a night of epic adventures

My ward had an awesome activity on Thursday night where we went to Soldier's Hollow in Midway, UT for some tubing. The resort has a tow cable that pulls you up the hill on your tube, which was amazing and relaxing. Climbing the hill is the worst part of tubing. The line was way long at one point for the towing so a few of us actually walked up... I do not recommend it! We were so tired when we finally reached the top, plus they kindly asked us to wait for the tow rope next time, oops.

We had a great time forming groups to ride down together and trying to go as fast as possible. We had some great runs and had an awesome time overall. It even started snowing while we were there, which was so pretty!


Afterward, I drove with Karina to this place my friend Steven showed me a few weeks ago that was really close by. Some friends followed us in their car to see it too and so we caravan-ed to the resort where the ice castles are. They are so amazing!

These are the ice castles when I went with Steven

They were gorgeous covered in snow too!

We took some fun pictures and wandered around before starting to head home to Provo. By this time it was still snowing pretty steadily and I was following behind Tyler's car. We were driving through the Provo Canyon when the night truly hit epic proportions. I was a little behind Tyler and all of a sudden I notice he is going towards the side of the road like he is going to pull over, but then I saw his car bounce off the side of the road where the snow/ice has piled up around the guard rail.
By the time I fully realized what was going on I had hit the ice too and was heading right for the wall myself. The brakes did nothing and steering made no difference. It was like everything was in slow motion and I had no control. I braced myself to either get stuck in the snow or to hear a crunch. After the right front part of my car hit the ice/snow my car bounced back and I ended up sideways across a few lanes in the canyon.

I was frozen there for a minute as my roommate suggested we go out to look at my car. I then composed myself to move my car to the side of the road in case a car came from behind me. Karina was closer to the part that hit so she saw it before me and as I crossed the front of my car this is what I heard her say, "Holls, your car is totalled." I freaked out before I realized that what she really said was, "Holls, your car is totally fine." BIG difference. And a horrible choice of words if I do say so myself.

I was SO BLESSED!!
1. There is not a single scratch or dent on my car.
2. We were far enough behind Tyler's car that we did not come close to hitting his car as well.
3. Following Tyler kept me at a good speed so that the impact wasn't much worse than it could have been.
4. No car came up behind me and side-swiped me.
5. We hit the side of the road that had a wall of snow/ice instead of an exposed rail or worse yet an open drop.
6. We were not on the part of the road that was a 2-lane highway.
7. Karina was there to comfort me as shock settled in.
and the list can go on....

Karina told me that she had the thought that maybe we could get in an accident so she said a silent prayer literally seconds before we hit the ice. I am so grateful for that. And for the tender mercies of the Lord who protected us all that night.

I was in shock for a few hours after that. It was such a scary experience! The only things wrong with our cars is a tiny scratch above Tyler's tire and my alignment got a little bit tweaked; but I can accept that!

It was definitely an epic night.

Fun collage

I just realized that I never posted this. It is from when Karina and I hiked the Y

The FINALS experience

This semester I had 6 classes, which I really enjoyed overall. It wasn't a terribly difficult semester, except for those realllly late nights that I did to myself by procrastinating - but I also blame my professors for conspiring to make the due dates for big projects on the same day. They seem to do that a lot.

Thanksgiving was so great to go home and see my family and play with my niece and nephews :) I loved being warm in California and with my family! But Thanksgiving is also such a tease. Students get to go home and relax, but when they come back they have so much that is due and a lot of pressure as finals are edging dangerously close. I didn't realize just how much there was for me to do until I was back in Provo for a few days. And then it hit.

I spent a lot of time in the library and started to put a lit-tle bit more focus into my classes. My finals were mostly scheduled this semester, which was a new experience for me. This was the layout that I had for finals week:

Monday: Linguistics @ 11 am [then study study study]
Tuesday: Genealogy @ 11 am [then study work study]
Wednesday: Humanities @ 10 am [then work study study study]
Thursday: New Testament @ 7am [study] History @ 11 am

I had one final which I was able to take any time I wanted in the Testing Center, and I ended up taking it Thursday night just to get it over with and give myself Friday to do NOTHING :)

It was a pretty intense week and I ended up spending some late nights at the library. The BYU Library stays open until 2 am for finals and let me tell you, I took advantage of that more than once.

I felt pretty good about my tests once they were over, which was nice. I was so burnt out by Thursday; I was so ready for the semester to be over and to go home soon! Kelsey flew home Thursday morning, but neither Karina nor I were leaving until Saturday the 19th so we decided to celebrate the end of finals together in the best way. We built a huge fort that took over our entire living room :D We slept in it both Thursday and Friday night and enjoyed chatting and playing MASH. It was so fun to be silly and relax. It was very much needed.

Here is our handiwork:

It was so much fun and we will be sure to make another one, or two, or more next year :)

- - Now that it has been 2 weeks since the end of finals, the grades have been submitted and I am very happy with the results of my semester. It is a relief to have those classes behind me and that I can be happy with the outcome :) But soon the process starts all over again...

