Dear Grace,
Life has been ever the adventure since I last wrote, and I've been so blessed to have so many awesome experiences and the best of friends to share them with. To start, I decided on a whim to go blonde. Part of the reason being because I decided I didn't like the red hair anymore, and the other reason being that my beloved roomies and I are all blondes now!
Our first adventure of the new year was to go ice skating together (and I have been loving the fact that I can now wear cherry-red lipstick!)
(Left to right: Bailey, Elizabeth, Sidney, Me)
(She's the white girl in the middle with the bun)
What an amazing woman, I have to say. She wasn't even my age when she got involved in the movement. When we asked her how she felt in the many situations she encountered in which her life was endangered, she said simply, "We're all going to die one day. I thought that if I was going to die, I could either get hit by a bus, or die for a cause."
What a woman. It wasn't even so much that she stood up for something, it was how matter-of-fact she was about it. She spoke of her involvement no differently than if she had said, "Yeah, my clothes were all dirty, so I did the laundry." I hope to be half that cool someday.
My next adventure was a three-day weekend road trip down south with my beloved roomies. We started off by going to the boyhood home of the Wild West's very own Butch Cassidy:
A fine horse-rustling rogue he was indeed! It was just fun for me because I had been doing some research on Butch Cassidy like the day before we went on this trip, so I went from looking at a photo of his boyhood home to actually standing in it the very next day.
(Obligatory goofball shot)
Next, we alighted in St. George and stopped for lunch. Our plan up to this point had been to spend the weekend in St. George and play, but as it is winter and the only real reason you go to St. George is to enjoy the warm and go hiking, I casually said, "You know, Vegas is only like an hour and a half away from here...just saying..."
Next thing I know, there we were.
Basically, my roomies kick freakin' butt! No one else on planet earth would have agreed to do something so spontaneously crazy as Vegas. That is just one more reason why I loveth them.
So, we walked down the strip, explored the Venetian and it's beautiful canals and shops...
...headed on down to the Paris casino in search of a place to get some dinner...
...and instead ended up at the Cosmopolitan casino because there was supposedly a secret pizza place that we could afford to eat at. I was pretty psyched because that was the first time I've had pizza in America that could actually compare with real pizza from Italy.
After dinner, we were all pretty tired and felt we had seen it all. So, after saluting the Flamingo casino...
...and catching the delightful water show in front of another casino whose name escapes me...
...we headed out and drove back up to our hotel in St. George for the night.
The next day was Sunday. We got up and went to church for sacrament meeting, and then hurried back to our hotel to change and check out. From there, we went to God's other church: Zion's National Park.
Bailey and Sidney were literally dancing and bouncing around in excitement, and all of us were in awe with God's beautiful creations.
Closer to evening, we drove all the way up to the uppermost hike and hiked out to this spectacular view...
Of course, we each had to take a picture of ourselves"falling" off the cliff, haha. Although we were actually standing on a lower ledge in those pictures, that did nothing to quell my fear of heights.
(Look of 100% real terror on my face)
That night we went to stay at Michelle's house. It was nice to see my big sis and Ryan and Dodge and Addie again. The next day marked the last day of our little road trip. We ended it by stopping in to see Kolob Canyon (where one of my favorite hikes is).
2014 was by far the absolute best year of my life, and I doubt that I will ever know a better year as long as I live, but I have to say 2015 has been off to a pretty good start. Going on a spontaneous road trip with some of my best friends in the world was an absolute dream come true, and I'm so so so grateful to have had these three amazing girls in my life this year. Only God could have brought us all together, and there's not a doubt in my mind that is was by his design that we were guided to each other this year.
They've inspired me, loved me, been there for me, laughed with me, cried with me, and in so many ways they've changed me for the better. I'll be sad to see us all scattered to the wind when this semester ends, but for the rest of my life I will treasure the precious time we had together this year.
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