Everything is Beautiful

Everything is beautiful if you care to look. The things that people have done are absolutely amazing, and this world that God has created is far more incredible than most realize. Why be sad when you live in such a fantastic place and time? Smile. Look outside; look how incredible everything is. Get ye into the mountains and look at the amazing autumn colors, and feel the cool breeze making that beautiful rustling sound among the trees. Look at your phone, your camera, your computer; how can they even exist? Do you know how it works? Do you know how complicated it is and how much time and effort has gone into that? Look at the magic around you, the magic that we have been allowed to use and create; fresh water from the sink, preserved food in the middle of summer due to a refrigerator, fruit that grows on trees, vegetables that spring up out of the ground. Look at the people. See them give when they have but little for themselves, see them do silly things just to get others to smile, see them love each other; what greater gift could there be? The love of Christ is most precious and desirable above all other fruit, and it's growing on a tree in front of us. Why be sad? 2 Nephi 9:52: "Let your hearts rejoice." It does not say "make your hearts rejoice" it says "let your hearts rejoice." You know deep down that there is so much happiness, so much goodness, so much joy and perfection around you, and you want to be happy, you're naturally inclined to be happy. Let yourself be happy. Why would you let something get in the way of that?
So much beauty in the gospel, in the world, in others, and in yourself. Let it shine through the clouds. You're all beautiful. I love you.

It turns out that I'm lucky enough to have some pretty fantastic adventures.

I am going to tell you my story of today. It's a very good story, so hopefully I can do it justice. Basically the gist of it is that I hiked mount Nebo (tallest mountain in Utah county) today with my dad and a couple brothers. But there is so much adventure and awesomeness that stemmed from this experience, so I should like to share a portion with you all.

First, I drove there, but that's not the exciting bit.

The exciting bit is the actual hike, which turned out to be one of the most absolutely gorgeous hikes that I have ever been on. It was also extremely long and extremely difficult, which only made it better, of course.

The first section of the hike was just a bunch of fields and stuff, but they were still awesome because they were filled with happily colored shrubbery and exciting insects. The next section of the hike made me feel like I was a hobbit in the shire, which basically means it was the best forest path that there ever was. After that we hiked over one mountain and got to see all of the cool stuff on both sides! Then we climbed a mountain and walked along a ridge and scrambled up some boulders and did some other crazy stuff, eventually reaching the very top of the north peak of mount Nebo, and reaching an elevation of 11998 ft! I jumped two feet in the air so that I could say I hit 12000.

At the top, it started to thunder storm and rain and wind very scarily, so we climbed down as fast as we could. It's rather intense when lightning is striking closer to you than you've ever seen it before, and you're on top of the tallest mountain in the county, and your hair is standing on end from static electricity. That storm made me feel like a character in an awesome adventure book.

Overall our hike took over 9 hours and I had to carry my brother Jacob for that last bit because it was too far for him. It was very long, and very intense, and very perfect. I would definitely like to hike that with some friends sometime. If they can handle it.

Music Without Sound

Things like this. Standing on a cute little bridge in the sunlight, blowing dandelion seeds out over the river as you relax and enjoy the pure beauty that surrounds you. This to me is just as much music as music is. 

Other things, like a smile, a laugh, a dragonfly, a drop of sunlight, a bright night sky, a kind word or a butterfly, a Warbler's tune, a duckling's flight, a quail's waddle or flash of light, a scone, strawberries bathed in cream, a tiny flower, a quiet stream, hiking a hill, climbing a tree, all can make a symphony. 

Sometimes I wax poetic. But the point is, anything from a pun to a tadpole can be music if only you care enough to listen for it. It would be tragic to be so focused on other things that you miss the music that surrounds you. 

Symphonic Tour Number the Last

The itinerary:


Monday, April 2 

7:30am  Everyone please help load the trailer (chairs, stands, percussion, heavy metal)

8:05am  GO TO CLASS!!!
Yeah, right........

12:20pm  Load buses

12:40pm  Meeting in bandroom (have your  itinerary on you and be ready to name everyone in SB)

12:50pm  Leave Timpview, sack lunch from home

2:30pm  Arrive Wellington; rest stop at park (snacks?)

3:00pm  Leave Wellington

5:00pm  Arrive Moab; dinner ($)

5:45pm  Arrive Grand CountyHigh School; section rehearsals

7:00pm  Full rehearsal

8:30pm  Meeting (snacks?)

9:30pm  Leave Moab

10:30pm  Arrive in Monticello; Check in at Inn at the Canyons 435.487.2458

11:30pm  Lights Out    

Tuesday, March 29 

7:00am  UP!

