Spring Break It Till You Make It

*Warning: Long Blog Post Ahead*

I've been sitting on this blog post for a while. I didn't know what kind of approach to take. Just recap the events of spring break, write about my feelings, or write about lessons I learned. There were just so many angles to take and I didn't want to make the longest blog post ever. But it is long anyways. I wanted to give this Spring Break the justice it deserves considering it is my last one (hello graduation!!).

Melissa and I had been planning a Spring Break trip since she got hired on at JetBlue. Our original plan was to go to New York. In February our plans changed. Melissa wanted to go to Puerto Rico and I just wanted to spend time with Melissa. So naturally I said yes. I was so excited to travel and to not have a plan (ha ha. I love making plans). This trip was unlike anything else I have done. I am that person that packs the entire week leading up to the trip. But this time I didn't do that. I made a list but I didn't actually pack until Saturday night/Sunday.
Melissa was in charge of the flights, so I just knew to be ready by 10 PM to go to the airport. 

Melissa and Heidi SLC Airport

We were on our way to the airport talking about boys (naturally) and also talking about the possibility of me not making it on the plane since we were flying standby. Melissa said she was 60% sure I would get on and she only had 40% of doubts. I could live with those numbers. As we pulled into the airport, Melissa checked the list to see our chances and she noticed that everyone on the standby list had loaded the plane. That was everyone but us (ahhhhh). Our plane was leaving an hour earlier than we thought. It made my heart race and my brain crazy. Luckily Melissa keeps her cool, and we had Whitney help us get onto a flight to JFK instead of Orlando. We ran from security to the ticket desk back to security and to the terminal. It was an extremely eventful 30 minutes. 

The actual flight to New York wasn't eventful. I got some sleep which was good and watched a few Friends episodes. Once we landed, we tried pulling up our boarding passes for our next flight. Turns out our flight was still booked for the following day. Which means we had to go out of the terminal to change our tickets and then check back in through security. No biggie, expect security gives me anxiety. But I got through security in SLC with no problem, so I should get through security at JFK. Which I did. Little victories worth dancing about.

The flight to San Juan wasn't exciting. I watched more Friends and slept just a little bit more. Once we landed, everything turned Spanish. Of course there was still English everywhere, but we definitely were not in the 50 States anymore. We got in a taxi and turns out the taxi director person (new official job title) gave the wrong directions to our taxi driver. After talking to him a bit, and after talking to our AirBnB host, we figured out the direction we were supposed to be headed. We drove through some interesting neighborhoods. The entire ride I kept thinking to myself "we aren't in Utah anymore." I could feel myself going into culture shock, which seems so silly but you can't stop it. Believe me, I tried. Back to the taxi ride, we were driving through a street and there were two teenagers riding their bikes in the street. Since all driving laws go out the window in Puerto Rico, the driver got close to the kids riding their bikes trying to get them to get out of the way. But the teenagers thought they owned the street so they got upset that this car (which is 50 times larger than them) is trying to run them over. As we passed them on the road, they started hitting the car. I'm not going to lie, it totally freaked me out. But wait, there is more. We get to the bottom of the street and we got stuck at a red light. The kids catch up to us and start hitting the car even more. So what does our taxi driver do? He gets out of the car and chases them down. It's cool. We were just chilling in the back of a taxi with the driver's door wide open. A minute later our driver came back and just resumed driving like nothing happened. I was dying on the inside. I was laughing at what just happened but also couldn't believe what I just witnessed.

When we got to our apartment, we met our host, who was totally adorable, and then we ran to the SuperMax for food. After we picked up a few items, we went back to the apartment and took a short nap with the intention of going to the beach once we woke up.We were exhausted from the emotional roller coaster we took just to get to San Juan. When the timer went off saying our nap was over, neither one of us moved. I felt like I was hit by not one, not two, but ten semi trucks. I haven't dealt with extreme jet lag before so this was a first for me. I woke up a few hours later and I stood up and the world was spinning (more that normal, ha). I walked into the other bedroom to check on Melissa and she was knocked out on the bed. I turned back to my room and totally ran into a wall. Yep. Not my proudest moment on the trip.
I was texting my mom and snapping my sister. I was slightly freaking out. My anxiety was through the roof and I couldn't reel it back in. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and never come out till it was time to go home. I felt stranded because it was dark outside and my "translator/travel companion" was asleep. I knew it was silly to freak out. This trip wasn't going to kill me. But it felt like it was. So what did I do to make myself feel better? I watched Frozen and more Friends episodes. A few hours later Melissa woke up and watched Friends with me. Eventually we went to bed and promised each other we wouldn't spend the next day in bed.

