Oh hey

Sparknotes version of the past 2 1/2 months or so:

:: We got married :)
:: We honeymooned in Florida, and LOVED getting to go to Disney World together
:: My team had a tournament in Colorado that we did pretty well in, especially with 17 freshmen and only 5 returners this year
:: We celebrated Thanksgiving with my grandparents and cousins and loved every second of a low-key break from school
:: We had a surprise flat/shredded tire and had to replace all four tires on my car (what a fun surprise)
:: We've figured out work and school for the next couple months after not being sure what we would do
:: Chase was accepted into dental school at UT San Antonio starting July 2014!!!

I am so, so proud of him and am so glad all of his hard work has paid off. I'm so excited for the adventure this means we get to start in less than a year!

:: We watched two of our very best friends get engaged... to eachother!
:: Chase graduates from BYU this week!!
:: I'm two finals away from being done with this semester and am looking forward to getting to see my family and go spend time with Chase's family too

Things are really, really great and I fall further in love with Chase every day and am loving getting to spend every day with my best friend. We're figuring things out as we go, and laughing a whole lot along the way. Isn't that the best way to do it?

Just a thought.

"When we frustrate God’s plan for us, we deprive this world and God’s kingdom of our unique contributions, and a serious schism settles in our soul.  God never gave us any task beyond our ability to accomplish it.  We just have to be willing to do it our own way.  We will always have enough resources for being who we are and what we can become.”

-Pat Holland, LDS Women’s Treasury: Insights and Inspiration for Today’s Woman, p. 104

My cousin shared this quote on her blog and I'm so, so grateful for it.

Sometimes (especially recently), it's so easy to get caught up in everything I'm not doing and everything that I see others doing and wish I could too. I want to have the apartment perfectly clean whenever Chase comes home, and a warm dinner coming out of the oven, and all my homework done, and to not be sweaty from lacrosse practice, and to be smiling and happy and so many things - I learned very quickly that all of this isn't possible despite how much I want it. This realization was really hard for me, but I realized that those nights I do have it all together are really great, but that no one expects that every night. It's not realistic and usually requires me sacrificing doing the things I really love to do. If I can focus on my talents and what I love doing I will be so much better at those things and so much happier.

July

So... It's been a while.

Life has been so, so great I haven't been able to think about blogging about it all. So sorry!

But something exciting happened and there is no way for me to put into words how incredibly happy I am about all of it. He couldn't have surprised me more or done it more perfectly. I love Chase more than anything and am so so excited to share my life with him.

Quickly after we got engaged I was lucky enough to coach the BYU lacrosse camp. I had such a blast getting to work with the girls that came out. Lacrosse is easily one of my favorite things to do, and I got to hang out with great teammates and a bunch of girls that love lacrosse too!

The 4th of July was during this week so we celebrated that night by watching my cousin play in a pick up game called Lax of July then got to watch Stadium of Fire fireworks from the lacrosse field. It was so much fun to play with cousins and to just hang out after playing lacrosse and being outside all week.

Pretty soon after that we left for my family's annual trip to Lake Powell. I've said this before but Powell for me is heaven on earth. I couldn't love it more. I had so much fun showing Chase something that I've loved for so long and trying new things with him like cliff jumping and double skiing. It couldn't have been a better week in my opinion.

Driving the kids on the tube and Beckham fell asleep on my arm haha

The one time I jumped off the cliff

That's Chase in the middle doing a backflip

Cutest cousin award goes to...

Skiing together

Rainbow bridge!

Love him to death

Sidenote: Julia managed to get more ugly pictures of me this week than I've ever had taken in my life. I think it's hysterical, but in all honestly didn't know I could make my face look like that.

Right after we got back my whole family went to Airborne (the trampoline place). It was a lot of fun, but most exciting was that I finally learned how to do a backflip. It took being talked into quite a bit and getting over my nervousness, but I was so glad I did it!

The very next day my whole family and I went wedding dress shopping. It was so great to have all of them there. I loved getting my brothers' and dad's opinion about the different dresses I tried on and to have my mom and Julia help me in and out of them. I actually decided on the very first dress I tried on in less than two hours. Way easier than I had anticipated and I LOVE it. Here's a picture from the dress shop (with me in my dress)

The next week it was Chase's birthday. I had struggled for a while trying to figure out what to get him when I finally decided to take him skydiving. He had never been, but had always wanted to go really bad and I loved seeing the look on his face when I finally told him the surprise I had been keeping. We had so much fun and it was great to celebrate with him doing something I knew he had wanted to do.

Add to the list of the reasons why Chase is the best ever: on his actual birthday he let me go to a concert with Julia instead of staying and celebrating with him. Julia is now one of his biggest fans ever, because it wasn't just any concert he let me go to. Julia and I had tickets to go see One Direction. Not normally the music I listen to, but Julia might actually be the biggest fan they have that I've ever met. I seriously had such a blast. Julia cried and that was so fun(ny). There was more teenage girls screaming in a room than I ever thought I would experience, but they're actually really entertaining and it was so awesome to see Julia so, so happy. (I have no idea where my pictures from this went. Maybe they're actually on Julia's phone and not mine, but they were good haha)

Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave for Mexico with Chase's family. Before we got all the way to Mexico we stopped in Arizona to meet and spend time with some of his extended family that wasn't going to Mexico with us. I also met most of his siblings for the first time (after a very long 11 hour drive - and I'm pretty sure I was half asleep, oops). I don't think that I have ever met that many people in such a short period of time, but everyone was so welcoming and nice and made me feel so comfortable.

