livin' for those weekends..

as i prepared to write this i decided that i need to express how thankful i am.

i don't know why i'm supposed to be here in orem.

sometimes it's the last place i want to be.

i've stayed awake some nights just laying there, wondering what is in store for me here.

and i still don't know,

all i know is that i am so grateful for my big brother dallin.

and maybe, just maybe i'm here to be close to him.

since i've been here dal hasn't left me out one time.

it doesn't matter if it's the weekend, or even in the middle of the week, he's always letting me hang out at his house.

not only that, but i've been lucky enough to not have to sit at home on a friday or saturday night yet thanks to him.

he's such a great guy, and i am so thankful for him.

just this last weekend i was informed that we would be hiking the Y...at eleven at night.

i hate hiking.

but it was a fun opportunity to make some new friends so i went.

so we hiked.

and once we reached the top of the Y i still hated hiking, but i did have a good time.

i'm so grateful for him.

erik even got to join us on our hike!

....aaaand big new for him,

he just turned in him mission papers!!

i could not be more excited for him.

once we got back to dal's apartments he told me that he had a surprise for me.

he then walked back to his room and returned with a package for me.

and wouldn't you guess that my very best friend in the whole world, kk, sent me a birthday present.

i was so excited!

i ripped it open and whaddya know,

the kid got me a pillow pet.

i may have just turned 20 but who says i've got to grow up!

[p.s. pillow pets are actually really comfy.]

that girl is really the best friend i could ever ask for.

back to the weekend,

on saturday it was the big byu vs. u of u. 

i once again headed to dal's house for a night of fun.

it was a crazy game, there was a lot of emotions in that tiny apartment.

unfortunately byu lost and there was some pretty sad kids.

really though, some of them almost cried.

it was sad.

and then sunday i went to church and that night i got to play catch phrase.

seriously hilarious.

some of my favorites were:

sewer: "it smells really bad at it goes under the toilet?"

parrot: christy: "polly want a...?"

dal:"cracker!"

christy: "which is a??"

dal: "saltine!!"

christy: "what, no! it's a parrot!"

i honestly laughed until i was in tears.

thank heavens for good friends and family.

socially awkward.

my brothers seriously stole all of people skills genes and left none for me.

i'm just awkward.

i don't know what it is but strangers start talking to me and i freeze, i honestly just forget what to say.

it's a problem.

and my family finds it hilarious.

my friends end up laughing about it for days, and then i never live them down.

like the time a boy i had a crush on asked me why i was laughing and my response was, "im laughing because it was funny."

[well no duh brin, that's why everyone laughs.]

or the time i was on a date and the boy asked me if i wanted to watch a movie a.k.a. snuggle and hold hands. i wasn't interested and so my response was, "no, but do yea wanna play chess?"

[we played chess for a solid hour and a half, i'll never live that one down.]

i'm just an awkward.

well it was my second day of school. on the first day i was able to park anywhere on campus because they weren't ticketing, but they were the second day and i didn't have a parking pass. so i was driving around and i saw a wal mart. it was perfect except it was on one side of the freeway and uvu was on the other side. i parked and saw a couple [holding hands] walking in the general direction of the school and they had backpacks on. i figured the would be headed to school so i started following them. they were a ways in front of me but i didn't want to be completely creepy and so i was more just speed walking behind them.

they got to a point where i couldn't see them anymore, i just knew their general direction.

and then i hit a crossroad, there were stairs going up, or a tunnel going down. could't find the people so i started to panic a bit. i chose the stair, once i hit the top i realized they weren't there. so in full brin panic mode i took off at a sprinting pace and ran through the tunnel.

i made it through the tunnel and i could see the school, i knew where i was going. and then i saw the couple from earlier. 

yea, they'd stopped walking and here i come sprinting out of the tunnel with panicked eyes. they got all worried and asked if i needed help, if everything was all right.

and i'm an idiot.

i honestly do not know what i was thinking and i said this but my response was, "oh no, i'm just out for my morning jog!"

[facepalm]

and then i sprinted past them running the rest of the way to school.

ok seriously?! what was i thinking? i made it to class and as i was sitting in my desk i just started laughing. like really brin of all the things you could've said that's what you came up with?

because really everyone goes running at 8:45 with a fifty pound backpack on in toms right?

i called kk after that.

she didn't even feel bad.

neither did mel.

or syd.

and my mom just laughed and called me an idiot.

i really hope i never see that couple on campus again.

i'm so awkard.

well now i'm embarrassed

so i've clearly been off my blogging game for a while.

since last night i stayed up until two in the morning trying to get caught up, i decided that today i'd check out the new blogger.

i'm not positive just how "new" it is, but it definitely is different than the last time i blogged.

which was clearly a while ago.

