400 Follower Answers!

Hey y’all! So I’m back to answer a your awesome questions, thanks so much for commenting!

1. Liv asked: If you could relive any childhood memory, which would you choose?

Aw man this is so hard. I think I’d have to say just any old regular day where I got to spend it messing around with my brother playing all sorts of random games. We could run loose in the backyard and entertain ourselves for hours with the trampoline or “Ninja Seesaw”. And back then my parents wouldn’t make us do anything, if we were having too much fun they wouldn’t make us go to bed or anything. The good old days.

2. Sav asked: What would the name of your autobiography be? And if you woke up as a dog what would be the first thing you do?

Actually, a few years back my friends and I had a joke that if I had an autobiography it’d be called “The Life of a Teenage Dictator”. And I’d either go run everywhere as fast as possible or go back to sleep because, NO SCHOOL.

3. Ocean of fear asked :What do you think your Harry Potter patronus would be and why? What is your dream job if every job had the same pay? Favourite film?

I’ve actually never read Harry Potter so (I know, I know) but from what I’ve heard and some *cough* online quizzes *cough* I’m a Gryffindor? (I don’t know, leave what you think I would be in the comments below)

And  I would still want to be a doctor, the money isn’t really what makes me want the job. My favorite (sidenote: my computer is trying to autocorrect the ‘u’ out of everyone’s words, it doesn’t understand non-American English) is Phantom of the Opera, I have the whole thing memorized.

4. Brookie asked: When did you start basketball?

I started basketball in kindergarten so I would have been 5. It was my dad’s requirement in order for me to keep dancing. Woah, that means I’ve been playing for 11 years…

5. Liss and Dani asked:  If you could meet any 5 bloggers, who would you pick?

Well you definitely win for the hardest question, thanks guys. I’m going to say that you 2 only count as 1 blogger because I can, and then Gioia, Mit, Liv, and Colby then… Agh there’s so many people I want to pick.

6. Trish asked: If you could change one thing about your country’s politics, what would you change?

I’m going to assume that you’re wanting me to say the president, but I’m actually not going to for 2 reasons. First, I believe in the process of government this country was built on and taking him out would be disagreeing with that. And second, I would change who gets attention. For example, I would make it so that a good person with a good education and background with good ideas for the country had as much of a chance as someone who only has a blasted amount of money.

7. Elm asked: What is the best thing that’s ever happened to you? What’s your favourite character from a book or movie?

The best thing that has ever happened to me would definitely be meeting/knowing the people I do now. I don’t know how to explain, they and you guys just mean so much to me.

And I’ll do both my favorite book and move character. For movies, it’s Iron Man aka Tony Stark, he’s hilarious and sarcastic and a genius. So me! (Did I mention egotistical? 😉 My favorite book character is Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices. Again he’s super sarcastic and arrogant, but at the core he’s super sweet and caring. I just find these kinds of  characters really entertaining.

8. Abby asked: If you could only wear one outfit for the rest of your life what would it be? 

Well it’s freezing here in the winter, but also super hot in the summer. So I think I’d choose a comfy t-shirt, leather jacket, some type of boots, and then jeans I could like roll up or down depending on the weather…

9. Iridescence asked: Ice cream or pizza?

Okay I like pizza, but I don’t love it. And I LOVE ice cream.

10. Dzieyy asked: What’s your biggest pet peeve? Fav animal?The most weird experience of your life? Are there any bloggers you want to meet? Sunsets or moonlight?

My biggest pet peeve is lazy people who never do anything for themselves. And I don’t care who you are, I’ll call you out on it.

My favorite animal is a grizzly bear! (Which also happens to be our school mascot)

The weirdest experience of my life… umm.. the one that I can think of is probably when this like 20 something year old lady bought Lauren and I pie and we were being stared at by another lady and glared at by this boy and sitting next to a table of very drunk guys at Denny’s at like 2 am. I’ll link the full post here, Friends, Football, Freaks, and Free Pie.

There’s tons of bloggers I want to meet! We just need a convention or something.  And my favorite time of day is the evening, so sunsets for sure.

11. Luna asked: Which fictional character do you hate the most and what would you do if you met them? 

The fictional character I hate most is probably Abby from The Crucible. If you haven’t heard of it before it’s about the Salem Witch trails where a ton of women were killed after being accused of being witches. And Abby is a young girl (17 in the book, 7 in real life I think?) who played along and got them all killed to save herself. Her character in the book is pure evil and so needy and disturbed. If I ever met her I’d probably punch her a few times and then force her to confess so she could live the rest of her life as an outcast.

 

I hope you liked it! Again I can’t thank you guys enough. Love y’all! -Aspen AKA The Author

 

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We Hit 400?! // Q&A

Hey y’all! How have you all been? I’m doing pretty good. My back is feeling a lot better which is amazing. I was able to actually play basketball for the first time in forever on Thursday which was mind blowing.

