President's Day Weekend!

(The whole gang ready to go on Saturday morning!)

I love long weekends!! This past weekend I went home for President's Day and it was so much fun! Angie and Keith came out from Denver, Nicole and Jeremy came down from Logan too (and even though I see them all the time, it's still always so much fun!), and Dustin and Kaley stayed at my parent's house too. I love getting together with the family, and we always have a ton of fun together!

Friday night I got in and not even 10 minutes later we were headed for the U of U gymnastics meet. Who were they going against? None other than the Utah State Aggies! That was a lot of fun. Utah obviously won, but I can accept that. I'd like to see a basketball game! :)

Saturday morning we all woke up and went out to breakfast at IHOP. That was a lot of fun. Josh came with Braxton, and it was way good to see them again too! I can't believe how old Braxton is getting, it is pretty insane! But that was a lot of fun. Then we headed to Ogden to go SNOWBOARDING!! It was my first time ever, and I was so nervous! People kept telling me their first time was miserable and not any fun and stuff like that, but I LOVED it. I had so much fun even though I wasn't really any good.

Luckily I had some pretty awesome teachers! Kelsey, Kaley, and I were all going for the first time, and everyone was so patient with us and took the time to help us learn the basics. They were awesome. Jeremy and Keith both went on the lift with me to make sure I got off ok. There were a couple of nightmare times when I decided to go by myself, but I survived! I missed getting on with Keith and Angie one time and that was hilarious, so I went by myself. Some other times I just went by myself, and I think I only stayed standing one time. Kind of depressing, but I'm over it! I hit my head on the lift one time, but it was just funny.

Nicole and Angie both took the time to help us stand up and helping us learn how to get a feel for the snowboard. This picture of Nicole and I was actually taken at a hilarious time. She was trying to teach me how to be on my front edge so I could start carving and we had a couple of special moments. My board got caught on top of hers and we were stuck for quite a while before I figured out how to get off of it. We had a lot of laughs and it was just a lot of fun and I would never describe it as miserable!

Thanks to some awesome and patient teachers, I finally started to learn how to carve! I was MUCH better at going from my front edge to my back edge (yes, I am aware that is the easiest way), but I was pretty proud of that accomplishment! That picture was actually taken when I was celebrating doing it. Usually when I celebrated I would catch my front edge and face plant which was always hilarious. I'm not sure if it happened that time...

So after a long day snowboarding, we headed home and had some dinner and spent the rest of the night with my parents and we all crashed early that night! Sunday was pretty simple and we just went to church, ate dinner, and then chilled at home the rest of the night. I went over and visited the Hansen's at one point too. That was so much fun and it was way good to see all of them again! We always end up just talking for hours! It was great.

Monday was time to wake up and head back to school and home for everyone else. I went to Village Inn and saw my friends for a little bit and that was a lot of fun! Megan made a slideshow of all of the pictures of the 5 of us from middle school until now. It was so fun to watch that and I loved it! We have all grown up together basically and I love those girls! It was just a great weekend and I love my family and friends!

Sidenote: The weekend before this one, Jaynee and Megan came up to Logan to see me and we all went to see DEAR JOHN! I was going to go down that weekend so we could all go see it together, but I don't have a car and no one was going home, so I had to stay. So they decided to make a trip up and it was SO great to see them again! I love those girls! I absolutely loved Dear John too and I cried pretty much the whole time! It was awesome. It was way different from the book in pretty much every way, but I accepted that and still ended up loving it. So... Life is good!! :)

(Me, Megs, and Jane before heading out to see Dear John! Love these girls...)

Life at USU!

(Amber and I one of our first nights here!)

So... I have been at my "new home" now for just about 4 weeks now, and I LOVE it here!! Logan is cold and the air is terrible, but if those are the worst of my complaints, I would say that things are pretty dang good. The people here are so friendly and I meet new people everyday. Some of my favorite things are as follows:

(I don't know why Trevor was sad, but this was one delicious dinner!)

