Summer has officially started!

One thing I love about Utah is there are so many Outdoor activities to do. And hiking is one of my favorite things to do. So on Friday after I finished work, my friend, Brooke, and I drove down to St George. It was very spontaneous. And went hiking at Zion's National Park, it was free because it was National Parks Weekend. We hiked a few hours on Saturday and then drove back that night. It was so beautiful down there. It was sunny and 80 degrees. I couldn't ask for more perfect weather. Although I have to say the most exciting part of the trip was driving back when Brooke said "Oh no, the gas light just came on. I hope there's a gas station before we run out of gas." FYI, in between Fillmore and Nephi, there are essentially no gas stations. Luckily we made it to a gas station before we ran out but it was a stressful 30 minutes.

This is me and Brooke on the Emerald Pools hike.The pools were beautiful.

And here I am near a very high cliff of the East Rim Trail. I wasn't even afraid. Look, at me conquering my fear of heights. Next fear to conquer: the dark.

I have a green thumb and sore muscles

My office had some plants that they needed to get rid of so they gave them to us. So this summer I will give my green thumb another try. (Note: for those of you who weren't reading my blog last year, my herbs grew so successfully.) I got 2 plants; one is more of a tree and the other one is small and really kind of dying. Here they are:

This is the smaller one. It's name is Christofer but I call it J-Beebs for short. I don't actually know what kind of plant it is so if someone can help me out with that, I would be grateful. When I got it today, I have to dig up the dirt and replant it because it was falling out of the soil. Hopefully I will be able to save it.


This next one is a Dracaena Marginata aka Dragon Tree. It is in better shape than the last one so here's hoping it doesn't die.


And last but not least, I went on a bike ride with my aunt Ozi. It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how far I was able to go, I only intended on riding 10 miles but we went 21.63 miles. Most of that is due to Ozi's encouragement. Also, they bike ride was along a trail so it was beautiful

New Eyes

I got lasik and I love it. I love being able to wake up in the morning and see clearly. And I was surprised with how quickly I healed. By the next day, I was able to drive.

Here's a pic of the awesome sunglasses they gave me to wear


And here is an even cooler pic of the sleeping goggles I had to wear. These were meant to prevent me from rubbing my eyes at night, but most nights I just woke up with them on the ground rather than my face.

Soap and Costumes

I made a Strawberry Pomegranate sugar scrub and have gotten amazing reviews about it. The best part is that it was pretty easy to make. Since I have been using it, my skin has been feeling smooth and smelling sweet.


And this weekend I went to a comic book costume party. Although apparently people don't really dress up in costumes when it's not Halloween. I love costumes so much so I went all out dressing as the supervillian Poison Ivy (let's face it being the supervillian is more fun), which made my entrance to the party pretty awesome because everyone else was just wearing a comic themed T-shirt. Yes it was slightly awkward being the only one really in costume but I owned the Poison Ivy costume. Also I made the costume myself.

Lotion Making

Attempt 1: In January, I decided to pick up a new hobby and for some reason lotion making was the first thing that came to mind. So I went online and found a recipe that seemed promising. Although finding the ingredients was a nightmare. After going to Walmart and three different craft stores, and substituting ingredients in for ones I couldn't find, I had everything the recipe called for. So I go home and follow the recipe. Next thing I know I have something that it way too oily and is separated into 3 levels: beeswax, oil and water. FYI, beeswax is not supposed to be used in lotion. Because it does not help the oil and water emulsify.

Attempt 2 (Success!): About a week later, I found out that my cousin, Julie, used to make and sell lotion so I called her and asked her for some tips on lotion making. She directed my to a very helpful website, gave me some great advice and told me about a lotion-making supply company in Provo. So with a new recipe, proper ingredients and equipment, I have made a successful batch of lotion.

Here is a picture of the successful batch:

Paris (Part 1)

I went to Paris last week and there was so much to do. So I will use two posts.

Here I am in front of Notre Dame. It is so beautiful on the inside. There were these huge elaborate stained glass windows and there was such incredible paintings inside.


This is at the top of the Eiffel Tower and it was so scary. It felt like the elevator was going up forever. This boy in front of me got scared because I was so scared.


Obviously, I am the Eiffel Tower in this pic. I went all the way to the top and it was so scary. It felt like the elevator was going up forever. This boy in front of me got scared because I was so scared.


Versailles: Just the house alone is 17 acres. And the total property is 37,000 acres. It was so incredible to see paintings or sculptures that I had studied in my Humanities class but was sure that I would never see in real life.


Garden of Versailles. So pretty. I brought my book, found a quite part of the gardens and layed in the sun (since the sun has been so rare this summer) reading for a little bit.

Paris (Part 2)

In front of the Louvre. I was there for 4 hours and I barely saw half of it.


I am a muse...


The famous Mona Lisa, which is rather quite small.


I look so classy in my beret. Now that I have one I think I will read poetry while snapping my fingers in a coffee shop with other people as classy as me.


From this church you could see the whole city of Paris. I think it's funny because there was a sign that said "to respect the sacredness of the church please no pictures" but then they had those coin machines that Disneyland has where it smashes a coin into a cool shape. So as I was walking through it sounded like I was walking by slot machines.