Its Tonga Time.

TODAY IS THE DAY!

For the next 25 days, I will be learning and working in Fiji and Tonga with a group of fellow nursing students and one of our professors. We will be traveling to several different islands to work with medical professionals in the hospitals, hold free clinics in the marketplaces, teach in schools, and experience everything we possibly can. It will be an adventure! 

My phone use will be nonexistent and my internet access will be pretty limited, so it might be a while before ya'll hear from me! If we find good enough internet that I can do some blog updates, i'll make sure to keep everyone posted on how sunburned I am and what crazy awesome new foods i've tried :)

Wish me luck!

I love you all!

See you June 11th!

Peace out 'Merica.

Playing Catch-Up

You know its funny, school finally ends and suddenly i've got hours and hours of free time on my hands, and for whatever reason thats when I end up going on a little blogging break. Maybe i've been lazy. Or MAYBE i've just been so busy having fun, spending time with so many people that I love, and getting ready to do some world traveling. Yep, that one sounds about right (but lets be real here, i've also spent more than one afternoon lounging on the couch watching Ellen). So anyway I suppose now would be an appropriate time to do a little bit of catch-up.

First things first. On Friday May 3rd I became an aunt for the seventh time. I was nine years old when my first (and so far, only) nephew was born. There is a special excitement with the birth of each baby and the chance to welcome another beautiful little soul into our family. I'm telling you, its straight up magical. Already little girl Amelia Mae has captured a place my heart. She has joined her cousins Brayden, Ella, Rachel, Katelin, Paige, and Anya in that special part of me that just wants to love those kids to the moon and back forever and ever. Fighting to earn the spot of favorite aunt is the best job EVER.

I was blessed to actually be in the delivery room as Amelia was born.
One of the biggest rewards of that was being able to witness my big brother's first moments as a father. 

They make a pretty cute family!

Check out that face. OBVIOUSLY she already totally loves me.

Can't even handle the overwhelming cuteness of this photo.
Men with babies.
Men who have mini superman curls with babies.
Mm mm mm. Yes.

She is soooo tiny!

Those who nap together, stay together!

Seriously. Can't get enough of this girl.

Clearly she's very deep in thought here.

Robby and Diane are already great parents. Its just weird... they are PARENTS now!
Rob does make a pretty precious daddio.

Too good not to share...



{INSERT WITTY TOPIC TRANSITION HERE.}

Nate's current favorite joke: How can you tell who is a marathon runner? You don't have to, they'll tell you! 

DANG. STRAIGHT.

I'm a marathon runner! I ran a marathon! I'll be wearing the t-shirt, posting the photos, and applying that 26.2 sticker on the back window of my car. So yes Nathan, you are correct, I have no qualms about sharing my accomplishment with the world! 

This race was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Certainly it is one of my biggest accomplishments up to this point in my life. It feels wonderful to set a big goal, make a plan for achieving it, and then succeed after months of hard work and training. I am so thankful for all of the people who helped me reach my goal, and especially for those who came to cheer me on and boost my energy and motivation to keep going!

At that early point in the race when I still looked like the happiest runner who runs marathons of cloud nine. Yeah it didn't last all 26.2...

It was wonderful having my parents in town for this! They make the greatest cheerleaders!

Of course, I brought my big sister inspiration with my in the form of a pic on the back of my race bib. Can't wait for the day when we get to do one together for real!

I have such great people in my life. Thanks for the support boyos!

:) 

Thanks for keeping my company for a few miles Jonny!!

I finished it. Really truly I did. Parts of it rocked. Parts of it really sucked. But it doesn't matter because I finished it.

We are so precious.

Love my aunt and cousins for coming to the finish line!!

Okay! Time to sign up for the next one!!

I do it for the medal. Okay not completely... buuuut thats a big part of it haha. 

Life. It is exciting stuff. I like it a lot.

This Kid

{Please excuse the cheesiness that I know is oozing from every pore of this post. I just can't help it sometimes.}

This kid. Don't let the cute innocent face and hedgehog "down to snuggle" shirt fool you... he's a troublemaker ;) But he and I, we have some fun together.

We food fight.

We dance. Sometimes as one giant person.

We empty his gigantic bean bag into a bagillion trash bags. And then cram all the bags into his car, which then became the safest care in the world with all that padding.

I get him hooked on shave ice and he forces cheesy smiles.

We text...

{In the convo below... I win... simply because of my world's smallest violin haha} 

We make the world's coolest giant s'mores.

We act totally normal out in public.

We go shooting.

We feed ducks at the duck pond.

We drive to Las Vegas and back. In one day. Which is a whole lot of driving... but it was time well spent. His little bro was heading home to Phoenix for the last few months before his mission, so we drove him down and met up with their parents half way in Vegas to make the Tanner exchange haha. All worth it with good music, a huge and fun lunch with his awesome parents, a lot of laughing, a lot of teasing, and a lot of talking the whole way home. After being back in Provo for about 15 minutes we then left for a group friend camping trip across Utah lake. Over 24 straight hours together and we didn't kill each other. Thats a good sign right? :)

 Yeah. This kid and I. We have some fun together.