Aloha Hawaii!

Ive got a lot to catch up on. Its been about a week and a half since I last wrote and a lot has happend since. Ill begin with the day we left for Hawaii.

Our flight was at 8:30 but of course, like usual, we went 2 hours early because my mom insists every time so we don't run the risk of being late. Here's the thing...instead of flying straight to Honolulu, we got to stop in Dallas first, which is 2 1/2 hours the opposite direction. We were all pretty much out of it that entire flight. So we get to Dallas and the airplane person gets on the announcer and makes us believe that its almost 9:00 there and our flight to Honolulu was at 1:30. I was considering taking a cab to see my friend Matthew who lives somewhere in Texas because we had about 4 hours to spare...so we thought. I didn't go see Matthew. So close, yet so far. It probably never would have happened either. So the Dallas airport is giant right and we had to take a train to get to the different gates. We're standing on the train and I look up to see that the clock says that it is currently 1:18. Here we were, on the opposite side of the airport, thinking its 9:00 and we had 4 hours to kill but no, our flight was going to leave in 1o minutes. We booked it. I felt like I was in one of those movies where the people are always late for their flights so they run all through the airport. I even said that out loud. I got some interesting looks. Anyway, with barely any time to spare we got on the plane and of course, I was the last one to find a spot in the overhead compartments for my suitcase so I kinda held the crew up for a bit but whatever. I do what I want haha. So we're on the plane and of course we get the middle row and so none of us have a window seat so we barely got to see anything! But, the guy sitting next to me was wearing the flower touristy shirt and a glasses croakie (sp?) that said calculus...I knew then, that this next year was going to be an adventure.

So my mom and sierra were here with me for about the first week which was nice because I got to be with them and we had a rental car so it was easy to get around and see everything. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center (which im applying to), sharks cove, sunset beach, waimea falls, waikiki, turtle bay, and many many beautiful places. This picture is of me and sierra the Polynesian Cultural Center. We got really good passes for cheap because the lady at the register was moving back home and she had discounts she needed to get rid of. We basically got to see everything there. We went to a lu'au and got awesome real lei's and

after that we went to the night show which was AMAZING! I honestly dont even know how to explain how cool it was. And the crazier thing was that everyone that I saw working there and acting in the night show are all students at my school and a lot of them are in my classes and ward too! Enough of that....my favorite beach by far as of right now would be sunset beach. I love that beach so incredibly much! It is so beautiful and the water is so clear and there are barely any waves so you can just sit in the water! You wouldnt even understand unless you were here. I think that this year here has gotten a good start. Im meeting new people from all over the world and learning many new things. There are people representing 73 different countries at here at BYU-H and its the most culturally diverse school in the world. Im so happy and grateful that I am able to be here and I plan on making the most of it.

I hope that I will be able to post things more often because I dont want to forget anything about this experience! Miss you all!

A new beginning.

Well, the time is coming...Im moving to Hawaii in approximately 3 days. It hasn't really hit me yet. I figured that now would be a brilliant time to start a blog since I cant get my self to ever write in a journal even though I have been supplied with a million of them from church throughout my life. I absolutely love reading friends' blogs and hope to one day entertain people as much as my friends do with their outrageous stories.

I think that I will start by summarizing my summer at BYU. Amazing. I spent about 2 months in Provo going to school, trying to transition into the college lifestyle, and goofing off of course. It wasn't difficult. Living on campus was maybe one of the smartest things I did. I met so many

amazing people living in the dorms and went on so many fun adventures that I may not have experienced had I not lived on campus. I roomed with Aliese Jorgensen who is a friend from back home in Arizona. We got along really well and did pretty much everything together. We are a lot more alike than I ever had expected to be...except the whole height thing, but thats just the story of my life. By the way, this picture is just of us in her car before we went to anunderground neon dance part. Crazy night.

When I wasn't with her, I was with Lindsay. And when I say Lindsay, I mean Lindsay and Spencer. Ok well I did hang out with her alone a lot too. Its amazing how much a relationship with a sibling can change when you aren't at home. I feel that now, after spending 2 months in Provo, we aren't just siblings, we're like best friends. 7 Peaks season pass was probably the best investment I made this summer thanks to her. We spent countless hours there hitting the wave pool, going on all the slides, including shooting completely off the end of them (which obviously is not supposed to happen), and of course attempting to walk across the lily pads. I failed miserably. So many memories at that place. We also had a class together. Living Prophets. I honestly don't know where to start. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into with this 2 hour class but somehow I managed to pull out a 99% overall?? Dont ask...because I dont know. I took her and Spencer to lunch all the time because of the massive amounts of money I always had on my meal plan. It was nice to always have someone to eat with. Going to Plato's Closet was our favorite thing to do, especially when we had a hard day. It was always a bitter sweet experience because we love everything in that store, but thats exactly the problem...we couldn't have it all. We always happened to leave the

store with large quantities of clothes and jewelry in the end anyway. I am in love with that place.

I would just like to recap on some of the best days that I had at BYU. One of the first things I did was hike the "Y". Aliese and I met up with one of her friends from bowling class who brought some of his roommates. This little shindig happened on the 4th of July. Well the night before. That night was the Stadium of Fire performance that was put on by BYU as a 4th of

July celebration every year. This year, the special guest performer was Carrie Underwood so it was I guess you could say...a big deal. Unfortunately none of us got tickets to this, but it was ok because we had a little party of our own. We hiked the "Y" mountain and once we got to the top, we watched the big firework show mainly from the Stadium of Fire but saw other firework shows off in the distance. It was crazy to be above the fireworks and also hear the echoes in the mountains. The group is in the picture posted above. These boys were a lot of fun to

hang out with. We saw them

multiple times this summer. Lets see...we went bowling, disco roller blading, ice blocking, and they took us to their favorite place to eat, Rancheritos (I think haha). Aliese almost won $230 playing a game there! Ahh it was crazy. I couldn't even look it was that intense. Goood times with those boys. I will never forget them. Oh and the picture on the right...quite possibly my favorite picture from the night we went disco roller blading.

WORLDS LARGEST WATER BALLOON FIGHT. Need I say more? I think not. But I will anyway. Firstly, I got a free shirt. This was one of THE most outrageous things I have ever done. BYU broke the world record for the largest water balloon fight ever. There were over

120,000 water balloons and nearly 4,000 people. I didn't even know there was a world record for largest water balloon fights before this! Before the actual water balloon fight there were a lot of things going on. There was a DJ and people were dancing and then there were different crowds of people doing different things. I originally went with Aliese and a bunch of people from my ward but then I saw Lindsay and Spencer so I went over to say hi to them and talk to them for a bit and next thing I know is that Aliese and everyone else are no where to be found. Lindsay and I actually lost Spencer at one point as well and so she got on my shoulders to try to find him but that turned out to be an epic fail. So in the mean time, we decided to have a little fun and explore and we found ourselves in a dance competition thing? It wasnt really a competition, we were just chosen dancers to be in the front of the video camera for the news haha. It all worked out nicely though because the guy I was standing next to was super nice. His name was Seth and he ended up driving me home after the water balloon fight haha. He's on the football team at BYU! Anyway, rewinding....after the dance thing we found Spencer and then the fight began. It was seriously so much fun! Ahh soo gooood. Moving on...later that day there was a blood drive and I went with my friend Devery who was in my ward. AND...we got free shirts! 2 free shirts in one day?! I say it was s successful day.

Thats all I have for now, but I will definately write more about my BYU summer term experience soon!