High on a Mountaintop (round 2)

I only say round two because I have a blog post back from my European adventures titled the exact same thing. I’m so original, I know. But it’s just so fitting. Also, that’s one of my favorite hymns, so maybe I just like using the name. Anyway, the first post was all about hanging out in the Alps in Germany. You know, every day stuff for me. Round two takes place right here in Provo’s backyard. And this time I really did climb the mountain. No cheating here, although if there were a gondola, I probably would have taken it down the mountain.

So I’ve been living in Provo now for almost three years and I had yet to hike Mount Timpanogos. What is wrong with me? That’s something everyone is supposed to do within their first year. It’s almost as cliché as hiking the Y. I remember back before coming to BYU (sooooo long ago) that Uncle Scott told me hiking Timp was one of the first things I should do. And then I was supposed to do it again at the end of the school year because it would be so much easier now that I was used to the altitude. Well, Scotty, I finally did it. I finally conquered that mountain.

View from BYU campus. Courtesy of Google.

 The ordeal began at 1:30am, Wednesday morning of August the fifteenth in the year of our Lord two thousand and twelve. I want to make sure that’s really well documented. There were ten of us: Candice, Jen, her friend Taylor, myself, Kyle, and five of his friends. Let me tell you, perfect time to go hike a mountain. It doesn’t get hot! We all had our flashlights or headlamps and up we went. Besides a couple steep parts that lasted maybe two minutes, the hike was actually pretty easy. You gain almost 5,000 feet in elevation from the trailhead, but you wind your way up the mountain over 6.4 miles so it’s a slow gain. Ok, the first mile is always hard because you’re getting into the groove, but once you’re in, man you can go for hours. And that’s just what we did. I think it took us like four and a half hours to reach the saddle (even with all the “detours” we ended up taking), which is where you can look out over all of Utah Valley, and apparently on a good day you can see all the way up to the Salt Lake. That’s where a lot of people go to watch the sunrise.

Utah Valley

We stopped for a little while but got impatient waiting for the sun to peek out, so all but two of Kyle’s friends started the climb to the summit, which takes another 30 to 45 minutes. That trail is on the western face of the mountain so we missed the actual sunrise, but it was close enough when we got to the top. The view is always worth the climb. It’s beautiful up there. So quiet. So peaceful. So serene. I wanted to stay up there all day and just think. I am definitely not meant for the city. There has to be some mountains nearby where I can escape to like this.

After signing our names on the little shack that’s up there (it used to be used for triangulation purposes) and documenting our victory with pictures, we started our long trek down the mountain. We stopped at the saddle again to gear up for the next few hours and made some friends with a herd of mountain goats. Just hanging around by the trail like it’s no big deal. Showing off how great they are at climbing rocks. It was pretty cool to see them so close. Oh my gosh, why oh why is the hike down so miserable? I was so pumped and full of energy when I got to the top. You’d think I’d be dead since I just walked UPHILL for five hours, carrying a 20lb backpack (I had lots of water, and my Nikon of course, oh, and a giant notebook). Downhill is supposed to be easy and relaxing. Haha, no. Your knees basically scream at you the entire way and now that you can actually see the trail you realize how far you still have to go. It’s torture really. I wish I were just being dramatic, but I’m not. It’s super hard on your body and your mind. But the hike was still worth it. I’d do it again, but I’ll definitely take an airlift out of there next time.

Fellow mountain men/women.

We were done by 12:30 pm, so we came in under twelve hours. Wow, I basically hiked a half marathon on about 20 minutes of sleep. The whole day before I had planned to take a nap, but you know how that never works out. Clearly, I’m just super hard core. Or not, according to the last paragraph. Poor Candice is never coming hiking with me again! I’ve ruined her knee. About a mile into the hike down her knee started really hurting. She said it hurt so much she just wanted to cut her leg off. Yikes! So that was a very long, painful hike. And we almost ran out of water and collapsed on the trail and baked in the summer heat and we could have lain there for hours before someone found us nearly dead. Ok, now I’m just being dramatic. We were fine. Candice was just in a lot of pain. But she made it. Obviously, she’s the real hard core one.