anyways, i was looking at the overview seeing who read my blog, how many page views i had, etc.

at the bottom of the page i noticed a particular section titled google keywords.

i was curious as to what some of the keywords people used to find my blog were.

well you'll never guess what the very first one was...

you ready for it?

noshember girl.

shut your mouth are you kidding me?

i'd be lying if i told you i didn't laugh out loud when i read that.

in case you don't remember just check out the lovely little noshember post here.

i am so glad that i'm remembered as the nasty noshember girl.

and i'm also embarrassed that when people type in "noshember girl" my blog comes up.

it's quite the life i live.

it's ma birthday

i had a fabulous birthday weekend!

ashton and erik had planned to come see me and go longboarding.

so friday after school they came and picked me up.

as soon as i saw them i was so excited!

it had been a year since i'd seen ash and even longer since i'd seen erik.

they took me to provo canyon, dressed me up in some pads and a helmet and handed me a longboard.

i was doing fine and then i tried going down a bigger hill.

i ate it, my shoe fell off, everything.

luckily though i came up laughing and ash told me i was now a real longboarder because i had crashed.

i'm going to take his word on that one.

after we finally made it back to the car...it took us a while, i'm extremely slow, they treated me to dinner at zupa's.

honestly it was heaven.

thanks so much ash and erik, you two made my whole day!

the next morning was my birthday!

mel made sure to call me as soon as the clock hit midnight.

breanne and squid were not far behind,

and then i woke up to the most hilarious poem from kk.

thank you to everybody who wished me a happy birthday!

it was a great day!

i loved getting a phone call from these hooligans.

i drove to dal's house where we then went to the byu game.

byu won! woop.

then we met up with my uncle and some cousins and had dinner at cafe rio.

heavenly.

then we had some cake and ice cream.

there was also a soccer game that night so of course we went.

after that dal had to go back home to do some homework, so his roommate greg let me hang out with him.

we went to some dance and then since byu had won we got some free frozen yogurt.

it was such a great day,

still can't believe i'm 20!

the first few weeks

my first few weeks here in orem were crazy.

they were fun, 

they were hard,

they were weeks i'll never forget.

first off, my driving stinks.

i'm pretty sure i entered both the freeway and a round about the wrong way.

luckily i'm still alive and i haven't been in a wreck yet.

school was fun, i like my classes and professors.

i was able to do some fun things with some friends.

i went to slide rock and it was a blast!

the water was freezing and i was just positive that the rock was going to cut me all up as i slid down, but it didn't and i loved it!

dallin got me an all sports pass at byu and so i get to go to the games with him.

and yes, i cheer on byu, 

don't tell but i'm pretty sure i'll be cheerin on my aggies here in a few weeks!

in logan it was taco tuesdays, but here in orem it's wolverine wednesday.

breanne and i are devoted supporters.

and of course i went home for labor day weekend.

it's the last time boating, and we celebrate my birthday.

kk was home, it was so so great to see her again!

i even got to watch her play volleyball.

she is a champ.

i hung out with dal and his friends, we were out way too late living up the farm life.

we rode cows,

jumped in cotton seed,

shot bunnies,

and hit up roller coaster road.

i just love the hick life.

on our way back we hit the brigham city temple open house.

seriously so gorgeous!

as of right now i'm still never getting married..

unless it's to my cat.

but the open house was gorgeous,

it did make me want to go inside one day.

now i'm back at school and it's been great!

i passed my first test,

and i'm even on an intramural volleyball team.

i know that shocks most of you.

breanne didn't give me much of a choice.

life is good.

uvu

this summer around july my mom suggested to me that i should maybe transfer to uvu.

dal would be right there in provo,

there's a better nursing program,

and it's cheaper.

instantly i felt like that where i needed to go, and it's where i needed to be,

the only problem was that i didn't want to go.

at all.

i love logan.

i had friends.

i had a life.

in orem, i knew nobody.

it was right by byu...not a fan.

i had zero friends.

so basically i just never thought about it again.

then mid-july my mom brought it up again and soon enough we were making plans for me to attend uvu.

it's a crazy story really.

there were a lot of tears shed.

there were quite a few fights.

and there were blessings.

first off my counselor at uvu told me i wouldn't be able to get into any classes because i had signed up so late.

i made it into every class i needed to be in.

i was granted residency 3 days before school started.

i still own my housing contract in logan so i had nowhere to live, i was able to live with some family friends.

i didn't have a parking or bus pass...i got a place to park.

it really amazes me to look back and see all of the little miracles that took place .

yet even though i knew i was supposed to be here, i didn't want to be.

i was scared to death.

in logan i lived with my best friend,

we had so much fun.

i knew the campus.

here in orem i did not know one single person,

honestly i didn't even know where the campus was, let alone classrooms.

