Drill Trip to NYC!!

The Airport! Me and Chan above, me and Linds below.. riding the plane.. stoked for NYC!

The sleeping masks.. very entertaining. We were a very loud group on the plane! I'm sure all the people who just wanted to sleep on the Red Eye flight weren't very happy!

Soooo tired. We arrived at like 4 am!

My roomies:)

First day out. Sporting our All-A-Dollar hats we bought together before the trip!

Berkley, me and Bri! My junior buddies!

Showing our state rings the city:)

Me and Linds snapped a pic with this guy in the vendor booth. These like booths were everywhere!

We shared a breakfast the first day.. yeah the new york rations are crazy! One sip of OJ each!

Hahha this crazy bear statue we found! We had a lot of fun posing for pictures with it!

Me, Angie, and Bri riding the subway to the Yankees game!

Yankees Stadium!! Yea buddy!

We had awful seats on the bleachers right in the sun.. it was still a blast! We moved up to some empty cooler seats eventually!

Lindsey, Me, Chan, Bri, and Anna!

The Yankees Field! So awesome!!

We were all so tired! Everyone was falling asleep during the game! It was classic. It was seriously the longest day of my life! It felt like we had already been in New York for a week and it had been one day!

Me and Angie were the only HP fans who wanted to go look at this huge poster! I wish i could go to hogwarts...

Times Square before dinner at an Italian place called Carmines!

Bri, Me and Berk at dinner! We ate sooo much Italian food during the trip!

Yeah previously.. hahah while we waited outside for dinner, our appetizer was some guys leftovers he gave us! Sketchy.. but we were starving!!

Just posing on some metal pole things!

We met some VERY interesting people on the subways. Of course we weren't afraid to talk to them! hahah here is chandler meeting a crazy guy named Yacko! Lindsey was even kissed on the cheek by a homeless man!

The next morning we woke up and had a contemporary class! Here we are heading on the subway to class! It was an unreal experience to go to dance classes in NYC! It was soo fun and i loved it!

Some more subway stalking.. it became our subway entertainment.

And again..

We probably took the most pictures on the subway so it seems like we rode it a lot, and we did, but we walked SO much! My feet were killing by the end of each day!

Me and Bri with her signature pose!

The World Trade Center Memorial! The construction site where the twin towers used to stand!

Me and Bri at the World Trade Center Memorial!

Me, Linds, Chan, Anna and Cecily outside of the NYC Ballet Theatre! Turns out we thought we had tickets for Thursday night, but they were for Friday! So we had a little photoshoot for fun, and then left! Haha

Too tired to stand and wait for the subway...

Since we couldn't go to the ballet we went to a famous cafe called Serendipity! It was delicious!

It is famous for it's 'Frozen Hot Chocolate.' It doesn't sound that good but it was INCREDIBLE.

Yes i had a whole one to myself and i ate the whole thing!

You can see from this picture how big the desserts really were!

After serendipity we met up with the rest of the team to go to the Empire State Building!

Here's most of the group!

This was the coolest picture i could capture with my camera! hahah i had never been up to the Empire State Building so it was really awesome to go! I loved it!

Me, Linds, and Chan made friends with this sax player on top of the Empire State Building. There is this hilarious you tube video called sexy sax man that we love and after we met this sax player we would ask every sax player to play the George Michael song- Careless Whipser! But we didn't know the name so we would sing the tune and they would recognize it and play it! We took videos with each sax player we met! It was pretty hilarious!

Our 'Empire State Building Picture' that i got in trouble for taking a picture of it! Hahah because of course they just want you to buy it!

This is the studio called Steps on Broadway that we would take our classes at!

Here's me, linds, bri, and berk walking to our second day of class.. hip hop class!

Here's the whole group with our insane instructor!! It was a really fun class!

After we went to the Grand Central Station to do a flash mob! We went right in the center of the station, spread out and then our captain Angie shouted 5 6 7 8 and we all broke out dancing the hip hop dance we had just learned in class! It was sooo funny!

