Weekend with Dustin!

Dustin came down to Rexburg to visit this past weekend. Jeff came too and it was tons of fun. They got here Friday night and the party started! We gave them a tour around campus becasue it has changed so much since they have been here. Then we had a gourmet dinner at Jack in the Box and got delicious to-die-for iceream at G's Dairy. Then we watched a couple Office episodes and The Bourne Ultimatum. We stayed up late talking and I spent the night at Brett and Emily's. Dustin and I shared the air mattress and talked for awhile about life. =)


Then Saturday morning the guys went golfing and me and Emily just hung out and got ready. Then we had a family BBQ at Jenny and Adam's house which is a couple houses down from Brett and Emily's. It was really fun. I love being with my family members. Then Emily and I drove Katy and Stephen home and decided to go to Sonic and get an icee drink and hit up Cal Ranch store. I got a new cowboy hat for 7 bucks!! Nice. I love it and never want to take it off =) In front of the store there were these cute puppies in the bed of a truck and they were super nice. Then we went to the park and played games for a couple of hours and went back to Brett and Emily's for hot dogs and cookies. After dinner, we went to Rigby Idaho (Mom's hometown! =)) and went to The Riot Zone and went through a corn maze. It was tons of fun. We played tag and a bunch of us fell lots of times and it was even a little scary but so fun. We went home and hung out after. I spent the night again.

Sunday morning we got ready and went to church together. (some of us were sore from the corn maze =)) and had a delicious dinner by Emily and then Dustin and Jeff left. It was a really fun weekend. Thanks for coming up guys!! See ya Friday!

Brett, Emily and I are going to Utah this weekend. And Denae and kids get here tommorow. The party never stops in Rexburg!!

The pictures aren't in any order but enjoy!

Family

Freaky maze! It was dark and super windy that night, so it was awesome!

Best Friends

My new hat!

Softball!

I know that I just posted today but I had to post about our first softball game! It was tonight at 10 pm! It was tons of fun. We have 11 people on our team. They are all super cool people and I have a good time with them.
Here we are huddling up with the umpire and Cool Beans (the other team) to pray =)

Danny hitting the ball!

I couldn't switch this around for some weird reason... sorry. But its Emily killing the ball!

Team Smalls. From left: Lorry and David (Brett and Emily's cool neighbors), Bret and Emily, me, Stephen (cool cousin from my dad's side), Katy (Emily's fun best friend), Bryce (cool guy from our home stake), and Danny (cool cousin from mom's side). And then we have another couple who are Brett and Emily's friends.

We won 15-12!!! Slaughtered them =)

We have a game once a week. It's fun!

Family Home Evening

These are my FHE brothers minus one. Jason was out with his fiancee.

It goes Ephraim, me, Brad and Mark is the one laying across us.

They are a lot of fun. The other day we went to the demolition derby. I have never been to one and it is pretty cool. I had fun. Only in Idaho =)



Our FHE family is the four guys and then me and my roommates and the dorm right next door to us. That is Laura, my roommate, and Kimberly, from next door.
This is me, Jordyn, Kimberly, and Kathleen from next door.

A few of us also hiked R mountain the other day. It was fun. We hiked to the top and wached the sunsent. Idaho is so pretty. We had a perrfect view of all the surrounding area, including the Snake River. Beautiful.

Horseback Riding

I love horses. They are incredible animals. I especially love riding horses. It is so so so fun. On Saturday I went with Brett and Emily to a dinner with Brett's coworkers. A guy Brett works with has three horses and he brought a couple. Right when I got there, he came riding up and said "Hop on!"

I got on Sherwin Williams (kinda weird name, I know) and me and brother Shaum (Sp) went off. It was so fun. We went all through the forest and then came out in a field and ran with them. I loved it. He said that no one ever rides them so I can whenever I want. I'm so excited. I am going to go all the time.

Sherwin and Blacky (creative huh? =) )

Me and Sherwin




Emily and Blacky

Brett and Blacky


WOO HOO!

Also in the morning I did the ropes course up here on campus with some other kids. It was a little scary but mostly just fun.

My Sweet Brother

I am blessed with an amazing family. Seriously, an awesome family. Immediate AND extended. They are all just awesome and there is no one I'd rather hang out with.

They do things for me all the time. They call and talk to me and do little things that are so thoughtful and kind and really mean a lot to me. They have always taken care of me.

This specific post is about my brother Brett. He is a great brother and really sensitive, thoughtful and fun. I am really glad he is up here in Idaho with me. Emily too. They are lots of fun.




