My Best Friend's Wedding.

Happiness in marriage and parenthood can exceed a thousand times any other happiness

-James E. Faust  

-----

And all at once, my best friend is married and off to start her new life with her wonderful husband. Yesterday, I was privileged to spend the day helping with my best friend's wedding. Ms. Naomi Billings became Mrs. Naomi Shumway and it was fabulous in every sense of the word. Never have I felt so much joy nor been so excited for a single event. You see, in high school, Nams and I liked to joke that we lead parallel lives. We would always line up our "cast of characters" and oddly enough, funny/sad/exciting things would always happen at the same time for us. That is, it all happened at the same time till I broke up with Dear Mr. Garrett and she got engaged to Peteypete. Then our lives went *bloop* and switched to different planes. But I've never been happier for her. I remember exactly where I was when my phone started ringing, "Pretty Young Thing" and I realized she was calling to tell me that her and Peter were engaged. I couldn't believe she was engaged, but now, after the blur of yesterday, I can't imagine her as anything but married to Peter. Peter is the perfect addition to Naomi- one of the few boys she dated that I actually liked (she'lll testify to that). He is kind beyond compare- the type of kindness where he paid for my Bahaman Bucks (and Nam's, and Ted's) the first time I hung out with him and Naomi (it's a big deal, ok?). He's weird just like Naomi and loves life just as much as Naomi.  I really have grown to love Peter so much even though I've hardly been able to spend any time with him because I've been at school. Peter treats Naomi like the amazing woman she is and I know that he loves her more than anything else in the world (even more than his brother Ted, which I thought might be impossible- even though we love Ted).

Their reception was perfectly Naomi. Jars, flowers, old cameras, and old suitcases- everything she'd been collecting for years put together for her perfect night. An abundance of people flooded her backyard, each genuinely happy for the couple and their happiness. The outpouring was amazing and really quite heart-warming. I think the number of people that showed up shows just how wide-spread Naomi's influence is in people's lives. You can't meet Naomi and dislike her; for, simply being with her, you feel that your life is better and that there is an infinite amount of joy to be found. That's part of my love for weddings- seeing everyone come in support of the bride and groom. People spill into to support their love, support their happiness, support their growth, support the life they'll live, rejoice in the lives they've lead, rejoice in their stalwartness to get to this point, rejoice in the beauty of friendship and family.

The best part of the night I couldn't name a best part of the night, but a part I will hold on to forever was the all fateful bouquet toss. I've never actually caught a bouquet and as Kyle said, "I knew you were serious when you handed your phone to me". I wasn't I'm-going-to-trample-the-child-in-front-of-me serious, but I was pretty darn determined to catch that thing. She tossed it back, and praise the bouquet toss gods, it landed in my out-stretched hands. Naomi turned around, we both screamed, then ran to hug each other. I dunno about her, but I oddly had tears in my eyes- excitement, joy, pure happiness? Regardless, it was everything I ever wanted a bouquet catch to be. Can't express how happy I am that it was at my best friend's wedding.


Mrs. Naomi Shumway, I will love you forever. You have made my life wonderful in more ways than I could possible ever say and I will forever be grateful for the memories we have – you best believe that I expect many more memories to come. I'm  so grateful your Darcy finally came and that the two of you were sealed for time and all eternity. I know that life will bring you every happiness and that you and Peter will never have a dull moment. You will always be an example to me in every way and I know that I'll be able to count on you whenever I need you. I expect that you, Peter, my future husband, and I will get along and spend time together laughing, chatting, and playing Mario Kart. I can't believe you're all grown up and married, but there's no one I would rather run around in the hundred degree heat for all day. ;) Best of luck to you and Peteypete- not that you need luck, for you already have happiness.

Love always,
Ems

The Beginning of Summer.

 Welcome, Summer!

Well, summer has finally arrived, and man oh mighty does it feel wonderful.
A. I don't have to stress about school.
B. I'm home, sleeping in my own bed, being fed by my mother.
C. It is a wonderful 100 degrees outside and it makes my life to walk outside and feel the sun zap me like that.
D. I have time to read, sleep, and enjoy life.

