Last of the birthday posts

So we ended the birthday week with a Trifecta Birthday Rooftop party.  My roommates Maria, Chelsie, and I all had birthdays within a week of each other.  Since it was officially summer time, what better way to celebrate than on the roof?

Maria, Chelsie, me, and Jaclyn.  Jac bought us the tiaras.  :)

Love love love these girls.  We laugh all the time.

Of course Pepper came to the party.  

The music man.  Curtis bought a new system that day and we were SO thankful.  It sounded awesome.

Rachel and Gina.  Love them for coming down from Boston.

It was SO hot that night, once the humidity set it we all started to look a lil nasty and shiny...

Me and Dan

Sooooo, we'd seen lots of lighting over in Jersey and were just keeping an eye out.  I was nervous about the rain, especially since Curtis had set up his brand new system, and we had tons of food out.  I was on the opposite side of the roof chatting and felt a rain drop on my cheek.  I immediately started to walk towards Curtis to let him know and LITERALLY took about two steps and BOOM!  It was like the movies where out of no where it is just POURING huge raindrops.  Just dumping.  Luckily a lot of people had shown up by then and everyone totally helped grab things so we were out of there in just a minute or two and nothing got ruined (minus our hair.)

So we headed to the clubhouse room.

Anita's a trooper and made the shlep in the rain clear downtown from the Bronx.  Love her.

Colin is maybe the nicest guy I know.

Chelsie's friend Josh was visiting from Vegas and he was darling.

And of course, we danced.

Jamar is amazing, and Brit is darling.

So maybe at this point Maria, Chels, and I were dancing to Fiddy Cent's birthday song...

Steveo, friends since summer '03 at the Ridge.

Ed kept his promise and gave me a little lap dance, haha.

So THEN the management closed the clubhouse down at 11pm so we moved the party to our apartment.

Mikey Perkey, and yet another Rachel.

Birthday cheesecake!

Heidi and Chels.

Dan is quite the ladies man.

Nick and Gina

We like to dance, even though his moves put me to shame.

Heidi's so cute.  She's one of those girls who's always happy.

Paul and Gina getting down with the ugly dance.

The night I finally met Rustin.  Amazing.  And maybe he said our party was the best he'd ever been to in NYC.....I'm just sayin.....

I LOVE Ed.  He cracks me up.

Okay so maybe I look like a total freak, but I just love Ed's face, and how on the last picture he's trying to act like he's not enjoying himself.

Jac knows how to get down.

Jac and Chels are really excited about seeing each other.

Rach and Helen

So at about 2am when the last of the partygoers were still chatting in our kitchen we passed out on the lovesac (remember how we'd only gotten 4 hours of sleep and had gotten up at 6am to go skydiving?  Needless to say, we were EXHAUSTED.  The next day I slept until 1pm, took two naps, and still passed out around 11pm.  Yeah, I don't even know how that's possible.)

So clearly I had the best birthday ever.  Thanks again to everyone for making it all so great.  The weekend was amazing, and exhausting, but so so so perfect.

Birthday weekend part 1

The weekend after my birthday was pretty much the icing on the cake of a fabulous week.

On Friday night my friend Rachel (who I met at Duck Beach) came down from Boston and brought her roommate Gina and her puppy Pepper.

Pepper is ADORABLE.  We had such much fun with him all weekend.  I took him for a little walk Friday night and it's crazy how much attention he gets.  People walking by will ask about him, or just point and say how cute he is.  There were even some random teenagers that came up and didn't even say anything to me, but just pet him and play with him for like 5 minutes.

Pepper wasn't potty trained yet so he rocked the doggy diapers.  There's even a whole for the tail.  So cute.

He's such a little cuddle bug.  So fun.

Nastiest picture of me, but he's just too cute.

So Saturday morning Rachel, Chelsie, Jaclyn, and I headed out to Long Island to go skydiving!

The Rachels....filling out our paperwork.

Kinda far away....we utilized the self timer and put the camera on the hood of the car.

So skydiving was AMAZING, to say the least.  The only lame part of the whole ordeal is that they didn't take pictures of us during the dive.  We paid for the dvds which are awesome, and I'm still trying to figure out if I can pull still photos from the movie.