Basketball has always been a massive part of my life and one of the things I really enjoy, so getting even just a small part of that back has given me a lot of hope. So I’ll be able to actually play church ball (we have men, women’s, young men, and young women’s teams for every ward) and my ward is kicking butt. We’ve dominated in all of our games so far, so Region Championships is a pretty high possibility this year!

Speaking of young women’s, for our activity on Wednesday we took coats and blankets to this welfare home thing for kids. It’s basically a place where single (or not, but mostly) parents can drop off their kids for free so that they can get necessary things like Dr. appointments and job interviews done. It’s also a place for victims of domestic abuse, and more. In the car on the way to get ice cream, we were talking about how great it was that there was a place like this for struggling parents (mostly mothers) to get help with their children. Even thinking about it now, the most terrifying thing I can think of would be having kids and not being able to take care of them. My leaders said that it’s a mothers worst nightmare. So I am very grateful for the people who donate their time to volunteer to help those in that situation.

This is one of the pictures in the house, they had all sorts of cartoons everywhere.

This morning, the other blog that I’m a part of, The Artistics released our first magazine of 2017! It’s called Merry 2017, and you should all go check it out, here! 

And last, but not least, A.K.A The Author hit 400 followers! FOUR HUNDRED! It’s absolutely insane! Thank you guys so so much for still supporting me and taking the time to read what I post, it means the world to me. I decided to do a generic Q&A instead of something else like I’ve done before, because I haven’t done one since 200 followers!

So leave any questions that you have down below! Thanks tons, I love y’all so much! -Aspen AKA The Author

Utah’s 121st Birthday!

Hey y’all! So today is January 4th, 2017 which means that Utah became a state exactly 121 years ago! I thought that it’d be fun to do some fun facts about Utah in celebration, so here we go!

Here’s some stats to start with:

• Utah has the highest literacy rates in the country.
• The highest number of people with college education.
• The highest percentage of high school graduates
• The healthiest population with the second lowest death rates.
• The youngest population.

Now to the fun facts:

Utah’s name originates from the Native American Ute tribe which means “people of the mountains”. Which makes sense seeing as Utah is completely surrounded by them. It’s also why the University of Utah’s nickname is the Utes (and yes its legal, they have an agreement with the tribe)

Utah is mainly LDS (Mormon) which means we have the most temples than anywhere else (17). The most “famous” one, the Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build. All of the temples are extremely ornate and sacred.

Utah is known to have the best snow on Earth because it is unusually dry which makes the powder virtually perfect. People travel from all over the world to go skiing and snowboarding. Not kidding. The 2002 Winter Olympics were also held here.

Utah is also famous for it’s red rock in Zions National Park and Bryce National Park.

Utah is home to Rainbow Bridge,  the world’s highest natural bridge at 290  feet tall, and spans 275 feet.The top of the arch measures 42 feet thick and 33 feet wide. It is nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty, people!

The city in the very middle of Utah is called Levan because it is navel backwards. Like the belly button which is the middle.

Ever heard of the transcontinental railroad? Well the last spike put into it AKA The Golden Spike was put into place at Promontory Point, Utah.

The Great Salt Lake (which Utah’s capital is named after) is the 6th largest lake in the United States, only after the Great Lakes. The Great Salt Lake is also 4 to 5x saltier than the ocean and has about 4.5 BILLION TONS OF SALT (No wonder it burnt so freaking bad when I swam in it with cuts as a child)

The first department store in the country was started in Utah (hence the nickname of the Beehive state because we’re known as hardworkers)

Utah also can claim to be the site of the biggest raptor known to ever walk the Earth, called the Utahraptor. For scale, a velociraptor was 25-30 lbs, a  normal raptor was about 200 lbs, and the Utahraptor was anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 lbs.

Utah is also home to be the oldest and largest living organism, which just happens to be a grove of Aspen trees that is one organism, its name is Pando. I actually have never been, but I HAVE to go, its like DESTINY.

Oh, and thought I’d just add that in 2013 I think, they changed the state tree to the Quaking Aspen

 

And that’s all! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you liked it! ALSO, I have a sort of challenge for you. Utah has some really weirdly pronounced cities and I’m curious how you guys would assume they were pronounced. I’ll make a list and just type out how you think it sounds in the comments.

-Tooele                              -Escalante

-Duchesne                       -Moab

-Hurricane                       -Oquirrh

Love y’all! -Aspen AKA The Author

 

 

A Month by Month of 2016

Hey y’all! So 2016 is almost over! It’s been a pretty hectic year in terms on not only my life, but the world in general. Just like last year I’m going to do a wrap up of my year.  But this time instead of a Top Ten, I’m going to do it by month.

P.S. I started the year with 100 followers and ended with nearly 400, which is crazy. Thank you all SO SO much!

January: 

It’s crazy to think so far back, and know that it was still part of this year. In January, I went on a debate trip to ASU which was tons of fun! The post about that trip is here!

I also reached 100 followers which was super exciting for me! The post for that is here.

