That one time I graduated college...

My graduation day was truly fantastic in every way.

We started off the morning with a breakfast in the park, provided by my amazing mother.

We had a dutch oven breakfast, which we call "mountain man" in our family, as well as delicious fruit and homemade banana and pumpkin bread. 

Yeah, my mom is fantastic.

Then I spent a good part of the day packing up my apartment and running errands.

After a quick nap, it was time to get all dolled up for the big night!

I'll provide pictures in chronological order :)

These are some of my fellow Child Development graduates!

Commencement was so good!

It felt so surreal to be sitting in the I-center for the last time in a long time.

I had the privilege of singing at the dedication of that incredible building nearly four years ago, and now I was sitting there listening to President Clark and others give me advice for the future.

I loved every minute of it!

After Commencement we went outside to have a little photo shoot, courtesy of my sister Jen :)

All four of my grandparents were there! It was such an incredible blessing that they were all healthy and able to attend and be a part of such an important day in my life!

My sisters (plus Caroline)!

I love those women and look up to them both so much!

The original five!

I love this family of mine :)

From there we had to speed up to the Hinckley building where the convocation for my college was held.

I quickly freshened up my lipstick and got up on the stand because I was honored to be asked to speak at my convocation!

That meant my family had VIP seating ;)

I loved every minute of the convocation program as well, almost more than commencement! 

Then it was finally time to walk across stage and receive my diploma (or rather, my diploma cover).

All of the family!

  

My parents finally got to meet my favorite professor and best boss ever!

I learned so much from Brother Rarick and was fortunate enough to be able to TA (teacher's assistant) for him for a year as well! Mackenzie was a TA with me :)

After all of the festivities were over, we were starved.

My grandparents all left to head back to the hotel and my nieces and nephews were all safely tucked in bed and being watched by babysitters, so we took advantage and went out to a quick dinner!

I realized that this was the first time we had all been together, just the five of us, no husbands or kids (with the exception of little Caroline), in nearly a decade! 

We had the best time talking and laughing.

My dad recognized the novelty of the situation and snapped a picture of his four leading ladies.

Even a fellow dad passing by commented that he was one lucky man!

I was able to end a truly fantastic day with the people I love the most, and I will cherish that hour or so for a very long time to come.

Thank you to everyone who made a trip to help me celebrate!

I am officially a college graduate!

:)

Finals week festivities

It seemed like the end of the semester came and went before I could even blink.

It was a very busy two weeks, but in the sense that I had a lot of activities to attend, not that I had a lot of finals.

This was actually one of the easiest finals weeks I've ever had, and I definitely wasn't complaining!

It all started with a field trip to Utah with my Child and Family Advocacy class.

We went down on a day trip to visit with LDS Public Affairs as well as various representatives at the Utah State Capitol. 

It was also 7/11 that day, and not having any 7/11's in Rexburg, we had to make a stop (twice) in Utah to get free slurpees! 

A few days later my ward had our closing social. It was at our Bishop's dad's property in Saint Anthony. It was gorgeous. We did some canoeing, paddle boating, volleyball playing, and dutch oven eating :)

Then it came time to spend my last night all together with these lovely people pictured below.

We went to G's Dairy and had some delicious Reed's ice cream and then went back to our apartment for a couple cutthroat rounds of catchphrase, just like old times!

Then before I knew it, it was Grad Night!
I was asked to give the opening prayer, so this was my view...

That really made it set in that graduation was coming, and it was coming fast.

On the second to last day of my Child and Family Advocacy class we had a huge breakfast.

It was so much fun and I'm definitely going to miss that class!

I spent the weekend before finals and graduation busting my booty to get everything done for the rest of my undergraduate career!

It was an insanely busy and incredibly exhausting two days of over 12 hours working on homework, but it was so worth it. 

My family came into town on Sunday for my niece Caroline's baby blessing, so it was nice to have everything out of the way for some good quality family time.

(More on all of that to come soon!)

Needless to say, it was a very busy but very great last couple of weeks in Rexburg.
Now I'm moved home and not-so-patiently awaiting September 23rd, when I will be on a plane headed to Europe to study abroad for three and a half weeks!

Stay tuned for more about Caroline's blessing and my graduation!

