Heaven

is St. George. And my family. Rolled into one.

This weekend, when I was home, we went to Snow Canyon State Park and ran around on the rocks. And really it just turned into a huge photo op. I made all my family members pose in the distance with epic scenery behind them. And this is what we came up with. You can see it as a small tutorial on how to imitate the current internet photo trends-- you know, planking, tebowing, owling (and we added young woman-ing and flamingo-ing and yoga-ing).

See for yourself.

Tebowing

Owling (if you can zoom in, you HAVE to see her owl face. love you mother)

This is how the girl on the old personal progress necklaces was posed. She was hot. obviously.

my dad invented flamingoing. We settled on this after we vetoed his "wheedling" idea. I can't believe I just typed that word. Eww. 

so handsome.

my and my father. He is wearing his "Audrey hat." that's seriously what he calls it.

and Moriah is performing the infamous "plank" in a slightly precarious location.

Elise tried to make us do yoga. We would only do this one move. So I just took a picture of the instructor.

DID I FORGET TO MENTION PHOTO BOMBING???? Mom and Dad wanted to take a picture of themselves. It was not to  be done. We bombed it to smithereens.

this is a secret photo bomb. Can you spot it? Can you see Elise lurking?

And this is our attempt to get everyone in the picture. Way to get only yourself Dad.

I love it. And now you wish you were in my family, because we are awesome. But we missed our brother and our Mal pal. They will come next time, I am sure. :)

Grammys 2012.

Love this recap of the grammys.

Some highlights:

1. major praise of Adele (which I am always in favor of)
2. Some hating on Chris Brown, which is hilarious.
3. Some talk about how Nicki Minaj should have checked the Madonna catalog of performances before choosing the theme for the monstrosity of a performace that she released on the grammys.
4. Some ripping on coldplay for producing boring songs since Chris Martin married Gwyneth. WOOhoo.
5. MANY comments on the random combinations of performers... aka that old lady and Alicia Keyes. Or Adam Levine, the Beach Boys, and the cute Foster the People guy. WTR (what the random).
6. A lot of talk about Bruno Mars and his cocaine habit. Which isn't funny... but somehow... is.
7. Praise to the grammys for NOT focusing on Lady Gaga for once.
and last,
8. A lot of reverent moments for Whitney Houston, and Jennifer Hudson's beautiful memorial performance.

But you should read the whole thing. It's so darned funny. Especially if you watched the entire 3 hours of the grammys this year like I did...

Oh and Adele won 6 awards... that ties for the most awards won by a female in 1 night. Beyonce set the record in 2009 (?).

I love pop. and I love pop culture. whoop whoop.

And one quote to inspire you:
" I re-reverse my opinion after Adele thanking "all of you lot." British accents are the most charming and Adele is the most beautiful talented angel and if anyone says anything negative about her I will smash their brains in with a Grammy."

January

1. This is how I'm going to live my life in 2012.

I am going to live every week like it's shark week.

I have to appreciate every moment while it's there. No regrets. I should do as Mad-Eye Moody (aka Barty Crouch Jr.) admonishes, and have CONSTANT VIGILANCE. Because you know what I realized this year? New Years' Eve isn't about celebrating the year that is ending. It's not about endings at all. It's not about remembering all the times you slacked off during the past year. It's about new beginnings. It's about moving forward; learning from the past to make the future brighter. And that's what I'm going to do this year. That's why 2012 is going to be so great. Because even though I love history and practically live in the past as a profession, that doesn't mean that I can't see the future for it's brightness and potential. 2012 is a new beginning-- the doorway to something exciting. I just don't know what that is yet. But it's my responsibility to make it rock.

(PS I wrote this on New Years' Day. It had some planned addendums and additions that never happened... so that is what we are left with. And I think I still got my point across.)

