Just Another Day in Paradise....

Remember that one time I didn't blog for 2 years?

2011-12-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back after a 2 year hiatus. I was inspired by another blogger who I spent a good 48 hours stalking all the way back to the beginning of her blog in 2008. So here I am.

To kick things off, I'm posting something I found and loved. I think it describes me to a T.

“Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.”

-Rosemarie Urquico

Catching up

2009-10-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

So it's been foreeeever since I last posted on here... Here are some highlights of what's been going on with me lately.

Broke up with Brad almost 2 months ago
Got in my first car accident pulling out of the school parking lot.
Went to NY for a week and turned 18. While there we did LOTS of shopping and saw The Phantom of The Opera (so incredible!) and Wicked (my 3rd time, but still amazing) on Broadway.
Got Swine Flu and was down and out for all of Homecoming week my senior year. Buuuummer.
Qualified for the National Merit Award based on my test scores, which puts me in the top 15,000 seniors nation-wide
Saw The Killers and Pacific Lights (my friend from EFY's band based out of California) in concert
Found my future husband in the guitarist from PL, a Mormon kid who also lives way far away in California :( haha
Had my photography published in the phoenix New Times magazine- Best of Phoenix Edition 2009
Went to Nauvoo this summer and got to do baptisms in the Nauvoo temple. Super cool experience.
Planned a service project to take family pictures at a homeless center for families
Am slowly making progress on BYU apps
Our stake got 3 new wards from another stake, and new wards=new boys to date ;) holla!

Well, that's about all that I can think of that's gone down since i blogged last. I'm just trying to enjoy senior year and make the most of it!

National Merit Awards Night

It's Haircut Time!

2009-07-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

So after close to 10 years of having long emo flippy hair, Brad finally decided it was time for a change (not without a little coercing from Becca however). After weeks of agonizing indecision he finally took the leap of faith and let me take him to Emily's to have his hair cut short.... and yes, it was as big of a deal as I'm making it sound. His hair was his trademark, his baby even.
Here's the journey:

The before shot

We thought it would be cool to stop here and leave him looking like Peter Parker gone emo from the 3rd Spider Man

Almost done... will he like it???

The final product. Aw it's not so bad now is it?
Goodbye awkward little Brad, hello studly man Brad :P

P.S. You're welcome Sister Anderson. Presenting your son with short "church boy length hair"
:)

Fourth o' July

2009-07-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ariel, Brad, the parentals, and I went downtown to watch fireworks this year for the Fourth of July.
The fireworks show was pretty bomb, but the show we put on in our backyard after was the best part of the night :)
After we got home, we found about 15 boxes of reeeeeeeeally old sparklers and poppers and commenced lighting them. Que hilarious fun.

At the fireworks show

Sparkler madness

We felt like Harry Potter...

He's a bird?

The aftermath

Tay Swift

2009-05-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

My friend Bethany and I got Taylor Swift tickets really last minute the week of the concert, but we were able to get really cheap floor tickets. We went out to Jobbing.com with a couple of our other friends and had dinner out there before the concert.

Bethany and Madeline

Bethany and I
Yes I'm a dork and wore my cowboy hat and boots

Bethany, Madeline, and me

Bethany and I went down to our floor seats which were fairly close, and we watched Gloriana (Tay's opening band) and Kellie Pickler (who wasn't that great) from our seats. Then Taylor came out accompanied by a large about of screaming provided by the masses of preteen girls.
Taylor sang her first few songs from the main stage, then went off stage. At that point we found out that she was coming down to a small revolving platform about 5 feet from our seats. We moved up closer to the little stage and waited for her to come down. When she came down singing Hey Stephen, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I joined ranks with the screaming preteens, and she even grabbed my hand as she was walking by. We were one of about 15 people that they let through the ropes to go up close to Taylor as she sang on the little stage, and it was way cool being that close to her.
After singing a few songs on her little stage, she worked her way back up to the main stage. Emboldened by being so close to Taylor, we pushed through the standing crowds until we were front row against the stage, and we stayed there for the second half of the concert. No joke, I was 5 feet away from Taylor Swift for a good hour. Amazing! She grabbed my hand 2 more times, and it was so much fun!
The entire show was really well done, and she is even more amazing live than she is in recording. The show ended with a waterfall pouring down on her during Should Have Said No, and the falling water spelled NO as it fell. So cool!! But enough drooling over Taylor, here's some of the close up shots i got in between screaming like a little girl and singing my head off.

On the small stage

Coyote's jersey with Swift on the back

During the waterfall

"Prom?" he asks

2009-04-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday while I was at a Young Women's conference, Brad was quite busy at my house. He spent over an hour putting 1,200 sticky notes on my car. Each one had something prom related written on it.