Later that day, me, Berk, Anna, and Linds went to the Manhattan Temple to do baptisms for the dead!

It was such a neat opportunity even though we were practically falling asleep all during confirmations because we were so tired! I love this picture of all of us:) I also got to go back to the temple on Sunday for church with Spencer!

We had to walk like 15 blocks to find a hamburger place! We were sooo sick of Italian food! haha but we hit the jack pot with 'Goodburger, Home of the Goodburger..." Who would've thought?!

After we hit up some frozen yogurt!!

That night we ate at this Indian Restaurant! It was pretty good but kinda sketchy as we were the only people in the restaurant!!

This time we went to the ballet for reals! :) It was one of the best things we went to in New York! I'm so glad i went! It was an amazing production! After dancing on pointe so much this year i felt like i could truly appreciate how good the dancers were! We were all amazed!

After the ballet we went to a famous cheesecake place called Roxy! Me and linds shared this HUGE piece of oreo cheesecake! Yummmmy!

And yet again... another crazy homeless guy! If you put money in his cup he would move and dance!

Our third class was a Broadway class with the lead chimney sweep from Mary Poppins! He taught us real choreography from the number Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious! It wasn't my favorite class, but it was still a really neat opportunity!

Even earlier before the broadway class, me, chan, anna, and linds woke up at like 5 to go visit 'Carlos Bake Shop' from the TV show 'Cake Boss.' The shop was right over the New Jersey border! Here are some of the amazing cakes they make!

Here we are in front of the shop! We even bought some pastries which were delicious!

After class that day we went to Canal Street and did a lot of little shopping and bargaining! Here me and anna are with our subway food that we brought into a Chinese restaurant that the others wanted to eat at! Haha it was pretty funny!

So we did a lot of shopping in New York and i did buy a lot, BUT this picture is a joke! Haha i was teasing Lindsey because her mom spoiled her and pretty much bought everything she wanted so here i am holding some of her bags to make it look like i got more than her for once!

Yes.. this is a subway floor we sat on. Our feet would hurt soooo bad that we craved elevating our feet. So here we are elevating our feet!

Saturday Night half of us went to see Mary Poppins, and the other half went to Mamma Mia! I went to Mary Poppins!

It was a really fun show but also very hard to stay awake in! Haha

We also visited the M&M Factory!

More interesting surprises on the subway!

Times Square!

Sunday was the best day because i spent the whole day with Spen, Diana, and their kids! Me, Spen, Hudson, Owen, and Sophia went to church! Shem and Riss were both getting over some sickness! :( I fell in LOVE with Sophia! She had changed the most since i'd seen them all last! She loved to smile for the camera!

 The kids had a lot of fun taking turns trying out my camera! I love this picture with the shem and riss doing Egyptian like hands! They were learning how to draw lots of Egyptian things out of a book! They were really good at it too!

Hudson and Owen had the cutest little sunday outfits! I loved the bow ties!

More camera fun! Shem was sooo funny! He was posing Hudson for this picture with this book! He was telling him how to hold it and how to sit!


More Camera fun!

  

This was my first time seeing London Chloe! Number 6 for the Marsdinis! I felt privileged to be the first family member to see her! Here she is with a cute bow Ray sent for her!

Here's the whole crew! Spen looked at this picture and said like he finally realized: "We have a lot of kids!"

 

Here are pictures of how they fit all 6 kids in a two bedroom apartment! Two bunkbeds with a portacrib in one room and a make shift room for London! I thought the house was really cute!! I loved the kids room!

Their cool motorcycle faces! Thanks to shae for these cool motorcycle toys!

Me and the Boys! :) They loved this sweet bubble gun i brought them! It was so fun to spend the day with them!

I love this picture! This shows the beautiful view they have right outside their living room window! It was so hot so Sophia just chilled in her diaper! :)

More classes Monday morning!

All showered and ready for our last day in New York!

We spent our last day in central park! It was a beautiful day!

Eating Ice Cream in the Park!

 

Sad to leave New York! Last subway ride! 

