It's spring!  I got a whole glorious four days off of school before spring term started on Tuesday.  We had a pretty good time in those few days though.  Here's the highlights. Sorry it's an insanely long post.

The day after my last final, Megan and I celebrated with doing...a whole bunch of fun things.  Shopping mostly.  We took a picture at every step of the journey so I decided just to include one. This is symbolic of our trip to Costco where Megan bought batteries and a diet coke with lime.  Exciting, I know.  We also decided that we were going to make friendship bracelets.  You know, 12 year old style.  I remember making them.  And I remember it being fairly simple.  Well, after 2 movies, and about half a bracelet, we realized that friendship bracelet making is actually a skill.

I moved.  Not very far.  Just across the way into a different apartment in my same ward.  Three nice boys helped me move my stuff in the pouring rain.  This picture is of my friend Brad trying to be as efficient as possible.  So thanks boys for moving my stuff and getting soaking wet in the process.
Brian and I went to visit Jen at school after we finished with our finals.  She asked us to pick up some sea shells for her before we came.  And we did.  But we also had a little extra time so we stopped at the Target dollar spot and picked up a nice metal pail and a gnome for Jen.  I know, we are hysterical.  Anyway, it was a good time.  And a fun way to liven up the fourth grade.

Since it's officially spring, we all have this very intense and uncontrollable desire to be outdoors as much as possible.  It's extremely conducive to studying...  We decided the other day to hike Stewart Falls.  Supposedly it's a quick hour to hour and a half hike up the canyon.  Well, we found the trailhead, but due to a large and unexpected amount of snow, we never managed to actually follow the trail.  So instead, we wandered around for a couple of hours falling into holes in the snow and crossing rivers.  It was pretty great.

This happened about a hundred times that day.  Funnily enough, Megan was running away from me after chucking a snowball at me and then one of her legs broke through the snow.  I was laughing at her and still running to attack when what should happen--one of my legs fell through the snow.  It was pretty great.

This is our good friend Stephanie attempting to cross this raging river.  The really funny thing was that there was a bridge about 100 feet away.  And we all knew about it.  I think we would all agree though, that doing it this way was much more entertaining.

Look how deep the snow is!  Isn't that crazy?  Megan is standing on top of a picnic table.  In case you couldn't tell.  Yeah, three feet of snow?  Crazy.

I love this picture.  We spent a long time and a lot of takes of this picture trying to make it perfect.  Scott and Brian were too tall so they kept having to duck awkwardly.  So finally, we just decided to have everyone stand up straight and just take the picture.  And this is the amazing result.  I love it.  Megan and I's faces are both completely visible, Stephanie's half visible and the boys just completely covered.  Oh man.  It's so great.

And here's the one that actually worked.  Stephanie, Megan, Brian, me and Scott.

Locked Out

Generally, I am a very structured person. I like to have plans and I like to stick to them. Spontaneity is not something I'm very good at. Which is why I think it's really good that days like today sometimes happen to me. This morning, I had a final. Of course, I didn't study for it Friday night, so I got up super early to go to campus and study and take my final. I was coming back home from my test this morning at 8:30 ready for my planned day; a quick nap, a run, shower, lunch and then studying. One problem: I was locked out. Last night, I played racquetball and left my keys in my racquetball bag. Oops.

So what did I do? I spent half an hour trying to break into my apartment. I unfortunately know it's possible because my roommate used to do it last semester. I couldn't figure it out though. I tried a few windows, a credit card in the door...nothin. So I went to Brian's. No answer. Then I see my good friend Lee. I convinced him to come back to my apartment and try to break in again. Because I thought, if anyone can break into an apartment, it would be Lee. We were unsuccessful but we did however do a service to mother nature. I have never been more disappointed not to have a camera. So I apologize for the lack of documentation because it would have been good. While trying to pry my bathroom window open, we saw a robin stuck upside down in a tree, with its foot caught in a string that was tied to a branch. So of course, Lee ran home for his pocket knife, climbed the tree and set the bird free. It was magical. Especially when the bird started attacking Lee. After a few more unsuccessful attempts at forcing ourselves into my apartment, I spent the next two hours watching Lord of the Rings with Macsen, Lee's roommate.

Long story short (too late, huh?), I didn't do anything I meant to do today. But somehow, I had a very fulfilling morning. I guess a little spontaneity does a body good. Especially in the middle of finals. So here's to hoping we all get locked out. Just once.

Nationals!

So, Nationals blew my mind.  I watched more racquetball than I have seen in my entire life in four days.  Some people might think that this would make a person really sick of racquetball.  But pretty much all I've wanted to do since I got back from nationals is play racquetball.  Which is a problem considering I have finals a week from today. There's not exactly a ton of spare time to fantasize about racquetball.  But who cares about grades anyway?  Don't worry, mom and dad, that was a joke.  I do care about my grades...unfortunately.  Life would really be a kick in the pants otherwise. :) 

 Anyway, I did pretty well individually and our team did awesome-ly (that's my attempt at being grammatically correct while still using the word that I feel best fits there) as well.  I placed third in singles and first in doubles in my division.  Our overall team got third place and our women's team took second!  We were all pretty excited.  Apparently ( I wouldn't really know since this was my first year) the competition, at least for the girls, like doubled in intensity from last year.  So I guess we should be doubly proud of second place.  

So, all in all, I had an absolute blast.  I love racquetball, I love our team, I love warm weather, I love my family and I love winning. :)  I got to experience all of those things at nationals.  It was really great.  So here's some pictures in review.  Enjoy!

PS- Brian did come.  I promise. Sorry I didn't get any pictures to document his being there.  Maybe he got some??

Sightseeing with mom and dad in Sedona.  We had a nice old lady take this picture of us.  I'm glad it turned out because it was so windy the poor thing almost blew over while trying to take the picture!

These signs were pretty ridiculous.  I just had to disobey them.  Just a little bit.  In case you can't read it, it says no in about 20 different languages and then says, "Don't climb on the rocks!" or something to that effect.

I thought this picture was pretty cool.  Especially considering I took it out of the window of a 

moving car.  New Zealand style. :)

The girls. Top row: me, Hilary, Katherine.  Bottom row: Liza, Charlotte, Jessica.

Coach Val!  I love this woman.

This is just everybody watching, or trying to watch, an intense match.  Men's doubles I believe. 

 

This is me and my doubles partner, Hilary.  Getting a normal picture of this girl is about the hardest thing on the planet.  So believe it or not, this is the best one we got.

Me with my medals.  A bronze and a gold. They say "national champion" on them which, not gonna lie, makes me feel pretty important.

The team.  I could've put a serious team picture up here but they all looked funny.  Surprisingly enough, this was the best option.