PUMPKINS, RAIN, AND GREAT FRIENDS

Today has overall been a really awesome day. It started out with Lariette junior clinic and I just LOVE little kids so it was fun getting to play with all the little kindergarteners. They were either really crazy or really quiet. One second they'd be wrestling each other and not listen to us, and the next second they would just stare at us and not do or say anything when we asked them to. They were just a crazy bunch and I had a lot of laughs this morning.

After clinic was over, a small group of senior Lariettes went to lunch at Schlotzky's, which was fun because I love those girls. Then, we went to the high school where we learned our senior pep rally dance which is going to be AMAZING. It's to a mix of Beyonce songs and I'm kinda obsessed. 

One thing I forgot to mention was that the moment we stepped outside after junior clinic Fall hit us like a ton of bricks. It probably reached 90 degrees yesterday, and when we were leaving from junior clinic it was 57 degrees.. crazy right? It felt so good though so Shannon and I decided we had to spend this day outside and decided to go to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound. We called up Megan and Maci (who wasn't able to join us til after), dressed up in cute sweaters and boots, and stopped by Starbucks where I tried my first Pumpkin Spice Latte (so yummy).

It was sooooo cold by the time we got to the pumpkin patch, but it was such a great feeling because the weather has been so hot for so long. We walked around and took tons of pictures for about 30 minutes before the place had to shut down for the rain. Right when we got in the car it started pouring which only made this day 10x better because rainy days are my favorite days.

We stopped by Tom Thumb to buy some Angel Food cake mix, threw on some yoga pants and sweatshirts and started baking at my house. Our attempt at baking the cake was a fail to say the least. It wouldn't stop growing and was starting to burn so we just decided to forget about it. Luckily, I found some pumpkin bread mix in my pantry so we made that instead.

In the midst of all this my poor friend Maci was having phone troubles. She had downloaded the beta version of ios 7 over the summer and hadn't downloaded the official one yet so Apple basically shut down her phone. We had our friend Dustin come over and try to figure out a way to fix it, but there's no hope. She might just have to spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone. Yikes!

Today was filled with lots of laughs and a lot of great memories. Here are some pictures from the super cute pumpkin patch:

megan and i freezing our butts off

megan and shannon

i'm obsessed with mermaids.. i just had to

yay for 50 cent pumpkins!

THE BEST SEASON IS HERE

I thought it only suitable to add a new post to my blog as I got a new Macbook today!!! I'm obsessed with it and I'm coming up with every excuse to use it.

Not only am I excited about finally getting rid of my barely functional Dell laptop, I'm sososo excited for this fall. This morning as I walked out to my car to head out to church the weather felt AMAZING. There's nothing I love more than 70 degree weather. It's perfect. Then I had a nice lunch outside with the family. After, we spent hours trying to find the best laptop and finally purchased this one. As I was figuring out how to use a mac I receive a text from my best friend, Blake, saying "Come outside and use your phone as a flashlight and follow the rose petals". My heart practically skipped a beat because I had a pretty good idea what this meant. So I walked out the front door and followed the rose petals that led to the back of my house where my boyfriend, Drew, was standing in the driveway with a sign that said "it would light up my world if you went to homecoming with me!" and about 200 candles that spelled out "homecoming?" and a heart with a framed picture of us and a rose. I just screamed oh my gosh!! and ran and gave him a hug. I have never been asked to homecoming before so this was all extremely exciting. I probably overreacted a little. I was jumping up and down and screaming and hugging Drew like a hundred times. It was so perfect and cute and I can't wait to spend homecoming with such a great guy. And I'm also so thankful for Blake helping put it all together. I couldn't ask for better people in my life.

Today was just such a great day and only makes me 130987514783x more excited for the rest of the year.

Here's a few pics from tonight:

isn't he a cutie? ;)

Thanks to blake for these awesome pics:)))

MISSING CAMP PIKE...

Like every other day after I got home from camp, I am missing it so terribly much. Although, I've been able to see/hear from all the counselors pretty often which makes missing camp a little more bearable.

The two weeks I got to spend in Colorado were probably some of the best weeks of my life. I got to spend it with great people in God's beautiful creations. It sucks being back in humid Texas where it's 100 degrees all the time as opposed to 70-80 degrees in Colorado. And I never thought I'd say this while I was at camp, but I actually do miss hiking. As tough as it is to climb up those mountains, the views were gorgeous and I wish I could go back right now and enjoy those just a tad longer and take a few extra pictures.

I also miss spending time with the awesome mennonites at camp. The camp we stay at is Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp and it is run by a great group of mennonites who are also Christians just with a few differences. We got a few chances to just sit around and talk and get to know them and we also did some devos with them and got to discuss a ton of different things about our faith. It was probably one of the coolest experiences especially when we got them to sing all our favorite songs and we sang (more like attempted to sing) their favorite hymns. They are definitely some of the coolest people I have ever met and I couldn't ask for anyone better to run our camp facilities.

