Ahhh Yeeeah

It is Friday once again!

And this is how I feel:

Such a glorious day, Friday.

I figured I would share with you a few things that even made the week pretty sweet. And since I never filled you in about my weekend, I decided to throw some stuff in here about that, too!

Went out with these two beautiful ladies on Saturday night. We had an amazing night, too. We met up with Beca's brothers at this place called Rula Bula which is an Irish pub on Mill. They had a live band doing covers which was really cool, and one guy in the band played an electric violin which is automatically awesome.

We stayed out until closing time, went to a place called Slices to get pizza, witnessed a massive fight, had to quickly get out of the way so we wouldn't get maced, and then headed back to Beca's house. 

Exciting, right?

Then we ended up staying up all night talking. It was seriously so nice to just have some girl time and talk about everything and anything. I think I mentioned before that Beca and I have known each other since high school and we were roommates our freshman year of college. It has been great to catch up! I seriously miss this girl.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without this girl. She is moving to Texas in a week and I think I might die. We are the kind of friends that can go weeks without talking and even months without seeing each other but still consider each other best friends, so I know that will never change. But it's going to definitely be weird to be states apart instead of a mere hour and a half drive. I'm not-so-secretly hoping she stays for a month or two, realizes she misses me just too damn much, and then comes home.

Sunday was spent with my sister. It was her 19th birthday on Monday but since I would be in Tucson that day I told her that we could do anything she wanted on Sunday! We ended up going out to eat at Panda Express and then to the movies to see This Is The End. 

What?? You haven't seen this movie yet??

Go. It's hilarious. I don't go to the movies often because I'm way too cheap for that,

but this movie was totally worth it!

Then I took my sister shopping at Forever 21. Sometimes you can go there and never find anything worth buying, but this was not one of those times. I may or may not have bought a few things for myself. Whoops.

Then we went back home and watched Breaking Dawn Part II and laughed our heads off at how ridiculous it is. I apologize if you are a Twilight fan but...no. The movie was hilariously awful. The only time I even remotely cared was when Jasper *died*. Him and Charlie are the only great things about the movies.

For work we recently went on two field trips. One was to the Tucson Children's Museum. She had an absolute blast!

This was her favorite, and we actually spent the majority of the time in this room. It's just a series of tubes and there is air rushing through it. The kids can put fluffy balls and scarves through it and flip switches to determine which way the air will flow and where the things will come out! She loved just watching it and actually fell on the floor because she was giggling so hard. It was precious. I especially love this picture because it's actually two moms playing with it while the kids just had to stand there and watch. I guess it's fun for all ages! :)

Yesterday we went to Pump It Up which is a facility with a bunch of bounce houses such as slides and obstacle courses. She really enjoyed this trip, too! Unfortunately I can't post any pictures because I feel it's against her privacy as a camper. But I really wish you could see her laughing all the way down the slide!

Just got this in the mail today from Dillon! He brought this all the way back from Germany! It is peach liquor, homemade by German farmers. This is probably the best gift he could have gotten me from Germany. And it was a semi-surprise! I knew he was sending it to me but I was completely surprised to see the package at my door today because when it didn't come at it's scheduled day yesterday, D realized he sent it to the wrong address! We were thinking they would have to send it back to him and then he would have to resend it but thankfully they figured out the mix-up and got it delivered! It was really warm when I first unwrapped it so I put it in the fridge and I will try it tomorrow! 

Speaking of D, he officially booked my flight up to Colorado in just nine days! I am feeling really blessed to have this upcoming weekend. Things have been pretty rough lately since he was in Germany for three weeks (nine hour time difference...no thank you) and he also doesn't get to come home for summer leave. It is going to be really nice to have some time together to reconnect and refresh our relationship.

And that is all my lovin's for the week! I'm looking forward to a nice weekend, and I hope you are, too!

