My Best Friend's Wedding

This past Thursday, one of my very best friends got sealed in the Mount Timpanogas Temple. I was lucky enough to spend the day celebrating with them and absolutely loved being there! Taryn and I have been besties since the good 'ole days of high school swim team. 

And then her husband (crazy!) was in the Accounting Junior Core with me, so I got to know him pretty well too. Taryn looked absolutely beautiful and I am just so excited and happy for them.

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Lewis! I love you both so much! Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day. 

Overdue Updates

Just about every time I see my dear friend, Tracie, she ever so kindly reminds me that I have been terrible about updating my blog. And she's right. So, Trace, here is your update!

Life has been good over the past few weeks. I flew out to San Francisco for my final Summer Leadership Adventure Program. This last one was with PwC and I really enjoyed it. They had some great events planned for us; I learned a lot but also had a lot of fun!

For the 24th of July, I left work several hours early and went boating with some friends. It was a great day on the lake and it was nice to just relax and be with friends!

Haha for some reason I really liked to fall straight back.

Tubing with the future roommies!

Longtime besties. Thanks for taking us, Zach!

And then this past weekend my family and I went on a quick trip to Arizona to my cousin's house for a blessing and baptism. My aunt wanted us to come down for both and since she's been begging us for a while to come down, I promised I would come down if she had her baby on the 4th of July (my birthday). Well, sure enough, I got a text early that morning that she had her baby. My mom said I should be careful with what promises I make in the future :)

So, we all went down for a quick trip and it was fun to be with family for a few days. I also got to do lots of this all weekend:

I was in heaven.

The Big 21

Well, as of 6 days ago, I am officially, officially an adult.  I celebrated by waking up at 4:40 to go get a spot in the parade.  Then I went for a run while Benj and Danielle kept our spots in line.  After the parade, we went and watched Spiderman and I loved it! It was such a good movie and I think it's much better than the other one.

Then, later that night I went and hiked the Y to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks as well as all the other ones across the valley.  This is the second year we've done it and it's such a fun tradition! My iphone took a little fall down the Y which was probably one of the worst things I've seen. But I super lucked out and it didn't have a scratch! So lucky.

And then yesterday we had our monthly swimmer dinner. But this time we went to Seven Peaks before. So much fun! Love my swimmer friends with all my heart!

Happy birthday cupcake!

Shortly after the previous picture, CJ smashed frosting in my face. So Taryn continued the trend and got Zach.

Aren't we such a great group of people? Yes, we think so, too :)

Half Marathon and a Goodbye

Wow. Somehow I managed to fall way behind in the blogging world on what's been going on! Basically, even though I haven't had classes and am just working full time, I still manage to stay crazy busy. It's good though! And I absolutely love the summer months so life is happy.

About two weeks ago though, I went on a road trip to California! Sarah and I wanted to do another half marathon before she left so we decided we'd do one in Cali since she was going home at the end of spring semester. We were just going to go with the two of us but then decided to invite some friends along and make a bigger trip out of it. We ran our half marathon on the 16th and it was a perfect day in San Francisco - sunny and warm. Almost a little too warm for a race though.

It was a pretty course, but boy, was it harder than I thought it was going to be! There were a lot of stairs, some pretty hard hills, and even a little part where we were in deep sand. Sarah and I quickly learned that this would not be the race for time I was thinking it was going to be. I love races though, so I enjoyed it. I don't think crossing a finish line has ever felt so good though!

The rest of our trip we went canoeing, went to Santa Cruz and played some beach volleyball, went to Sarah's farewell, toured Stanford, played handbells, and spend a day hanging out in San Francisco. It was such a fun trip! Mostly, it was just fun to get away and spend time with friends and my sister. Road trips with friends are so great; I highly recommend them :)  Enjoy some pics!

 Sarah and I at Lake Tahoe

 Korea Restaurant

 Beach Volleyball!

 Sarah's house after her farewell

 Touring Stanford 

 Such a pretty campus!

 Pier 39 in San Francisco

Got my chocolate fix for the day :)

This trip also was the last time I really got to be with Sarah before she left on her mission to South Korea. I went to Cafe Rio with her and her mom and sister the day before she went into the MTC and then said our goodbyes. I still don't think it's really hit me. She's been my roommate all throughout college, so to me, she has been a huge part of my college years. It'll be weird to not be with her next year, but I am so excited for her and the experiences that she has ahead of her! She has been such an incredible friend to me over the years and I will miss her more than she will probably ever know.

Love you Sar-bear!!

