! I've made a couple blogs in the past for my photography but I never seemed to keep going with it. So hopefully I can keep up the posting with this one ;) I decided to name my blog, "Life through a Lens" because that's exactly how I see life most of the time... through a camera lens! I absolutely love photography and everything about it! I love how you can capture a moment with all the beauty that it possesses in a single shot. I also love the creative freedom that comes with it! It's the most exciting and exhilarating thing to capture the perfect shot and see the smiles it brings to everyone who sees it. I love photographing everything but my favorite subjects are people. People are so beautiful in so many different ways and I love portraying and exemplifying that beauty. From little babies and kids, to seniors, to families, to couples completely in love, I adore taking their pictures.

With this blog I'm hoping to write about my life through words but also through pictures :) so get ready to see a LOT of photographs :) Thanks for reading! :)