The Story of My Life

I was born on a hot summer day as the first born to two pretty awesome people. They loved me greatly for two years before deciding I just wasn’t good enough, and out popped my beautiful sister. We were planned and therefore boring so SURPRISE! two adorable boys came in the years after. This big family of six has been one of my biggest blessings. I have two parents who are still together and in love and three siblings who are pretty much forced to be my best friends. And I love it.

When I was in sixth grade my parents decided that a giant move was necessary. Not so giant seeing as it was only 30 minutes away, but I thought it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. I now honestly think it is one of the best. Out of that move came some really rough times for this pre-teen, but I now have some of the best people in my life because of it including my best friend.

The boyfriend is also one of them. Neither of us expected anything serious to come out of it, but we soon fell in love and lived happily ever after. Except not really. Out of our three and a half year relationship, three of those years have been spent separated by distance. I am still waiting for the “ever after” but he makes me happier than anything.

Not the most exciting life, but I think it is grand.

_________________________________________________________________________________

So that's my life in 250 words! It was an idea I got from the "Blog Everyday in May" challenge and even though it said 250 words or less, I have always been a little OCD about stuff like that, so you can check it...it's 250 words exactly.

That Time I (Left You in Suspense)

I know you have been waiting all week to see my next post about the cruise, but unfortunately you're going to have to wait one more week before you find out the next fun adventure!

Summer has me pretty messed up schedule-wise.

I seriously love summer, but it's hard for me to find the energy to do anything...even blog.

(Because honestly blogging can be pretty time-consuming!)

Especially after a 7+ hour work day, I just like to come home and snuggle in bed with my teddy bear and watch some Netflix. (Currently I'm rewatching Pretty Little Liars.) I always aspire to accomplish so much in the summer, but laziness takes hold of me, plus the summer heat of Arizona is honestly energy-sucking. 

Here are some of my summer goals that I have yet to accomplish (or even come close to accomplishing):

1. Read...a lot!

I'm currently only on my first official "summer book" which is honestly just pathetic. I need to hop off Netflix and dive into my books! I'm reading Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, which is the sequel to Shatter Me. If you haven't read these books yet DO IT!

2. Work out consistently

I'm pretty sure I have done a grand total of...zero workouts this summer. Unless you count the Harry Potter work out I attempted to do with my sister, but the video was loading too slow and I had more important plans that weekend (like turning 21).

3. Blog Good

I am sure you have already noticed my lack of good blogging. My goal has been to make at least one more blog post in the current month than the previous month. So far so good, but in order to keep it up I'll have to blog every day for the next five days...probably not going to happen. :/

4. Learn how to play guitar

Okay so this one is actually going a little better than the rest! I had my sister teach me a few chords this past weekend and so I can now kind of play What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. There are a couple other songs I have attempted but they require a capo and I don't have one quite yet. But my roommate called me a rockstar the other day...so success!

5. Decorate my room

I recently (like a month ago) switched rooms and I still haven't gotten around to putting up all my pictures and making sure everything is organized. I'm not the kind of person who can't handle a little clutter so this one might take all summer, even though I don't even have that much stuff to organize.

So do you get the picture?

Summer = Lazy Emily

But I am really hoping I'm not the only one!

Send me good vibes and hopefully I can gain some motivation to actually put a dent in these goals!

Alex @ Let Life Be Like Music//Just Because

That Time I (Went on a Speedboat Adventure)

Part Two of That Time I (Went on a Cruise)

The first full day of the cruise was what they liked to call "Fun Day at Sea" which meant that we would not be getting off on an island that day. Totally fine! It was so much fun to explore the ship! There were too many rooms to count and so much free food to eat! Come on, you guys know the best part of a cruise is the food, right?? ;)

I was so excited for the second day, but honestly really nervous, too. We would be docking in Grand Turk and doing a Reefs and Rays excursion. I don't know why I was so nervous - getting off the ship and having the possibility of getting stranded on an island sound fun? No thanks! But I woke up bright and early ready to step on land when the captain made an announcement - we would not be getting off the ship that day. The winds were too strong for us to be able to get to the docking area safely. At first I honestly wasn't that bummed out. I thought the ship was fun, we would get refunded for the excursion, and I could sleep in a little longer.

