Favorite Moments of 2012:

• Driving to Metz, France for Sephora with the Amanda.
• Finding an egg in my calzone. Darn French.
• Going to London with my mother.
• Going to Florida with Papa Bear.
• Stealing oranges from the neighbor's orange trees in the dark with the cousin. Bringing them home and realizing they were all rotten. All that sneaking around for nothing.
• Getting stranded at sea, or, in this case, river, and having Eva pull us back to shore.
• Getting videos like this one from Jana:
  
  
• Going to New York for Spring Break and seeing the Crandalls. Minus one.
• Eating my first panini, drinking pear juice for the first time, laying in Central Park, walking through Times Square at night.
• Bringing my mom to experience Rexburg.
• "Deep Talk" with the roommate every night before bed.
• Driving to Jackson Hole with Amanda.
• Going to Nauvoo and all the places in between.
• New York for the 4th of July and surviving the firetruck sirens during the parade.
• Having study sessions with this kid and having it go more like this. But with pizza, of course.
  
  
• Going with Parker and Jana to their grandparents home in Wyoming. First time canoeing, roasting starbursts and riding on a four wheeler.
• Rigby lake with Clarice, Spencer and Jana. I made Clarice swim across it with me since she was getting married. It made sense then.
• Visiting Amanda and her grandparents.
• Daily City Creek runs in Utah with Amanda.
• Almost falling in the fountain in Temple Square.
• Visiting Papa Bear in New York and learning how to drive.
• Visiting Kayla at her home in Park City, Utah. Wedding dress hunting!
• Staying with Jana for three weeks in August/September. So thankful.
• Road tripping with Jana to Virginia and visiting Lindsay.
• Giving myself a black eye as a nine year old watched.
• Labor Day celebration at West Point.
• Giving my first talk ever in church. I'll write it out next time.
• Going to Prague with the Cherringtons.
• Watching these dorks chant with an "indian" homeless man.
  
  

• My dad brought home two cute kittens. George and Wincy.
• Seeing President Monson's talk in Frankfurt then seeing him at the temple!
• Going to the Christmas market in Cologne.
• Getting Taylor Swift tickets.
• Christmas morning with the fam bam.
• Getting my new camera!

Pictures:

The closest Sephora is here. It's a blessing in disguise. 

There were tears 'cause ew.

Momma Bear at Buckingham Palace. Attractive.

Beautiful Florida!

Shipwrecked. Eva stepped on a few stingrays. That's why I'm in the boat.

Rotten orange thieves.

Walking in the footsteps of Chris Evans.

Chillin' in Central Park where the thugs tell me I have a cute smile.

I like it here. It's fun. I miss them terribly. Btw, we're in the same house. : )

Yeah, I stole Kayla's hoodie. I'm doing an excellent job canoeing. About to crash. Like the Titanic.

We sent pictures to Parker 'cause we missed him. And I have a black eye.

George and Winston napping. Such cute kittens.

 We like to take pictures from the car. While it's moving. Sometimes it works.

Cherringtons & I in Prague.

Alison and I at the Hard Rock. We have a tease/laugh/love relationship.

President Monson at the Frankfurt Temple.

Momma and I at the temple.

Christmas Market food!

Christmas Market in Cologne!

New Year's Eve party food!

Bringing in the New Year!

At Baggage Claim, Ya Gotta Take the Luggage in Your Name

Hello. I'm now back in my cozy bed in Deutschland. I've missed this bed so much! I've missed my whole room! And my dad and the countless number of pets, too. I'm just happy to be home!

Winston missed me. He's been following me around all day.

We had a pretty easy trip back. It was long but at least there wasn't any turbulence or medical emergencies. I don't know why but "if there is a doctor on board please indicate so with your flight attendant call button" tends to be said on most of my flights. We did, however, have a bit of a delay leaving JFK. We taxied out to the runway but it turns out our plane engine was broken so we had to go back to the gate and wait while the maintenance men fixed it. I watched all of Jurassic Park while this was going down. Yes, Jurassic Park. I'm already aware of how cool I am so there's no need to mention it. I also watched The Princess Diaries, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Pretty Little Liars while in flight in case you were wondering. Delta has added so many movies to their system. They had everything from Charade to The Lorax to Jane Eyre to The Hangover. It was ridiculous but very much appreciated. What was not appreciated was the seat. It was so uncomfortable for whatever reason. I felt bad reclining it because of the man behind me and, therefore, I was sitting straight up the whole time. It was probably good for my posture. Just go with it.

