Take me back to PARADISE!!!

Last week at this time, I was sprawled out on Sunset Beach soaking in as much tropical sun as I possibly could. Life was GREAT!!! Now I"m back to sitting in a classroom all day. Life is still good- don't get me wrong, but somehow, I don't think I'll get the same color sitting in negotiations as I did snorkeling. Oh well. All good things must come to an end, I guess!

Taking a trip to Hawaii before school started this year was one of the best decisions I've ever made! I hadn't been back since I was at school there years ago (It had been WAY TOO long). Heidi, Libby and Kayce all came and we had a blast. We stayed on Waikiki and spent most of our time up on the North Shore. We hiked, snorkeled, swam, laid out, went to the PCC, ate great food, hung out with Justin, got tan, and had the most amazing time ever. Life just doesn't get much better than that!

I think it's going to take more than one post to describe all of our Hawaii adventures, but here are a few pictures from our excursion (there are tons!):

Libs & Heidi at the airport in PHX waiting for our flight

Map at Pearl Harbor

Riding the ferry out to the USS Arizona memorial

On the USS Arizona Memorial

Oil seeping from the Arizona

Makapu'u beach lighthouse- Heidi, Libby, Kayce, Britt

GORGEOUS rainbow starting at Diamondhead- from our hotel balcony

Rainbows everywhere- there were almost always rainbows that we could see from our balcony- we even saw a full-circle rainbow- pretty awesome!

Me and my boyfriend at the Dole plantation

Who doesn't want to be a dancing pineapple, really?

Rotten pineapples

Britt, Libs & Heidi on the train tour of the pineapple fields

Heidi as a hippie

Libby and Justin got into a little brawl on the beach (I may have started it- oops!)- they had only met like 10 minutes before this- love it!

Libs was mad because I had Justin dump her in the sand- she thought she could win this one! :)

Sunset on Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach

Heidi, Libby, Kayce, Britt, Justin on Sunset Beach

Becoming a mermaid on Sunset Beach

Justin made a shark to eat me- real cool!

Ta-Da!

I definitely had sand EVERYWHERE!!! It was bad!

Libs & Heidi

to be continued......

White Water Rafting with the MBA program

(I'll post about Hawaii soon. I want to get some more pictures from Heidi before I do that!)

Each year before school starts the OB/HR track in the MBA program goes on a rafting trip. The purpose of the trip is to introduce first years to recruiters from many different companies and jump start the internship/job search. There are generally lots of recruiters that come and everyone has a good time. GE, P&G, Dell, General Mills, Honeywell, HP, and lots of other companies were represented. Since Western Union didn't send a recruiter this year, they asked Jake and I to come. I had a blast. I flew from Honolulu directly in to Boise and they picked me up at the airport and took me to our campsite. We camped Thursday night and then rafted Friday and Saturday and came back to Utah on Saturday night. We have some really cool first years and it was great to meet the recruiters from all of the different companies and talk to them about their experiences. I wish I had come last year when I was looking for an internship- what a great way to get to know more about the companies and start networking. Here are a few pictures from our rafting trip!

Mac did a pretty good job holding on to the raft!

I was next to "ride the bull".

Once we hit this rapid there was no hope for me up on the front.

If you look closely you can see my feet sticking up in the air!

Couldn't get back up once I fell off!

SO MUCH FUN!!!

NAUVOO!

Well, yesterday was the last day of my internship. It was really sad to go, but I most likely will be coming back next summer to work full-time, so that is a good thing. Jake and I both got offers!!! I couldn't be happier! It completely changes my mindset to come out of this internship with a full-time offer when I knew coming into it that WU doesn't ever give full-time offers to interns. Jake and I are very lucky. They want to create a new rotational program for HR and asked us to be the first participants. So, it looks like this might not be the end of my relationship with Denver!

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but at least I knew it wasn't goodbye forever! Luckily, I was able to finish all of my projects and I even made it home last night before 8!

