Leysin

Today was Sunday, our favorite day over here, because Sunday is our one free day of the week. We decided to take it easy today and stay in Leysin. We slept in until 8:30, walked up to the top of Leysin, held a little church lesson, picnic-ed, and played around in the wildflower fields ... it was a much needed, relaxing day--Especially for the busy week ahead of us. We have a lot planned, including a chocolate factory and the famous Zermmatt! It's going to be great. 

I can't say it enough ... I am in love with Switzerland.

Virginia

Virginia ,

I missed you.

it's good to be back.

I've only been in Virginia for two days and it has been the best two days ever...

dc with sarah and friends, sophia time, and lots and lots of summer rain.

It's so good to be back.

Arcade Fire

 

i just went to one of the best concerts of my life! it was so much fun. really, just was amazing. i am still on a high from it all ... i'm just still overwhelmed by how amazing it all was that i can't possibly put it in to anymore words. never going to forget this night. i'll leave it at that.

picnic

today we had a picnic
... instead of doing homework.
& it was great

i love springtime!

april

last weekend we went up to midway for a few days to see family and watch conference. while we were up, i did a little photo shoot of anna (for a school project). she is such a pretty girl.

it was a much needed, great, weekend. and it got up to 65 degrees on friday! i am so excited it is finally april! you have no idea. i've always thought that march feels like the longest month of the year. april means it's finally spring, and i am loving this sunny springweather.

canada

as you can see, instead of the typical spring break we decided to change things up this year and go to canada! it was a 13 hour drive and absolutely freezing (the high at -3 degrees most days). but it turned out to be easily the best road trip i've ever been on. we all had so much fun! i am in love with the city of calgary, definitely plan on visiting there soon again. and between the three cameras that i brought (i had to bring the pentax & holga along), i took a ridiculous amount of photos ... these are some digitals of the days we spent in banff national park--probably my favorite place we visited while in alberta. it is completely gorgeous, with the largest mountains i've seen! definitely one of my favorite trips i've been on.

 more canada pictures to come

san francisco

first ...

we had a long weekend off from school and decided to take a spontaneous roadtrip to san francisco!

there may have been a little rain, but it was beautiful and so much fun seeing the sites ... china town, chinese new years parade, the painted ladies, haight and ashbury, duboce park, peir 39, fisherman's warf, hyde street, and tandum biking the golden gate bridge. i am in love with this city! every time i visit it, i fall in love with it all over again. plan = live in san francisco ... seriously i am doing it. life plan.

christmas at college

i walked downstairs last night to a sweet surprise in the family room ... our friend surprised us by buying us a real christmas tree/ setting the tree up in our house. all the roommates were so excited that we turned on christmas music, made hot chocolate, and stayed up until 3 am hanging out by the tree.

it's going to be a good christmas this year

the 4th.

i just had the best night of my life.

first of all, it was the 4th of july. the 4th is my favorite holiday and my absolute favorite time of year. i love the 4th. it's in the summer AND there are fireworks ... on top of that, the strawberries and ice cream all around? well, this year i got to spend my 4th here:

the white house 

pretty fitting right? i felt so american. thanks to some connections, we were invited to attend the white house independence day celebration. it was so much fun, i can't even explain how great it all was. everything we saw/heard/experienced was unreal.
well on top of all the celebrations, somehow i was completely unaware of who would be preforming that night on the white house lawn. when we arrived guess who was on the stage preforming? brandi carlile.  she was brilliant, that girl's got an amazing voice. she played such a great set & even threw in some johnny cash covers. i thought "this is the best", and then it got even better. 10 X better when i heard the melody of a familiar song coming from the stage. 

my sister and i looked at each other, "no way!"

yes. the killers were there!!! i almost died of happiness, they are my favorite. i ran up to the stage, and started singing along. the crowd only contained bout 200 people, so i made it up to the very front row easily. the stage was touching my stomach, the band was as close as my fingertips. i could see the sweat dripping, all the action, & everything. it was unreal, the killers have forever completed my life. that's how great it was. but for the first 10 minutes they were playing I just kept saying "oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh",  grabbing strangers arm's next to me and screaming. I lost it.

they opened up with "human" & played 10 or 12 other songs. they played most my favorites, & if you have ever seen one of their shows then you know that they are incredible live. i was blown away. brandon flowers is a genius. & it was such a fun show too, you could tell that the band were enjoying themselves just as much as we were. but who wouldn't want to play a show on the white house lawn on independence day? incredible night. 

they ended with a jam up of "God Bless America/Read my mind", (which was so cool) & after brandon flowers thanked the crowd & he gave out some high fives & smiles.  guess who got a high five & smile? i did. i love them. i love him. 

hands down the best concert i've seen. to top it off, the night ended with the national capital's firework show. it was a huge firework show too, & you know how much i love fireworks, so i was in heaven. what a night. i am so grateful i had the opportunity to go and experience all of it. I'm still overwhelmed by how amazing it all was. never going to forget this night.

brandi carlile

brandon flowers

mark stoermer