On my door it said open for nerds, so I opened the door expecting to find candy, and there he was with candy AND roses. There were two nerds inside my car :P

His prom is April 25th and I'm way excited! I have yet to ask himt to mine though, which is on may 16th. I will have to get him back for this ;)

Hamlet

2009-02-23T21:22:00.000-08:00

Brad helped me with a Hamlet project I had to make. The assignment was to pick a well-known quote from Hamlet and make a visual representation for it. It could be in any form. I decided to take pictures. I still need to figure out how to bind the whole photo progression together though...

Valentines Day

2009-02-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

For Valentines Day this year, Brad planned everything so it was a total surprise that night what we were doing. We got to his house and he had a table set up with candles and fancy silverware and the works. We made dinner together, spaghetti, and ate it at his little table. He wanted to set it up outside on the top of the mountain, but it was too cold. After dinner he took me up the mountain where he wanted to have dinner and brought a blanket so we could look at the stars.
We gave each other presents, I got him a really cute hockey patterned fleece blanket because he plays hockey :)
Finally we came back to his house and decorated cookies and hung out with his little sisters until he had to take me home.
Keeper? I think so :)

Hoopcoming

2009-02-15T21:11:00.001-08:00

Brad's school had their Hoopcoming dance, but none of his friends wanted to go, so a big group of us went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory dressed up in fancy clothes instead. After dinner we walked around Keirland Commons for a while and froze our butts off. Everyone stared at us because we were a big group of teenagers in formal clothes wandering around the stores. Lots of old ladies stopped us to tell us how darling we looked and to ask if we were going to the "Junior Senior Prom," so we would explain to them that prom wasn't for a few more months lol. Since we were all so cold we decided to go back to Brad's house and hop in the hot tub until curfew.

I had fun getting to know Brad's friends better and hanging out with his crowd. Awesome night!

Ariel's going away party

2009-02-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

The star of the party.

Showing off my new haircut :)

Best friends :)

Jared dancing

"Oh go is the jam!"
haha

The girls

Nice swimsuit Jared...

Me and AJ

Ariel and her... date?

Ariel and Kelton

So the weekend before Ariel left, Kelton and I told her that we were going ice skating. For the whole week before, she was sooooo excited about her and Kelton doubling with me and Brad to go ice skating and she would not stop talking about it. All the while, Kelton and I were planning a surprise going away party for her! The night finally came, and Brad and I picked her up and told her we were on our way to pick up Kelton. When we got to his house, she jumped out and ran to the door to get him. He aswered after she rang, and pulled her inside for a hug. When he spun her around a bunch of our friends were waiting on Kelton's stairs to surprise her! She was so surprised she almost started crying. It was amazing. Kelton and I were pretty proud that we kept it under wraps for a whole weekwithout her findingo out.

She was a bit sad that she didn't actually get to go ice skating with Kelton before she left, but all's well that end's well, because we took her ice skating the next Monday when we were off of school :)

Ice Skating

2009-02-01T10:56:00.003-08:00

Ice skating... for real this time!

Snowbowl

2009-02-01T10:56:00.001-08:00

Brad, Tyler, Lauren, Jordin, and I made a quick Saturday trip up to snowbowl to do some snowboarding, or skiing in Brad's case. It was perfect weather, and an awesome trip!

We saw AJ and Kelton up there too, so we hung out with them for a bit

Me about to do my first tailgrab. It was epic.

I hate the Senate...

2009-01-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

Mostly because they're stealing my best friend away from me on January 23.
Ariel is going to be a page for the Senate, so she will be going to school in the morning for 4 hours and working in the Senate for the rest of the day. She will live in a tiny dorm with 6 other girls, and there are 30 pages total.

Its going to be really tough not having her here, and to make it worse, she will only have her cell phone and internet on the weekends, but hopefully it will be an awesome experience for her and she will have tons of fun!

Only 2 more weeks :/

A Jon Schmidt Christmas

2009-01-09T17:42:00.001-08:00

For Christmas, I got Brad and I tickets to see Jon Schmidt in concert, because Brad plays all his music, and basically idolizes him. Jon Schmidt is a phenomenal LDS pianist who is pretty famous in the piano world.
Ok, so this may not sound very exciting, a piano concert right? Surprisingly it was really fun, and he played a lot of cool renditions of Christmas songs as well as his own songs. Brad was in heaven.

Us all dressed up before the concert.

