Weekend 4 with the Mama.

Last weekend was such a treat: Mommy came into town for the weekend!

And it was a packed, fun few days we got to spend with her!

That weekend also happened to be sweet sister, Callie's, birthday!

We stayed in the villas in Park City for the weekend, which was a lot of fun although we always ended back up in Provo sometime during the day so we did a ton of driving.

Highlights of the little "trip":

1. Delicious Food at the following:

Provo Bakery

Happy Sumo

Texas Roadhouse

The Chocolate (cute little dessert place in Provo with the BEST Pazookies)

The Bridge (breakfast in Park City)

Chilis

Main Street Noodles and Pizza (Park City- BEST ever and a family favorite)

In N Out

2. Celebrating Callie Caker's birthday with family and friends.

3. Having Dessert up at the Reeve's along with some other family friends.

4. Shopping at cute boutiques and the outlets in Park City!

Thanks Mom for a great weekend! It was fun to see you! Can't wait for Thanksgiving in California! Love you!

Cal riding the Saddle at Texas Roadhouse!

seriously, I'm drooling over these pazookies just thinking about them.

Only one more weekend in October. And another busy, fun filled weekend too.

I promise, I'll be done traveling till Thanksgiving after this.

when days are crappy, watch this.

now tell me she isn't the cutest thing you have ever seen?!

Weekend 3 in the LV

Las Vegas Baby.

Nicole, Amelia, Parker, and I hit the road on a Friday night to head to Vegas for the weekend.

It was fantastic. We kinda had been planning it for weeks so we were looking forward to getting out and getting in the warm weather!

I love these people and it turned out to be a great, relaxing few days.

We got in late on Friday night so you better believe we didn't waste any time on Saturday... well kinda. We were lazy and it took us awhile to get started. But it's vacation time right?

We stopped by a DELICIOUS bagel cafe that morning. It was so cute and a PERFECT place to people watch, right Nicole? haha

Then we decided to spend a few hours in the sun! It was in the 80's and a beautiful day! We didn't want to waste any of it inside!

Then we finally got ready and hit the strip. Stopped by some great places like the MGM.

We also went inside the Venetian, which is my most FAVORITE place to stop at! I think the inside is SO cool. One of these days, I will ride in one of those gondolas! Love it!

Obviously, we walked a TON that day. So we took a little stop and randomly sat down inside Caesar's Palace. We were beat. Really, we didn't want to walk anymore.

We loved walking the streets of Vegas though! it was Amelia's first time too! We saw lots of interesting people and lots of exciting things to see!

And remember when I went here last time and the wind was so bad that they canceled the fountain shows so I never got to see it? No need to fear. I watched TWO this time.

Dear Belagio, I love you and your fountain shows. Thanks for cooperating this time.

Sunday morning- we were up, went to church, and headed back to Provo!

Our time on the road consisted of blowing bubbles, and jamming to Avril Lavigne. Life Savers.

And maybe we stopped by this cute gas station on the way home in Cedar City just to take a picture with this cute pole. Don't judge us.

it was a short, but sweet vacation with these ladies of mine and our bodyguard Parker. haha.

Obviously, this is the month of short trips for me.

I'm kinda getting sick of it.

One more weekend and I'll be done road tripping for at least a few weeks!

And that sums up weekend 3 of October!

sister.

have I ever told you how great of a sister I have?

Lucky for me, I have 2.

But today, 1 in particular is very special.

Today, it's Callie Christines 21st Birthday!

I can't believe another year has gone by and we get to celebrate this glorious day of birth together again!

I honestly can't put into words why I love this girl so much. She is one of the GREATEST people I know, and I'm not just saying that because she is my sister. She is one of my best friends and I am grateful to have her in my life. We have only lived away from each other for about 18 months before she came out to college so I feel pretty lucky.

Callie Christine is such a fun person to be around! She always knows how to spice things up a bit and will make you laugh! So whenever you are down, talk to this girl. I promise she can brighten up your day!

Callie Christine LOVES Lake Powell! I think it's a requirement to be a part of our family. We enjoy going there during the summer for some relaxing days in the sun with the fam bam. I think she would agree it's the best part of our summer!

Callie Christine likes to joke around. She doesn't get offended over silly things and will just laugh when people are being ridiculous. She's serious when she needs to be, but knows how to have fun!

Callie Christine LOVES her fam bam. We all enjoy being around one another! Nowadays it's so rare for us to all be together so she takes advantage of those opportunities and enjoys every minute she has with her family.

