Monday, December 31, 2012

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell

I got home in Hawaii right in time for my best friend's wedding! We got home on Friday morning and had her wedding dinner that night. It was at a beautiful clubhouse in Draper. Wedding Dinner's are always a fun tradition!



Saturday was a busy day! We met her outside the temple for pictures and then helped set up for the reception. It was at her grandparents house and it was beautiful! I was able to play her wedding song on the piano for their first dance while his best friend sang. I felt so honored to be able to be apart of her big day!






Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell!

xoxo

Mele Kalikimaka!

This year Christmas was spent in the beautiful land of Hawaii. It is one of my family's favorite vacation spots! My mom's family came and we had such a great time being together. I was also able to take Daniel for the first week of the trip and then we sent him home for Christmas with his family!

My mom woke us up at 3:00 am one morning to watch the sunrise from the top of a Volcano! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

We are a family of tennis players. We had fun meeting up on the court every morning to play.


We became the paddle ball champions when we finally beat my parents!


We love to Scuba Dive!

Matching swimsuits for Christmas!



It was 10 days very well spent! It was nice to get away and relax on the beach!

Mele Kalikimaka!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Bridal Shower

My best friend Lizzy is getting married in 3 WEEKS! Although, it was already a short engagement I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We had a lovely bridal shower for her on Saturday with her friends from Salt Lake and Provo. It was fun to combine the groups and all get together to celebrate this happy bride-to-be!

The roommates. We have just combined Lizzy and Lohren into one since they are switching places!



I can't wait for her big day. It has been so much fun to be apart of all the plans and especially being able to throw her a shower! Love you girl!

xoxo


Monday, December 3, 2012

Tis' the Season

December has officially started and that means all the festivities can finally begin! It is only the 3rd and I have already covered a lot of ground. Kacey and Ann have a tradition of sending out an apartment christmas card and I am so happy I was in it this year along with Lizzy who is leaving us and Lohren who we are welcoming with much excitement!

Here is one of the many shots that were taken

My parents go to the Festival of Trees and this year I wanted to join in on the tradition. Wednesday nights I am in Salt Lake and it has become our date night with Joe and Allison so off to the festival we went. We loved looking at all the trees and gingerbread houses, they are really impressive!


Saturday night our apartment officially kicked off the holiday season with a gingerbread party. We decorated little gingerbread men to be us or in my and Daniel's case we decorated completely randomly.



And here is our official Christmas Card:


Merry Christmas from Kacer, Lo, Annerz, Car, and Mrs. Mitchell!

xoxo


Saturday, December 1, 2012

Monday, November 26, 2012

A Happy Turkey Day!

This year I spent Thanksgiving in New Mexico. I had never been and was excited to see a new place. Daniel's sister and her darling family live there so we drove a nice 10 hours to spend the week with them! We had such a great time! Thanksgiving dinner was delicious as always and we ate leftovers for days!
A little Thanksgiving Twister


We traveled to Santa Fe and fell in love with that town. It was such a cool place to see. Everything was very Native American and there were all these cool little shops and boutiques. They were having a Christmas tree lighting that night in the town square so there were luminaries lining the streets.

Santa Fe

Most of all it was a nice, relaxing weekend which is exactly what I needed! It is always a great experience to try new things and new traditions. Hope you all had a fabulous turkey day as well!


xoxo

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Tis' the season...to get engaged!

This one time our best friends got engaged...


Joe Morgan and Allison Huntsman have become mine and Daniel's couple in crime. The four of us can usually be found together on Wednesday nights when I am in Salt Lake and most weekends. Joe and Daniel have been best friends since childhood and all three of them went to high school together. I was lucky enough to meet Allison on our childhood soccer team and we have just gotten closer as time has gone on.


The big day is March 8th! They got engaged in Dan's grocery store in the middle of the international aisle. Joe left the ring box next to a sauce Allison was suppose to be picking up. It was absolutely darling and we were excited to be there to see them after it happened! Can't wait for the big day!


xoxo

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Thanks October!

October you have been good to me. It has been such a good fall season. I love all the Halloween festivities but I am ready to move on to Thanksgiving and then Christmas will be here before we know it! Here are some of the highlights of October in pictures...


We took a road trip to Sun Valley


Our 1st pumpkin carving

Fall hike with Lohren

Frightmares

Pumpkin #2

Halloween night! A snake, safari guide, and two subaru's!

Bring on November!

xoxo


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Wise words from Mr. Romney


I was recently sent this article by a friend. I know it's kind of long but it is definitely worth the read. It is a speech Mitt Romney gave years ago. Enjoy!

I don’t remember when it was exactly that I finally went past the sandbar. My family had a summer cottage on the shores of one of the Great lakes. For the first forty or so feet, the lake is shallow, warm, and protected from big waves by the sandbar.

That’s where I spent most of the hot summer days as a boy. I liked it there. One day, my brother got me up on water skis. Perhaps fearing that a turn would make me fall, he drove the boat, and me, straight out into the deep. By the way, this lake is over 100 miles wide. I screamed at him the whole terrifying ride. He took me about a half mile out. But ever after, the deep water was where I wanted to be surfing in the breakers, water skiing, and diving. I got out of the shallow for good.

Over the years, I have watched a good number of people live out their lives on the shallows.

In the shallows, life is all about yourself, your job, your money, your house, your rights, your needs, your opinions, your ideas, and your comfort.

