Swarley Stinson Rose!

It has been great to be home for the summer. One awesome thing about it was that I was able to go to the surplus auto auction in Davis. As soon as I laid eyes on this car I loved it! I honestly didn't have much hope that I would actually get it, but we bid on it and....I got a car!!! So this is my ford focus wagon.

With a little tune up he's running like a champ and I totally love this car! It took me a little while to decide on a name for him. But after help from my friends, trying it out, and a final vote from Mary!... I decided on Swarley Stinson Rose. For those who don't know the name comes from How I Met Your Mother. And I think the car is worthy of the AWESOMENESS its name expects of it. :)

Monterey

I'm home for a couple months for the summer and Taryn has been home too this past week. We took a little overnight trip to Monterey. The day we got there it was cloudy cloudy cloudy so we just looked at the beach a bit in our jackets then went on the 17mile drive. It was a nice drive and we saw some cool stuff.

Taryn and me before the wet coastal air made our hair crazy.

And along the coast.

The lone cypress.

I was the one driving and during the drive I saw two young bucks(deer not boys) on the side so I pulled over quick and snapped a shot.

We stayed in an awesome bungalow at The Sanctuary Beach Resort. It was really nice and we had a great beach view.
And maybe my favorite part was the robes in the room! Oh and the fact that we got our own golf cart to drive around!

Day 2 was sunny so we got some beach time and we stopped at Phil's Fish Market for lunch.

I'm only a little burned and I enjoyed our time there.

Back From the Break

Now that it is close to February I figure I might as well put up a little post about Christmas break. I know it is very after the fact but I figured I'd get some up caused I'm sick of going on my page to link to other peoples blogs and seeing the same last post! So here is a very quick recap of Christmas break:

Went home to Davis and it was wonderful! All the family was home for at least part of the break so it was great to be with everyone. We got to make a stop at the Farmer's Market I was super excited I love it! I didn't realize how much I really liked Davis until I moved away to Provo. It is always nice to come home and visit the hometown. And even better to get to see family and friends. I got to spend some time with my friends from home and it was so good to see them and catch up I've missed them lots. And I of course spent most of my time with my family which was wonderful!

Christmas was great as always! Except for the fact that I got sick and felt miserable for most of the day. But still it was good and we got fun stuff and it was good to be with the family. We all got our Christmas PJs and sported them together:)

While we were all home together we also took family pictures for the Christmas card. These are just a few...

And the while in the oh so lovely California....we took a trip to the coast! We went to Monterey and Santa Cruz it was the best. Unfortunately Holly had already gone back to Utah so we missed her there.

2:13:48

My first half-marathon time!!! This weekend I ran my first half-marathon. I ran in the Indianapolis Monumental half-marathon with Taryn. At the end of summer, for some reason I got the urge to start running and decided I wanted to try and train for a half. (The influence of my awesome roommate over the summer miss Hilary Collins for sure). So I talked to T to ask her for some tips since she has run some before. She told me I should go do one with her Nov 6 in Indianapolis. I said OK! So I started training and a couple months later it was time:)

I left Provo on Thursday afternoon and flew to Lexington to stay with Taryn and Grant for the weekend. I got in pretty late on Thursday night so we stayed up and chatted a bit then headed to bed. Then Friday we slept in a little then Taryn and I had the day to hangout. It was great to get to spend some time with her:) We did some shopping (went to goodwill and got jackets for cheap we were willing to part with on the run) and hungout. Then we went to dinner at Saul Good. It was a way cute restaurant and the food was all good. We has some yummy pizza, salad, and nachos. Then we needed to get to bed early cause we had a race the next day! So we watched a little TV and got to bed.

RACE DAY! We left Taryn and Grants at 3am. Taryn and I went to sleeping in the car while Grant was awesome and drove us over to Indianapolis. We got there and got our packets and made sure we were all ready for our run. Then at 8am we were off! The run was through the streets of downtown Indianapolis. It was a cool run I liked it. We saw Grant between mile 2 and 3 and so we were able to throw our throwaway jackets to him. Taryn and I ran together and it went really well. We went pretty steady and strong. I'm happy I did it with her because she helped me keep pace. I think I did really well and I was feeling pretty good for a lot of it. But by like mile 10 I was pretty much ready for it to be over and I was starting to hurt. But I accomplished my goal and I did the whole thing running! And I did really well and did it in 2:13:48 I was for sure happy with that. I told Taryn to go ahead during the last mile and she got a personal best for herself! So we both did awesome and it was a great experience.

When I ran it in, I ran it too hard for too long at the end. I started full out sprinting way before I should have, but it's all good. So right when I finished I was pretty nauseous and light headed. But I took a minute to recuperate and was better. The medical people made me get checked because I bent down by the puke buckets:p I didn't throw up but I was a little woosy so they checked me out. I was ok with it because the med boy was a cutie;)

I'm so happy I did it. It is a goal that in the past I never thought I would accomplish so I feel really good about doing it. Thanks to everyone who supported me and helped me along the way. Thanks Hilary for being amazing and an inspiration, thank you Katrina for helping me during training, and also Holly&Jonny, and thank you Mom and Dad for helping make it possible for me to get to Kentucky, and thank you so much Taryn and Grant for the great weekend, Taryn thanks so much for running it with me and encouraging me and Grant thanks for cheering us on and getting us there!

