Recap of past travels.

I went to the UK last summer.
This is one of those things where time got away from me and it was never blogged about. But that trip was most assuredly the highlight of the last year of my life. And my parents are currently in Scotland picking up my brother from his mission *insert high pitched squeals of jubilation* and all of their pictures have made me reminisce about my own trip. So I will take you through some of the most highlighted parts of my lovely holiday with my lovely friends.
Two of my roommates were going to be in England last summer for academic trips and there was a bit of overlap between when one arrived and the other left, so I decided to join them for some frivolity across the pond. Jenna and I flew over together and had a day just the two of us exploring Kensington Gardens and seeing the sights.

Then we met up with Andee and Jonathan and all of their friends from their program in Oxford. We spent that day exploring the main attractions and then saw Phantom of the Opera that night.

And then it was off to Scotland! We dropped Jenna off at the University of Glasgow for her study abroad, took a quick stop at Loch Lomond, and then headed to Edinburgh. Oh how I wish we could have stayed in this beautiful country for more than just the two days we were there. It is by far my favorite place I've ever visited in my life. So much beauty and so many hilarious, sarcastic, and genuine people. 

One train ride back to London and we arrived at Kings Cross Station. Maybe this was one of those moments of my trip that I was most looking forward to: finding the entrance to platform nine and three quarters. It's fine, I found the Hogwarts Express.

Then we went to freaking Wimbledon! It honest to goodness just so happened that we were in London during the Wimbledon Championships, so obviously we had to take the opportunity to try to go. We had to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to take a train out to Wimbledon and then sit in the standby line (the English call it a queue) to get a ticket. The first 6000 people in line were allowed in first thing int he morning, and we were afraid we wouldn't make it - that's how many people were in this ridiculous queue! But we made it and we got into Wimbledon, never again will I have such an incredible opportunity. And I thought Andee was going to die of excitement/anticipation/happiness.

And we also went to The Harry Potter Studio Tour. Let me run that by you one more time: THE HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR!!!!! This is where the filmed most parts of the Harry Potter movies and it is where all of the sets and costumes and other props are currently housed. I almost died of happiness during this tour. Jonathan and I were like little kids at this place and Andee graciously allowed us to geek out as much as possible. I think I will do a blog post about this tour one day, so just one pic will suffice.

And then here are some more pics from other random moments of the trip. Like Camden Lock, one of the coolest markets I've ever been too and where I bought the most delicious orange juice in the entire world. That one time when we went to Abbey Road and were the Beatles for a day. And the Tower of London. And watching MacBeth in The Globe Theatre. And St. Paul's Cathedral. And Tower Bridge.

This trip was the real deal. We had a complete blast and we pushed ourselves to the point of exhaustion to see everything we wanted to in the 9 days I was there. You may notice that our group of people we were with was constantly changing, and that was so fun. I was able to meet some fun new people and meet up with some good old friends. Overall, best trip ever. I know it's been nearly 9 months since I was there, but I just had to share the love and the pictures. I am so blessed that I was able to go. And don't you worry, I will be going again sometime in my life.

Current events

Typically current events are up to date news and important things happening around the world.
Not today.
This is all about my life.

These are my current events:

Getting crunk at Halie's birthday fiesta

*Note: no alcohol was involved in the making of this picture

Freaking out over an episode of  Doctor Who whilst wearing my Doctor Who t-shirt - when I should have been studying for finals, of course

Watching hands down THEE best volleyball game of my entire life. I'm serious, I cried.

Delivering a celebratory bust to a dear friend.

Solo ice skating with the BYU Pre-med Club

Right before I packed up my room... I lived there for 2 solid years, it will be missed.

Discovering treasures whilst packing

Graduation with these crazies aka my brosephs

THE WORLD IS OUR CAMPUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Last volleyball game as students. I miss them already.

Now this is growing up

So it's been a full month since my last blog post... why has it been a full month, might you ask? Because I haven't even had time to sleep let alone blog in the last month!!

My life has been crazy. Finishing final projects and papers and interviews for my last full semester of my undergrad, then studying for and taking finals, then graduating  then packing up our entire apartment and moving into an adorable little house, then diving straight into my internship, and then starting spring semester classes. Yeah, it's been busy. And it doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon.

So who has two thumbs and walked at her college graduation last week? This girl.
I'm thrilled!

Your classic High School Musical jumping picture, but this is way better because it's College Musical.

I love them. We will never be hip.

