be enchanted.

*disclaimer: this has been a draft since the beginning of january. a lot has changed but i still feel like i should post it. new posts filled with current details will soon follow.*

this "be" statement doesn't come from the book (no i'm still not finished doing a post with every "be" in the book... i've been blog slacking big time lately. the reasons for which will be said later in this post) but the word enchanted perfectly describes my life as of late.
i don't have a huge desire to go into detail about everything i've missed so i won't. i'll regret it later but that's ok.


thanksgiving
-enjoyed a great long break half in logan, half in provo
-did not enjoy my first day apart from mr. davis
-did the following traditions at my aunt kathie and uncle alfred's beautifully decorated home: ate dinner until tummy hurt yet still had room for pie, had a "santa clause" marathon, and went back the day after thanksgiving for leftovers

first half of december 
melanie, lucy, owen, and van made studying for finals nearly impossible by gracing us with their presence for two weeks.
activities of these weeks included the following:
*seeing a number of plays with derek
*watching owen dance along to "step in time" from mary poppins
*listening to christmas music 24/7
*running the 5k santa run with mel, ash, lucy, mikelle, and diesel
*an extreme.pj.sleepover.combined.birthday.party for lucy and ash
*going to see a christmas show written by dereks brother tj "12.25 a merry musical comedy" in logan (we enjoyed a delightful dinner at dereks home before. his mother is amazing.)
*letting owen borrow my phone at least four times a day to play my talking tom cat game.
*decorating gingerbread cookies party/part of our christmas eve program early while everyone was in town
*seriously the most minimal studying i've ever done for finals
*a plethora of choir concerts
*caught the last of the traditional cedar city girls christmas get together
*enjoyed a dinner (cut short by me unfortunately) with the girlies before cal moved to texas
*went to the eclipse concert with diesel


second half of december 
from the 16th to the 29th of december ash and i were able to be in florida with scott, anna, adi, and ayzie. it was so good to see them. they weren't able to come join us for last summers festivities so after much planning and waiting we finally made it to florida to see them. ash and i flew to orlando where we met scott and spent three glorious, enchanting days at the wizarding world of harry potter. ok so we didnt really spend three days straight at wwhp. we spent a good amount of time at orlando studios and island of adventure too. the rides were fantastic, the food was fast and expensive, mannheim steamroller did a free show while we were there, and it was just great to spend time with my sis and bro. harry potter world was for sure the coolest part though, and the entire reason why we went.
highlights:
-first seeing the castle while hearing the hp theme playing in the distance as we walked towards the [magical] wizarding world of harry potter.
-luna lovegood in the bathroom.
-butterbeer (i need to find the real recipe).
-dragon challenge ride, shortest lines always and for sure one of the best rides in the whole park.
-looking in all the window shops, they had so much detail i just wish they had more shops open to walk around in.
-seeing magic happen as the wand choose the wizard at ollivander's shop.
-trying to guess which movie the song that was currently playing was from.
-eating at the three broomsticks.
-hearing harry potter music all of the time.
-honeydukes.
-feeling like i was only a few feet away from dumbledore, harry, ron and hermione. love holograms.
-purchasing my own wand (a replica of luna lovegoods) and one for dies (a replica of viktor krums because he's the most manly man in harry potter).
-getting a picture in front of the hogwarts express.
-purchasing far too many souvenirs: 2 wands, a jacket, a hat, a necklace, a key chain, a griffindor quidditch jersey...
-seeing our friends from Beauxbatons academy and Durmstrang perform.
-sending postcards to our muggle families back home.
-drooling over the sweet robes, a legit marauders map, and other attire at the stores (one robe=100 big ones $$).
-i could go on and on. basically it was a wonderfully enchanting weekend at the wizarding world of harry potter. oh yeah and at universal studios. we had a lot of fun there too. the three of us definitely got in all the rides we could handle for those three days.

the rest of our time in florida was spent at scott and anna's home with two of the cutest girls on earth. it was so fun to see them in person (instead of via skype) and to see their personalities come to life even more. i love when ayzie would start shouting/singing "elbow elbow elbow..." (a song from little einstines) while sitting on the toilet. i loved watching adi dance her little heart out to just dance for kids. anna was our personal masseuse one night and gave ash and i neck and should massages. she's a saint and the best sister a girl could ask for. we loved visiting the lighthouse and of course the beach (christmas eve on the beach was a new experience for me this year). we loved going to the navy and airforce museum. we loved going shopping in _____ (my wallet didn't though. 5 pairs of sperry's later...) and visiting our cousins via our fish cousins in ________ tinley, jake and their adorable kids. we loved going to the mckaw bird house and feeding the birds. we loved watching all the cheesy hallmark christmas movies with anna. most importantly we just loved being with them. i will love the day when disapparating becomes possible for us muggles and we can visit our family members as often as we want because it will be free, quick, and simple, no matter how far away they live. thanks for a great christmas break scott and anna.

january (until now)

• the day after i got home from florida i went up to logan to be with derek and his family. you better bet i missed my handsome man while i was gone. we had never been apart more than a day and here we spent almost our entire christmas break apart from each other. but it was good for us though. we went skiing with tj, erin, tanner, carter, and hayden at snow basin. it was a blast. i hadn't been skiing in about ten years so i was definitely accompanying the young boys on the jr. mountain for a bit. after a couple hours on the little hill i decided i was ready to go down the big boy run with dies. we rode the gondola for quite some time and went much higher than i was expecting. after all, i had only been skiing at sundance which is a lot smaller than snow basin. we got off the lift and i started freaking out because i felt like i had to ski off a cliff. lets just say i made dies go ahead of me so i could take my time going zig zag the whole way down. it was a fun day filled with cute brave boys, numb toes, and warm cookies. 

• we spent new years in logan at erin and tj's with whit and jd. em and jeff stopped by for a minute because they were in town with jeff's family. i had a pretty bad headache (i'm pretty sure i've had some illness on new years for the last ten years...) so i don't remember much about midnight other than the kiss i got from my lover and lady gaga's outfit. 
• the new semester started way too soon but i am so excited about my new major, family life. my classes seem great and i think this will be a really good change.