Hello all! Here are Moab pictures as promised. For starters we have Ellie. This is our Jeep ad. Its legit hugh? Ellie, she was good to us. We took her through creeks and over unpaved red dirt roads and I heard her shout for joy just a little. She loved it!

We went to Arches. If you look closely you can see the 5 of us stretched out under the arch, jsut for a little perspective.

This was after picking our perfect camp spot we went out and explored before sundown.

So here is the crew. Patchy, Nathan, me, Matt, Angie. Love these people with all of my heart!

We are on top of double arch, clearly showing you the muscles we used to climb treacherously up the back side of this arch.

Our hike to double arch. Here we are walking on what looked like i giant roling pin of rock. This was the trail. Cool, hugh? Despite what you may think, southern Utah has lots of cool things to see. We met tourists from Bulgaria and the Neatherlands. And we have all this stuff in our backyard. How lucky!

The incredible view. Look at the rock spines. So awesome.

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and walked...

More Moab lovin'

Here are a few more Moab pictures that I had and never put up. Enjoy.

Our sustainance. Hot Dogs and chips.

EFYin' again.

I have been putting off posting because I wanted to put up some pictures of my summer activities but once again I find myself camera-cord-less and still wanting to post so here goes nothing.
I am at EFY for the 6th time this summer. Yeah count them 1-2-3-4-5-6! Crazy am I? Maybe? But it has been fun. Some weeks are more fun than others like the time my group was absolutely steller and my co-counselors favorite pastime was cheering meaning that it was high energy and fun yet the more spiritual 16 years olds I ahve ever met. Other weeks are a challenge like the time that we were physically restraining some of our 14 year old boys when the coordinator walked by and starting asking why we were having to use physical means with them. Oops. I love all the random creeper pictures that get taken of couselors and how they end up on facebook somehow. I videos of me dancing and I think, it that REALLY me in that video cuz that's kinda embarassing. Or the time I needed a slurpie break and it was past lights out and I went anyway. :) Don't tell.
EFY is funny sometimes because we have all sorts of fun accroynms and names like counselor clumping and C.O.W.'s and FSOY lessons. But EFY has been a blast. It is really its own little world sometimes. I feel like I have no idea what is going on in the world around me or never catch up on my news or how the Angels are doing. But I have come to realize that all that stuff isn't really who I am anyway. I am a daughter of God! I am so grateful to have been able to strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father while at EFY this summer.

I took last week off to meet my new nephew who is the cutest and STRONGEST new born I have ever seen. Kyler David Woolsey and he is so adorable. I am grateful that my sister is recovering and doing well.

Other summer highlights include but are not limited to: Moab camping and hiking trip, welcoming Kyler to the family, hours spent by the pool after soccer games in the sweltering heat, stressing about school next year although I will need to post about that saga later, trying to help my best friend plan her wedding, Carrie Underwood with the family for the 4th of July, and many many many EFY adventures.

As much as I love Provo, Pocatello will be a great change! Bring on the future. I am ready!

How special are you?

So this weekend was the Special Olympics Utah summer games and it was an absolute blast as usual. The weather stayed really nice compared to what the forecast predicted and so we got pretty lucky. I made some friends as well and you can look for me in BYU magazine because there was a man following me around like the paparazzi taking my picture like a million times. I made "friends" with this kid named Will, and when I say friends I mean had called me over to him many times to tell me to stop giving him attitude. Was I giving him attitude when I asked him to step out of an area where he didn't belong? Maybe. But then I was repeatedly asked by him to stop giving him attitude. :) I love Special Olympics athletes. Never a dull moment.

Below is me sportin' a cotton candy goatee. I think it suits me well.


Next we have a few of the GOC here including program directors. It was a fun crew.

Holding the torch. This was a super fun privilege. I heart Special Olympics.


Here are some pictures of the track and field gang. I do love special Olympics and I hope that I can come back here next year although there are no guarantees since Pocatello is a little further away from Provo.