In other news, yesterday I was on another mountaintop, this one symbolic. I went to my first temple open house at the Brigham City Temple, which is where the general public can take a tour before the temple is dedicated. I wish I could accurately describe my excitement and wonder as I walked through. The temple is such a wonderful place and I can’t wait to go through for myself. For those of you who aren’t familiar with temples, they are places where Latter-day Saints go to feel closer to God and to make covenants, or promises, with Him. They are places where families are sealed together for time and all eternity, and where ordinances, like baptism, are performed for the dead who were not able to receive those ordinances in this life. They are places of peace. They are places of great inspiration. They are places of love and happiness, and I am so grateful to have one just down the street.

Well, school starts on Monday. Where the heck did my summer go? I think I made the most of it though, and honestly, I’m so ready to be back in school. I want to feel like I’m moving forward again. I’ve got four semesters left. Over halfway there. I can do this!!!

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.

Oh, Canada

Ok, I’ll admit that I’m actually dreading writing this blog post, but just this one time. Why the heck would I do something that’s going to make me miserable, you ask? Because, clearly, I have OCD about these things. If I blog about one great adventure, I have to blog about them all. Just kidding, that’s not the real reason (but maybe a little). There’s just SO MUCH to talk about, I don’t want to leave anything out! I mean, it was an entire week of camping and exploring in the Great Northwest and the Great White North (aka Canada). There really isn’t even one word I can sum it all up in. Besides, that’d be boring. Plus, I also have five hours of work. With nothing to do. In a room of 103 computers, there are seven people. I don’t anticipate many distractions. So I guess I should stop rambling and get on with it.

Side note, to make reading this a little less confusing and to facilitate intermissions, I’m going to break it up by day.

And action.

Sunday
Something you should know about traveling with boys: you will never leave on time. Always give them like a two hour grace period, at least. And since it was just me and four boys (Grant, David, Trent, and Phil), this trip was no exception. We weren’t officially on the road until about 5:00 pm. But since it was vacation and we had no agenda it really didn’t matter. By some great miracle we got everything to fit in Phil’s Subaru. Seriously, the trunk was packed to bursting point. Surprisingly though, the back seat was quite comfortable. Nothing in our laps. Plenty of room for our feet. Miracle. We made it up through Boise, past the Oregon border, and into Baker City where our goal was to find a place to sleep for the night. We get off the highway and start making our way into the middle of nowhere, until we realize we’re heading straight for the prison. Yeah, we’re not trying to live a horror movie here. Somebody had the brilliant idea to see if there was a church building nearby, and there was on the north side of town. Even better, there was a park owned by the church right next to it. Miracle. So we laid out a tarp under a beautiful starry sky. A police officer did show up right before we were all settled in, but Grant easily handled the situation and the officer was totally cool about us staying there. I guess not many criminals or hooligans try to make camp in church parking lots.

Monday
We made our way up to Seattle, through the beautiful Oregon mountains and the lovely Washington forests. We definitely played Owl City’s “Hello, Seattle” song as we got close. I know, so cliché. But I’ve always wanted to do that. I really like Seattle. I love all the green and the ocean. If it didn’t rain nine months out of the year, I might consider living there. But I need my sunshine. Anyway, we explored just a small part of Pike Place Market (you have to see the fish throwing), saw the gum wall (so gross), and ate fish and chips and clam chowder at Ivar’s down on the wharf (yummy, but I don’t think it beats my dad’s chowder).

We didn’t stay long because we were itching to head north to the San Juan Islands and catch the ferry at Anacortes at 7:00. These ferries are sweet. We just drove our car right on and went upstairs to the passenger cabin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen four boys so excited. It was like Christmas, but better. And how can you blame them? We’re on a huge boat in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We sailed out to Friday Harbor, a little town on the main island, and made camp at a real campsite this time. While we made stew for dinner (we had six bags of chicken, like ten+ pounds of pasta, a large bag of potatoes, onions, carrots, rice – all to last us the week, which it did and then some), we fought off a couple of raccoons who were intent on stealing our food. Persistent little buggers. Good thing we had a car to lock everything away in and a tent to protect us!