Summer started out real well. Joe, Chad, Emily, and I ventured out to the Spanish Fork hot springs on the last day of finals. The moon was bright, the springs were deliciously warm. The company was marvelous.

The rest of the week was spent as a homeless bum at Sophia's place. I slept on her couch Wednesday-Saturday morning. Thankfully, she has maybe the most comfortable couch on the planet. Activities included Target shopping, jacuzzinging, group rinse offs in the showers, making forts, and bawling our eyes out as we watched The Impossible. Oh, and redoing Sophia's blog and cleaning their apartment for cleaning checks. All good things. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye to Soph, but I know we'll see each other soon enough.

Now I'm home. Going to the gym with my mother at 5 in the morning. Celebrating Naomi's wedding with Bridal Showers. Working for my dad. Reading, reading, reading, and going to sleep early.


Ain't life the greatest?
I contest that it is.

Love always,
Ems

On Going Home.

When it came down to the decision of going home for the summer, or staying in Provo, it really was a difficult choice for me to make. You see, there were lots of good things in Provo: a job that I love, ample amounts of time spent with Sophia on REU adventures, and the potential of lots of new friends. Going home consisted of..... well, not much. Most of my friends are married, engaged, on misions, or at school, so I'd be up a creek there. But then, my dad offered me a job offer I couldn't refuse that also came with a new opportunity to nanny again, and a realization that I'd be able to save a lot more money for Paris by living at home and mooching off my parents, so, the decision was made.

It was hard, and I was bummed for a while, but as the time has gotten closer, the warm 110 degrees of Arizona could not come faster. The main reason being those people up there- my family. I cannot wait to spend my entire summer with those crazies. As we've all grown older, we've become even better friends and it is going to be so wonderful to be with them all the time. Not to mention that I'm overjoyed that I'll be able to see Seth head off to his Jr. year prom! There are just so many good things that come with family.

I know that it'll be sad and a bit lonely to see all the pictures that Sophia posts of REU craziness and her missionary coming home, but I've promised her I'll come and visit and I intend to keep that promise! (A girl has got to meet her best friend's husband before they're engaged, right?). Mostly, I'm just excited to stop living off of Campbell's soup and bean burritos..... Ok, not mostly, but it will be a major perk.

Anyway, watch out, Arizona, this girl is coming home!
(in two weeks, at least)

Love always,
Ems

Sweet Summer.

In the midst of my study break tonight, I came across this wonderful picture from the summer of 2009- the summer that I was lucky enough to go to Greece. Looking at this picture, I decided it epitomizes summer: travel, sunshine, living in your swimsuit, and making tons of memories. Then I started thinking about the summer ahead of me: school, work, Provo, Provo, Provo, and hopefully new friends and adventures! You win some, you lose some. Then I remembered that I am going to Paris this fall, and I wasn't too sad.

Well, that's a lie. I was stil sad because it's still 21 degrees outside and all I want is some vitamin D in abundant amounts- is that too much to ask for, Utah? I guess it will come along at some point, right? For now, I'll stay cuddled up in my double fleece blanket that my fabulous sister-in-law made me (thanks, Sarah!).

Oh, for it to be summer again. I cannot wait.

Love always,
Ems

From East to West is what the Bartons do Best.

Folks, in the last month I have driven from Florida, to Mesa, to Los Angelas, and then finally ended in Utah. Can you say cross nation traveling?

Welp, the family came to Florida for a visit. It turned into them taking me home early from Florida due to a family emergency, but we sure did have a great time together for the week we were there. Picture time!

Last week, we headed out to Torrance, California for a wonderful, relaxing, just-what-we-needed, getaway. The beach was the perfect amount of chilly breeze and warming sun, and I've decided that California is definitely on the top of my "I must Live Here" list. But in all reality, it was already on the top of that list. 