Our home! We had to take a picture by 51 Street because that was our home and our subway stop! We felt like we lived there for years! Hahah the Marriott Courtyard inbetween 51st and 52nd street on 3rd Avenue!! Such fun trip! It was my fourth time to New York, but my first time being a real tourist! I loved it :)

Park City!!

A few weekends before school got out, Mom, Dad, Scot, Parker, and I went up and spent a night at Stein Erickson Lodge! It was so fun and really pretty up there! We played some tennis, went bowling, hot tubed, watched Harry Potter 7, had a little fire in the fireplace which set off the smoke alarms, and went fishing! It was quite the adventure with the fab 5!






Parker at the bowling alley. This was the NICEST and the BIGGEST one i've ever been to! There were huge couches and big screen TVs everywhere!













Scot doing the 'turkey' dance as he got three strikes in a roll!













I'm not the best bowler, but i have fun! Hahah













So mom and dad gave us some money to go get dinner while they got a free dinner at the lodge. So while they were fine dining, we spent a long time searching for a place to eat that we could afford with the high park city prices and the meager amount of money mom and dad gave us. We thought the 'Blue Iguana' would be just the place.. not in the budget. Schhhmakk down. We were joking the whole time looking for places about what we would 'straight guns' or not. Scot was all for straight gunsing panda express. Hahah luckily we came upon Ruby Tuesdays.


After hot tubing we went back to the room started a fire (it was cold and there was still snow up in PC) and put in HP7. It was all nice and cozy until smoke filled the room and the fire alarm went off. Hahah we were all panicking and while dad called a guy to come fix it we opened all the windows and mom ran and 'held herself hostage' as i would call it in the bathroom in a robe because she didn't want the guy to see her or get mad. hahah it was sooo funny! Anyway we got it all cleared out and went to bed. The next morning we went fishing!!




Mom and I read and sat on the rocks!














Parker and Scot ended up catching two nice big fish that we ate:) It was a great little weekend vacation!

Dance Company Concert 2011!

Behind the scences... haha. Lindsey, Me, and Jorgen. I truly love all the new friends i made this year! It was one of the best years of my life so far! :) I will miss this team a lot. It was crazy as during the closing night we were all crying backstage through the whole show and we would have to put on a good face during our numbers. I have never felt so close to a team. I will miss every single girl! The best thing about drill is the friends you make. These girls are like my sisters!!





Our traditional picture.. Lindsey, Me, Chandler, and Bri! My best friends :) So glad we'll all still be doing it again next year. Dance company was honestly such a great treat after drill! It was so fun to perform new dances and it was much more relaxing! I had a lot of fun performing in 6 different numbers. It was a wonderful opportunity and i look forward to dance company again next year!






Me and Parker:) Love this kid.


















So grateful for my dad and brothers who sit through dance concerts just to support me:)














My BIGGEST and BEST fan! I love you mom! You are such an amazing mom.

One of those days...

It seems these 'days' have occurred several times in the last few weeks. You know when you have so much you COULD do or that you HAVE to do, but you just don't feel it? Like who said i HAVE to do my ap american reviews...? But do i do them? YES. But happy happy news is that the actual 'reviews' are done. YESSSS. But that doesn't mean i'm done studying. Also i have so much i want to blog about and so much i could spend my time doing... like i really wish i could take a nap.. but my thoughts are preventing me from doing anything but just sitting around watching the clock and thinking about the past... or the future... But quite frankly, what does that do for me? Absolutely nothing. I should just be focused on the present. 'One day at a time' is a very common phrase in our household. One that i need to apply right now. It's been a long day and it's not even close to being over. GRRRRR. Haha well life goes on.. even if the clock seems to be in slow motion x 1,000. Well when i get around to 'doing something' i'll blog about it and all the other stuff i've been wanting to blog about :) peaccce.

I thought about it...