Friday Harbor

Tuesday
The best parts of vacation are waking up when you want to and doing whatever the heck you feel like. That is an accurate description of this little trip. We just kinda meandered our way around the island, stopping at different sites like English Camp (an old British outpost) and Roche Harbor (where all the yachts are). The whole island, including its towns, is so picturesque.  Good thing I brought my camera.

Roche Harbor

Now, if you take the ferry eastward bound, you can island hop for free! So we jumped on over to Orcas Island to spend the night there. It’s about as big as San Juan Island, but much less inhabited. Apparently, this is where the money is and all the celebrities have private homes. They actually subsidize housing on the island for “normal” people so there are people to work at the grocery store and teach at the school. The man who worked at the campsite said if you live there, you’re either independently wealthy or have five jobs. Dang. We camped by a mountain lake. On an island. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Our campsite was raining caterpillars though! Literally, they were falling out of the trees. It was so fun cleaning them off everything. Just ask Trent. He loves them.

Wednesday
While Trent and Grant kayaked the ocean the next morning, the rest of us ventured to the top of Mt. Constitution. If people come to bike the San Juans, this is the big challenge. It’s quite a climb. But we were lazy and drove to the top. Actually, we wanted to hike it but wouldn’t have enough time to catch the ferry back to Anacortes. Oh. My. Gosh. I wish there were words that could truly describe the view up there. It was breathtaking. One of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Even the picture I have below doesn’t do it justice. As Phillip put it, “You just want to weep it’s so beautiful.” Really, that’s probably the best description. There was an observatory tower at the top so you could climb up and see above the trees. The water. The mountains. The forests. Just see for yourself. God has truly given us an amazing earth to live on.

Heaven

Well, we ended up missing the ferry because we decided to return to the lake we camped by and bathe/swim in it. It reminded me of Hayden Lake (where I’ll be in less than a week!!!!!!!!). A little chilly, but not too bad once you got in. That’s a heck of a lot better than the arctic water in the ocean (not exaggerating). So we island hopped over to Lopez Island where we could catch another ferry back to Anacortes. It only delayed us like three hours, but we got to sit on a beach for a couple hours. I guess that’s not so bad.

Our next ordeal was getting into Canada. Border control, dun dun dun. First, we had to repack the car so we could smuggle the food into Canada. Produce and meats aren’t supposed to cross the border, and boy were we packing. Second, we strategically placed Trent as the driver of the vehicle (he’s half Asian). We figured that would look pretty normal going to Vancouver. Our car was not searched (we saw other vehicles being randomly searched) and we made it through just fine. Miracle. And then we were in Canada!! That was my first time, after living 100 miles from the border almost my entire life. A momentous occasion.

Ok, quick story. Our first impression of a Canadian? We were turning left out of a gas station and this man backs up, with traffic still coming, to let us go in front of him. Who does that?? We’ve concluded that Canadian people are the nicest, most chill people out there. And we love them. But we don’t love their roads. They are slow. Although everyone goes like 20km over the speed limit anyway. Yes, Canadians use kilometers. That was great fun for us.

Thursday
This day was the day we climbed rocks. Beautiful, granite rocks. Beautiful, granite rocks that are seriously right off the highway. We were in Squamish (super fun to say) for the next two days, home of world class rock climbing. It was awesome. We climbed for a good seven hours before going to find a campsite for the night. And this campsite had showers!! But no hair dryers (obviously). So I just used the hand dryer, haha. Basically, I only mentioned that because I wanted to point out how awesome I am. Anyway, I was grateful for the hot water and the fact that no bears came to visit us. Did I mention we camped in bear country for three nights?? Miracle.

