The Ups and Downs of Summer

 Another summer is gone and it has been one full of memories, so many that I felt it was time for another post in order to record as many of them as I can. As with my last post (and life in general) there have been some pretty great things to happen these past months and some also not so great things. So here is a few of the Happenin's of Hailey for the summer:

Spring semester of school went well, I enjoyed my classes, especially ASL and am happy with how my grades turned out. Following finals week I got to enjoy a week with my best friend visiting. Our adventures included hiking, volunteering at the Special Olympics, going to the Phoenix Temple and just treating ourselves. 

The first week of June was spent at Roosevelt Lake with the Persons family as is our yearly tradition. I love this time of getting to ski and tube, play canasta, and hang out with family. 

The next week of summer was spent at the MDA Summer Camp where I got to become best friends with my camper Maddie and build friendships with many other of the wonderful campers and awesome councilors. This was my second year with the camp and I LOVED it. It is so great to work with these kids and help them have a fun time and I look forward to more years of being able to volunteer and recommend this opportunity to everyone. It is a truly rewarding (and exhausting) experience spending the week focusing primarily on the needs of others and am grateful for the things I learned from this opportunity. 

After getting back from camp my family and my bestie took a drive down to Tuscan for the Temple Open House. I love these opportunities to see inside the House of the Lord and all of the blessings that temples bring into my life.

On July 2nd my Grandpa Persons left this world and it was difficult to have to say goodbye to a man who made such an impact on my life.

These photos represent just a few of the great memories I have of my grandpa. Some of my favorite include:

• going to Kids Club and my grandpa buying me a McDonald's hash brown every time
• his insistence that I was always out "looking for some boy"
• him answering the phone in a high voice saying "this is grandma"
• trying to come up with a decent answer to his standard question "did you learn anything today" to  prove to him that I could be smarter than him (as he claimed no one was as smart as him)
• sending him countless emails of pictures that he would turn into collages or put in the newspaper
• his standard goodbye of "I'll see you in the funny papers"

My grandpa ALWAYS had a camera and was there to document every special occasion or family gathering. I often would make faces at him and was always curious to see if any photos of me made it into the newspaper. But, often times I would steal the camera from him and take photos of him so that there were some of him too. 

I really never expect many people to read my blog, but I knew I could always count on my grandpa to view it. 

I miss a lot of things about my grandpa.

I miss him claiming that I am going to school to "become a water boy" and that he won't be here to see me prove him wrong. I miss hearing his stories (even if I'd heard it several times before). I  miss telling him about my life and the interest he always showed. And I miss his teasing and our banter that would ensue. 

But, it just shows what a great person he was for his absence to be felt so acutely. I am so grateful for the memories I have to cherish and the legacy that he left behind.

To conclude the summer adventures, I took a trip to Idaho!

I was fortunate to be able to tag along with the Cammack family on a trip to Oregon and Washington. We made a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and I got to taste the most heavenly cheese and ice cream on the planet. It was basically a dream come true. 

We got to explore the Oregon coast and spend time in Vancouver which were both so beautiful and the weather was fantastic.

To end the trip we were able to sneak in a trip to the Boise Idaho Temple. There were a lot of things standing in our way to be able to attend the temple, the biggest fact being that it was technically closed and I had a flight to catch, but thanks to many wonderful miracles everything fell into place and we had a wonderful experience doing baptisms. 

This summer was memorable and I think in years to come it will stand out in my memory. When I wasn't on trips, I spent my time working, reading, shadowing at two PT clinics (where I learned A LOT!), reading, watching movies and reading. I completed 31 books this summer and learned quite a bit. This summer was similar in some ways to summers past, but also fairly different. I can count on one hand the amount of times I stayed up past midnight or slept in past eight. I had to get sinus surgery and the first few days were pretty brutal, but I am looking forward to actually being able to breath and smell like a normal human being. 

I enjoyed my summer, I grew, I made friendships, I gave service, I tried new things, I traveled, I spent time with family and friends and I experienced the ups and downs of life. I look forward to what the rest of the year has in store for me, I am sure there will be more trials and triumphs to come and I will just have to see what I am meant to learn from each.

Until next time,
Hailey

Not Putting a Label on Things

Thoughts on 2016

When I think back on this year, at first glance it seems like it should be labeled as a “bad” year. And I don’t think anyone would blame me for feeling this way. But, even though some life changing things happened, I still cannot label this year as “bad” because there was also a lot of good mixed in.

In 2016 I said a lot of goodbyes.

I said good bye to many dear friends who are serving missions, or who left for college.

I said good bye to my grandpa who was such a generous and loving servant of the Lord. He was an example to me of how to follow the commandments given to us and to love God with all our heart. His absence in our family is sad, but I am so grateful for the legacy he has left behind.

And the most difficult goodbye of 2016 was to my twin sister Lindsey. This change in our family is felt deeply and makes every other thing that I have experienced that I thought was hard seem utterly trivial. I feel sad because of the goodbye, but when I think of the hello in the next life it brings the “good” back into the memory. I know that Lindsey was given to our family because we needed her, and she has gone back to our Heavenly Father because He needs her spirit there to bless those in Heaven. So, just as there is good and bad in this experience there has also been good and bad throughout 2016.

Here are some of them:

I left the country for the first time (via a cruise!)

I completed my first year of college with all A’s and started my second year

I was able to meet and talk with an apostle

I volunteered at MDA camp and met so many extraordinary people

I had countless prayers answered

I felt my testimony steadily increase during some experiences and grow by leaps and bounds during other experiences

I went to two musicals that I love (and jammed out to musicals in my car 100+ times)

I got my first B and didn’t cry about it

I’ve made a lot of great friends and built deeper relationships with the ones I already had

I started a book club

I completed 81 books this year (surpassing my goal of 75)

I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time

I bought my first car

I met one of my favorite authors

I got to horseback ride on the beach which has always been a bucket list item

I started my job and have grown to love all the people here (I have now been here a year)

And, I became another decade older

So yes, some not so great things happened in 2016, but my list of great things that happened is so much longer (and I’m sure there are many more things that I am forgetting to add). I would say 2016 was a year of change, and I think 2017 will be as well. I hope to improve myself and take the opportunities I am given to become who I am supposed to be. I want to look back at this year and smile about all of the good and not let myself get stuck on the bad. I cannot say that I will always be successful at this but I hope that writing this all down will help. Even if no one reads my little blog, it won’t matter, I am hoping that by occasionally putting all the millions of thoughts always bouncing in my head into words I will be able to look back at this time in my life and see the growth I have made.

(I included this picture so I can document how I change mentally and physically. And also because I think I look cute and I thought it was cool that you could see my sisters in my sunglasses)

Until next time,

Hailey 

Summer Adventures