Real Summer

As opposed to what, fake summer? No, it’s just that this has been my first summer since high school that I’ve done exactly what you’re supposed to do during the summer. You know travel, explore, lie by the pool, maybe earn a little money at a part time job. The last two summers I’ve worked full time. Great experience, but man I’ve been missing out!! Seriously, this summer has been the best yet, even though I “stayed” in Provo. I’ve managed to make it to most of western North America: California, Canada, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. I’ve been keeping up on climbing, and there’s more of that to come. Definitely got a tan. I’m pretty sure this is the most tan I’ve ever been. Thank you high altitudes and never ending sunshine, although I’m digging the clouds as of late. I guess you could say that I’m living the life.

I’ve already filled you in on California, Canada, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. That was early summer. Then things got super crazy in July. I was gone for two and a half weeks straight! It’s a good thing I have such an awesome job that makes doing that so easy.

The next great adventure was Idaho. The car was not so full this time (there were only four of us and we weren’t going camping), but that drive, oh that drive. It never gets any easier. You spend most of it in the barren wastelands of southern Idaho and southern Montana (sorry if that offends anyone, but let’s be honest). Once you hit Missoula though, then it starts to get enjoyable. Then you see signs of life again, trees and lakes and mountains. Then I feel like I’m home again. Candice, Phil, Kyle, and I made the long trek Monday before the fourth. Looking back at the blog, I thought I did a post on what it’s like to spend the Fourth of July with my family, but it turns out I didn’t. Boy, you’re in for a treat today! Let me fill you in.

It all begins in the morning. Some mornings earlier for others. Coeur d’Alene has their parade every year on the fourth, and my family has staked out the same spot for as long as I can remember. Usually the night before someone goes down and drops chairs off to claim the shady spot on the grass right on the curb, then some of us go down early to lay out blankets. Now for those of you who know us well, we are a very musical family, so a good portion of us are actually in the parade, in the marching band called the Perfection-Nots. Basically, everyone dresses up in costumes and no previous marching experience is needed. I’m actually part of this group, although I’m not playing with them. Grandpa Bob can’t march the parade – it’s a lot of walking – so for the past five or so years, I’ve been his nurse and pushed him in the parade. It’s quite the workout, and my face usually hurts from smiling so much, but it’s fun and it’s good time spent with one of my favorite people.

After the parade we head out to Sunbar for the rest of the day. We play on the lake, roast an entire pig for dinner (this year it was 100lbs!), and have our own firework show. Usually the day before a couple people head over to Montana to get the good stuff. Go big or go home! This year we added to the fun with a Roman candle war. Phil’s friend Matt and his fiancé were there, so we went down with Candice and Kyle to a dock floating in the middle of the lake and shot flaming balls of explosives at each other. No big deal. But not before poor Matt and Haliaka tipped over in their canoe ride out to the dock. Better protection from the fire I guess. But they also had the fireworks with them. Luckily, Matt had a waterproof bag that kept them mostly dry. It made things more interesting. You never knew when your weapon would decide to go off. Yeah, I think I’ll be doing that again. Sooooo much fun.

Probably my favorite picture of the trip. Kyle, I don't think you're doing it right.

Loved hanging out with my family. I’m a pretty lucky girl to have such wonderful people in my life. Even if we are a little crazy sometimes.

The next week and a half was spent in Texas and San Jose at leadership conferences with Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG. At the end of the month I went back to San Jose for EY’s. They were all pretty fun, I met some great people, and I got a little taste of the different cultures. That’s really all I’m going to say about them. Recruiting starts again in September and by October I’ll know who I’ll be interning for this coming winter. Hard to believe it’s almost that time already.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Tesla Model S. Completely electric. 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds.

Hanging out at Google!

The last adventure of the summer was to Montana. Holy cow it was a whirlwind (there Friday evening, left Sunday afternoon), but you can’t go wrong when my family is involved. Every couple years we have a family reunion of sorts in Bigfork, MT and it’s always a blast. Even the drive there was pretty amazing. Ok, we had to endure the wastelands again, but once we got off the interstate in Montana and started on the state highways up through the national forests, oh my gosh, breathtaking. I found myself at home once again. We had a little delay due to an accident that backed up traffic, but that was totally fine with us (obviously not the fact that the accident happened, but the break it afforded). It was nice to stand up and goof off, for the entertainment of everyone around us I’m sure. Crazy kids from Utah. We drove the rest of the way with the windows down and the music blasting. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but not so much when I tried to untangle my hair afterward. Oops. Still, I’d do it again.

