Fall Semester is here...let the fun begin!

Welcome to the building that is excited to welcome be back to school TOMORROW! Between walking all over campus and hiking many of these flights of stairs everyday I have class, it's no wonder there's no need to go to the gym! (ha! totally kidding) Anyways, summer has officially ended and i'm bracing myself for one of the busiest, craziest, yet most exciting semesters EVER! Here's a short list of the most exciting things on my mind right how as I head into this new semester:
1. LAST YEAR of school! Where did time go? I'm seriously almost done? Am I really a SENIOR in COLLEGE? Those people always seemed so old!
2. TEMPLE! This has nothing to do with school but i'm so excited to go through the temple in a few weeks!
3. Getting MARRIED! ...okay, this one is really number 1 on the list...but i was thinking that was too obvious. lol OCTOBER 16th isn't coming fast enough! I'm so excited!
4. House?? We'll see how this one turns out but we're in the process of buying a house. This is exciting! ...if not house, apartment. Moving halfway through the semester should be an adventure as well!
5. Tutoring????????...not so so sure i'm super excited for this, but partially excited. It's alot of fun to help people with their studies at school and be paid for it :)
6. New ward! This comes with getting married and moving...change is in the air! So many new adventures ahead!
7. Interviewing for full time jobs...hmm! I'm a little scared for this to be honest! ...yet still, an exciting adventure.

Maybe I should've named this post "exciting adventures await..." because that seems to be the theme. I'm excited for them all!

bRiDaL.sHoWeR.THANK.YOUS!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who participated in my bridal shower last night! It was so so fun to see you all! I'm so excited to be able to decorate our new house with so many cute things, be able to cook and eat with the proper utensils and dishes, and so much more! You are all so wonderful!

A special THANK YOU shout out to my family! Thank you Karen, Lauri, Grandma, Brittnee, Ashley, and Mom for all you do for me! I feel so loved!

MOB (Thanks for not being MIA...haha sorry I love that movie! Koodos to anyone that can name it...)

2 months and 2 days and counting! Could we be more excited??...and submit that we cannot! :) Love you all! Thanks again for EVERYTHING!

I'M ENGAGED!

Hey blogging friends! My family and I just returned from our trip to Idaho on Sunday night. We had a blast. I will definitely be posting some exciting pictures from this trip in the near future. But in the meantime...I have a great story to share...

This story took place on this very Idaho vacation and involved two very blessed, very cool, very good looking,...i mean, very humble, people. His name is Trevor Palmer, her name is Ashley Chapman. The met in December of 2008, fell in love, got engaged on July 7, 2009 and will be married on October 16th. How did this handsome lad pop the question, you might be asking?

Well he takes her up to the top of a huge mountain, called Sawtell... A place she loves to visit every year she's in idaho. They talked and laughed and tried to stay warm by sitting behind a rock that blocked the freezing cold wind. As the sun started to set, they made their way to the top of the mountain. This is where the magic happened. She requested a kiss to warm her up, he agreed :) Then knelt down and popped the famous "will you marry me?" question. She said YES!

These two have never been happier :)

Keeping warm behind the large rock. {please excuse the no makeup...it doesn't exist when you're in the mountains :)}

Trevor found a large rock to put in the spot where his knee landed so we can go back and visit it :)

This is the rock...in the spot! lol

Sunset silouette to top the night off... how romantic i know! lol

Back to Back: Havasupai & EFY

CAUTION! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK OF ENJOYMENT...

THIS POST IS LONG...but full of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The last two weeks have been non-stop. Two Monday's ago, I headed up with the Palmer's to hike Havasupai. We arrived Monday night, "slept" in the dirt parking lot so that we could wake up and start our hike early before the sun came out. We headed down the trail Tuesday at about 5:30am and it was actually chilly. We were blessed with the more perfect weather. It ended up being overcast all the way down! The 8 mile hike down wasn't too bad...it was more the distance carrying a heavy pack that was more difficult. We finally made it to the village, located the lodge, changed and hiked down to the falls. The water was cold and it was still over cast so we didn't swim much. After discovering all the falls, we hiked back to the lodge, cooked up some delicious Top Romen and made fun of each other as we gimped around because we were already sore from the day's hike totalling 16 miles. Wednesday we hiked down to the falls again and played in all of the them! What a gorgeus site to see. However, last summer a huge flood came through and re-routed the water so Navajo Falls is all dried up and no longer exsists. If you look up before picutres of this fall, you'll notice how much of a tropical cove it is...differing from the others. It was a bit sad. Anyways, after hiking back to the lodge, cooking up some yummy mountain man dinners, sleeping, we arose around 4:30am to start our hike back out. It took us just as long to hike out as it did to hike in...which was an amazing 4 hours! Not bad eh? The hike out was a little more grueling, especially the last mile of steep switchbacks. We all made it...but agreed a helicoptor ride down and out next time would be greatly enjoy :) After sitting in the car for an hour, we got out to use the restroom and none of us could walk properly. It was really hilarious how stiff we were!

Above: The Crew at the End (i need to locate the before picture...)