Rappelling in Moab

About a week ago, one of my friends in the accounting program who I also happen to work with asked me if I wanted to go to Moab with a group of people for the weekend and go rappelling off of a 120 foot arch. I already had some plans for Saturday night, and debated whether or not I wanted to go, but in the end, Sarah and I decided this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, my cute mom dropped off some sleeping bags for us on Friday and then we headed out!

We slept the night in Price canyon at a little campground near the top of the mountain. Sarah and I ended up just sleeping in her car and it was much, much colder than I thought the night would be. But it adds to the adventure, right? The next morning we headed to Corona Arch, in Moab, Utah.

At this point, I was asking myself if I really was going to rappel that thing! It was much taller than I thought it was going to be and I'm not scared of heights, but it was still pretty scary to me. We split into two groups and I was in the second group so we just watched everyone in the first group go. I decided that, no matter how scared I was, I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it, so I harnessed up and got ready to go once the first group was done.

We first had to climb up some rock to get over to the arch. It doesn't look to bad, but it was pretty steep and a little scary too!

Up top, it was pretty nerve racking. I kept thinking, "Am I seriously going to do this?!" But yes, I did, and it was so much fun! I would definitely want to do it again.

Funny story though - right before I went, I asked Justin, my pro friend, if my gloves were going to be ok because they were a little big for me. He said I would be fine, so off I went. Well, I shouldn't have asked because about 10 feet from the ground my glove got stuck in the device and I couldn't move up or down. For the next 30 minutes, our group and a bunch of random people helped me try several different things to get myself down. To what could be a very long story, I eventually was able to transfer my weight from the carabiner on my harness to another carabiner. And then I was eventually able to get down. Mind you, this was quite the long process. Lesson learned? Pay attention to my right hand and don't let it get close to the belay device!

Here's the remains of the glove that got stuck.

Funny and embarrassing, but I guess it at least makes for a great story, ya? Here's our whole group at the arch. It was such a perfect day!!

DONE with the Junior Core!

I am happy, so happy, to say that as of 11 days ago, I am officially done with the Accounting Junior Core! Three 7:00 AM finals, and 30+ hours of finals studying later, I finished my last exam on the 18th. And it was one of the greatest moments of my life! This year has been a crazy intense year, and it was so nice to just be done with it all. It's cool to look back at how much material we covered and everything we accomplished. I've made many friends who I hope I will stay friends with for a long time because they are awesome people. And they made the core much more bearable!

All in all, I would have to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I definitely felt pushed and had to learn even more time management. I also think I learned that every assignment doesn't have to be perfect, and that sometimes other things are more important than getting a '10' on a homework submission. Which if you know me and how OCD I am about school, it's quite the accomplishment for me :)

The day after finals, I left with my family to a 4-day defensive handgun training course at a place called Front Sight with my immediate, and some of my extended family. It was different from what I expected but I learned a lot and am glad I went!

Man-on-Man competition with my little brother. He beat me...

Yes, we are weird sometimes (or most of the time), but I love my family!

My Sweet Grandma

My Grandma VanDyke passed away last week after being diagnosed with cancer back in February. It's been quite the roller coaster over the past few months since it was so sudden and unexpected and then with her quick decline. It's been a lesson to me of just how quickly life can take an unexpected turn and that we should never take things for granted. It was also a good reminder that I need to just enjoy every moment I have with those I love because I never know what could suddenly change.

My Grandma was one of the most selfless people I know; she was constantly looking for ways she could help someone out. She was often in the background of events, quietly serving everyone around her. My mom is also someone who stays longer than everyone else helping to clean up. I know as a kid it was frustrating cause we would want to leave but my mom would tell us we needed to help clean up before we could go. It was super annoying as a kid to have to stay after friends and cousins already left, but I've grown to appreciate that lesson I've learned, and I know my mom learned it from her mom. Unfortunately for my children, I am the same way, but hopefully they'll one day come to appreciate or at least tolerate it :)

My Grandma also taught me how to clean well and to work hard. Amber and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend a few weeks in the summer several years ago with Grandma and Grandpa while we worked at a lodge. It was there that I learned many valuable lessons from my grandparents and just enjoyed the time with them even though we did get annoyed at times :) Grandma was the queen of making do with what she had and was an excellent quilter and sewer. Her birthday cards and Christmas were always so thoughtful, and while they were never anything big, I know that they were made with so much love. I will miss her but am glad she is no longer in pain. I am also so very grateful for the Gospel and the knowledge it brings that I will get to see her again someday. Love you Grandma!!