Friday
We had also planned for this to be a climbing day, but the rain spoiled our plans. Trent and Phil dropped us off at the place we climbed the day before, while they went to climb this huge six-pitch monolith. The rain started maybe an hour and a half later. And it didn’t just sprinkle. It poured. We were soaked. Phil said the wall they were climbing had basically turned into a waterfall. I’m glad they used their good judgment and stopped climbing! So instead we headed to Walmart to find outfits for the boys to race in on Saturday. Picture purple, camo briefs and green ties. Actually, you don’t have to picture anything because there will be photo evidence if you choose to keep reading this novel.

Off to the left is the huge monolith Phil and Trent went to climb.

We drove up to Whistler to find a place to camp for the night that was closer to where the race was. Turns out someone cancelled at a campsite just two kilometers from us. Miracle. And the rain stopped long enough for us to put up our tent. Another miracle.

Saturday
The mood this morning was very solemn. I think everyone was a little terrified. The Tough Mudder is a 12 mile (19km) obstacle course with 22 obstacles designed by British Special Forces. That’s a little intimidating. But the sun was shining the whole time, when the forecast had been rain, so that brightened the mood a bit. Miracle. We were able to catch a shuttle and then a bus right from our camp up to Whistler Olympic Park. Their start time was 10:30 am. I was ready with my camera. And they were off. It actually looked really fun, and I wished I was doing it too. Ok, the ice baths did not look fun. But some of the other obstacles, like the mud crawlers and the walls and tunnels, looked like fun. The big kicker that got these guys to sign up for the race in the first place was the final obstacle: a path of dangling wires with up to 10,000 volts of electricity running through them. Apparently, none of them felt anything. Super lame. I think they ended up finishing in under three hours. They came. They saw. They got really dirty. And they conquered. And they have a headband and t-shirt to prove it. Nice work guys. I’m proud of you.

Before

After

We hit the local rec center for some showers and a nice swim before celebrating with a victory dinner, where each of the boys ordered their own large pizza. It was well earned. We discovered that the American border control personnel were much friendlier to us than the Canadian ones. Understandable. A car full of five 20-something-year-olds could cause a lot of trouble in a foreign country. But there were shouts of “Go America!” as we crossed back over. This was like 11:00 at night so we drove for another hour before we came to Arlington, WA. Once again, we searched out a church building and set up shop on some grass at the back of the parking lot. We’re all now pros at setting up tents so that was done in no time. No police tonight. We actually woke up (at 6:00 am so we could bail before anyone got there) surrounded by fog that kept us hidden from the cars that were already parked in the lot. Miracle.

Sunday
Driving in the car all day sucks. That’s all there is to it. My butt was actually sore the next day. From sitting. We did break it up by going to a Sacrament meeting in Kennewick, WA. Now you will actually have to picture this because I didn’t capture these images. Grant and I look normal. He brought church clothes, I brought a dress. Phil’s pants are still wet so he’s in cutoff jean shorts, flip flops, and a white shirt and tie. David has a similar outfit but with black shorts. Trent is wearing pink pants, a blue shift, flip flops and his Tough Mudder headband. And one of the talks was on not judging other people. Too perfect.

We arrived home at midnight, exhausted, dirty, but happy. How could you not be happy after such a wonderful week? I am so grateful to have been able to go on this great adventure. I feel like I learned more about the nature of God and His mercies in the past week, than I have in the past six months. He answered our prayers a thousand times over. I’m sure you noticed the many instances of “miracle” hanging around this post. I’ve been trying lately to look for the little miracles that happen every day in my life. And it’s working. If you look for miracles, you will see them, and you will feel that God knows and loves you personally. It’s an amazing feeling.

My next adventure is HOME!!! In just a few short days I’ll be basking in the glory of the North Idaho sun, or maybe rain, but hopefully sun. The forecast says sun! I am SO excited, I can barely stand it. Our celebrations for the coming 4^th are sure to be glorious.

Sorry again for the novel. I hope I didn’t wear you out too much. I said there was a lot. In fact, this post is now longer than my IB History paper. But this was way more fun to write.

