Stag & Doe Party

Hiiiiii. Should I even bother apologizing? Probably not. Apparently that's annoying when bloggers apologize for not blogging for a while. But anyways, hello again! I won't make any excuses because you'll understand why I have been so busy through my next few posts.

So my best friend and cousin is getting married!! They got engaged in December of 2012 and their wedding will be June of 2014, so it's finally coming up soon!!

That's my beautiful cousin holding the champagne. :) This was over Thanksgiving break when we went dress shopping! Not only did she find the bridesmaid's dresses she had been looking at since she first got engaged, but she also found her wedding dress that day! I cannot wait to see her walk down the aisle in it.

Instead of the traditional separate bachelor and bachelorette party they decided they wanted to do a combined bachelor/bachelorette camping trip. And it was the best. thing. ever. I was there for three days, two nights. There was a lot of inappropriateness, alcohol, food, and amazing people. I seriously wish I could repeat it all over again.

The whole group!

Just in case you were wondering, yes...those are penis straws.

She had incredible aim and shot him right in the butt with the paintball gun. :)

Seth's beard is a result of a dare he made over two years ago. Yep...that bad boy has been a work in progress for two years! When Tricia first asked me if I would be able to come I told her I would try my best but it was kind of hard for me to get work off. Then she told me that we were going to shave Seth's beard and I knew that I HAD to be there!!

Okay but how cute are these mason jars?? Seth's best man's wife made them and bought one for each of us! On the other side it said Tricia & Seth Stag and Doe Party 2014. I'm honestly so obsessed with it! You can find these amazing glasses and much more at The Crafty Engineer's Etsy shop!

I cannot wait for June to come and for Tricia to say "I do" to Seth. And I just found out today that their wedding will be when Dillon has leave so he can come with me! Yayyyyeee! 

Christmas 2013

Thanksgiving, Graduation, and now Christmas! It had been an eventful couple months and it wasn't over yet!

I mentioned in my last post that my parents and brothers flew down for my graduation, and luckily they were all able to be here for Christmas Eve, as well! We all drove over to my Aunt's house in the evening and then went to church. My grandpa leads the youth band and they were playing at the Christmas Eve service. My grandpa is seriously so adorable playing on his keyboard and leading the teens.

 Okay seriously, excuse how white I am. I accidentally bought the wrong shade of Bare Minerals but it's so expensive that I didn't want it to go to waste. Little did I know just how terribly wrong the shade was. Especially with the flash of the camera. So yeah...sorry.

 My lovely sister and handsome cousin. 

 We call this family the "planned" family...my sister and I were planned babies, my brothers...not so much.

 This about describes the relationship of my siblings.

 Only slightly obsessed with our dresses and shoes. We got both dresses from Charlotte Russe and her booties are from Target and my heels are from Marshall's. I accidentally left my shoes there that night due to being slightly under the influence. I really hope I can get them back because I'm in love with them!

After that we went back to my Aunt's house to eat Krup Kracker, which is something I look forward to every single Christmas. It's a Norwegian dish (I think) and it's basically potato stuffed with ham. No description could do it justice, really. It's just delicious. After that we all sat down and opened presents. Then came the drinking, pool, beer pong, signs, and more drinking. It was an amazing night.

Unfortunately, my parents had a flight back to North Dakota at 6am Christmas morning, so my sister and I had to skip sleep and drive them to the airport. It was pretty sad that they weren't there for Christmas Day, but I was happy that we all got to spend Christmas Eve together as a family.

Christmas Day was definitely weird. Dillon drove home to spend the morning with his family. That left just my siblings and I staying in the house we were in over break. We woke up, watched No Strings Attached, played pool, and ate eggrolls. A little strange for Christmas morning, right? But it was honestly great. Later that day we went to my other Aunt's house for Christmas lunch and to spend time with family. It's really nice that pretty much my whole dad's side of the family lives in Arizona because we still have family around even if my parents aren't.

And that was Christmas, ya'll! Definitely far from normal, but altogether perfect.

A Trip to Flagstaff

The day after I came home from California I hopped in the car with my mom and sister and made the three(ish) hour drive up to Flagstaff. My sister goes to Northern Arizona University up there, and we decided to make a day of it to help her move into her new dorm and enjoy the cooler weather.

On the way up we literally drove through the clouds. I wish photographs accurately portrayed exactly how it looks because it was probably one of the coolest things ever.

Once we got there we went straight to unpacking the car and moving it all into her new dorm. She has an apartment-styled dorm which is really cool. It has a living room with a couch, table, and desks, a small kitchen, a separate bedroom where all three girls have their beds and closets, and then a bathroom. I wish UA had something like this!
Then we walked around the campus because my mom had never actually been able to walk around, and it had been years since I took my tour of the campus.

We're cute.

