Fun with family

I went home to Wenatchee for Christmas. One of the first things I did was go skiing with my family. I forgot to bring my contacts to Wenatchee, so I had to ski with my glasses on under my googles. The first two days I went, I just used my regular goggles, and I ended up with a large dent in the middle of my face. Also, the top two pictures below were my attempt at getting a self-portrait of the group I was skiing with (Tory, Nat, and Brian). I was too zoomed in, then I cut off most of my face... you know how it goes.

Also, it should be noted that my brother, sister, and cousin are AWESOME. Look at them posing for the picture I was taking. I can still hear Brian pretending to fall.

I also read several books over break. About ten I think. I love breaks.

Institute Closing Social

We held our closing social during finals week. We wanted something fun, but low-key, so we made gram cracker houses and covered them in Candy. My house had a lot of candy on it, and ironically a lot of it was chocolate. (For those of you who don't know/remember, I don't like chocolate, so it's kind of weird that I was decorating with it.)

There was also a movie playing (A Christmas Story). Carl was sitting on a couch all by himself, so Hollis decided we should go and snuggle with Carl, so we did.

(L to R: Me, Carl, Carrie, Hollis)

I look pretty smug about it. My face cracks me up.

When we were cleaning up, we arranged all the houses on a table in front of this pseudo-stained glass mural that the senior couple missionaries made for the institute. If you look carefully, you can see that the house in the middle is two stories tall. It was the most epic gram cracker mansion that I have ever seen! This picture really doesn't do it justice, but I didn't bring my camera, so I'm stuck with the pictures I stole off facebook.

Also, during clean up, Hollis and I were putting candies back in their bags so we could use them again sometime. Hollis decided to help me with the M&M's, but in as awkward a way as possible. We were laughing about it all by ourselves, when Jon, the institute president, yells from across the gym, "STOP!" and runs over with his camera. Naturally, everyone else looked over and witnessed our cozy kitchen display. It was really funny.

After we cleaned up the inside, we all went outside and Jon, Hollis, Carrie, and I smashed our houses into the ground! It was strangely satisfying. And then there were two houses left, and Hollis and I decided to attempt a high-five with the houses. As you can see, we were successful.

The four of us house-smashers are proud of our work.

(L to R: Carrie, Hollis, Jon, Me)

Yeah, the sidewalk was plastered in frosting and crumbs and candies. But we swept it up and threw a lot of it in the dumpster. The clean-up wasn't all that annoying, and it was totally worth it. :) I love institute.

Hangin' around the 'tute

I spend a lot of time in the institute building at UW. I help my friend Maren with her Chemistry, and I love it. Sometimes, just for fun, we both sit in the same chair. And Hollis caught it on camera. I was helping her prep for her final.

Decorating for Christmas

The last week of classes at UW I had a band concert. Only Maren was able to come and watch me play percussion. I had a lot of fun, and Maren stayed after to help us clean up. However, I got home to find that Carrie had a Christmas tree!! Hollis was over helping decorate it. Check out the crazy amount of ornaments we have on it!

Naturally, the ornament packing became robot arms for me. And the arms later evolved into a sword fight.

Slow Dancing on a Sunday Evening

Some girls in my ward hosted a "Hot Chocolate and Slow Dancing" party after the First Presidency devotional. A lot of people showed up. They were playing Christmas music, I think. We were all talking so loud we couldn't hear the music. And so many of us were dancing! It was awesome.

Hollis tried to dance with every girl there. I don't know if he succeeded, but I do know that he (and his mustache Raul) made most every girl smile huge smiles. I loved watching their faces when he danced with them. He really cares about people, and this makes them happy.

When we weren't busy dancing, we girls were sitting on the couch just waiting to be asked.

(L to R: Carrie, Laura, Maren, Me)

My friendly fake fiancé

Nothing like starting a friendship out by going and taking engagement photos! I discovered this wonderful fellow by the name of Hollis, and he loves doing completely random things, just for fun. We are sending announcements to our friend Kathy who is serving a mission for our church in Denmark. She is a really good friend to both of us, and we think it would be hilarious to send her an announcement, just to see if she believes us.

For your enjoyment, I've included some of our best shots. We're pretty amazing.

One funny thing is that my mom and grandma still get asked at church if I'm getting married. Or they get congratulated. Oh well. It was completely fun and 112% worth it because now I have an awesome new friend!

No pigs allowed

My roommate Hannah and I were walking to the blood donation center. We walked past an elementary school. In front of the school there was this sign. Not allowing pigs is a reasonable request. But why such a request needs to be made is a mystery. And why pot-bellied pigs are the only pigs forbidden is also a mystery to me.

Thanksgiving with the family

I got up really early on Wednesday morning to go and try to catch an earlier flight than the one that I was booked on. I made the flight, so I arrived in Las Vegas several hours before my siblings did. When my dad met me at the airport, he said, "Do you want to shoot some guns?" And naturally, I said yes. So we drove to this gun store, paid too much money, and got to shoot the standard issue military weapons. Our targets were terrorists. We also go "free" t-shirts included in our package. So we posed with our targets - we are awesome marksmen! (well, sort of.)

I discovered that I share a talent with my dad - I can sleep just about anywhere. I was tired, so I lay down in my grandma's rocking chair. I was completely comfortable and was able to completely relax... despite the fact that it looked like I was just about to fall off the chair. It was so impressive that my cousin Sara had to take a picture of me.

I slept for about 20 minutes.

Baby Orden is walking! And still ridiculously cute. Zoom in and look at his face. He's smiling a cute little smile.

The day after Thanksgiving we took a family trip to the temple. It was the first time our entire family has been in the temple together.

L to R: Dad, Brian, me, Nat, Mom, Heather, and Simon (Heather's boyfriend)