to harry

it's harry's 33rd birthday today. 

and as a big harry potter fan myself, 

i'm going to list 33 things that i love most about harry.

just kidding. 

while i probably could do that, 

i know not many want to actually read it. 

so instead i'll spend the night in celebration by watching 

number 5 instead of watching the bachelorette. 

ugh i need to catch up. 

anyways, 

harry, you are the fictional character that gives inspiration to many. 

to harry.

dear best friends,

remember those times that we used to stay up later than all of us really wanted to, just so we could keep enjoying the time we were having talking to each other? do you also remember those times that we would run around the hallways and try to start a prank war and then nothing even happened with it? sometimes there are days that i think about the epic game nights we would have and i laugh at the recalled animal noises that always gave away CJ. it makes me laugh to think about how we tried so hard to play kissing rugby with so many people and it only happened once or twice, because it was hard to find the right crowd. and by right crowd, i mean the guys that we hung out with so much, that i feel like I'm missing my brothers because i haven't heard from them in so long. do you remember when we would do nothing at all on a friday night, so we would buy chips and dip, and an occasional pizza and just watch movies the whole time? i loved those nights. thats when i felt like i had sisters. but when when we tried to "sneak in" to a hart dance that was actually really free-that was probably the funniest thing we ever did.

i also can't believe that we're going to all be in the same place again at the same time in just a few weeks. i already can't wait to be all together and feel that silly yet totally heart warming bond that probably looks like something similar to the reunion of the sisterhood of the traveling pants. i call being lena.

do you also remember when i took this picture? hahah

more mondays

I have a really big crush on Phillip Phillips.
I was in a commercial today for my work. Things like that never happen to me.
Whenever I smell the scent of cigarettes, it makes me feel like I'm in Europe.
I think I'm a pushover.  I just really hate saying no.
My singles ward gives me mixed feelings. It feels just like high school, and thats not something I'm a fan of.
I held a newborn baby the other day and I fell in love.  I forgot how much I love babies.
Sometimes my twin brothers forget that they're too cool for me lately and we have a good time.
I had the biggest and grossest zit of my life this past week. I was embarrassed by my own body.
Whenever I read a trashy mag, I feel so in the know.
Thoughts that go through my head before a date are jumbled and as follows: I hope he's taller than me. I don't want bad breath, I hope I brought enough gum. What if I get sick? That would be awkward.
This week I'm going to be better at blogging than last week. I'm also trying to not look at my phone while I drive. I think a police officer thought I was texting at a red light, but really I was just checking my Instagram.

30/52

222. my essie collection is growing

223. living with brothers. 

224. pioneer day with the girls from the block

225. fun things at work

226. I love a Lower Lights concert

227. Flower crowns and other fun things with friends

blessed

i am divinely blessed, in more ways than i should be allowed. 

i find myself complaining often about the busy things

and the little faults of my own being, 

but i am divinely reminded quite often just how much i am being given.

in both concrete and abstract ways, there is no limit to what i have been given.

and i am so very grateful for that. 

because its those times that i realize that i am being blessed beyond what i deserve, 

that i realize just how important i am as a person and how grand my potential can be.

you should try looking at it that way sometimes-

it can be wonderfully eye opening. 

I still take pictures

And I very much want to take as many as I can!

Pass along the word to your family and friends!

monday

I got my ears pierced this weekend. I’m 21 years old and I felt pretty big.

Mondays around these parts are known for being notoriously busy. I feel like I run all day.

I’ve watched the new Hunger Games trailer 15 times now. 

I keep having this dream that I have a fiancé and we’re madly in love and going to get married and move to Boston, but then I wake up.

Sometimes the man that’s my fiancé is the dreamy and British Aiden from Revenge. And I’m ok with that.

I can never go to bed when I say I'm going to.

When the Lea Michele version of Without You comes on my mom's shuffle, I want to cry a little for Fin.

I always feel like my life is on the verge of something great lately in my life. I hope it doesn’t wear off.

I booked a flight to be reunited with all my friends for Can Can’s wedding and I screamed in joy.

How did I go this long without trying fire roasted tomato and olive oil Triscuts?

Last night I stayed up way too late talking to my favorite teenage friend and her mom.

I got a massage for the first time in my life today. It was heavenly.

Being completely done with camp makes me kind of sad at times. I miss all my little bits.

I’m absolutely itching to do a photo shoot. My brain is spilling over the rim with creativity.

Once I wanted to leave this life and start a new one backpacking around 3^rd worlds countries and giving humanitarian aid. I still want to do that.

29/52

215. notes for days

216. i like wearing green

217. these feet need some TLC.

and a different tan line

(thanks TOMS)

218. this is how i talk on the phone

219. yay, they're getting married soon! 

and yay those are my pictures in an announcement!

