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.

Oh man, grad school is crazy.

My first semester was so busy that writing on my blog was the last thing on my mind. I worked so hard and read so much and had a job on top of it all. It was quite the balancing act. I somehow survived and got all my work done and ended up with four A's and an A minus, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. I became friends with so many awesome people in my cohort. I was pushed so much and have grown more than I thought possible. I am kind of scared for what is still to come, but if I survived this semester than I can make it through the rest of this program. I'm really proud of myself and excited to go at it again. We start going to our internship sites this semester and I got placed at Children's Home Society of Washington. I am so excited to work with this organization and get amazing training and experience. I know that more growth will be forced on me this semester and I will learn so much. I guess all I can say is bring it on. School starts on the 12th, so wish me luck.

Also, Griffin finally came to see me after nearly 6 months of us being apart. It was an amazing visit, but it will need a post of its own. :)