And that's a wrap!

Today was the first day of school, which means summer is officially over for this BYU gal! It was a great few months at home and I got to spend lots of time with my family. The whole month of July brought visits from Mags, Nate, and Rohnan and from Rach and Linc. Here's some pics from these awesome adventures:

Family Ties...

But by far the best part of the trip was spending time with family. Three little cuties made the trip quite entertaining! Reagan was so adorable in her little knit dress, and she only got a little spit up on it!
These people make my world go 'round!

Las Vegas Celebrations!

This April was a month of celebration. Of my Nana's 75th birthday and of Reagan's baby blessing. The whole family, including Nana, was able to gather in Nevada and we were joined by Nana's friends of 62 years, Lollie and Hal Stivers. We saw Donny and Marie Osmond's show, which was absolutely hilarious! Here are the outfits from their Dancing with the Stars performances, including the Mirror Ball trophy that Donny won last year. Then here's mom and I with the famous duo:



Okay, that's not really them, but I was in the very front and got to touch both of their hands. Mom was jealous!!!

The next day, I checked two things off my bucket list at one hotel: the Venetian. I rode in a gondola with mom and dad (I told them it was a lot cheaper than flying me to Venice) and visited a wax museum like I always wanted to! Thumbs up, 2 down in one day. When I asked myself if it was possible, if I could really pull it off, our friend the Pres here said, "Yes you can!"



When in Vegas, you do as the Vegans do :) Not really...at all...it's kind of a scary place. Reminds me of the Capitol in the Hunger Games--all fake, all counterfeit. So I decided to join in and have a fake wedding...I picked a good guy don't you think? Maybe he's a little old for me...but he's pretty dashing all the same!


Dad got to tell off some of the politicians he doesn't like and Mom and I finally got to show Simon Cowel what we really think of him!



We got to pose with some famous actors and actresses. Nana and Lolly even got to hang with the Rat Pack and Judy Garland!

The chest hair was very realistic!
Pretend that's facing the other way...
Is that thing real???




Thought Laurel would enjoy this one...this is the LV mayor, very true to life posed with a Playboy bunny! Oh brother!


And this one's just for Beka...I know she'll be pretty jealous! (Don't worry, this one was taken before I married George...I'm no playa' like the maya'!)

Overall it was a marvelous day, made even more magnificant by some gelato (can't forget that, right Pepe?)

Idaho Adventures!

This President's Day weekend, my friend Giuseppe (aka Gipetto, Luigi, Jose) came along with me to Rexburg, ID to keep me company and have some awesome snow adventures. It was great to get out of Provo and see the beautiful Idaho sky once again.

We hung out with Rachey (pronounced Raa-chee) and Lucas and their little adorable Lincy-poo. We taught Giuseppe how to play Killer Bunnies and he won his very first game (beginner's luck...I wooped him and Luke in the second roung). We had Italian food every night, including an authentic recipe that is quick and easy but I don't quite know how to spell it. Most of the weekend was watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and watching two Koreans take each other out so that Apollo Ohno and J.R. Selski could take the silver and bronze in the 1500. So intense!

While it wasn't exactly an intense round of Nordic Skiing fit for the Olympics, we did have a lot of fun snowshoeing up in the mountains near Rexburg. The snow was softly coming down and it made for some beautiful sights. We had a jolly good time out there in nature.

Baby enjoyed being carried around and watching certain people push other certain people in the snow...

But he loved running amuck and sliding down snowbanks even more. Here is our sledding excursion on Saturday...

This boy does LOVE to be on the move! And so do we!!! But sometimes, it's also fun to simply sit there and play in the snow!

My semester thus far in a nutshell (or a nubby cap)

Whoa, I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing...it's been a LONG time since October. Maybe I need a blogging butler...(Lucas, hint hint...actually work on YOUR own first...i miss your cute lil guy!!!) Anyway, it's February. And I'm back in P-town. YAY!!! Tonight I officially feel like a legit college student (the slacker kind anyway) because I stayed out at some friends' apartments killing bunnies (and winning), planning to ride an Italian's Vespa, and being serenaded "Who's Line is it anyway" style. When I returned at 11:35, I realized that my Spanish hmwk was due at 11:55 este noche!!! I did non-religion hmwk on a Sunday for the first time in my 3 years here, and finished just in the nick of time (fortunately Someone up there decided to bless me anyway). So it's official, I am now worthy to retire my nerd status...tho I still don't know if that qualifies me as 'normal'. Ah well, normal's overrated. Squirrel!

Anywho, here's a few updates on my life this semester. I have a new good pal who travels all over the place with me. Her name is Lucy. I seem to have a lot of Lucy's in my life, it's prolly because everytime I give something a name, it always happens to be Lucy. Lucy Belle Blue and I have many great adventures together, and this weekend we're preparing for the best one of all, to go to Idaho and Wyoming for some awesome Valentines/President's Day/Mardi Gras/I wanna see my nephew celebrations! Will post more pics when that time comes.

And here's the HUGE announcement of this month: I have a niece!!!

Raegan Nicholle Dodds was born on Jan 24th, 2010, one week after I willed her to come on my birthday, but now she can have her own. She is absolutely ADORABLE and I can't wait to meet her in May to dress her up and spoil her even more than I do those boys (if that's possible). Now Hunter has a lil sister, and he just keeps getting cuter and cuter with that skater-boy hair. This is my current desktop background. Now you understand how lucky I am to see this every day!

Yes so January was my birthday month (along with everyone and their sister, and dad, and brother-in-laws, and neice) so we had a big party at my apartment. About 25 ppl came that night it was a jolly good time. Great to see everyone again!

That Monday (for they always so generously give a three-day weekend for my celebrations to be extended) I went with my friends Hillary and Russell to visit their cute cousins in Lehi. We went sledding with them, mostly on mud, but it was still fun. Built a snowgal with three Californians, they did a great job actually, I was impressed. Lucky for Sarah Bickford (another cool chica who I just have started to get to know), they shared the three cuties w/ us that day. It was cold but fun.

Two of my really good friends got engaged on January 24th so this past weekend I went to two girls nights and got to hear the whole romantic process, giggling and lots of "Ahhhh"s included. Really made me excited and very willing to be patient for my own love story. As Emmaleigh so profoundly pointed out, "Love is wanting to be the reason for the happiness in somebody else's voice." Ahhhh, that's a good pre-Valentine thought, I'll leave it at that.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!