With the internship over, now begins my 2-week whirlwind vacation adventure. Tomorrow I am off to Provo to move back into my apartment. Tuesday morning I fly from SLC to PHX to spend 2 days with my parents and family in AZ. Thursday morning I fly from PHX to Honolulu. SO EXCITED!!! I haven't been back to Hawaii since I spent time at BYU-H before my mission. I honestly can't wait for this trip- I have been looking forward to it for months! I'll spend a week there. Then, next Wednesday night I fly from HNL-Boise for a river rafting trip with new OB/HR students from the MBA program and recruiters from lots of different companies. That will be a blast as well. Next Saturday we will drive from Idaho to SLC and I'll spend some time with Stevie, Spence,and most importantly JAMES! and then I'm back to Provo to start school. So- with all of these great adventures coming up that I'll have to blog about, I figured that I better post pics from my INCREDIBLE Nauvoo trip!

My roommate Kayce, My friend Michelle, and I decided to take a trip to Nauvoo this summer because Michelle ad I had never been there and Kayce had spent a semester there and wanted to go back. We flew into Kansas City, rented a sweet red convertible mustang and drove. We went to Liberty, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Far West, Independence, Carthage, and pretty much everywhere else that was on our route. It seems like we made friends/caused a riot everywhere we went. I guess we are just loud and obnoxious like that. Our first night in Nauvoo we ate a Dotties Family Dining aka the bar in town. We met a nice old drunk man named Jim who knew that we would be instant friends because he liked our car. He had a blue mustang- it was mean to be! That was definitely an interesting night! We went and saw the pageant- twice- you got it- twice. Nauvoo just has such a lively night life that we had to forego lots of other things, but it was definitely worth it. My friend Jeff played Joseph in the pageant. He did such an incredible job, as usual! We went and saw Carthage Jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred. We went to the Nauvoo temple, which was an incredible experience. It was so humbling to know that those people sacrificed everything for a temple that they would barely see completed. We wet on a midnight drive with the top down through the cornfields, ate custard at the custard shop, met a man whose brother invented the bike radio, lost Kayce's luggage, mooed at cows, and overall had a fantastic vacation. I can't believe that I'd never been there before. Nauvoo is such a special place! I am so glad that we went and can't wait to go back and see everything that we missed!

our fun rental!!

ballet in front of the mansion house

Joseph, Emma & Hyrum's graves

So Beautiful!

Nauvoo Temple

Kayce as King Kong

At the Pageant

Love this little thing that we found in Nauvoo

Carthage Jail

Carthage

Found my Great-Great-Great Grandma Julia Hills Johnson's name at the pioneer memorial.

Kayce and Michelle enjoying snowcones at the pageant

My friend Jeff as Joseph

Kayce

The cornerstones of the temple at Far West

Liberty Jail

Disneyland

Well, I still have lots to write about Haiti, but obviously I haven't done that yet. So I'll catch up with it over time. I have been living in Denver for the summer doing my internship for business school at Western Union corporate headquarters in the global talent management group. I have loved my experience so far and it's hard to believe that there are only 2 weeks left! I have had some great adventures and met some great people while I've been here. I got really lucky and found an awesome roommate who I have a blast with. I keep trying to convince her that she needs to move to Provo so we can hang out when I go back to school- but she won't!

The weekend before my Mom's birthday in July, the whole family flew out to LA and we spent the weekend at Disneyland! I hadn't been to Disneyland for such a long time and it was the kids' first time there ever. We had such a good time and it was great to be with my whole family for a change. After the weekend, Derek and the kids flew back to AZ with my parents and spent the rest of the week there. I had to come back to Denver for work. Here are a few pictures from our weekend!

My Mom and I on the Ferris Wheel at California Adventure

Gage, Derek & Sierra on the Ferris Wheel

The whole crew in front of Disneyland- obviously the people who took the picture for us weren't professional

Dad and I at the beach

Mom & Dad at the beach

Gage got mad after this picture that I thought I was taller than him- he wanted to take another one and switch places with me

Family

I was holding on to Gage's arm because he was super scared on this ride- but it looks more like I'm the one that needs someone to hold onto my arm!

Sierra's favorite- Tinkerbell

Our favorite ride- Indiana Jones! The kids wanted to go on it over and over

happy to be at Disneyland!