Star Valley

 

Yes, it is actually the world’s largest arch made of elk antlers. 

Hey y’all! So this weekend my dad’s family went up to a little tiny town in Wyoming called Star Valley. We stayed Saturday and Sunday, so keep reading to hear how my weekend turned out! (Plus some pretty impressive photos, if I do say so myself).

The main reason we went up to Star Valley was because a temple was recently built there. Both of my dads grandmas were raised right around Star Valley (the towns are so tiny they have hardly any distinction- one grew up in Afton and one in Smoot) Since the temple hasn’t been dedicated yet, there is an open house where anyone can go through the entire temple.

It was definitely smaller than the temples in Utah, but it was still gorgeous.Right when you walk in there’s an amazing stained glass mosaic of Jesus Christ. My favorite rooms are the brides room and the sealing room.  The brides room is where you get ready before getting married and it was so surreal just being in there. I really wish that could be my future. But the sealing room is where couples actually get married (or sealed to their children). There’s an altar of sorts where you kneel across from each other during the ceremony which I think is really cool, but the best part is that there are two massive mirrors across from each other on the walls so that when you stand up, you see the both of you next to each other and it goes on forever. This is symbolic of our belief in eternal marriage/ families.

If you guys want to see the inside- I’ll have the link to the pictures below.

Here’s some pictures of us all dressed up and the temple itself:

The view just to the right of the temple 

Me, my brother, cousin Aliyah, and our grandma and practically grandpa

The inscription on all of the temples says, “Holiness to the Lord- The House of the Lord”

 

Before the temple we went up to the graveyard in Afton where my grandma’s parents and some of her siblings are buried. On the way back, she showed us the church where my great grandparents met.

My great grandpa had heard that there were some cute girls up in Afton, and since it was Sunday they headed to the church. My  great grandma told her friends that she wasn’t talking to the boys until after she went to church. Meanwhile, he was telling his buddy that she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever met, and that he was going to marry her. Well, after church, she walked right past him and straight home. So he had to talk to enough people to track her down, and showed up on her doorstep. And the rest is history 🙂

That day, we also went to the above mentioned great grandma’s second house which is this odd cute little green thing- the only thing I remember from the inside is the pink toilet.

By the way, this isn’t my last name 

Me and my mom 

The other few things we saw was the church my great grandparents used to go to- and the sign about Mormons in Star Valley. In the picture with the sign, you can see a white star on the hill on the left.

We really didn’t do much else on Saturday other than going to eat- but I had a great time! My cousin and I are are super close but she moved to Kanab to live with my grandma for senior year which is about  4 hours away. I haven’t seen her since summer, so it was awesome to see her!

ALSO- if you guys want to check out pictures of the inside of the temple, the link is right here! I highly recommend you check it out- it’s gorgeous.

Thanks for reading the long post- I hope you made it! There will be a part 2 about what we did Sunday, so be on the lookout for that. Love y’all! -Aspen AKA The Author

Advertisement

The 16 Club

Hey y’all! This is just a quick post to wish Fibit a Happy Birthday!! 

He’s a semi-cool guy who can sometimes be funny… kidding, kidding. He’s actually pretty great, and one of my best blog friends. And now he’s finally joined the 16 club! Which is actually kind of odd because now he’s not a full year younger than me.

I just wanted to say that I hope he has a great day and knows how much I enjoy being his friend (my gosh I sound weird) Thanks for all the weird jokes and actual conversations with meaning. Oh-and for finally learning how to give a compliment. The improvement is impressing. But you’re still a brat thank goodness because nice people are boring 😉
You guys should definitely go check out his blog which I already have linked above, and wish him a happy birthday! 

Love y’all! (Especially you Mit) (But just today ;)😛) -Aspen AKA The Future Queen 

300 Followers?! & 14 Things I’ve Learned From 14 Months of Blogging

AKA The Author has three HUNDRED followers. What? I can’t believe it. Wow guys, this is so crazy to me. Three hundred people read what I write and comment on my life, when you have no obligation to. You don’t have to pretend to like me, you really do. It blows my mind.

I’m sitting here, wearing the shirt I bought the week I gained 100 followers almost one year ago.

And, excuse my bias, but you guys are the best.