I thought about blogging earlier this week. INFACT i planned on it. I probably dreamed about it.. i've dreamed sooo much lately about all that is on my mind and it's not helping me make decisions. But here we are.. Saturday night. Yes, the last day of SPRING BREAK. But i'm finally blogging! Anyways.. What a JOKE. Feels a lot more like winter break when i look outside and all i see is SNOW. You see i really don't mind snow... i LOVE IT. But during SPRING break?? How inconvenient. And to add to all this crazy weather.. i got a cold. It's like winter allllll over again. I'm craving the SUN. You know that warm indescribable feeling when you are laying on the grass or on the beach and all you feel is the sun's warmth? Yup. That'd be niiiiiice. Well my spring break has consisted of....

• General Conference. I LOVED it. Simply Amazing. It was such a great weekend to spend with my family. Parker, Ryan, Alex and I had so much fun playing games ( just dance 2), going flow riding, eating at the burger bar and just talking. Such a great weekend!
• Cleaning. You know the thought of cleaning is awful but the aftermath is BEAUTIFUL. I'm loving my clean room and bathroom.
• Homework. Yes i've spent lots and lots of time on my AP American Reviews.
• The Aquarium. We went to the aquarium for my niece's birthday. It was quite the riot. I got a kick out of watching the kids get so excited. And yes, i touched a sting ray, and saw penguins, sharks, and turtles. It was awesome. Happy Birthday BRITTANA!
  
• Babysitting. Let's just say i LOVE my nieces and nephews. Oh we have fun making up our own puppet shows, reading books, going on adventures in the backyard, watching movies, playing barbies, and going on Easter egg hunts :)
  
• Partied. Me and my friends had an EPIC sleepover filled with wayyyy too many adventures. One of the best nights ever!
  

So.. not exactly what i planned or expected! But it's been great. I sure hope spring rolls around though..

Let's make memories.

Isn't this picture just GREAT? My aunt sent us this picture the other day just for good times sake. Oh the times we had at Uncle Bob's and Aunt Rhonda's! Some of the best memories. This picture is awesome! I freaking love it! Mud malling fights were bomb.


















English Research Paper last night? NO FUN. In fact, this is how i felt.
But hey it was a great day! I got a 30 on my ACT. So i guess all this homework pays off.. solid.
















State Ring. YUP. We got them today!!! Best thing ever. I can't stop looking at it.
All that hard work and tears paid off in one beautiful ring. Now that's a great memoir.
















YAY! I love it!
















NIGHT TO REMEMBER!

The last time we performed all our our drill routines. Seriously the LAST time. So relieving and fun. What a great year. It's so weird to think that we will never do those routines again. It felt good to go out with a strong finish! :) BOOM.














3peat!! BRAVES.














The "Mom's Dance." Mom was sooo hilarious. She did so good and spent so much time practicing. She truly gave it all she had out there! I hope she had fun cause i sure did! :) I think she was the best mom out there by far! It'll be a great memory to remember dancing with her!




















Junior dance! Berk, Bri, and Me. Such good friends!



















The final bow! :)














One last cheer for good times!

M-A-N-D-O-N-E-L-L-E-S. Do YOU know what that means? Cause we are machines.. BRAVES TAKE STATE. Can i get a DG on 3? 1 2 3, DG!
I love my team! Sooo many memories!

Adios 3rd Term!

I am still amazed at how time flies! Like really, another week gone by and before i know it another TERM is over!! We're on the home stretch for junior year. Never thought i'd say it, but it hasn't been as bad as i thought it would be. Now if i can just finish strong and pass my ap tests! Yikes.

Thoughts for the day...

I AM LOVING DANCE COMPANY :) Though i'm stressed about night to remember and decisions for the coming year! Spring is always such a stressful time for me it seems. Don't get me wrong though, i love spring.... Yet it's snowing at the moment..

This day light savings has been SO hard for me this week. I can't fall asleep, and i can't wake up and then i take a good nap and then it starts all over..

We had two choir concerts this week. They were beautiful. All our our songs were dedicated to Billy Yates. It was a really special experience. I love music and singing!

I LOVED that mom made a FULL on green breakfast for St. Patrick's Day.. Yup green eggs, green milk, and green pancakes. It was so fun and i felt like a little kid again!

