I want to go back.

Don't get me wrong. 80% ok maybe...75% of the time I do love the SLC life.

Its been over a year, I should enjoy it right?

But its cold, there snow and no beach, no dodgers and so many Mormons.

That there are so many times I want to go back to my LA life.

And there are moments like this that make me miss it oh so much.

 

I have probably blogged about the NR Crew 1,000 times. But when you have found friends like this, you tend to miss them.

The boys I have grown up with and the girls that are like your other half.

I miss filling up the entire row at church.

I miss the Sunday game nights.

Friday night YSA dances.

I miss the Christmas party and gift exchange.

I miss the drama and getting annoyed with the boys.

I miss our fun outings.

I do love that when I get the chance to come back and visit that it feels like no time has passed. It seems like just yesterday we were all hanging out. I like to pretend that while I am gone, time freezes and my friends have no fun without me. But I do love coming back and the excitement that comes with getting the gang back together as much as possible.

I know that things change, people move, nothing can stay the same forever (as much as I hopelessly wish it could) and I just have to be grateful for my two short years with my crew--although it feels so much long than just that.

Today will be our 4th year celebrating New Years together and camping out at the Rose Parade.

I could not be more pumped. Some of my best memories are during those wee hours of the night. 

life according to my iPhone.

Some of the happenings of my busy life while on the go. 

what the!?!?

and LOTS more to come on this...

since when do i camp??

This happened weeks...perhaps even a month ago. 

But I was waiting to get more pictures from one of my friends and so I procrastinated.

This is no secret, but I do not like camping. I filled my canteen of that with 7 years of Girl's Camp. And feel like I should never been forced to sleep outdoors again, especially when I have a house and a warm comfy bed. Why trade that in for a tent and sleeping bag and no bathrooms? 

My friends had been talking about going camping for awhile now, but I figured with their poor planning skills we would never actually pull the trigger. Sadly, I was wrong and a trip was being planned. Since I had previously committed (thinking it would never go through) I had to go. 

And of course, it ended up being a ton of fun and I kept my complaining to a minimum. 

The craziest part of the trip happened right in the beginning. We had to take two cars and left at separate times, thinking the first car would go, secure a camp site and start setting up while our car had to wait a bit before we hit the road. We went camping at the Angeles Crest Forrest. It wasn't till we got up there did we realize we had no cell phone service. And with no idea where car #1 was at, we werent really sure where to go, keep in mind also it was already 9 pm and pretttttty dang dark out. We started driving around all the windy roads trying to spot Trevor's car with no luck. I for sure figured we would never find them. And perhaps at this point I was secretly hoping we wouldnt find them which would force us to go back home. At this point we decided to go back out the way we came to another camp site. As we pulled out on to the main road we saw a car coming. Troy waited for the car to pass and low and behold, it was the rest of our group. It was really crazy and perhaps not such a coincidence. 

That night we set up camp, had bean and cheese burritos, roasted s'mores and stayed up so late playing our favorite game What If. Luckily, we burned all evidence in the fire. 

We woke up in the morning to beautiful scenery that we were unable to appreciate the night before. 

The boys were really proud of themselves for climbing this rock, but this picture makes it look super lame. haha

see!? so pretty! minus the graffiti...

Those are the times I actually enjoy camping, when you realize how beautiful the middle of no where is. Then we drove out to go hiking to some waterfalls. 

 Tom was the only brave one to get in the cold water. 

Some other fun moments from camping:
Vajeni!
Rudy breaking the chair.
Rudy and Trevor and the slingshot of the marshmellow.
Trevors lame scary story.
Jeni being an expert hot dog griller.
Forgetting all condiments for our hot dogs.

So it turned out to be really fun, although I am still not the biggest fan of camping. I am always glad I went, afterwards, but dread leading up to it. I will only commit to going once a year. Thats enough. 

Resolution #1 Check.

At the end of my Year in Review post I added a couple of resolutions to complete by the end of the year. 

