Calling All Prom Dates

It has been one hectic week! Mid-terms are never fun and now that they are over we are over the hump and on the decline, which means school is going to be over before we know it. We counted the days and we only have 40 left on this beautiful island. :(
We kicked the weekend off with the BYUH talent show on Friday night. It was full of singing, dancing, magic, comedy, and beatboxing. But the best was one 3 guys got out there and did the Single Ladies dance. We had a lot more fun than we were expecting. We laughed, cheered, and sang our way through the entire thing. It was also Diet Coke Friday which made it that much better.
I crawled in bed that night and ended up staying awake till 3:30 am watching a movie only to be woken up 2 hours later to Jess and Kelsey banging and screaming at our door. Neither Lohren or I were that thrilled with this, but reluctantly Lohren got up and opened the door and they barged in telling us there was going to be a tsunami. Not really knowing what to do I grabbed my phone and saw that Egan had called me, I called him back and had never heard his voice sound so serious. He explained that the tsunami was suppose to come at 11:19 and that we should think about getting into the car and finding higher ground somewhere.
We were then approached by our RA's telling us there was a meeting downstairs where we were informed that we are on the safest part of the island and if everyone stays on the second floor of the dorms we should be fine. So we went and packed up Jess and Kelsey's valuables and headed to our room where we sat for the next 7 hours waiting for the tsunami that never came. Through out those 7 hours we tried to sleep unsuccessfully, had the news on our computers telling us the play by play, and pretty much just sat. Well, I can only do so much sitting and not doing anything so I was soon getting out paper, scissors, and glue and began doing some cute little craft projects. Then I became so claustrophobic in our small little room that I went on to cleaning and organizing the room. Finally we were given the all clear and that no tsunami waves were coming at any time in the future.

We were so excited to hear the news that we could get out of our room that we showered and headed into town where the shops were just starting to reopen and we hit the mall. Unfortunately, every store we wanted to go to (Forever 21, American Eagle, American Apparel, Abercrombie) were all closed. So we found some cute little store we hadn't been in and then headed to Macy's. This is where the fun really began, we each picked out a ghetto-looking short prom dress and tried them on, they were pretty hilarious.

Then we decided we had to try the floor length ones too but this time Lohren and I picked out each other's and Kelsey and Jess picked out each others, it made for some good laughs. After eating some dinner at the food court and sitting in Old Navy for a good hour we headed back home. Even though it was only 10:00 Lohren and I had been awake for way to long and headed to our room for some sleep.

Birthday Girl Jess

It was a very special weekend because it was Jess's 19th birthday! We started celebrating at 11:00 pm Friday night and didn't stop celebrating till Sunday at 12:30 am! On Friday we went and saw Shutter Island which I just found disturbing and did not enjoy it all but the other 5 people I went with loved it and found it very intriguing, so you can decided who to trust on that one before going and seeing it.
After returning from the movie we all needed a little lift to our spirits and we found just the thing, a birthday package that Jess' mom had sent. We went back in time and turned 5 years old all over again. Each of us received a princess crown and bracelet, and then we got to play a version of pin the tail of the donkey called put the kiss on the frog, themed after the new movie Princess and the Frog. We then took a stroll through the dorms in our crowns and all to go cook microwave cakes that her mom had also sent. At midnight we watched as Jess opened her presents then topped off the night by watching The Swan Princess 3, not quite as good as the first, but it kept our 5 year old little girl spirits alive for just a while longer.
The next morning we woke up and I was sent to distract Jess while Kelsey and Lohren decorated her dorm room and then we got dressed and headed to Waimea, for a pure beach day. We arrived at 11 and didn't leave till 5 o'clock that night we were having so much fun. Lohren got a new camera and tested it out with a group of random guys that wanted Kelsey and I in a picture!
The waves were perfect for body surfing and scary enough that we all thought we were going to be killed at one point or another but we survived. We laid-out, read magazines, listened to music, and enjoyed every minute of the day. Even a couple whales showed up in the afternoon to wish Jess a happy birthday! After getting home and showered we met up with Garrett and Egan and headed to Kahuku Grill, a restaurant we hadn't tried yet but heard was great. We had gotten a cake and princess balloon for the birthday girl and spent the next two hours eating and laughing. The food was as good as we were told and the cake from foodland wasn't bad either even though it took Garrett, Egan, and myself about 20 minutes before we could get the candles lit to sing happy birthday. We finished the day by seeing Valentines Day which I don't know how much the boys liked but the girls all loved it.