1. My ward

I love my ward so much! The first week, I was really nervous about church and how I was going to like my ward because it seemed like everyone already had their friends, but I was so wrong! I started going to ward choir practice after church, Ward prayer every Sunday night, and FHE every monday, and things have been great ever since! Everyone talks to me and I have met so many great people who I will probably become great friends with over the next few months. My FHE family is so much fun and they are crazy which makes them the perfect family for me to be in! I also just got sustained today as a Sunday School Teacher for the Gospel Principles class! I have mixed feelings, but I think it'll be really good for me! Being a Freshman who is not a returned missionary, I am kind of intimidated by the calling, but I think it'll be a really good thing for me!

2. Basketball Games!

If you haven't ever been to a Basketball game at Utah State in the Spectrum... oh boy do you need to experience that once in your life! The students here are so involved in all of the extracurricular activites and supporting each other, and boys basketball games are probably by far the biggest ones! The student section is standing, chanting, and cheering literally the entire game. I would never want to be on the opposing team coming into the Spectrum to play because sometimes the student section is a bit ruthless. :) It is one of the funnest nights of the week though, and I am always really sad if there's not a basketball game in a week. My favorite thing is singing the fight song and the scotsman! Oh.. and the scoreboard cheer at the end of the game WHEN we win. :) And also when a player on the other team fouls out! Way too many things to love about these wonderful basketball games!

(USU vs. Idaho! USU wins... of course! :) )

3. Deathball!

One of my new favorite things is Deathball! The people living in Pineview are definitely night owls, and they are always out in the main lobby playing this wonderful game. It's a hacky sack game, but we play with a ball. Basically you juggle it 3 times as a group, catch it, and then throw it at somebody. That is a lame description, but it is SO much fun. We seriously play for hours on end and we laugh the entire time. This is where I have met a lot of people, and we are all starting to become pretty dang close! I love it!

So those are just 3 of my top favorite things about Utah State. If I felt like saying more, I definitely could! School is going great too, and right now I am just trying to find some kind of internship that will get me some experience in the Journalism/Public Relations field. I also have enjoyed living so close to Jeremy, Nicole, Makelle, and Parker. Seeing them is always so much fun, and laundry is free! :)

Ok, for journaling purposes, I will tell the story of my first day of school... The Sunday before school started, I was signed up for 12 credits, but I wanted to take 15 credits. So I was looking for another class and I found the perfect one! It fulfilled my depth humanities credit and it seemed pretty interesting! The description said it was on the culture and history of Spain. My oldest brother, Josh, served a mission in Spain, so I thought that would be way cool. I tried to sign up for it, but it told me I would need an instructor's signature. So I asked around, and everyone told me it was because I was trying to sign up so late, so I just had to go to the class and then the teacher would sign me in if he had room. So the next morning I woke up and this class was the first one of the day! I was SO nervous to be at the new school, but I was way excited too. So I went to the classroom and sat down right in the middle of the classroom. The instructor came in, took roll, called out the waiting list, and then asked for anyone else who was there and wanting to add the class. So I raised my hand and gave him my name and everything else. Then it was time for class to begin. Well... before I knew it I was transported to Spain and everyone around me was speaking spanish! The instructor, lecturing in spanish. The students around me, asking questions in spanish. The syllabus... you got it! Spanish. Well... I had NO idea what to do. It was my first class of the semester at a new school and I was still terrified! Well, needless to say, I stayed in the class the entire time. I laughed at all of the professors joke, repeated whatever he told us to repeat, and "listened intently" the entire time. I also read the syllabus to see exactly how much spanish I can understand, and I surprised myself! It was the greatest feeling ever. People also probably thought I was crazy because I would just chuckle to myself all throughout class while I was thinking of what everyone would say when I told them about this. I was also terrified he was going to ask me a question, so you can imagine the relief I felt when class ended and I was able to get out of there and speak english again! It was probably by far the funniest thing that has happened to me since I've been up here, and it makes a great story, that's for sure!

(Trevor, Amber, and I cooking dinner Friday night!)

Well... That about wraps it up! I basically love life up here, and I am totally fine with it being my home away from home for the next 4 years. I have really started to love cooking too, so that has been a fun new adventure! I think Logan is a great city and I feel like I have always been meant to be here! I guess we'll see what other exciting things happen in the months to come! :)