A Party for Me

Huge shout out to my friends, coworkers and old roommates Annalise and Sarah for throwing me a bridal shower!  Even though only 5 people came (I'm going to assume that's because it was the holiday weekend and not because people hate me...) it was still a lot of fun and I'm so very grateful for them and all the effort they put into it.

I Love Friends.

This last weekend was the best I've had in a while.  I went down to Logan, Utah with my old roommate, Kadi, who still lives in Rexburg, to visit our other old roommate, Alexis, who is now married and living in Logan, and the next day, Saturday, got to have breakfast at IHOP with our other old roommate, Whitney, who is married and lives in Arizona but came to Layton, UT, which is an hour from Logan, last minute for a funeral.  Make sense?  Good.

Kadi, Alexis, Whitney, Myself

Lots o' Food and Friends

Two weeks ago we had a soup in a pumpkin party.  Have you ever heard of cooking soup IN a pumpkin?  I hadn't, but it was delicious!

Homemade wassel (spelling???), rolls, cupcakes and soup :)

Last Sunday we had a Thanksgiving dinner with our FHE family.

 

And then, of course, we have real Thanksgiving.  I didn't take any pictures but here's one Alexis got of Eli and I right before dinner.

 

Mocktail 3.0

It was the best of times (first Friday of the semester), it was the worst of times (summer is now officially over) and it was Mocktail time.  I feel like I've done an adequate job describing these in past semesters so if you're unfamiliar with it or you just want to check out old pictures click here.

And if you want pictures of this semester's bash, just keep scrolling down.  (PS- I go to BYUI and have great friends.  No alcoholic beverages were present at this party...and, if you look closely, most of the glasses are empty...we just carried them for fun)

 You know I always bring the classiest treats.  Top: Lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting and a raspberry on top.  Bottom, brownie bite with frosting and a mini Reese's cup on top.

Rockin' our sunglasses.

The Limanites

My new roommate, Whitney

Hank, always looking classy

Dallin, no longer the Clarke newbee

I had to drag Nathaniel to the party, but secretly he had fun

Alec and Myles

Roommate picture

Photobombed...

Four amigos

Our gracious host, Travis

Ohhhhhh Casey...it's a familiar picture (see below)

Cheng

Noelle and I trying to look classy...don't know how well that worked.

Sarah, Annalise and Nathaniel talking about their horses...or something classy like that.

Cabin Fever

I was always so jealous when Brittany talked about spending the weekend with her family at their cabin in Utah.  It sounded like a blast being able to just relax and get away from everything in the world for a few days.  Well, my time has come!  I had the honor of accepting an invitation to spend Labor Day weekend with Brittany and her family.  It was my kind of vacation since it was traveling somewhere, but not having to be on-the-go constantly.  I had time to watch a movie or two, read my book, play some board games, go on a walk and eat delicious food.

We played LIFE...the original version.

View from the back.

Two moose we saw on our walk.

We fit 15 people into this cozy little cabin. 

Home, Sweet Home

I apologize for taking so long to update the story I like to call my life.  This entry is much more of a journal entry that some posts so it could get a little boring.  Apologizing again.  Feel free to just scroll through the pictures :)


I'd like to start off with an amusing picture of a man I'll refer to as Dumbledore.  We were on our way to my birthday dinner at Panera Bread when we saw Dumbledore in the distance.  From a distance, it seemed he really was Dumbledore, long beard especially.  As he neared our car, we noticed he did have a beard, but the majority of it turned out to be his open, hairy chest.  Gross.  Magic.Gone.

Dinner was lovely.  I branched out and got a turkey bacon avocado sandwich and some chicken lime orzo soup.  I usually enjoy a ham and swiss on rye.  It was delicious and I didn't even overstuff myself!  A rare occasion for Panera.  After dinner, we went to the fair to see Meredith march in the band show.  Oh, how I miss band!!  You can call me a band geek, I don't care.  This show made me miss my saxophone and miss performing.

Saturday was the fair parade in the morning.  Seth, Noah and I sat right on the curb and those people just kept throwing candy at us!  I was like "can't you see how big of a pile they already have?!  THEY NEED NO MORE CANDY!"  Nevertheless, we took home quite the stash of cheap candy.

Ohhhhh Sunday, what a great day!  One of the main purposes of this trip was to surprise two of my high schools friends, Nathaniel and Taylor, who just returned home from serving two year missions in South America.  It was a tough secret to keep because both had been asking if I was coming back to Ohio before starting school...and I lied shamelessly multiple times.  My brother ruined the surprise for Taylor and told him I was coming but I got Nathaniel good!  On Tuesday, Nathaniel and I went to Cedar Point to ride the roller coasters we haven't ridden in two years.

The Tucker grandparents came and spent a few days with us!

We have a garden this year!  There's all sorts of delicious veggies growing and I went and picked the first of the tomatoes.

 I went to Seth's Court of Honor on Wednesday...I may have forgotten to take my camera out until he was walking back to his seat so this is the only picture I got...

On Thursday I returned back to the west!  Here's a glimpse of my homeland.

 I met my dad in Salt Lake and we went to see Eli's BYU freshman picture be taken.

 Friday morning Dad and I hiked the "Y" overlooking Provo.

 Friday afternoon I was going to head back to Rexburg and then I thought "why am I going back to Rexburg when I don't have to work until Monday?!"  So I extended my Utah stay for a few days and crashed at my Peru roommate, Noelle's, place in Riverton.  Our Peru brother, Aleksi, just returned to America a few weeks ago and we had ourselves a little reunion.  It was great to see him again and the only thing that could have made it better would be to have had Breet there with us!  And Liz and Miguel would be icing on the cake, but they're still in Peru so it was slightly impossible for them to be there. 

 Inside joke with this picture.  We aren't totally crazy.

On Saturday we went to the Brigham City temple open house with a bunch of the YSA from Noelle's ward.  I hadn't been to a temple open house since the Nauvoo, IL temple was dedicated so it was a treat!  And I even ran into an old neighbor who is now serving as a Sister missionary in the area.

It was a great trip.  The perfect amount of relaxation and craziness.  And I didn't even mention how the airline lost my luggage and I ended spending $100 on new clothes that Delta ended up paying for.