It turned out to be one of the funnest weekends we have had in quite a while which worked out perfectly because Jess definitely deserved such a wonderful birthday. In addition to it being Jess's birthday it was also my very best friend's birthday at home, Natalie! So Happy birthday Nat, I hope you had a great day! I can't wait to celebrate when I get home! Now the fun is over for another month until we get to celebrate my birthday!!

A Day of Love

It is the day full of pink, red, flowers, and heart-shaped chocolates. Many people would say that Valentine's Day isn't up on there as one of their favorite holidays but I for one love it! I think that it is a day with a lot of emphasis put on couples when really it is just a day to tell anyone whether it be your family, best friend, dog, or a special someone that you love them. It is a day to remind us of the importance of Love and how if there wasn't love then we really wouldn't have much of anything. So a Happy Valentine's Day to everyone in my life, I love you all!

The Heart of LIfe is Good

This week Lohren and I were working on a presentation for english and I was trying to find a scripture that went with our theme. I came across a talk by President Monson titled "Finding Joy in the Journey" well this didn't really relate to our topic but I found myself reading it anyways. He gave a quote from one of my favorite musicals, The Music Man. Professor Harold Hill states, "You pile up enough tomorrow, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays." This quote has stuck with me all week and I realized that this semester is flying by and I want to live up this experience as much as I can. Well, I became reassured that I was doing just that when a friend that went home after last semester came back to visit and while we were talking he looked at me and said you do everything, you are living life up here and doing this experience right. So on that note, I soon realized we only have 7 weekends left on this beautiful island which motivated Egan, Jess, and I to start making a list of the things we want to do before our time is up. So far this is what we came up with:
1. Hiking Diamond Head Volcano
2. Walking China Man's Hat
3. Getting up on a surf board (just long enough to get a picture)
4. Go to Hanama Bay
5. Go to an actual camp site instead of just 5 minutes down the road
6. Go snorkeling
I realize that many of you reading this blog don't know what some of these things are but once we do them I will make sure to blog all about them.

We've had a couple exciting things happen in the past couple weeks. Garrett Price has been called to serve in the Joao Pessoa Brazil mission and Walker Jensen was called to Paris, France. We are so excited and proud of both of them! In the meantime we have been doing much of the regular stuff. There was another surf competition a couple weeks ago we went to that was a lot of fun. Yesterday, Egan, Jess and I spent the day at Haleiwa beach where we saw 4 turtles and played paddle ball and then went to Matsumoto's for some shaved ice before heading home.

This semester is definitely a lot different, and there is a lot more school happening then play which is a good thing. I am keeping busy and continuing my new year's resolution of working out every day (I've only missed one day since being back!) and Jess and I also started diet coke/coke fridays which means I am only drinking my Diet Coke on Fridays, I am going strong so far! So overall I can say that life is pretty good right now, I just keep reminding myself of all the things I have to be grateful for, and there are a lot!!

A Maui Wowie Weekend

It was my mom's big 50th birthday on January 31st, and what a birthday she had! To celebrate my parents and the Richard's came over to Maui for 10 days which meant that I got to escape for a few days over there. To my mom's surprise my dad had Kacey and Allie flown out the same day I came so our family was able to all be together for the weekend. It was such a nice break from school to be able to just lounge at the pool and beach, it turned Hawaii back into a vacation for me instead of just where I live. It was definitely hard to say goodbye at the end and get on a different plane then them but it was very worth it. I am so lucky to have such a great dad that makes things like this possible. Another bonus was being able to get away from the cafeteria and eat good food for a few days :)

Lost in "Lost"

I realize it has been a really long time since I have blogged which means there is a lot to catch up on so here I go. A few weeks ago, Lohren, Kelsey, and I were asked out on a triple date. Now since being here none of us have been asked out so this was a pretty big deal. The boys wouldn't tell us what we were doing so we were pretty excited to find out where they were taking us. We went into town and headed towards Waikiki Beach where the season premier of "Lost" was being shown. None of us watch Lost, but it was pretty fun to be able to be the first ones to see the season opener. We were confused through the whole hour and had no clue what was happening in the show but it made it worth it when we were getting up to leave and the stars of the show came out and started signing autographs. After that we found a cute little diner for dinner and then a delicious homemade ice cream shop. We all had a great time!