7:45am  Leave the motel; walk to the temple
It was soooo windy and freezing cold, so a very nice man let us into the church next to the temple and we ate in there.

8:00am  Arrive Monticello Temple; Breakfast (P)

8:30am  Leave the Temple, walk to MHS

8:45am  Meet the equipment truck at Monticello HS

9:00am  Clinic with Mr. Erickson

10:30am  Combined rehearsal with Monticello HS

11:15am  Leave Monticello; sack lunch (P)

11:45noon Arrive Blanding; Tour Edge of the Cedars State Park
Fun stuff

1:00pm  Leave Blanding

2:00pm  Arrive Goosenecks State Park
Wonderful place.

2:15pm  Leave Goosenecks

3:00pm  Arrive Montezuma Creek; rehearsal at Whitehorse HS

4:00pm  Combined rehearsal with Whitehorse Band
They were so very cool. I miss them.

5:30pm  Dinner (P) with Whitehorse students 

7:00pm  Leave Montezuma Creek

8:30pm  Arrive Monticello; attend "Wassermusik" recital
We went swimming.

10:30pm  In rooms

11:30pm  Lights Out

Wednesday, March 30

6:30am  Augen aufmachen!

7:15am  Leave Monticello

7:45am  Breakfast at Wilson Arch (P)
We didn't eat there, but it was a wonderful arch.

8:30am  Arrive Hole in the Rock House

9:00am  Leave Hole in the Rock

10:15pm  Arrive Green River; rest stop

10:45pm  Leave Green River

11:45noon Arrive Price; Lunch ($)

12:30pm  Leave Price

1:45pm  Arrive Maple Mountain HS; change into black

2:30pm  Symphonic Band warm up

3:00pm  Symphonic Band performance; Concert Band listens
I think we did well. :)

3:30pm  Both bands listen to Provo

4:00pm  Concert Band warm up; Symphonic Band listens to Orem

4:30pm  Concert Band performance; Symphonic Band listens

5:00pm  both bands load buses; both bands leave Maple Mountain HS

6:00pm  both bands arrive Timpview HS














I am going to miss band a ridiculous amount. This tour was so fun! And basically it just made me amazingly happy to be with my awesome and wonderful band friends. Especially Asher, Nate, Kate, Cami, Wendy, Mary, Allison, Macy, Ree, Nick, Christian, Kent, Bao, Etc... 


And playing frisbee with Joseph and Josh and people was awesome. And me and Ree chilling whilst the band rehearsed Elsa's, exactly like last year (we even talked about the same exact things.) And I enjoyed the bus rides, where we listened to Mr. Tippetts tell us stories for hours, and I told riddles to Cami and Nate and laughed to myself as they figured them out. And the good weather (well, mostly good weather) and just the wonderful happiness that band brings. 


And of course game night was glorious. Playing Indian Attack was absolutely classic. Oh band, how I shall miss thee. What a wonderful thing. 


There's really nothing like band tour at all. Nothing out in the whole wide world. 


I love adventuring, and I love people. 

One Day, This Will Be My Life

The world is so beautiful. 

I want to see all of this so badly. And one day I will. Whoever my future wife is, you'd better like to travel, because this is where we're going, and more.

 I love dolphins. We get along well.

 Look at that water.

 Parrots are cute.

 Wow.

 Ice palaces. Almost as great as ice cream palaces.

 I have to see the Aurora Borealis. 

 Ice skating, anyone?

 This place is real.

 Northern Iceland, not a painting.

 The World is my favorite color.

 All of this is so amazing. I hope it's making you contemplate life more deeply.

 I love temples! I want to go to all of them.

 And there's more. So much more.

 Remind me to play a grand piano underwater some day.

 I've always liked marble.

 I also want a castle

And now you love the world more. Hopefully. If not, go look at all these pictures again. While listening to rain http://www.rainymood.com/ and listening to inspirational music. 

This post was inspired partially by Kristen Blair and her awesome Austrian adventures that she's been having without me. 

Disclaimer: most of these pictures are not mine. I may not have rights or whatnot to put them on my blog. If they are your pictures, feel free to revoke them or something if the fact that people are enjoying your wonderful photography and living ever grateful to your wonderful soul because you anonymously shared these wondrous gifts with the world bothers you. That's the end of my disclaimer. I'm done. You can stop reading now. Most people don't read the small text anyway, so whatever's possessing you to continue should probably be ignored. You're free to go. You know, I really don't want this to detract from that beautiful post that I just posted, so if you just had to keep reading this and finish it, go look at your three favorite pictures again, and then go do something else.