Capital Reef

I have never really thought of myself as outdoorsy, so when the opportunity presented itself, (Nicole inviting us to go) to go hiking in Capital Reef I for some reason got so excited. I went and LOVED it!! On Saturday morning, Nicole, Andie and myself drove down to S. Utah and enjoyed GREAT weather and scenery. I did not think I would love it as much as I did.

We hiked to Cassidy Arch. The arch itself is in a HUGE hole it seems, it does not really stick up like Rainbow Arch. I was not aware apparently because it had to be pointed out to me, but I got some pictures of it, and it is now the wallpaper on my phone. It was SUCH a gorgeous day and what made it SO much better was, we hitch-hiked and got a ride with some Korean tourists to take us back to the car. They asked Nicole where the visitor's center was, she told them then she asked them if we could get a ride. They said they were full and then 10 minutes later they came back and told us to get in. They had dropped their kids off at some bathroom to wait and came and got us and took us to the car. Oh man, the woman was laughing so hard. Andie and I had to air laugh because we were laughing hard too. Here are some pictures:

Not exactly the most flattering picture...

Andie

Nicole

Lyle the most active gpa I have ever seen

The waterfall Andie & I will jump in someday...

Pretty...Like Lake Powell

All in all it was a GREAT day!! Thank you Nicole!!


As you can tell I did not watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference, however, my mom did and guess who she saw...

Sister Shawni Porter (top row, second one from the right)

YAY for missionaries. I also got a letter from her and LOVED it!!!

President's Day Weekend

If everyday was like this I would go snowboarding more often.

Little JoJo

I still got it

This past weekend was CRAZYYYY!! Jonah came to Utah for the weekend to snowboard, and yes, I did go!! What?!?! That was the first time in a REALLY long time, I think I have gone once since starting college and not I am at the end of an era. Anyway, I didn't fall once, it came back to me, and lucky for me Jonah let me strap-in on the lift so I didn't fall off of the chair (never have mastered that little skill). I really wanted to try skiing but I figured I would be able to keep up better snowboarding since I already knew how. Jonah and I went to Sundance for half of the day, then he and Jarrett went to Snowbird (I think) the other half, then on Saturday we had a match so the boys went to Brighton all day. They came back all tuckered out. It was hilarious. Then on Sunday, Jonah went to church with Jarrett and I met up with them at sacrament (Jarrett spoke). Jonah was trying to get our mom to let him stay and go home on Tuesday instead of Monday, and lucky for him, our mom is AWESOME (and a little different with the younger ones might I add;)) and let him stay. They went to Park City all day and had a BLAST. It is always fun having family come into town, and Jonah felt like a child of divorce I think. Only because Jarrett and I kept picking him up and dropping him off, and changing our schedules so Jonah could benefit the most. My parents are NOT divorced.

I LOVE LIGHTS!!

This week was the week that I was able to cash in my waiting and go to the LADY ANTEBELLUM concert!!! I was SO excited. I had never been to a concert before, so I was nervous about getting there on time (if you know me, you will understand). The concert was on Valentine's Day, and unfortunately, another year has come and gone without a special Valentine, but I did take my good friend Andie with me. We had so much fun.

Darius Rucker opened, and Thompson Square opened for him

I was in LOVE with the lights.

It took me a little bit to get into Darius Rucker's songs, but once the arena went black and then lights started flickering, I was HOOKED. I am serious, I was like a little baby looking at the lights. It was so much fun to see them live, I feel like they are my friends. I LOVE CONCERTS!!!!!!!

Also, this week (yesterday Wednesday) my best friend Shawni entered the MTC. She will be serving in the St. Petersburg, Russia mission. I love missionaries, but I HATE saying good bye. It is so sad, but so good at the same time.

Me, Sister Porter, and Great grandma!!

BYE BYE SHAWN SHAWN

 She will be back in 18 months. LOVE YOU SHAWNI!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at him!!

These past few weeks have been a little rough (mostly because I had to give a talk on DESIRE) but I did witness a HUGE tender mercy from the Lord. He knows that I miss my brother Jack (on an LDS mission in Argentina) a lot. Jack has been out for 15 months, so is on the downhill side, but still a ways to go. Anyway...I met two guys in my marketing class that know him, they SERVED with Jack. One was his zone leader, and one was the elder that was working in the office when Jack got there!!! CRAZY, I sit next to them every day in my marketing class. I LOVE BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are some recent pictures Elder Gallacci sent me TODAY!

