Great Realizations in Life

tender mercies

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I love realizing everything I should be grateful for and that includes the little stuff. So here are some of the little things that make my life that much greater.

1. My cute little niece that calls me "Mannies" and always wants to play with me.
2. The movies with the family. I always enjoy laughing aloud and critiquing any film with my family. And yes, that includes Breaking Dawn..
3. Black Friday. Where I can buy an electric blanket, pillow, boots, clothes, a crockpot, and dvd's all under 100 bucks.
4. Watching Jurassic Park with my dinosaur pillow pet.
5. Music. Listening, playing, singing, etc. Especially for friends with musical talent. Boy do I envy them.
6. Driving. I don't know why, but I love it.
7. My dad's patience. For times when I'm not the brightest and lock the keys in the trunk of his car.
8. Pinterest. For teaching me how to be a better girl.
9. Stuffing. Single most greatest food at Thanksgiving, or any time for that matter.
10. Cooking. I'm really enjoying cooking for once in my life. 
11. The temple. It's beautiful and always gives me warm fuzzies just looking at it.
12. Random texts from people I haven't heard from in awhile.
13. Sunsets.
14. Tandem bike rides.
15. A puppy or dog to cuddle with.
16. Being able to vent with a good friend of yours at any time, any place.
17. The heater vent at my apartment. I love when I get to it first and can lay down in front of it.
18. Shopping with the sisters. They are always there for me.
19. 7-11 Hot Chocolate. Rough day? Let's go to 7-11. Wanna go somewhere? 7-11. Late night cravings? Answer, 7-11 hot chocolate. Fill your cup up two-thirds of the way with hot chocolate and mix with steamed milk to help blend it in. Add one irish creme, one hazelnut (add more for desired taste), and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Add baby marshmallows for "those" kind of nights. Best thing ever.
20. Laughing. Modern Family always makes me laugh, my family can help me crack a smile any time, my friends are hilarious, crazy people at black friday shopping make me giggle, well, in reality, I laugh at just about anything.

This is just to mention a few great tender mercies in my life. What are you grateful for?

QUICK CATCH UP

Road a tandem bike on 11/11/11.

Camped out for the USU vs. BYU basketball game. Greatest highlight of the semester!

Was a puppy for Halloween.

Ran through a corn field in the middle of the night.

Went to a spooky bridge.

Became addicted to pinterest.

Laughed really hard at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3JodBR-vs

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Lmkm5EF5E

Thinking about the study abroad program, next summer, Europe.

That is all.

They will have cake...

My roommates are so sweet I love them all. They threw me another birthday party and it was awesome. (Even though sadly it was after the devastating loss to BYU)

They were so excited to make BTS cake (ask your parents) and party it up. Claire is especially awesome for smuggling in this fancy candle from China. I was so surprised, you have no idea. Well, just watch the video below and you can get an idea.

Thank you friends/roomies for an awesome birth celebration!

So so so so so cute girls. Where's KarLee??

There's KarLee! Love you guys!!!

birdsday

So I turned 21.

That means I'm an adult.

My family rocks and they took me hot air ballooning.

It was an awesome birthday this year!

That one Labor Day

I love life.

Being back in Logan has been phenomenal.

What was extremely fun was Labor Day in Logan.

Corey had a fantastic idea of hiking up to Tony's Grove from Green Canyon. What did we know about this hike? It's "supposedly" a 15 mile hike, in the wilderness, and you get a sense of feeling lost. We were sold. So we packed a bunch of food, got the cars situated, and we were on our way. Where ever that was going to take us. This hike was the most gorgeous and fun thing I had ever done in Cache Valley. Parts of it were tricky and steep, it rained a bit, but besides that the weather was perfect and we had an amazing group. I was just so happy to be there.

Now, the feeling of being lost? We most definitely felt that. The trail would fizzle out or turn off into different points. But for the most part we did pretty good, from what we could tell. But at the end we weren't sure at all. It was getting dark, and Corey and I were getting worried because we thought we would have to camp over night. We get to a point where basically we could go left or right. One trail looking well traveled and the other one, not as much. We almost took the well traveled one, but we decided to go ask the guy we had seen a little bit ago camping. We were a little scared of him because we had said hello and he just looked at us... So some of us went back to ask him where we were. Our friend Stevie went to talk to him and all I could hear was "Speak no english". My heart sunk. But then Stevie whips out his amazing espanol skills. This man's name was Pablo and he was from Peru. As Stevie was talking to the man, we were intently listening. Stevie would laugh and we didn't know if it was a good thing or not. At the end, we shake hands with Pablo and say our sayonara's. We find out that Pablo is up there ranching 1,000 sheep. This man was amazing! Oh and the fact that we were only 20-30 minutes away from Tony's Grove. But if we had taken the well traveled road, it would have taken us into even more back country so thanks to good ol' Pablo, we found our way to our destination.

I felt so accomplished... and tired/starving. It was such a fantastic Labor Day. One of the greatest.

the Group

 

This map was provided by a couple of cowboys we happened to pass by. They were  mozying by on their horses and we thought we would ask them where to go. Luckily they let us take a picture of their map. When we told them we were headed to Tony's Grove, one laughed really hard while the other said that we were rather ambitious.
The green line represents what we hiked. Rough estimate of how it looked.

Let it begin....

Happy Shark Week Ya'll!

Derby Day

Demolition Derby.

I am a big fan.

Saturday, some friends and I went out to the Cache Valley Demolition Derby. What a hoot! Such an amazing day, I lost my voice completely, usually a big indicator on the level of fun-ness I'm having. haha 

It rained on us dedicated derby fans, but blue skies broke out  just in time for it to start!

Still havin a blast even though we all got drenched. Excluding Whitney and Marissa.

How many dogs can you find on the roof? We found 7!

Memorable Moments:

Claire: The Chinese only know of three famous white people: Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and President Obama...

Me: Obviously they don't know Obama that well.

Luke: I think something just fell into your.... bosom?

Me: It happens.


Claire: Oh my Lady Gaga!

Marissa: Did we just talk about Harry Potter for an hour?

Drunk Guy: Whaaaat?? Yer never see dogs ona roof befer?! Dis one's Lightnin', *Indistinct drunk chatter*.

Drunk Guy: As he almost slips off his own roof, he makes sure to protect his beer.

Luke: Is this hot and moistness bothering you?

Me: The word moist bothers me more.