Miss Elizabeth

Elizabeth Soffey is one of my favorite people ever! She is one of the sweetest people I know and has the biggest heart. I really don't know what I would do without her. She is one of my best friends and I couldn't ask for anyone better! She always knows exactly what to say and has the best advice ever.

I love that I can go to her with anything and she will always be there for me. She knows me probably better than I know myself. I love that I can literally tell her anything!

It's crazy to think that I have literally known this girl for the last 16 years and it took us up until freshman year to be this close. It's funny to think about all that has happened between now and then! I love more than anything that we have stayed as close as we are through the years.

The only downside to Miss Elizabeth is that she is 735 miles away from me! I miss her like crazy and cannot wait for school to be over so I can see you all the time at the pool, get our nails done, go shopping, have late night slurpee runs, watch disney movies, make pancakes, work out and get lost in our many adventures!

Love you LB!!

<3

Bon Fire!

Bon fire...round 2!! We went to the sand dunes on Friday with some of our friends and had a bon fire. It was SO much fun! We bundled up, grabbed some apples and fire wood and were on our way to rough it out in 26 degree weather, which didn't end up being very cold at all! Most of us took our jackets off when we got there because the fire kept us really warm. Josh and Jake showed us how to make banana boats but instead of bananas and chocolate chips, we used apples, butter, cinnamon and sugar...DELICIOUS! We chilled out around the fire for a while, and then came back to my apartment to watch a movie and eat brownies. Mikele, Annie and I had a sleep over in the living room (Annie and I pulled our mattresses off our beds and Mikele slept on the couch)...and by sleep over, I mean we didn't get any sleep until about 8 am. It was a very fun and eventful night to say the least!!!!

I love my friends! I am excited to see what happens this next week!

Da Beachhhh!

This weekend we decided to go CALIFORNIA! The five of us (Annie, Mikele, Jake, Josh and I) loaded up the car, said goodbye to Rexburg and headed off to Cali with a warm beach in mind...or as warm as you can get in the middle of February! It was a 14 hour drive, which sounds really long and boring, but didn't end up being all that bad. One of our goals while we were driving was to get a picture by the state sign every time we went through a different state. We ended up only getting one in Utah, which is kind of a bummer, but hey at least we got one!!

We stopped in Vegas for food and to run around a bit. Vegas is amazing!!  The streets were covered with flashing lights, huge buildings, and thousands of people.

We finally made it to Jake and Josh's house in Brea, California at about 1:20 am. The Fletcher family was so nice and got Mikele a cake and balloons for her birthday. We sang to her and had some cake and then hung out until about 5 am when we finally decided to fall asleep. We woke up and met Josh and Jake's family...who are all so sweet!! We packed up the car and headed off to Huntington Beach.

The day consisted of swimming in the beach (which was cold, but once your body numbed up bit, it wasn't bad at all), laying on the beach, shopping on the peer and main street, getting henna tattoos, ice cream at Ruby's, a bon fire with the Fletcher family on the beach, Fletcher family home videos...their dad would have shown them to us all day if we had let him, late night taco run and falling asleep on the couch while watching a movie.

Sunday was a very relaxed and laid back day...which turned out to be really fun. We went to part of church and then Josh tricked us into taking a 2 hour nap. We hung around their house until we had dinner and more of Josh and Jake's family. Then we took their dogs on a walk to the park with their dad. The park was full of orange trees, which I thought was so cool and they ended up being really good! At about 1 am, we decided to go get some food at 7-11 and ended up deciding to leave for Las Vegas an hour later. We finally arrived at Las Vegas around 5 and had some breakfast at Denny's. We were very out of it, which made everything really funny! (You can tell by the pictures that we were a little out of it...)

No one wanted to go home at the end of of the weekend. I had thought that the road trip back to Rexburg would be super long and boring, but it actually went by pretty quickly. There was some snow and ice on the last part of the drive, making it a little longer of a drive, but not that bad.

Thanks to the Fletcher family for letting us come stay at your house! And a huge thanks for my wonderful friends that made this such a fun trip! I LOVE CALIFORNIA!!!

