Wyoming Trip

The 3rd weekend in August, I went to Wyoming with my family. We stayed on a ranch that my aunt's father owns with his 6 other brothers and sisters. Their family ranch is a total of 1400 acres and he owns 400 of them. It was very nice of he and his wife to let us come up and stay in their cabin and play with all their toys.

My sister and I drove up Saturday morning, well, we actually left closer to twelve. We had a few detours on the way up because we weren't sure if we were headed in the right direction but nothing too time consuming. We got to the ranch around 2 pm, just in time to join members of my extended family on a four wheel ride around the ranch, with Ron (the ranch owner) as a guide. We were in this giant procession of four wheelers lol and Ron would stop at points of interest and tell us about the history of the ranch. The first stop was an old log cabin. It was small and crooked, and looked like it was flooded with dirt because the door was so short! He showed us a pile of rocks that were used back in the day to mark the corners of an area of land. He's found 3 of the 4 that would be on his property. The last stop was an old school house he and his family had renovated. It was very cool. They had old fashioned desks and everything. Even a shelf full of encyclopedias from the 1800s.


We went back to the cabin and ate some dinner and rode the four wheelers some more while the men went out shooting and the kids went frog hunting. We went and swung on the tree swing next to the creek where the kids were catching frogs and then I tried to catch a few frogs of my own. It was really fun. I'd never done it as a kid. The tadpoles felt so weird to hold lol, like all slimey and wiggly in your hands as they tried to escape. It's crazy the transformation that they go through, from tadpoles to frogs. So weird that some creatures change so much over the course of their lifetime.

That evening, we went for a little horseback ride. Some of the horses there aren't very responsive. They tend to have minds of their own. Mine went for a gallop when I wanted to just trot lol, and my sisters was just following our horses around and wouldn't follow her lead. I lost my cell phone and couldn't find it that night but in the morning I went out and found it - yay - I was scared. Especially because it's not technically my phone.

The next day, we rode four wheelers, caught frogs again, canoed and paddle boated (lol, yes paddle boated) in the pond. It was so beautiful and relaxing. I really want a ranch when I grow up lol. Being out in nature can be so rejuvenating, it's a release from all our social cares and stresses that weigh us down day after day.

It was almost spiritual standing in the middle of the valley, mountains on either side of the vast sky and feeling so small and at the same time feeling that somehow things are all connected. Like the earth is our mother and we go to her to find peace and rest when we can't find it anywhere else.

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July Camping Trip

Here are some pictures from my camping trip with my girlfriends from high school. We go on a camping trip every year in the summer to keep in touch and catch up on everyone's lives.

We went to Deer Creek reservoir up Provo canyon. It was such a beautiful drive up. The view there was pretty, but the water was kind of gross. Basically what we do camping is just go swimming lol so that sucked, plus there wasn't really any good "beach" (I say it in quotations 'cause technically it's not a beach). So we were kind of bummed but the last day there, we found like a hidden spot right next to our campsite that was just perfect and the water was so clear. It was a little rocky but it beat the slimey seaweed area we were going to before, we wished we had found it earlier.

One thing that was pretty awesome was that me, my twin, and one of our friends climbed the peak of this really big hill/small mountain that was right in front of our campsite, across an inlet from the reservoir. It wasn't bad until about half way up and we got stuck in extremely dense foliage, like we seriously couldn't move anywhere except to go back to where we came from so we hiked horizontally for a while to get to a more open spot. All the while we are having irrational fears of bears and snakes and early death lol. But we made it to the top and there was a throne made of large rocks with a bandanna as a flag attached to the back. We of course took pictures. The hike down was a lot worse. We went down the other side of the mountain which was a huge mistake lol. It was steep and dry and at the end we had to cross the inlet after thrashing through some high, thick plants. We thought we'd cross at a narrow part but it was disgusting and I couldn't bring myself to do it. My sister had her camera and my friend had her phone so we were worried about them getting wet. My friend finally crossed at the gross narrow part. She was able to swim across with one arm in the air holding the camera and phone. My sister and I were too grossed out to go that way because 1. there was really gross seaweed and we both are like paranoid of gross seaweed, can't stand to walk in it, and 2. there was a rotting fish in the water at the other side - gross! Lol so we threw our shoes over to her and we swam across at a wider point. We hit a little of a sand bar in the middle and we freaked out when some seaweed got tangled on us *shudder* (it really is grosser to me than having a fish swim by my feet, I don't know why it just is) and then we walked to the road in our bare feet because our shoes were covered in burs, like inside and outside from the hike down. It took me almost an hour to get all the burs out once I got home.