California Adventures

Finally, I have some real adventures to report on! I mean, I’m sure you’d all love to hear about how awesome (NOT) business law and econ are, but I don’t think you can handle it. So I’ll scale it back just a bit. This past Memorial Day weekend I had the privilege of spending it in Cali with some pretty amazing people. No, not at California Adventures (but see how clever I am?? haha). We went to the far cooler (literally) northern regions of Sacramento, San Fran, Santa Cruz, and Tahoe. Umm, yeah. Gorgeous. I couldn’t help but ask myself the entire time, why am I still living in Utah???

We left Provo around 6:00 pm. Yes, six-o-clock at night. Which means we didn’t get to Grant’s house in Rocklin (outside Sacramento) until 2:00 am, and we were due for a wakeup call at 6:00 so we could be in Oakland for a wedding at 9:30. Needless to say, we ran on pure adrenaline that day. But it was so fun! Ok, I need to back up. We were in Cali for three reasons. One, Phil and Anna knew a couple getting married in Oakland. Two, Grant’s baby nephew was being blessed in church on Sunday. Three, we all needed a vacation, which is where Trent and I come in. We were along for the ride. Anyway, back to the wedding. The Oakland Temple is beautiful. While Phil was in the sealing, the rest of us wandered around the temple grounds which overlook the entire bay. I never get tired of being on the temple grounds. It’s so peaceful and the scenery is always breathtaking.

Look how colorful we are. Didn't even plan that. We're pros.

We spent the rest of the day in San Fran. We left the car and took the train into the heart of the city. After wandering around a pretty sketch part of town, we eventually found Chinatown where we stopped for some lunch at this place called R&G (recommended by the locals). The food was delicious and under normal circumstances the amount of food would have been just fine. But when faced with five, starving, twenty-something year olds, three of them being still-growing boys, it just didn’t cut it. Plus their service was nothing to write home about either, which is too bad. But it was enough to tide us over for the time being. We managed to make our way all the way from Pier 1 down to famous Pier 39. There we could see the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and some sea lions. Ghirardelli Square isn’t far from there so we went to claim our free chocolate squares. Anna and I couldn’t resist one of their sundaes. Peanut butter and Ghirardelli hot fudge over ice cream is most certainly the food of the gods. We headed back up to Oakland for the reception that night, held at the Oakland Zoo on a lawn overlooking the bay. Probably one of the most beautiful couples and one of the most beautiful receptions I’ve ever seen. Their story is pretty great too. Both from Concord, CA, they grew up together but never really dated. Then after his mission and after she graduated from BYU they both found themselves on the east coast, in the same place. And, well, the rest is history I guess.

We spent the night sleeping under the stars in Santa Cruz, and the next day playing on the beaches there. The only downside? It was cloudy and windy. Boo. My beach attire was not exactly what I had planned it to be. However, these circumstances didn’t stop the boys from running head first into the ocean and then squealing like girls. Ok, I don’t really remember that last part, but I know that’s what I would be doing if the water were that cold. Crazy boys. We spent the next two nights back up at Grant’s house. His family is super great and we all really appreciated their hospitality. Grant’s little niece, Clara, is adorable and she definitely kept us entertained for most of the day. The ward there is awesome. I really miss good family wards and all the chaos that goes with them. Plus, since Phil grew up in that ward he was seeing people he hadn’t seen in ten years and that’s always fun to watch. It was a good day.

Unfortunately, we could not stay there forever, although I definitely wanted to. The prospect of coming back to the desert, along with going back to classes, was not appealing. But what can you do? We did manage to take a detour on the way back, something like a six-hour detour. We drove up to Tahoe and drove along the west side of the lake, past Emerald Bay, and up to a beach on the northwest side. There we managed to catch a few rays and somehow they convinced me to get in the water. Buuuuurrrrrrr! Before driving up along the lake though, we stopped to see Phil’s old house (grew up there too). What a fun place to live in. I was definitely in love with Tahoe. Why? Because I felt like I was home the entire time. It reminded me so much of North Idaho. I can’t wait to be back there for the 4^th! We didn’t get back until about 2:00 am, which means I definitely skipped my 8:00 am class. So all in all, good trip. Much needed vacation. Let’s do that again.