Bodacious wind hair. Who needs a stylist?

We camped right on the shore of Flathead Lake, in this palace of a tent. Uncle Ken kept saying you could fit a whole platoon in there and I’d agree with that. It was HUGE. We had the perfect spot on the shore to see the sky and watch some of the meteor shower for the two nights we were there. It wasn’t even the peak nights and we still saw some amazing ones. We spent Saturday eating, playing in the lake, eating some more, walking around downtown, and eating even more. Seriously, by the time dinner was over I was vowing to never eat again. You will never go hungry in my family. How do we all manage to stay so thin? We must be blessed on both accounts.

Huckleberry ice cream is the best. Ever. Always.

On Sunday, Candice and I attended the ward in the area. That was probably one of the biggest wards I’ve been to; we filled chairs all the way to the back of the cultural hall. Not bad for a small little town in northern Montana. A returned sister missionary was one of the speakers in Sacrament meeting. Now that I’m almost 21, I’ve thought a lot about serving a mission, but I honestly feel like that is not in God’s plan for me. I feel like serving a mission would be good, and I would do a lot of good as a missionary. But the Lord has something else in mind for me, where I can do even more good. I have no clue what that is, but I know He does, and I trust in the direction He wants my life to go. So I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I feel like that is the right path and I know God will help me make any needed adjustments along the way, and I know He will give me the needed strength to go where He would have me go. His grace and love is never ending.

And that sums up my travels this summer. I caught the travel bug when I went to Europe and it seems to have struck again this summer. Clearly, I don’t mind. Although, traveling can be exhausting. It’s been nice just to sit back and relax in Provo too. In my down time I’ve been rock climbing with Candice. Lots of climbing. Lead climbing is getting easier, and less scary, but I haven’t taken a fall yet. Hopefully that doesn’t make me too reckless… haha, yeah right. When have I ever been reckless (says the girl who participated in shooting fireworks at each other)? I’ve had lots of time to go to the temple. Sometimes I get in there and never want to come out. I could sit there forever just thinking and feeling so peaceful. And it’s such a great place to study and seek inspiration. Someday I want to be one of those little grandmas that works in the temple all the time. Dream job! Work has been fabulous. I’ve also been going to the gym, getting ready for the Dirty Dash in September. Not that that’s anything compared to the Tough Mudder, but it will be great fun and you will definitely see a post on that.

Alrighty. I’m officially caught up. So many adventures. So much fun. So much happiness. So many blessings. So much life. Love it.

A HaakLalChip Christmas Production

Welcome to Christmas with the Haakenson-Lallatin-Chipman brood. And you can’t forget about the Bests, Strahans, Cooks, Brintons, and Getzs. We have quite the party every year. There are always new faces to be seen, and all the chaos you could want. You really couldn’t ask for a better time.

Let me just say that I love, love, love Christmas - the atmosphere, the smells, the decorations, the anticipation. All of it. It’s such an exciting, beautiful time of year (not to mention a nice break from school). And this year I got to be HOME! We have such fun traditions that I love being a part of. Although, the drive home was a beast. Not as bad as the drive back to Utah, and certainly not as bad as the drive home for Thanksgiving last year (18 freaking hours!!!). I will not sit in a car for more than an hour at a time for the next three months, at least.

Aside from actually getting there, being there was lovely. I saw my best girlfriends and some other good friends from high school. We played a little Just Dance 3 (we’re a hilarious bunch btw), went “classy” classic roller skating, and went down to the resort like the good old days. My first day back I sunk my teeth into a delicious Huddy burger. I’ve had a lot of good burgers, but none compare to the perfection of a Hudson’s Hamburger. Of course we had cousinpalooza up at the Schweitzer condo and hit the slopes early enough the next day to get first tracks. Dang, I need to brush up on my skiing. I used to be skiing at least once a week. Now it’s like once a year. Unacceptable.

Now for the real reason you are here. How does my crazy family celebrate the most wonderful time of the year? It all begins Christmas Eve. Everyone gathers at either the Lallatins or the Haakensons for Christmas feast number one.  We open gifts from the different families, and we usually have a visit from some character who is acting as Santa’s Helper. Last year it was the Grinch. This year it was the Cat in the Hat (or Kat in the Hat).

Merry Christmas!!

Kat in the Hat and the grandkids.

