Finals Week

So any other finals weeks, i would have been this woman shown above. Stressed out! But this semester has been great! I had 2 take home finals, one on blackboard, one scheduled presentation (thats on friday), and one in the testing center (which i was able to bring one page of notes (but it was really hard!)). So i got the one in the testing center done, and am just chillin for the next 3 days til Friday morning for my presentation. Can this happen every semester? please :)

So to catch up a little bit...

Friday

Britten, danica, Fred, Lon, Cj, and i all went to the Salt Lake City Temple and saw the Christmas lights. We drove to Sandy and then took the train from Sandy to SLC because it was suppose to snow that night and we thought it would be fun to take the train too :)

 the crew (CJ, Lon, Danica, Fred, me, Brit)

roommate love

Monday Night

Alissa Rios is going on a mission, so sad, but she will do great. I cant believe that it will be the last time for at least a year in a half that all of us, what i call "the capo girls" will be together!

Us a year ago (at Guru's of course ;) )

Its amazing how fast things change, but i will always love these girls.

Washington DC

Washington DC was awesome! Loved it! And after being there, i thought, wow i could live here. Anyways, so here is the low down on what we did:

Flew in on Thursday night...

Our first Metro ride :)

On Friday Aaron had to work, so he put on a scavenger hunt for Mary and i, it was so much fun! As much as we wish we could have been hanging out with Aaron, it was like we still got to with all his little clues. Before we went on our scavenger hunt we took a tour of the Treasurey, it's an amazing building. And we also walked around and found the white house which was right next door...

 Okay so back to the scavenger hunt, he gave us our first clue, which led us to the Newsuem, which is a musuem full of newspapers of top headlines everywhere, we didn't end up actually going inside but, the outside had all the states and their major newspaper and that days paper.

 Mary found the first clue, behind the Arizona newspaper (Aaron is from Arizona)

 Our next clue led us to the Hope Diamond, which was in the Natural History Musuem.  I had never heard of it, but it was so cool! i loved learning about the history of this beautiful, HUGE diamond!

Mary and i throwing down that we found the next clue (3rd one)

 Our next clue led us to the Air and Space Musuem, specifically to the Wright Brothers exhibit.

 Along the way to the next clue we walked by the capital and it was just so pretty!

 Our next clue led us to the first American Flag, it was really cool to see. Made me feel very patriotic

 Okay so this clue was really hard for us. It led us to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, but it was dark by the time we got there so it made finding our little envelope very hard. We ended up walking the wall like 3 times and mary had to take like 30 pictures of different parts of the wall just to get light from her flash on her phone to be able to find our clue...haha the funny part was that it also took so long because on the outside of the envelope it was addressed to Major White and General Huish, which i didnt notice the first couple times we walked by! haha!

My favorite clue was this one that we found at the Vietnam Memorial because inside all it had was a five dollar bill which ended up being a 'map' which led us to the lincoln memorial...very clever.

Later that night we ended up meeting up with his parents, who were also in town that weekend, and his sister and her boyfriend to a really yummy italian resturant.

Saturday morning and afternoon we spent on Mount Vernon which was also very cool. I learned a lot about President Washington.

 This is us chilling with the Washingtons. (Aaron's sister, Leanne, is next to me and his dad is on the far right)

 Out in front of his house (Aaron's mom is on the far right)

After Mount Vernon we went to Ray's Hell Burger which is apparently where Obama took the Russian President and Obama is a frequent eater there, it was sooo good though. The patty was probably 2 inches thick though and i couldnt even fit my mouth around it, i had to cut in in half!

And after that we went back to the Barlow Center to take a little afternoon nap while being induced by our food comas.

That night we went out to a cupcake shop and it was sooo good! i got a lemon raspberry cupcake, yum!

And after that we went to a random mexican resturant where we sang karoke with the other students at the Barlow Center which was a blast and fun to see the other students.

 

Sunday we went to Aaron's church which was great to be able to see the ward and all the other people that lived there, it was a full on single's ward too, which was another little plus with maybe moving there after graduation?!

After church and dinner we went to a couple more memorials, we went to the Pentagon memorial which i really liked. and we went to the Airforce Memorial which was also really cool.

Anyways, that night we went to the capital to hang out and we all got matching "I <3 DC" shirts. And it was a jerusalem thing to take jumping pictures so we had to get one of those in! While we were there i met up with Molly, which was soo great to see her because it had been way to long, and i miss her not being in Provo!

 cute molly :)

 jumping picture!

cheesey picture, showing off our sweet shirts!

It was a great trip! Great to see Aaron. Great to see DC. Great to get out of Provo and it's coldness. Great to get a break from school.

And let's just say, DC is a definite possibility for my future internship, if it's possible?! :)

Because i LOVED it!