This is what I want my backyard to look like.

Emerald Bay

Before I wrap up this post, I’d just like to recognize the real meaning of Memorial Day and say thank you. Thank you to everyone who is serving and who has ever served this country. I know I don’t say it or even think it enough, but I truly am grateful and I really appreciate the sacrifices you make. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day.

Also, if you can’t already tell or aren’t on Facebook, I met this boy. His name is Phillip. You have permission to Fb stalk him. He’s kind of wonderful and I kind of really like him. Just a bit. He’s also really, really cute. I also know that he’s just going to love that I’m writing this right now. It will make him happy. And he makes me happy, so it’s all fair. :)

iSurvived

It is finished. The long-awaited, often-dreaded, infamous Junior Core is officially over. And I couldn’t be happier. I know its reputation makes it sound awful, but it wasn’t really that bad. It’s actually a ton of fun. But it’s one of those experiences that you’d like to have once. Just once.

So back in December I posted a summary of the first half and a prediction, of sorts, about the coming semester. And I quote:

“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.”

Let’s just say, my predicting skills suck. Tax was even worse than info systems. Not interesting at all. Just a bunch of stupid rules with no rhyme or reason. It is now my goal to avoid any more tax classes. Dr. Spilker was fantastic. Loved him. The material? Not so much. Let’s just say I will probably be hiring someone to do my taxes down the road, not because I can’t do them, but because I loathe them that much. ‘Fun’ is definitely not the word I would use to describe managerial. Some of my classmates might use ‘torture’ but I won’t go that far. It wasn’t awful (although the textbook was. Did anyone actually proofread that thing??) but it definitely wasn’t fun. The only fun part about it was our professor, Dr. Buckhoff. To any of my high school friends reading this, just imagine a Mr. Webb, with better handwriting. Financial beat out the rest as my favorite (like that was hard), but it’s kinda my thing, so no surprise there.

What am I going to do now that I have my life back? Start classes next Tuesday. Yipee. So it’s not quite summer yet. Luckily I’ve heard spring classes are pretty chill, and I’m taking two fun classes: weights and pilates. Imma be buff for summmmmerrrrrr!!

In other exciting news, I’ve been following through and doing a lot of rock climbing. I haven’t been back to the Quarry since the last time I mentioned it, which means we’ve been outside!! I’ve now successfully lead climbed and repelled. Sorry parentals if I’ve been giving you a heart attack. I’ve been assured that it’s mostly safe. According to Yahoo answers: “As a rough rule of thumb, mountain and rock climbing is about a hundred times riskier than ordinary risks people take, such as air travel, rail travel, interstate travel, even amusement park rides. This is the reason why insurance companies hate mountain climbing activities.” That’s not so bad, right?

Ohh heyy, just climbing some rocks.

And on that note, happy end-of-the-school-year (when the heck did I become a senior in college???)! Well, at least for all you BYU students. Yeah, this whole getting out early thing kinda rocks. To all my other, less fortunate friends and family, good luck with your coming finals! You can do it!

Earning My Stripes... or T-shirt.

Two blog posts in one week?!? What is this madness? I couldn’t resist though. I had such a fantastic day today that I just had to tell the world. Or the ten people that actually read this. Either way, I just have to share.

A) I finished my 150 miles!! I ran the last two this morning at 6:30 AM. I am now officially an intramural champion. And I have the t-shirt to prove it.

Champion!!

B) I received a scholarship today from Moss Adams. My fellow Junior Core peers were asked to nominate 20 students to receive these scholarships, and I was one of those. I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who thought I deserved one. Seriously, it means a lot to me, and it really helps me out.

C) So I entered a photo contest held by the Kennedy Center (the international studies center) for all study abroad students from the past year, and one of my photos was selected as a winner!! And today the photo was hung for display. So if you’re in the area, stop by the Kennedy Center and look in the southwest hallway for this photo:

Here's the original.

Such a good day, right? Thanks for letting me celebrate a little!

