After 6 years of living in Utah, Dallin finally bought himself the Sundance ski pass.  He kept insisting that I join him one day so I could learn how to snowboard, and I'll be honest--I was terrified and always said "maybe another time."  My primary excuse was that I didn't want to leave Beckham all day, which was a valid concern for me. So Dallin called up his mom, someone we both trust very much, to fly in town from AZ and babysit Beckham while we went snowboarding. We all went to the store together to find me cute snowboarding getup.

Dallin's dad and stepmom happened to be in town the same weekend and decided to join us at Sundance.  Dallin thought that, because I picked up long boarding pretty easily as an adult, I would be able to pick up snowboarding just as easily (neither of us love skiing, but Dallin LOVES snowboarding).  I went down the bunny hill three times before we decided it was time to try a real run.  After one or two times down the green run, I was apprehensive to keep going.  But then we went down a blue run, the "Maverick," and I was shocked when it was actually pretty fun! We the Maverick a few times and my husband and in-laws kept complimenting me for doing so well for a first timer. I was very proud of myself for not falling down the whole run. At this point I was pretty hungry, but instead of going down to the main lodge for food, we took multiple lifts up to the restaurant at the very top of the mountain. By the time we arrived, I hurt all over from biffing it multiple times and was really exhausted from all the runs we had to take to get there.  Although the food restored my energy, being at the top of the mountain had me REALLY freaked out.  It took a lot for me just to start back down the mountain again, and to not throw up from everything I just ate.  I was quickly realizing that the reason I liked the Maverick run versus the first green runs or the blues we were doing now was because the Maverick was super wide, with no risk of me accidentally falling off a cliff.  Now I was facing both blue and green runs that were very narrow with steep drop-offs.  I'll admit I was a complete wreck.  When we got to a wide area on the middle of the mountain I finally had to stop and cry it out.  I had forgotten that I'm actually really scared of heights when I'm not hiking, and I had flashbacks to being a teenage cheerleader at the top of a stunt and feeling so scared and unsafe. I'll just say I was beyond relieved to finally make it to the bottom of the mountain and get back in the car after so many hours trying this new sport. 

I had been so embarrassed a lot of the day for falling so much and later getting so scared and emotional. But I'm grateful for my in-laws for being so supportive.  Dallin was a great coach and would even hold my arms and guide me while he snowboarded backwards down the mountain! 

Lastly, we got to watch our friend's cat. Suki is very timid and expresses her fear through hisses and growls.  The first few days, Arlo hid under the bed to escape the bed. And then suddenly they became best friends, chasing each other around with their chirps and purrs at all hours of the night. 

Playfully hunting each other

    My biggest hope is that Dallin can play volleyball next year.  I love watching him play, because his passion sparks when he's on the court.  He is so dedicated and has improved so much over the past couple of years since I watched his high schools games sitting next to his mom on the bleachers.
     Of course, we don't know what the future will hold.  Right now, we have a lovely summer apartment picked out, but there are many other uncertainties, including work.  Realizing the possibility that maybe just maybe Dallin won't be able to play volleyball next year, I decided to make it to at least one more tournament out of state.  With about a three-day's-notice and plans that were still up in the air until the night before, I crammed all my homework and tests in with the hope that maybe I could go to Arizona.  And I did! On Thursday night we rode with one of the players and his sweet mom and spent the night at their relatives' house in Vegas.    We were already back in Provo by Sunday late afternoon! But the 24 hours with my family were so worth it.
     My mom really wanted to squeeze in engagement photos for our invites. We got to Phoenix an hour or two before they had to ref, so my mom drove up clothes that Rachelle had bought Dallin.  I had already gotten ready in the car, so after Dallin quickly changed, we tried to find a place to take engagement pictures for our invites.  We drove straight towards the cactus-speckled mountain in the attempt to take some epic, stereotypical Arizona shots with my camera, but it was too bright, so we snapped 100 more in the manicured entrance of a fancy neighborhood. It works, right?
      We said hi briefly to Dallin's family and watched the first set, and then my mom and I booked it down to Mesa to watch Eric play in the Scarlet Pimpernel.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat with Dad, and as we entered the theatre, it was nostalgic to see all my old music and acting teachers. At home, I met the huge new Bernie puppy, Oakley, and then the five of us family members went to BJ's for pizookies {as was always tradition}.  Liv left early to go dumpster diving behind Krispie Kremes for donuts to decorate her friend's lawn.
      Mom, Dad, and I left in the morning to watch the entire Saturday tournament. We of course visited Liv at work first.  During the tournament, we sat next to Dallin's dad, Dan, who still has to ride around in a scooter after his horse accident.  The boys smashed it! We were definitely on our feet screaming by the end. They were matched with teams that were at an equal skill level, which meant that every game was cutting it close.  When the ref made a terrible call, the boys got so angry that they upped their game and turned the score around. They won every single game and ended up winning the entire conference!
     We were sad to say goodbye, but we realized that the next time Dallin and I came home and saw the family, we would be getting married!