October's Festivities

October has been a very fun month for our apartment. First it was Britten's Birthday on the 10th, which was a blast! Her birthday was on a Sunday but we celebrated on both Saturday before and Sunday. On Saturday we went to Guru's, where we ate, and sung karaoke.  It was soo fun! When first going into, i thought Yeahh right i'm singing up there!, but after being there in the fun environment, i went in for it.  There was no way i did it by myself though, the first song that we sung was "Hit Me Baby, One More Time" by Britney Spears and i sang with Danica and our friend Lon. Then then second song we sang was "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith and i sang with Danica, Lon, and Fred.  After going to Guru's we had a few friends come over to our apartment afterwards and hang out.

Sunday for Britten's (actual) birthday, after ward prayer, we had people come over and we played a game called Werewolf, which is a game we use to always play in Jerusalem that we had so much fun playing, but i don't think it was such a big hit for this group of kids. We still had fun singing to her with her gluten, soy, diary, and egg-free cake. We also had lots of candy since that is one thing that she can eat also.  

Janessa and Megan 

 Fred, Skylor, and Britten. These are a couple of boys from our ward that we have been hanging out with lately.

Danica and Lon, he is our friend from the ward also, but we probably hang out with him the most...him and Danica are besties :)

Another big thing for our apartment, is that our roommate, Sam, got officially engaged! She is getting married on December 18th in Las Vegas.  She has been a great roommate, so i am sad that we either have to find someone or get a random : / Selfishingly, I hope that no one fills her spot and it will just be Britten, Danica, and i, it would be soo fun! We already have plans for the extra room..haha!

On October 19th was Danica's Birthday, which was a great day! We went to Kneader's for lunch, which was my first experience there.  We were all hoping for their French toast, but we didn't make it in time! Then later that night we had a big Pumpkin Party, it was so great! We carved pumpkins, ate pumpkin "cupcakes," that i proudly made :), pumpkin pie and lots of candy, and hung out.

 the set up

 pumpkin "cupcakes" a.k.a. pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting

 Britten carving away with Kurtis

 My friend Jake..funny kid

 Danica and Ethan carving it up

 Collins and Barrett talking about computer stuff, i'm sure...

 The Capo Girls

Happy Birthday Britten and Danica! 

Confession

So i have a confession to make. I am a Gleek. I love watching it every Tuesday! Danica and i have currently created a new, great tradition for our Tuesday nights. So here is the schedule: First watch Glee with our friends Lon, Garry, Spencer, and David (who are also obsessed with it, which actually Garry and Lon are definitely more into than even i am. After the episode is shown, the next day, they typically watch it like 4 times, not even kidding!)  After Glee, we go to Golden Spoon! And here in Provo, I don't know if they do this at home, its "Double Stamp" Tuesday!

If you keep up with Glee you know that last week was the tribute to Britney Spears, scandalous! Danica and I were so excited for the episode that we counted the days down along with dressing up for the occasion. It was all dedicated to Britney.

I dressed as the classic "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video. And Danica decided to go with the more current Britney look from the "Circus" video.  Overall, we got some great laughs and felt like we were truly spirited and "in the zone."

Easy A

So Friday night was Danica's big night at the movies, since she was an extra for the movie Easy A. It was a great movie though..if you know what your getting into..haha because it is a modern day version of the scarlet letter. So going into the movie you know that there will be a lot of sex talk. But i do have to say that it was sooo funny! And that i loved the parents role's in the film, probably my favorite, well other than Danica's beautiful face on the big screen for like 10 seconds!

Back to School

I can not believe that i am half way through my college career! Its Nuts! But i also kinda doubt that i will finish college within the next 2 years..well thats according to my plans and with my planning of my schedule. Anyways, I have a little apartment at University Avenue Condos,

here is the kitchen...nothing to special

And here is the living room... again, nothing too special

And here is my room...which has a little something special...

i guess i just didnt know my roommates were going to be so generous of giving me the best room

Which you can't see its special-ness too well in this picture but i apparently have a whole new motto in life

...I know, your jelous...

And here is me being so excited about my first day of school :)

And a for realsies

I hope this school year brings that "possibility of a miracle"

Galilee!

I was in Galilee for 11 days and 10 nights of amazingness! I loved it! Since it was such a long trip and we did so much i will give only the highlights of the trip...you'll have to get the whole scope later with all the details and places we went :)

Day 1

This was our first stop of the trip.  Its Caesarea.  As you can see its absolutely gorgeous and i loved all the ruins right next to the beach! This city was built by Herod.

We went to 4 different churches that day but one of my favorites was the Church of the Annunciation, which is where Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would be carrying Jesus Christ.  What i loved about the church is that it had tons of different portraits of Mary from all a bunch of different countries from all around the world! The picture doesnt even give justice to all the different pictures.

Day 2

Unfortunately i didnt take any pictures this day, but its mostly because we had class in the morning and that night so in the afternoon we all just hung out on the shores of the Sea of Galilee...ohh you know...

