So I know that this is a little late, but being Thanksgiving weekend, I think I'm going to post some of the things I am grateful for. I could go on forever, but I will just post some of the big ones.



*My house

*My AMAZING friends! I love them all so much and couldn't ask for better!

*Colors. I can't imagine the world without them. Think about that. It would be horrible to never see the beauty of the color red.

*People who protect me and make my life better and easier (firemen, police men, doctors, etc.)

* The ability to run and move. This one is HUGE for me. Running is a big part of my life. I don't know if I could handle not being able to move. When I run, I feel so free. So alive. Plus it is a huge stress reliever for me. I don't pity, but more respect those who don't have this ability for one reason or another. That would be so hard!

*Snow. I love sitting outside on my porch at night with my glass of hot chocolate and watching the falling snow. It is so beautiful and peaceful. And quiet.

*Different people and cultures.

*The vast diversity in our world.

*Juniors who go out of their way to talk to lame little 10th graders even though they don't have to. And they end up becoming a huge source of peace in your life and one of your very best friends!

*Scriptures that when you read them touch you and influence you so much it is like they were written just for you.

*Oceans and beaches.

*Blankets. I love the feeling you get when you're cold and just wrap up in a warm blanket. You feel so warm, comfortable, and safe.

*People who lived before us. I am so grateful for the knowledge they brought us and the examples they have shown. They are the people who have shaped our world and made it like it is today.

*Dancing in the rain.

*Laughter: it is the best feeling in the world, and truly nature's medicine.

* Sunshine! :)

* Music and songs. They have power that simple words might not.

*Our country and those lives lost to bring it this way.

*Nature. It is the most wonderful, beautiful, peaceful thing. It has the power to inspire and renew you. What better way to refresh your spirit then enjoying God's creations? I love nature. Think about it, thing about how majestic trees are. Or how beautiful and powerful mountains are. Or the simple beauty of a wildflower. The wonders of animals, water, wind, everything. Ahhh....

* Education and learning.

*The simple pleasure and joy of eating a melting popsicle in my front yard with my sisters on a summer day, and then having a water fight as we run barefoot through the green grass. Their smiles make my whole day.

*Pictures. Pictures have a power I can't describe. They really are worth 1,000 words. They preserve memories, tell stories, show feeling, they are amazing.

*Travel. I love it! It is so awesome to be able to see the vast diversity and beauty of our majestic world.

*Southern Utah. The beauty there is beyond words. The red rocks, perfect soft sand, it's absolutely glorious, and one of my favorite places.

* Food. :) Need I say more?

* Having a wonderful talk with my mom. She's the most amazing woman I know and one of my best friends.

*Babies. They are so pure, so perfect, so small, and so beautiful!

*My young women's group. Those girls are so awesome and I am super good friends with many of them. They are such great examples to me. And my leaders are fantastic. We have such great unity and support.

*Technology. I am so grateful for this! It is so helpful and I could go on and on about how much it helps us and makes our lives easier.

*Good books. Words have power. I love the books that make you FEEL something. For example, "The Book Thief". This is my favorite book of all time.

*Being able to see a temple every day, and visit it often and feel the amazing power of the Spirt there.

*The Christmas Season. The happiness, love, unity, and fun of the whole season is something I look forward to every year. I spend so much quality time with my amazing family. The whole purpose of Christmas is amazing, I always feel so peaceful and happy this time of year.


Well, I could go on and on forever, but there are two more I am unimaginable grateful for....

*My family. Where would I be without them? I love them immensely. I am so grateful for their love, devotion and support to me. My sisters are 2 of my all time favorite people. They are the cutest girls I know! Their smiles and their light bring joy to my day. They can cheer me up when I'm in my worst moods. They are so silly and fun and we have such a good time together. My mom is amazing. Her strength and courage and everything about her is so awesome. She is such a good example to me. I wouldn't be who I am without her. Both she and my dad love me so much, and I know they would do anything for me. My dad is so supportive and does so much to make my life better. My brother is such a cool kid, and though we argue we can have a ton of fun together. I love him and he's becoming such an awesome kid! I was blessed with an amazing family that I wouldn't trade for the world.

*The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Wow. Where do I even begin? I could honestly go on for hours talking about it but I don't think you all want to hear it. So I will just say that I love it with all my heart. It is my source of peace in a world of turmoil. It gives me a desire to keep going, keep trying, and be better. My Heavenly Father is the one who loves me no matter WHAT, even if the rest of the world is beating me down. My Savior is my light, my hope, my brother, my redeemer. Ahhh. Words cannot describe the magnificence and pure love of the church. But I have a strong testimony of it, it is where I want to be. And I KNOW that is it the only source of true happiness in life. It has been for me.