And now, I'm back in Utah spending the rest of the summer with Caleb and Bart at my grandma's house while she's in rehab for her shattered ankle. I've been down to Provo a few times for job interviews and while I was there on Wednesday, I went to the "Slytherin Common Rooms" in the Maeser building per Maeser's request. In case you're wondering, we found out about these bathrooms via the BYU Bathroom Blog, a personal favorite of mine. So yes, there is a bathroom mirror pic coming. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

These bathrooms are awesome and I highly recommend them to anyone who happens to be by the Maeser building at any point in their day. I guess you could also just take the long walk across campus but I think that's a bit much to use the bathroom... but whatever suits your fancy! 

So, just as a warning, the next post I post my be sappy and sad due to the fact that Mr. Ladd leaves on his mission next week. Wish me luck to sending my missionary off! 

Love always, 

Ems

Summer, Part 2.

Recently, summer has been treating me well. 

I have one more day of nannying left and I am so excited.
And, two weeks from today, I will officially be living here....

With that girl, Becca Udall.
Am I excited? Oh heck to the yes.
In other great news, the two other lovely ladies in the picture below will be in our ward!

May I explain the greatness of this picture to you guys?
1. It's on the escalator to the show rooms of Ikea. (EXCITEMENT!)
2.  Alex's face. Her squishy face is how she attracts all the boys.
3. Lindsey glaring at Becca. That spritzer girl.
4. Becca just looks great and so it makes the picture wonderful.

Here are some exciting things that happened these past few weeks.
Alex and Lindsey got bedding at Ikea. Success!

We mad delicious oreo brownies at Alex's house. They were pretty much heaven sent.

I made cinnamon rolls and my mom discovered Instagram.

We had a wonderful Girl's trip to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge last weekend.

We pretty much spent all our time watching movies in the King-sized Bed all cuddled up in our wet swimsuits. This picture of Linds and Bexs is just too great for description.

We ate an entire Pazookie platter at BJ's in under five minutes.

We swam in the 4 acres of pool that they offered us.
And we had the most successful Last Chance trip ever.

However, to my disappointment, we did not find cute boys to spend time with at the resort.
But still, it was a grand trip! And everyone assumed we were college students which was new...
I guess we really are moving up in life!
Hoorah for college life!

BYU here I come!

Love always,
Ems

Oh, Summer.

Summer. Such a beautiful thing, and so surprisingly busy. Nannying has kept me busy and sleep deprived at times and family vacations have kept me entertained. Life has been moving on quickly but BYU is coming much too slow. 

Since I've been pretty M.I.A. since the end of June, here's what's happened. 

Cali's Birthday.

The young 'un finally turned 18! We celebrated by kidnapping her.

Dressed like this.

Then we took her to see that fabulous movie, Midnight in Paris, which I am absolutely in love with. All the 1920s culture and authors and artists mixed into Paris? Couldn't get much better.

We then re-bandannaed her and dropped her off with her quote on quote "friend boy" Tate Boy.

Happy Birthday, Clasta! Love ya tons!

My family spent the 4th in Utah. Going to the Oakley Rodeo made me really want to find myself a cowboy up at BYU. They're so darn attractive. We camped up the Ogden canyon and found snow! Yes, snow. I am going to die in Utah during the winter.

The most exciting thing of the summer happened on Thursday night. MY BROTHER GOT ENGAGED! So very happy for him! I adore Sarah and am beyond excited to have her as a sister. I FINALLY HAVE A SISTER. It's the best thing ever!

So very happy for them! 

I worked all last week but that did not deter my attendance to the final Harry Potter, although it almost did. I just worked with two hours of sleep. But let me tell you, I loved the movie and it was so woth two hours of sleep the next day. I cried through the entire movie. Especially Alan Rickman's performance. Heart-wrenching is the only way I can describe it. I love Snape. And I love Alan Rickman. And now all my Harry Potter watching combined with my watching of Pride and Prejudice has put me in a mood to read Harry Potter and Jane Austen and it is quite the odd combination. I don't know what to do about it. But I love Harry Potter so very much and cannot believe it is over... It took us about an hour to leave the theatre because that meant it was really over and none of us wanted it to be really over. It's kind of official now, my childhood is over.