The coolest thing happened at the end of the concert. Jon Schmidt said he had put stickers on a group of armrests before the show and asked if the family sitting in them could come up to the stage. A mom with three little kids and a baby went up and Jon started talking to them. He asked what the mom did for a living, and she said that she was lucky enough to be able to stay home with their kids and that her husband was making the ultimate sacrafice by serving in Iraq in the military. The mom said that her son (about 4) had a special song he sang to his dad on the phone, and could he sing it for the audience. So the little boy did, and it was really cute. Jon then asked the kids when their father was coming home, and they said he would be home in a week, just in time for Christmas. Finally Jon said, "I have someone special here who wants to see you guys." Right after he says that their dad walks out from backstage still in his army get-up and the kids and the mom run to hug him. I started crying, and I look over at Brad, and I swear that is the only time I have seen that kid cry. The whole audience was in tears. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen!

Poker Night

2009-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Brad had a poker night at his house on friday. Sounds like a nice Mormon activity right? :P
He had a bunch of his friends over and I brought a couple of my friends too.
Apparently I'm awesome at poker.... next time we're playing for real money ;)

Me and Jen, my little sister. Ok so I guess technically she's Brad's little sister, but she would sooner claim me than him lol

Thats right, I just won EVERYTHING from Brad. No big deal.

It was down to me and him, check out the chip piles.

Yeah, i dont know what face he was making in this one...

Then we switched to Rockband.

Brad's Homecoming

2008-10-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

Ok I know this post is really late since homecoming was forever ago, but I never got the pictures up, so here they are.

We went to dinner before at Macaroni Grill with a bunch of his friends then went to the dance which was at ASU west in a really nice ballroom. Our homecoming was in our gym, so it was pretty cool going to a nice dance.

This appeared on my bathroom mirror while I was at my school's homecoming. Cute kid huh? :)

I couldn't wear heels because of my broken ankle so I am quite a bit shorter than him :( oh well, what can you do. At least I got out of my plastic cast for the night.

Chandler's date, one of my best friends from my ward.

So Chandler is my ex, and Madi is Brad's ex, but we date swapped, therefore this awkward picture was born.

I personally think I got the better end of the deal ;)
Chandler is quite the creeper now, and Madi went with him on kind of a pitty date.

Boot-ilicious

2008-10-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

The whole time I was in Hawaii my ankle was very sore and swollen. We just thought I pulled something so I still surfed and ziplined on it. When we got home and went to the Dr. we found out that I have a stress fracture in my ankle. Sadly this means that I can't run in regionals or state for cross country :( I was pretty upset about this because that is basically the whole point of cross country and I went through a whole miserable season of being in pain from a couple different injuries and wont even get to run the big race.
I am now the proud owner of a boot cast for 4 weeks! I went to the doctor today and they were going to have to put a plaster cast on, but the Dr. decided I could stay in the walking boot, thankfully! The boot cast I can take off to sleep and shower. I am very happy about this because this means I can take it off for the homecoming dance this weekend and not look like a huge dork! Also, I got a handicapped tag for my car so I now have a guaranteed parking spot at school every day and dont have to get there early to get one!
Pictures of me and my sexy boot to come ;)

The Cab.Plain White T's.Dashboard Confessional.Panic! at the Disco

2008-10-19T19:18:00.000-07:00

Homecoming Dresses!

2008-09-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

Ok, for Emily (and anyone else who happens to read by blog), please tell me which one(s) you like best! I'm having trouble deciding! Oh and ignore my hair, I just got out of the shower after practice.

Yeah... I feel like a fish

You can't really tell in this picture but the bottom is kinda hardcore poofy-outy.

The top on this one looks huge but its only because the straps would need to be taken up if i decide to keep this one.

I really don't know about the brightly colored ruffles at the bottom

That's it. OK now comment and tell me which one's are cutest ;)

Ray Wherley Cross Country Invitational

2008-09-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Our cross country team went up to Prescott today for an invitational. It was a really long day because of travel time and because of the race format. They raced us in flights instead of how they normally do it where everyone goes together. The flights were runners 6&7 from each team, 4&5, 3&2, and the number 1 runners from each team. There were about 20 teams there, so about 40 girls per race. I got 10th place for my flight of 4&5s, which barely qualified me to medal! Also medaling from our was Laura, our #1 runner who got 3rd place overall, and Amy our #2 who got 5th! yeah Vikings!

Rock Climbing

2008-09-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday before the dance Michael and I doubled with Tyler and Brytaney and went rock climbing at Solid Rock Gym. It was pretty fun, and I was super proud of myself for making it up the hardcore walls like Spiderman (with only a little pulling from Michael). Pretty much the only reason I made it to the top is because Michael wouldn't let me down until I did. Afterward we went to the dance because Michael had to DJ, and we ended the night at Sonic. As Michael put it, "longest date ever!!!!"

