And So It Goes: FAAALLLL BREEAAAKKK!!!!

What a week! General conference, midterms, and FALL BREAK! God is so good and He is truly at the head of His church! My heart is so full. ❤️

Also, congrats to my little brother and best friend Benny boo who turned 20 this week AND had his shoulder surgery. Everything went well in the operating room but recovery has been not the most pleasant experience for him (pain killers don't seem to have much affect on his body, poor guy) and we'd really appreciate it if you'd keep him in your prayers. He's sure a trooper and I love him tons!

This weekend was the bomb diggity! The institute we’re attending out here (Qasid) gave everyone a couple days off of school and so we left Friday morning for Petra, making a couple stops along the way (mosaics, castles, etc) and getting a load of biblical history the whole way. Yummy.

I have a whole ton of pictures aaaand since they’re, you know, worth a thousand words, I’ll let them do most of the explaining. Basic itinerary:

-Petra (treasury, monastery, happy explorations)

-Wadi Rum (desert “jeep” tour and CAMEL RIDE, sunset/sunrise goofing around, Bedouin dude ranch, star gazing which I don't have any pictures of of course, but we found Mars and lots of my happy constellation friends!)

-Aqaba (snorkeling in the Red Sea)

I honestly needed the break and “get out of the city” escapade so badly and am feeling quite refreshed and ready to hit the ground running these next couple months here in Amman. Time is going by so quickly! It’s insane. Also feel super fulfilled about getting to cross another thing off my bucket list: riding a camel through the desert. It was worth the wait, lemme tell ya.

Still just can’t believe I’m here in Jordan and am trying to just soak it all in!

"Little Petra"

Our tour guide cornered me into singing in the bottom of an old cistern outside of Little Petra. I don't necessarily love singing on the spot and it's never my best work but I do appreciate good acoustics!

Entering Petra

The treasury (most iconic part of Petra)

Made friends with a stray dog...nice change after all these filthy stray cats running around (don't worry Mom, I didn't touch it) ;)

850 stairs later...(can't believe someone had to carve all them bad hombres)

The Monastery

Overlooking the valley, soooo pretty!

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of Kasey and everyone else this weekend!

Jacob and Cher (power couple and seriously so much fun to be around, also they're adorable)

Never turned down so many donkey rides in my whole life

Two little Bedouin kids who came up to me and said, "bidik chingkum?" Finally figured out they were asking me if I had any "chewing gum" haha super cute and they shoved both pieces I gave them in their mouths and skipped off. Probably bum a lot of gum off tourists