But life is still wonderful.

Love always,

Ems

Clean Sheets.

My completely clean sheets are sitting one foot away from me....

I don't quite feel like making my bed, so I'm going to blog.

So here's the joyous things that have been going on. Whoever said that summer nights were long and boring did not hang out with my friends. We've been fully entertained till midnight every night and spent a grand total of about two bucks. Mega added bonus.

Here's some stories and pictures.

My family took a trip to California. Jake met us down there and we spent a fabulous day on the beach and in the ocean. Oh, I could live in the ocean.

While there we took Sarah (my brother's girlfriend) to see the famous Hollywood sign. This is what entertained us more.

I started nannying. My bag constantly holds my book of recipes, an apron, sugar cookie making necessities, five Dr. Seuss books, a plethora of movies and a prayer that nobody will kill each other during the day. (they never do- they're good boys)

We played the flour game at Joey's. Zack and Joey had a flour-off at the end. They were jealous of my awesome tic-tac-in-the-flour finding skills and had to try and beat me. Unfortunately, only everyone else has pictures of my entire face (not kidding) covered in flour. It was exciting.

We also played Badminton at Joey's. This is Zack trying to teach Caroline how to hit the birdie. It was... semi successful. Let's just say, I rock at Badminton. And Caroline... well, she's getting there. 

That's a snippet of our adventures. Hopefully I'll become a better photographer over the summer and then you'll hear lots of exciting stories.

Isn't life lovely?

Love always,
Ems

Dream Job.

There are two summer jobs I've always wanted....

An EFY Counselor

and/or

A Nanny.

Considering I could still (technically) go to EFY this year, obviously that's not possible for me to be.

However, I did land a GREAT Nannying job today and I could not be more excited! I start on Friday and am going to be nannying every other week for a family of three boys. I met with their dad today and he hired me on the spot.

Hip Hip Hooray!

And I really love summer and bike rides and deep talks with my best friend, Zack Jarvis.

(this is an A-typical portrayal of our relationship)

Aren't best friends the greatest?

Who cares if we can't name all 50 states when looking at the giant map at my elementary school.

Life is wonderful

Love always,
Ems

Taunting Me...

Yesterday, I'm driving home, enjoying my 102.5 KNIX country music, right? Right. Singing along, loving it, when all the sudden a song comes on........


"And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cause it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss
It's a sip of wine, it's summertime
Sweet summertime"

I almost started to cry. REALLY KNIX?! DO YOU THINK IT'S SUMMERTIME?! No, this is what it is.

 Winter. Am I wearing my swimsuit and basking in the sunlight and heat?! No. Instead, I'm sitting here, driving home from SCHOOL in a JACKET. Hi, it's freezing here!{well, Arizona equivalent to freezing which is anything under seventy} I was upset at KNIX so I changed my music to listen to my Weepies cd. {Very fitting since I wanted to weep... haha. I'm so puny}

Rant done.

But can I just tell you how much I adore summer? 

Being an Arizona girl, it's a whole heck of a lot more than most people! Give me a pool, some 100 degree weather, a book, and my tunes, and I'm content for the rest of my life. Yes, the cold has the cuddle advantages and the warm bundle up advantages but it's not that fun when all you own is summer cloths and some coats..... And summer, just has that romantic mood about it. You're out of school, you can have a summer love and run wild with him, you can be a little bit rebellious, and there's no cares! 

I want it to be summer..... Please come faster. And now I really really want a summer love.... that just sounds wonderful. Please, someone volunteer. {and by someone, I mean a boy :)}

Love Always,

Ems

Overdueness

So this event happened.... forever ago. But I just barley stole the pictures from Jordynn. There are only three.... but what do you expect from tubing down a river? Now that you know the activity..... haha

We went tubing down the Salt River! Yes, Arizona has rivers. I know, it's shocking. Anyway, it was crazy fun! You don't even know.... Unless you've done it.... So now to the pictures because I have nothing else to sa
to say....

One of my very favorite persons ever.... 

