Landed in Alaska:

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Some beautiful mountain pictures from my plane ride to Alaska. I didn’t announce it formally on here- so I thought I’d take the night I still have wi-fi to share these images (more below) and tell you that I’m checking out for a week because I’m in America’s last frontier! My dad and I our doing a huge father/daughter bounding trip. We’ve talked about going to Alaska for years, and decided that if we were going to do it it should be while I was still in school. Talk about a killer final spring break.

So far my dad and I have just been in Fairbanks, but we start reaching past that tomorrow. Look forward for a lot more posts- on dog sledding, on snow mobile riding, and on the NORTHERN LIGHTS. See you soon bloggers.

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Mountain Love: Escape to Virginia

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I spent New Years in Virginia- right outside of Hubbard -at my aunts house. While the farm was great (you’ve seen the pigs – their fb page is here) the views were out of this world too. Her house sits right on top of a mountain. We hiked a bit and I stood for a good thirty minutes on the back porch taking pictures of this sunset. I can understand the drive to be out there. It was all around peaceful and slow, and I can’t imagine a life completely like that, but boy do I hope I have it some day soon.

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Dreaming: Fontana Lake

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One of my closest friends and I were a little fed up with this summer and made a last minute effort trying to resurrect it. With my neighboring offering up his mountain house we headed off to Fontana Lake in the mountains of North Carolina. Turns out they upped the age limit for boat driving, but we were more than happy going at it on the paddle boats.

Nothing is more detoxing than being surrounded by nature with no cell or web access. As much as I love this little corner of the web and my dear time on tumblr and instagram… fact be, it’s so important to get away from it all. We aren’t meant to live online all the time.

Sky High

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My senior year of high school I remember thinking “what if I’m never this happy again.” I was honestly terrified of that. I had great friends, a boyfriend, and felt carefree. Freshman year of college struck and I lost my boyfriend to a break up and almost all my friends to school. It was not an awesome time, definitely not the “great college life” that everyone talked about. I spent all of sophomore year repairing it, and I mean all of it, the last half of it, I could feel full happiness on the horizon. I made friends, I found old ones, I kick started back into my hobbies.

This semester I found full happiness, honest to God every part of me bloomed. There are still a few things that could improve, but honestly I couldn’t be happier with where I am. My self confidence completely morphed. My friendships are so much more meaningful. I’m doing well in my studies, career plans, and hobbies. It’s beautiful in my soul.

And the beautiful thing is: I’m not afraid of losing it. Because a lot of the things I gained, can’t be taken from me. Life will surely try to sink me again, and I’m sure there are times that it’ll be far from sunny outside, but nothing can kill the sunshine I’ve got in my soul.