I'm back to my picture-taking self now! My Grandma gave me a camera as an early Christmas present and I sure love it! I haven't had a camera for a year. The crazy thing is that I didn't even buy one when I moved to Alaska. Pretty much I'm just so grateful I can document my life through pictures now:) Here are a few I've taken the last week or so.

This is my new friend Nicole! She's AMAZING. We've been in the same ward for a few months but didn't ever hang out until this week. I'm so happy I found someone as adventurous as me! It's hard to find girls that don't waste their time doing stupid things like staying indoors all the time. She loves the outdoors, the gospel and having fun. So naturally we get along pretty well.

On our way to Utah Lake today my bike fell apart:( Looks like I'll be walking everywhere now, which is okay with me. My bike was pretty messed up. It would change gears rarely and the brakes on the back wheel were constantly braking. It's been fixed multiple times but keeps being lame. Maybe it's time for a new bike?

This was me yesterday when my bike was still working. I rode to Utah Lake and it was FROZEN! So I walked on it. It was pretty scary because the ice cracked a few times and the nearest people were ice fishers about 500 yards away. It so was SO much fun though! I didn't let the possibility of death worry me too much.

I walked from this end of the lake to the other end where the big trees are.

I love this part of Provo. This is a road just off of the Provo River Trail. I was blown away by how beautiful it was so I had to take a picture. I felt like I was back in the olden days for a few minutes.

This is my sweetheart #3! His name is Mason. I also call him Fatty. He earned this name after being underweight for the first 3 months of his life and then rapidly gaining weight after starting to eat rice cereal. He's so precious! His lil smile just melts my heart.

This is monster#2! His name is Aaden but I call him Ham. He's a destructive little boy! I love playing with him outside. This picture was taken at the duck pond. I tried to get him to change into pants, but he kicked and screamed to screamed, so I let him stay in his boxers like a good Aunty. He then chose to wear rain-boots without socks over wearing warm winter boots! Crazy kid. What he didn't know was that he was going to potty his pants(he's potty training) and literally have his bottom half turn to ice. It did and the ice was yellow tinted.

This is monster #1! Her name is Autumn but I call her Girlfriend because she's my girlfriend! She's my only family member that will go anywhere with me and will do crazy stuff with me too! Sometimes we do stuff her mom doesn't like, but that's what Aunties are supposed to do. It's just tradition.

We had a ball at The Duck Pond! We made trails of bread from the ducks to our feet so that we could catch one. Itt didn't work very well.

This was one of those things we weren't supposed to do. Luckily Heidi(her mom) went off with Aaden to the playground. So we hurry and collected broken ice chunks from the pond and threw them at the ice to watch it crack! We did this for the sole purpose of making more water available to the duckies of course.

Ward temple trip to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple! I love these people.

Grandma and I at Hanna's dance concert! She really didn't want to take a picture.

The kiddies at the concert!

college memories-sophomore year

Ice-cream after finding out my mom had Luekemia

Apartment 14

roomies after a dance

crazies

My kids! These were some of the Freshman I got to help get used to BYUI

Bridesmaids at Casey's wedding

Apartment 10

Stargazing in the Greenbrier Parking Lot

Skiing at Jackson Hole

Sledding on campus a year after I broke my back doing the same thing:) haha

Ice Caves near Rexburg

lately

I've had a lot of things on my mind lately. Here are a few:

1.I sprained my ankle and strained my knee nearly two weeks ago hiking to these hot springs in Diamond Fork. Let's just say I will NEVER go hiking on an icy trail again and that doing it in the dark without a flashlight isn't the smartest idea:)

The problem is that now I can't continue training for my marathon in June. I was training for a half marathon in January, but there's no way that's going to happen now. It's super frustrating and it makes me upset thinking about maybe having only 5 months to train! grrr. So to get some of this frustration out and to try and stay in shape I went on a bike ride on Monday. I thought I'd healed up enough for something as simple as biking, but I was WRONG! The next day my knee hurt worse than when I first injured it. Looks like I'm going to have to turn to swimming until I'm all healed up again and patiently wait.

2. I sure love my family:) They mean the world to me.

I moved out recently after living with them for the summer. It's crazy how much I want to be with them now that I don't live there! My favorite thing is opening the front door and hearing my name screamed in excitement from my little monsters. Even after one day of not seeing them I start missing them really bad. This probably isn't the healthiest and I need to learn(once again) how to live without them being in my life every day.

3. I'm extremely happy with my major-Outdoor Recreation. While I don't regret the countless hours I spent studying to get into the nursing program at BYU-I, I'm super grateful that I don't have to stay cooped up in the library studying my brains out everyday!

Studying for the classes I'm taking is actually fun now because I'm going into something that I have a passion for. I enjoy being in nature because that's where I'm most me. I love it that I can

be in a program that seems like no work at all AND completely enjoy myself at the same time.