the first night i arrived i cried myself to sleep.

i was so scared.

then on my first day of school before my first class i met breanne.

we became friends and it turns out we have class together 4 days a week and our schedules are kind of the same.

i had made my first friend.

i know the heavenly father wants me here in orem.

i don't know why, but that's ok.

i miss logan a lot,

i miss my friends, i miss that sense of comfort of knowing where i'm going.

and yet it's funny, i haven't once felt bad about being here at uvu.

i guess in time i'll see just why i'm supposed to be here,

but until then i'm just going to take it one day at a time.

to try and sum it all up..

so summer ended...

like a month ago.

and there has seriously been so much that has happened.

so i'll just sum up the summer.

it was awesome.

seriously, it was the absolute best summer of my whole entire life.

imagine this: your three best friends in the whole world all being at home for three months, together.

that was my summer,

and i loved it.

there were so many fun activities all crammed into these three short months, but man we lived them up.

in my last post i ended at the fourth of july

since then i...

dressed up and went to the skate park.

why i wanted to do this i really have no idea.

i have this thing with dressing up.

it's honestly like one of my most favorite things to do, and i've always driven right past the skate park but never even stopped by to check it out.

so i just decided to make it a two for one and dress up then go check it out.

i clearly was not meant to be a skater.

i tried to ride kk's longboard down once and i nearly died, 

after that i just stuck with my scooter.

it was the most random night, yet it was a blast.

after we left the skate park we met up with some friends at smiths and just rode around the parking lot for a good half hour.

probably not what we were supposed to do, but it was fun.

also while we were at the skate park some true "skaters" showed up and i don't think they really knew what to think.

i was asking them all sorts of questions like:

"are you a legit skater?"

"why are you so good?"

"do you think i'll make it into the x games?"

and they really had no response, they just kind of looked at us and asked why we were dressed the way we were.

i really think they liked us.

i also go to watch a lot of the smackster playing ball.

he is legit to say the least.

they ended up winning this particular tournament, and i was so happy i got to be there for it!

hunter's team also took state this summer and then they turned around and took second in regionals.

it was so fun to be able to be home and watch them play this summer!

it's also been a lot of fun having dal home this summer.

between his friends and mine we've had some pretty fun times.

we called up steadman's a few times and asked if we could go play on their slide.

they were always willing to let us go, and they would even cook us dinner!

we had far too much fun shoving way too many people on tubes.

and once that got old, we stacked them so that we could crash through them!

he also has a slide in his house, it provided us with some genuine entertainment for a good half hour.

it was always hilarious to hear someone scream as they slid down.

and for those that didn't sit on a towel, well the slide burn was pretty funny too.

loved having him home!

we did a whole lot of "train making"

typical moment in our lives.

this summer we were continuously laughing.

i'm one pretty lucky girl.

and the summer would not be complete without our daily river runs.

i honestly can't even remember how many times we were out on that river.

far too many.

it seemed to be a daily thing with us...of work at 5, on the jetskis by 5:30.

boy i miss that river.

we mastered the art of riding it on opposite ends.

kk hit a huge wake driving like that...

nearly a faceplant.

seriously hilarious.

we mastered the art of one person drives, the other stands...

we may or may not have had some races this way...

and the art of four people to one jetski.

just kidding, we didn't master that last art.

as you can see we clearly flooded it.

we just wanted it for documentation purposes.

although feel free to be impressed, it was so hard to keep that jetski balanced with all four of us!

i grew a mullet!..

just kidding.

hunter really grew the mullet, i just wanted to try it out.

..not a fan.

i don't remember when it happened, but somehow this summer i grew a love for the wal mart little boys section.

honestly they have some of the greatest things in the whole world.

like these batman shirts for instance.

remember how i love dress up?

well we went to the new batman and of course we had to go in style!

helloooo five dollar little boys section t-shirts!

and please just notice how i'm close to the same height as these two..

pay no attention to my pumps.

thanks.

the whole gang!

after the movie we went out for a f'real run.

oh what a night.

we met some interesting characters,

but our f'reals were real nice!..

f'real!

love this group of girls!

one thing i've loved about this summer is that smack and i have spent a lot of time together.

he treated me to quite a few "dates."

and i loved every single one!

i went to school this summer to get my cna.

it was a fun experience, i got to meet some great new friends,

but i'm not going to lie,

it was a glorious day when that class ended.

goodbye 5 a.m. mornings.

...and i passed!

kk and i decided to go on another bunny bashing adventure.

really we just wanted to dress up [shocker] but i mean an adventure is always nice too.

let's just say this time it didn't go so well.

a drunk man found us.

chewed us out.

waited for us for two hours to leave syd webb's house.

where we nearly hit a wheel line,

and then got hit by his car.

it was a scary night, but i'd say we looked pretty cute! :)

this summer we even talked my cousins into coming up for a visit!

and we had a blast with them!

we went to steadmans and set the ultimate record of people on a tube.

and as fun as that looks, don't let it fool you.

a few of us came away with some nasty bruises that night.