So this picture below was me shaking my head wild back and forth and capturing my face at just the right moment got this incredible face.
Below is our friend from Panda Express who totally made our day.

Joleen playing shoot 'em up with the broken starting gun.

This is Joe, Nicole, Joleen and I. The best track and field personnel ever! Don't we look so official with our radios?

A daughter needs a mom.

I just finished reading one of those cute little books that has just a few pages about why daughters need moms. There are so many reasons why I need my mom but here are just a few of them.
1. I need my mom because she encourages me to do my best in all that I do.
2. I need my mom because she will ALWAYS be my biggest fan.
3. I need my mom because she helps me understand how to better live the gospel in my life.
4. I need my mom because she helps me to laugh at myself when I do silly things.
5. I need my mom because she has been a pilar of strength and love.
6. I need my mom because she will teach me how to be a mom one day.
7. I need my mom because she sees my best side when sometimes I don't.
8. I need my mom because she prays for me.
9. I need my mom because she taught me how to cook with love.
10. I need my mom because she teaches me how to love by loving me unconditionally.
I love you mom!

O'Dell Family Road Trip!

This is my road trip last weekend from start to finish. Enjoy the ride cause I sure did! So here we are leaving Utah. Notice the SNOW in the background. That, my friends, is why we left.

Enjoy the sunset over Vegas. We stopped in at the Bellagio to watch the fountains since 4 of 6 of us had never been to Vegas. We also walked around a really pretty flower exhibit in the Bellagio as well. Vegas did indeed treat us well.

Not real... mom. :)
Getting ready for our day at the beach. For some reason someone pantsed me right before the picture, still not sure how it all happened but that is why I have pants around my ankles.

It was a lot colder than it looks. It was windy and freezing on the pier making the beach seem like heaven! And it was pretty close to that except for when I was taking my nap on the beach and a group of 100 preteen girls from New Mexico who were in Cali for a CHEER tournament decided to surround us with their things, forgetting that there was an entire uninhabited beach, interrupting my peaceful nap. Needless to say I was a little grouchy when awakening from my slumber.
Prepping on the tram ride to enter the happiest place on earth!
Luigi joined us and was very well behaved for a 6 month old puppy. And thanks to our puppy, on a pretty crowded day in Disneyland we got to go on 15 rides! Wahoo!




It was a great road trip. We even gave ourselves names of the O'Dell Family because we were speaking in accents more often than not and enjoying some good times with friends. I do love California. Always have, always will.

Friday Five

Well I have recently just been putting up pictures so I thought that I would tell you a little about what is going on in my life and give you my Friday Five so here goes...

1. I am so grateful for family. It was so fun to have my family here for graduation. I am grateful for all the support that I received from them. I am grateful for their prayers too... which seem to be working. :) I am grateful to know that families are forever and that when I do have my own one day I will never need to fear being separated from them. For my graduation present I get to go to Hawaii with Lanie and Papa. What a blessing to get to spend a whole week in Hawaii with my awesome grandparents.

2. I am grateful to have a job when there are so many students out their that are looking and can't find anything. I love my job and the opportunity that I have had in my life because BYU really does take care of their students.

3. I am grateful to have a best friend that is so much like me that it is ridiculous. She helps me to think through things logically and to understand what it is that I really want in my life. It is just nice to have someone to talk to all the time who totally understands me and my priorities. Friends are such an amazing blessing.

4. I am grateful for cell phones. I want you to just take a blast to the past for a few seconds with me. Remember life without cell phones when you actually had to like leave messages and then call people back and stuff. You had to actually think of a plan and a meeting spot BEFORE you split up. Or when shopping you had to actually go find your mom when you were ready to leave the store instead of call her. Crazy were the days without cell phones. I am grateful that I can call my mom on my way home from school just to say hi. I love my cell phone.

5. I am grateful to see the hand of the Lord in my life. All the sudden I am seeing more and more how he is directing my paths and how he is guiding my life. I am grateful for the spirit and how I feel his influence in my life.

Life is good! I can't complain about a single thing.