Sleep...what does that mean again?

It's that time of the semester again...midterm week! I can't believe that we already are half way done with the semester. Before I know it, it will be the beginning of April, my apartment key will be turned in, suit cases packed and I'll be headed home to rainy Seattle. I love being home with my friends and family, but I'm glad I still have a month and a half left of the semester to go because I'm not ready to go home yet.

There is a saying at BYU Idaho that says out of the 3 S's (sleep, studying and socializing). You can pick 2 and have a successful semester. I didn't think this was true last semester, however this semester is a different story. Sleeping has become a foreign concept in my book. Between church responsibilities, school work, chilling with the Chileans, studying (yes, Mom...I do study), and having fun with my roommates, sleeping gets pushed to the way side. I was able to catch up on sleep last weekend and hopefully will be able to this weekend as well.

On a very exciting side note: My oldest sister, Melanie, and my brother in law, John, had their first baby almost 3 weeks ago!! I am officially an AUNT! Stratton is the cutest baby ever and I cannot wait to meet him. I am going to assume that it is safe to assume that my sister and brother in law are lacking in the sleep department as well, but are enjoying every moment of it! Congratulations Melanie and John, he is perfect!! I love you both!

Overall, life over in Rexburg is still going pretty well! No complaints here!

Mustaches, a Temple Trip and Homemade Ice Cream!

This has been one heck of a fun weekend! Apartment 102 has been pretty quiet and CLEAN! Annie and I started off our Saturday by waking up at 11 and then having a late pancake breakfast made by Joshy. Then the four of us hopped in the car and headed off to Idaho Falls for a Temple trip. It was very pretty and such a great experience as always!

After we were finished at the Temple, the four of us decided to get some food at Buffalo Wild Wings (or B-dub as Jake likes to call it), which ended up being pretty good! We got back on the road and headed back to good old Rexburg. On the way home, Josh decided to take a nap....bad idea when Annie and I are in the car. We decided to have some fun and took advantage of Josh being a very heavy sleeper...he didn't even wake up to the flash on my phone.

We really wanted Josh to go in public so everyone could see our work of art without him knowing what we had done. Unfortunately as we were pulling up to the campus parking lot to go get food, Josh realized that it might be a good idea to check his face before he went in because the last time Annie and I had laughed that hard was a few hours earlier when we had drawn on his face after breakfast. He got the majority of it off in the car but walked in with some still smudged all over his face! Annie and I were dying of laughter and could barely walk into the MC. Good times for sure!

Later that night, we decided that homemade ice cream would be fun to have and luckily Jake knew how to make it! Annie and I borrowed some of Thad's milk (thanks Thad!) and put chef Jake to work! The first batch was really good but didn't last very long with 5 people, so we decided to make more. It was really good!!

SUCH a fun weekend! So excited for next weekend :)

Here we go!

So this is my first blog! I've been reading my roommate's blog and thought it would be fun to try one of my own. I'm not sure how interesting it will be but we will see!

This weekend has been pretty fun so far. My roommates and most of the Chileans are in Utah this weekend so Annie (for the record...Annie=Mannie...she calls me Piddles, so I call her Mannie) and I have declared it a Piddles/Mannie weekend (with Josh and Jakey included). I love my roommates and the rest of our Chilean friends but I'm excited for this weekend!

Yesterday was pretty eventful:
-woke up and made pancakes before my 12:45 class
-went to class
-sent our friends on the road
-cleaned the apartment
-did some homework
-took a test
-watched a water polo game with Josh and Jake
-went ice skating
-watched the sandlot
-a storm of people walked through my door which led to a couple of batches of cookies (probably some might have been over cooked), some YouTube videos, and wii games
-everyone left minus Josh and Jake which led to Jake falling asleep during a deep conversation and ended in Mannie trying to give Jake an eyeliner mustache but it failed so we will have to try again later!
-Mannie and I pulled out our mattresses into the living room
-fell asleep watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

It ended up being a really fun night with some stories that should probably never be repeated...cant wait to see what happens today!!