2. THE BRILLIANT MR. RYAN TEDDER. Look up his discography. You'll see several hits, which include, but are not limited to, Beyonce's "Halo," Leona Lewis and "Bleeding Love," Adele's "Rumour Has It" AND "Turning Tables," almost the entire OneRepublic catalog (which I'm in love with btw), Jordin Sparks, "Battlefield," Kelly Clarkson, "Already Gone," Hilary Duff's "Gypsy Woman" (perhaps the greatest Hilary Duff song, if the word "greatest" can be applied to ANY of her songs), various unheard of Backstreet Boys recordings, some of my fave Adam Lambert songs, and drumroll please..... "The Way I Are." Timbaland. Only one of the greatest songs of the 2000s. Oh wait, like 5 of these songs are on the VH1 list. Anyway, this man is a hero of a songwriter and producer, and I've been in love with his talent for like the past 6 months, but have failed to mention so on this blog. So. For real. Pay attention to this guy.

Also, I've had OneRepublic's Dreaming Out Loud, made in like 2007, in my car's CD player not stop for like the past month. And um, unless you're name is Michael Jackson, that is a really rare occurrence in my car. And I haven't even gotten sick of it! It's mellow (which is also rare for me), but so beautiful and still exciting and I love it. And I would love to see OneRepublic in concert. Would love to. I would love to watch the genius of Ryan Tedder in person.

And that is all. 

3. So I've been sick the past couple of days.... and that makes me grumpy. And it makes it harder to handle all the other responsibilities in life. Like, we had the For Like Ever 2012 party on Friday, and I was honestly tempted to cancel the whole thing because I felt so crappy and tired and I knew that it would be a disappointment because my one and only Lene would not be present (which was true, btw, it was a disappointment without Lene. But I don't regret having the party... it was fun despite the illness). Oh, and pictures to come.

4. Good news. I've almost completely stopped watching Netflix. And 30 Rock is back on. And when 30 Rock is on, I forget that there are any other shows on television, besides American Idol, of course. But seriously, though, I have had a hard time with American Idol this year because my evenings are just so dang busy! I always miss it. I was only able to watch 1 hour of Hollywood Week this year. Shame of all shames. I love group round. And I missed all the performances. I think I might write to Congress and then show up on the Capitol steps to lobby for a bill to be passed requiring American Idol to post their shows on Hulu the next morning. Because it is just a tragedy when people like me have to miss the show, and then they can't even make it up!!! I JUST WISH I HAD TIVO OR DVR OR SOMETHING!

5. I don't even know what else happened last month. It was cold. And I went to work, and then I came home. I went to my some intramural dodgeball games. That was fun. I went on some dates. Hung around a lot, trying to keep warm. I went to Cafe Rio a couple of times. I hung out at a friend's cabin for a weekend. And went shopping in Park City. And I went to some sweet BYU basketball games (St. Mary's and Gonzaga)--- I was hooked up with some awesome seats. And I let my room get a little too messy, a little too often. February definitely has some room for improvement. :)

6. Oh and guess what. My phone broke last week. So I'm using an awful temporary one. And I might buy an iPhone. Because I want one. But I definitely don't want to pay for a data plan.

7. And last: Meghan and Joey are engaged! WOOT WOOT! August 18th errabody!

Anywho. Peace.

My three favorites.

These are my favorite boys.  And quoted: "Audrey, I feel like we are our worst selves around you."

Holy, rude you guys. I tell them when their jokes are semi-propriate (but when I laugh first, they ignore the reprimand and continue). And they make fun of everything I say. And they like to bring up my more embarrassing moments of the last several months in front of people who don't know what they are talking about. Example, "so one time we were hiking Timp, and Audrey blacked out." NOT TRUE. And "hey Audrey, you're shinscles are showing." (People, namely Bishop Kendall, get really confused about this one. Shinscles are the muscles on my shins). Or "So remember when you and Mike were scooping in the kitchen?" (Ben: "it's the ambiguity that makes it funny!!!") Here's a hint: me and Mike were scooping ice cream for ourselves and the other two clowns. Or last, "Don't worry, Audrey holds hands with everyone!!!!" Also not true. There were unfortunate accidents with the three of them... that weren't real. Do haunted houses really count? Or hiking over glaciers so you hold hands for safety? 

But I love my fan club.

Oh and Mike made me this:

One time he was trying to coerce me into wearing a certain hat to a certain Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour. I told him I was going to forget to wear it on purpose. He told me that if I did that he would rip this thing off my door. So I promised I would wear the hat (I didn't...). And he said, "I knew those paper people were too important to you!" Of course they are important. My paper person gets to hang out with Jimmer and Bieber.