Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

Well, 2012 was a good year! It had a little bit of everything--from tears of joy to tears of sadness. It started out at home on my first ever “off-track.” I was home from Christmas to April. I worked for my Dad and Uncles and alongside my cousins. Alyssa, my cousin, made it much more interesting than it really was and we made some great new friends, Olga and Lupe. They are two older Latino women with a lot of spirit. I sat at a station with Alyssa, Brianna, Olga, and Lupe…we had some great laughs. I attended singles ward during that time which also made things interesting… I even crushed on a guy! ;) My favorite part of the off-track was the time that I got to spend with people, especially Alyssa (before she got married). Though the off-track had some good times, I was SO ready to go back to school when the time came. 

Our Last Cousin Sleepover before Alyssa got married.

We did lots of skyping over the offtrack...friends EVERYWHERE! 

These guys are the best, I love them, our lives are moving on now and its rare that we are all together. 

Spring semester was rockin!! It was full of adventure. I made some more friends, we all had boys, and we went and did fun stuff. It was SO hot!! But, that’s what made it awesome. We went to a couple lakes, we went to Yellowstone, we went to IF and rode Jenny’s Sister’s 4wheelers. We saw Kid History and Bill Cosby. We also celebrated everyone’s birthdays. I don’t know if there will ever be another semester like that one. And don’t get me wrong, school was tough, especially with my web design class, and we had a little bit of drama. But what kind of semester would it have been without all that. Oh! And I got to fly home for a couple days to be one of Alyssa’s bridesmaids at her wedding, which was so cool, and I felt very honored. My spring semester was legendary! --- and obviously, because I had a hard time choosing pictures...

Roommates! <3 p="p">

Classic night! 

Yellowstone

Dawn became a part of the group, I was so glad!! 

My FAVORITE. . . the Mustaches!!

My Birthday, I have the best friends!

I am going to miss Kazia! But I am so excited for her. she leaves Jan. 16 to serve her mission in Everett Washington. 

Hairspray

New-Cali-Cago Crew! 

Kazia's Epic birthday / end of the semester party! 

The Four of us! (I love this picture)

Rigby Lake

Alyssa's Wedding! I miss her! She is pregnant, WOOT!

Fourth of July! LOL

Kid History! :D

Then there was the 7-week break which started out with Courtney visiting—that was awesome! Then it was back to work at Signatone, but thank goodness Becca was there that time to keep it fun! And I was able to go to the beach a few times. Then I got to meet up with Kazia, Eric, and Jeff at Erics mission farewell in Brentwood. That was so fun too.

Tandem biking in Monterey!

Love Becca!!! ... and Mexican Train with Gma! 

As Game with these two:)

I just love the bottom picture. . . BFFS

Dawn and I played a lot over the break

Our Hollister bunch! I will forever love these girls!

Eric's farewell!

I loved the the beach and the California summer, but it was finally time to go back to school. The semester started out with some fun adventures like the Spud fest, and Sams birthday, but then it got tough! I took Accounting and Econ along with other time consuming classes but those two were just about the death of me. Thank goodness, my friends talked me into playing polo because that was probably my favorite part of the day—otherwise we were doing homework. Some cool things that happened though during the semester include the new mission age announcement and I had TONS of friends get their calls…I am so excited for them. I met some new people and had awesome roommates and an awesome FHE group, best semester in that area so far. One funny memory from this last semester is Courtney and I piling into our FHE bros little truck with four of our other bros and heading to Denny’s in IF at 1am. That was just hilarious. When the end of the semester approached I was SO ready to be done with my classes, but I was sad to say goodbye to so many people. Many of them I wont see for a couple years.  Looking back at the semester now, it was a tough one but just another good one. I know I am so blessed if my biggest problems in life are struggling in classes.

Typical! haha

SPUD FEST

It was so funny having cousins at school with me! :)

We made a few DQ trips! lol

I got to VOTE! 

Alyssa Russel came to visit!

We built this snow man in the bed of our FHE bros truck

My roommate Jenna is a nursing Major!

We hiked R mountain to watch the sun rise.

Sam and Kazia got their mission calls!! Kazia to Washington and Sam to Russia!

Courtney's Fiesta!!(another end of the semester party)

We went to and ISU vs. UC Davis game...we rooted for Davis of course!

Halloween Dance Party! Kazia was a cave woman, Courtney was a criminal, and I dont know what I was. . .

Sam's Bday Party, it was a HIT!

My water Polo team after we won our last game! 

Roommates!

Dawn came for a weekend!:)

Saying Goodbye! :( ...you can tell we were all exhausted!

Then there was Christmas break, which was really fun to see family and friends again. Kazia and her fam even spent New Years Eve with us. We were so LUCKY I know! We met up at Carmel by the Sea when the Sun was setting, well by the time my fam got there it had already set, but Kazia and her family got to see it thank goodness. We walked along that strip and window-shopped before we headed to moss landing for Phil’s Fish Market. Yum! That night Kazia’s mom gave us a super nice present that included a puzzle, Apples-to-apples To Go, and Godiva dark chocolate pretzels! DELISH!! We started working on the puzzle, ate scones, and counted down as the ball dropped at Time Square and then we cheered our goblets full of Martinelis Cider. It was so fun watching our families interact. Corey and Kai were the cutest—they were instantly the best of friends. That was a New Years Eve I will never forget.

Our "Happy Girl" bags from Grandma! haha (they even have our own faces on the bag! LOL

I am working on this puzzle, I'm actually a lot further than this now, but the goal is to finish by Monday! :) I will post a finished picture.

And now it is a new year and I have new goals. I am on my off-track again and I am working towards an exciting new year filled with new adventures and new people. I am working now and saving money for Meso-America. It’s a 6 week study abroad program, but I will be in Mexico and Guatamala for 4 weeks. I am STOKED. Courtney and I will be roommates again, but it is going to be weird without the rest of our group there. (They are all going on Missions) We are hoping for some ne boys! ;) I am excited to see what comes of this next year.

2013?!

 Lets Rock!!!! ;D