Christmas morning rolls around and at my house we wake up to stockings filled with chocolate and little presents, gifts from Santa, and gifts from each other. After tearing into those, we have strawberry waffles for breakfast. They’re the best when you spread sour cream all over them and then top them with yummy strawberries. And you can’t forget about the Satsuma oranges on the side. When Christmas falls on a Sunday we go to church for Sacrament meeting, and then head to Sunbar for the rest of Christmas Day. This year, we switched it up and went to serve Christmas dinner at a nearby restaurant for the less fortunate. It was so fun, and I’m not just saying that. I really enjoyed serving and chatting with the people there. They were so friendly and so grateful. It made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. I don’t have to worry about some of the simplest things, like where my next meal is coming from.

We did go to Sunbar (the grandparents’ house) afterward for Christmas feast number two and for round two of stockings. Santa also stops at their house for all the grandkids. We play games and ice skate and eat until we can’t eat no mo. In the past we’ve had some pretty intense games of Cranium. When my Aunt Sneena and I are on a team, we are unstoppable (in any game, not just Cranium). Seriously, we’ve never lost. You’ve been warned.

And now you have officially survived a Christmas with us! Congratulations! There is no better way to celebrate the Savior’s birth than with such amazing people, in my humble opinion, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Although, I could really use some sunshine right about now. Can it be summer already????

Survivor

I did it. I made it. I completed exactly half (1/2) of the infamous accounting junior core. Sorry, no speech. What will I do next? Complete the other half of course. Not a super exciting prospect, but it’s looking to be a more exciting/interesting semester. The first half of the core consisted of accounting information systems (basically, my least favorite class ever – although Professor Burton was awesome), financial accounting one (yay!), and auditing (what I’ll start my career in). The second half consists of tax (could be interesting), financial accounting two (double yay!), and managerial accounting (tough but fun). I realize I am not a normal person, since I just used ‘accounting’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence (or afterthought), but the world needs people like me. Clearly, I have a personality (I am NOT the 99% - haha), or you wouldn’t be reading my blog because it would be really boring. Or maybe it is? In that case someone should probably tell me. Thanks in advance for being gentle.

Juusssssst kidding! I know you guys love me so much!! And just for that I’m going to talk about accounting for a couple more sentences. I want to relate the ordeal that finals week is. We have a partially comprehensive final in each subject – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 7:00-FREAKING-AM. Campus scheduling hates us. So I was stuck there all week. Usually I take all my finals within the first two days and then get the heck out of there. Instead, I had to stress the whole week about tests. And we don’t even know our grades yet. We won’t know for like another week. I know, my life is sooo hard.

I was looking back over my blog and realized that my last post was over a month ago. You’ve probably been dying to know what kind of trouble I’ve been getting myself into. Or not. Either way, I don’t have some great excuse for why I’ve been negligent.

Ok, if you’ve kept up on my blog you’ll know that sometimes I like to go off on tangents. This is one of those times. Maybe you’ve noticed, but I tend to use some bigger words on here than I do when I’m actually speaking. This is because I like to think in big words. Seriously, sometimes my mind is like a Jane Austen novel. But when I talk, I use smaller words, because who really wants to sound like they’ve come straight from Pride and Prejudice? This little complex of mine tends to lead to my spoken sentences being all jumbled up and the sporadic changing of topics. If you’ve ever noticed this, now you know why! My brain is thinking too quickly and in big words, so I’m frantically trying to translate into smaller words, and by the time I’ve done this my brain is already on to the next topic. For example, my brain is thinking “I am disinclined to acquiesce your request” and my mouth is trying to say “No.” Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this!!!

Now back to what I was talking about before. Yes, I’ve just been negligent. Or lazy. Or both. I mean, nothing grand has happened or anything, but I could have afforded my readers the courtesy of a little update to let them know I hadn’t forgotten them. I say that like I’m a big deal with thousands of readers, hahaha. To the dedicated few, I thank you. To sum up what I’ve been doing for the past month: school, more school, Heather’s (my roommate) birthday (the big 2-4!!), even more school, Thanksgiving, and hot chocolate parties. If you haven’t been to one of our hot chocolate parties, and you live in Provo, COME! This was all Heather’s idea, but I’ve definitely jumped on board and dare to call myself a co-host. She had this tradition before her mission with a bunch of Spokane buddies, and they called it ‘Cocoa Chat’. Well, it’s technically still called that, and she makes all these hilarious signs for it. Anyway, it’s now open to the public and we’ll start back up after the break. It’s at 9:30 every Sunday and BYOM (bring your own mug). Get in touch with me for directions.

