Back to School.

Well the fall semester has begun.

I had forgotten what it was like to have so much homework.

And I'm having a hard time making myself do it.

But its so great to be back with my cohort.

They are just the best!

Before school started, we got to help out with orientation.

It is really fun to help the first years.

I got to be in charge of the mentorship program.

It was a lot of work, but it means I got to know all the firsties a bit.

I had fun being involved

and helping these new students transitions a little more smoothly into grad school.

Here are some pics from orientation.

My cohort had a lot of fun being back together.

The semester is going well so far.

I'm already being pushed and working hard.

I'll try to keep you all updated on how things go

with the last year of my masters program.

Loss.

Some hard things have happened lately.

My dear friend Elise lost her father.

I love Elise so much and wanted to cancel everything I needed to do to be with her.

Her family is fantastic.

I miss them.

I always have so much fun when I visit them.

Her dad is amazing!

He is so kind and funny and determined.

Their family has helped me out several times and mean a lot to me.

I pray for them often.

They are strong and will support each other through this.

I will never forget her dad and the wonderful memories I have of him.

Not long after the loss of Elise's father, a boy in my ward passed away.

It was very sudden and unexpected.

He was only nineteen.

About to go off to college and on a mission.

It was incredibly sad.

I attended the funeral to show my support to his family.

It was so powerful.

Each of the boy's six siblings spoke as well as his parents.

It was amazing to hear their memories.

One of the boy's siblings is my friend Pete.

He read some experiences from his journal.

It was so great to hear his thoughts from those moments.

It really showed the power and importance of keeping a journal.

It made me want to write in my journal more and on this blog more.

I know that both of these wonderful people are in a better place.

That there was a plan for them and this was all part of it.

I know that they will be with their families again.

If you would like to know more about my faith, please learn about it here.

Summer recap.

Alright so I know I didn't write all summer.

But now I will give you a little recap.

Hopefully that makes up for it.

My summer started in May because we finished classes at the end of April.

We had a couple weeks off before starting this crazy summer semester that was JAMMED into 4 weeks of absolute madness. I barely survived.

But before the madness started, my parents came to visit.

That was pretty sweet.

I also got to take a little trip home to go to THIS girl's reception!

Let me tell you it was absolutely gorgeous and I would gladly have my wedding look exactly like it.

I spent most of my summer hanging out with friends

and working away at my internship.

I am becoming much more comfortable with being a counselor

and just loving my clients.

I still have a lot of skills to learn, but the process has been great.

For my birthday, I went to a little zoo here in Spokane

called Cat Tales.

It was really fun and I got to FEED a TIGER!

Pretty amazing.

Pictures and video of this exist, I just don't have any of it on my computer. :(

But I also got to see THIS dream of a best friend.

Thanks for bringing me a bed.

And a huge thanks to your parents for letting me borrow it!

I was also lucky enough to take a trip to Rexburg

to see these boys (Brady, Jack and Griffin).

As well as many other awesome Rexburg peeps.

Brady was graduating and presenting his BFA show.

Which was A-MAZING!

Then I went down to Utah to see some amazing old roommates like

MARIE (and baby Link who was a blast!)

and MICHELLE (as well as her family who I love!)

as well as this dreamy family (the Telfords) (plus Darrin who is just as awesome)

Then my last stop was Logan to see none other that the AVILAS!

It had been years but it felt like no time had passed at all.

So great.

They will always be my family.

This was one of the hardest family photos to take.

Here is one of the bloopers to give you a taste of what went on.

And the final trip I made for the summer was over to Seattle with my sister Mel and her boyfriend Glenn.

The purpose of the trip was to go to the zoo and we had a blast.

These little guys were one of my favorites.

I just LOVE seattle with all my heart.

It was a pretty awesome summer full of fun and work and learning and growth.

We even had a ward campout/canoe trip to end the summer.

Worst arm pain of my life but a whole lot of fun!

Travels.

March was a busy month. School of course keeps me constantly working, but to add to the madness of my life, I decided to go visit some friends. My first visit was a quick trip to the Seattle area to visit the TELFORDS! This is one of the best families in existence and they have become a second family to me. I love them dearly and had not seen any of them except Leann for several years (Leann is in my parents ward so that makes it easy to run into each other).

This particular weekend JANAE was in town! She came up from Utah to help Jordan because he is moving to Utah. This was a rare opportunity to spend time with Janae and see JORDAN before he moved far away. I of course had to take advantage. Especially since Jordan has become such a wonderful support in my life. As if this wasn't enough wonderful people, I also got to hang out with their parents and GRANDMA! I have no grandparents of my own, but Grandma Joyce has adopted me and is the sweetest woman alive. She is always looking out for me and loves to hear about what is going on in my life. In true grandma fashion, she also always wants to find me a boy. ha ha.

Grandma, Janae, Jordan, and myself

This visit made me realize how much I missed the Seattle area, and let me tell you it is ALOT. It also made me realize how much I miss these wonderful people. I have great friends in my life right now, but not any of the friends I've had forever. The friends that are my family. I greatly miss that.

The other trip I took was down to Pullman to visit COURTNEY! Dreamiest! Even though she only lives an hour and a half away, we have not seen each other since last July. Both our lives have just been so crazy. But I finally squeezed in a quick visit and am soooo happy that I did! It was so great to be together again. We had a great time catching up. I also got to meet her wonderful friends and of course play with the dogs. I most certainly need to make time for another visit.