Well, there you have it!! Sometimes it is easy to forget how truly blessed we are. But life is better when we remember!! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I sure did!! I'll have to post about it later. It was a very unique holiday for me! :)

photobooth me.

whoever invented photobooth is a genius.

paradise.

wow! I haven't posted in waaay too long. sorry children. i'm sure you have all given up on me! heh. first off, life has been a little bit rough. i swear i live on an emotional roller coaster! ahhh! but i'm for sure working on it. its gotten to the point where i'm just going to be me. and if people don't like it, well heck. they can deal with it! i'm not changing! haha. second, there is still that darn filter :) baha. so i could go on telling you everything new. everything exciting. but, i won't. haha. that would take way too much time. and i've only got like 10 minutes before i get blocked out again! haha! so here is what i'm going to do instead: MEXICO TIME!!!

In september my family and I had the AMAZING opportunity to go to mexico with the nelson side of mi familia. it was pretty much a blast and a half. it was very possibly one of the greatest weeks of my life. so i will just give you a little preview about what it was like! and yeah, i know this is what. 3 months later? but it was just so amazing, i have to share. :)

BEACHING:
first off can i just say this was probably the prettiest beach i have EVER seen!!! the water was the most stunning color. the sand was absolutely perfect. the waves were beautiful. the beach stretched on for miles. miles of beautiful water, beautiful sand, amazing sunshine, ahhh. just gorgeous :)

what a sass master :) love this girl!!



okay and let me just say she had been there for a whole day and a half in constant sunshine, and this was taken like an hour after i stepped off the plane. so don't make fun of my whiteness :)



hahah taken right after the first picture. oh and by the way this is my cousin Eliza!! I love her so much!!



SO happy to be there!!!



hot tan line, abigail. thats really attractive.









RANDOM PHOTOS: This is just some of our hotel and beach. I just walked around for like an hour and a half enjoying the beach! and took a few pics. not too many though. here are just a few!





our awesome blue hotel













TURTLES: okay this was by far one of the highlights of the trip. it was absolutely incredible. ahhh indescribable! so here is how it goes. for three months, mother turtles come up to the beach at around 11 o clock each night to lay their eggs. now i'm a total animal girl, so when i heard this i about flipped out! so the first night we were there, me and my cousins and my aunt went out the the beach at around 10 30 to look for turtles. we walk down the beach a little ways, and there is this huge whole with sand flying out of it! so anyways, we walk up and there is this HUUUGE giant turtle digging a whole. oh. my. lanz. so so cool!!! :) so we sat and watched it like forever. then everyone else went in but i was going to stay until the end! so me and eliza sat out there with my mom who came down half way through. we stayed at a respectful distance until she was done. and man did she take forever! that momma lays a lot of eggs! haha! it was a really long process. she had to dig the whole, lay her eggs, and bury them. turtles are actually very skilled in the art of burying eggs. i was surprised. haha. but anyways, we watched this turtle finish, and then once she was almost to the beach we ran up and touched her. ahhh i about died. it was the all time coolest thing i have ever seen!!!!!!!! but it gets better. :) so i'll tell you one more momma story. i don't have any pictures because i didn't want the flash to scare them away and not lay their eggs. because if they don't they lay them in the water and the babies drown. but anyways, one night it is just me and my mom. we are sitting out there by this big turtle, just watching her. we watched her for like 45 minutes and me and my mom just talked. (so fun!) but then she finished, and it was the coolest thing. we had been so quiet and respectful that she just scooped herself out of the giant hole, and honestly scooted herself down the beach about 3 feet away from my feet. she went RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!! ahhhhh!!! so then when she got passed us so we were behind her, me and my mom went down and were just touching her all over. it was the most amazing experience. me and my mom on this perfect beach with thousands of stars above us in the middle of the night with this giant mother turtle. wow. that is all i can say!! but there is one more thing we got to do with the turtles, and this one was pretty much like my favorite part of the whole trip. i could have done it all day. the turtles start laying their eggs 3 months before we got there, and the eggs start hatching after they have been buried for 3 months. so, if you can do the math you might be able to figure out what we got to do! we got to release the baby turtles into the ocean. oh my heck. i was in heaven!!!!!!!!!!!! they are the cutest, most perfect little things i have ever seen. and they are TINY!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. words can't describe how awesome it was. the pictures might give you a little idea of how sweet it was.







































CHICHEN ITZA: oh my amazing. okay so this is an ancient mayan city that was abandoned many years ago. the mayas are amazing, their level of knowledge is absolutely incredible, they were truly brilliant people. it was so cool to go and see all of the buildings and ruins! i loved this part of the trip, it was definitely one of my favorites. so awesome.