A lot of people i LOVE had birthday's this week! My nephew shem, my brother in law JF and my best friend Jane!! Happy Birthday to them! I love them!

Today Mom, Dad, and I are finally getting around to going to Melting Pot for dinner and to a movie for my Birthday! I'm excited:)

Let's make the best of what we've got...

Wow. I haven't blogged in over a month. Life has been good. I have had a crazy busy month. SO much has happened. It has been wonderful and i thank my heavenly father for the outpouring of blessings.

I am a state champ. Yeah that saying never gets old.. but the routines sure do! We've still been performing at lots of basketball games (They took second in 4A state!). I am so done with those routines! We have to perform them all one more time at the Night To Remember on March 22! We have also started working on dances for dance company. I am stoked. I can't even wait!

Behind the scenes...








































































































I am an AUNT for the tenth time. I feel so blessed to spend time with my nieces and nephews that live around but i have been truly missing Marissa, Shem, Hudson, Owen, Sophia, and now Lillian Marsden :) She was born on February 15! I can't wait to meet her one day! It is so crazy that Mitch is a dad! I miss them all terribly!












March is my favorite month:) March 7th was a very special experience for me this year. First of all, I turned 17!!! I am so weirded out by the fact that i'm not sixteen anymore. That year truly flew by, and yes, no worries as it was just as SWEET as 16. ;) I had a wonderful birthday celebration with my family on sunday night. I got everything i could've wanted, Just Dance 2 for the WII, money, a digital scrapbook of pictures from the State Competition (THANK YOU RAY!), cookies, letters, lotion, balloons, flowers, a decorated car, lunch with my sisters, a cd mix, and a school bag. I felt so much love from all my friends and family! My actual birthday was a very hard day for me as our sweet down syndrome friend, Billy Yates, passed away that morning. It was a very rough day for me as i questioned the Lord on why it had to happen on my birthday. Simply, i was selfish. But family and friends helped me realize it was a good experience and it turned out to be an amazing birthday for me as i realized the world doesn't revolve around me, not even on my birthday. Parker and I had a really good talk, and he wrote me an incredible letter and poem for my birthday! We had a really cool candlelit gathering outside the Yates house on Monday night. The funeral was today. My favorite quote was,"The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life." I can't even explain how amazing it was, and how strong the spirit was. Through this whole emotional week i have learned to forget myself and care for others. My testimony has grown so much!

Music. I am really into music. Me and parker have been buying a lot of new music which is always so fun! In fact i feel like i'm constantly listening to music. Thanks to JF for the ipod adapter for the truck. It has SAVED my life.

Parker got his mission call to the Spanish Speaking Everett Washington mission!! Ryan Reeves got his call to Spain!! They both leave on June 8th. I'm so anxious for him to get out there! He will be the most amazing missionary. Parker and I went to the SLC temple a few weekends ago. It was awesome because he baptized and confirmed me for some of our family members! :) It was such a neat and fun experience. I got an overwhelming feeling of excitement for parker to get out and teach and baptize people in Washington. I felt an outpouring of love from parker and i can't wait for others to feel that.








































Yes, i have BIEBER FEVER. You just HAVE to see the movie.



















I also have SPRING FEVER. I have been a slacker when it comes to school. I've gotta step it up. This is SO new for me! Hahah usually i am so on top of things and focused, but i have had no desire to do homework. I took the ACT but i don't know my score yet.. i hope i did alright! That was stressful too.

Well, i say i have SPRING FEVER but i still love all the SNOW we've been pounded with. My newest theory is I LOVE THE SNOW, but only when it snows mounds and mounds. I hate a wind blow skiff. Beautiful white snow simply makes me happy. Me and parker finally went skiing after state.

I have just LOVED spending anytime i can with parker. He is my best friend! :)

REGION AND STATE CHAMPS!!