Since I obviously struggle taking "normal" pictures, and I have surrounded myself with people who are just as ridiculous as myself, my mom made me promise that I would take a "good picture" for her... whatever that means. I held it for about 5 seconds. Yes, I'm a child.

All hallows eve.

Seriously, Halloween is my favorite thing ever. People are SO funny and clever. I love dressing up in costumes and playing an entirely new character. You can be anyone or anything you want, and it gives you a fun way of expressing yourself. Or not. Here is a list of some of the best costumes I saw yesterday around campus:
Judith Butler - know who she is? I didn't either. She's a feminist philosopher. And my co-worker dressed like her and he looked awesome.
A surprising number of Ash Ketchums
Squirtle
Snowman - this costume was so legit. The costume was a solid 7-8 feet tall and made of wool or something on chicken wire. The kid was just waddling around campus and it was so cool.
PSY - a couple of him. Some Asian men thought they were hilarious.
Miranda Sings - some very solid portrayals
All 5 original Power Rangers and they were fighting a guy in a banana suit. SO GOOD.
All sorts of Batmans. I particularly liked the one on his bicycle with his cape flowing.

I personally had three costumes this year. I was planning on having 4, but the penguin didn't actually work out... definitely next year. Last Friday, I was Scary Spice - with none of the other Spice Girls. I didn't get many pictures of this one. But here's the one we got (with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and a nerd)

During the day yesterday, I was my roommate Jenna. Terrifying resemblance? I thought so too.

Then last night I was a grandma by the name of Fanny Lever. I was a crotchety old woman; I don't know how to do a jolly grandma. And yes, my hair did smell like baby powder all night.

All in all, this was an incredibly successful Halloween. I love dance parties and friends and candy and costumes and fun. How perfect.

No words.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So please just appreciate what the following say about my roommates.

Yeah, I kind of love them and stuff. No big deal. Oh and they're hilarious. And some of the best people I have ever met. Don't be jealous, though I wouldn't blame you.

Roommates

Sooo I have these people in my life called roommates. Mine are kind of the greatest in the entire world. I have always been blessed with AMAZING roomies. Always.
This is the original six of us:

The freshman roommates. Kaylee, Alyse, Andee, Mandy, and Kendra. We were together through so much and were best friends. I could take an entire blog post, scratch that, any number of blog posts to recount our adventures together that year. It's not often you get 6 girls randomly thrown together that just bond and get along as well as we did. We were CRAZY back then (not that we aren't still crazy). We were together through half of sophomore year too. Then Kaylee went to London, and Michelle moved in. That was lovely. Here we are:

Then this past year, Kaylee returned to us. Mandy decided marriage was probably a good idea. And Alyse went off for some new, wonderful experiences... but let's get real, she's still practically a roommate! But that semester I was blessed with the experience of having new roommates, something that I hadn't really gone through in my two years of college experience. There were four of the originals and I was again blessed with great new roommates. Krystal and Amber thought we were insane at first. Let's be serious, they were terrified. But they learned to love us. I adore those girls with all my heart. Here we are:

The next semester, we had a plethora of sister missionaries. Kendra and Krystal both left us to go serve the Lord in Phoenix and Tokyo. I love them. And so we got two new roommates. Kate and Kellie. I love them both. Let me tell you, Kate is the most outrageous, wonderful, silly girl I know and I cherish that semester I got to spend sharing a room with her! She's engaged now, which is thrilling. Sadly, I don't think we ever got a picture of all of us together. But here's Kate, she's great. Though this picture is not so much:

And now it comes to the current arrangement of roommates. There's me, Kaylee, and Andee. We've been roommates for three, going on four years and it's been complete madness nonstop! And we've added three of the most adorable females I've ever encountered. Jenna, Halie, and Cebre. This is 5 of the 6 (Cebre was with her fiance, a noble excuse if I do say so myself.):

I love these girls more than you can know. We've only all lived together for a couple months, but we've bonded deep and it's been fantastic. Halie is currently rocking the piano in Italy, and I miss her immensely, but she'll be back in a couple weeks. And this is us all on our last day all together as roommates. Now Cebre is all married and the like and Terra is moving in any moment! I'm thrilled!

So there you have it, folks. All of the roommates I've ever been blessed with, and it seriously has been a blessing. I've never had a roommate I didn't absolutely adore. I have learned so much from them and they've helped me to grow. And I am still best friends with all of them. They accept my crazy and they bring some crazy of their own. This is why I love them. Every single one of them.