I am happy to report that the first thing stated, will be able to be checked off by the end of the week. 

Move out. 

 Thats right folks. 

This 25 year old, semi working professional, 

is moving out of her parents house and getting in apartment.

like a real adult. 

It just took me two years to get the courage to actually leave the comfort of my home and my mothers cooking in exchange for an apartment, roommates and re-learning how to survive on my own again. 

Some of you may know my recent struggle on the whole moving thing for the past few months. 

Ive been debating location, roommates and time frame of this move.

And finally have been able to come to the decision to move to Santa Monica  

and ya...at the end of the week. 

I am excited to call this beach my home!!

I will be living with Shawn Gleason, a friend from BYU/ Lanai.

It all just happened so fast that before I knew it I had made the decision, paid my rent and am now starting to bring my belongings to my new abode.

I am a little sad. But mostly excited.
Its just weird that I wont be living in Granada Hills.
Perhaps a little dramatic. The drive is about 15 minutes.
But for the 20ish years that I have lived in California
 I have lived on the same street. Same house. Same room.
But if Im gonna get real sad on you it will be with the sadness of leaving my NR ward.
I entered that ward kicking and screaming in protest. And now I will leave in shedding a few tears.
{again. perhaps dramatic. I am still so close}
and yet, I love my ward. I love the people, I love that its small, I love that its home.
I think I have a special knack for getting great friends.
I left Provo nearly two years ago for California, thinking nothing could ever compete with the Lanai Crew.
And although NR3 is not entirely in the same league, it gives it a good run for its money.
Ill miss sitting in the front row of Sacrament meeting, teaching Sunday School and Heather bringing cookies for us to pass down our aisle {and accidentally eating them on fast Sunday}

But heres to new adventures in Santa Monica.
figuring out adulthood
and an attempt at Queen of the SM ward
{hey! can I say Im two for two!? Ive got good chances!}

quarter of a century.

Well. It happened. I turned the big 2-5. 

Despite my love for all things party and birthdays I was nervous I wouldnt be excited with this upcoming birthday. I mean, its kind of a big deal, right!? But it came and I was just as excited as ever. 

I starting brainstorming for my birthday months ago. And was a little stumped.

The NR3 guys moved out of their house. So no party there. 

Granada Hills doesnt offer many great hang outs for a party. So a repeat of the golden year was out too.

Much to my dismay, most of my crew here complains of birthday dinners. There goes the Lanai tradition. 

And my mother hates when I have more than 2 people over at the house. Oooof. 

My birthday was on a Sunday. Hard to celebrate then.

And it was Stake Conference weekend. No dinner outings on Saturday night. 

Then my father informed me that him and my mom would be out of town Friday night, no family celebration then that night either. 

I was getting a little bummed. And out of ideas. 

Sitting at work one day, it was like a lightbulb just turned on. 

Parents out of town? House to myself on a Friday night?

Let the secret party plans begin. 

Linden offered to make me a cake. I thought of some great decorations. Sent out the facebook invite. 

I had myself a party in the works. 

And it turned out to be a great success and one of the best birthdays.

I started the evening out with dinner

 (Lets be real, Im not not gonna go to dinner!) 

with a group of great ladies. 

Then back to my house for cake, chatting, a Dodgers pinata and dancing for the rest of the night. 

I was so proud of my Pom Poms that I made!! They were so adorable and perfect. They are still hanging up cause I refuse to take them down yet. Thanks pinterest!! 

Some of the party people gathered waiting for the pinata.

Im a little disappointed in myself for the lack of photos. 

(Allie Barker dont get mad at me!)

My excuses are that one, I was having too much fun to be bothered with snapping photos

and two, well I was still on the fence about coming clean to my parents and didnt want photographic evidence. 

The party was such a success! I had so much fun celebrating by dancing and being surrounded by all of my friends. 

And of course the celebrations continued on throughout the weekend with two family dinners and forcing my family to tell me all the things they loved about me. (I wont let that tradition die either!)

