FINALLY! Summer!

I'm so glad summer is finally here!!! Two weeks in, and it's already been a BLAST. Most days, I work on Financial Literacy online and play with my brothers.  I finally finished Geography online, after like, 3 summers of procrastination! I got sick last Friday and am still recovering with a cough, but it turned out in my favor- I got to watch "Heroes" for hours on end with my brother Brendan. He took really good care of me when I was sick, we should get along that well more often!

I thought I'd put a pic in case you didn't know what it was :)

I've been to a lot of baseball games so far this summer too! It's one of my favorite things, eating hot dogs, sitting in the shade, and watching my bro tear up the field with his regular, all star, and accelerated teams. He's getting to be a pretty great baseball player!

Amazingly enough, I even got time to try out a hairstyle I saw on pinterest! I was recently inspired to try when loving Brendan, who was looking over my shoulder, commented something to the effect of:

             "This isn't your style! You don't wear those clothes. Besides, you NEVER actually do your hair like that, you don't want to spend that much time."

Ouch. I decided not to take offence and to just try spending a bit more time in the morning for a change. And, drum roll please! This is what I got!

Isn't it fantastic! Never fear, it took me like half an hour to get the braid right. It's not perfect, of course, but I was very pleased that I took the time and didn't give up. I'll have to do it more often! I did it via hairromance.com! It had really good instructions, luckily! http://www.hairromance.com/2012/05/a-twist-on-an-old-braid.html  kinda fun :)

I've also been reading a GREAT book called "1776" by David McCullough. It's amazingly well written and oozes with fantastic detail. McCullough does a great job in giving unbiased facts and represents both sides of the American Revolution with amazing accuracy- I can't even begin to imagine how much research he had to do to write this book so eloquently! I'm ready the book to prepare for my trip to Washington DC in a few weeks. I'm SO excited! My AP American teacher nominated me and another girl from my school to be a part of an amazing week long tour of Washington DC and Williamsburg. It was amazing that we got into the program! Fun Fact: The reason why we get to do this is because several VERY wealthy people in Utah with fancy cars get together every year to race on Utah's highways. The Highway Patrol closes off the back roads to this race which costs thousands of dollars to enter into. It's a non-profit program, so the money goes to a bunch of different charities, and they even started their own! They send 40 high school students from across Utah to Washington DC all expenses paid, PLUS 100$ spending money and 1776 to read before the trip. I'm still in shock that I get to do this, and I am immensely grateful! I wish I could take everyone with me! :) I can't wait to experience firsthand places and memorials of where history has been made and where this great country is governed. I will DEFINITELY be blogging about my experience there, so consider yourself warned! This history nerd isn't getting out of that place without thousands of pictures and oodles of new knowledge to share. Sadly, the trip is the same week as our stake Girl's Camp.

I absolutely love camp, and I've been helping my mom, the camp director, prepare for it. The girls are going to have SO much fun this year! I can't wait to hear all about it and call my mom to recount our experiences to each other from across the USA.   I'm definitely going to miss the spiritual boost camp always gives me, but for me, Washington DC and the history and beauty there is spiritual to me too. There's absolutely no reason why I wouldn't come back from this trip refreshed and full of fire.  I'm already immensely grateful for this country and it's founding fathers and for each American who has made it what it is today- that will only grow stronger there! I can't wait! :) I'd better get reading though! Ive got a long way to go in a little bit of time. I'll keep you posted ;)