one year anniversary.

today marks one year to the day that i was on a plane flying half way across the world to begin one of the most amazing adventures of my life. it all started with an add in the byu-idaho school newspaper that talked about a study abroad to europe. 

i thought there's no harm in applying. then i got an email to be interviewed... 

i thought there's no harm in being interviewed. then i got accepted... 

i thought there's no harm in going to europe...

be prepared for pictures and stories of this adventure i embarked on only a year ago. i want to mainly do this for myself so that i don't forget what it was like. it's a long post, but i just hope i can do europe justice.

rome, italy.

the pantheon

rome was the first place we went as a study group, and the first place 

i fell in love with europe.

i remember being so tired from barely sleeping in 24 hours and not caring about it. i was in rome. who needs sleep? seriously. i was ready to go. we did a little mini tour around some of the main sites. it was breathtakingly beautiful. 

we stayed in a convent right outside the piazza navona (if you've seen angels and demons, this is in the end of the movie where tom hanks goes into a church and there's a huge fire). the nuns were wonderful to us. such sweet ladies! they fed us bread and hot chocolate each morning, which got old, but i wasn't complaining. i was in italy.

we toured so many things over the next few days. the pantheon, vatican city, the colosseum, basilica after basilica, the forum, and palatine hill. my favorite spots: vatican city and the colosseum - so much history, pain, war, and love. i could've spent hours upon hours in these two places. 

some things that i loved the most though were the food, the people, and the gelato. i ate so much gelato. what i would do for some right now! italy will forever remain my favorite spot.

pisa, italy.

typical picture to take in pisa. we weren't here long, but really enjoyed this place. it was a lot smaller than i thought, but still a place one needs to stop!

florence, italy.

me at the cinque terra

i loved this place. it was so quiet but so incredibly beautiful (as you can tell). the only way you cold get to this town was by train and that's something that made this place so unique. there are 5 different towns spread out over this cliff type deal. all of them were so colorful and the people were so nice.

my two friends, kelsey and drew, and i enjoyed our lunch on some huge rocks sitting in the mediterranean sea. the day was gorgeous and it was totally worth every penny.

wittenberg, germany.

castle church

home to martin luther. what an amazing place this is. probably one of the top favorites. there is so much history found in this tiny, quiet town in germany. we got to see everything that martin luther did. there was a really cool museum that had a lot of artifacts from him. it was so surreal seeing them. made everything that much more real though. very humbling indeed. 

president boyd k. packer once said something that touched me while studying for this trip: 

"we owe an immense debt to the protestors and the reformers who preserved the scriptures at translated them. they knew something had been lost. they kept the flame alive as best they could..."

how true that is.

berlin, germany.

holocaust memorial


i wasn't a very big fan of berlin i have to admit. although, the one place that i was deeply touched was at the holocaust memorial. when i first heard we were going to this place i thought it was going to be a museum with artifacts and what not. instead, it was a huge art piece with hundreds and hundreds of these cement blocks in varying sizes and heights representing each person that died.


we had a little while to wander through and to think of what occurred those many years ago. this was another very humbling moment for me to experience that was filled with a sweet spirit. 


paris, france.

the effiel tower

i have been to paris before and enjoyed my time, but i also have to admit this was not another one of my favorite places. there are some fabulous sites to see. one of my favorites is the lovure museum. some of my favorite, if not all, pieces of art are found there. i would love to go back and just spend a whole vacation walking through it and studying the pieces it has.

preston, england.

country side england

this was a beautiful part of england to see. i've been to london, but not the countryside so it was fun to see this part. the best part about it was we got to study and see the places that prophets and apostles from the church, have been to. we saw where the first baptisms was done and where some very meaningful revelation was given. now that was a very, very humbling experience. 

preston temple

the other cool thing we got to do as a study group was visit the preston temple and actually do some baptisms. what peace and comfort it is to know that no matter where you go in the world, you can feel of the love that bother heavenly father and the savior have for you. the church is the same wherever you go.

london, england. 

westminster abbey

london. i love london. the culture. the food. the people. the many amazing things to see. but most of all the history. i love the history. one of my favorite places to go is the tower of london. what dark and sad history that place has. definitely an eye-opener for sure though!

it was here that i fell in love with the delicious magnum bars. i'm not a big chocolate and ics cream bar fan, but there was something about these bars that i loved. oh man. i also tried me some fish and chips and loved that too!

copenhagen, denmark.

fredriksborg castle

copenhagen. the home of my ancestors. what a cool place to see. this castle was amazing. holy cow. it was so detailed and huge! the coolest apart about it though was inside it had all of carl blochs paintings of christ's life. the power of the spirit felt in this room was strong, but i have to say not as strong as it was when i was standing before the original Christus statue. the only word that can describe that experience is: love.

christus statue

this was the highlight of the trip and i am so glad that it was the end. that was the point of the trip. we began with this statue that is also located in salt lake city, utah at temple square. my teacher described it this way:

"we are starting and ending with christ. it's kind of like he's the bookends for our trip..."

how cool is was to have a trip so centered on this gospel. it made studying the reformation and the restoration mean that much more to each of us that went. 

to all my travel buddies -

happy anniversary

let's go back soon, ok? 

target field at night = also amazingness.

ahh the long awaited twins night game finally came! here are a few pictures from the night. it was lots of fun...chilly, but fun!

the aviator look...i don't really know?

bryce and his snuggie

what good times we have at the target field. can't wait to go back soon!

target field = amazingness.

target field

oh my...where do i even begin to describe this new field? all i can really say is amazing. i went with some friends from my singles ward. a bunch of my friends actually ended up being there. the section that we were in had some empty seats by us, so we ended up having everyone joining us. it was great!