Mexico was a dream vacation. We played volleyball, skim boarded, body surfed, played on the beach, buried Chase's siblings in the sand, rode four wheelers through sand dunes, and played all sorts of board games (I even got roped into singing a song for karaoke). I seriously couldn't have asked for a better vacation to get to know his family. I'm so excited to be a part of it in less than 2 months!!

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone, but oh my gosh it's flown. I feel so blessed and seriously feel like I've been living in a dream. In fact, here's something I wrote in my journal the other day that I think sums up how I'm feeling pretty well:

Essentially this has by far been the craziest and probably the best month of my life thus far. I've tried a lot of new things, met a lot of new people, gone to a couple new places, spent time with the people I love most, been to some of my favorite places, done some of my favorite things, and fallen further in love every day. What more could I ask for?

Summer!

Spring classes ended this week.

Finals should be done today.

Family trips start this week (some of my favorites arrive in Utah tonight).

The weather is absolutely beautiful - perfect for reading new books by the pool.

Shorts and flip flops have become regular choices.

Watermelon and fresh corn stands are starting to pop up on the corners of busy intersections.

Summer lacrosse league started this week.

The days keep getting longer.

Plans for amazing trips are falling into place.

...

And the only thing left between me and enjoying all of this is one last paper...

Sending Birthday Wishes...

to one of the best people I have ever known.
to the woman who taught me the value of an education.

to the one who taught me to love reading.
to the most well-traveled person I have ever met.
to the best traveling buddy I've ever had.
to the lady who wasn't embarrassed to slide down the red rocks with me when I was afraid to go by myself.

to the one who taught me I'm only allowed to pick one wildflower for every six I see - to appreciate the beauty of nature around me and how important it is to make sure it can stay that way.

to the one who would have tea parties with me at the kid's table during Thanksgiving dinner.
to the woman who helped begin my love of the beach.
to the best person I've ever shared a birthday party with.
to the lady who taught us to just jump in the water and worry about being cold later - because she knew we'd have fun anyway.

to the one who always said, "You be the good one."
to the best bedtime story teller ever.
to the woman I still look up to almost daily.

I love you grandma and miss you every day. Thanks for watching over all of us. Wish you could be here to celebrate with me this year again!  

Things putting a smile on my face...

-- Our THIRD place finish at Nationals - the highest BYU Women's Lacrosse has ever finished the season in program history

-- Celebratory tripod-ing

-- Long phone calls with my family
-- Funny pictures from my sister
-- Having just one class a day
-- The idea of reading for fun
-- Thinking about how lucky I was to get three whole years to play lacrosse and spend so much time with some of my best friends

-- Getting to spend a whole week with this guy

-- The pool opening
-- Not waking up before the sun anymore - it's so much nicer to make that drive in the daylight
-- The fact that every one of my girls ran the mile in less than 12:30 this week (we've been working for that one for a long time)
-- Knowing I get to see this pretty girl tonight and tomorrow and catch up on her life

-- Knowing I have this girl next door

-- Getting to talk to Everleigh all the way from Africa
-- Celebrating a special birthday (even if it's from far away)

-- Thinking about how much fun lacrosse will be next season with these girls:

-- Spending time being an auntie and getting kisses from this boy

-- And of course this:

Finals and Nationals

Finals are done. Thank goodness.

As interesting as my classes were, I was running out of steam fast for this semester (maybe being gone every weekend for lacrosse and constantly playing catch-up had something to do with it). I'm just excited to be done and felt good about how my finals went.

I'm excited that this means a few days to just play before spring term starts.

I'm excited that this means good weather is coming fast.

Mostly though I'm excited because for the next three weeks I don't feel guilty about my priority being my team.

We found out this week that we have been invited to compete in the national tournament and that we have been given the #2 seed!! This is the highest we've ever been ranked and I couldn't be more proud of the work that we've put in and how our season has gone this far.

This season isn't over and we have some more to prove, and I can't wait to see how we do it.

...

PS - Coverage from this season and our last trip to the national tournament can be found: here, here, here, and here.

National Sibling Day

In honor of National Sibling Day (which is apparently today?) I figured I would make a list of my favorite things about the coolest people in the world. I love them to pieces.

Justin:

-- He is one of the most protective people I know, even though he probably wouldn't admit it if you asked
-- He loves to tease me but rarely takes it too far
-- He sometimes still lets me pretend I can beat him up
-- He laughs at my dumb jokes
-- He puts up with my teasing
-- He is an extremely hard worker, when he puts his mind to something I know better than to get in his way
-- He makes me breakfast when I come home :)
-- Last but not least, he sees what's important to the people around him and helps them achieve those things

Julia:

-- I should probably start by saying she's my best friend in the whole world
-- She sends me funny snap chats
-- She is the best road trip copilot and traveling buddy ever
-- She puts me in the funniest moods I think I've ever been in
-- She is patient with my messiness and even helps me clean it up
-- She is already a better athlete than I'll ever be
-- She makes the best brownies and cookies ever
-- She is one of the most diligent and organized people I've ever met - pretty good combination
-- She pushes me to be better in so, so many ways

Joshua:

-- He gives the best hugs in the whole world
-- He is always so excited to see me, it makes it 10x better to come home
-- He is the first person to include someone else and ask them to play a game with him
-- He is the best Monopoly player I've ever met (I don't think he's ever lost to anyone in the family)
-- He's one of the best story tellers ever - just ask him about the scar from a shark bite on his leg ;)
-- He loves to cheer the rest of us on at our sporting events and still likes to play them himself
-- He is extremely independent and can fend for himself super well
-- He loves to read books and remembers crazy details about all of them
-- He writes the best notes ever and asked me to be his pen pal while I'm at school

I'm the luckiest sister in the whole world. These three are my favorite ever and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Sorry for the picture overload... I struggled to pick just a few haha.