Home Is Where the Heart Is

....and it's become obvious I left mine in the Sunshine State. 

I may be bias (ok, I definitely am..) but Florida is by far the greatest state. Warm weather, beaches, the greatest restaurants, 80 degree ocean water, all my friends and ward family and an overall state of happiness reside in this great state.

New goal: marry someone from Florida and move back ASAP

I'm currently in Tallahassee at FSU with Sam and I never, ever want to leave. I love being with one of my best friends. Why did I not pursue Florida universities again?? Because I'm an idiot, obviously. I'm dreading my flight back to Utah on August 6th. But until then...I'll be here livin' it up here in paradise creating memories and taking pictures (so y'all can get a glimpse of what I'm up to and be jealous..even though most of the people that read this are in Florida anyway #truefriends) :)

FREEDOM

I am finally FREE! While it was kind of sad to leave Rexburg on Friday, I am SO glad to be done with school until next January. Homework, tests, projects, waking up early, going to class, studying, etc. isn't exactly what I enjoy doing during the whole month of May, June and most of July. However, it's finally time to celebrate Summer like everyone else has been for months. Better late than never, eh?

Tomorrow morning I'm off to home sweet Tampa Florida and I'm so excited. I plan on heading straight to the beach Tuesday morning and not leaving. Ever. I can't wait to get a greek cannoli from Hellas, visit "my" Target, see everyone in the Odessa Ward, live in my swimsuit and so much more. Ahhhh, home. Florida really is the best place on earth.

Before going, I figured I should recap a little bit of my last month or so in the Burg. I've failed to really blog a lot, but hopefully I can touch on a few things :)

We realized we had matching shirts (just opposite colors) and the same shoes...so we matched :)

Not much studying going on at the library

Brooke is SUCH a good friend. She forced me to get out of bed while I was watching Greys Anatomy on a Friday night to go with her to Taylor's soccer game and be social. (Look at the sunset behind them! Gorgeous!) 

Sno cones became a pretty much daily activity. I've tried all of the shack in Rexburg..the best is definitely Mango Moose (and I promise I'm not bias just because they follow me on instagram) 

We discovered Rigby Lake which is about 15 minutes away from Rexburg and Kenzi, Mariah, Haley, Brooke and I went there one Saturday. It's so fun and was a great place to lay out! However, the water was FREEZING. Nothing like the 80 degree ocean water I'm used to!

 Although the water was cold, the sun was NOT. I had the burns to prove that. However it's turned into a nice tan line!

That night, Emy was in Idaho Falls for a wedding reception so I went down to get her and she spent the night! Sunday, we walked around campus and took the cutest, most adorable picture in front of the BYU-Idaho sign (something I've done with everyone that's visited me). But on the 4th of July, I was deleting pictures so I could take some of the fireworks and was going too fast and deleted it. I hadn't yet put it on the computer and I was DEVASTATED. Seriously. I teared up.That's why I ALWAYS ask for people to take more than one, but the guy was on his phone and we both looked good so I let it slide....that time. Definitely learned my lesson. I'm so sad I erased that picture forever. But on the bright side, Emily will just have to come back up again ? ;)

Proof she was here though..

The fourth of July was really fun. Me, Haley and Kenz went to IF to see Magic Mike during the day, got Wendys (what's more American than that??) and finished the night watching the firework show at Melaleuca field (apparently the best in the west)

The next weekend I drove down to Park City and went boating with my extended family on Jordanelle Lake. I "tried" wake boarding, emphasis on the "tried"...We were out on the water by 7 am, spent the water skiing, wake boarding, tubing, laying on the beach, and making pastrami sandwiches for lunch :) It brought back so many memories from my children spending Saturdays on the lake. I loved it!

^Beautiful.

We got caught in a thunderstorm early evening. Call me crazy, but there's something wonderful about being caught in the pouring rain.

Toward the end of the semester, we discovered chocolate dipped cones from Mickey D's. Ummm..best thing ever? Yes. We always looked for excuses to go get one. SO good. 

I love my family. I loved spring semester. I love my life...and once again, I'm excited to go to Florida tomorrow!

Yes, I'm Alive.

Do not worry. I'm still here. This week has been crazy busy with finals next week...(kill me now). I'm trying my best to avoid all social networking sites, but it's not going so well. Let's just say, pinterest is the biggest time waster! Why must I think it's critical to plan my wedding right now, look up recipes I'll never bake and crafts I'll never create. Oh well. From this point on, I'm FOCUSED on school! I know I have a TON to catch up on and blog about (another post from Van's trip here, Rigby lake with the girls, Em sleeping over, fourth of July, boating day in Utah and not to mention the billions of pictures I have collected over this semester.) I'll get to it, I promise..however, until then wish me luck with tests, projects, packing, cleaning and saying goodbye to Rexburg until next January...#bittersweet

^^done and done. couldn't have said it better myself.

An evening in the gardens

When Savannah was here (yes, I'm STILL not caught up..) we made my roommate Bri take pictures of us in the gardens on campus. It's a hot spot at BYUI..therefore, me and Brooke have renamed it "pleasure gardens"...think about it. They're so well kept and beautiful and well, me and Savannah love having our picture taken sooo...

Then later that night, Savannah wanted her picture in front of the temple so we headed up there. There were a few cars in the parking lot and so I was kind of making fun of couples who sit in them "talking." We set up the self timer to take pictures of ourselves and mid-picture, a car pulls up, the door opens (I'm thinking it's someone who's going to offer to take our picture) and out jumps Brooke! She came running toward us and the following picture took...priceless.

Gosh, I really miss having Van here...