miss BYU

Monday was my last first day of college

i will never again have the beginning of Fall semester at BYU ever again. 

i would be sad about it except that it was a really fun day. 

i didn't even had to worry about finding my classes because i already knew where they would be, while in class i knew what to expect (no surprises- once you are a senior in my major, by now i've had all my professors twice before) and work was a blast. 

all my classes were good, (except i am labeling Hearing Science as my beast class for the semester) and going to the classes I T.A. for was great. Its fun to help run a class and help the professor. it just proves that i will always be a teacher's pet at heart i suppose. also its fun to have people realize that you will be grading their papers and suddenly become a little more important. 

At lunch in the WILK i literally ran into about 32 people i knew. as i was eating lunch with 3 friends i randomly ran into, i could only sit down for 30 seconds before i had to jump up and go say hi to somebody else i saw. i only got 3 bites of my sandwich my whole lunch break. 

 its crazy as time goes on how you just build and build up the pool of people you know. 

and now its at an all time high with freshman friends back from missions (seeing some of those were like seeing Ghosts of Christmas past), people from high school coming to BYU, friends transferring and just the culmination of all the people i've met from the past three years.

just call me Miss. BYU because i intend to fully enjoy this senior year

tybalt

its official. i feel like an adult. 

in the grown-up sense of the word. 

why?

BECAUSE I BOUGHT A CAR. 

and i couldn't love it more.

its a honda civic and that means its reliable, safe and will last a looong time

 i named him Tybalt. 

Tybalt has always been one of my favorite Shakespearean characters 

why?

1. his name is awesome

2. when i read the play he sounded like he had to be good looking

3. and then when i saw the 70's movie he was good looking

4. he is fashionable, vain and sleek

5. cares about courtesy

6. you don't want to mess with him. he is a beast

8. he is firey 

7. very loyal to his family

8. he fulfills one of my favorite literary role- he acts as a foil

9. has a tragic / dramatic ending. i love those. 

10. out of all the minor characters in all the Shakespeare i find him the most memorable 

11. best of all he kills Mercutio. whom i find completely annoying. 

and when i got the car, Tybalt just came to me. so that is his name.  

our maiden voyage together was incredible. 

i felt so lucky and totally luxurious. 

i felt like i didn't deserve him

(i do realize that i am talking about my car like a boyfriend.

they can be very similar sometimes.)

my dad and i then spent 2 1/2 hours washing it, waxing it, getting new windshield wipers (Dad wanted to get the best brand. so that mean the German brand to him.)
 and tons of other stuff that i didn't know the purpose for.
and by my dad and i- i mostly mean my dad because he started taking over the process while i just watched.
then he had to drive it around to "test it out"
then he said he would be happy if this was his car.
Whoa there dad- this baby only has a mama and its moi. 

BEST WAY TO END SUMMER FOR SURE

ciao bella!

my best friend abigail lauren pace is going on a mission. 

she opened her call last night and she is going to:

 ROME ITALY

can you say dream life? ideal mission? totally jealous? because i say all three

she is going to be there for when the Temple is built. 

she has impeccable timing. 

i am so happy for her and so proud of her choice to serve. 

i just don't know what i am going to do without her. 

here are some pictures of when i was in Roma last for a good laugh: 

baby face with glasses. 

ensign peak

this is the story of how abby and i got tricked into going on a hike by ourselves: 

well spencer called and asked if abby and i would like to go hiking with him.

JCJ and a mission buddy would be coming along too and the destination would be Ensign Peak.

well Abby and i showed up at 6:00 at the start of the trail when we got a call from Spenc.... John was supposed to meet Spencer at Spencer's house in Alpine BUT John was M.I.A. and they hadn't left Alpine yet. 

Abby and I looked at each other at said "WHELP. might as well go ourselves." 

 we also said "lets be really sporty and treat this as a work-out a.k.a. run up with no stops." 

and by gum- we did it. 

ha! not. i needed a water break. and then another one. 

but i say we made great time and its always a good thing to just get moving and break a sweat. 

 the best thing about exercise is the red face and what abby calls "sideburn sweat". 

oh so cute. 

 by this time i was glad the boys weren't there to see all my "cuteness"

{but Abby did look great. but really- no red face at all. it must be one of her superpowers: to hike and look good while doing it. 

that and the ability to make the best dessert sandwiches. white bread, nutella, banana and marshmallow}

when we got to the top the boys called and said they were finally leaving Alpine for Salt Lake and would meet us at my house. So this time we really did make it with no stops. (man that hike is so steep. and ugly this time of year. so dryyyyyy.)

 i was actually pleased to get some Abby time sans any boys. 

it felt very empowering to work out with just us girls.

Abby has always been my favorite and only work out partner.

 i hate running with other people and Abby is the only exception. 

we go running together when we are at school. its my favorite because then we can go at night and its a healthy way to workout and catch-up at the same time. 

she is one of those special people in my life where i can talk and talk and talk to and still have more to tell her. and i never get sick of her.

 all good things to have in a best friend.

 we made it back to my house and met up with everyone else. by that time Abby had to go home and pack. boo. 

 since it was Spenc's idea to hike Ensign Peak and we had already done that (just without him) we had to come up with something else do to. 

 i took the reins. we made chocolate chip cookies and drove up to the U on the side of the mountain. where we sat on the huge cement letter U, looked at the city lights, played 'would you rather' and ate the still warm cookies. 

so somehow i ended up doing 2 incredibly steep hikes in a matter of hours tonight.
how did that happen?  