Callie Christine LOVES those Braves! As you can tell, that is another requirement to be in our family. She is no fair weather fan. It's fun to have a family who will be just as crazy and insane with you when you are at the game or watching it at home.

Callie Christine takes her role as a sister very seriously. She is concerned for each and every sibling, in any kind of condition. She especially will look out for her younger siblings. Like this one time when Lexie passed out at Six Flags, Callie caught her when she fell and made sure she was okay before we did anything else. You know she loves and cares for every single one of us.

Callie Christine is such an example to me and everyone she knows. She loves to serve. She's always has a positive attitude when it comes to doing any kind of service activity and will always gather a big group of people to come participate and make it a fun experience.

Callie Christine is extremely lovable. She loves to show her affection for her family and friends and loves hugs. I love coming up to her just to have a hug every once and awhile. She knows how to make people feel loved and important in her life.

Callie Christine will be just as crazy and as insane with me. We are pretty dedicated to our teams. This one time we slept overnight outside the Marriott Center at BYU in January (freezing weather) so we could have good seats for a basketball game the next day. Crazy.

Callie Christine is a hardworker. She worked hard to graduate a semester early and go to BYU. She also is a very good student and will work hard to get those good grades. And on top of that busy life, she works every day. What a trooper she is.

Callie Christine is a great cook! She loves to make delicious food and is always up for the challenge to make new things! I like being around her to eat the great food that she makes!

Callie Christine is the definition of a good friend. She is someone I can trust. I can tell her anything knowing that she won't spread it around. That being said, she is a great listener and someone I can always talk to. It's such a blessing to be close to my sister. I know I can always count on her and turn to her for anything.

So my dear sister, Happy Happy 21st Birthday! I hope you had a fantastic day! You deserve only the best! Here's to many more years of celebration! I love you so much!

and from the wise words of our little sister, Lexie:

"you can drink now. but you shouldn't. but if you choose to that's okay cause it's your birthday."

Weekend 2. INSANE.

Weekend 2 in October tops any other weekend I have ever had along with any other road trip I've been on! I know... that's saying a lot. But let me just explain to you why it was so epic.

Remember when I was SO excited the Braves made it into the playoffs this night?

A few days later, I was in the car with Kaycie, Kate, Lendrum, and Tyler heading to San Francisco to watch our Braves play in Game 2 of the Playoffs! We couldn't even believe that we were doing this! Honestly, only the hardcore fans would do something like this. We left on a Thursday night at 11:30 pm after the Braves first playoff game and drove through the night to get to San Fran by 9:30 in the morning!

We stopped through my cousins place for some cereal, a 30 minute nap, a shower, and then headed out to explore a little bit of San Fran by 12:00!

The only place we had time to go see (because there is SO much traffic) was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was SO windy there! I haven't been to San Fran since I was 6 so it was cool to go back!

After that, it took us awhile to decide where to park around the field and then stopped in to get some food at this little pizza and sandwich place! It was really good! ...Or maybe anything tasted good cause we were starving!

After getting all of our tickets for the game ($85 a piece), we walked around the park! Hands down, COOLEST park I have ever been to! It's right along the bay and it just has so many cool things surrounding it!

When we got in (2 1/2 hrs before game time) we explored just a little bit to see all the cool things that park had! I am a little obsessed with this trolley they had. They also had slides to race down in that was designed as a coca cola bottle. So fun!

And since we were there so early, Kayc and I went down by the field during the Braves batting practice to try to get a ball from our players. Sure enough, we succeeded thanks to one of my favorite closing pitchers, Venters. We were pretty excited. And another highlight had to be whenever we saw the Braves we'd be all excited and cheer for them and they'd wave and give us "I love you" signs. It was really exciting for us!

The sun went down, and it got COLD! Of course we still sported our Braves attire over our sweatshirts not to confuse those disgusting, unclassy Giants fans.

And even though we were down 0-4 almost the entire game and were completely silent- we were constantly getting flicked off at, the f word said to us millions of times, people yelling directly in our ears, and getting beer cans thrown at us- it was ALL worth it when our boys game back and won in the 11th inning with Ricky Ankiel's solo homerun into the bay! We won 5-4! It was the most epic and exciting game I have ever been to!

And as you can tell from this picture, we were THRILLED!

And so, after the game and after a quick bite to eat, it was on the road again. 12:00 am Saturday morning and got back into Provo at 12:30 pm.

