Happy to Be!

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about how fragile our lives are and how fortunate I am to have my health, a great education, the best friends I could ask for, my wonderful family, the gospel and everything else in life that I enjoy. I think I take it for granted too often. So- even though I may get a bit out of control and over-excited at times, I am SO grateful for how happy my life is. I'm one lucky girl! :)

When I think about how happy I am, my pre-school picture always pops into my head for some reason- maybe because I look like I'm just happy to be!

More Hawaii....

I clearly couldn't get enough of Hawaii! Here are the rest of the pictures to prove it!

Love this temple! Too bad it's closed until November for renovations!

Beautiful View of Waimea from the top of the mountain. We met a "preservationist" man who I'm pretty sure now is a scam artist- I'm so glad I gave him that $10 bill!!

LOVE Libby's souvenirs. She had the weirdest bumps all over

Laie Point. Probably my favorite place in the world- honestly!

Dinner at the PCC- yum!

Justin took us on a little canoe ride around the PCC- Kayce was so excited to get to park the canoe! THANKS JUSTIN!

Night show at the PCC

Libs and the ever-present Diet Coke

WHAT?!?!? So glad we took this pic when we did, though. They changed it the next day!

Laie Falls. More like a trickle. I remember it having more water. The hike was beautiful, though!

AMAZING view from the hike to the falls.

You will be Shot????

the girls+ Justin+ Pineapple Macadamia Nut Cheesecake from Ted's+ beach+night pics of the point= greatest night ever!

Why do I live in Utah again?

So Pretty! I love full moons

Justin, Heidi, Libby & Kayce

Heidi and Justin on the beach
Heidi, Britt, Kayce & Libs
ALOHA!

Kayce, Justin, Heidi & Libs

All of us by our cheesecake!

Waikiki- the girls quickly understood why I kept us away from this place during the day. WAY too many people. But what can you do when you have to get to the airport quickly???

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!!!