A Few Things That I Love:

Music

Andrew’s Oregon Sweatshirt

Sunflowers

Green Jeans

Andrew’s Guitar

Summer

A Certain Smile…

There’s a certain smile…

That appears once a week….

My sister caught it today….

Letters.

:)

Once upon a December….

Dancing bears… painted wings… things I almost remember… and a song someone sings, once upon a December….

So what has happened this month?

Well….. we straightened the hair of a certain curly-haired boy…

We also had a Taco Party…

complete with guacamole….

juarritos…

dancing….

and of course tacos….

Then I got a visitor….

We went to the BYU-Oregon game….

and BYU won….  

We walked the grounds of Temple Square….

Then we started studying for finals….

This picture was not posed.

Christmas break…. please come sooner!

I’ve almost survived my first semester at BYU…. what?!

Pumpkins and Mission Calls

This week, I was able to drive down to Cedar City and spend time with friends and family. The special occasion? My best friend Andrew opened his mission call!

Naturally, all of his siblings wanted to be there, so he waited over six hours in aggravation before he opened it. I have never seen him so jumpy. We came up with ways to distract him though:

(Sorry the pictures are terrible quality; I forgot my camera.)

We Carved Pumpkins! (Or as Andrew would say: “punkins”)

He carved an Oregon “O” with duck prints around it… surprise, surprise.

I did a violin, although now I wish I had done a “Y” with cougar prints around it, ha ha.

My Papa took us out to dinner. It was so good to see him. (Also, my dad told the waiter it was Andrew’s birthday…eh it might as well have been.)

We read George’s Marvelous Medicine.

He waited anxiously.

Then finally the moment came….

Andrew has been called to serve in the Argentina, Mendoza Mission!!!

I’m so proud of him. He’s going to make a fantastic missionary. I’m so grateful I got to be there for that special experience.

P.S. later in the weekend we fulfilled one of my life dreams of going to a corn maze….. so much fun!

My Paradise…

It’s called Pinecrest and if you haven’t heard me talk about it…. we’re probably not friends.

This is where the wonderful Barth Family Cabin is and oh I have missed it the past couple of years.

Now normally, (normally as in, in my childhood years) most of my siblings would come but they all decided to grow up, have families, and that jazz. Therefore, I got to invite two of my very best friends, Ms. Venice-Slim-My-Roommate-Practically-Perfect-In-Every-Way-Ada and Mr. Andy-Roo-Boy-Who-Lights-Up-My-Life-Tyler.

We went cliff-jumping…..

Hiking….

Yosemite-ing….

Tanning….

Sandcastle Making…

Cuddling…

Nerts-Playing…

Logging…. (way harder than it looks)

Boat Driving….

Marshmallow-roasting….

Among other things… My roommate and I looking at Pinecrest Lake

3 of my favorite people.

This boy that I sort of maybe like….. a lot.

And the Crew.

Looking Back On The Years of Cedar High

Well folks, I’m heading closer and closer to graduation and see the next two weeks slipping away so fast that I decided to do this post now. I want to reflect my high school years. Remember how I became the girl that’s about to graduate and head off to the college I’ve been dreaming of since…. forever? Let’s go in order, shall we?
Freshman Year
Oh yes, the year I entered high school with my best friends Chanel Anderson and Kara Stewart. Still having every desire to be popular, look pretty all the time, have a boy like me…. The year I was grounded all the time, had to turn in my phone at night, was proud of my 3.6 GPA, was about to quit violin, and made some of the biggest mistakes and causing the biggest regrets of my High School life. I mean it’s no wonder I’ve used all sorts of defense mechanisms to forget this year. But still, I know I couldn’t have become the better person I am now without all those things. Plus, it was still fun. I was in orchestra, had a lot of friends, had my first experiences with state music events like Solo and Ensemble, and got familiar with all of Cedar High’s traditions.

Sophomore Year
I got on top of things. I was passionate about music again, was in the pit orchestra for Big River, received my first 4.0, spent weekends four-wheeling (until the big accident), became friends with the amazing and beautiful Kelsee Jackson, was in German club, got my driver’s license, went to my first dances with dates, saw Wicked in Salt Lake, and again had wonderful, wonderful friends. I think this was my favorite year after being a Senior. It was relatively stress-free and I met a lot of new people. Oh, I just remembered, this was my first full year of school with braces. Yummy!

Junior Year
Definitely my hardest, academic year. Actually just overall my hardest year, but fun and definitely not my least favorite. I was in AP English, German 2, and Chemistry 1010 and 1050. I made up for all my slacking from Freshman Year and finally made it into Honor Society. We were all given more freedom. I could drive my friends down to St. George for a day to simply hang out, shop, ice skate, find adventures at Costco, go to the lake, and jam out to music. I got to play a violin solo with the Orchestra of Southern Utah. I made plans for Senior year by running for a Student Body Office and auditioning for Madrigals. I became especially good friends with Kaitlyn Friese. I also lost a best friend. This was the year my testimony of the LDS church grew the most. I had to overcome a lot of trials and really stand on my own in making decisions that involved being a righteous member of the church. I was and am lucky enough to have so many friends to talk about the gospel with, especially with my sister, Caitlin, being gone on her mission. They helped me so much. I almost forgot to mention my mom. Wow, my mom is amazing. She became my best friend. She became the person I wanted to confide in the most. What a wonderful mother I have.

Senior Year
I’m sorry this post is so much longer than I intended it to be, but I’m almost done I promise. Wow. This year has been great. My mom said to me the other day, “I haven’t had a child that was involved in as many things as you.” I suppose she was right. I had the opportunity to play a lead role in our school musical, The Wizard of Oz, I was in Student Government, Orchestra, Madrigals, German Club, Honor Society, Athena, and named Cedar High’s Music Sterling Scholar (which I consider to be my greatest accomplishment). I took on teaching 4 students, whom I love. Speaking of love, I also fell in love, it’s a crazy, wonderful thing. I was also Seminary Class President and Laurel Class President for half the year.  I got to be in Utah’s All-State Orchestra. I made it into BYU, which was a blessing and honestly a miracle. I’ve loved meeting so many new people and being involved in so many things. High School has been good to me. I’m going to miss it but I look forward to moving on to the next stage of my life.