Christmas

Sorry, no pictures with this post, I forgot my cord in Utah so this will have to do for now.
I once heard somewhere that "you can never go home." I think I agree because so far everything has been different. Not necessarily people or anything in my house, (except Evalyn is bigger) but I think it's been the way we live and how we've been spending our time together as a family. Normally, had I been going to BYU Hawaii and never left, I don't think I would have spent this much time with my family. So far I have spent everyday with my brothers, going to the beach, movies, or just hanging out at home. I have never taken so much pleasure in spending time with them, but its all I have wanted to do.
So yeah I guess I can't go "home," but who would want to? This is so much better.

There's No Place Like Home

I'm so happy to be back home again and with my family.

Especially with little Evalyn. :)

A Few Things

A few weeks ago I got to go to my very first Ballet ever. We went to see the Nutcracker. It was really cool, I don't think I'll be a regular at the ballet, but I felt like a cultured lady.

Nutty and I. I could have so been in it.

Jovy, me and Elsie.

I also got to go the first presidency christmas devotional. It was so cool and my first meeting ever in the conference center.

Heber Creeper/ Ward Christmas Party

On Thursday night I went to Heber to go on the Heber Creeper. It was my first real train ride. I was really excited but it was FREEZING. They did a Polar Express theme and played christmas music. There were elves that gave us cookies and hot chocolate and we even read the book on the train.

The ice on the windows is on the INSIDE. Like I said, freezing.


















Santa gave me a bell just like in the book.

















On the steam engine. Sorry about the fog, I think that's the persons breath who was taking the picture.

















Berit and I at our ward Christmas party at Magleby's. I felt classy. :)

I figured out that if I load my pictures on picasa they come out big. So you can click on these and see them bigger. :)

Devotional

On Tuesday I got to sing in devotional with the university chorale. It was pretty cool and we worked really hard on our song. You can watch it here. It is untitled and might tell you its unavailable but its just lying to you. Unfortunately, you have to watch the opening hymn and prayer before you get to us. But they do show me briefly as soon as we start singing "Jesus Once of Humble Birth." I look bored out of my mind, but I promise I wasn't.
That same night I had my choir concert at the HFAC and my cousins, Chelsea and Mallory came.



They are so great. :)

Give Thanks

For Thanksgiving I went with my cousins Chelsea and Lexie to the Alder's home in Murray. It was so nice to be in a home rather than an old apartment with students 24/7 and nice to spend it with my mom's side of the family who we rarely spend holidays with. My Thanksgiving break was awesome.

Just before we started eating


We also made ginger bread houses


the finished product. we ended up using hot glue guns to build our houses... no one eats these things anyways.


On Friday night we went to see the lights at temple square.


pretty pretty.


This is a reflection of the temple in the reflection pool. It had floating candles.




On saturday, I went to the BYU v. Utah game. My first BYU football game and probably the best one to go to. Rival game and we WON in overtime!! So exciting.
I sat behind Lexie


As soon as they scored the winning touchdown EVERYONE stormed the field.


I couldn't see anything, so my friend Bobby (he's 6' 5") put me on his shoulders. I was the tallest person on that field.


MAX HALL!! the starting quarter back for BYU. I patted his helmet and cheered as he was pushed by me.




I loved my thanksgiving and loved spending time with my cousins.

We're pretty special. :)

Skater Girl

On Saturday night some friends and I were going to go to the Heber Creeper. Its a train in Heber that, during Christmas/Thanksgiving time does reenactments of the Polar Express. You have to go in your Pajamas and they give you hot chocolate and its great. So I was all excited to go in my PJ's and were driving down there and we realize that the drive to Heber takes a lot longer than we thought. We missed the train and we decided to go ice skating instead.
Here I am, sweatpants and all, ice skating.


I got really good. I even started doing ballerina turns.


Then for FHE, my group went to the roller rink. I have NEVER been on roller skates. I pretty much showed up everybody there. Especially when I lost control while turning and couldn't stop. The only option was then to launch onto the carpet where I ran into a table at this little mexican kids birthday party, in order to stop myself. Thankfully, I did not fall down once. :)
I'm really sad that I forgot to take a picture. I had bright orange glow-in-the-dark laces.