Old San Juan was my favorite part of this trip. The city was so cute. It was the perfect mix between New York City (for me) and Argentina (for Melissa). First off we took the bus into the city. I think this was a bigger victory for me than it was for Melissa. Once we reached the city, we started walking up and down the roads and taking pictures everywhere. We walked to the edge of the island and followed it up to the El Morro Fort.We spent a few hours exploring the fort. We decided it was time for food so we exited the fort and we saw a tram heading back to the city. We thought it belonged to one of the cruise ship tour groups. We thought we were rebels jumping onto someone else's shuttle. Turns out it was the free shuttle that drove through Old San Juan. We lost our street cred as quickly as we gained it. After we found some food, we walked through souvenir shops until our feet couldn't handle any more. We headed back to the apartment with the intention of going to the beach. Except I had six blisters that begged to differ. We we called it a day and watched Friends, talked boys, and had one of our great midnight conversations at 9:00 at night. 

Old San Juan Street

Old San Juan Street

El Morro Fort. Built in the 16th Century

El Morro

Melissa playing on the edge of El Morro

Melissa and the fun look out at El Morro

hashtag tourist

No filter peeps. Old San Juan is just that pretty.

I love the water against the rocks.

I spy our initials. ME + HEA '17

Melissa found her new boyfriend

Our cute AirBnb Apartment

The walkway to the street from our apartment. So many geckos on these walls.

  We finally made it to the beach. I guess you can say third time is the charm. The beach was about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Since we went in the morning, we basically had the beach to ourselves. Occasionally other tourists would pass by but it was mainly just us two. Since there was a storm moving in, the waves were fairly big. That made Melissa upset because she wanted to swim. It made me happy because I love listening to the waves and taking pictures (obviously).

Seaweed is gross. but the view was pretty.

I love standing right here ^ and letting the water wash my feet.

Okay. We are just adorable.

Bye Puerto Rico. It's been real.

  On the way home we lucked out by sitting by each other on both plane rides! On our way to Orlando we watched Charly. I knew the ending before we started the movie, yet I still bawled like a baby. The flight to Orlando was so smooth that once we landed, we figured something was wrong with our boarding passes. Melissa wasn't able to pull up the standby list to see our status so we left the terminal, went to the ticket desk, they fixed the priority of the list and then we went back through security. It seems so silly now, but we just didn't want to chance it with our luck. So we figured better safe than sorry.
I got my ticket for the flight and I was sitting on row one. By the end of the trip I had sat at the very back, middle, both sides, and the front of the plane. We had a super cool flight attendant named Joel. I had an empty seat by me so Joel asked if I wanted Melissa to come sit by me. Of course I said yes! Joel gave us so many snacks and drinks. At first we thought Joel was treating us so nicely because we are cute ;). But really he is just great at his job.
The turbulence once we hit Salt Lake City was a little rough but if you look at it like a ride at Disneyland instead of your plane wiggin' out, life is a little happier.
This trip was definitely one for the books. I learned so much in so little time. I am excited to see what travels the future brings.

Alternate blog post titles:

-You Can Never Watch Too Many Friends Episodes

-I Didn't Eat Geckos In My Sleep, I Think

-Humidity Hates My Hair

-The Empanadas Smelt Funny

-How Many Memories Can You Fit Into Four Days?
-20 Minutes Into The Trip We Missed Our Flight

Spring Break 2017

This is me being spontaneous and fun.

I am going to Puerto Rico for Spring Break and I am PUMPED.

See you later! Hopefully a little tanner ;)

Calm from the Storm

I have been having a lot of thoughts.

