Come, listen to a prophet's voice

Twice a year, once in April and once in October, my church holds a general conference. Our prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak to us during sessions on Saturday and Sunday. These are my two favorite weekends of the year. I absolutely love to hear the powerful words of guidance, comfort, and inspiration from those wonderful men and women!

Plus, because it is broadcast over the internet and on the BYU channel, it means that we get to watch it while snuggling on the couch in our PJs. Could it get any better? :)

Side note: I think one of the things I loved most about conference weekend this year was not wearing Sunday clothes for TWO DAYS in a row. #seminaryteacherproblems

I always take notes during conference, partially to help me stay focused, because let's be honest... 8 hours of church is a long time! ;) They are usually pretty messy because I try to do the impossible and write down every single good thing that anyone says. I started out the Saturday AM session (there are two 2-hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday, one AM and one PM) doing just that, but my friend Kylie inspired me to do something different this year. Instead of writing down everything, I just wrote down a few of my favorite quotes as well as the impressions I had. 

I made the quotes I did write down cute (just for funsies) and posted quite a few of them to Instagram. I jumped on the #conferencedoodles hashtag and it was fun to see what other people were doing as well!

Preach.

What perfect words of comfort. Love it. And love Elder Holland.

And for that I am so thankful.

I loved this so much. 

This was probably my favorite quote!  

I just love our prophet! Isn't he adorable too?

I am so thankful for my religion. It really is everything to me, and I know that it is because of my faith and through living the best I can that I am happy and successful in my life. Watching General Conference always renews that appreciation and gets me all excited about the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ all over again! The church is true and I absolutely love it! :D

Conference weekend also demands good food. We started it off with waffles and berries.

Tonight, we made the amazing pizza margherita. (I really need to post the recipe for this. It is life-changing.)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Top 5 places I've been {Friday Five}

I'm a list person. One of the reasons I blog is to help me be a better writer and practice organizing my thoughts into paragraphs and complete sentences. It's a work in progress. :) 

Just for funsies, I decided to start a Friday list series on this little blog of mine to pander to my list obsession. Every Friday (At least, every Friday that I feel like it) I'm going to post a list of 5 things whether it is five favorite foods/movies/books/outfits/places/scriptures/songs/blogs/etc, five items on my ever-growing bucket list, five most awkward/awesome/happy/scary moments, or whatever else I come up with. 

Today's list is my top five favorite places I've traveled to. 

1. Russia

I was lucky enough to have the chance to be a volunteer English teacher in Voronezh, Russia for 4 months in 2011. I also spent a month there when I was 16 when my family adopted three of my younger siblings from northern Russia.

I love that country so much. It is full of beautiful places and things, and some of the nicest people I've met. Oh, I hope I can go back! Maybe when we're old we can serve a mission there. :)

2. Maui

Dallin and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii, and I absolutely loved it! It's one of the most beautiful places I've been. My favorite parts were driving the road to Hana, hiking around waterfalls, snorkeling, and the black sand beach.

Perfect weather, perfect views, and a sweet new husband to enjoy it with... could it be any better? ;)

 3. Zion National Park

This place is amazing. We like to go here to canyoneer, but there is a lot of other things to do if you aren't into that.

Like... hike half a mile to see this incredible view.

The first time I went to Zion was the day after I managed to chop off the end of my thumb (maybe I should blog about that escapade sometime... haha!). This meant I didn't get to go canyoneering since I couldn't get my big ol' bandage wet, plus every time I got my heart rate up it would start bleeding again. On the bright side, I got to leisurely walk out here and take self-timer pictures of myself. Not as fun as canyoneering, but still awesome. :)

If you are coming from AZ, you get to drive through a mile long tunnel. Here's a picture from one of the windows. Cool, eh?

The second time, I got to join in the canyoneering fun! This was my favorite part of the 2 days we spent there and the 3 canyons we did... the rappel from Mystery Canyon into the Zion Narrows. The itty bitty people down below that cheered for us made it even better. ;)

The Zion Narrows from where we rappelled. Pretty flipping awesome. 

4. Leprechaun Canyon

This slot cuts through Navajo sandstone, which makes for a really photogenic canyon. We've done several similar canyons, and it was really hard to pick just one, but I really liked this canyon... partially because it was really easy. ;) Some of the ones we do are much more strenuous, although those do leave me feeling really beastly once I'm done. :P

5. Buckskin Gulch

This is a long but incredibly beautiful hike! The whole thing is about 20 miles (if you exit out Paria) which we split between 2 days. Buckskin in the longest slot canyon in the world. It's just miles and miles of awesome. 

That's why I'm about to post a boatload of pictures. You have been warned. 

Well, there you have it! And I can't wait to add Spain to this list next month! :)

Shimrock + Hogwarts Canyons

This weekend's canyoneering adventures took us to North Wash in Southern Utah. It's kind of become a tradition for us to do one of the Irish Canyons around St. Patrick's Day, hence the shirts and shamrock tattoo sleeves. ;) 

Ginger power!

The first canyon we did was one of the forks of Leprechaun Canyon, aptly named "Shimrock Canyon" due to the amount of shimmying required to get through. This is by far the narrowest canyon I have ever done. Most of the narrow sections were less than 2 feet wide and there were a couple places that were less than a foot wide. Also, these canyons are carved in Navajo sandstone which really rips up your clothes, packs, exposed skin... anything that rubs against it. I have a story about that I might share another day... Maybe. 

There was no way I was going to make it through with my pack on! 

This is where Dallin got stuck and had to back up and try again higher up.

Good thing I don't get too claustrophobic, although I did have a couple twinges of panic a few times. 

Enjoying a wide spot!

This part was really cool. I loved the striped walls. 

Finally through the narrows! Yippee! 

The next canyon we did, Hogwarts Canyon, was just a mile or two down the road. Unfortunately I forgot to wear my Gryffindor uniform. Darn. ;) 

This one was short and sweet. The highlight was this awesome arch. Check it out!

He's cute. :)

See me rappelling?

My favorite!

The final rappel

We spent Easter Sunday with my family and then headed home.

 All in all, it was a perfect weekend... except for the fact that I had to stay up last night working on my seminary lesson since for some reason I thought I already did it... Oops. Thankfully it turned out okay, despite the fact that my students were a little squirrelly. Typical manic Monday, I s'pose. :)

And just because this makes me happy, although it is unrelated...

Happy Monday! 

Delicious fruit dip! {Pin a week 13/52}

This isn't exactly a healthy snack, but it sure is delicious and easy! :) Original recipe here. 

It doesn't get much easier than this. Just mix one 8oz package of softened cream cheeese, one 7oz container marshmallow creme, a pinch of nutmeg, and 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon together and dip your choice of fruit in it. Enjoy!