Then the second day came and we were actually able to dock safely!

So our first stop: La Romana! The third-largest city in the Dominican Republic.

And our excursion: Speedboat Adventure!

I am still amazed by how amazingly gorgeous this island was. The speed boat took us to a small island off of La Romana, which I can't remember the name of now. You can see as many pictures of this gorgeous water as you want, but nothing compares to actually seeing it in person. I was just in awe the entire time. We stayed on the beach for a little while and then they took us out to a natural pool, where even though we were in open water, it was shallow enough for us to stand in. That's where Dillon's cousins found that awesome starfish! I definitely didn't want this excursion to end, and little did I know that it was our only real beach day! Once I was off the boat and onto this gorgeous island, I started to get a little more upset that we had missed our excursion the day before. Nonetheless, this excursion was amazing! Walking along the beach and actually being able to be in the ocean without being afraid of what might be down there...just pure bliss!

Oh, and there may or may not have been an open bar where we got free coke and rum the entire time. Nothing will ever compare to this drink in the Caribbean, there is something about their rum that is just so much better!

Just saying!

Make sure you come back next week to see pictures from the excursion in Curacao!

And as always, hop on over to Alex's blog to see her That Time I post!

Link Up: Just Because

Weekend Happenings

This past weekend was a fun and relaxing one. I love that my job is a Monday-Friday job so I still get to enjoy the weekends without any stress.

Friday

A nice relaxing night with my roommate Brittany.

We watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Jumper. I hadn't seen either of these movies before (shame on me) and I really enjoyed both of them! Adam Sandler is always amazing, then throw in Kevin James and you automatically have a hit. 

Saturday

Drove home around noon and hung out with my sister and her friend Klay. She has been all by her lonesome since the rest of my family has moved up to North Dakota for the summer. It was strange going home and not actually seeing most of my family, but it was nice to see the sister, none the less.

And then there was Saturday night.

Went out with these two lovely ladies, who you may recognize from this post! It was my first time going out with them and we had an amazing time! I have known both of them since my freshman year of college and although I have been fairly close with Sayra since then, Meghan and I just started getting close this past year.

In all honesty, I love being 21. But it's really not all about the drinking. It's fun to be out and socialize with friends and just have a great time. We started at Handlebar, which is the first place I went to when I first turned 21 and then we went to a place called Cue Club because Meghan had some friends there and they had billiards, so it was fun just sitting and watching the game!

Sunday

I had to wake up bright and early to head back home to help my sister irrigate. Our house is on two acres of land so instead of the convenient sprinkler system most people have, we actually have to open up some ports and let the water pour through for five hours! What's nice is that we only have to go out there a few times to open and close ports, so it's not like we are out there in the sun for five hours straight. During that time we just watched TV and Sarah played some guitar for me!

She recently learned how to play I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz which is just a beautiful song in general, and even more beautiful when it's my sister playing and singing. I told her that she has to play it at my wedding. :)

And that was my weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well, and that the week hasn't been too harsh on you!

Linking Up: Mingle Monday and Weekend Shenanigans

Tid + Bits

Here are some tid + bits of life!

Honestly not too much has been going on around here.

The wedding has been the highlight of my life lately, but I'll let you enjoy my not-so-exciting life with some pictures. :)

We went on a field trip to the local zoo last week at camp! It was really nice to get out of the J and our regular routine. Her favorite thing was watching the fish, which was unfortunate because I greatly dislike fish when they are massive and ugly. We probably spent a good 45 minutes of our 2 hour trip watching the fish. Anything to make her happy though! When we did finally venture out, I was super excited to see the elephants. Of course, she was incredibly uninterested in elephants, but she loved the xylophone right outside of the exhibit!

