1/28 winter break: top 5 captures

5. Same Routine, New Role

All four years of my high school career, I attended early-morning seminary before school around 6a.m. My church offers it to to high school students (and anyone else) as a sort of scripture study in the morning. I love love loved seminary as I honestly believe I would not be where I am today without it. It was an awesome spiritual experience even though I sometimes had the worst attitude for it. Not only did I have the worst attitude for it sometimes but also the worst routine regarding it. When I started driving my junior year, I was always late. Like more than 10 minutes late. Almost every morning. After seminary, on the way back home, I would always (illegally?) use my cell phone to take a picture of the sunrise. When I got home, I took a 20 minute nap before I had to start getting ready for school. It was my weird morning routine, and I loved it. In its entirety, the routine epitomized the common phrase "It's the little things" and, for me, acted as a constant reminder of the beauty and happiness and pure light in the world.
So this winter break, my old seminary teacher asked me to return to seminary to teach a lesson, and I happily agreed. Falling into old habits, I was 10 minutes late. And on my way back home, I took a pic of the sunrise. And as soon as I got home, I laughed at the nostalgia of it all and giddily climbed into bed. It was one of my favorite mornings.

4. Happy Times with Sad Bonfires, Romances, and Polaroids

I've been friends with Micky and Belive (left and right, respectively) for a long time now (I got baptized with Micky when I was eight!), and it was so nice to catch up with them. They're two very special and genuine and single people who never fail to make me laugh. We wanted to have a bonfire, so we had one...but we forgot it had rained so we had to use wet wood for the fire. It didn't work really well. Thankfully, I had a butt ton of shoeboxes to burn (who knew my shoe addiction would come in handy, right?!). So, we used cardboard fire to eat s'mores and keep us somewhat warm. We talked about the romance (or really LACK of it) in our lives, and honestly, it was such a funny topic for all of us. I think we laughed a bit too hard haha. And you see that polaroid on the left? Yeah...it's messed up. It was our first take, and it was taking a few seconds longer to develop because it was cold, so I joked about putting it closer to the fire so it'd develop faster. As soon as I said it, Belive took the polaroid and put it right on top of our tiny fire and it developed!! Super fast!! We looked away from the photo for like two seconds, and next thing we knew, it was dark blue. And getting faster by the second. After a few minutes of laughing at our dark dark DARK blue and barely noticeable faces, we took another polaroid! Which, if I remember properly, was just as cute as the first one. So all in all, it was a pretty memorable night! 

 3. Christmas Kisses

I shared this photo on my Christmas post already, but I'm sharing it again because SERIOUSLY look how cute it is!!! My mom looks like the happiest mom ever. I love her so so much. 

2. I'm their Favorite

For once in a really really long time, everyone was home! It was a rare thing, so I forced everyone to get dressed and go outside for an impromptu family photoshoot. The pictures turned out pretty sweet, I think. This one's one of my favorites though! If I remember properly, I was tired of the boys looking so stoic and manly, so I said a lame thing (it's my forte), and look what happened! The cutest thing ever.

1. She's my Favorite (Even though I'm not Her's)

Man, I love my dog. She's the cutest lil babe ever. She doesn't think the same of me though. Fun storytime: when I came home from Prov, I was so so so excited to see Cocco. Like BEYOND normally-excited. And she was excited to see me too!! She whined and ran around for attention, but as soon as I grabbed a hold of her and started trying to cuddle her, she squirmed through my arms and ran to Maxine. My jaw dropped. Can you believe the AUDACITY of the dog?! She missed Maxine more than she missed ME, her OWNER. I was really really hurt. And offended. And I still am! She's the worst dog-child ever, and if that ever happens between my human-children and I, I'm calling Child Services. Obviously kidding harharhar...just a bit. But seriously, I love my dog, and I love this pic. My favorite thing is the Sun and hexagonal shapes of light. So aesthetic! Much aesthetic!

I hope everyone had an amazing winter break, holidays, whatever! Good luck to all starting a new semester of school (or any sort of new life chapter). Remember, party hard, dudes. It's 2016. Oh, what a time to be alive! :-)