This morning I had an hour break in between classes and I got a call from Brett. He said he was coming over. Then a few minutes later he called again and told me to open my door with my eyes closed. So I did, let him in and he walked past me into my bedroom, came back out and said I could open my eyes. We talked for a minute and then he had to run to work.

I then went into my bedroom and found this on my desk.


How sweet is that? He left me a little note, some candy and beautiful flowers. It was so nice and made my day.

That is just one example of the great brother Brett is. And the overall fantastic family I am blessed with.

I love you Brett, thanks for everything!

Dorm Scare

So the other day I came home to an empty dorm. It was dark outside and nobody was home. I went to the bathroom to get ready for the dance. Look what I found on the bathtub...





FREAKY!!! I thought there was some scary killer man in my dorm. So I kind of freaked out a little and quickly got ready and left early.

I found out later that some maintenance guys had come to fix the bathtub and left their knife. Weird, I know. Anyways, that was my first dorm scare.

Also, if you want to send me anything (hint hint teasin!), my address is:

114 Perkins Hall
525 S Center Street
Rexburg, Idaho
83460-0031

Moving in at BYUI

Today I moved into the Virginia Perkins Residence hall at BYU-Idaho. I was the first one there so I got first dibs on my room and bed and bathroom cupboard. Then I met my roommates. They are nice. One is from London so she has a sweet accent. Mom, Dad, Brett and Emily showed me around, got my books, helped me unpack and we all got lunch at the new awesome eatery.

Then they left me.

It was sad. I cried.

I met my RA and some older students walked around and put numbers on each door. Then a roommate and I walked down to the stadium where orientation was starting. We went to the number that was on our door and met a group of boys and girls- my I-team. We played games and got to know each other and for the next two days we'll be with our I-team and go through all the activities of orientation.

Then we walked back and I organized my room. I talked to some siblings on the phone and made my first dinner at college. A hot pocket. I ate with another roommate.

Then a knock on the door announced the arrival of 20 guys that dragged me off to an off campus party. It was fun and I met a lot of people. Tomorrow night there is an all freshman dance on the stadium field. Then on Thursday classes start and I truly begin my college experience.

So right now I am not feeling too bad but I do feel a little lonely and am nervous for classes to start. But it is an adventure and I'll survive. I miss everyone though.

Here are some pictures of my room and roommates.




More to come on college. I'll keep you updated.

College

I have 1 more day left at home. We leave Saturday morning bright and early for Rexburg, Idaho. I move in on Monday to my new home. It's crazy. I've lived in Walnut Creek my entire life and now I am about to go live somewhere else by myself. I don't think I have ever been away from home for more than a week and now here I go for a long time.

Some worries I have:

1) My roommates. I hope they are cool and not crazy. I hope we all get along and that I enjoy coming home after class. I hope we have fun together.

2) Friends. Besides my roommates I hope I make friends. I hope I like my ward and that I don't get a super hard calling right away (teasin except not really). I hope our activities are fun and that I can meet some cool people.

3) My classes. I hope I enjoy my classes but mostly I hope I don't fail them. They can be boring as long as I pass. I hope I find something I love and pursue it.

4) Boys. I hope there are some cute, fun boys to hang out with =)

5) Me. The above worries mostly depend on me. I hope I can be sociable and outgoing and put myself out there and really have an adventure. I hope I can be brave and do things I wouldn't normally do. I hope I don't let the homesickness eat me alive.


Those are some worries but overall this is a new adventure and I am excited.

My special wallet

Right now I am busy packing for college. But packing your whole life away is quite the task. So, I'm taking a break. Before I go onto the topic of this post, here are some pictures of my room right now.



It's exhausting sitting here looking at all I have to do before Saturday... so I want to share with everyone my special wallet. I don't know when I started this but it was at least two years ago. It may seem silly but I am actually proud of my little wallet.

Every time I go to a movie or a play or a sporting event or some activity that gives me a ticket of some kind I put it in this wallet. I also write on the back of the ticket who I was with, whether the activity (movie, play etc) was good or not and anything special that happened (so and so tried to hold my hand! or talked to the stars afterward! etc). It is really fun to go back and read what I thought that night, who I was with and stuff. And if I want to rent a movie I can go back and see which ones I liked and which ones I said were bad. (When Dustin got back from his mission we whipped the wallet out and went through all the movies and made a list of the ones Dustin wanted to see)

Here are a couple pictures of my special wallet. I need to get a second one soon because this one is bursting!
Now back to sitting at the piles and piles of things to pack.