Bathing Suits, Birthdays, and Beautiful Drives

I know, I know, I missed the Saturday Squeeze yesterday.

But I had legitimate reasoning!

One of my best friends, Sam, invited me over to her house to swim in her pool and celebrate her birthday!

[ Check out her blog! ]

It was super hot outside, so the pool was absolutely perfect. 

Happy people in a pool.
Sam & me.

It was so nice to catch up on our lives and everything, since we haven't seen each other in weeks. It's so hard to go from living next door to someone in a dorm to living in two different cities.

Then we went out to dinner with Sam's friend and boyfriend to celebrate Sam's birthday. The food was great, everyone was happy, and it was all-around a good time. 

I slept at Sam's house and we spent the morning talking to her mom and just hanging out. 

Driving to and from Sam's house is always lovely because the ride is so scenic and it takes you over hills and through fields and farms.

The weather was perfection.

I had the windows rolled down and music blasting.

You know how there's some music that's just perfect for driving on a nice day? It was like my iPod knew exactly what I wanted to hear. 

It's the kind of time where you reflect on your life and what you want to do with it. It's inspirational and it's refreshing.

It's perfect.

3 of My Favorite Driving-With-The-Windows-Down Songs:

"I Woke Up in a Car" by Something Corporate

[ So here I am. ]

"If I Die Young" by The Band Perry

[ Just too beautiful to not listen to. ]

"You Can Breathe" by Jack's Mannequin

[ You can breathe now. ]

It was one of those times where you hold your hand out the window and let the wind slip through your fingers.

Just to feel.

Like I said, it was perfect.

Let Your Colors Burst

Happy Fourth of July!

I'm not patriotic at all, [most of the time, I feel like I would be better suited living in Europe] and so really the only part of today that I like is the fireworks.

When I was a kid, I was scared to death of them. I loathed every Fourth of July and when we watched the fireworks show, I would cower under an umbrella and sob hysterically. I was positive that the burning pieces would fall down on me and light me on fire. 

It annoyed my parents. Quite a bit.

Thankfully, those days are over and I'm now in love with fireworks.

There's just something so magical about them.

Too bad today I had to work, and so I couldn't go with my family to see any. A very sad day, indeed. 

So I'm filling this void in my heart with pictures of fireworks, instead!

This is super cool. When you look away for
a second, it almost looks like the fireworks are moving.
[ source ]

Loving the red to green to pink!
[ source ]

So amazing; a completely new way to see a firework.
[ source ]

Grand finale!
[ source ]

Do you have any Fourth of July traditions?

What's your favorite part of this holiday?

Shattered

Newfound love?

Shatter nail polish!

[ I guess it's also called "Crackle". It depends on what brand you buy. ]

My mom recently picked this up for me at the store and I tried it for the first time today.

Here's how mine turned out!

Now I just want to shatter everything.

My toenails, my mom's nails, my brothers' nails, my dog's nails, the walls...

For being so unique, it's super easy to do.

Just paint your nails [white, black, whatever] and then paint over them with the shatter color!

Boom, you're done.

Here are some other cool examples of this new trend:

Use different base colors!
[ source ]

Black and gold, super glam.
[ source ]

Blue on blue, perfect for summer!
[ source ]

You should totally try this new look.

Peace. Love. Shatter.

Days

I've been pretty busy for the past two days.

Yesterday (Sunday), I had to attend a family party for my cousin's 8th grade graduation. 

Ate some food, played some frisbee, was practically interviewed by all of my aunts and uncles...

(I'm not a fan of family parties. At all.)

And then today (Monday), we had to bring my grandma's car back to her. She was away for the weekend and so she let me borrow it so that I could get to work and back without my parents having to drive me. 

Oh, the troubles with not owning your own car.

Later I went on an adventure walk with my good friend Lindsey. 

We made sure to take lots of pictures and act as childish as we possibly could.

Afterwards we stopped at the local beach and had a nice, long serious talk about life and people and such. 

Swinging!
[ Lindsey, me ]

Climbing!
[ me ]

...Sliding?
[ Lindsey ]

Standing on frolfing pins!
[ me ]

So a pretty decent day to follow a not-so-decent one!

The Saturday Squeeze

This Saturday Squeeze will entirely be some pretty great findings from the website dweebist.com.

I found this website on Wednesday and I'm pretty much addicted. Everything's just so funny. 

1. A guy and a bear dancing? Sounds good to me.

2. I'd just like a glass of kitten, thanks.

3. Oh guys, this picture cracks me up.

4. Seriously, when DID this happen?? Well, things have gotten interesting.

5. Am I the only one who really wants to try this, now?

6. This photograph is beautiful.

7. I kind of had the same reaction after watching Inception, too.

8.  This picture seriously made me laugh out loud.

9. This is the best feeling in the world.

10. I've always wanted to do what this girl is doing. 

Actually I did when I was younger, but it was a great dane and I 

fell off right after I had gotten on.

Have a happy Saturday!

Back on Track

I've been really confused lately. 

It's been one of those things where your mind makes something up to be a lot better than it actually would be and you have to fight with it, in a way. 

Here, say you want ice cream. You can pick between chocolate and vanilla. You usually get chocolate ice cream, because vanilla makes you feel a little sick, but the vanilla just looks so refreshing today. As you're trying to figure out which you want, the vanilla ice cream keeps taking over all your thoughts and you start believing that it could actually be better than chocolate. You think about it for a while longer, but then realize that you really don't want vanilla ice cream after all. You were just caught up in the "what if?" of it all. You just like chocolate ice cream better than vanilla, simple as that. It was just a fluke in your thinking. 

Maybe that didn't make any sense at all. Oh well. 

Anyways, I finally figured everything out, and I'm super ecstatic about it. 

As the title says, I'm back on track. 

Things are finally making sense again and I'm a lot let stressed than I was. 

Here's a picture I took while my family and I went on a bike ride that I think kind of

relates to the current situation. 

Light through the darkness! Huzzah!

I hope you had a great Friday as well. 

Have you been dealing with anything confusing lately? I love to hear other people's stories. 

Primary

I'm in a great mood today. Energetic, happy, excited. Like a child.

So what better to reflect my mood than to wear primary colors!

Primary colors, elementary school, children, get it?

So here I am, donning my primary colored shirt.

Sorry about the horrible quality, webcam pictures are never great.
Shirt: Charlotte Russe

Here are some other ways to do primary colors:

Such a fun outfit!
[ source ]

Mmmmm, shoes.
[ source ]

Love the marbling effect.
[ source ]

Ahh, it feels great to feel like a kid. 

Father's Day

Today my family and I went to visit with my Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins. 

We had a nice lunch, opened presents, ate cake, and played croquet.

We visited the cemetery where my other Grandpa is buried. This little angel statue was on one of the other tombstones and I thought it was nice. 

We got my dad an open fire popcorn popper for Father's Day. That meant bonfire. And that meant s'mores. Yum!

All in all, it shaped up to be a pretty good day. 

My dad and I have never been very close, but recently we've been spending a lot of quality time together. We've been telling each other stories and learning a lot. 

Do you have any Father's Day traditions? And what's your favorite memory of your dad?