And so it begins...

Today my department held the Grad Brunch for the graduating seniors in the Department of Home and Family.

This department includes culinary arts, so as you can imagine, the food was so good.
All of the department grads (that could make it) were there, as well as all of the teachers.

This cute, perky, funny, and always incredibly happy lady pictured above was my teacher when I took a cooking class a few semesters back!

She always made 7:45 classes so much fun :)

It really made it sink in that this is the beginning of the end.

Today started just under two weeks worth of graduation festivities, and I kind of can't believe it!

So here's to a crazy busy two weeks worth of grad fests, grad nights, grad parties, graduation speeches (I'm speaking at convocation... eek!), and finally, becoming a graduate!

Here goes nothing!

The Infinite Power of Hope

I am so thankful for the lesson we had today about hope, given from President Uchtdorf's talk, The Infinite Power of Hope, found here.

Just as we often hear that faith is the antidote to fear, hope is the antidote to despair.

When we are fearful or are in despair, we lose faith and hope in Heavenly Father and His son, and in their ability to heal us and help us through anything and everything.

"Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time... Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness."

We all have moments of despair or sorrow, where our hope may seem to falter or even seem lost.

As we learn to rely on our faith in those moments, He will be there to take our hand and help pull us through. 

How thankful I am for my Father in Heaven and His patience with me and His willingness to always be there for me, even in moments where the last thing I might want to do is turn to Him.

He is always there, no matter what.

We can always have faith and hope in Him.

God Bless the USA

Happy (belated) Independence Day!

I had a fantastic day that definitely reminded me why the Fourth of July is my absolute favorite holiday!

It started a week ago with the Huntsman Springs Celebrate America Celebration.

This is the third year in a row that I've been to it, and it's definitely the best fireworks show I have ever seen, and that includes some tough contenders like the Portland Waterfront BluesFest! 

It was definitely a great start to my holiday celebrations!

Yesterday morning I joined my sister and her family at the Rexburg parade down Main Street!

It was so fun to see Sophie waving away at all of the floats to try and get them to throw her candy :)

By the end her and Sam had acquired enough candy to last them quite a while!

Little Caroline had a hard time sleeping through all of the sirens and loud music, but she was still as happy as could be despite it all.

Just look at her pretty little face!

Isn't she the cutest?!

Later that afternoon my roommates and I headed down to Idaho Falls to stake out our spot for the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.

We had six hours to wait for the fireworks to start, so we passed the time with games and really good food!

The Idaho Falls fireworks didn't disappoint, but they were definitely nowhere near as spectacular as Huntsman Springs. 

Huntsman Springs 2014

I am so thankful to live in a country where I have freedom.

It's easy to be negative about the direction our Nation is headed in, as well as the lack of freedom we sometimes feel we might have, but one thing is true - we really are blessed to live in the USA.

This Nation was founded on freedom!

Freedom of religion

Freedom of speech

Freedom of the press

Freedom of assembly

Freedom of petition

If there's one thing I've learned and one thing I really do believe, it's that as long as we stand for and protect those freedoms we were granted in the Bill of Rights, our Nation will be okay.

Happy Birthday, America!

Back at it!

It's been far too long and to be honest, I'm sad that I haven't been documenting my last three semesters of my undergrad!

It's been a really fun three semesters but also insanely busy, and to be honest I just couldn't fathom fitting blogging into my schedule of school, work, practicums, and internships.

BUT GUESS WHAT?!

I graduate exactly three weeks from today!

That's right, I graduate.

I can't believe I will be finished with my undergrad and thrown out into the real world.

Here's my plan... 

After graduation I will move back home with my parents for the summer while I (hopefully) work at my old job. 

Then, as of September 24th I will be EUROPE-BOUND!

I'll be studying abroad in Europe for just under a month :)

(More on this later...)

After Europe I will start the job search and save up for graduate school while completing pre-requisites so I can apply and get accepted.

My first choice for graduate school is the University of Utah, and I will be getting my Master's degree in Speech and Language Pathology. 

So long story short, I anticipate having a lot of time on my hands to blog!

I'm happy to be back :)

Construction Zone...

We needed a facelift.

Pardon the mess!

Things will be back in order, ASAP.