Home for the Holidays

It has been said a picture can paint a thousand words.

Well, Thanksgiving and Christmas has taught me that time doesn't pause while you are away from home. Pocatello is still home sweet home and I love it, but a few things have changed! Friends, relationships, family, etc. It's kind of crazy! Anyway, here are some of my favorite home town memories:

My girls, my family, and my last summer.

MY GIRLS

WINNING a trophy at Tiger Grizz. Every year we would swim in the Snake River. That's why we are barefoot- we almost missed our award!!! This was an interesting meet. Some guy was passed out next to the course that no one noticed. We SAVED HIS LIFE because yes, we noticed!

These girls were my teammates in high school. >>>
Alyssa Lewis-she runs the 800 at Weber State now. She has a big butt. That's all you need to know.
Me- Yup...Byu...no I don't run on a team anymore, BUT. We'll see about that!
Mariah Meyer-She rocks it as a granola in Missoula. JK but yes she goes to University of Montana and runs there.
Kylie Hutchison-She stayed in good old Poky and goes to ISU! She's number one on her team. Wouldn't be surprised if she becomes an Olympic athlete.

We were inseparable! And still reunite whenever we are all in town. :) we make monster cookies, play catchphrase, and have story time. I miss them lots though! They are always there for me no matter what. No one else understands me quite like these girls! Here we are in Vegas....wait. Is that really Vatican city? NO.

 <---- And here we are hiking scout mountain. I wore converse and cried. Mariah fell down the rocky hill, scraped her hip, and when she woke in the morning her scab was attached to her shorts. hahaha. We camped next to polygamists and ate poptarts.

Here are Kylie, Alyssa, and I going to one of the high school dances. The theme was "Blast from the Past" so our group went as "Grease" theme....

 <---- Here are me and Kizzle a long time ago at the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert!!! UGH Luke Bryan=so hot. We had so much fun!...

This is a picture of me and M Squared at my graduation this past spring! Check out my leg muscles! ---->

<----Me and Lys used to call our bus rides "living the life." We would have our own little party since everyone else's parents always came and would drive them home. Who knows where our parents always were? Good thing we had each other :)










MY FAMILY

 My grandmother is the wisest woman I know. And I got my blonde hair from her :) Virgin hair holla

 My cousin Savannah and my little sissies Sidney and Bailey. Every one of those girls is totes cray.

 My sisters looooove skiing, but on the other hand, I kind of suck. We hiked up Pebble Creek in the summer! It's beautiful.

 Me and my daddy have had some rough times but I love him no matter what. AND MY TRUE LOVE IS KIWI LOCO ---->

 Have I mentioned that I love the pool?

 My crazy sister Sidney and her boyfriend Layton. I hope they broke up by now, who knows though. I swear this sidewalk, front lawn, and the ditch next to our house have seen it all from young lovin to old lovin. Here is some young lovin' ----->
haha. My sister though, she just is a very enthusiastic one! Sometimes she pees her pants if she laughs too hard. Oh boy.

Only a portion of my giant family. Love them always! Applebee's hits the spot. It is also a big supporter of a close knit small town. There are pictures everywhere of our high school teams. I just love my little small town Idaho! <3












THE LAST SUMMER

Well, you could probably say that my last summer before growing up should be a story book. It was perfect. There are no words to do it justice!

Graduation was the beginning of my new life.

 Me and my good friend Josh Hansen. We used to hate each other but overcame our differences!

THESE TWO ARE MY BEST FRIENDS. I never see them anymore :( Dallin Farnsworth is on his mission, and Josh Wilson goes to Utah State. They were my teammates way back to seventh grade cross country. I <3 them forever and always.

Graduation came and went.....

I started going to my singles ward with Alyssa. I met my best friend Brady Thomas there (It seems I have a lot of best friends, but that's because they are the only ones mentioned on my blog!) Long story short, we fell in love. Not like stupid love, or fake love, or player love, or any of that (Ain't nobody got time for that). It was true summer love! The kind where you think you'll be together forever, but then reality steps in and crushes your dream. We are still bff's. He lives in Pocatello so I see him sometimes. It will probably never be the same, but he is my favorite hometown memory! And I know that someday, we will both be okay with where life takes us, whether it's apart or together.

<----Before he left on his mission, Brendon and Brady were inseparable! BFFS Baby Fish for life is what they said. WHO KNOWS...anyway, Ashlie Bohn is one of Brendon's best friends and we hung out with them all the time before he left! This is one of the times they visited me at work! I guess it was the night of hats? Like I said, who knows with them... lol. And I AM wearing pants.

 BABY OLLIE!!!! he is the cutest weiner dog. --->
I love him! My relief society president from the YSA ward is one of my favorite girls. Her name is Hailey Reed and this is her dog that she brought to one of our softball games! That dog loved me because I fed him a hot dog.

<----Some girls in my ward. We went to the temple together as a ward! That was a beautiful night. Temples are the most beautiful thing.

 DROP DEAD DIVA=best show ever. This is ---->
Grayson Kent. His real name is Jackson Hurst. Sunday was the day that the new episodes would come on, so Brady would always would have to watch it with me! It's about a model who dies and comes back in a fat lawyer's body. It's kind of a girl show...but it rocks!

<----On this day we went to the pool! WE LOVED THE POOL. Seriously. People probably thought we were so annoying, especially when we would swim around the lazy river, but who cares what other people think as long as you are happy. :) (I look trashed but you would look that way too if you stayed up until at least 2 AM every night)

 I love to see the temple, and the classic, "I'm going there someday." We went to SLC it was so much fun! This may seem like a lot of pictures, but this doesn't even come close to all of them!

 BRADY posing it up

 Watching the MOTAB practice...

 Basically it was like 95 degrees and I was sweating up a storm

 We did not mean to match! haha so it was pretty funny

"I threw a wish in the well" from the song of the summer, "call me maybe." that's not really where we got the idea haha. But we really did throw pennies into the fountain and make wishes together!

 <<<At the pool...again. haha like I said, we loved the pool!

hahaha funnest night. Our whole area of YSA wards put together a BBQ/slipnslide party. This girl was like omg...he is sooo cute. And I said, "oh that's my boyfriend!" and she said yeah right. hahaha well okay. I went down the slip n slide in my CLOTHES, and got full of mud and grass. It was fun none the less. 

<----Finding Nemo 3D!!! I am a child at heart. Only he would tolerate something like that haha.

Who knows why we look so tired? It's not cuz we stayed up until 6 AM that night talking or anything! who am I kidding we totally did! This ----->
was the day I moved to Provo. :( Bye bye summer I'll never forget you!

All in all, I wouldn't trade any of it! It stinks the way things have turned out but I wouldn't be the same without it.

You always had an eye for things that glittered
But I was far from being made of gold
I don't know how but I scraped up the money
I just never could quite tell you no
Just like when you were leaving Amarillo
Takin' that new job in Tennessee
And I quit mine so we could be together
I can't forget the way you looked at me
Just to see you smile
I'd do anything that you wanted me to
When all is said and done
I'd never count the cost
It's worth all that's lost
Just to see you smile
When you said time was all you really needed
I walked away and let you have your space
'Cause leavin' didn't hurt me near as badly
As the tears I saw rollin' down your face
And yesterday I knew just what you wanted
When you came walkin' up to me with him
So I told you that I was happy for you
And given the chance I'd lie again
Just to see you smile
I'd do anything that you wanted me to
When all is said and done
I'd never count the cost
It's worth all that's lost
Just to see you smile

-Tim McGraw