But the thoughts I want to focus on are my thoughts about the temple.

I love the temple. 

I have since I was a little person. 

I loved singing "I love to See the Temple" in primary.

Once I was in Young Women's I was so excited to do Baptisms for the Dead.

Once I graduated high school, I started preparing for my endowments.

I love reading about the temple. I love visiting the temple. I love talking about the temple. I love the feeling inside the temple. I love what the temple stands for. 

(Pretty sure I have already written this before, sorry)

This year I set a goal to go to the temple at least once a month. That is an easily attainable goal. In February, I went to the Draper Temple with my mom. I was so excited when my night class got cancelled because I knew I needed to go to the temple and this was Heavenly Father's way of making sure I made it. Of course the night we decided to go, the weather was insane! And it only got worse on Draper Mountain. The freeway was full of accidents so we took back roads to get to the temple. We barely missed the session we originally planned, but that didn't matter because there was another one in thirty minutes. Every time I go to the temple I feel like I am going to see someone I know, this time, I walked into the Dressing Room and I caught a glance of someone I knew! We ran into my mom's cousin Cindy! She was in our session and it was cool knowing another person in the room.

I love the temple because I can go inside with questions, and come out with answers. I felt re-energized and ready to tackle the world. 

At times my life gets a little crazy. Almost every moment is filled with school, homework, and work. And then those few free moments I try and fill with friends and family. It can get overwhelming to say the least. But I am so grateful I can go to the temple and find refuge. The temple is the calm from the storm in my life. I mean that literally and figuratively. 

 Check out these cool photos I got after our session. I love the way the light is reflecting off the giant snowflakes. As people were exciting the temple they thought I was crazy to be standing in the storm with my camera. But they turned around and saw what I saw. A few of them even took out their phones to take pictures too.

I am about to get cheesy with a life lesson but this picture reminds me that there is beauty in the storm. Our lives may be falling apart at the seems, but we can turn to the temple and the gospel. It will always be a constant beauty in our lives. Seek out the temple. It is the calm from the storm.

25 Drafted Posts

Over the last couple of years I have started 25 posts and they have never seen the light of day. They are generally five to ten sentences of scatter brained thoughts that just weren't developed to their full potential. Because this blog is a digital journal, I find it unfair to keep those thoughts to myself. They were obviously important enough to be written down.

So for this post, I am compiling all my drafts into one post.

It's going to be extremely long, but fun.

Follow along if you want.

No pressure.

* * * *

BESTEST SELF

Where do I see myself in 10 years?

If I could have a perfect life what would it be?

Well, let me enlighten you.
In ten years in the perfect life, I would be married and have two kids.
* * * *
LIGHT BULB THOUGHTS
Taylor Swift, famous, yes.
Amazingly talented vocally, not quite.
Let's be honest for a moment. The reason why we love her isn't for the music part of her songs but rather the lyrics. Her lyrics speak to every 12 to 26 year old. I've grown up with her. As she has grown, I have grown. She sings through high school crushes, short term lover, to a hopeful long term love.
(and don't pretend you don't like her)
* * * *
TWO CENTS

My work does not define me.

My schooling does not define me.

I am more than work and school.

I understand that work and school are shaping me into a person but that doesn't mean that I have to devote my life to just those things. I have to figure out who I am with out those factors.

* * * *
CARVED

Marnie has the cutest phone case.

When I got my new phone I wanted an awesome case like hers.

You see, she got her phone case from a website called Carved. 

* * * *

GOING NO WHERE

The common rule to life is to have goals. You need to have a destination in mind. If you don't then you are seen as lazy, unmotivated, and a person that is going no where. Those qualities make you seem less desirable to, well, everyone. Most days I feel like this person. I feel stuck and lack of progression when really my life is the exact opposite.

* * * *

* * * *

I DON'T BELONG HERE

Every introvert struggles with social anxiety. I would even say it is safe to say that a fair amount of people deal with social anxiety. And I am one of those people. I get butterflies in my stomach every time I go to a place that isn't apart of my normal routine. One time I was craving french fries but my sister was on a date and so she couldn't go with me. I really wanted to try out this restaurant that was down the street from us. It took me 30 minutes to pep talk myself just to leave the house. When I pulled up to the restaurant a rush of relief filled my soul when I saw a drive thru window. Because heaven forbid I walk in and order my food and then walk out. No. That would be too much human interaction. 

