Park City - The Canyons

Park City was a BLAST! We left on late Friday afternoon.

(me, Fred, Ethan (a.k.a. Savory (last name)), Courtney) 

 Here is the view from our room

After arriving we all went out to dinner at Loco Lizard, which was delicious!

Night #1 Group (john, fred, jared, skyler, danica, courtney, britten, savory, me)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and went straight to the jacuzzi and steam room, which we all were so excited for!

After jacuzzi/steam room, our friend Savory was hitting the shower first so we decided that we wanted to do a prank on him so we got the blender to poor cold water on him while he was shower, but he got out too quick!  So then when i hit the shower they decided that i should be the victim instead...hahaha!

After the shower, we stayed up wayy too late playing Quelf and "Would you Rather..." with lots of treats including salt water taffy (6 lb bag from Costco), Pirates Botty, and lots of Dr. Pepper.

Saturday afternoon...since we didnt wake up til 12 :) Jared made Pumpkin Waffles with Cool Whip which were so so so delicious!  After breakfast/lunch we went to the Outlets where we hit up J Crew (my fav), Gap, Banana, Volcom, etc.  After dinner, again, we then hit up the jacuzzi but when i was walking out from changing from the bedroom, Savory scared me soo bad!

Saturday night was filled with LOTS of poker...

That night we also watched What Lies Beneath and again stayed up wayyy too.

Sunday was filled with sleeping, more hanging out, cleaning up, and packing up.  Overall, it was a great weekend, filled with lots of inside jokes, laughing, and little sleep.  Thank you Aunt Carolyn for a fabulous weekend before the death of finals come.

(The Core Crew that stayed the whole time)

Heritage School

I had a very interesting experience.  I went to Heritage School which is an At Risk School for 7th-12th graders.  I went there to educate the students about the new harmful tobacco products (like the ones that i talked about with the legislators at the Capitol).  We educated these students at a Health Fair that they had going on.  I helped teach with another girl from my major, and it was fun because we split up our booth and we had it down.  First the kids would look at a pig's lungs that were all black and gross, which was a visual of how much damage smoking can do.  And then they would move on to my section where i would talk to them about the new smokeless tobacco products.  Then they would move onto my friend and they would spin a wheel and win a prize.  While we were teaching these kids though we had posters of comparing the tobacco products, old tobacco products, mints and gum to show the similar packaging and how harmful it could be for a child.  When i would show this image to the kids some of them would say little comments like "ohh mann those menthols" or "dang i miss..."  And it was just so shocking that even though they are at this school and are over their addictions those feelings come back so quick of those tobacco products just from that little picture.  And the first group that we got were these little 7th grade girls, but now being older i feel like they all looked like they were 10 rather than 13 or 14, but in my head i just kept thinking, "man, what got these cute little girls into a school like this?!"  They come from such different life than what i have been raised.  Overall the experience made me so grateful for my life and that i wasn't exposed to these addictive behaviors that can mess up your mind and lead you to destructive behaviors and lifestyles.  Thanks Mom and Dad for raising me in a home where there is love and the gospel.

Real Game

So my new great friend from my ward, Courtney, got us a great deal for the Real Soccer Game and a big group of us all went, it was super fun!  This is a view from our great seats

Being silly while watching the game, they think they're gangster or something?! haha

(Ethan, me, Fred)

Our group: Nick, Jared, Courtney, me, Skyler, Ethan, Mal, Fred, Emma

It was such a great game, we won! yay! Even though it was a bit on the cold side, we still had a blast all being together, smelling the delicious sports foods (such as churros, my fav :)) and bundling up together, Thanks Court!

The Capitol

So i went to the Capitol last Thursday and went to educate our legislators about dissolve-able tobacco products. We educated about the toxicity of the product and how the packaging is targeted toward youth.  Here is an example:

 Meet Amanda, she is great, she is from Laguna Niguel.  I drove up with her which was really fun.

 This is the "All Stars" as what Jenn calls us.  We are her go to girls when she needs a BYU connection.  Jenn works at the Health Department in the Health Promotion Department.  I loved working with her because 1. she is so passionate about her work 2. this is a job that i have been considering so its been nice to see her and how she works and see what the job entails.

(Denise, me, Jenn, McKenna, McKenzie)

This experience was so great because i learned so much.  I learned that legislators are people too.  When i first talked to our legislator i was super nervous but we kept talking to him he was so nice and interested in us.  I also learned the difference between educating and lobbying.  I educated.  I also learned more about and experience the government, something that 9th grade U.S. History didn't cover.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Soo I've been really bad at Blogging..oops! But my life has gotten a little crazy lately. Recently i have gotten involved in a tobacco group and we are educating the legislator about dissoluble flavored tobacco. So i am going up to the Capitol on Thursday, February 24th, to go educate them! Super nervous about it, but hopefully our legislator will listen up. And on the 25th i am going to be starting to teach elementary school kids about Asthma prevention, which will be way fun, have my own little class :)

Wait, so backing up..Happy Valentine's Day! I didn't do anything too special. i went out to dinner with Britten, Danica, Skyler, and Courtney. We called it a poly-date (polygamist) since it was 4 girls and 1 guy.  We went to Zupas, yum :) And then afterwards i went to Golden Spoon, of course, in celebration of my single-ness.

Also, i went to Sundance with Danica awhile ago. But it was great, fun little get away from Provo.  Its always nice to get out of Provo once in awhile, even if it is just to Park City. We weren't able to go to a movie but it was fun to go and see all the action that was going on.

Happy New Year!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Ever since the invite went up on Facebook, i was getting pumped. Elissa Stapley has been throwing a New Year's Eve party for 2 years now, and the first two were out of control fun, loved them! Tons of people, dancing, socializing, food...what else could a single girl want?

Now after going to Jerusalem with Elissa we had all these great mutual study abroad friends, that we LOVE! After some easy convincing some of them decided to come down since they had heard about this party from others at BYU and how epic it is.  So with three different airplane tickets and two cars full of Jerusalem kids came down for a weekend of fun!

New Year's Eve we went to BJ's for dinner, reservation for 15, it was so much fun and yummy! Here is some of the crew:

Diana, Ron, & Anna

Mary, Kelsea, & Lindsey

Alex & i

Dan Jones, Jon (or as we call him Tall Blonde), & Steve

 Sadly i didn't bring my camera to Elissa's party since i knew that it would just get in the way of dancing. Although we did take some great cheesy Prom style pictures at my house which maybe ill post later. After Elissa's party, all of the jeru-crew came over and slept at my house. By 4:30 a.m. there was a total of 11 kids sound asleep.

The next morning, after eating some cinnamon rolls, we headed down to our friend, Kelsea's, house who lives in Oceanside for her birthday.

 Ron, Anna, & i

After Oceanside, we headed up north and went to Balboa Island and did a classic california dinner of Ruby's on the Pier. 

Us waiting for our table...

After Ruby's, stopping at the Candy Barrel, and some walking around, we went back home and played the name game, which i fell in love with (i had never played before)! Then we had round II of cinnamon rolls, since all my friends could not get enough of their deliciousness. In the morning, everyone was packed and gone by 8:15 a.m. :(

The weekend was a blast and it went by way too fast! The whole time we were together we all reminisced about how it was just a year ago we had all even met each other! Its crazy how close we have become, and yet we still seem to can't get enough of each other and crack each other up. i just love these kids so much!

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!