Thank you all, so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I could be like every other person on this planet, but this blog makes me feel different. I love talking to all of you and making friends around the world. You guys are like family to me. I’m so grateful to know that I have people to talk to, people who actually care.

So, to celebrate the 300 followers this blog has gained in 14 months- I’m doing 14 things I’ve learned about blogging. 

1. Background doesn’t matter. Let me explain- we all come from different countries, families, situations, etc. But we come together as a community regardless of the differences in our lives. As soon as I joined I felt extremely welcomed. It’s surprising how comforting it is for people to know who you are around here.
2. It can be hard. Sometimes blogging feels like a job to me. I remember that I need to post or whatever, and stress out. But that’s because I love this “job” and I care about blogging and the community.
3. Writing down things in your life is important.  I think of my blog as an online journal. I love how easy it is to go back and read through posts of what I have done- the pictures are also a fun touch.
4. Interacting with readers is extremely important. Not only for the success of your blog, but in order to form friendships which make blogging really fun! Get involved!
5. Post what you want to post. I’ve had to get over this one myself. But it’s your – if you want to rant about something, just do it.
6. Live a life outside of blogging. Every once in awhile I find my thoughts being consumed by blog posts or what I’m going to do, and I have to remind myself to just put it away sometimes. It will be right there when I get back.
7. Always write down your ideas. Too often do I find myself having a great idea for a post, and then forgetting to write it down somewhere. There goes a great original idea, right down the drain.
8.  Disagreement and hate are very different.  People have a very difficult time with this one. Just because I don’t agree with you, does NOT in ANY way mean that I don’t like you. No two people are ever going to agree with one another 100% of the time. Agree to disagree.
9. Strangers, aren’t all that strange. It’s always very intriguing when you find people who are more like you than most of the people you’ve ever met. I can easily say that I’ve never even met some of my best friends. However, always be cautious and smart about it.
10. Emotion is a very large motivation. Whether this means sadness, anger, happiness, or humor, emotion will always play a large part in what you post and how often you post. If something with a large amount of emotion happens, we tend to want to post about it.
11. We’re all broken. In my opinion, most bloggers don’t post just the happy parts of their life. We all share out struggles and speak up about how we really feel. You are NOT the only one. We all have a hard time, you’re not alone.
12. Read. Reading other people’s blogs is extremely important, its a way to easily fit into the community and to get to know people.
13. People like poems.  People like to read short and meaningful things. And poems are perfect.
14. My opinion can make a difference here. Blogging gives me a very large area to spread my opinions, beliefs, and ideas. It’s a great way to promote ideals that I think are important. It gives me a chance to change something in the world.

 

That was 14 things I’ve learned in 14 months of blogging! I hope you guys enjoyed it! Comment down below something you have learned from blogging. Thank you again SO SO much for all of your support, I hope you know how much it means to me.

(Do you think we could try for 350 or 375 by 2017? I want to say 400 but that sounds a bit ambitious)

Love y’all- Aspen AKA The Author

An Unfair World

I understand, I swear I do,

As tears run down my cheeks.

I understand, I swear I do,

why cheerleaders get cancer.

I understand, I swear I do,

why people can hurt people.

I understand that those who hurt,

will have happiness in the end.

My mind understands the plan,

that it will all be okay.

But my heart doesn’t understand,

it only sees the hurt. Only feels the pain.

My mind can see them after,

after they’ve moved on.

But my heart can only see now,

the good people in bad circumstances.

I don’t mean to doubt, I swear I don’t,

but the word unfair is hard to justify.

I’m trying, I swear I am,

to just have faith in an unfair world.

 

Poems, Short Stories, or a Novel?

Hey y’all! So I’ve really been wanting to write lately, but I’ve kind of been on the fence of WHAT to write. So I’m asking you guys, obviously.

Should I write more poems, short stories, or a novel?  Or are there 2 you would like to see from me? All 3?

I want to know what YOU want to read. Please comment, thank you!

-Aspen AKA The Author

Bad Witch Jello by Little Aspen

Hey y’all! So yesterday I found this one book I wrote in elementary and it’s the greatest thing ever. Not even kidding. So I have uploaded pictures of it because it even has illustrations man. I was a pro.

