It Has Been a While!

I definitely have not written for about 2 months now.. I'm laggin' it. I don't even know where to begin! So much has happened these past few months while I've been at college. It has been awesome and exciting, but also stressful and crazy! Basically, life has been good. Better than it had been previous to my college experience. I still love it here at BYU Idaho, and my roommates and I have grown pretty close. But also, Greg and I have been pretty close as well. Since I can't think of anything super specific to write about that happened right after Conference weekend in October, I'll just start from Thanksgiving Break and go from there.

I went to Park City, Utah with Greg to meet his family and spend Thanksgiving with them. Let me tell you, I was pretty nervous the entire week leading up to it. I don't really even know why because his family is AWESOME. We left on Friday, and drove down with Greg's friend Doug. We made it there pretty quickly, and then Greg's mom picked us up from Salt Lake and we drove to their house. It was dark outside, so at that time I couldn't really see where we were or the scenery around us, but just as a side note: it is extremely nice there. Greg's family lives up in the mountains with trees and snow all around, and they have the most beautiful house too! It is super nice and honestly the perfect place to live. His family itself is just so great and righteous. His dad is hilarious, even though sometimes I don't think he really means to be. It comes naturally. He is truly an amazing man and I know he cares so much about his family. His mom is one of the most caring women I have ever met. She has so much going on in her life and still found the time to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us and on top of that, keep her house looking perfect and beautiful. I can definitely say that I want to be like her when I am a mother. He has an older brother named Chris, who came over for Sunday dinner with his girlfriend and also spent Wednesday through Saturday with us. He is a way cool guy and is really into DJing. I heard some of his music and it actually sounds really good. He also is super funny and a very like-able person. Greg has another brother that is on his mission right now. His name is Shaun, but I didn't meet him for obvious reasons. Greg's little sister, Alisa, is 16 years old. To be honest, I think I was most afraid of meeting her because I was afraid of what she would think. This was because I remember when my brothers brought girls home and the way I felt about it. I didn't want the girls to take my brothers away, you know, the kinds of things a sister thinks about when change is happening. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, I was still pretty nervous about it, but she ended up being a really incredible girl. I really admire her because she doesn't really care that much about what other people think. I wish I could be more like that. Greg's other sister, Lauren, is 13 years old. She is the cutest girl I've ever met! She wears these big glasses that just add to how cute she is. I loved it. She is super fun to be around; Greg and I went and watched her play soccer a few times at a nearby indoor facility. She totally almost scored twice. It was a lot of fun! Then, last but not least, we have Greg's little brother Sam. He is 6 years old and pretty much the cutest little boy I've ever met. He was always just cracking up at the littlest things and wanted to play all the time, which I loved. He is a little ham, steals the spotlight, and he cracked ME up all week! We got along pretty well. I really admire the fact that Greg plays and messes around with him a lot. It shows how much he cares, and I know that Sam is going to want to be just like Greg when he grows up.

While in Park City, we went to a ward Turkey Shoot. At this time, I give much credit to Greg's dad for all the teasing he did on the way to this event. He got me to believe that we were actually going to go shoot live turkeys. Heck, I'd never been to a Turkey Shoot before! And the worst part was that Greg was in on the little joke too. Much to my surprise, there were no real turkeys (thank heavens) but man, I definitely felt stupid! But it was all in good fun, so I was cracking up at myself for believing that. Let's just say that I caught on really fast to not believe everything his dad said, even though it was all in good fun. He made me laugh all week because of his sarcasm and jokes. Among the turkey shoot, Greg and I did a lot of other things as well. We went to see the ski resorts in Park City, went to Main Street, saw Lauren play soccer, went sledding, shoveled some snow off the deck, made cookies and dessert, drove through a snow storm to pick up Lauren from her friend's house, and other fun things like that. I had a really great time there.

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, all of us drove back up to Rexburg to spend the holiday with their cousins and aunt and uncle. They were very hospitable and allowed me to stay at their house as well, even though my apartment was only about 10 minutes away. Thanksgiving day was a blast; all of the kids helped make dinner and dessert. Alisa and I made a homemade Lemon Meringue pie from scratch. It was a lot of fun making it together. The food was delicious, as well as the dessert! It was very nice to be with such a great family during that holiday. I did miss my family back at home at one point during the day, but I know I will see them soon. The rest of that weekend, we ended up seeing the new Harry Potter movie, hanging out at the house, went to the temple with everyone who was old enough, played laser tag, and played board and card games. It was the perfect ending to a perfect week. I'm very grateful for the family that Greg has and for their welcoming hearts and loving hospitality. I really enjoyed the time that I spent with all of them, and honestly, I miss them a lot. I hope I get to see them again.