I made it to the top!!!

And now we're both really hot and sweaty! :/

And Michael thinks he's Spiderman! Crazy kid!

The T-Squad

2008-09-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

So for my first football game of the season I didn't even go to my own school's game. Lame huh? Instead I went to Thunderbird's game to watch Jamie twirl. I went with Brad and Cory and met up with Michael, Tyler, Jenna, and Celeste who made me an un-official member of the T-Squad. I think I cheered more at that game than I ever have at a Sunnyslope game. Our school just doesn't have school spirit! Unfortunately the T-Bird Chiefs got killed, but I still had a great time anyways!

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Emily and I went out to the San Tan mall and went shopping! It was a super fun day and even though almost EVERYTHING is too big on me, I got some really cute new dresses!

AP Physics Party

2008-09-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

So on Thursday night Reid (resident genius of the Junior class), and Ariel, came over to do our 20 or so physics problems. As soon as we started we realized that it would take us longer than we had anticipated, and we didn't realize the crazy night we had ahead of us. At around 9pm my power went out, much to our chagrin. Instead of doing physics by candlelight, we moved to Ariel's house, and on the way to her house we had to traverse fallen trees and power lines blocking the road. It was raining and lightninging like crazy! Whew! Made it safely to Ariels. After a total of 6 hours spent on 20 physics problems we were finally done! With physics that is. I stayed at Ariel's to finish my other homework because my house didn't have power, but at about 11:30 Ariel's power went out too, so we finished the last couple hours by the light of about 30 tea candles. It got so hot! I was so tired the next day, but what can ya do? Welcome to Thursdays as an AP student.

"That's Not Rain!"

2008-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

On Christine's last night we finally got to prove to her that it really does rain in Arizona. It had sprinkled a few times before, but every time I got excited that water was fallin' from the sky, she would tell me that it wasn't really rain. Ariel and I decided to take Christine out for icecream on her last night, and so headed over to Baskin Robins. Right as we got inside, there was a big flash of lighting and *POW* the power goes out. We were then standing in the middle of a pitch black Baskin Robins... with no icecream. Let down of the Century! We gave up on our quest for icecream and just went back to Ariel's house where we played in the rain for a good half hour. A fun end to a fun four weeks with Christine!

Disneyland!

2008-09-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth! As her host family, we got to take Christine to Disneyland while she was here, and Sarah, Laura, and Aunt Lori were just lucky enough to get dragged along as well. In standard form, Mom decided to cram as much into this trip as was humanly possible. We started up through the Grand Canyon, which Sarah and Laura had never been to.

We then headed up through the red rocks of Sedona into the landmark Arizona town of... Kingman! OK, so maybe not, but we spent the night there and visited Aunt Nene as well. The next morning we headed on our way to California, stopping of in what we swore was Chinatown... well you'll have to look at the pictures to understand.

Grand Canyon or Bust!!

There were rooms and rooms of this! It never ended!

But I think you get the idea...

Finally we reached our house in Orange, Orange County, California. That's right, we were chillin in none other than the set of the OC and Laguna Beach. Christine thought she was in Heaven. That afternoon we spent an amazing time on Newport beach body surfing, tanning, skimboarding, and boogie boarding.

The next two days we spent at Disneyland and California Adventure from open to close. Christine was fascinated by everything Disney, and none of us were ready to go home at the end of the trip.

Scared to go on Tower of Terror!

Especially for Youth 2008

2008-09-03T20:54:00.001-07:00

I realized that I never posted pictures from EFY this summer. I went to EFY session 2 at Grand Canyon University, and Madi Hettinger and I were roomates. I loved my group so much this year, and we all got along really well. As always, I was not ready for the amazing week to end.

Me and Jordan

Me and Bert

Anysa, Me, Sam- Supergirl poses

Me and Sean, my COW :)

Sean again <3

Jeff, my super counselor

And Whittney, my girl counselor

All the girlies

Madi and I on the first day

Jumping in our pigtails on game night

Our team and flag on game night

Pizza night!!!

It's sad because after the week is over everyone is really gung-ho about keeping up the feeling you had at EFY, but its hard going back home and keeping up the enthusiasm and keeping the Spirit as strong in your life. Also, everyone swears they'll keep in touch and still be as close next time EFY rolls around, but it never happens. A couple months later, I only talk to maybe 3 or 4 of the people from my group, Bert, Sean, Jordan, and Madi of course.