And so here is to being twenty-five. 

Inside I tell myself this means I need to be an adult. 

Although I fight it by still claiming hot dogs are my favorite food, sleeping until past 10 on the weekends and still living with my parents. 

But Im happy knowing that I like this 25 year old version of me more than the 20 year version of me. And knowing that, I think the years will just continue to get better. 

And as a finally side note, as I sat in Stake Conference on Saturday night, listening to my dad speak on honesty and integrity...having my friends poke me throughout the whole talk...needless to say, I came clean about my party. 

party rocking.

This should go without saying,

I enjoy any good holiday that allows me to celebrate by having a party. 

So add New Years Eve to the list. 

This year was no exception. Easily the best NYE yet. 

The weekend party started out with a Lanai Reunion at Lake Arrowhead. 

Eagles Nest with the troops. 

This gang has celebrated NYE together for the last five years, and Im glad I was finally able to be included in the celebrations. 

Within the hour of all of us sitting down for dinner my abs already hurt from laughter. 

They never disappoint. 

(and can i just do a quick side note. I love this gang. I love that we get together and do fun trips often. I love how much we laugh when we are together and that nothing seems to change, that I chat with many of them on a very frequent basis and that we've been out of lanai for years now, and yet they are still some of my very best friends. ok now resume...)

Thursday night and Friday consisted of catching up and laughing, a trip to the dock, the village, a boat ride around the Lake, a fabulous Mexican lunch and free dessert (We love you Arturo!!) and taking it easy at Trent's cabin. 

Our Friday night provided the most entertainment as the Squires put together some outlandish games for us to play. 

The prize?

 Competing for a spot to accompany Ronnie in the handicap lines at Disneyland. 

We couldnt get over that we all legitimately playing outlandish games, made up by Ronnie, just so we could talk advantage of him being in a wheelchair at Disneyland. 

We played "How well do you know Ronnie?" (I got 4th place, thank you very much), a made up game called Shark Attack (which Im still mad that mine didnt count), followed by the Shark Off ("I aint Sharking Off" best quote of the night Lacey!) and a game of darts (won that one too).

Saturday was Disneyland!! 

We got up ridiculously too early to get there as the doors opened. But it was worth it and we finagled those crowds like champs. 

And remember those games we had to play? 

Ya not needed. 

All of us were able to take advantage of the handicap lines. It was really nice being able to cut some of the crazy lines and still being able to ride everything together as a group. 

Highlights included: 

riding Tower of Terror...three times

Trent's constant fist pumps during California Screamin'

being terrified of getting wet while riding the river rafting ride

eating Churros, a must needed afternoon snack

 the corn dogs, Amy's demand for constant treats, and I could easily go on. 

I skipped out of Disneyland a bit early, and although I was really sad to leave the Lanai gang, I had to get myself to the next party!

I rang in the new year with my Northridge crew at the YSA party in Irvine at Dave & Busters. 

I legitimately sprinted to the doors

 found my friends 

and didnt stop dancing till the DJ made us. 

it was packed. crammed with over 2,000 people

we partied and played arcade games till 2 AM. 

no new years is complete in my book if you cant dance your way into the new year. 

Sunday afternoon I had to have a crash nap to prepare me for the next activity of the weekend

Rose Parade camp out. 

We got another great spot this year. 

And although some opted for sleep, I just couldnt do it. 

round two of an all nighter was a success. 

We played some games, Rudy and I went for long walks to check out all the crazies (we saw Jesus!) and kinda just chilled. 

The Parade got really sunny and warm. A little too warm for a winters day. 

The parade was great. 

Love the floats. 

Love Japanese bands breaking down to Lady Gaga. 

Love narrating the parade for the gang.

And love Tom making cat calls to the Queen of the parade even more. 

And then I came home and slept. 

The result of this party weekend:

Losing my voice. Viral Laryngitis. Calling in sick to work on Tuesday. 

But if i could, Id put this weekend on repeat.