In the deeper waters, life is about others, family, friends, faith, community, country, caring, and commitment. In the deeper waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, and uncomfortable battles.

Almost every dimension of your life can be held to the shallows or taken into the deeper water. Your career, your involvement with others, your spouse and your children, your politics, each can be lived with you comfortably at the center. Or, they can draw you out of yourself, into service and sacrifice, into selflessness.

At some point in your life, a few of you may be presented with the opportunity to step off your career path, so give yourself fully to some kind of service. When I was asked to leave my investment company to run the Olympics in Salt Lake City. I dismissed the idea out of hand. I was making too much money, I didn’t know bupkes about running a sports event. The job would pay me nothing. The organization was in the worst condition of any I had ever seen. And, after the games were over, the position would lead nowhere. It was a dead end.

I took it. It was the highlight of my professional life. I gave more of myself than I ever had before. I came to know and respect remarkable people. There are currencies more lasting than money. It can be enormously rewarding to take the unobvious course, to jump into the deep water.

Bias is shallow thinking and shallow water. Read widely, particularly from people who disagree with you. Argue to learn rather than to win. If you don’t respect, I mean really respect the views of people who disagree with you, then you don’t understand them yet.

There are smart people on both sides of almost every important issue. Learn from then all. If you have life all figured out in neat little packages, you’re in Neverland, not the real world, and it’s boring there.

There’s one more thing I’ve seen in the people who swim in the deep waters of life. They don’t fashion their values and principles to suit their self-interest. They live instead by enduring principles that are fundamental to society and to successful, great lives. I learned important lessons about those principles from some of the Olympians I saw in Salt Lake City, like bobsledder Vonetta Flowers.

Vonetta was brakeman on USA sled two. All the attention, however was on sled one. The sled that had taken the World Cup and was a lock for the Olympic Gold. But just before the Olympics, the pilot of sled one dropped her partner and invited Vonetta Flowers to join her.

Vonetta had a tough decision. On sled one, she’d get a gold medal for sure, the first Olympic gold to be won by an African American in the Olympic Winter Games. Those of us rooting for US medals hoped she would jump to sled one. She didn’t, she decided that friendship and loyalty to her longtime teammate on sled two was more important winning the gold.

Of course, sled one did well. But when sled two beat them all, coming in first, the crowd went nuts. And tears dripped off Vonetta’s cheeks. Friendship and loyalty above gold.

You live one time only. Don’t spend it in safe, shallow water. Launch out into the deep. Give yourself to your family, to your career, to your community. Open your mind to diverging viewpoints. And live not by what suits the moment, but by the principles that endure for a lifetime. Jump in, the water’s fine!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A little curveball

Sometimes life throws you a curveball. It has a way of knocking the wind right out of you. You feel broken and lost for as long as it takes you to pull yourself together and get back into the game.

Life threw me a curveball this past week, a big curveball. It knocked the wind right out of me and I haven't quite caught my breath yet. But keeping my head down isn't really my thing. I am now picking up my pieces and readjusting my sails. College is hard, BYU is harder. After 4 years and few different majors I will now be graduating in political science.
If you see me in the next couple of weeks and ask about school I may not seem very happy when I respond. But don't worry, I am just catching my breath and I'll be back in the game soon enough.

xoxo

Monday, October 8, 2012

A Birthday Week

It was Kacey's 23rd birthday on Friday and we decided to celebrate for an entire week! We threw a great party for her on Friday night. We got a Karaoke machine, and let me tell you it was a hit! Kacey is not only a great sister but she is the best friend to have around. I have loved being able to spend her last year at BYU as her roommate. I know that I always have someone to count on when it comes to Kacey. And she makes sure the apartment is always full of entertainment!

 The Roomies

Birthday morning!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with General Conference. It is so nice to be able to go to church in your sweats! I loved all the messages that were shared. Conference always comes at the perfect time. I have been wanting to go see the fall leaves so on Sunday between sessions we headed up Millcreek Canyon and it was gorgeous! I love this time of year! The week finished off with a big family dinner for Kacey's birthday.

Millcreek Canyon

Sister, Sister

xoxo


Monday, October 1, 2012

A Fallish Beginning

I love turning the calendar over to another month. It always feels like a fresh start. Set a few goals, make some changes, and reach some of those goals from the last month. It just feels better starting new challenges on day 1 of the month.
It was even sweeter to turn the calendar over to October because that means it is officially the season of Fall. And who doesn't love fall? Yea for fall activities!

xoxo

Monday, September 24, 2012

Monday, September 17, 2012

A little bit of everything

It was a full weekend of events around here. As everyone knows it was the state fair this week and we couldn't miss out on that! Although my mom claims I went to the state fair as a child I have no memory of it so this was a whole new experience for me. We went on all the rides, saw cows and pigs, people watched, and laughed and laughed and laughed. It was a night well spent.


Saturday morning we went boating at Utah lake and then it was off to Park City to help Allie with the National Ability Center open house. By the time we got there they didn't need much help and they had a huge slip n slide going so we definitely took advantage. I had grass all over me the rest of the day!


Then it was upon us, the Holy War. I bleed red. Yes I know what you are thinking, "don't you go to the Y?" and the answer is yes I do but I was raised a Ute fan and that is something that you can't turn your back on easily. I do cheer for my school (BYU) just not during the Holy War. It was an unforgettable ending to a game, that is for sure!


Now it is back to the grind of school. We are going on our 4th week and things are definitely starting to pick up around here!

xoxo