I'm Back in Black

I'm officially back home in Arizona! I am really happy to be back because I have missed my family dearly. Tom drove all the way down here with me and stayed for a whole day before flying back to Miami. I miss him, but missed my family and am extremely happy to see them all again.

I need to see some friends though- I haven't really hungout with anyone yet. I desperately need to see Ariana before she gets married (smile & tear). I hope my stay here will be awesome before I venture out to Miami to see Tom again (the beach doesn't hurt much either).

Anyway, my wonderful Mother has promised to buy me some much needed clothing before I go away, but for once in my life I don't know what I want! Ah! So many choices. Oh well. I'm excited to be home, even though the heat is and always is a killer.

Traveling Back Home to Arizona

So, I asked my Mom a couple weeks ago how I was supposed to get home now that the semester is ending. She told me I should find myself a ride, which I did within a day or two, but that they might want my car back in the Fall. I kept asking my Mom if I needed to drive my own car home but she was unsure what she and my Dad wanted. Finally, on Monday my Mom said her and my Dad discussed it and they want my car back in the Fall. That's not a big deal to me except that I don't have anyone to drive home with me. I might drive caravan style with some friends, but none of them want to leave as soon as I do. I'm just bothered that they waited so long to tell me and I couldn't find a fellow Arizonan to drive down with me.

Despite this difficulty, I am excited to be coming home for a stay. Ariana is getting married and I get to see my nephew. I can't wait!

It's What I Do

So, I have been involved this semester with I-News, the student-produced news show at Brigham Young University- Idaho. It's actually a ton of fun and I love it. I was an anchor on the show (so watch me mess up my words on Tuesdays shows) or see the videos I've actually made on Wednesdays. We finally have a website too- go us! Anyway, to access this just follow this link and click on the I-News portion of the website. Or, if you want to find only things that I have made and added, just search my name and find my videos. The stuff I created has not been all that exciting- given it's a student news show (and I'm still a beginner), but it's fun to me.

Mass Media

Well, I started this blog not long ago. I created it only about a month ago. Here is my very first post from June. Recently, I found out I can use this as a project for my mass media class. I'm really happy about that fact. I can use it because it is a 'new media' form. It's still in the works though, seeing as I've only posted a couple things. I plan to keep updating it and making it cooler, even after I turn in the URL to my teacher.

I've decided that blogs can be really cool, but after creating my own, I realize they are much more work than they seem. All the content is created on your own, so if you don't update it, then it becomes really lame. I've put links to a few of my friend's blogs, but I most definitely need to find more blogs because I'm sure more of my friends have them and I've never known about it. I've decided one of the best things about having a blog is that my Mom can read it, and she greatly appreciates keeping up with me this way as well as the phone.

So, onto more exciting things, I will be going back home to the great expanse we like the call the Valley of the Sun. That's right, I'm coming back to Arizona! My semester up here at BYU-I will be over next week and I'll make the 15+ hour journey back to Gilbert. My best friend Ariana will be getting married soon and I'm more than stoked to be her only 'friend' bridesmaid. Also, I get to see my family. My nephew has started walking and I haven't even seen his skills yet. All my siblings are out of school, too, so we'll party for sure. It's going to be awesome. I am really looking forward to being home for at least a little while.

Trips with Thomas

This post is about my trips with Thomas. We have already gone on two since we started dating just over a month ago. We went to Yellowstone and to Las Vegas (no, we didn't elope). Here are some pictures from the always gorgeous Yellowstone:

We didn't get to take a lot of pictures together because it was just us; but here is one.

Tom in front of a hot spring.

Here I am in front of a Buffalo. They were everywhere.

Here is Tom in front of a river. This experience was very freeing.

Then, Tom scared away the Buffalo that was in our way, right on the trail at the beginning of our hike.

This was at the top of our hike. Like I said, the whole trip to Yellowstone was very freeing.

Here is a gorgeous waterfall. Love them!

Of course, we saw Old Faithful...oh, the glory. We got reception and talked on the phone there too, so it was a good stop. Unfortunately, I don't have any of those pictures. But, they're cliche anyway, so it's better without.

Overall, the trip was great! It was cold at night, our tent was a little pathetic and it rained the first day/night, but we loved it. We saw two black bears, two grizzly bears, many buffalo, a few deer and elk. We didn't see any wolves or moose, but we feel that we still did good. I made us go the long way so we could get a good look at the vast and glorious Yellowstone Lake, which still had frozen ice chunks in it. And, that was Tom's first trip to Yellowstone (my second).

So, Tom surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas, baby! I had work off one entire weekend (impressive for a retail worker) so he told me to pack my bags- nothing more than that. I had no idea where we were headed until we got about half an hour away in Idaho Falls. He finally told me of our destination and I was thrilled to be somewhere that the temperature would be over 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of what we did was walk around and look at stuff. We ate at delicious places (which was quite the excitement compared to Rexburg).

We had lots of fun exploring the city that I usually just pass through and Thomas had never seen before.

We went to the top of the Stratosphere and looked around the city. In my defense, it was very windy at the top, so that's why my hair looks so...well, it looks bad.

Tom looked very contemplative on the bench, so I took a candid picture of him.

We got all dressed up one night and went out to eat. This is us before we left. Yay.

We went swimming- and let me tell you, those 80+ temperatures were just what an Arizona girl needed. This was our feet by the pool and some old guy who was kind of weird. There are lots of weird people in Vegas.

Tom really relaxed by the pool. He got back in touch with his natural chi. Ha ha.

So, Las Vegas was a success. We saw a Vegas bride, a girl throwing up because of her drunken state, a prostitute (sad), and many partiers. It was a successful vacation- fast, but successful! Thanks for the amazing trip, Thomas.