GREER!!

This last weekend my family and I went to Greer. And of course it was SO much fun! We went there for "The Capital Christmas Tree Celebration." Every year there is is a tree (among many others) that is decorated for the White House. This particular one will which will be outside the White House, was chosen from a forest right outside of Alpine while you're on your way to Big Lake. It was pretty exciting to say the least, especially for this small community. They made over 6,000 ornaments, cut enough trees for the inside of the White House (there were lots) and there were outside and inside decorations that the communities had made a sent as well. It was a HUGE task to take on but this little community rallied together and did an amazing thing! They had a special ceremony where one of the senators spoke, an elementary school sang, a high school performance choir sang, the mayor spoke, the forest service spoke, and cowboy poet got up and shared a Cowboy Christmas Poem with us. This cowboy impressed me probably the most because of something he said before he began reciting his poem. He said that he was hesitant to be apart of the festivities that day, and he wouldn't have done it at all, until he found out that the celebration was for a "Christmas" tree and not a "Holiday" tree. I appreciated that immensely! I had just been talking to my family in the car prior to getting there that I hoped it wasn't going to be called a holiday tree. I was pleasantly surprised!
The reason my family went was because my dad and Bashas' had a hand in helping with the event. Bashas' has a small store in Eager and we provided all the pies and hot cocoa for the event. We also gave a sapling pine to each family that was there. It was a really neat event! I was so glad to be a part of it!

The diesel pulling this HUGE tree

This is an 85' Blue Spruce. It was a beautiful tree!

The sibs at the ceremony! Love my brothers!

Josh, Cass, and I. These two are so fun!

Grandma and I!! I love her so much!

All of us by the Spruce


It was fun having Cass with us on this trip because she had never been to Greer before and we were able to show her a lot of our favorite places there and make some fun new memories.

All the kiddos

ME!

Preston wanted me to take some pictures of him for some new facebook profile pics. I liked em!

A little tantrum...just a little one...

Alright, so I guess this may happen to every single person at some point or another but today it's happening to me. And may I add a disclaimer to this post: I don't think it attractive at all when people complain about being single, nor am I trying and get sympathy from anyone, I'm just sharing some thoughts that I am having at the moment. Alright now that that's out of the way (oh and this may be a little bit of a different side of the Brittney you know and love, but that's just because I have to get some stuff out too right?!)....

So just recently my brother started dating a really great girl! An amazing girl! I love her to pieces and have known her for a very long time. So the fact that my brother is dating this girl is not a problem, but to be completely honest it has been harder to deal with for my own emotion's sake than I thought it would be. I am so incredibly happy for the both of them to be dating, but I, especially as an older sister, am having a difficult time dealing with the whole "you're dating someone and I'm definitely-not-anywhere-close-to-dating-someone"...thing. Mind you, I'm happy! I really truly am! I'm working on things and reaching goals that are helping me become a better person, and I am truly grateful for that. So this is not the issue

I want a BEST friend. I have friends that I could give this definition to, boys and girls alike...but I haven't had the "best friend" relationship you get to experience when you date someone, in a really long time, and I need that sometimes. Just the sheer fact that you know someone will be there for you when you're excited, when you want to share something silly, and they'll laugh just because they know you so well. To talk about life, dreams, goals, to support one another, and to be the sparkle in their eyes. Those are priceless moments.

Someday it will happen. I know that. And it's ok that it's not right now. There is obviously more for me to do until then and I'm content with that. But I gotta tell ya, watching people that are close to you in relationships, when that's what you want too, is not easy! I have to say that I'm grateful for the gospel! It definitely gives you purpose and feelings of worth and fortification! We can do anything with the Lord and I'm grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and where I fit in with all this amazingness He has created and planned for each of us!

Life really is good! Just had to vent! Hope no one finds offense, none was meant! :) I love you all! :) Keep smilin and "dreamin the dream"! I know I will! :)

In God We Trust

I just got an e-mail that had this song attached to it. I thought this song was great! It's amazing to me that so much of what this country was founded upon is being pushed aside and as a people we are putting ourselves above God and believing that we have no need for Him in our lives. It's a sad reality in this world we are living in today.

I believe that the men who founded this country were inspired men and that they are men of God. Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing when he sends each of us down at specific periods in time. Our founding fathers were called to start this blessed country and to set a standard for the people who lived in it. We were sent here to stand up to the world and fight for the things we know are right. The things that this country was based upon. Prayer, service, a love of God, courage, and strength are things that this world is in lack of and we have the obligation to stand up for these values.

Enjoy this song! I hope it touches you as it did me.

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P.S. I met the piano player for this group when he came to Thatcher a few years ago to play for a group who wrote the album "Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet". One of the guys in the group is the son of one of my Mom's really good friends so we were able to go to her house after the show and talk with the group and he was so fun to listen to. He talked about alot of neat experiences he's had playing the piano for Diamond Rio and I was especially impressed by his endorsement for this up and coming group. They are all LDS, as is he and it was just a really cool opportunity.
P.P.S Another cool side note is that at the performance we were at I was asked to play the closing song for the meeting and I played on his keyboard and sat up on the stage with the group which was incredibly exciting to me! He even told me I played well! It was only a hymn but still! It pretty much made my day! :)

William Joseph's Piano Fantasy

WOW! I had written this down to look at from one of my theory classes and I finally looked it up today! This is so amazing! I LOVE it! I could listen to stuff like this all day!

Some Catch Up Stuff

Well in March my family and I went to Greer for vacation which was of course a great time! We always have a blast when we go there! SO much fun to stay in a cabin and hang out in the pines! So relaxing!
But before we got to Greer we went to Fountain Hills while my dad had a meeting and took some fun pictures and just goofed around. We took some really fun pictures in a tree (this tree provided some pretty hilarious entertainment as well!) and I thought they turned out pretty fun!
While we were in Greer we went to a really neat waterfall that was made by the overflow of some lakes. It was beautiful! The hike to get there was fun and it was something new and exciting we had never done before.

Grand Canyon Vacation

WOW! What a fun vacation! Our family just got back from being at the Grand Canyon and exploring some areas around Flagstaff too. I went with my family and my grandma came with us as well. We had an absolute blast!

We left on Thursday and we went to Mantezuma's Castle and Toozigoot which were Sinagua Indian ruins. They were really super neat! I loved seeing how incredible the ruins were and imagining how these people must have lived. We also hiked Walnut Canyon which also has some Indian ruins we were actually able to go inside of and hike right along side. Walnut Canyon was absolutely beautiful. It was a great hike!

MANTEZUMA'S CASTLE












TOOZIGOOT










WALNUT CANYON
































LAVA CAVE HIKE- This was probably one of my most favorite parts of the entire vacation! I LOVED LOVED LOVED hiking this lava river cave! It was seriously amazing!


The light from our flashlights was reflecting off the ceiling and it looked like glitter all over. It was so pretty!


This isn't all that important of a picture except that I couldn't believe how long my hair is!




This is where the lava cave had split off into two tunnels and we went to the right and it came to this point where the ceiling went down really low. I was the only one brave enough to actually crawl through to the other side. It was quite the adventure!






Beautiful Eyes...or at least Eye Brows! :) My mom and I had our eyebrows done at a place called "Just-Stringz" and it was a crazy experience! Anyways, we had fun and were pretty happy with the results.


GRAND CANYON
















ELK- When we were leaving the Grand Canyon there were Elk in the road! It was crazy! They were'nt afraid at all! What beautiful animals they are! My dad and I got out to take pictures and they were across the street from us. We soon realized that there were some directly behind us and it scared me half to death! BUt is t was pretty neat to be so close to these huge animals.