Black Diamond Baby

So one of my new favorite things to do is snowboard. I honestly love it. I am in a BYU snowboarding class right now, which is so fun, especially because Andrew, Sam, and Torrie are in the class with me. I have been quite a few times this season- but I can honestly say that I have not skipped school to go, maybe study time, but never missed class. So today we had class and my level one teacher said that I could move up a group because I was catching on fairly well. So I decided to move into Sam's group, because I always have fun boarding with her, and so I moved into a level 3 class. I was excited until the point where half way up the lift Dave, the instructor, said that we were going to the back mountain and we were starting out on a black diamond. I think my jaw may have dropped, but I tried not to act scared. So to make a long story of lots of falls- but thankfully in powder, short, I successfully went down my first black diamond run. Well I guess it is my second time, but the first was in Colorado with Sam- and that was on accident. So we did a few different black diamond runs, some steep blues and then we had free board. I met up with Andrew and I told him I wanted to race down the mountain, but only if I had a 20 second headstart. So off I went, thinking I was going so fast, when Andrew was already right behind me. We kept going and even though I think (well I know) he let me win, I can honestly say I beat Andrew. It was an accomplishing day :)

Home Sweet Home

A rare occasion happened- my entire family was able to be together, which was SOO much fun. We all met in California at my parents house and spent the weekend watching movies, having fun, playing, eating, riding bikes, and more. It was such a fun weekend and makes me realize how much I appreciate my family.

We spent the day in San Francisco, riding bikes, having a picnic, and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather- how I miss the California sunshine..

Rach, me, and Andrew

Almost the whole group before our picnic

Two of my favorite boys (i guess men) in the whole wide world

Me and my niece Audrey

I can't even put into words how much I love this little girl

All the siblings
Love you all!

Nickelcade

So some of our friends decided that we should all go to the nickelcade. (the nickelcade is an arcade where all the games are just a nickel) Its this pretty old, run down place, but that night it was packed. Sam, Justin, Erik, and I went and met up with a bunch of friends and had a lot of fun. It was fun going back to the nickelcade because I remember when I was about 10 I came up to Provo and was staying with Michelle, and she and Dave (they were just dating at the time) took me to the nickelcade and I thought it was about the coolest place I had ever been. I wanted to go back every time I was in Provo. So times have changed, and now I am going to school in Provo, and still having fun at the nickelcade :)

So this is a terrible picture, blurry and all, but it was the only picture I had of me and Sam attempting to do DDR (which I failed in about the first round)
btw. the patriotic theme in our outfits was not planned.. our outfits oddly tend to unintentionally coordinate often

This is me and Erik with all the tickets we won. With all the tickets we successfully earned a lot of bracelets, rings, some candy, and a stuffed gorilla for Erik.

Cancun, Cable Cars, Chirstmas, Cruise, Colorado

So this is the ultimate catchup blog. I haven't posted anything since before Thanksgiving so here is a brief overview of what I have been doing:

Cancun, Mexico
11/22 - 11/29

For Thanksgiving my mom, dad, Andrew, Meliss, Luke, Savannah and I all went to Cancun. It was one of those much needed vacations with this being my to-do list for the two weeks before:

I think I had at least one test or major assignment due in every class. The good thing about that was that I didn't bring a single school book to Mexico with me and I was able to relax the entire time.

My dad, Andrew, and I having a water fight in one of the beautiful pools.
gotta love boys :)

One of the days we went to the ruins in Cancun where there is thought to be a history with the Lamanites (from the Book of Mormon) There was one ruin that was 10(?) stories high, so we climbed to the top.

Andrew and I climbing the stairs to the top. It was so steep that they had a rope that you could pull on to help yourself up.

Andrew, me, my mom and dad at the top with the beautiful view in the back

Since we went and saw all the ruins, my dad said that we could stop by a famous beach on the way back- it was a little bit of a trade off :)
The beach was truly amazing.

One of my all time favorite things to do in the ocean is to bring floaties and just float out and get rocked by the waves. I have so many memories with my mom out in the ocean- in so many different places- just talking about everything. I remember on a previous vacation talking about my BYU application, and now we were talking about Dental Hygiene school. How times flies.