Dress Up

This Fall Semester I feel like I dressed up a lot and I loved it :) It was fun to get together costumes and to be silly with friends

First up: Halloween

My roommate Karina thought for a long time of what our costumes should be. We decided that we wanted to do something together, so we tried to think of some ideas of corresponding costumes. We ultimately decided to be a Cowgirl and an Indian. :)

I was so excited to be a cowgirl! I kept telling Scott how he is going to become a cowboy as he serves his mission in Texas, so I felt like it was appropriate for me to be a cowgirl :) Just call me "Howdy Holly" haha

We hunted through DI and took a trip to Walmart and ended up with some sweet deals, like my boots in the kids section of Walmart [I was so surprised they fit!] Karina actually just bought fabric and a little decorative ribbon to sew her costume herself - and I think it turned out amazing!

My other roommate Kelsey got really creative and put together a costume to be a superhero with her super power being world peace. She is from Oregon and is quite the tree hugger ;) You can't see it very well in the pictures, but she made a purple peace sign that had the world behind it - very crafty!

We went to some fun parties dressed up and had a good time with friends. Pictured below is our good friend Jud that accompanied us as the purple Tellatubby Tinky-Winky, haha!!


The next week was round 2: White Trash Party

I wasn't planning on attending this party, but Jud invited my apartment and we decided to tag along at the last minute. It was pretty difficult to throw together an outfit with what we had in our apartment, mostly because we weren't exactly sure what it meant to be white trash. We tried though, and we had a lot of fun!


It was also fun to get dressed up with my roommates just for fun sometimes. A few time we would all get together and take turns rummaging through each others' closets to pick out outfits to wear the next day for church or a date or whatever the occasion was. My roommates have way more knowledge of fashion than I do so its very fun and educational for me.

Kelsey is really good with make-up and hair, and Karina has really cute clothes, so they like to play with me as their life-size barbie doll and I have no objection :) I guess some little girls never do grow out of their desire to play dress up.

Life has been crazy

Finals week. That says it all...

I have been crazy busy lately studying, working, and taking my finals. As of right now I have 2 done. One more tomorrow at 10, 2 scheduled for Thursday at 7 am and 11 am, then another at anytime on Friday. Then I'll be home free!!

I have had some fun adventures lately, but the time to share those will come later. I simply cannot take the time now, which is sad. But what I can do is share this story. I have heard about her before and have been told bits and pieces, but tonight I read the full story about Stephanie Nielson - and I cried my eyes out.

I am so glad that I finally read this story and I really recommend you read it too. It makes me appreciate my life and all that I am blessed with. I will not take my life for granted and I will look forward to the future with happiness and gratitude.

Read the full story HERE.

Tales of Hoffman Opera

For my Humanities 101 class this semester I was required to attend 3 specific performances and to write up mini reviews about my experience. That class is really interesting and it is cool to be exposed to new forms of art and music that I probably would not have chosen to attend otherwise.

The first was World of Dance, which I also attended last year to fulfill an assignment for my Social Dance Beginning Ballroom class. I enjoyed going to that performance again and seeing many different dances in different styles.

The second one was an Opera put on by BYU called the Tales of Hoffman. This is a French Opera that has English supertitles along the sides of the stage so that the audience can understand what is going on without being fluent. This was a really great performance! Karina came with me and we made a fancy night out of the occasion :)

*Side Note* I donated blood this day! I donated twice in high school and passed out both times... so I was a lit-tle bit scared to try again, but also really excited to see if I could handle it and do my little part to serve. My roommate Kelsey came with me to be my nurse and ride home just in case anything happened, but thankfully that was unnecessary. I did fine and did not pass out this time! VICTORY! I guess the third time is the charm :)

Ok, back to our Opera Fancy Night-
We got dressed up nicely and enjoyed a delicious meal at one of our favorite restaurants Zupas. Then we enjoyed the play and had some fun taking silly pictures afterwards as is our custom.

yummmmy food

waiting for the show to start

all dressed up

its so fun to wear heels sometimes :)

some of many silly faces

Good times :)

Hike the Y

Utah weather reminds me a little bit of Palmdale occasionally. The weather can't really seem to make up its mind and likes to alternate between hot and cold for a while. Knowing this, my roommate Karina and I decided to take advantage of a warm saturday [not knowing if it would be out last or not] and to hike up Y Mountain.

We had excellent timing as we got to the Y just a little before sunset and were able to cool down as we watched the shadow cross the valley and the sun disappear. It is such an incredible view from up there! It was my third time hiking up there and I love it every time!

Before this hike, the last time I had gone up there was with Scott in the end of February. We hiked up and had a picnic as we watched the sunset, which was an AMAZING day! So it was fun to be up there again about the same time and to remember those good times :)

Here are some of the pictures we took of our excursion:

The Y viewed from our living room

Heading up the trail

Karina and I before getting red-faced

Huge rock on the side of the trail about halfway up

start of the sunset

We made it!

Our "epic" photo :)

Fun with Wheat Thins!

Look at that sky and that view!

A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!