[totally worth it.]

and then naturally we played on the river.

and i also went to more missionary homecomings/farewells this summer than ever before.

it was a bittersweet time.

always sad to see friends leave,

but oh so exciting when they come home.

luckily my friends attended all of these with me.

[don't mind that i look like a midget in the picture.]

and you're probably getting sick of reading this right about now because it's clearly too long.

sooo some comic relief.

i'm not sure what completes this picture.

the star boots,

or the toilet?

anyways, one of the funnest things i got to do this summer was have a girls weekend in slc.

thanks to some sweet hookups we got to stay for free at the kimball and just have the time of our lives.

the drive up was full of laughter, music videos, and treats.

once we arrived we found out that for the first night we would have to have a studio.

we were totally fine with it, we figured it could only make for more of a good time.

and boy were we hyper that night.

we had chinese, 

watched three step up movies,

had our own dance party,

jumped on the bed,

tried to crawl out the window,

laughed way too hard,

and ended up cramming three people in the bed...kk stole the couch.

the next day we went shopping, out to eat, and then went to a movie.

they also switched us into a bigger room the next day.

along with switching us rooms, they told us that we would be getting our own personal hot tub.

i don't know what we were thinking...perhaps that it would be a little umm..

bigger?

we made it work! :)

a few more of the happenings of the summer:

i went on a blind date.

it turned out to be so fun!

we had a huge paint fight where we played all sorts of different games.

kk gave us henna's!

it made me feel rebellious.

and then we made wildlife wednesdays.

it came up because we saw these gems in our favorite department:

wal mart little boys section.

they were five dollars, hideous, and we were hyper.

we clearly couldn't turn them down.

so please welcome your newest wildlife wednesday members.

please notice kk creepin' in the back.

of course those darling neighborhood kids are a huge part of my life.

we spent so much time together this summer between jumping, sleepovers, river time, dress us, and nail nights.

it was just one big party.

alle has been so great this summer.

i really just consider her a sister.

i miss her so much!

this night we got to go to a bees game.

so fun!

helloooo boys in baseball pants!

alice was lucky enough to find her soul mate.

presh.

stewey got a mullet.

and darling little rebekah helped me out at the baseball dinner.

she was the crowd favorite,

she's definitely my favorite!

but sadly all good things have to come to and end.

kk was the first to leave for school.

that was a hard night.

i cried and cried and cried.

luckily though she just went to twin, so she got to come visit every now and again!

the night she left was a rough one, but we still managed to have fun!

syd had to say her goodbyes right after church.

i love my girls.

the next week was burley's famous fair and rodeo.

some of the perks, my dad kinda runs it.

therefore we get a lot of free stuff...

like free concert tickets!

we even talked kk into coming home for it!

and when we didn't want to sit anymore, we upgraded to get front and center!

squid and i also drove a truck for the dance team in the parade.

best truck drivers there i'm sure.

just kidding, we hit a spot where we knew a lot of people...

we got so caught up in being popular and waving that we turned around...yea, we had left the dance team..oopsie! :)

we went to the rodeo of course!

and then on the last night we talked kk into coming back.

[she's a trooper.]

so we waited for kk to arrive.

made it a party.

then dressed up in our cowgirl best and threw hats that night at the rodeo.

syd almost fell out of the truck and died.

always keepin' in interesting.

my brother dallin is awesome.

he scored some tickets to pres. monson's birthday party and he let me invite the girls.

unfortunately kk couldn't make it.

it was our last night with syd and it was a good time.

it was so amazing and i am so glad i had the opportunity to go.

even my cute grandparents made it!

after that it was just mel and i.

it was a hard time, i'm not back at usu...no worries i'll save that for a different post.

so we tried to make the best of it.

my last few days we of course went to bandido!

stayed up late talking.

we said goodbye to our little alice.

and then spent our last day on the water.

we said our goodbyes and then she went to logan and i headed to orem.

my best friends all split ways.

kk is in twin.

squid is in ephraim.

mel is in logan.

and i'm here in orem.

it was a good summer, the best one yet.

i'm thankful for this summer.

you never know what could happen by next summer, whether we will all be together or not.

i should've worked harder,

perhaps gotten ready a bit more.

i should've been a little less carefree,

perhaps tried to act more my age.

but i didn't, and i don't regret one bit of it.

it was a fun summer, no boyfriends, no drama, no worries.

just me and my three best friends.

i am blessed.

[and if you made it through that whole post, you're a champ in my eyes!]