I made this picture smaller because, well, who really wants to see a scorpion that large? My dad and I were walking around our property and he lifted up an old boat tube that was in the dirt, and this sucker went running from underneath it. You probably can't tell, but the thing is huge! It is the second largest scorpion I have ever seen. And apparently it just wasn't my night because shortly after, as I was packing Tuck up to bring him home with me, a huge black widow spider climbed out of the towel that was under his tank right by my hand. It was so scary and I was paranoid all night that it had bitten me without me knowing and I was going to lose my hand or something. A little dramatic? No - fully warranted!

I am loving my new bathroom! I recently moved...rooms. I am still in the same house but since two of my roommates moved out I moved across the house into the master bedroom! Due to my lazy nature busy schedule I haven't been able to fully organize my bedroom, but I think my bathroom looks damn good! ;) 

Speaking of roommates, my amazing new roommates got me this record player for my birthday! They knew I wanted one ever since we went to Goodwill and I found a record player. I really wanted to buy it (it was only $7!) but I put it down for literally ten seconds and some guy came and swooped it up. So tragic. But now that I have this beauty I am so happy! Then my daddy so generously gave me all his records! I decided that I would listen to every single record he gave me - currently I'm jammin' to REO Speedwagon!

Last night I went to Pasco Kitchen & Lounge with a couple friends. This place was the cutest, and they only use/serve local ingredients. I had some mini tacos and then my drink is on the left, which is a Boss Lady's Strawberry Fields (Bombay Sapphire gin, house-made strawberry cordial, Belstar sparkling wine, freshly squeezed lemon). It was so yummy! My friend Sayra had a Peach Barrel (Woodford Reserve Bourbon, muddled peach and mint leaves, Benedictine, freshly squeezed lemon juice, peach and old fashioned bitters) and then Becca had a delicious water. I love her response to when a waiter asks if she wants a drink, "I'm 20 and Mormon, so no thank you!" Haha, she is super adorable, and the ultimate DD. ;)

The above three pictures are a few that Dillon has sent me from Germany! I'm not going to lie, I am super jealous! He seems to be having an amazing time - he does have class every morning during the week but they have done a lot of fun tours of the cities. As happy as I am for him, I would by lying if I said I don't have a countdown for when he finally comes back to the States. This nine hour time difference thing is just not working for me!

source

Lastly, please keep Colorado in your thoughts and prayers as the Black Forest fire continues to blaze. It is the most destructive fire in Colorado's history, already destroying around 360 homes and is (last I heard) only 5% contained. The Waldo Canyon fire last year had my heart racing as D was evacuated from the Academy due to the fire being so close. This fire hits close to home again as my cousins were evacuated from their home a couple days ago and the fire is only about 1 mile from their home. Honestly, I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it because their home has become a kind of second home to me when I visit D, and I just can't imagine my cousin not having a home to go back to.

I am sorry to leave it on such a sad note, but I for one am happy it is finally Friday and finally pay day! I hope this Friday is joyous and that the weekend is even better!

Link Up: Crowley Party and Let's Be Friends

That Time I (Went on a Cruise)

Part One

You may not like me for this, but this is going to be a very short and sweet post about that time I went on a cruise. Due to me being lazy my busy schedule, short posts are all I can seem to handle recently. Although I do find that once I start writing, I can usually get in the groove and I don't mind staying up until 1am a little later than normal to write a decent post. But because I want to capitalize on this amazing time of my life, I'll break it up, and that way you can enjoy it more, too!