Zac Velarde. 

yup, he's cool. 

legitamitly

This pic turned funky on me....

But it's Zack Jarvis looking like the child that he is all the time. 

Straightup he acts like a five year old.

No big.

And finally, my favorite!

The Zac(h){k} attack!

All three of them piled up. 

Aren't they weird?!

(or cute...you choose)

That's all.

Love always,

Ems 

What I've been doing...

Holy Crazy Busy Summer.  But so fun. So, picture recap. :) Plus a few funny short stories. :)
First: Pizza Making Party & Failed Dive-in Movie.

 Adam Caught in the act of creating....

THIS. Ingredients?

Pizza Dough Base

Peanut Butter Sauce

Chocolate Chips squished in

Lovely Chocolate Smiley Face Topper

All cooked on a pizza grill stone.....

What do you think?

Good? Bad? or Uggggly?

Spencer Thatcher on left with Spencer Smith on right looking ravishing after jumping in my bath tub of a pool waiting for the movie. 

Funny Story:

So it was super windy with a possibility of rain that night but my father and I sent up the movie anyways crossing our fingers it would all turn out. So we cook the pizzas and chat and all the sudden-gaghom! Wind storm. Movie Screen blown down. So I send everyone inside to watch a movie and right as Spencer Smith and I finish cleaning up the electronics and screen, the sky clears up and the wind stops. Like really?! Only at my party. We enjoyed the movie indoors nonetheless. :)

Number Two: Connor's Farewell in Utah

Story First.

Sunday my mom wakes me up with this

"We're going over to Brad and Amy's to clean Brad's office because he stepped on a pitchfork and is going to the E.R."

um.... What?

So we went over and cleaned the office to help Amy get ready for the open house after church (note, bad idea to make open house RIGHT after church). And yes, my uncle Brad did step on a Rusty picthfork and it jammed right inbetween his pinkie toe and other toe and guess what? It became a staph infection. Hours before his son's farewell address. We all just figured he was hungry for attention.

Monday night we set off fireworks for my Uncle Bart's Birthday

That's Connor standing probably 2 feet away from the firework....

he payed eventually and got burnt by one of the flames. 

But that's my cousins for ya.

the aftermath

Kiersha after summersaulting up and down my grandma's lawn.

Third: Girls' Camp.

We learned 'The Booty Bump'. Nuff said.

F

Fourth: Goodwill Shopping in Scottsdale with Alex and DeAnne.

Um... hi. I LOVE Goodwill.

Like seriously, it's 

da bomb.

Items purchesed:

ADORABLE super vintage green dress. $10

I'm in love.

Guess Side Purse. $4

2 Totally vintage necklaces. $3 each

It's the best place ever. 

 oh... and we bought these....

 Aren't they amazing?! 

Alex and I thought we'd bring the knee boot into style....

JOKE.

We found them in Off 5th (the saks outlet) and died a little bit of how totally ridiculous they were. We just had to try them on. You know how that goes....hopefully.

Seventh: Scrabble with the Zac(k)s Jordynn and Alex.

This is Zack Jarvis. 

This is his favorite pose.... 

his poor wife.

Alex calculating the score and the rest of us looking....

well, a bit off our rocker.

The End Result (upside-down, my bad)

Only Scrabble game I've ever played with ALL the letters used up!

Sixth: CRAFT DAY with my dear Namoi!

Need I say more?! :)

Nams was in HEAVEN in this place-no joke.

We made a Mcedee's stop after for the best combo ever....

ice cream twist cones and french fries.

tell me we're unhealthy and I'll say....

we're young. :)

(p.s. do you like her 'stach?)

Last but not Least: Shootin' guns with the fame and JORDY!

 Couldn't she totally be Bond's sexy assistant?!

i LOVE this girl

with all my heart! 

And bees love her too.... 

We had a bee that followed us around the entire time!

And it especially loved Jordynn...

Which when a bee is chasing jordynn and she's holding the pistol in her hand....

it get a bit scary. haha

don't  worry we're all safe still. :)