220. i'm starting to grow a little coin collection from foreign countries

221. we watch movies on sundays

I am Danish

My grandmother's adventure was German, 

but as for my grandfather, it was all Danish.

i am obsessed with danish poppy fields. 

as you will notice throughout this post.

i have cute parents

my grandpa searches for family in a cemetary

this is where his family lived and farmed.

copenhagen docks

My Grandpa's family came from Denmark. 

The prophet Brigham Young asked his grandparents to immigrate

over to the states so that they could bring the Danes in the gospel here. 

(family mentioned in this church talk here)

His father was then called as a missionary to go back to Denmark

and start the work there. 

We are heavily Danish, as you can tell by the blonde haired blue eyed Jensen's,

and it was such a good experience to see all of the exact places 

that my great grandparents had lived and served and been.

I love my family and the sacrifices and great measures they took

so that I could be here today and have the wonderful blessings that I have.

i have a crush on him. 

and i love this song in this wonderful acoustic version.

København

my parents are tourists

look like narnia to anyone else?

Copenhagen is a dream. It's like a European New York City, 

but way better because of the history. And the danishes. 

City: København, or Copenhagen

Favorite place: Definitely the Frederiksborg castle. I could have stayed there all day.

New found interest: Photographing interiors. At least I could have all day at the castle.

Best art: The original Christus statue in the official church of Denmark.

Funniest occurrence: Running into LDS members from other parts of the world 

on 3 different occasions. It was even funnier when one couple was from 

small college town and taught at my school. 

Traveler's advice: Be prepared to go bankrupt in Denmark. 

It is literally 3 times as much as any other European country. 

I only wish that was a joke. And learning Danish isn't essential. 

Most people speak English and very well. 

i think i'm still in love with my (fictional) boyfriend...s?

is it silly when i find myself thinking about men that i find attractive?

let me re-phrase that. 

is it silly when i find myself thinking about men that AREN'T REAL?

yeah. i can answer that for myself.

and while my younger adolescence friends will testify 

(jenna went through a pretty tough smallville phase with me)

i am nowhere near as bad as i used to be.

i think that out of embarrassment, i've chosen to keep myself from day dreaming

over the late matthew crawley or imagining an elsa-clark kent perfect date,

but i have to admit that small certain part of me that can't help but swoon

when i watch jim tell pam he loves her for the first time

or when tom talks about the things he loves about summer. 

i think it's instilled in women.

partly a curse that keeps me from going on another date

or chasing after that one guy, 

because he won't play peter gabriel on a boombox outside my window

(though that could be weird because i sleep in a basement).

i guess what i'm trying to say is, 

i think i haven't gotten over my fictional boy figures yet and the break ups begin now.

This day deserves a story. Hamburg.

And I hope that at least a few of you stick around to read it.

Because this was a day that was altering and beautiful to me 

and I wish to share that with those that will listen.

this much i had always known of my family before me:

they were full blooded german (on my grandmother's side)

her father (my great grandfather Karl) had been involved in the wrong efforts by accident 

during WWII and was captured by Nazis, 

and eventually the entire family immigrated to America to stay.

I ama named after Karl's wife, my great grandma Elsa,

and that has always been of at least a small significance to me.

as i have grown older and learned more, i've had specific and spiritual moments 

in which i have felt my grandma Elsa.

and this day in particular is one in which i learned the great importance of her 

and my special responsibility of the name that i hold that is hers.

the purpose of this entire trip was to take my father's parents back 

to the countries that they had come from.

my grandpa to denmark, and my grandma to germany. 

neither had been and it was a big ordeal that almost all 

of their children and some of their grandchildren joined in on

and i heard of stories of my ancestors that i had never heard before.

this is as much as i know.

my great grandpa had worked in the government at the time of hitler's take over

and did not like the direction that he was taking the country in.

while he resisted, he was found and taken to a concentration camp.

he escaped and spent several months on the run.

i'm unsure as to the timing of the events, but i know that Elsa was left to her own with her children.

Hamburg was put under massive bombings because of its status as a port town,

and because of that the women and children were evacuated to live 

in an evacuated work camp on the outskirts of the city.

It was there that Elsa gave birth to my grandma during the middle of an air raid, in a bomb shelter.

there were so many stories, but the message was still the same to me.

they greatly sacrificed so that we could be here today.

so that i could carry a message as a namesake.

we spent that day trying to find where the work camp had been that my grandma was born in.

while it was a bit of a goose chase, we were surrounded and helped 

by the most wonderful germans that were so pleased to have been a part of it.

we finally found the street next to that which the camp had been

and a sweet old german man told us that he had lived there his whole life

 and we were in the right place.

with a few of the old bunkers left, we knew it too.

it was an incredible experience, and one that i am quite proud to have been a part of.

we spent the rest of the day at the harbor and saw in person 

what we had seen in paintings of my great grandfather so many times.

i was grateful for that day and the lesson it gave me of family and heritage

and of the strong witness of the importance of my name

and the person that bore it.

my great grandparents, grandmother, and great uncle in Salt Lake.