desert girl forever.

I love driving around Las Vegas.

I love the wide asphalt roads and the dirt lots on almost every corner.

I love the stark beauty of the desert in the distance, so stunning and desolate.

I love the blue blue blue skies during the day...

... and I love the glow of city lights at night. I love seeing the Luxor light from anywhere in the valley.

I love random old houses surrounded by dirt, and crooked old roads, and broken down fences and all the other random run-down landmarks scattered about the sides of roads.

I love narrow roads with nothing but cactus on either side.

Someday I will live in a house in the middle of the desert

(...but still close enough to stores).

I love driving by my old elementary schools at night, and noticing that you can see the Strip from the playground (...and realizing that I never caught on as a kid that having the Las Vegas Strip a couple of miles from school was unusual).

I love the palm trees.

I love the street names, especially the Spanish names and the old western names.

I love that it's 102 degrees at 11:00 at night.

I love the way my flip flops feel like they might melt in the middle of the day (sometimes).

I love the way the desert makes me feel like I'm somehow tough and brave.

And I love that the desert breeds the kind of people who are resilient and tenacious and loyal and loving.

I love that I grew up among this kind of people.

A lot of days I wish I could be back with my friends in Provo or off to my mission in Missouri...

...but for tonight, I am grateful to be in the Vegas desert, because it's where my heart belongs.