In the recent past, I attended a few homecomings for my friends who had returned from their missions. I went to one in particular that was a high school reunion to the max. The moment I pulled up to the church I broke out in a hot flash. I had to do deep breathing just to get myself under control. I made it inside in one piece. I sat by some high school friends and it was great to talk to them and catch up. But when I was sitting there I realized that even though I love these people, they are not my people.
* * * *

I don't know if you have ever seen this, but this, this is exactly how my life works. I think,  think some more, until I don't even know what reality is. I only know how life is "supposed" to go.
* * * *

Tis the end of the semester.

You would think by now I would be used to the stress that school brings, but I am not.
* * * *
DATE NIGHT

I am behind on the blogging thing. Back in November I went bowling with my family. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. The only one missing was Jennie, which is quite impressive. Turns out I am still very bad at bowling. The boys tried to give me pointers but it just made me worse.
* * * *

I am been thinking about this post for a long time. Months really.

This is a topic that is sensitive. Well, it is sensitive to me.

I am 21 years old.

Typically by this age I have had my first kiss, first boyfriend, and even a 'real' relationship.
I have watched many friends go through these stages. I have read books and seen "love" on TV. Yet, I haven't had any of that. That is something I haven't experienced yet. But I can tell you that ninety-six percent of the time it doesn't bother me. I like my independence. I like learning who I am individually as a person. I have spent this time learning life skills. In other words I have been working on my 'wife me up' skills.
That other four percent though, ha, that is another story. Because I am surrounded by everyone finding love, it has made it abundantly clear that I am single.

* * * *

Lately, it has just been me and my thoughts. I have been spending a large amount alone. I have quite enjoyed this time to really search my soul for my beliefs and my thoughts. I know that I have opinions, I just don't express them enough for them to become clear. At times I don't even know where I stand on certain issues.
* * * *
AM I GOING TO MAKE IT?

One week down. Fifteen more to go.

Yes, I have a count down until my semester ends. I know it is contradicting to my last post, but guys, calculus is kicking my butt. And I haven't even reached the calculus part! I spend all my free time doing homework. Not an exaggeration. I almost put off a much needed girls night because I was afraid of my homework wasn't going to get done. I know I might be overreacting and what not, but I don't care. College is hard. Yes the classes have challenging moments but the hardest part about college is finding the time, energy, and motivation. Not only having those qualities but having them at the same time. So if you find yourself looking for something to pray about, I am always a good option. Pray for my sanity the next couple of months. I am going to need it.

* * * *
THANKSGIVING POINT

I have finally gone to the tulip festival at Thanksgivng Point. And I loved it. I love walking around the gardens. 

* * * *

HOW HAVE I CHANGED

I like to think that I have change from who I used to be in high school.

I like to think I make better choices that High School Heidi.
* * * *
JULY 4TH

I don't like parades, but I love fireworks.

So I love the 4th of July based off my love of fireworks.


hashtag cellphone pic

* * * *

I am a photo nerd. 

I can't help it but I love photos. Whether looking at them, editing them, or taking them. There is something magical about pausing life.

* * * *

Obligatory end of summer post.

This summer wasn't my typical summer. But that's okay, it has been a very eventful one. Between summer school, photoshoots, best friend's wedding, Joe's Valley, little Beckett,  and going through the temple.

Sorry Vallett Fam for cutting some peeps out. I couldn't control the cropping.

* * * *
NIBLING APPRECIATION POST

*Nibling is a real word. Look it up.*

I am used to babies loving me. I love them so naturally they love me.

Beckett is a different story. Sure, he likes me. We smile, laugh, sing, dance. We have fun. But when my sister walks into the room and talks, Beckett will chase her down. He loves his Aunt Jennie. But I haven't given up all hope. I have got to play with him more since school has let out.
* * * *
Wow. we made it.
If you made it this far, then you are awesome sauce.