OH my gosh and the food... I miss the food. It was sooooooooo good. I don't even know how to put the greatness of the food into words, just believe me, it's delicious.

I just really really miss being in the mountains. Waking up every morning and hiking up to inspiration point with that awesome view. Gosh it's wonderful.

Colorado is just all around perfect in the summer and I wish camp lasted all summer long.

Here are a few pictures, a lot of them are on my phone still so maybe I'll do another post with more later

Top of Raspberry

All the newbie counselors

Top of Crags

This just cracks me up 

Nativity rock

The ridge of Pikes Peak

BIG CEDAR LODGE

This weekend I went to one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. For my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary the whole family went to Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri. And when I say the whole family I mean the entire family, including grandma's sister-in-law's side of the family, the Regesters. That means there was 36 of us total. But it was so much fun with all the crazy cousins and it was really cool to get to hang out with the Regesters because we never get to see them. We spent 95% of our time doing anything and everything outside. We got there Friday afternoon and sat out by the pool all day and then everybody ate together at the Worman House restaurant. After we ate, Hannah and I went outside with all the little cousins and played hide and seek, which was really funny to hear some of the really little ones try and count. Then that night, unfortunately, somehow I got sick in the middle of night and I have no idea what caused it, but luckily I was fine the next day. We started off the morning with a walk around all the cabins and then came back to get ready for family pictures. Then we changed and Hannah, Lauren, Chelsea and I went with all the boys to the lazy river and then went to the Marina. We got to use the paddle boats which was a lot of fun despite the disgusting dead catfish floating on the water. The boys also found a turtle in the water but it swam away before we could catch it. After that we went over to the "swimming hole" and swam in the pool and the hot tub. That night all 36 of us crammed into one cabin and ate hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches which was really tasty. Then us kids decided to leave and play some sand volleyball which was pretty hilarious because we all messed up a lot. The next day we had to leave because I still have a few more days of school with finals and everything. Driving away was so sad, but we're considering coming back this summer if it works into our schedules!
Here are a ton of pictures from the trip...

the "swimming hole"

view from our balcony

the cabin

dinner at the worman house

me and hannah (who by the way turns 13 today!)

outside of the worman house

the swinging bridge (which didn't actually swing)

WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

It all just hit me today how fast this year has gone by. We only have about three weeks left of school that aren't even full weeks. For me I only have 10 more days because I'm missing a day to go to Missouri with the fam (I'll talk about that in a later post). What's mainly really shocked me about how fast this year has gone by is the fact that my dance recital is this weekend. AHH! That came so quick. I'm already done with classes too because I won't be able to make the rest of them. It's so crazy! This weekend will be my 14th recital with my dance studio and I'm actually starting to get a little excited even though I'm only in three of the dances.

The theme this year is a library theme (I'm not sure what the exact title is) but I think it will be really cute. Each dance is supposed to represent a different book so it will be cool to see how creative all the teachers get with the theme. For our pointe dance I think we chose How to Kill a Mockingbird. And although the book really has nothing to do with mockingbirds, we are birds. Haha, that was kind of a last minute decision after we already got our bird costumes which by the way are really awesome (it's my first real tutu!!). And then for tap we have two dances, Marian the Librarian and then another one which I don't know the name of. They're both really fun, but I still need some practice... But oh well! I'm just excited to go back to the Majestic. Home sweet home. It's just so beautiful and perfect, I couldn't imagine going anywhere else. I'm going to miss this so much after I graduate oh my..

Dance coming to an end this year is bitter sweet, but the school year ending brings no sadness whatsoever! I cannot wait to walk out of the doors on June 5th. This summer is going to be amazing and I cannot wait any longer!!




by the wayyyy
camp pike is in 46 days

BLISS

I am just so unbelievably happy. I don't even know why I just can't stop smiling heehee

EXCITEMENT

So this past weekend we had our annual Lariette banquet! It was a lot of fun, but with being a social officer, which means I was 1 of the 6 that ran the whole thing, it definitely came with a lot of stress... When we came early to set up, we had a few minor issues, but it was nothing we couldn't solve. The actual banquet ran pretty smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so I'm really proud of all the work we did. And I have to admit all the decorations looked pretty amazing.
Here's a picture of my handsome boyfriend and I at banquet:

With the end of the year banquet comes the end of this group of socials and the start of try outs for the new group. It was pretty stressful to create my notebook and all that entails on top of all the other school work I had to get done, but I finally finished and it's my last time ever! Crazy right? So next Monday we'll have interviews and I'm thinking we might possibly find out who makes it that day, but I'm not sure! I'm so excited though!

Besides Lariettes, everything else in my life has been going pretty great. I guess school could be better, but it's tough to earn the grades I want. AP tests are coming around the corner and I'm still trying to decide if I care enough to study haha which is probably bad. I guess we'll just see how it goes... I just can't wait for school to be over! Summer is just around the corner and I can practically taste it. I am way too excited it's insane.

by the way...
CAMP PIKE IS IN 58 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no big deal or anything...