 

February: 

In February, my moms whole family drove down to St. George where it’s warm for a funeral. My moms cousin committed suicide which was horrible, but seeing family was great. We went hiking around Dixie Rock and explored. I also had a blast playing with all of the girls in our own hotel room. The post about the whole trip is here 

March: 

March was our spring break, and my family went down to Kanab to stay with my grandma. We got to ride/ drive the side by side, got to the pink sand dunes, and Aliyah and I explored around the cliffs in my grandma’s neighborhood. The post for that trip is here.

April: 

In April, I turned 16! That night I just went out to dinner with Lauren and my family. My friends and I had a party later on, which was really fun 🙂 (Also, the baby turned 2, like what?!) The link to my birthday post is here!

May: 

In May, both Lauren and Ryann turned 16 (on the same day actually, and I was supposed to be born just 4 days before that but I came early) and I wrote them a short little post. Because of this some of Lauren’s family came up from Texas so I got to meet them 🙂  I also took the AP European History test which was crazy long, but I ended up passing! Afterwards Lauren and I and our moms went on one of our first activity mother daughter date things together! The post talking about all that is here. AND its when we officially found out that Ry has dermatographia which means that you can like write on her skin and it stays there- in the picture below I wrote one of her nicknames on her back.

P.S. The middle picture is us with my cousin Aliyah having a shaving cream fight xD

June:

In June, school ended the day before my 2nd Little Red Race. This year, my cousin Sienna decided to ride with us so we only did 50 miles (not that I could have done much more, it was SO BLASTED HOT) But I had tons of fun sharing one of my passions with her. Here’s that post!

The other thing I did in June was go on a road trip with Lauren!! We drove to Idaho by ourselves to stay with her grandparents for a few days and I had so so much fun! The link to that post is here 🙂

July: 

For the 4th of July my moms side of the family went up to the cabin at Bear Lake and we all stayed there and had tons of fun at the beach and boating. Plus you could see tons of fireworks from the deck. The post I wrote on this is linked here. 

The 5th I had girls camp so I was exhausted, but since I was a YCL (youth camp leader) this year I had to leave early. I had so much fun teaching the younger girls and spending time with my friends, and being able to feel the spirit. This was honestly where I became okay with all of my problems, and felt everything would be okay.

The last thing that happened in July, was this blog’s first anniversary!! I went out and celebrated with my friends and had lots of fun. I wrote 2 different posts about it, they’re here and here. 

August: 

In August I started 11th grade which  means only 1 year left of high school after this one! The weekend after school started, my dads family came up to the cabin and I took Lauren with me! We played a lot of pool, just swam in the lake, and went tubing on the boat. I tried surfing, but her knees were hurt. So we really spent a ton of time jamming out in the front of the boat.

And I’m not sure if this was July or August, so I’m going to put it here. But Lauren and I (and our moms) went to a Piano Guys concert! It was AMAZING! At the concert, we saw the pianist’s nephew propose to his girlfriend, Sony flew out to give them their golden record thing, AND they recorded the music video to their new song. So that means we’re in it (you can’t actually see us because it’s dark) but you should check it out anyways. The link is here!

September: 

In September, my family and I drove up to Afton/Star Valley, Wyoming to see the opening of the Star Valley temple. This is where both of my dads parents grew up so we got to go visit the family that was still there, and the old houses. The temple was gorgeous, and I expected to be. And my favorite room was the Bride’s Room. All of my great grandparents died wanting this temple to be built- and now its there.

We also went hiking the Intermitten Springs which my dad loved as a child, and I’ve been to a few times. The scenery is gorgeous, check out all of the pictures here!

October:

This month I went to a haunted house for the first time with Ry and Laur and it was surprisingly really fun. Then my brother and I went to the Hogle Zoo with Lauren’s family. And my moms side of the family went to go see Thriller at Kingsbury Hall! American West Ballet puts on a show based on a bunch of Halloween themed things and its so cool.

November: 

This month was eventful, but in a different way than the others. A kid at my school, who just happened to be one of my cousins best friends committed suicide. Going through the whole experience again, was not great. That post is here. But thank goodness for my friends. They are so amazing. One day we had a short day, so we decided to go to my favorite park and just hang out and go to the cemetery there. I had tons of fun, and we took some cute pictures. Go look and the post I did on it, it turned out really well!

December: 

December was a lot of fun for me this year (and stressful) I had a great time shopping with Amy to buy things for people in need- it was a great experience. We got to actually volunteer at the store to set things up and stuff, and its one of my favorite things to do. The post to that is here. 

We threw my uncle a surprise birthday party on the 23rd and it was so fun! Plus I got to meet my cousins new puppy Thor who is SO CUTE.

Christmas was great, we spent the day at Amy and David’s after going to church (where I had to sing) and opening presents. I got new super soft Egyptian cotton sheets, a leather jacket, black heeled boots, Just Dance 2017, a speedometer for my bike, biking gloves, and a mirror for my bike.

The day after Christmas Spence and I went sledding with our cousins Sienna, Tessa, and Alec. And then my dads family came over and we played some games.

 

And that’s the end! Sorry it’s so long, comment down below something you did this year if you made it!

Love y’all! And Happy New Year!