Below: The Crew at Havasu falls

Above: Mooney Falls (below Havasu)
Below: Me & Trev below Mooney Falls

Above: Rope swing below Mooney Falls
Below: The beginning of the instensely insanely freakishly scary desent down to Mooney Falls

Above & Below: Havasu Falls

Below: Dried up Navajo Falls

2 New waterfalls were created from this flood.
Above: New waterfall #2
Below: New Waterfall #1

We arrived home late Thursday night....

I was home Friday....and left Saturday for EFY!
This week was amazing! Definitely dubbed a week of miracles. My kids all got something out of the week and some even made drastic changes to their lives. I was over 10 girls, my co-counselor had 10 boys. Our company's name was THIS IS FOOLISHNESS from Alma 37:6. Great name for cheers and chants...everyone knew who we were! It was great! EFY is an awesome experience but exhausted me! I am grateful I was able to do one week...but that was enough for me...I missed Trev! Here are a few pictures of my group! Love them all!

Above: One of our girls got sick so she was quarentined to her room for a day. My other girls decided they wanted to heart attack her.

Below: Me and my co-counselor, BillyAbove: The whole company
Below: These two of my boys auditioned for the Variety show but didn't make it so they put a show on during free time

Above: Pizza Night
Below: "This is Foolishness" at banner and cheer night Below: most of my girls after breakfast on Tuesday

Schools out!... and it's time for the mountains!

Hey all! Sorry i've dropped off the face of the planet for a long time...but no worries...i'm back! :) I finished my spring semester since I last posted! I'm officially in my fourth year of college...i believe they call that a SENIOR! Holy freakin crap! I can't believe i'm almost done. I don't feel that old yet. (i know what all the "older" adults are thinking right now..."if you're that old, how do you think that makes us feel?") ha. Anyways, life is amazing as ever. I'm currently working for my dad and preparing for a few trips this summer. I will update you on those as they happen. Last weekend, I traveled up to Christopher Creek with Trevor and his family to their cabin for Memorial Day weekend. We had a BLAST!! Here's a few pictures to enjoy. (Although we still look marvelous... please don't judge us for our mountain shabbiness)

It rained almost all weekend. It was amazing! It was kind of foggy and the clouds were real low when we drove up the Rim. Woods Canyone lake looked amazing, and everything was crisp and clear for when we made it up to the Colcord Lookout tower.


I want to go back...

It made me antsy for Idaho...

The end.

Love you all! :)

Who's ridden the light rail?

Thank you Miss Katie Hawkes for the baseball game yesterday! Girls nights are always a blast...especially when you take an adventure on the light rail. We all met up at ASU, and rode the light rail to 7th St and Washington...right in front of Chase Field. It was SO nice...and quite exciting. It was almost as if we were boarding a Disneyland ride. We didn't have to worry about traffic, accidents, parking, or walking around downtown Phoenix without strong men at night. :)

We got to the game, found our seats, and much to our dismay, had the most hilarious men sitting next to us. Specifically Merriachi men. They were SOOO loud and yelled like donkey's. They even broke out into song and dance multiple times. I couldn't stop laughing. One time, Bonnie even made it on the jumbotron dancing with these four old men...some of which had no teeth!! We must have been a loud section, because they "featured" us on the jumbotron TWICE during the game! It's so odd to see yourself up there...especially because the reaction time is so delayed so you're watching yourself do something you've already done. Weird! But quite exciting. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture of us up there (honestly I was too intrigued with the delay in motion) but here's a couple pictures of us girls!
It was so so fun to spend some time with these girls! Katie Lee got a job in Utah next fall and Katie Hawkes will be in Provo all summer. We will miss you!

Conference Weekend

I absolutely love love love conference. This conference was no exception. Every since I went up for conference in the fall of 2007 for my first time, i've had a greater appreciation and love for our Prophet and apostles that the Lord has sent to lead us. They really are inspired men who speak to God. We didn't make it up to Utah this time...but hopefully in the fall. :)

While the men were at their Priesthood meeting Saturday night, I was able to round up a few of my girlfriends that were still in town to go out to dinner to GECKO GRILL! I love this place. However, it took almost an hour and a half to get in! ...they told me 20 min originally. Needless to say, I got quite impatient and ended up sitting on the concrete out front after going to talk to the hostess a couple of times. I've been working on becoming more patient, but I still have my breaking points...and this was one of them. The hostess opened the door to call another party and while I was still sitting on the ground I said, "Just call Ashley, we've been here for over an hour!" ...i'm sure that was good for their business. LOL But we got in a few minutes after that. It was worth the wait.Above: The five of us- me, Brooke, Desi, Shantell, and Sunny

Below: Remember School of Rock?...When the students wanted to get into Battle of the Bands so they acted like terminally ill kids from a hospital? It worked for them so why couldn't it work for us?? :)

This was the Friday of conference weekend. Trevor was able to score us sweet seats at a Spring training game! Thanks Pres. Palmer! I have never sat that close before...the players were lifesize and you could even see their faces. We were originally supposed to go with Trev's brother and his girlfriend but they were unable to go so my parents benefitted from the deal. Yay for a double!