Sidenote: I was going through the books of notes my class wrote to be on my birthday and omg guys all of the guys told me I was pretty and asked if I would play with them at recess. I had all the guys, what happened?!

*Clears throat* anyways onto the book:

THE END. I hope you guys enjoyed this XD Love y’all!- Aspen AKA The Author

 

Who’s Most Likely To… feat. Fibit and Colby

Hey y’all! For the past about 10 months or so, I’ve been a part of a group chat with 2 other bloggers, who I now consider some of my closest blogging friends. We talk a lot more than is probably normal, but they always know how to make me laugh. Even when they don’t know I needed it. Both of them are genuinely extremely kind and rude, so I fit right in 😉  We’re actually all planning on all meeting sometime in the future and going on a trip around the world, and London is the first stop! (After I have to drag them out of the airport by their earlobes because they won’t stop fighting, we have a few things to learn from the maid, and some passion fruit ice cream to eat 😉 But we haven’t done a collab post ever which is insane, so we’re doing it now!

Introducing,  Who’s Most Likely To… with Colby from Dreams and Movie Screens, and Fibit from, well, Fibit. We did 18 questions in total, you  can check out the other questions by clicking here ( Colby’s post) and here ( Fibit’s post).

Who is most likely to become president someday? 

Me:  I say me because Fibit isn’t even from here, and Colby is too lazy 😉

Colby: Definitely Aspen. She seems the most driven to do something like that.

Fibit: Aspen. She’s into debating and that kinda thing and she’s probably a great public speaker.

Who is most likely to get drunk alone on Christmas Eve?

Me: Colby and Fibit. I could kind of see both of them depending on the situation, and I don’t drink.

Colby: I’m honestly not sure of this one. Drunk alone? Probably me or Fibit. We just seem like those people, I guess.

Fibit: Me. I’d say Colby but she’s more likely to get completely wasted with others.

Who is most likely to get married first?

Me: Hmm… I’m gonna say Fibit actually. I don’t know why, but I can picture him getting married younger…

Colby: I could see Aspen getting married first. She’s a husband-magnet. She seems the most wife-like between her and me.

Fibit: Aspen. I don’t really have a reason.

Who is most likely to get in a fight?

Me: Well generally me because I’m the violent one. But Fibit and Colby argue like children.

Colby: Me and Fibit. As in, fighting each other. We’ve squared up multiple times. We plan to fight here in a couple of years.

Fibit: Colby and I. We’ve got loads of beef so when she finally visits London, it’s going down.
Who is most likely to fail a simple test?

Me:  Honestly, probably me because I would overthink it waaay too much.

Colby: Probably me, because I get sidetracked sometimes. Though I’ve never failed a test.

Fibit: Me. I’ll probably revise the wrong stuff.

Who is most likely to become a multi-millionaire?

Me:   I could actually see Fibit being a multi-millionare with some corporate business in NYC or something. (Although Colby and I would be the ones embarrassing him dancing on a table at one of those fancy apartment parties)

Colby: Fibit. He seems inventive and business-minded enough to do it.

Fibit: Aspen. She’s going to be a specialist doctor so…

That’s all for now folks! 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Be sure to leave us a comment down below, and head on over to Colby’s and Fibit’s blogs to see the rest of the questions! Love y’all! -Aspen AKA The Autho

This is Such a Dumb Poem

​Abandoned. 

Abandoned by who?

Abandoned by you. 

The one who always stayed,

Eventually left.

 The one who always healed, 

Had caused the hurt. 

This is such a dumb poem, 

Because we’ve all heard it before. 

We trust things that break us,

But that’s nothing new.

We mistake trust for faith ,

And blindly find perfection

In someone who doesn’t deserve

That kind of responsibility. 

You can’t count on one person

To save you and blame them

When they don’t. 

It’s not their job to make you smile. 

It’s not their job to keep you happy. 

When someone hurts you

They don’t always do it to be selfish. 

What if when someone hurts you 

It’s because you hurt them too? 

You excpected them to save you,

But they needed a little saving too. 

Pain Doesn’t Take Lunch Breaks

Hey y’all. I don’t even know why I’m writing, I had a whole other cool post ready to be published but it disappeared. 