Oh, and don't worry about the Heber creeper. We're still going on Dec. 9th. It'll be closer to Christmas so it'll be cooler. you should come!

Aloha Elder Bramwell

Tonight, I got to see my friend Taylor, from back home. He goes into the MTC on wednesday and is going to the Sacramento CA mission, Spanish speaking.



I made him that lei and he was really excited about it. Good luck Elder Bramwell! We'll see you in two years!

SNOW!

Last week we had our first snow! I was freezing my buns off, but it was so cool. Its not sticking to the ground yet, but its here.

In the morning when I first left the apartment, it was snowing lightly and looked really pretty.


Later in the day the wind came and then it was just freezing and not so pretty. Every time i looked up the wind hurt my eyes, not to mention the fatty snowflakes that kept hitting me square in the eye therefore impairing my ability to see when I walked.


I can see my breath! Just not in this picture.


It's gonna be a great winter.

Halloween

I pretty much had a Halloween weekend. I went to a party on Friday night and Saturday night, not to mention Adalie's Birthday/Halloween party. I put together my costume last minute, (thanks to some creative friends) with a huge t-shirt, face paint and feathers, and this is what i came up with. It turns out Ryan was the same thing. We must be related.


Berit and I. The Flapper and the indian.


Pocahontas and the little mermaid!


Put a ring on it.


Alana, The best Hippie I've ever seen. Seriously, you should have seen her shoes. So good, in a bad way.


The boys. Two cholos, a rice farmer, a nerd, Andy Warhol and a surf board.

Were goin' to Jackson!

This past weekend I got to go Jackson Hole, Wyoming! It was amazing, everything was so beautiful and I had so much fun. I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I took 290 pictures total, but only posted the best ones. But who doesn't love pictures?

We began our adventure at Will's pit stop..


and we were on our way.


about 45 minutes into the drive, our friend TJ lost his glasses when he stuck his head out the window. So naturally, Berit and I took the opportunity to take pictures. :)


My car of people


My first time to Wyoming!


Cool kids on the block


I crocheted when we had down time. It just fit the scene.


This is the house we stayed at. It was so nice and beautiful, and so secluded. The name of the road its on is called, "Solitude."


This was at 8:30 a.m. and me and Berit were the only people awake. We walked outside (40 degrees mind you) and realized that the door locked behind us. We had to tap on the boys' window and wake one of them up to let us in.


When everyone was up, we did yoga.


It started hailing!!! It was so cute, anytime anything snowish or nature-like happened, everyone would call out for me because its all so new to me.


The Grand Tetons!!






Everyone was doing couple pictures, so me and Trent, being the only single people on the trip decided to take a nice pose of our own.


That water was freezing... did I go touch it? you bet.


Famous antler arches


My new friend. (took this picture for Dad, do you know why?)


IBC rootbeer at lunch


I did a spread for Cabela's


The girls. "WE OWN THIS TOWN."






The only single people. Kip, Trent and Me. Fantastic.


I loved the open spaces of Wyoming. Made me want to ride a horse or something.




The boys decided it would be fun to stand on the trash can. (i dont know)


I had to bring my slippers. :)


We later shot pellet guns. We were in cowboy country, we had to.


This was the best.


"You don't do nothin' but sit on the porch and drink whiskey"
"I like to kick a pig every once in a while." :)


We also chopped wood, I was feeling very country. (I really did chop wood, this isn't just a pose)


Then it started snowing like CRAZY!


catching snowflakes








I had to take a picture with the big shotgun. :)


Later, we had a dance party. As you can see I was the best dancer.


At church the next day I walked in and saw the missionaries sitting there. Lo and behold, who is one of those missionaries? My friend from home, Robert Beck! So funny to see him as a missionary. Didn't even know he was out here.


After church, we all took pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the group shots, I'll have to get them later from my friend.

American Gothic






Dinner with Matt's grandparents.


After dinner we took a walk to the river


And took lots of pretty pictures along the way


We saw some elk, but this was as close as they would let us get to them.




I love Wyoming!


The girlies


river and the tetons


Finally, we left Jackson and everyone was pretty sad...especially TJ.




I had the best time and I feel so fortunate that I got to go experience something new. I really gained an appreciation for beauty outside of Hawaii and learned that there is such a bigger world outside of my little island.