This is the main temple, "El Castillo". This building was phenomenal, so beautiful!! What is super cool is that their calendar was "built" into the temple. basically, everything represented part of the calendar. each step represented a day, each level a month, etc. they were so smart and their calendar is so incredible accurate. its only barely off from our calendar today, and they had no tools or technology or anything, just their knowledge of math and astronomy. another cool thing about this building is that they built it just perfectly (not by mistake!) so that on the two solstices of the year, the shadow makes a perfect snake down the steps and they built a snakes head at the bottom to complete the picture. its pretty incredible how smart they were!





another thing about the mayas is that they were a very bloody and sacrificial people. they believed that human lives and human blood was the only way they would keep living. so, they threw people off the edges into these "cenotes", or pools. researchers have been on diving trips in them, and found the bones of many many people, most often women and children. pretty crazy, eh? another way they did sacrifices is they would lay people down on the human statue on the building shown above, and line their head up perfectly with the head of the statue. they would then either cut off their heads or rip out their hearts while they were still beating. nasty.



okay so this has nothing to do with chichen itza or the mayas but it was just a cool bike i saw there. haha!











the wall of skulls. so so cool!





















pretty much like my favorite picture!









okay i now realize i am going on picture overload. wow! sorry! i didn't realize there were this many! alright i'm going to stop. just a few more :) haha! sorry everyone!

FISHING!! Alright so fishing was super fun. but i experienced a really horrible feeling i have never felt before. its called being sea sick. oh my lanz. it was brutal. yuck. i felt so nauseous it was horrendous. but fishing was super fun! it was sort of disappointing in a way. we didn't catch a ton. but man it was fun! :) i saw a bunch of dolphins. we caught some bonito (absolutely stunning fish. the pictures do them no justice!), marlin, and barracuda. super cool.













SNORKELING: this was super cool. we just walked down the beach to this big rock "finger" thing. haha i don't know what you call it. but we just popped on our gear and went snorkeling right on our beach and man oh man it was GORGEOUS!!! absolutely phenomenal. the coral was so cool. you all probably think i'm weird, but i REALLY get into stuff like this. i'm a total nature girl. by best friend calls me a tree hugger. haha. anyways, we saw so so many types of fish it was crazy. and i took some chips and fed them and they would swim up millimeters away from my goggles. so cool. haha. oh and i saw a squid! it changed colors when i chased it. haha. oh man.



how can you not just LOVE this girl?! ahh! she is my favorite! and such a sass :) haha








ISLA MUJERES: so this is a super cool little island off the shore of cancun. we took a ferry boat over and spent the whole day there. it is super fun!! sorry there is going to be a lot of pictures on this one. i obviously have issues with posting too many pictures. my apologies. but anyways, it was a very diverse spot. we rented golf carts and drove around the whole island (its tiny!) and it was so so fun!

okay so see what i'm eating for lunch? that is a whole fried fish baby. mmm so good :) it had the fins and eyeballs and everything! best meal we had like the whole trip. my brother even ate the eyeballs and quite enjoyed them! what a weirdie :)





these next four are pictures from tortugaranja. its a turtle sanctuary where they have tons of turtles and eggs and it was really fun to just go look at all of them so up close! but NOTHING beats seeing them lay eggs or letting the babies go :) no way! but it was still awesome.









iguanas were everywhere. and i kid you not when i say EVERYWHERE. i counted 17 on one street!! its pretty awesome :)



















driving around: this was really interesting! one side of the island is very commercial. that is where all of the restaurants and stands where people sell things are. the other side is where people live. oh by the way the island is small that there is basically only one road. haha! it goes all the way around the island. anyways, you will be driving and you will see a fun little area with small houses and then you will see a HUGE nice house and then you will see a shack. they have all kinds of people living there with all different levels of money. and some of the levels of poverty were amazing to me. i can't believe people live the way they do. its crazy!! but they still manage to be happy and colorful. i admire them.



















LEAVING :(

goodbye beach. i will miss you very much.



the hotel zone. you can see our hotel!!




well, there you have it!! sorry that was such a long post! whew! haha! and i've decided that blogger makes pictures look so nasty. yuck. it totally ruins them!! but anyways, it was an amazing trip. i would go back in a heartbeat! i love the beach. and the ocean. it makes me feel so, at peace. i don't know. but someday i want to live on the beach. ah yes. that would be fabulous. anyways, enjoy!

xox abby