Then we went to chick-fil-a. Anyone who says Disneyland is the happiest place on earth is lying...bring me to a chick-fil-a and I'll be nothing but happy. ;)

My sister got annoyed of us really quick though. She says she has "trouble with transitions." I scoff at that, I just think she can get a little bitchy. But we love her none-the-less. :)

Unfortunately, Flagstaff is around a four hour drive from Tucson, but I might just have to suck it up soon because I miss her!!

What is This "Growing Up" Thing?

Honestly, though. When will I know how to do this "growing up" thing?

I have lived in Arizona my whole life. Born here, raised here, live here still.

So what happens when the rest of my family decides to move to North Dakota without me and my sister?

Will I really have a home anymore?

When will I see my family?

Do I really have to go to North Dakota for Christmas when it's in the negative temperatures?!?

These are all questions I have been asking myself.

I know plenty of people go to school out-of-state and that it's quite normal to not see your family save for the big holidays; but it seems very different for me to be staying in Arizona and the rest of my family moving on to the north. My sister and I are getting "left behind" because we are big girls in college now.

It's finally starting to hit me - my dad and brother have been living up there for three months now, but I never thought it would be permanent, and now my mom and brother are making the move up there at the end of this month.

I'm honestly feeling quite sad and lonely about the whole thing.

When Dillon left, I still had my family to support me and love me and cheer me up.

But now that family will all be far away, from 4 hours away (my sister) to 26 hours away.

So who do I have now?

Let me know when this growing up stuff will be fun, guys.

California Livin'

If you read this post then you know that I am staying with my grandparents in California right now. Even though I am here to help them out I have been enjoying this time between work and school. It has been really nice to talk with my grandparents - about how they grew up, about how they met, my mom's childhood, and even my early childhood. Even though I'm "on duty" 24-7, I have gotten a lot of time to relax by reading and tanning by the pool. I have been here for a week and I have gotten into a routine...one that I definitely can't complain about!

.*I was outside reading and my grandpa came out and asked me if I could "stand a margarita." Why yes grandpa, yes I can.

8:00am - Wake up time! Even though my grandma usually gets up before this time, it's around now that she makes coffee and wants breakfast. So Emily to the rescue! ;) Mainly she just needs someone to carry over her coffee to the table, and then help getting all the things she needs for breakfast.

10:00am - By this time we are all either sitting in the living room reading our books or I am out in the backyard tending to the garden. On Sunday I spent a good two hours or so outside watering all the plants. She has tomato plants, citrus trees, and flowers galore!

Although this is a tiring feat, I am loving it. It definitely helps that I'm able to do all this outside work in 70 degree weather instead of 100. I'm thinking that I want a lot of flowers blooming in my future home...and might even make it my semester project to plant some flowers in my college home!

And then this happened:

She wanted me to do some trimming of this plant so I went out with the little garden trimmers I had used before and she told me where to cut. While I was behind the bush she disappeared and came back with these ginormous clippers. You have to admit it's quite comical...my grandma in a leg brace with her walker, but using these clippers to cut her plants out front. That's what I call dedication!

12:00pm - Lunch time! We usually just have a sandwich and chips and depending on the weather we'll go outside to eat. Nothing too fancy, but it's just another nice time we get to chat.

2:00pm - It is around this time that I suit up and head for the pool. Before my aunt left she made sure I knew how to set up the rafts so that I could lay out and read in the pool. It is glorious. But because I have #whitegirlprobs I try to only stay out for about 30 minutes. I'm trying to just get a darker shade of white, not tomato red here. ;) So it's about an hour total tanning the back and front and getting my read on.

*I'm proud of myself because it only took me three tries to get this picture. But then my grandpa came out and asked me if I wanted him to take my picture and now I'm embarrassed.*

5:00pm - Dinner time! Can you tell I get excited about the times when food is involved??? 5 o' clock is a little early for me to be eating dinner, but what the grandparents want, the grandparents get! I don't do anything too fancy. My aunt said for dinner it's "meat, vegetable, salad." I can handle that! Grandma likes to feel helpful so she'll make the salad as I prepare the rest. Grandpa likes to have a glass of wine every evening with dinner and when he offers a glass to me, I only slightly hesitate. ;)

7:00pm - By this time we are all seated in our comfy chairs in the living room watching the news. I have to say, I never knew the news could be quite so interesting! We watch the 5 o' clock news; local and world news! After that we watch jeopardy. At first we were watching kid's week which was grand because I could at least answer some of the questions! Or is it question some of the answers... But then we got into the grown up stuff, and the only answer question I knew was "What is Doctor Who?" Figures. Then we'll either watch more TV, play a game, or read until bed time.

10:00pm - This is my "me" time when at least grandma is in bed and I hit the weights! Okay, not really. They have a bike that I have been riding for a few miles every night and then I do a tone it up work out. It may not be much, but it makes me feel good!

12:00am - Sleep..........and then repeat!

I could honestly see myself being a caregiver. 18 more days of this!!