my friend jessi and i kept commenting on how weird it was being in an outdoor stadium for baseball. we were so used to the metrodome and being inside that being able to have the sun on us was weird! a good weird though. it was such an amazing experience.

twins beat the boston red sox's 8-0. it was an awesome game! i was so glad we picked that day to go. my family was able to come as well. my cousin hillary, her husband kyle, and their son ben came to town for a visit and so we brought them along to the game as well. sorry kyle that your red sox's lost...but i'm not too sorry!

what a fun day! i already have tickets for another game. this time it's a night game...can't wait to see what that's like!

singles ward gang

me, michele, & jessi

the family w/ hillary, kyle & ben

an official "gleek"

so i just have to post this in my excitement that one of my favorite shows is back, and yes i'm admitting that i am a gleek (glee fan + geek = gleek).

last night a bunch of us gathered together at kurt's house to enjoy some delicious pasta that my friend sonita makes that we like to call "the sonita spankin pasta". it's really called california pizza kitchen chicken tequila fettuccine. boy is it yummy!

finally the time came for all of us to sit down and enjoy the return of glee. oh how exciting! we shared some oooh's and ahh's and some laughs. those that stuck around after the show had some slushies in honor of glee.

 so happy this show is back and can't wait for next weeks episode!

gleek out!   

headband one...done.

over the course of my whole life i've gone through these little obsessions, if you will, with different things. last summer it was sandals, watches, and sunglasses. even though i am still loving those things, this is the year of the headband. not only have i been obsessed with already made headbands, but with making them myself. 

today i finally stopped at joanne's, got some fabric, and went to work! i created one headband "slider" as i like to call it. why you ask? well, the way that i made this flower was so that i would be able to slide it on and off any colored headband i want. clever huh? i thought so! here's my first one. what do you think?

the "slider"

slider on headband

now that i've completed one, i'm ready to start making a whole bunch. if only that money tree would start to grow!

chino latino

my pineapple drink..yum!

this past saturday night my friend Michele gathered a bunch of the single adults together to celebrate her 20th birthday at the delicious restaurant chino latinos. wow is all i can say.

i love going out to dinner to a nice place, getting dressed up, and having fun with friends. if only i had endless amounts of money and a fast metabolism to do it every night!

i have never been to chino's before, but have heard really great things about it. when i walked in, it was crazy! people are screaming and taking shots (oh my...) and a hostess is walking around with a sign that has bells on the side and it's just crazy loud. here i am thinking chino's was this quiet, nice place...boy was i wrong. it was such a fun experience! if i could i would go back today.

there were about 11 of us total that went, so we ended up sharing about 5 entrees (they are huge just so you know). they were all so, so good. We made sure to save room so that we could enjoy the "big budda". umm yeah...this dessert was like king of desserts. It was fantastic! It had coconut ice cream, plantains, nuts, chocolate syrup, whip cream, and fried snickers. so good.

after dinner a handful of us went and walked downtown. oh minneapolis...it's quite the experience after midnight. haha. going with a group of friends and just walking the streets is a lot of fun though, i must admit. what a fun night!

here's my shout out to michele...happy birthday my dear friend! thank you for letting me celebrate with you and i hope it was a wonderful 20th. you deserved it!

  

the chino gang

a black eye and orange skeeves.

  the black eyers and orange skeeves

so a week ago saturday i had the chance to go to a roller derby with some friends from the singles ward. what an interesting experience this was! i have never seen a game, i had no clue what the rules were, and i had no idea how big of a deal it is.

by the second half, i was finally able to catch on to how the game works, haha. i guess it's better late than never, right? none the less i had a great time just taking everything in and seeing people go crazy, including the guy in the orange skeeves...yikes!

oh the joys of a saturday night in minnesota with a group of singles.

matthew's big day.

matthew and i at efy 2009

today my dear friend matthew is getting married. i so wish i could be there to celebrate with him and his wonderful (new) wife jenny, but i figure he deserves a blog post at least. 

congratulations on your big day matthew. i wish you and jenny a lifetime of eternal happiness and love.

a conference of love.

conference center in salt lake city, ut

a week ago today my family and i were gathered together to hear the words of our prophet in the 180th annual general conference for our church. i love general conference. i love getting my notebook and pen and writing down the words of inspiration that i feel. 

two days is all we get as members of the church to listen to what those chosen speakers have to say to us. but a month later my favorite thing happens. we get the conference issue of the ensign where we can study those words over and over and over again.

the main message for this conference was love. what a perfect message to share during the easter holiday when our hearts and minds are already set upon the savior and his love for us. the words inspired me to be a better person and to treat everyone with kindness no matter who they are.

i think love its something everyone could use these days.

a trip to utah...

efy theme for 2010

so it's been forever since i last posted and i am sorry. i have been insanely busy traveling and finishing up my online class. i finally have had some time to sit down and blog about a few things that have been going on.

utah - what a fabulous time i had! i got to see lots and lots of friends, which i was so impressed i was able to do because i never have to chance to see just about everyone that i love that lives in utah. i also got to do lots of different things like watching one of my florida girls in her hilarious show, chili's date with the rest of the florida girls, eating out with other friends, painting a cup, easter dinner with family, visiting jessica's family, and loads more.

efy training - this was the main reason i flew out to utah for a week. training....where do i start? i had 2 days packed with food, friends, and the gospel. how much better can it get than that? not too sure. i was able to meet a majority of my team and i already love them and can't wait to work with them more this summer. i am so excited for the adventures that i will face starting in about a month. oh boy! i haven't even started my lessons and i already feel the pressure to finish them...i better get started now!

utah was a lot of fun and i can't wait to go back in a month for the summer which will be full of friends, family, and of course...alright, alright, alright...E-F-Y!