Day 3

We went to the Mount of Beatitudes, this site was really great because we had a little meeting up on the top and were able to talk about the Beatitudes and what they mean for all of us.  Then we were given time to just ponder also.  The church that you see in the picture is an italina church that was built in an octagon shape to symbolize the eight beatitudes.

Later that day we went on the a boat ride around the Galilee which the Sea is so beautiful! Out there we were also given time to ponder and had a little meeting and read the account from Matthew about Peter walking on the water.

(katie and i)

Day 4

We had some free time, but all of us students planned a couple of fun activities for us to do which one of them included going on a hike to a waterfall which was an amazing hike, it was soo green and it was just absolutley gorgeous!

(Anna and i)

Later that night we went out to eat as a class, so we were taken to a Kibutz where their specialty is the St. Peter's fish, which is apparently the fish that Jesus would have eaten, and since its a week full of Jesus, why not eat what he would have eaten?! haha! Anyways so at this resturant they basically give you the fish cooked but nothing taken off, so the fish still had its eyes!!! It was a good fish, but just the presentation of it wasnt soo pleasant...

This is Lindsay and i, me with my fish and her with her pizza because she doesnt like fish...

And we had a little fun and having an artist at our table we made a little creation...

We call it "Destroyed"

Day 5

This is a picture of me on top of Gamla which is in the Golan Heights.  It was one of the last cities that the Romans besieged and destroyed.  Anyways so that was another hike, and as you can see it was so gorgeous with all the rolling hills and greenery.

Later that morning we went to a mine field, so this is us chillen in a bomb shelter...

(me, Aaron, Mary, and Alex)

And then in the afternoon, we went on a big fieldtrip organized by the students and went "river rafting", but there was definitley no rapids, it was more like a boating expedition. Anyways it was on the Jordan River and we still had a great time! i got to kayak with Anna. Afterwards we only had one bus for all 80 of us students, so we got a little creative with our seating arrangements...

Day 6

Our sixth day was Saturday, which is Sabbath for us here in Israel, so we went to the River Jordan.  We went to a site on the River Jordan where a ton of people get baptized. It was really funny though because lets just say they were very organized and knew how to do the business of baptizing because as you can see in the picture you had a number for which entry you had into the River and then they also had camera men all around taking pictures of you when you got baptized.  So after you got baptized you could go up to the main building and check out your picture on the tv and buy it...haha i felt like i was at Disneyland.

Then we went to the Branch building for Galilee. Here is the building it was just built about 2 years ago. It's so nice inside too with a beautiful view of the Galilee.  Where we had our sacrament meeting they had huge windows so you can gaze out into the Sea. Best sacrament meeting ever.

Here is the view from the balcony...

(me and Ron)

Day 7

It was another chill day of classes and beach...but we got a little creative with our pictures...i got a friend, Katie, who likes my moves too :)

Day 8

We went to a ton of churches again on this day. Each commemorating the different miracles of Christ.  My favorite was the church of Nain where Jesus healed the widow's son.

Then we went to another tele, but this one was ligit. Too ligit.  It was called Beth Shean which was a big city during the Byzantine era.  It was a full city full of ruins.  This is us on the public toliets that are still in tact.  Don't mind the constipated facial expressions...

(Brian, me, Jeff, Lindsay, Emma, Mary, and Ron)

Day 9

This is the crew in Dan.  This is called the "Winnie the Pooh Tree" because it looks like the one in Winnie the Pooh! haha i didnt know that they kept up with American fictional characters in Israel?!

This is me in Caesarea Philippi (which is one of the pictures in the Bible).  This is the site of Peter's testimony of Christ.  We also had a really great lesson and quiet time here as well...

To end the long day, they hit it off with a bom, because our last stop was amazing! This is Anna, Elissa and i at Nimrod's Fortress which was another super cool site because we were able to climb all over the antiquities and everything was so cool, it had soo much history!

Day 10

This is Akko.  We spent the whole morning here, which was nice because it was a really cool city.  It was an important port during the Roman and Crusader eras.  I loved this city too because it had the whole ruins and Mediterranean Sea feel which is so cool!  This city was also great because it had a feeling kinda like Jerusalem, well the more city part reminded me of the Old City, which after being away from the Old City for 10 days, i was really starting to miss it! I dont know what im going to do when i get home?! Anyways, I tried to get the idea of the ruins and ocean feel with this picture... 

After that we went to a lookout, which has no significance other than just to see the geography of the land

(me, Mary, Corina)

Day 11

This day was a day of fieldtrip/traveling back to Jerusalem.  On the way back we stopped at a place called Sepphoris, which was where the Mishnah was completed.  It also is the home of the "Mona Lisa of the Galilee"

 

Then we went up on the balcony and it had a really cool map...and i think i was really excited about going to back to Jerusalem, also i just liked this picture

By the end of this trip i was so sick of this

Overall it was an amazing experience full of everything you could ever ask for it in a trip...Beach, Ruins, Friends, spiritual moments along with the happy and fun moments.

I will always have a special place in my heart for the Galilee