On Thanksgiving day we went to a place called Xel-ha. I LOVE this place, we came a few years ago with the family but Melis and Luke had never been here so it was a lot of fun with them as well. It is a big lagoon with a ton of fish-so you can snorkel, there are tubes and you can ride down a river, there are rope swings, cliffs to jump off, and best of all, it is all inclusive- which meant lots of virgin margeritas and lots of delicious Mexican food. Needless to say, it wasn't the typical Thanksgivng dinner of turkey and stuffing, but there was definitely not a shortage of food :)This picture is purely for bragging rights. Luke, Meliss, Andrew and I often play Rook (a card game) on vacations, and it is always boys vs girls. We played a few times in Mexico and this time we KILLED them. 515 to 0. The girls rule after all :)

Cable Cars
12/22

The night of my birthday was so much fun. My parents were so sweet to organize a night in San Francisco on a private cable car. There were about 40 of us and we all met up at the church in SF where there was lots of food, treats, and hot chocolate, and all got on the cable car where we rode around San Francisco seeing the Christmas lights and singing Christmas songs. It was so nice to be able to see everyone and to all be together that night.
Andrew, Tyler, me, Blaker

Almost everyone in front of the Cable Car
Thank you to everyone who came and to help make it such a special night

After we got back and were cleaning up at the church, the police came in to see what was going on (it was quite the party at the church :) After telling them we were just celebrating my birthday and were just cleaning up, they gladly took a piece of my mom's famous homemade brownies and were on their way. Gotta love SFPD.

It was the perfect day. I spent the morning in San Ramon with Melissa, who was so nice to do my hair and to take me shopping and have a fun memorable night. The perfect 19th birthday.

12/23
The birthday celebration continued on the next day where my mom, dad, Andrew, Carrie, and I all drove into San Jose and went to my favorite restaurant, Magiannos. After the delicious dinner, we went to the Sharks (my FAVORITE hockey team) game. It was the perfect birthday celebration.

Christmas

Christmas Day was so much fun. As usual, we woke up, finished getting everything in order, lined up on the stairs, and all ran down together. Being the youngest, I have always been in the front, but now with Audrey and Savy I was pushed back a little. We ran in, opened our Santa presents and stockings and then made a big Christmas breakfast, complete with buttermilk pancakes, home-made buttermilk syrup and all my favorites. After breakfast was done we headed down to B Gale Wilson (an elementary school) to play a game of mud football. It was a great, relaxing day. The next morning we woke up early and headed to the airport for our big Christmas present, our...

Carribean Cruise

We woke up early on the 26th and had a long day ahead. We drove to the airport where we met up with Luke, Melissa, and Savy and got on our first flight to Alberquice, New Mexico. From there we flew to Dallas, Texas, and then to Houston. Because of the weather, some of our flights were a bit delayed so when we got to Houston, our flight to Ft. Lauderdale had already left, so we ended up on a flight to Tampa Bay, Florida, where we spent the night and the next morning, took our 5th and final flight and were finally in Ft. Lauderdale. We met up with the rest of the family and all boarded the ship and were excited for the next week.

Key West, Florida
12/27

We were in Key West on Sunday so we took a taxi to church. It was fun to see all the local people and also get to walk around the town to see some of the sights.

Gerogetown, Cayman Islands
12/28


In the Cayman Islands we went to a place called String Ray Bay. We took a boat out into the ocean and we stopped at a place were the water was absolutely clear and there were HUGE stingrays swimming all over the place. We swam around with the string rays and even held them. They taught us how to pick them up hold them. It was such a fun day.

Rach, me, Andrew, and Ryan holding one of the string rays.

me, my mom, my dad and Andrew

Almost the whole family

Cozumel, Mexico
12/29

Melis, me, Savy, and Sara out in the water

Me and Andrew on scooters that we rented and drove around Mexico.
Thanks Ben for teaching me how to drive!

New Years Eve
12/31

Ben, Sara, Andrew, and me at dinner.

Me, Melis, Mom, and Rach on the top deck celebrating

Cayo Levantado, Dominican Republic
1/1

This was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We spent the day laying out, swimming out to the buoys, playing beach football and relaxing. The perfect day.
The last day on the ship was a day at sea and the weather wasn't very good so we stayed inside most of the day. It was the perfect opportunity to play lots of Hearts, eat lots of food, and just all hang out together.

Thank you Dad and Mom for such an amazing fun trip.

Keystone, Colorado
1/16 - 1/19

Carrie's family has a cabin in Colorado and for the 3 day weekend 8 of us drove up to Keystone and spent the weekend there. It was such a fun weekend, full of snowboarding, cards, relaxing, TV, movies, desserts, hot chocolate and more fun. Thank you so much to the Lineback family for letting us stay at your beautiful cabin, it really was an amazing weekend.

We pulled into Keystone Colorado late Friday night and stopped by a grocery store to get some food for the weekend. Saturday morning we woke up early, got ready and were on our way to the resort.

Torrie, me, and Sam on the bus on the way to Keystone.

Sam and me

Torrie, Sam, and me in the lodge after lunch getting warm by the fireplace

So I think this might be one of those 'you had to be there' pictures. Sam rides goofy (right foot forward) and I ride regular (left foot forward) so when we were in line it looked like we were standing back to back, so naturally we took a picture :)

All of us on top of the mountain

Me, Blake, and Andrew on the mountain
These boys are so good, they were nice to help me along.

On the bus on the way home from boarding
(we know we look gross, its just to show that we worked hard..)