I just feel so emotionally sick. Every time I breathe in, I can feel the weight of my world ooze off of my shoulders into my gut. 

I feel like a disappointment. I keep telling my body to do things but I just can’t. And it hurts so bad that I can’t focus on anything else. 

I’ve begun to realize what this brain fog things is, like when I have a thought in my head but I say it who knows how many times because I can’t remember. 

And I’m feeling ridiculously guilty because of it all. I can’t function completely on my own, which means I need other people’s help. 

And I don’t mean to push other people’s problems away, but I guess I do. And I wish I could stop asking and just try a few more times, but that’s not how it works. 

I just want to function on my own, where nothing I do affects anyone else. 

And my friends are struggling pretty bad right now too. And I can’t fix it, which I hate. I’m not here for me anymore, I’m here to help other people. 

But I can’t,  all because it hurts. Everywhere all the time, without stopping. Pain doesn’t have lunch breaks and weekends. 

So here’s to hoping one Dr’s appointment can fix my life. 
Love y’all- Aspen AKA The Girl Who Just Wants To Play Cello teenage, pain, struggling, help

My Reverse Bucket List!

Hey y’all! Aspen is currently looking for a wallet and this is Ryann, the second favorite because I have come to realize that Lauren is the number one by a longshot. Oh well. We are getting ready to go to the second varsity home game for our high school and I’m sure that Aspen has told you all that our school cannot play football to save our lives. It’s pretty sad actually. I think we are the third worst high school team in the nation. We are getting ready to leave to my house where I am going to be looking fly because my ex, cough *douchebag* cough, will be and I want to make the world realize that I am actually pretty amazing. I hate writing on this blog because I suck at writing but I want to tell you guys and gals that Aspen just said her fingers look like spiders. She told me to tell y’all that this is her reverse bucket list, meaning she has already done everything on here and she wanted to share it with you. I probably should have written that at the top because that is why she is having me write on her blog. Love you Aspen! Will you guys do me a favor and write something you like about her or her blog in the comments? She can always use extra love. Bye friends! Congratulations, you have made it this far in my very long intro, enjoy the reverse bucket list!

 

1. Ride a jetski ( I did this for the first time this summer in Bear Lake!)
2. Archery
3. Ride a Segway ( Completed this one on the Fort Lauderdale, Florida airport)
4. Dress up like a Shadowhunter (Halloween of 8th grade)
5. Go on a hayride
6. Fly in an airplane
7. Visit the house from UP in real life (This is actually in the city next to where I live)
8. Be on TV ( I performed during halftime of a Utes basketball game, and then I did Alex’s lemonade stand twice)
9. Smash a pie in someone’s face (My elementary principal; one of the greatest days of my life)
10. Visit Yellowstone (I’ve been twice)
11. Witness a wedding proposal ( It was in Brianhead; the highest point in Utah)
12. Donate gifts to children need (We used to do this with my cousins instead of getting gifts for each other)
13. Write something in wet cement
14. See the Grand Canyon
15. Zipline
16. Be a part of a flash mob (Middle School man)
17. Sleep on a trampoline
18. Learn how to play cello
19. Have a pen pal (I did in elementary with a girl who lived Mexico)
20. Go to Chicago
21. Eat cake without my hands (Jordynn’s 14th birthday party; we pretended to be dinosaurs)
22. Hold an alligator (Florida)
23. Feed a bear (Bear world; I was four and sobbed my heart out)
24. Feed a tiger cub (In Wisconsin at the Kalahari; the world’s largest indoor water park)
25. Learn how to shoot a gun
26. Be baptized
27. White water river rafting
28. Learn how to snowboard (This is how I dislocated my hip the first two times)
29. Swim with dolphins (Florida again)
30. Milk a cow (I’ve done this lots of times)
31. Take a picture at the perfect moment (It was of a person standing on the tip of a whale’s nose)
32. Hit someone with a frying pan (It was my brother. He was chasing me around with his toenail clippings)
33. Go to a drive in movie
34. Learn how to tie a cherry stem with my tongue
35. Kiss someone in an airport

Comment down below if you have done any of these things! I hope you liked Ryann’s intro- I haven’t read it yet. Love y’all! – Aspen AKA The Author