Photo Shoot

This weekend, Emma and I were able to do a little photo shoot. Not professional by any means, but definitely fun. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pittsburgh Christmas

This year I was only able to spend a few days (Thursday to Wednesday) at home this year, but we were able to fit in most of my favorite Pittsburgh Christmas activities.

1. A Pittsburgh welcome: a Steeler and a patriot

2. 5 little stockings, homemade by my aunt

3. The back 40 in the snow

4. Downtown, or as Pittsburghers say it "downtahn"

5. Enjoying hot chocolate in the PPG building.

6. Every year they display gingerbread houses from schools and organizations all over Pittsburgh

7. St. Nicholas- the Santa Claus figure from Germany

8. St. Stephen from Ireland (these are our two favorite Santas. Maybe it's because we're Irish and German. That's my best guess)

9. Challah- a traditional Jewish bread that we use for French toast

10. Dad and Thunder hanging out

11. My handsome Grandpa

12. Our Christmas craft. We punched out circles from old Christmas cards and made them into a garland

Perfect Provo Weekend

I just got back from a much-needed weekend in Provo. It was good to see so many of my good friends still in town.

Highlights:

• Eating. Always eating.
• Chatting till 6 am with Alex and Robin
• Cubby's with blog friend turned real friend Brittany
• Christmas shopping with Alex
• Visiting Mr. Logan Larsen, or my new favorite boy. Too bad he's only four months old
• Lights on Temple Square
• Freshman year reunion to say goodbye to Taylor and Aly as they start their new life in Iowa.
• Visiting Jane and her precious married apartment
• Sister Wives (with commentary) with Nathan and Elizabeth.
• Touring campus with Jeff and swapping memories

Oh Provo, how I miss you.

Current Situation

1. Wall art

2. Keeping in mind

3. Frank and Fina's- my favorite

4. Family trip to Falling Water (not jealous or anything)

5. Saturday hike with the Garet and Garrett

6.  Finally found a place that sells macarons- Bouchon Bakery in Summerlin

7. Another treat, I couldn't help myself

8. Mini pumpkin

9. Dressing like a grandma and drinking grandma's hot chocolate

10. Mom's old scarf, a fall wardrobe staple

11. Glitter and mint

12. Neon and leopard

13. 50 Nifty United States

14. The most perfect apples. I had to limit myself

15. 1920s dance with Garrett

16. Diet Coke and polka dots

17. Ryder- Kelly's new pup

18. New bangs

Labor Day-ing

This weekend was a dream. Ryan and his friend from Alaska came down on Thursday night and we drove up to St. George on Sunday and Monday. We swam, ate Cafe Rio (duh) and Hawaiian food, went to Target (again, duh), watched some Real Salt Lake, solved an Internet crisis, walked down the Strip, made lots of sandwiches, got our cars looked at (broken bumper for me, broken A/C for him. We're a hot mess), took a picture at the Fabulous Las Vegas sign, drove my car all over East Las Vegas, listened to Twin Shadow, watched Alien and one episode of Breaking Bad (I'd never seen it) and more. We hiked in Snow Canyon on Monday and played Beatles Rock Band when we met up with Andrew.

I love Vegas, I really do. I've made a lot of friends and everyone's been really nice. But there's something about hanging out with people who know your Sonic drink order by heart that can't be beat.

My Homeless Weekend

So Friday afternoon, I'm scrolling through Twitter when I see Jordan's tweet that she's headed to Bryce Canyon to go camping and run in the half marathon. Lonely and desperate person that I am, I called and she was nice enough to let me crash the party.

Fun fact: I didn't know where Bryce Canyon is. I thought it was in St. George, an hour and a half away. Wrong. It's about four and a half hours away. But I'd already set my mind on going so I hopped in my car, cracked open a Diet Coke and started driving.

Using 21st century technology, Jordan sent me a pin from her iPhone giving me her exact location. Sweet, I thought. I'd just follow my iPhone to the campsite. Wrong again. As I got closer, I talked to Andrew on the phone and he told me they were in a town called Tropic. I didn't think anything of it when Tropic came and went and the GPS led me to Main Street, Cannonville. When I didn't see their car, I headed back to Tropic and called Andrew. He told me they were, in fact, in Cannonville so I headed back, losing cell phone service and completely exhausted.

Long story short, I was driving through the bustling metropolis of Cannonville at 1 a.m. when I heard Andrew's classic whistle. God bless that whistle, because I was about to just pull over and sleep in my car. I seriously have never been happier to see that boy. He led me to our "campsite," which was a big field with tarps on it. I didn't have a tarp, so he slept on the ground on a pad he borrowed and I slept on a picnic table. Like homeless people.

We chatted and waited for everyone to get done with the race and then went to breakfast with everyone. I had such a fun time and can't wait to see everyone again in August.

My Family

First off, Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world. Thanks for teaching me to sing Shania, cook a mean Texas sheet cake and notice beauty in nature. You're the best and I love you.

Dang. The '80s look good on you, and that's saying something.

While I was digging through old scrapbooks to find these pictures, I found some serious family gems.

I'm the only one with chunky legs. It's my burden in life.

Is there a "Precious Family Picture of the '90s" contest we can submit these to? Seriously.

That hat. Miss it.

My face.

It doesn't get more '90s than this picture. 

You can BET we were rocking matching outfits. Always. 

So many memories. Like how between the ages of 6-8, the main source of contention between my little sister and I was that she thought that tigers hatched from eggs. Or the time that grandma's cat literally died in the middle of her living room floor and no one wanted to say anything. Or playing with cousins. Or getting all the kids to play "Neighbors," which was a glorified game of House and definitely the most boring game ever, but we had the entire neighborhood in on it.

My family's kind of the best. Sorry, everyone else. 

March Photo A Day

I was a little better at doing Photo a Days this month, I didn't get lazy till the end of the month :).

 March 1- Up:  Elevators in the ASB
March 2- Fruit: E's banana
March 3- Your Neighborhood: The Elms, baby
March 4- Bedside
March 5- A Smile: A text from Timmy Timmy Tim Tim
March 6- 5 pm: In da gym
March 7- Something you wore: one of my many grandma cardigans
March 8- Window
March 9- Red: sauce at P.F. Chang's
March 10- Loud: I still don't know why I didn't take a picture of Ryan ;)
March 11- Someone I talked to today: Poor Andrew, someone is tired
March 12- Fork: Ryan's fork ring that he wears every day, rain or shine
March 13- A sign: my first time hiking the Y in forever
March 14- Clouds
March 15- Car
March 16- Sunglasses
March 17- Green, at Hayley and Ali's awesome St. Patrick's Day Party
March 18- A corner of your home
March 19- Funny, This little picture got us honked at, but it was definitely worth it
March  21 (where I started slacking off)- Delicious: Nutella Cheesecake bars, courtesy of Charlotte Chen
March 22- Kitchen Sink
March 23- Moon
March 24- An animal: Duck on the new stream by Rape Hill
March 25- Breakfast: carbo load
March 26- Key
March 27- My name: In a Calvin and Hobbes book
March 29- Feet: Ryan's Van's
March 31- Where I relax: my bed