Deutchland

2008-07-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

We got back from Germany on Friday night and were all very exhausted after many hours flying. It's so good to be home but I miss Emily like crazy! We had so many good times!
*Nancy taking us on the Pedestrian walkway. Jon- "We can get through this way... I'll just have to move one barrier."
*"Push the Button" I swear Emily, it doesn't exist.
*"Flip a B"
*Ow Charlie, that really hurt! Charlie...
*The crazy crowds on the night of the Euro cup
*Wipeout on the luge
*Emily's hose
*Don Giovani. Thank you Prego Emily for letting us escape that one.
*Randomly talking in British accents all the time.
*The mysterious salami smell in the car.
*"Oh look there's another waterfall!" Great mom...
*Our AWESOME duck outfits
*The Cheese Factory. Emily and I were really bummed we missed that one.
*"Please make a U-Turn if possible" Thanks Nancy...
*Singing random songs really loud, especially at the open air museum. People probably thought we were out of our minds.
*All the drama over splitting checks.
*Eating Ice cream everyday
*Going to the watch museum... I think I died a little inside...
*Buying lots of junk food on base. It was all she could keep down! :P
Thanks for keeping me entertained Em!

Crash and Burn

2008-07-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

We found an Alpine Slide outside of Garmisch and went to do it on Tuesday. Basically, it's a cart that you ride down a concrete track on a ski mountain. You can control how fast you go by pulling up on the brake or pushing down to accelerate. Emily and I had so much fun going down it the first time! We were going so fast! We were on our way up the ski lift to ride it a second time when it started sprinkling. We got to the top and they told us they were shutting it down because of the rain. It wasn't even raining that hard!

We came back the next day to ride it again. On my first run down I was going too fast and flipped out on one of the turns. I skidded on the concrete then rolled into the grass. It hurt pretty bad! I now have two huge roadrashes on my leg and arm plus many little ones other places including my ear and my cheek. That better not leave a scar on my face! I pretty much felt like I got hit by a truck this morning and am very swollen and bruised. Oh well, the ride was SO worth it! :D

Finally!

2008-05-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, Chandler finally decided to turn 16. About time huh?

We went out for his birthday yesterday, and started with waterworld in the morning. That night we went to dinner at Sauce that was delish. After that we came back to my house and watched Pride and Prejudice (a chick flick, I know, but I got to choose, and he actually ended up liking it!) After that we just hung out until I took him home. Overall, it was a pretty amazing night :P

Here are some pics of his present that I have been working on FOREVER! No joke, it has been spread out all over my floor for over a month.

Happy Birthday Chandler! :D

And the countdown begins...

2008-05-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

With summer so close I can almost feel it, it's getting pretty hard to concetrate on anything school related. I only have 6 more days of school with two of those being finals. Adding to my lack of focus is the mere 11 days until Chandler's 16th birthday :D
Summer here I come!

Track '08

2008-05-02T21:03:00.001-07:00

Track this year has been an awesome experience and I have loved every minute of it this year! That said, I am definitely not sad to see it end next week with state. The season culminated with the district relay meet where our 4x8 team got 1st and our distance medley team got second. Our girls lost this meet by ONE point giving up the trophy that was "taller than Becca!"

This Wednesday and Friday were regionals, and our 4x8 team placed 3rd overall earning us a spot at state next Wednesday. Thats two years in a row for me! On Friday I ran the mile and PRed by over 10 seconds, so that was a good end for that event.

Our team is sending 14 to state next week, and it should be a blast having our one last meet together!

Park City '08

2008-03-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Every year since I was four my family has gone to Park City, Utah to ski and snowboard. This year for Christmas my parents gave my brother and neices a trip up there too since our spring break's fell on the same week. My parents, Greg, my neices, Madison and Kate and I all stayed in a little condo at the base of Park City Mountain Resort. The first two days we went to The Canyons resort with the Wheeler family and my neices were in ski school. I snowboarded the first day and it was fun trying to keep up with them on my board since they're all very good skiers. The next day I skied, which I'm way better at, and we did some pretty hard bowls. That night Wheelers came over for dinner and Greg and I and all of the kids had a pretty intense snowball fight. On Wednesday we went to Park City, the mountain I've been skiing since I was four. Madi Hettinger and I boarded together and had a lot of fun since we're about the same ability. We boarded together the last two days along with Mary Claire and it was really sad when we took the last run of the season. This is always one of the best weeks of the year and it was especially awesome this year having Greg, Madison and Kate up here with us. I loved being able to spend time with them and really got to know my brother better since I never got to live with him growing up. It was an awesome week and I cannot wait until next year!

My sick tight new outfit.

Love this girl so much!

Madison, my ski bunny

Crazy hats

Madison, Aunt Becca and Kate

Becca, Madi and Mary Claire.