Please excuse how bad I look in these pictures. I had just woken up and was unshowered. Not the best idea. But I'm glad that we captured the visit.

There are so many other friends that I really want to visit! Recently, I have been asked to come to three different places around the country. lol. If only I had the time and money. Friends please know that I miss you all and wish I could be with you! <3

Small town Idaho fishing trip!

I went on my first fishing trip! Hannah (who is in my program at Gonzaga) grew up a few hours away from Spokane in a very small town in Idaho. She took Meghan (another awesome girl from my program) and me on a little fishing adventure. It was so fun to meet her family and see the town that she grew up in. It was so beautiful out there and her parents were wonderful!

It was a great day to go out to the river and her dad took good care of us. He built us a fire and showed us the ropes. Meghan and I had fun learning to cast. We had a problem of getting caught in the rocks, so none us of caught anything. But it was still so much fun! We also explored around the river until it started raining on us. It was a fabulous trip and exactly what I needed at that moment in my life. It was awesome to get away and have this wonderful distraction. I can't wait to go again!

Here are some pictures of the fun:

Hannah's dad preparing for the trip.

Getting ready to head out.

The beautiful river and slightly treacherous road to get to it.

Learning to cast.

My first cast!

Aren't we cute?

(This trip actually happened in February, but you know me, I'm not so great at writing on my blog. lol.)

Crafting!

Mel and I love to make our own ornaments at Christmas time. This year we tried something different and made ornaments out of puzzle pieces. Any one who know me knows that I have an extreme love of puzzles so I am down with doing anything that involves them. We did not really know what we were doing but I think the ornaments we made turned out amazing! See for yourself.

Trip to Denver.

The day after Christmas, I flew to Denver to spend a little over a week with Griffin. We had such a great time and it was so wonderful to spend time with his family and get to know them better. We had some good weather when I first got there and then lots and lots of snow. Before the snow came, Griffin took me to the Red Rocks amphitheater. It was really awesome and here are some pics.

I also got some great gifts from Griffin and his family. My favorite is the locket that Griffin gave me, but I also got some great clothes and a scarf.

Here is a picture of Griffin and I in our Christmas pajamas. I got him Star Wars pajama pants that he absolutely loves and he got me these nice green ones.

Griffin's family made funny Christmas sweaters and then wore them to the movies on Christmas and he was nice enough to make me one too. lol.

For New Years we went to downtown Denver and saw the fireworks and froze to death. It was so so so cold that night, but very fun.

I had such a great time and was so sad when it was time to leave. Griffin is now in Rexburg and has started his winter semester this week. He got the cutest haircut right before I left. He calls it a Peter Pan haircut. It does make him look very boyish, but also just so freakin cute. I love him.

Vacation!

I have had a much needed vacation from school. We got a whole month off! This was so needed after the crazy first semester at Gonzaga. I have been traveling and having so much fun on this break. The first thing I did was go down to Rexburg. I left the day after school ended. I just went down for the weekend to support my amazing friend Elise Vikari. She was graduating from BYU-Idaho and having a senior recital. Elise is an amazing opera singer. I love her so much and she is so talented. It was great to be with her and hear her sing. It was also wonderful to see her family and some of my other friends that are still there.

After I got back from Rexburg, I went over to Seattle to spend some time with my parents and brothers. It was so great to be home for a bit and spend time with my family. I saw some old friends and some families that have been in my home ward for years.

Then I came back to Spokane to spend Christmas with my sister Mel. This is the first Christmas we spent together in nearly 10 years. It was great to be with her and Glenn's family. They are all so wonderful. And Mel gave me her old Kindle! It is amazing and I have been reading like crazy. I love it! I got tons of other amazing things for Christmas as well. Mel is so good to me. She even gave me some feety pajamas! lol. She has all the pictures from Christmas, so I'll have to get them from her and then add them to this post.

Pumpkin carving.

I love carving pumpkins. This year I was able to do it with Mel and Glenn. I love living so close to them and spending so much time together. Here are some pictures of what we created.

Here is Mel and Glenn working away.

This is Mel and I next to our creations with Glenn's in the back.

My pumpkin is some cool little dolls. Mel's is an owl sitting on the moon. Glenn's is a spider.

Here is a close up of mine. I usually create my own picture to carve on my pumpkin, but this year I got lazy and I thought these little dolls were cool.

GRIFFIN!!!

The love of my life came to visit me in October. He was able to stay for two and a half weeks, which was so amazing after being apart for so long. He was so good to put up with me being in class and spending hours and hours doing my homework. It was such a blessing to just get to be together. It is so hard to be apart from him. He also came before all the snow so we even got to do some fun things outside. :)

Spokane has some great parks. One day we went to Manito Park and played frisbee. This is such an awesome park that has tons of cool gardens in it. Here are some pictures of us there.

My sister Mel and her boyfriend Glenn came along as well. We love going to this park together.

We also went to Riverside Park. They have some cool stuff there and lots of awesome bridges over the river.

We also went out to some great pumpkin patches. It was so fun to go out and choose our pumpkin straight from the patch. They also had so many other fun things to do out there. We had pumpkin donuts and saw a pumpkin cannon!

We also had some great date nights. Griffin took me to the movies and out to dinner at a great place called Tomato Street.

Finally here is a picture of Griffin with Spokane in the background. This was his first visit to Washington and we had alot of fun. I can't wait to take him to Seattle to see where I grew up and the area that I really know. For now I will take any time I can get with him.