   I've never been so excited to take an anatomy test as when I knew that, the second I finished, I could leave for California.  I took the exam the very minute of the first day it open so that I could enjoy every second of our trip.  UVU had a volleyball tournament, so I offered my car to take Dallin and I and the couple we doubled with the week before for the ten hour drive to the coast.  Maybe it's all in my head, but I swear one can smell the difference in the air-- California is just gorgeous.  In the morning, I jogged a mile from the Air B-n-B to the beach {just like the good ole times in Hawaii} and then we spent several hours at the beautiful white campus for the tournament.
 The next morning, Dal and I snatched a bird scooter off the sidewalk for a dollar and rode back to the beach together.  I thought that since we had left Provo it would be warm enough to swim; it was a little too windy for that, but luckily we found a cozy breakfast restaurant {thanks to another kind cafe owner who suggested it!}.  The boys played even harder for this next tournament.  I was freaking out a little because, back home, Rachel had to go to urgent care due to a corneal ulcer with a bacterial infection, and Adam was gone as well.


UVU fought to the end, but lost to a Cali team, so we hit the road and agreed to all take turns driving in order to keep each other awake.  Events included an alien spaceship shop, pumpkin milkshakes, a man grabbing Dallin and demanding him give $230 so he could catch a Greyhound to the midwest, us four all saying "just kidding!" every couple minutes {like the little kindergartener who would say that with every non-funny or startling comment she made}, telling nasty stories and reverting to kid insults, blasting our eardrums and screaming nineties tunes at the top of our lungs, and almost dying.

To explain, it was 3 in the morning and we were out driving around 90 MPH in BFE.  Dallin was at the wheel and I was on the phone with poor Rachel when suddenly I shouted "DEER!" In action swifter than anything I could have accomplished, Dallin swerved the car in between the two deer that stood in the middle of the road.  However, the deer on the left panicked and tried to run back to its buddy on the right side of us.  Dallin gunned it just in time, locking eyes with the creature which was taller than our car and only inches away from obliterating our vehicle. Glad we're alive, to say the least.
I made it home at 4:30 in the morning and made it successfully to class by 9.

     On Sunday, Dallin and I left Sacramento to visit San Francisco before checking out a Cambodian ward!  Although I would have guessed that the native English speakers would be the ones with headsets, such was not the case.  But the spirit was wonderful and I loved knowing that members of any nationality can gather together to partake of the sacrament.
      In actuality, I for one needed the sacrament that day.  I was stressed out for no reason and not being the pleasant human I should have been.  We had attempted to visit a ward in SF, but the traffic was horrendous and, of course, there was no parking lot. Dallin found a spot on a hill.  Tiny roads + huge truck+ crazy incline + stick shift + incoming traffic = no bueno... The gravitated vehicle lurched forward as he tried to steer the angle appropriately; now with only a foot of space between our bumper and that of the car in the next parking spot, we knew that, as soon as he took his foot off the break again, a fender bender was inevitable. Yet somehow the truck escaped unscathed-- albeit with smoke pouring out the back. We drove away panting with relief and decided that we would attend another ward {the Cambodian ward} a few hours later.
     Wherever my poor mood was derived from, it was definitely unwarranted and unfair for Dallin, who had done so much to make this a fun trip. We were shocked to find out that the Cambodian ward met right next to the Oakland temple!  And, to my amazement, as we began walking around the gardens and the visitor's center, I felt hours' worth of anxiety melt away.
       I was never one to feel the Spirit very easily.  Maybe I'm just guilty of a skeptical mind.  But there was no doubt that we had both been moved by the Spirit as feelings of peace, relaxation and even joy emanated from our cores down to our fingertips.    



 Sunday evening, we headed back up to Sacramento to visit my namesake Catherine and her family for dinner.  They so kindly offered us a wonderful meal, and we spent almost the entire time gushing about our mutual love for Europe.

In the middle of Tempe, Arizona is a place called Mill Avenue where the sun goes down and the lights come up.  While the rest of Maricopa sleeps, this modern downtown district comes alive with the bustle of college kids come out to relish the weekend.  Music oozes out of clubs and the crowd is thick outside of shops and restaurants.  Corporate buildings loom above in their money-screaming grandeur.  Walking a little farther, the lake sparkles with the lights of the bridge.  
  Dallin and I were both a little bored after our friends' FunkyTown fundraiser ended, so we met up in a random parking lot halfway between our two houses and then started driving west.  Neither of us knew what we wanted to do with our Saturday night, so we just drove till we ended up in the ASU zone.  Maybe it's just because I'm from the suburbs, but I find the city so exciting!  While we weren't exploring Mill, we were dangling our feet over the lake or just laying the grass behind the dazzling Center for the Arts, goofing off until my cheeks ached horrendously from smiling for a solid 3.5 hours.
  I was kind of shocked to have the night off, to be honest.  I've been booked every single weekend with rehearsals so usually I have to be a little more flexible on my weekdays if I want to socialize.  School isn't very entertaining anymore, but I do find ways to make my life enjoyable.  Volleyball games, conveyer belt sushi, opening night movies and way-too-late-nights all make the last few months of HS worthwhile.  
 