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Some people say I look like Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart. I morphed them to see if it would look like me. What do you think?

The morphed Blake and Kirsten are on the top, and I'm on the bottom, as if you couldn't tell lol

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Silk Spectre costume

So, I'm thinking about being the Silk Spectre from Watchmen for Halloween. My friend Kyle was helping me look for stuff, he found some pretty sick stuff online. This is for the movie version of the costume which is a little more covered and hard core-looking. This is the pic from the movie production shots:

Here's the leotard Kyle found for the yellow piece underneath:

For the wig, I would get something like this minus the highlights:

The boots would be the most expensive part there are some thigh highs that would work at this website he found: 

http://www.dimoutshoes.com/6--to-7---heel-boots.html

But they are all so expensive and I know I wouldn't really wear them enough to make it worth it... I can't think of a good way to make my own so I am debating whether or not to just to it for the awesome costume or not.

I would just need some gloves and then I'd have to figure out to do the black outer pieces but It wouldn't be too hard I don't think... Eeee, we'll see.

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I saw a Van Gogh painting in person!

I went to the exhibit "Monet to Picasso" at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts a couple weeks ago, it was amazing. Mostly the impressionist and post impressionist works imo. There was this Van Gogh of two cyprus trees, they had the picture of it in the brochure and on flyers but it doesn't even compare to seeing it in real life. The colors are a million times more vivid and the texture is incredible- the movement his brush strokes create on the canvas is genius for lack of a better word. I don't even know how to describe it, I wanted to just stare at that painting all day and come back the next day and do it again.

Looking at it, I just wanted to grab my easel, go outside and create. Art is a unique way of communicating. Good art communicates with our souls. I love the saying "Artists use lies to tell the truth" because it's so true! It is indescribable (sp?). I wish I could communicate like that. I just can't get over it lol and I wish I could explain it.

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Twin Experience

I went to church with a friend today. My twin sister used to go with her, she was a member of the ward that my friend goes to, but she doesn't go much anymore. At the end of the first class, the Relief Society president got up to close the meeting and she said she wanted to welcome the visitors. She looked at me and said, Natasha, do you want to introduce your two friends sitting next to you (there where a couple girls who were visiting with my friend as well). I sat there for a minute, deciding what to do. Sometimes when people think I am my twin, I just go along with it and pretend to be her to avoid a scene and to not embarrass the people but I decided to reveal my true identity. I said, "Actually, I am Ali, Natasha's twin sister." Everyone laughed and was all shocked. Ha ha, you could hear some people say, "I didn't know she had a twin!" Lol, the girl was kind of embarrassed. It's really nothing to be embarrassed about though, we do look a lot alike. It's funny though and a rather unique experience. I don't often think of me and my twin looking that much alike but when things like that happen, it makes you realize that to a lot of the people that don't know either one of us well, we often appear to be the same person. It's kind of weird to think about. 

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Pardon my French

On Monday, 2 of my aunts came to visit with their children. They are all staying with us for a week so my house is pretty insane, there are tons of kids just running around. Anyways, they wanted to visit Temple Square, so we all round up and get in the cars to drive down.

We stopped at Burger King on the way because everyone was getting hungry, and that was frustrating, for us and for Burger King I'm sure. They messed up our order but we just went with it because we were wanting to keep moving and it would just take forever to fix it.

When we got to the Joseph Smith building, where I work as a banquet server, I showed them where to go to watch a movie and then they wanted help getting around to different buildings on the square. We were walking towards the west end of the building when we saw some tourists come in. They looked confused and were all looking around. We tried talking to them but they like didn't respond lol, just like looked around still. I started leading the way out but my aunts overheard the tourists speaking French, so they're like, "Ali! You should help those people!" lol I was like embarassed but they kept telling me to go talk to them so I go over there and like stumble over my first sentence, lol I ended up just saying really simply that I could help them instead of asking if they needed help. They were looking for the 10th floor, which gives a great view of the city, and especially Temple Square. Anyways, it was pretty fun to actually use my French in everyday life, because when does that happen in Utah? Like hardly ever!

Then, to make the day even more French-y, I went to a movie at the city library with my friends about the evolution of African dance. It was a documentary and a lot of the dancers/choreographers/art people spoke French in the film. Of course they had subtitles, but it was fun to try and not read them, just listen to the people.

Ha ha, this day was probably not as exciting to anyone else as I think it was, but for me it was pretty sweet.

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