I DID IT! :)

Another birthday...Kirstin

And the month of October keeps bring the birthdays. The 23rd of October is Kirstin's birthday and so I got the chance to celebrate another birthday with a loved one :) I've known Kirstin for a long time now and been close with her for so many awesome years. She is an amazing girl. She has an inspiring passion for life, she is an example to many, she is one of the sweetest people I know, she has a sparkling personality that everyone can't help but love, and she is beautiful of course:) We've had a lot of good times in the past and continue to have more out here together in Provo.

I'm blessed to have such a great friend in Kirstin. I love you miss!

Luckily this lady lives in Utah so I actually got to celebrate her birthday with her as well! Holly and I were excited as always to bake for the birthday. We tried something new that we thought was fun(to match Kirstin) and made cookies and cream cupcakes. They were pretty darn good and cool. She had a fun birthday party. A group met up at her place for cake and some hangout time. Then we headed out onto campus to play night games. It was a lot of fun even though we got pretty wet from laying in puddles and sliding down wet grassy hills. And a group of us went and grabbed some Earth Fruits afterward (best frozen yogurt place all around ever!). It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy I was able to celebrate with her!

Birthdays

Birthdays are always so much fun and these past couple weeks there have been quite a few birthdays of people close to me.
First off it was my daddy's birthday on the 3rd :) I'm sad I couldn't be there to help celebrate. Freshman year Holly and I were able to go home and surprise him for his birthday weekend which was super fun. I fell asleep early on his birthday but I got to talk to him for awhile the next day which is always good. I'm so lucky to have him as a dad, he is the best! I've been lucky enough to have been taught in and out of the home by him and let me tell you he is a great teacher. We are different in ways and the same in ways...I for sure did not inherit his sarcasm though...;) Happy Birthday and wishes to another great year for you daddy. I love you!


Then on the 6th is was Miss Collins' birthday. Hilary was my roommate over the summer and she is awesome times 10 plus a slice of raspberry chocolate cheesecake. I love her! We found out how much we have in common living together and had a lot of fun times together. She is an amazing girl. This birthday she turned 21 which is significant to her for reasons different than most. Hilary will be serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Argentina! I'm so excited for her she is going to be an amazing sister missionary. Hilary got to come visit us here in Provo the day after her birthday so we got to see her it was awesome! I love you Hil I hope your year being 21 is great (especially after Nov 17!)


Then on the 12th it was my cousin Breanne's birthday. Miss Breanne Pann is a Rose before marriage. I've grown up seeing her whenever we went to San Diego and a few times in between. I always looked forward to the times I got to spend with her. We always had some fun times catching up on Christmas Eve's. We have lots of great memories from La Jolla beach to the 'elevator' in our grandparents house that led to the carpeted garage. We got to spend these times together and with our other cousins and siblings. The two of us got to go to EFY together twice which were both great experiences where we got closer. Having a cousin so close in age was always a great thing. I love this girl so much. This was her 21st birthday and her first birthday as a married woman! It's crazy how old we are getting...Happy birthday Breanne.

Then on the 13th is was my cousin Brittany's birthday (known to a few of us special friends as Brookney). I love this girl like crazy. She is a firework of fun and excitement. We also share a lot of memeories from growing up, I remember cuddling her when she was scared in a thunderstorm, all nighters at Christmas and summer time, grabbing the butter or catchup before she could get her hands on it at family dinners, picture time at Christmas Eve (with Breanne), and so much more. Recently she has been able to come and visit me in Provo a couple times and it has been a blast. Brit and I have always been close but in the recent visits we have become so much closer and it has been so great. We basically can't go a day without talking to each other now. She is a beautiful, strong, compassionate, totally crazy awesome fun girl! Anytime she visits we know we are in for a good and crazy time! I can't wait for the next time. She makes me smile and I love her so much! Happy birthday Brookney and enjoy being 19 I love you!

Then on the 15th it was my roommate Katrina's birthday. Miss Katrina also turned 21. Katrina is the best roommate anyone could ask for. She and I have pretty different personalities but we are so crazy close. We call each other mirror twins cause we are. I love that girl. It took me awhile to get her to decided what she wanted to do for her birthday, but we finally decided and had a lot of fun. In the morning we both had some school stuff to take care of but then at lunch time, I took her to lunch at Cafe Rio. We both got the delicious pork salads. Then she relaxed for awhile and I made birthday cupcakes (chocolate peanut butter they were yummy) and dinner (pizza I made a mock CPK california club pizza, so good). We had a couple friends join us for dinner and then we went to Despicable Me in the dollar theater. I love that movie it's so good. Then we came back to our place for cupcakes. It was fun. Happy birthday Kat, love you girl :)

Shirts and Such

For Taryn's birthday I decided to make her a shirt(ok decorate might be a better word). And I decided I liked it so much that I wanted one. And then I got inspired and started making more. These are a couple that I've made and I have others in the process.

And this is a hairclip I made...

I'm having tons of fun making stuff and I have plans for more. I have a couple shirts in the process and ideas for more as well as more hair accessories.