Hello, Goodbye

I realize it has been a couple weeks since I have blogged so bear with me because this one is going to be kind of long. 1 week ago I was getting on a plane to come home from Hawaii...for good. I was excited to be coming home but sad and shocked that my Hawaiian experience was already over.
Lohren and I started packing up our room at the beginning of the week and although it was weird, sad, happy, and so many other things, we made sure to make our last week one to remember as roommates.
One of my favorite nights was when we were attempting to study for our biology final the next day (attempting being the key word) before we knew it the time was 2:00 am. Lohren and I had been singing Aaron Carter's "Aaron's Party" for a few days and decided that we had to make a video of it:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150154055780084&subj=512411426
After a few tries we finally perfected it and then went on to study till about 3:30 am!

The next day I was so excited because I was able to go pick up my mom from the airport! She was coming over to help us get ready and packed to go home. We made a stop at the temple to snap a few pictures before heading to her hotel.

The packing continued and before we knew it we were just about done with our finals. We spent the last few days either sorting through our room or sitting by the pool at Turtle Bay trying to get the last few rays of sunshine before heading to Utah. Our last final was in sign language. We had to get up in front of the class and do a children's book in sign. So as we were tanning by the pool we were also practicing.
Of course the last weekend of being in Hawaii I had to get sick. It made it a little harder to stay up late and celebrate finishing my
freshman year of college but somehow I managed. Lohren and I spent
our last days watching movies, packing, and reminiscing. On our last night we went to a party with everyone but I started coming down with a fever so we didn't last to long there. Instead we came home and tried to get all of our odds and ends together before having to check out the next morning, but of course we made it much more fun then it sounds.
Sneaking around the dorms, eating oreos, laughing, singing, falling off chairs, and of course dancing. We were finally getting into bed when I realized that we hadn't done the one thing we promised we would do. On our first day as official roommates we were feeling like losers so we sat in our room and learned the Hoedown Throwdown from the Hannah Montana Movie. We kept saying that we were going to film it and never did. So I dragged/pulled/forced Lohren out of bed at 3 am to make this:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=420640231426&comments

We didn't get too sad checking out until we had to close our door to our room. I couldn't believe that I would never open this door again into the little 5 by 5 space we had made to be our home.
We had to make one last stop at Ted's before leaving, so we decided to go on the way of taking Garrett to the airport and it worked perfectly because we ran into Egan there.

On our last day we woke up to do something that we hadn't done yet. After 7 months of living in Hawaii you'd think that we would have gotten up on a surfboard but the truth is we hadn't even really tried. So we signed up for lessons and the hotel and hit the waves.
We were pretty nervous paddling out there, it is quite the work out. Our nerves grew when our instructors realized that the waves were much bigger than they thought, but that didn't stop us. By the end of the two hours we had both stood up and unfortunately had both gotten crushed by the waves as well. It was the perfect note to end such an amazing experience on.

Good as New

This year I have discovered that I am probably too emotional for my own good, but I can't do anything about that. So last night as I was talking to my Mom and we were both in tears-I was homesick and didn't like being away for my birthday-and she didn't like being away from me at all. After getting off the depressing phone call I needed something to make everything better. Do you have something that no matter what the situation is it can make everything okay? If you don't then I suggest you find it! For me, it is the movie You've Got Mail. I curled up in my bed, turned it on, and was smiling again within seconds. And now, today, I am as good as new and ready to attack the SUPER busy week ahead of me and then get on a plane HOME!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

This weekend was very special because it was our last full weekend here at school and it was MY BIRTHDAY!! Let's just start by saying I have the best family in the entire world. My week started off by getting about 7 packages.
My mom had sent me a package for every day of my birthday week full of things centered around 19. My cousins and grandparents and sent a combined package and then I had one from Kacey. It was super hard not to rip them all open on right when I got them but I made it through. At midnight I opened a package from my mom and it was a birthday cake!! I couldn't believe it! For all of our birthday's we always have a Mrs. Backers cake so my mother made sure I got one! Kels, Jess, Lo and I dug in right away! I also opened my cousins package that was a super cute headband and rings!

In the morning I woke up to a completely decorated room with a banner, confetti, and balloons. I opened my other two packages-shoes and necklace from kacey and a new watch, family picture, and vera bradley wallet! The girls went to Hukilau Cafe for breakfast which was delicious. Unfortunately, I had to go to class and then a thing for my piano class after but it was fine. Then Jess, Kels, and I went to go get me a nice diet coke!
We came back, showered and headed into town for a fabulous girls night! We ate dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise where Lohren pretended being deaf and I was her translator, we needed to start practicing for our sign language final! Our waitress was so great and brought me out a mud pie on her for my birthday so they sang and I blew out my candles!

After we hit the streets of Waikiki where I got my fortune read-she told me that I needed to enjoy my youth, I am going to fall in love immediately, my husband is going to worship and cherish me, and that
whatever I do next in my life will

make me very very happy!
That was quite the experience! After that, we went and I opened a pearl and had it set on a beautiful ring. It was an amazing birthday!

The next morning we woke up and rounded up Garrett, Egan, and Walker and headed to the water park. It was SO much fun! haha We were having a blast. It was such a riot. We were just laughing the entire time down every single slide. It was a beautiful day and we all got some sun! Overall it was an amazing birthday! Thank you to everyone for all the texts, calls and birthday wishes, it made my day that much better!