It's true, so many people would call us insane and crazy. But it is something that I will never forget! It was so awesome to be there! Not to mention it was totally worth the money I had to spend for it!

I think what made it the best was the fact that all 5 of us are die hard Braves fans and we got to experience an epic game all together! The whole drive home, conversations would start up like "hey remember that time we went to the playoff game against the Giants and we came back and won?" and "Remember how the Braves won tonight and we were there for it?" "Remember how Bobby got ejected and we loved it?" and "Remember how we drove through the night 2 nights in a row for this?"

You get the picture. We were so happy that we decided to go!

That night I got 11 1/2 hours of sleep and it was the best sleep I've ever had!

So here's to weekend #2 in October. It was epic. I don't know if that can ever be topped.

Weekend 1.

Fun Fact: Did you know that every 823 years we have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays in October?

Well... this year is the year! How cool is that?!

Thank goodness there are 5 weekends in October because each weekend is super busy for me whether I have someone in town or I go out of town. When will the craziness stop? Probably never.

So I'll have quite a few posts about my weekend adventures in October!

Weekend 1 in October: General Conference and Aubrey Lynn came into town!

it was soooo fun to spend the weekend with Aubrey since I haven't seen her in over a year! The older we get, the busier our lives get! I kinda hate that.

On Friday night, the girls went to Trafalga on a girl date. we didn't really keep score, and we didn't play the right way [oops] but we still had a lot of fun!

Saturday we went up to Salt Lake to try to get some tickets for General Conference! It was a success and conference was SO good! General conference is honestly my favorite time of the year! Not to mention the weather was AMAZING this year. That rarely happens!

2 of my great EFY friends, Carrie and Rachel were in town for Conference so I met up with them and Kate after the afternoon session. I just love these ladies! I wish I could have spent more time with them!

We spent the day in Salt Lake with Aubrey's Mom relaxing at the hotel while the boys were at Priesthood Session. Then we all met up afterwards for dinner at PF Changs (YUM) and then ended the night with some gelato!

And just like that, the weekend was over and I had to say bye to 3 of my wonderful cousins and Aunt.

I just love my family and love when I get the chances to see them. One benefit of being out in Utah is the fact that I am SO much closer to family than if I was still in Georgia. I've been able to visit lots of my extended family over the years and I am so grateful for that! I am blessed to have an amazing family :)

So, that ends weekend 1 of October.

Stay tuned for updates on Weekend 2!

goodbye september.

Does anyone else feel like September is the longest month EVER?

Honestly, every year, September just seems to drag on and will never end!

But I like September. Everyone is fresh back from the summer and happy that the weather is still treating us nicely here in Provo, Utah. It's a pretty great month for Cougar Town.

The weather was AMAZING too- I think it was in the 80's almost every day. That never happens. But I was happy because I love warm weather more than anything else!

So September was pretty eventful. If I haven't mentioned already, I LOVE my house and my roommates! They are all so fun and cute! We have had a lot of fun hanging out with each other! I feel like I won the jackpot with these fine ladies! You know me and my pictures, so here are my highlights from September, not in any order:

I went with this lovely lady to see Stephanie Nielson speak at BYU. She is such a cute and an inspiring woman; I loved every minute of her talk. She made me think a lot differently about myself and the blessings I have in my life.

We threw a little surprise birthday party- aka for 5 people- for Ry Guy at the casa.

I got to babysit the cute Reeve girls for a weekend while their parents went to San Fran! It was a blast! These girls are my favorites and SO adorable! This is 6 month old Saylor who is just precious. I love her!

we even had a fun little sleepover in the parents bedroom- the girls slept in their sleeping bags on the floor :)

I attended my first BYU game of the season, where we sadly lost. It's just not our year this year with those cougs. But still, football games are always fun!

The Mower Fam (my 2nd fam bam) came into town for the weekend so we were able to go up and have dinner with them one night. I love them lots.

Friends attended our Stake Activity, which included free jdawgs, and a dance party with massive amounts of glowsticks. it was a blast.

We had a back to school work party... I LOVE my work friends. Have I mentioned that before? Pretty sure I have, but they are AWESOME. We always have so much fun together!

September really kept me busy with school, work, and the social life.

But October is even busier!

I have something going on every weekend in October whether it's family visiting or going out of town.

[more to follow soon.. i promise. it's a slow game of catching up. better late than never right?]

until then.. peace, love, and happiness.