Baggage claim. This was slightly embarrassing. You know how when you're standing in baggage claim, you watch the bags coming up and before they drop on the conveyor belt, you try to see if it's yours? Well, I do that. I saw my purple suitcase come up and as it dropped, I and everyone else saw two tampons hanging on for dear life out of the newly formed hole in my suitcase. Before it made its way to where I was standing, I made it through the entire five stages of grief. First, I was in denial. It just couldn't be my bag and I was not picking it up. Second, I was pretty upset. Who put that hole there allowing this to happen?! Then, I hit the bargaining stage. I asked God if He would be willing to make the tampons disappear if I gave Delta it's Sky Mall magazine back. It was a no go so then I hit the stage of depression because, honestly, this was pretty tragic. By the time the suitcase made it's journey to me, I was already accepting the fact that I was going to have to pick up this sad looking suitcase. So I did. One tampon managed to fall back into the suitcase while the other fell completely out and made a few trips around the carousel until who knows finally ended it's ride.

If you're wondering how this could even happen, I'll tell you. I just throw things into my suitcase because who the heck cares?! Well, now somebody the heck cares. Me. I always thought I'd be the only one to see the mess I make out of a suitcase. Oh, me and the security people but I'm sure they see worse things. Thanks to my cheaply made suitcase, I'm now investing in a cosmetic bag, you know, in addition to new luggage.

The Day We Switched Coats.

My mom and I are like best friends. We have the same personality and we know exactly what each other is thinking without saying any words at all. We can share our clothes, our shoes...but not our shampoo. Apparently Paul Mitchell is too expensive for my hair. Excuse me. Otherwise, we are practically the same person just 26 years apart. We keep each other out of trouble. Actually, I keep her out of trouble. I'm too sneaky to keep out of trouble. She tells people that I act more mature than her at times. I like to think that it's true but, if that's true, it's kind of sad.

Today, my mom and I spent the whole day together. Well, we have spent the last week together but today was different. There wasn't any shopping or errand running involved. It was just my mom and I out for the day. We went to West Point and walked ALL over post. Seriously...I have the blisters to prove it. We got lost in the Military Academy and panicked when the guards saw us. My mom said, "Do you see a way to escape?!" and, sure enough, we managed to find a way. We then lost the car and ended up hitting the panic button to find it. We started driving home over the mountain. We took this road, 218, that's pretty curvy and narrow. My mom asked if I wanted to drive. Of course, I said yes. She pulled over and I got in the driver's seat. We weren't even on the road five seconds and she's bracing herself yelling at me about not turning the steering wheel when I'm supposed to or something. Chill out, man. Then she says she's getting sick and to slow down. I had to pull over. She made me get out after that and I had to sit in the passenger's seat for the rest of the car trips. She was telling the story over dinner and told my grandma that I only lasted three minutes driving. I told her it would have been even less if she at least let me drive the speed limit. Anyway, from that horrible driving experience, we went to Dunkin' Donuts because my mom was complaining that she needed a coffee. From there, we went to the trestle. It's one of my favorite places here. It's a place that my dad used to take me all the time when I was younger. You can see deer and turkeys on the hills and I used to love watching them when I was little. Today, I wanted to take pictures of it. I was taking pictures of the trestle when I heard my mom walking away from me. I turned around and just started taking a bunch of pictures because I knew she was up to something. I was right:

She walks away.

She heads to the tree.

She puts down her drink.

Pulls up her pants.

Pulls on a loose branch.

Pulls on the whole tree.

She catches me taking pictures.

And down she goes.

*Insert break where I'm dying of laughter*

She picks up her coffee.

And walks back smiling all proud of herself.

My mom isn't super weird, I promise. She just likes to have a good laugh once in a while and she's definitely not afraid to be goofy. She knew I was upset about her freaking out while I was driving so she gave me something good to laugh at. I love my mom. I can't imagine spending this beautiful day with anyone else. Today, minus the driving incident, was perfect. It was the day we switched coats.