One is his 'dad' (on the left) and 'son' (on the right)

Yay for 'tisms'!!

YAY!

This weekend was so fun! My weekend starts on Thursday at 1:15 because who doesn't have class on Fridays?? THIS GIRL!!!!!!! I did go to the library on Thursday night so I could play on Friday and not feel guilty about it.

I had no idea that this was so cool, but on Friday we had a recruit in town, and I got to go with her on her campus tour. It was very informative, and cool. We rode around campus in a golf cart and were told about a lot of history of BYU. It was so cool! I felt bad for the recruit because she was so overwhelmed but I think she enjoyed it. Later, my home-teacher and I had a tennis match at what I thought was 7, (turned out to be 8) so we went to our ward party and played human foosball for a little bit, then we went back to the tennis courts for our match. We WON!!!! It was so fun, then on Saturday, we had two more matches, which we won. He was great. So we are intramural champions for the top division!


Later that night, Stephanie invited me to the hockey game of BYU vs. Weber State. The last time I went to a hockey game was at the Pepsi Center in Denver for the Colorado Avalanche. Hockey is so physical, but AWESOME!!

Steph, Me & Linds...It was SO STINKY!!

Also, my home-teacher Brandon and I won the Intramurals Mixed-Doubles tournament!! That is my third tournament win!!

I had so much fun playing with Brandon, he is so funny, and really carried the team when I started choking. It was a great weekend!!

Monday=No fun day

Oh man, last night was horrible, I had the worst cough and could not breathe. I sat in bed watching my clock all night; the last time I remember seeing was 5:30am and then was pleasantly woken at 6:30 for spinning. Yeah, I went to spinning for 15 minutes and left. It was bad, no breath, no sleep, and no desire is an equation for the worst work-out ever. I went to the store and bought this little guy...

LIFE SAVER.

I took half of the normal dose at 8:00am and woke up just in time for my 11:00am class. Then I went to practice, but I felt so much better. Tonight is going to be a good night!!! AHHH YEAH.

I have also made some significant changes in my diet, mainly excluding anything gluten. It has been a struggle, and I feel like I am getting the hang of reading EVERY label. Not only do I not eat gluten, but I am not able to eat dairy also, which is an adventure every time I go somewhere. I have found a few of my favorite foods/snacks that have become staples in my everyday.

The cereal is amazing plain, but I think only I like it that way. Also, in the baggie are frozen grapes. I love any fruit frozen almost. I ate all of my frozen strawberries yesterday, and these little guys have lasted a while, thank you COSTCO! This new grocery shopping has gotten super expensive, so I am willing to just get by with cereal! These little bad boys are my favorite. I made gluten-free cookies last week, and I thought they were good. Jarrett on the other hand did not enjoy them at all. He told me not to share them with anyone. He likes regular flour better.

Simplicity

I entered into an intramural tennis tournament for the second time. Yes a second time, no one heard about the first because I completely choked! I had a ball-boy and everything, but I ended up losing the match after I was ahead 4-0 (in intramurals you only play the best of 8 games). Oh man was I embarrassed. However, I decided to swallow my pride and try again, and this time it paid off. I won my matches only giving up six games total in all 3. Oh how I wish juniors would have been like that, my mom probably thinks so as well. It was fun, and the girl I played in the finals knows my coach from BYUH and I coached her younger sister at the tennis camp here at BYU! 

My next venture is indoor soccer and my home-teacher and I are playing mixed doubles!

This is also the BEST time of year because of these boys right here:

Am I not a good photographer or what??

BYU MEN'S VOLLEYBALL!!!!!!!! Not only are they ranked #1 in the nation, they are so fun to watch. I went with some girls from the tennis team last night and we sat on the court FRONT row in a packed Smith Fieldhouse. It was so much fun, we got so many balls into our chairs players jumping all around us literally, and we were so excited because there are some quite good-looking guys on this team. SO FUN!!! Anytime you are able to watch them, DO SO, also, watch Women's Tennis as well!!! There are some good-looking girls on that team also:)