When Dillon first told me his family wanted to go on a cruise over Christmas break of 2012 and I was invited, I was super torn. With D being at the academy, Christmas and summer breaks are the longest amount of time we are able to spend together (and that's only about three weeks for each). So when he told me it was a week long cruise, I knew that I had to go. There was no way I was losing 1/3 of the time we would spend together. However, this meant that it would be my first Christmas away from my family. I know I'm growing up and it had to happen eventually, but it made me really sad that I kind of had to choose between D and my family. My family is incredibly important to me, and special holidays such as Christmas are always spent together with amazing traditions. It took me a long time and a lot of tears before I finally decided I would take up his family's offer to let me tag along. Plus, his grandma told me that I was already like family, so of course I was invited to go on the cruise; too sweet to refuse!

Remember that time I went to Canada? That was the first time I had left the country, and then this would be my second! Both times with Dillon, awh! ;)

I'll add a collection of pictures of the ship and some of my favorite photos from the week. I hope these will hold you over until my next that time I where I will go more into detail about our excursions!

I think the ship had 13 or so levels total. These slides were a blast!

The room I shared with D's mom. It was a lot more spacious than I was expecting, and it actually had two bathrooms which was extremely convenient. And we shared a door with D and his brother which was nice to have him so close.

D in front of the cruise ship at night in Curacao. It's actually quite pretty.

Us on the beach in La Romana. I could not get over how beautiful the water was. I usually greatly dislike oceans, but who wouldn't love this??

I'm really excited to continue posting about the cruise! This is definitely a trip I need to document because I want to remember everything! I'll go in order of the exact excursions in which we went to La Romana, Curacao, and then Aruba!

As always, check out the lovely Alex to see her That Time I post! :)

Have you ever been on a cruise? Tell me all about it!

Happy, Happy Weekend

This weekend...amazing.

It is hard to describe it any other way.

I won't bore you with the small details of my weekend.

The only thing really worth posting about is my cousin's wedding that was on Saturday!

So let me first start off by saying this:

Congratulations to my amazing cousin, Jacob, and his beautiful bride, Kayelee.

Your wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I have tears in my eyes as I write this, because I am just so proud of you big cousin, and I am so happy to welcome Kayelee into the family.

Sorry guys, no professional photos. Just good ol' iPhone photos, and some stolen from Facebook!

Now let me tell you, I never expected Jacob to be the first one married out of us cousins (on my dad's side). It's not like there's anything wrong with him, I just honestly never saw it coming! But after seeing him so incredibly happy to walk down the aisle with his new wife, I can tell that they're so in love, and nothing makes me happier.

My family before the ceremony.

My adorable cousin, Trigve, as the ring bearer. The poor flower girl didn't even make it a second before she burst into tears! Luckily Trigve made it all the way down the aisle before lying down on some chairs to take a quick nap. ;)

First dance. <3

Don't let the color of the drink fool you...Raspberry Smirnoff and Sierra Mist, courtesy of my amazing father. Since I was under his care, he was more than happy to buy me a drink. :)

My beautiful cousin and best friend, Tricia (far left). I have missed her so much, it was great to be reunited! I cannot wait for her wedding next May!

This is one of my favorite pictures I took from the night. My grandma and grandpa dancing with the bride and groom. When they announced they were doing the dances with the bride and groom my grandma ran so fast so that she could get the first dance!

Me and the groom dancing! :)

My dad and the groom (his nephew). My dad got in line behind me and I asked him if he was in the wrong line...nope!

Yeah, this happened. She's sitting on my cousin Ryan, who was also the best man...good times guys, good times.

Just look at that sunset. Almost as beautiful as this amazing couple!

I have to admit, I'm still a little bit in disbelief that my big cousin is now a married man. My cousins and I grew up together, always spending holidays as a family. I feel like that is kind of rare for cousins to be as close as we all are, but I am so happy that I was able to share my childhood with them, and so happy that we get to enjoy these major life steps now that we are all older.

So again, congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Corpron!

I know you two will have an amazing life together, and I am so happy I was able to be a part of your special day! <3 Oh, and just so you know, not only was the whole wedding amazing, but the food was the best food I have ever had at a wedding! ;)

Linking up: Mingle Monday and Weekend Shenanigans