  I think my teachers have become progressively more relaxed every year.  Even though I have more AP courses than ever PLUS an actual community college Photoshop class {I absolutely love it!}, I don't have that much homework.  So when I'm not working, I'm really honestly just enjoying my last year without full responsibility:

• My mom's friend had some extra Diamondbacks tickets, so we watched the game from the SEVENTH row, so close that Eric even caught a ball!  It was hilarious as he kept shouting "Go DBacks!" at obnoxious Giants fans.  This was my first baseball game since I went to see the Red Sox in Boston, so it was so fun to watch the homeruns live. 
• Recently Mom, Rachel, and I keep spontaneously deciding to go to movies like If I Stay, The Maze Runner, Fault in Our Stars, and The Giver. As a writer, I am in love with all types of stories whether on paper or on screen, so if I get home past midnight after watching one of those good movies I will literally spend all of my classes thinking about these stories and wishing I could create something that tugs so much at the heartstrings.  
• Can I say that the student section of a HS football game is psychotic?!  Since it's the beginning of the football season, hundreds and hundreds of people flock to the stadium and scream at the top of their lungs with school spirit.  Yesterday the theme was camouflage, so we painted each other up and joined the moshpit-- it was so hot squished with so many people, but we won!
• Datenights!  I was so excited to get asked out to go rollerblading at the rink with the loud beats and colorful lights, even though he lied when told me he had never skated before.  I'd even say the 52 mosquito bites were worth it when we went to the riparion and hung out by the pond. Afterwards, he taught me to how to drive his sticksshift truck!  Wow, that's trust.
• I also learned how to longboard.   I need so much practice, but I managed to not crash!  And man, can I just say the view of Phoenix outskirts is lovely from high up at night?

Recently I was mad at myself for not graduating last year like I'd seriously been considering, but there's no regrets now.  Because even if things get a little rocky sometimes, I'm having a dang fun senior year.

    I think there's a point of exhaustion one hit's where they no longer feel tired.  I'm talking, staying-up-till-two-AM-on-a-school-night-doing-homework syndrome.  It's a high school thing, and basically sleep-- wait, what does that word mean again?  It's a price to be paid willingly, though.  I knew what I was signing up for when I had to stay after school for cheer.  We had to wait before for tumbling coach, then tumbled for an hour before waiting for the freshman basketball game to finish.  That went into overtime, so our own didn't begin until over a half-hour past the normal time.  Our game was a blast, but it also went into overtime with more timeouts than possible to count.  My voice was probably destroyed by the amount of screaming for our Highland boys.  At least we won!  But then I didn't get home till past 8 {an hour-and-a-half late}.  Finally, homework!  Basically, I was high off my lack of sleep today.  I literally could not stop laughing in silent classrooms or bouncing in my seat or just plain demonstrating the effects of being four hours short of pulling an all-nighter.
    Three weeks from Christmas.  I don't care if December 21st is the end of the Mayan calender.  I will survive if only to see true relaxation!

  I can't decide whether I love watching Olympic gymnastics or hate it.  I see these girls- my age, by the way- who are so talented and so accomplished, and then I remember that I quit.  I mean, come on!!!
  But at the same time, if I hadn't quit gymnastics, then I wouldn't have discovered my love for singing or acting or writing novels.  I wouldn't have gotten to be a cheerleader, I wouldn't have had the time to focus on Honors classes.   And what about my friends and family?
  No...  Though I will always hold a spot in my heart for gymnastics, it just wasn't something that I could possibly cling to.  Though I wish dearly that I could do a front-tuck-double-full on the beam or something crazy like that, perhaps my destiny lies elsewhere.  But whatever it is, I will make sure that I live a life with no regrets.
  But anyways...I seriously must congradulate the Fab Five on how simply amazing they are!

  You can tell I'm out of it when I order the little kids to get in the dishwasher.
  Really I meant for them to get in their jammies/brush their teeth/get ready for prayers/get to bed, but it came out wrong.  Sorry, but when you get up at six for seven long hours of school including a test, then have two hours of cheer practice, then have piano lessons you aren't ready for, then come home with half the family off doing their own activities me needing to babysit and clean the kitchen and do my who-knows-how-many-hours-worth-of homework...  Did I mention that I have to draw between 7-32 little pictures for THREE classes, TONIGHT?!  Well... at least I'm artistic?
  I am pretty psyched for the first game tomorrow.  I get to where my uniform to school.

  Oh, and please don't let me get distracted like this again...