March Madness

Disclaimer: this post has NOTHING to do with college basketball. I’m sorry. Although, I feel I should mention BYU’s amazing comeback against Iona. I know that’s old news, but it was freaking sweet. Best game of my life.

I’ve seriously taken like half an hour to think of everything that’s happened this past month. It’s not like it’s been crazy or anything. It’s just been awhile. Remembered when I mentioned posting more often so I wouldn’t have this problem? Yeah, clearly that hasn’t happened. Maybe someday I’ll listen to my own advice. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I’m REALLY good at giving advice, and seriously awful at following my own advice. Maybe it’s because as a third party it’s a lot easier to be impartial and see the entire picture. I think my life would be a lot easier if I’d just figure that out. And there’s my deep insight for the day, or month I guess.

I know this is lame, but I have to throw in a comment about the weather. Can we agree, best winter ever!?!? It’s the middle of March, and it’s 70 degrees outside. That never happens. I love that winter has decided not to stick around (I’m knocking on wood as I type that).

So, I finally got to go rock climbing again. Candice has a pass to the Quarry (the rock climbing gym down here) and you can bring a guest for free on Fridays! Yup, I still love it. And since the weather has been so nice, we can start going outside!! This summer is going to be full of rock climbing adventures, I just know it. It’s definitely challenging and my forearms hurt for like a week afterward, but the sense of accomplishment when you reach the top is fantastic. Plus the belaying part is pretty awesome too.

Probably the most exciting thing of the month was my fly out interview with PwC this past week. They put me on a plane Monday night and flew me out to San Jose for an interview the next morning. Sooooo fun. I stayed in a hotel just down the street so the next morning I could walk to the office in the lovely California sunshine. These interviews were for the summer leadership program, which usually leads to an internship, which leads to a full-time offer. So really it’s like I was starting to interview for employment with them. Anyway, there were eight BYU students there. I was the only girl. Kinda loved it. Ok, really loved it. There were a few other students from Cal Poly, USC, and Santa Clara. We were the last group of interviewees. I think they interviewed around 50 people total for this program.

This is how the day went down. They fed us breakfast. Then the recruiting team and a partner spoke to us. We each had an office “buddy” to take us around to our interviews and give us a tour in between. I was with this girl named Kacie, who was super cool. She filled me in on all the secrets of the office and the best things about San Jose. Can I just say, I cannot wait to move out there. I loved every second of it. After the interviews we all went out to lunch and then we had free time before our flights back home. So our little BYU group went to bask in the sun. Well, I got a call back the next morning asking if I wanted to do the national program in Chicago, or the market program in San Jose. Naturally, I chose San Jose. That’s where I want to be so I want to get to know that office better. I’ll be back in Cali, July 12-13! Can’t wait!

Along those lines, I’ve also been invited to attend Deloitte’s national summer leadership program in Texas. Which is July 8-11. So it looks like I’ll be flying from Texas to San Jose. I also have interviews with Ernst & Young and KPMG this next week for their programs. I need to get a sky miles number or something.

In case you were wondering, midterms went great. I think I’ve locked in another 4.0 for this semester (again, knocking on wood).

And to wrap up this post, yesterday was the annual Festival of Colors. I went with Candice and Jen this time around. We didn’t actually buy any colors (because they charged us for admission this year! I guess that’s what happens when 50,000 people start showing up for this thing), but we still got covered anyway. I think this was my last year going. It’s fun the first couple of times, but now it’s like “I have to clean up after this again?” Don’t get me wrong, it’s super fun and you should definitely experience it at least once. Just stay out of the middle when they throw the colors, unless you enjoy being suffocated by holi chalk, aka cornstarch. I guess that’s the advantage to going multiple times: you’ve already learned your lesson so you don’t repeat your mistakes.

Two of my favorite people in the whole world.

I have two, count ‘em two, weeks of school left!!! Ok, technically it’s two and a half (three and a half with finals), but the last half a week we aren’t doing anything so it doesn’t really count. Yeah, not having a spring break kinda sucks, but I love love love getting out of school so early. Only to go right back for a spring term. I’m just hoping it’s as chill as everyone says it is. I need a break.