Happy Birthday and Thanksgiving!

Today is my Grandpa Larry's birthday!! There are a lot of things I love about him but here is just a sampling of why he's the best:

1. He's always the first person to come to the door and give me a huge hug...every single time.
2. His beard is my favorite!
3. He knows everything! Ask him any trivia question and he will know the answer.
4. He calls me every year on my birthday to sing the beavers and the bears birthday song-the best birthday song around!
5. He's a Dodger fan, just like me.
6. He has the best hot sauce collection you'll ever see!
7. He keeps a bed ready for me at all times...just in case I decide to move in.
8. He calls me his most beautiful oldest granddaughter. (But that's just to be fair to the others...I'm really his favorite)
9. He once protected me from a crazed cabbage patch doll fan.
10. He loves me a lot.

I love you Grandpa Larry! I hope you have the best birthday ever today! Try not to have too much fun without me!

And there's another Birthday too! Today is my blog's first birthday. I remember staying up until 3 in the morning to get it up in running in time for Thanksgiving because I thought the perfect first post was to start with some of the things I had been grateful for that year. Well, this year was just as amazing as last.

1. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream and live and work in New York this summer.
2. I am thankful for my wonderful family (especially my parents and grandparents) who encouraged me to go to NY and who continue to love and support me in everything I do.
3. I am thankful for a little sister on a mission who is such an amazing example to me.
4. I am thankful for two little brothers who drive me crazy but can always make me laugh until I cry.
5. I am thankful that this year I met some of the greatest friends I have ever had and could have ever hoped to have.
6. I am thankful for the great friends I have had for years and that we love each other no matter what.
7. I am thankful I have the opportunity to attend such a great university and although I love school more than the average person, I am also thankful this phase of my life is coming to an end.
8. I am thankful this last year has been so packed full of love, adventure, discoveries, good food, good friends, and good memories.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving

"We need to be more grateful. It's one of the marks of strong character, to have a feeling of thanksgiving and gratitude for blessings that are ours. We need more of that spirit in our homes, in our daily associations, in church, everywhere. It's so easy to cultivate the spirit of appreciation."

Ezra Taft Benson, "All This and the Gospel Too," New Era, Nov. 1991, 4

Emily, Chad, Kris, Jason, Guy in wifebeater

I know it looks like this is turning into a blog about all of the shows I go to but don't worry, I think this is the last you'll get of that for a while. For my birthday (and because he just happened to write a pretty cool video for Sony Music) Chad got us tickets to see Kris Allen and Lifehouse in Salt Lake. Not only did we get to go to the show but we also got our own personal meet and greet with Kris. He was so nice to us and he even told me he liked my shoes and asked where I got them because his wife would love them. We were quite proud of ourselves for not making it totally awkward...that was our goal. It was a great show! All except for the part where some girl threw up all over my feet (I should have warned him that the shoes were actually unlucky. Because that wasn't the first time).

Although it would have been cool, I was a little relieved we didn't run into Jason Wade in the dressing rooms. Only because I know I would have said something awesome like "How's that night guard holding up?" or "Remember that one time my dad made me floss your teeth and I really didn't want to so I cried?" Yeah, I know for a fact it would have been something along those lines.

And I couldn't resist posting a picture of this guy on the right. Chad and I were cracking up at the faces he made. Let's just say he loves his job and get's way into it. He was quite entertaining and even gave us the gift of taking off his shirt and performing half of the show in his wife beater. Aren't we lucky?

Ingrid Michaelson

Last week I had the chance to go see Ingrid Michaelson in Salt Lake and it was one of the most entertaining shows I have ever been to! She was so funny and did some pretty amazing songs. She even did "Toxic" by Britney Spears...pretty funny. But I think this one was one of my favorites of the whole night. She used a looping pedal to do a cover of REM's Night Swimming and it was beyond amazing. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there and it was completely silent the entire time because we were all in awe.




And another super cool thing was that we got to meet her after the show! My friend works for a radio station and was able to arrange for us to meet her in her tour bus. She was so nice and friendly. I stole this picture from my friend's facebook. None of us look great but it's proof we got to meet her! It was such a fun night! [And that is snow in our hair, not dandruff, just FYI.]

Jack and G. Love

I have been waiting to see Jack Johnson live since 2001.

For one reason or another we have never been in the same place at the same time and it just never worked out. Well, finally decided enough is enough. If I was ever going to see Jack, I would have to go to him. So when I heard about his tour about 9 months ago I called my mom right away and proposed we buy the family tickets to the Santa Barbara show for my dad's birthday.

It was definitely worth the nine year wait (And the trip to the paramedic station within the first five minutes)! G. Love opened and he had a bunch of other friends who were in town come up and play.

[G. Love]


[Jack and everyone else who performed]

It was perfect! Jack was amazing, the venue was my favorite and the weather was lovely. Sadly Will didn't make it because he was being a responsible new employee but I had fun seeing him and Kristall over the rest of the weekend!

It's finally starting to feel like fall!

I am usually a fairly busy person but nothing compares to (or could have prepared me for) the last week and a half I just endured. It seems that I had endless amounts of midterms, papers, meetings, presentations and studying all crammed into the same few days. But I survived, and on very little sleep, I might add. And to celebrate (ok fine, it wasn't really to celebrate but I pretended it was) I went to Thanksgiving Point with some lovely friends to the corn maze.

It was the perfect activity to help me forget about the stressful week I had just had and to get us all excited about Fall!

I think Lauren's caption to this photo was Emily breaking the rules...as usual"

But clearly we can all see who really broke the rules...

Ans everyone knows that no trip to Cornbelly's is complete without a picture in the giant rocking chair!

Conference Weekend!

I feel like I just barely made a post with this same title!
Has it really been six months already??

I love conference weekend and had been looking forward to it for weeks. Luckily, my lovely sister, Hermana Taylor, had some extra conference tickets for both sessions on Saturday. My friend, Lauren, and I went up early Saturday morning and brought lunch to have a picnic with the hermanas in between sessions. It was so great!

I loved being able to see my sister and to see how happy she is serving the people of Salt Lake. And the talks. They were all so amazing and exactly what I needed to hear. I felt rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of this semester. I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk. When he said we need to slow down and simplify in order to focus in the important things in life I knew right away that his talk was specifically for me. I could go on and on about all of the amazing things that were said! But I will spare you all the details and just say it was amazing.

Sunday morning Lauren had a little breakfast at her apartment and then we all watched conference together. And let me just say, the food was amazing. It was fun to get together with some New York friends and to meet new people too.

[The NY Crew]

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend! It was just what I needed before starting this crazy week I had ahead of me.

P.S. You can click on all of the pictures to make them bigger. I didn't realize they were so small until they had already been loaded and I am just too lazy to do it all over again.