Christmas City

Every year Mayo Clinic rents out a place for their annual Christmas Party. It used to be the zoo, but this year and last year it was at Christmas City at Firebird Raceway. Basically it is a big carnival/ fair. Santa was there. We watched a tiger show and ate dinner. Later on we bought some cotton candy and ate some fry bread. It was so great to be with my family; Bobby, Sarah and Chloe came too. Brittany brought along Taylor as well! It was so good to see everyone, I've missed them so much. :)

The petting zoo was a big hit, Chloe has no fear!

The bull riding was as fun for us to watch as it was for Bobby and Rocky to ride!

Taylor and Brittany have been friends forever. Taylor is like just another sister. I'm pretty sure she's spent more time in my room the past 3 years than I have!

I love to be home to participate in all the things my mom and my sister do together. I hate talking to them when they're together doing something fun. I get jealous!

Jennifer even got to come. I haven't seen her in a while, it was fun.

Whenever she was all over the place! She loved seeing all the animals! Santa was also a big hit!! She danced to music and made it so much more fun for all of us! Christmas is SO much better with little kids!!!

My dad and Chloe are SO cute in this picture! I love it. She pretty much has all of us wrapped around her little finger!

Halloween

A few weeks before Halloween Sonya and I went to CornBelly's corn maze at Thanksgiving Pointe, it was so fun. Daniel, Brodie & Adam came and Adam brought his cousin Nicole and her friend Candice. We went through the maze, rode the tractor train, jumped on the huge trampoline, ate some kettle corn and rode the haunted hay ride. It was fun, I had been wondering what the heck Thanksgiving Pointe was. I got a small glimpse that night.

On Halloween night we were hippies, my idea thank you very much. It was last minute, we had to dress up, otherwise we'd look SO lame. Sonya was a pirate!

Early October

About 2 weeks ago Amanda Monk and I went to Visit Nicole and Brady and their cute baby Logen in West Jordan! Logen has the longest TONGUE! We were happy to see them doing well and happy!

It snowed! I was so happy to go to church wearing my new peacoat and tights!! The problem is that it has only snowed once, and that was like the 2nd or 3rd week in October and it melted like the next day. Only the very tip of the peaks have snow right now!! I'm ready for winter, bring it on Utah! I finally feel like I have enough warm coats, pants and shoes to get me started. I have done so much shopping here, my favorite purchase is my red wool peacoat from gap, I wear it too much, but I LOVE it!

Fall Is Here

Fall is here! I have been looking forward to seeing the leaves to change colors for so long! I have never lived in a place where there is a fall season before! It's beautiful! My roommates and I went up to Sundance Ski Resort in Provo Canyon last Sunday to take pictures. I was so fun.

Grandma Loves Me!

Grandma sent me the biggest box this weekend! Inside was all the right ingredients to make a house full of college girls VERY happy!! She most obviously made a trip to Costco before sending the box. She sent popcorn, hot cocoa mix, instant oatmeal, pancake mix, a big halloween bowl and CANDY CANDY CANDY!!! She's been so good, not a week has gone by without me getting something from her in the mail... I really LOVE getting mail. I miss my grandparents a lot, I love them!!

the new roommates

I got really lucky- MY ROOMMATES ARE NORMAL! I share a room with Brittani, Michelle and Layne are in the other room. We all get along great. Social life is way different here, but I am slowly adapting. The school is so huge that you really base your social life around the people in your ward because they are the ones that are easiest to get to know. My first week here I only left my house to go to school and we had no visitors, it was brutal! In thatcher my apartment was the central hub for social activity!! Things are just different in Chatham Towne, the people are older (juniors and above) and life is more grounded and focused. I actually like it now that we've met some people in our ward and we have friends. Life is good.

(PS I'm in the BYU158th ward and that's on the low end of the scale!)

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Brittani, Me, Michelle and Layne

We went to smart cookie, it is this ice cream place that has a whole rack of different assortments of fresh cookies. First you choose 2 cookies and then you choose the type of ice cream you want to go in the middle to make your ice cream sandwich. It's yummy!

BYU

I'm finally here! School started a week ago today and I'm well into my studies as far as coursework goes. I am very, very busy, but I like it!

My schedule?

MWF 9- D&C class 10-Spanish 1-Statistics 2-English T/TH 8- Tap Dance 10- Spanish 12:30 Accounting.

I have 15.5 credits, it's quite a lot of class time and homework (especially when we're counseled to study 2 hours for every 1 in class), but it's worth it to get done. I love BYU, it's just like EA only much bigger.

I kept waiting for the crowds on campus to die down as time passed from the 1st day of school... it never happened. I mentioned it to my friend Sonya and she said "That's never going to happen." She's right... but there are just so many people everywhere! There are never any free tables or couches in the buildings, there is at least a 15 minute waiting time to use a computer in the library, the food court is ALWAYS packed, in every hallway and stairwell I feel like I'm just traveling with the herd, even the outside benches and spots on the grass are taken.

The campus is seriously huge... it took me like 5 days to finally memorize the buildings I have classes in on the first try.

If you are seeking to get in shape I advise you to come and spend just one day on campus! Everywhere I go is uphill! I live in a cute little cluster of condos on the east side of campus, downhill from school. I don't feel like I might die in my haste to get to class anymore, but the first week I thought my legs were going to fall off!

This is where I live!

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There is one stretch of walkway, however, that I fear I will never grow accustomed to... I call them the stairs of death. I choose to run up them because taking it slow and concentrating on each step only seems to prolong the process. Everyone is out of breath by the time they get to the top. I don't have a single class that is on the entry level of a building, stairs and hills are the only way to get from point A to B on this campus!!!

The stairs of death... they go straight up like 4 stories!!

The campus is beatiful though: green grass everywhere, beautiful flowers and statues and the buildings, inside and out, incorporate art as well. It is starting to get a little chilly, but I refuse to wear a jacket/sweatshirt for the time being. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like with snow everywhere here. There is a park right behind my house that is always full of activity from college students and the community. Big trees, soft bright green grassy fields and walkways everywhere. I like to go jogging in the park mainly because I can't believe what nice weather we're having.. I don't want it to get cold! We spend lots of time outside these days.

I am amazed at how pretty all the landscape and buildings are here.

This is the park right behind my house. It's such a pretty place!