So the only other thing I’ve been doing is finally getting around to editing my Spain photos. Since I work for the on-campus computer labs, I got to download the entire Adobe Creative Suite 5 – FOR FREE!! Basically, the greatest perk ever. So now I can do some pretty sweet stuff with my pictures. I’ll post a link to the Flickr album they’ll be in eventually.

One last thing before I go. This past weekend I had the privilege of seeing one of my best friends of 13+ years, Miss Jessica Jeske, be married in the Bountiful, Utah temple to a very lucky man, Mr. David Howard. Congratulations to them both, again. I’m so happy for them, and so glad to see how happy David makes her. They are a beautiful couple. And, you guessed it, I was there to take some great pictures. Coming soon!!

Thanks for sticking all the way to the end! Someday I’ll learn that if I regularly blog, I won’t have to spend so much time writing such long posts. Well, until that day…

P.S. (I know you're thinking will this ever end??) I can't believe I'm just mentioning this now. I'M HOME!!! Yes, I'm j-chillin' in beautiful Coeur d'Alene for the holidays. And I'm in heaven. I love this. Don't worry, I'll let you in on all our crazy family traditions later. But that's a post for another day. Ciao! 

13.1

If you had told me a year ago that within the next year I would run a half marathon, I definitely would have laughed at you. I could barely run a mile! I must give credit to Miss Carrie Cook (aka Carrie Cool) for being my inspiration. She ran her first half back in the spring, and it was then that I decided a half marathon was on my bucket list. Now I figured it would be a couple years before I got around to it. But lo and behold, I was talked into the Halloween Half – just five months away. I started training right after I got back from Europe. I printed a nice little training schedule, with short runs or cross training four times a week, long runs on the weekends, and two rest days. I’m proud to say that for the most part, I followed it pretty closely. I have to thank Susie for whipping me back into shape after two months of delicious Spanish food, and for suggesting that real running shoes might help my knee problems. They did.

Training became slightly more difficult once I got back to school, but I kept to my schedule as best I could and ended up running 13 miles at one point (but not 13.1. I was saving that for race day). I’ve found that once I get past four miles, I can just go. I don’t know what it is about the first four, but they’re tough. My four milers were always the hardest.

Race day – October 29 (Happy Birthday Uncle Ken!) – came bright and early. I was up at 6:00, ready to go. My momma (so glad she could be there!) dropped me up at the starting line, where they had a huge tent for all 3000ish racers. We were way up above Sundance, and it was FREEZING. I think it was 26 degrees when the race started. Luckily, all the body heat kept everyone warm. The race started at 9:00, but we had two heats, so I started around 9:20. In the meantime there was a costume contest – this is the Halloween Half after all. I wasn’t too extravagant. I just wore all my clothes inside out and backwards. My shorts looked pretty funny though. They have the built in undies, so it looked like I was wearing a diaper when I put them on inside out. I got a good laugh out of it.

Like I said, I was off at 9:20 down the canyon. By mile nine, my feet and knees were starting to ache, but I just kept going. There was nothing else to do but keep putting one foot in front of the other. As cheesy as that sounds, that really was my thought process. My initial goal was to finish under 2:45:00, since that’s how fast I ran that 13 miles I mentioned earlier. I finished in 2:23:01. Yeah, baby! What a great feeling. I smoked it.

You can bet I loaded up on the protein afterward, yet I was still more sore than I’ve ever been. Come Monday, I could barely walk down the stairs (and of course I live on the third floor). I was hobbling around like an eighty-year-old. But I kinda like that super sore feeling. It makes me feel like I made it through something super tough, which I guess I did. I’d like to give a shout out to all my friends and family who encouraged me through this process, especially my parents who were both there to see me finish. I really couldn’t have done it without you.

Is a full marathon in my future? I can’t quite say yet. I’m not sure I’m physically capable of doing that. But a year ago I thought I couldn’t possibly run a half either, so I guess you never know. I’ll probably keep doing halves every now and then. It’s brutal, but the feeling of accomplishment afterward is so worth it.

I also practically ran 13.1 miles mentally this week. I had four, count ‘em four, midterms. But like last time, I had no class the entire week. It was great. I finished up Thursday morning and enjoyed my nice, long weekend. No more midterms this semester! I can’t believe it’s almost over. Seriously, where the heck have the past two months gone? Is it weird that I’m feeling sad about leaving this semester behind? Yes, yes it is. I’ve just been having so much fun though. I’m crossing my fingers that the next one is just as good, or even better.