I hadn't been nervous at all during the days leading up to the jump.  We got there and filled out our paperwork, and then waited for our turn to jump!  Chelsie and Jaclyn went first.  The plane was SO tiny it could only fit two jumpers (and their jumper coach and pilot) at a time.  So Rachel and I got to hang out on the ground and watch when Chels and Jac jumped.  Rachel saw them in free fall but I couldn't see them until their parachute opened, and then of course the landing.  It was really fun to watch them before we went.

Then it was my and Rachel's turn.  Rachel was jumping with Victor, and I was jumping with Nick.  We headed over to the plane and had about a 20 minute ride up before we reached the jumping altitude.  I couldn't get over how small the plane was!  The pilot was the only one with a chair.  The rest of us were just sitting on the floor (with seatbelts) but were pretty much on top of each other.

The view from the plane was gorgeous.  We could see the Hamptons, Fire Island, and other beaches.  I thought the 20 minutes would drag on and I'd be super antsy to just jump, but it flew by.  The more time that passed, the more nervous I became.

We were jumping first so we were right by the door.  Before I knew it Nick was telling me to get up on my knees so he could hook us together.  At this point I was extremely nervous!  Then the pilot leaned over and started unhooking the door.  I was really freaking out.  Then Nick opened the door, put his leg out on the ledge, and told me to put mine out.  (We'd gone over the instructions about a million times, seriously, probably 5 or 6 times, and there were only a few instructions.  However, before he opened the door I told him I'd pretty much forgotten everything.)  It's actually not that difficult, all you really have to remember is to let go of your grip on your harness during free fall and lean back...it's pretty instinctual.

So once the door is open and my leg's outside I remember being mid sentence saying, "I don't think I can get out!" (Because the positioning of my body was super awkward.)  But before I could even finish the sentence we were out the door in free fall!  The second we got out I wasn't scared anymore and it was just fun.  Getting out of the door is the hardest part.  If I hadn't been pulled out I'm sure it would have been really tough.  

I never got the "falling" feeling where you lose your stomach.  It just felt like I was floating.  The free fall lasts about 45-50 seconds.  I can hardly even remember it.  I just remember my mouth being SO dry, and that it was SO fun.  Then Nick pulled the parachute and I actually got a little whiplash.  My shoulders were really sore for a few days after (but that didn't happen to the other girls.)  After he pulled the parachute it just got silent and we floated down for about 5 minutes.  The scenery was GORGEOUS and I remember I just kept feeling like it was so surreal.  One of the really cool parts was there were straps that would steer us, so Nick gave me control and I could pull down on one or the other, which would make us do flips.  It was really fun, but made me super dizzy.

Then we finally came in for our landing.  I did get a landing photo which I should try to scan and upload.  We had a great landing, right on our feet!  It was SO fun.  I totally want to do it again and highly recommend it to anyone!

On our way home Chels spotted an ice cream parlor so we stopped and it was the best idea all day.  The ice cream was SO GOOD.  I could drive back the hour and a half just to get it.  Seriously, amazing.

I always love the view driving into the city.

Another from the Harbor Cruise

Randy and Mike got me to hang off the boat for a picture.  There was a ledge I was standing on, but it was still kind of scary.  I posed "pretend" scared for a second, and then they took forever to take the picture, which made me actually freak out, and then Randy snapped the pic......and then the coast guard showed up and circled the boat as we acted nonchalant.

Happy birthday Nadia

Gorgeous.  Talented.  Loving.  Loyal.  Protective.  Sweet.  Nonjudgemental.  Great listener.  Trustworthy.  Amazing mother and wife.  Wonderful example.

Love you Nad, hope your day's wonderful.

The good ol' days

So that last post about Rexburg made me reminisce about way back when.  Life was easy and things were good.  College, what a blast.

I decided to post some pictures from those great days, of some of my favorite times and favorite people.  Sadly, I didn't get a digital camera until Christmas '04 so I could only upload pictures from my last year and a half.  I have to forewarn you, however, these were my fat days.  Please don't be repulsed.

Shantay and me as Greek Goddesses for Halloween 2005

Idaho has, hands down, the most beautiful skies and sunsets

Me and the wifey.  Twinners.  Always.

Having my grandparents live just blocks away for most of my college was such a blessing.