Farmer's Market

this morning i went to the Farmer's Market downtown with Spencer and Lisa-maire.

Lisa-marie is a French foreign exchange student staying with my family and Spenc just got back from a mission to Paris, so it was quite a nice little group. 

 we walked around and i tasted tons of peaches. i decided that white peaches are divine. 

then since Spenc (and of course Lisa-marie) had never been to Bruges for Belgian Waffles, i treated us all to one of my favorite things downtown. 

by the end the waffles had totally won them over. and these two would know the real deal if anyone would, so its quite the compliment they approved. 

all in all it was a pleasant summer morning

mrs. rachel wagstaff

yesterday my best buddy Rachel married her high school sweetheart Kevin

(i've known Rach since JR High and Kev since 6th grade)

they met when they were 15 and they were each other's first kiss on Rachel's first date on her 16th birthday. 

the night before there was a wedding dinner in Kevin's backyard. it was so gorgeous- string of lights centering into a chandelier, delicious food and the tables were set up so fancy! the theme was "i'll love you every hour" so there were clocks for decorations. Kevin's grandpa actually makes grandfather clocks as wedding presents for his grandchildren so those were on display. 

very impressive

here are pictures from that night: 

 

the next day was the wedding! I felt very lucky because Rach asked me to pick up and bring her bouquet to the Temple for her. don't you just love the flowers?

watching them come out of the Temple man and wife was amazing!

i got teary eyed thinking about all the memories i have with Rach (zillions and zillions) and how happy i am to be apart of her creating her biggest memory yet

this is another bestie Lizzy and i waiting to take pictures on the temple steps:

then it was time to party at the Reception which was in Rachel's beautiful backyard.

 i was so impressed, getting a yard ready for a wedding is hard work! 

weddings outside are my favorite and the weather was perfect for it. 

BYU girls: casey, lizzy and maggie

friends since high school: weston, jon, sean and ben 

 i love this picture

Here is a taste of what the reception looked like:

 the piping on the cake was unreal. 

 flowers in the pool (not in the picture), tables on the tennis court and food stations under the tents

 pink grapefruit candy were the wedding favors

 the food was CAFE RIO and GELATO

two of my favorite things, i was in heaven

i loved the white circle balloons and lights on the tennis court,

it set a great atmosphere when it got dark

 we have buddy serving a mission in France right now 

so her family brought this hilarious picture of her. 

we LOVE and MISS sister alyssa chard! 

ps about half of these pictures came from Lizzy :) so photo cred goes to her

i feel so blessed to have witnessed this relationship since the very beginning. 

they are the definition of a perfect, story book love

i am so happy for Rach and Kev, they are very lucky!

zions

this week we had a family vacation to Southern Utah.

there was Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and lots of cousins.

 we were in Zions, St. George and Cedar City. 

its a family tradition to stay at this luxurious spot called The Desert Pearl and its always filled with Europeans. (which means speedos at the pool. mainly worn by old men......)

the hotel is nestled right up next to the red rock- its beautiful 

last time my sister, cousin and i met some handsome dutch boys.

 we proceeded to then hike the Narrows together. 

proof: 

 his name was robert. 

its also tradition to take a picture at the same bench every time.

(last year)

 

(this year)
poor stefi couldn't come this year being married and living in DC and all. we missed her

Zions is so pretty and always makes me proud that I am from Utah. 

here is Riley and her bf Connor

(note how we are matching in blue tank tops)

 the girl cousins + Lisa Marie from France

In St. George we basically just swam at my Uncle Rogers and in Cedar City saw two plays.

the first was 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and it was pretty good. 

Atticus was no Gregory Peck, but who is

Scout and Jem were a little too doe eyed and flat for me, not very authentic 

the whole time I wished there was more background music.

Elmer Bernstein was the composer for the movie and it just adds so much to the whole feel of each important moment. it makes the intimate moments between Atticus and Scout more touching. 

the next play was Les Mis. 

Superb! 

That play is just so dramatic and stirring, I love the plot. 

And the whole theme of redemption and ethereal ending- woof. 

the only part I didn't like was when Valjean rips his shirt open to show is 24609 tattoo and this Valjean was pump.... so i wished he hadn't of done that. 

Connor at one point said he looked down the row at us girls sitting together and we were all crying. 

We have a French foreign exchange student staying with my family, who came with us on vacation. I felt bad because seeing a play in a different language is rough, but at least one of them was about France right?

and so ends my summer travels. i had a good run this season- i got to go many a place. 

i've had so much fun that i almost don't want to go back to school.

almost. 

like they never left

 freshman year i had the best crew of friends. 

i introduced this way fun apartment of boys in my ward to my friends abby and caitlin's apartment

- and the rest is history. 

it is so fun to have friends who all want to be with each other, we all think we are hilarious and its just the best. we all click. 

we girls had to party by ourselves for the past two years while the boys all went on missions (yay!)

two of the three are home- the Carter boys. 

spencer and john are cousins and seriously the best guys ever. 

spencer served in Paris and john in Arizona. 

Phil is still serving in the Dominican Republic and comes home at the end of this month. 

to celebrate the Carter boys being home from missions, Caitlin being home from Spain and Abby from London I planned a bonfire up Milcreek Canyon. 

i had forgotten how much fun we are all together- it was amazing to have a reunion. 

 (i'm  a bee)

 the girlies

 abby watching the boys make the fire

 the carter boys

 John Carter Jr. aka JCJ

spenc and me 

so happy to have friends come back home and have it be like they never left.