Wow! 8 months of hard intense practice finally paid off on February 4, 2011. Yes, the BHS Mandonelles took the State title for the third year in a row. 3 peat!! It was amazing! I feel so honored to be a state champion and to be part of Jan's first team to have a PERFECT season! :) I have been so busy with drill and then after state i got so sick! I will post pictures soon but for now i just wanted to post the links to the Military and Kick routines that i was in that we performed at region. We took first in our region as well, and personally and as a team i think we performed better overall at region. I love my team! We've had an incredible year and this has been such an unforgettable experience! I can't wait for dance company now!

Oh life....

Tomorrow is FRIDAY. Tomorrow is the end of 2nd term. Tomorrow is the LAST day of the Semester. I am officially half way through high school. CRAZY.


You know what i really really miss?? Parker playing THIS song everyday over christmas break at least seven times a day. You'd think i would be sick of it, but nope, i still listen to it on the computer everyday at least twice.


I am also obsessed with THIS stop motion video that Joe Leishman (SBO Pres.) made for the end of year video last year. It is AMAZING. Oh and the kit kat and parker make an appearance. It's a must see. Click now and watch it, you'll be mesmerized.



Want to know something funny? Well i went to the temple today. I met some funny gingers. Well one dyed her hair red but the other girl's was natural. Her name was shelby too. Haha they were crazy. They even invited me to go see 'tron' with them tomorrow night, haha well i just LOVE the temple. And then i came home and took a SOLID 4 hour nap from 5:45 to 9:45.... hmm probably not the smartest idea..



Poems poems poems... this week i wrote and read a lot of poetry for English.. one of my favorite poems i read was called Whatif by Shel Silverstein... i think it's pretty funny. It's basically the story of my life.

Whatif

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pol?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow talle?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems swell, and then
The nighttime Whatifs strike again!

Just a random thought... see this picture?? So this is Emmie, about a year a half ago. See the love affair she is having with her ice cream? Yes, this little girl has not changed one bit. I have never met a little girl that loves sweets more than Emmie. So mom was babysitting Emmie and Luke this week.. Emmie claimed she was hungry. Mom made her a cheese quesadilla. I came down into the kitchen and sneakily(or at least i thought) grabbed a cup of nielsons frozen custard from the freezer and took it up to the computer. It was minutes before Emmie told granny she was coming to visit me. I hid the ice cream behind the computer but the classic red and black checkered cup was still barely visible under the screen. She came upstairs and climbed onto my lap and i said hey em, what are you doing? She IMMEDIATELY pointed right at the cup and said "i want that." It was so funny. I don't know why but i can't get over how much she loves candy and anything sweet. It doesn't stop there, lotion and 'lip stuff' are equally as good to her. Haha i love it! She's the sweetest little girl!

Do you know what these are...? Feet breakers. Haha so basically i am SO happy i made the pointe routine for drill and it was so fun to perform it at our Alta Competition last saturday, but let me tell you, these things aren't easy on your feet. I am so grateful everyday that i can make it through practice in these things! Sometimes it seems so 'pointe'-less (haha ok that was lame..) but it's all worth it when........




















We take an overall first at a competition!! :)
















Love my team:) I really have made so many new friends!

Let's start the NEW YEARS off with... homework??

Yes. This is me. Doing HOMEWORK over christmas break. Thank you Cal Harris! Well on a happier note... it's 2011! The big 1.1.11. I decided i would hate graduating in 2011, it's just an awkward number. 2012 is SO much better. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. I think i could say that 2010 was one of the best years yet. I made so many new friends and became closer to old ones! JANE... (let me tell ya, this girl jane, is my best friend. She's basically the only person i text or talk to on the phone. Haha We can talk for hours, we think we are HILARIOUS, we are way annoying sometimes, we get mad at each other, we do way stupid stuff, we've hung out every day this week, and i just LOVE HER), Alin, H Feath, Berk, Jayne , Baby Kate, Brills Mills, Linds, Channy, Camrie, Maddie (I miss this girl, a lot.), Kell, and all my DGS- drill girls! :) I also became so close to my home boy CARTY BOY! 2010, you've done me well, but better things are ahead in 2011. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Just a song for the new year by death cab for cutie of course. Classic.