The Tetons with Jason and my Dad.

AimBrow, TonEva, and RaeHoe (Aimee Brower, Toni Evans, and me) Valentine's Day 2006

Ward activities.  The 49th ward was so amazing.  So glad I could be in it for three years.

Matt Harper, me, Mike Hogan, Megan (McCombs) West, and Kyle Hibbard

The girls took a trip to California.  Nothing like a pizookie from BJs.  Chelse Matthews, me, Kerstin, Noel (Thompson) Boone, Kali, Becky (Block) Packard, and Lacey.

Learning to ride the mechanical bull at North-40.  Nothing like it.

Gringos is the BEST mexican food I have ever had.  I could eat it every day.  Shantay and I went all the time (clearly.)

Rivka Bybee, Brady Parker, Toni Evans, Danny Hinton, and me.  My last semester I spent about every night at Danny's playing cards, eating Skittles, drinking Dr. Pepper, and listening to Coldplay.  We were the late-late shift, usually rolled in around 1am and went home around 4 or 5am.  Good times.  So fun.  Really miss those times.

Me and my LOVE Chelse at opening night of Heart Mind Soul.

Love Jon Kvarfordt.  One of my favorite guys.  Miss him.

The trip to New York in March 2006 with Jordan (Hopkins) Ghoulson, Toni Evans, Aimee Brower, and Shantay (Lewis) Nelson was a highlight of college.  So so SO much fun.

At the NBC store in Rockefeller Center.

Headed up to Lance Phillips's cabin in Island Park our birthday weekend.  Trips to Island Park were always so much fun.

Roommates winter 2005.  Whitney Jacobson, Chelse Matthews, me, and Katie Kreider.  Such a great semester.  Four girls in a six bedroom two bathroom apartment.  Amazing.

Our ghetto attempt at a slip-n-slide.

Bonfires are endless.  Noel, Rivka, me, Lindsey Usry, and Becky.

Dance parties every night, natch.  Noel, Chelise Brown, Katie, Becky, and me.

NOTHING is as fun as college.  Anyone considering skipping out is insane.  Enjoy it while you can.  Once you're in the real world, there's no going back.

Two years ago today

It was exactly two years ago today I left Rexburg for good.  I'd graduated April 29, 2008 and at the time was uncertain about what was coming next.  Would I move to New York?  Settle in California?  Something different?  I had no idea.  All I knew was at the time going back to California didn't feel right, and I wasn't prepared for New York.  A job working as a PSR worker (psychosocial rehabilitation) worked out so I thought I would try my hand at a job in the field I'd studied, and stick around the 'burg for a bit.

It only took me two months to realize PSR was definitely not for me, and I was ready to leave eastern Idaho.

After living in #304 at the Ridge for 7 1/2 semesters, it was pretty difficult to leave.  I packed it up and rolled out of town on a beautiful day, around 6am.  It was seriously the saddest thing looking in my room one last time, all empty, and then rolling out of town.  I spent some of my best years there and even though it was time for that chapter to end, it really was so sad.  My dad always said I'd have tears in my eyes when the day came to leave, and I totally did.  I remember looking in the rearview mirror with tears streaming down my cheeks.  

This is what the temple looked like when I left.

I drove that road from Rexburg to Salt Lake and Provo so many times I'm pretty sure I could do it blindfolded.  I really wish I would have kept track over the years.  This lake is at the top of a hill, just before Malad.  It was always really pretty, especially during the winter (although that was the scary time to drive through there) and was a spot I always looked forward to, somewhat as a marker.

Rexburg to Salt Lake is only 240 miles so I usually tried not to stop....like I said, I drove it so many times that maybe I was always in competition to make a better time.  Anyway, if I ever did stop it was at this Chevron in Malad, which is about the halfway point during the trip.  They always had good snacks, including Big League Chew.  Yum.

Anyone who's driven the road to and from Rexburg recognizes this place.  I love it.

My peach of a mom hopped on a plane in the morning from Orange County to Salt Lake with nothing but her handbag.  I picked her up at the airport and then she drove the rest of the way to California with me.  I'd only ever driven the whole way (about 1000 miles) all in one day once before, and I'd never done it alone.

The next day I spent the 4th of July here, at San Clemente, with Elise's family.