Chicago Travelsgiving

To say I’ve been bad at blogging this year would be a gross understatement.

I feel like most of my friends have stopped blogging though, so I have to admit that I don’t feel too bad about it. The good news for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting a new post (read: my mom) is that I finally have something cool enough that I want to share.

This Thanksgiving, I spent the break from work exploring Chicago with my roommate Hayley. It was a totally random, spur of the moment decision. We were sitting on the couch a couple of months ago when we started talking about how we had never been there before. Less than 24 hours later, we booked a place to stay in the windy city on Airbnb. We really had no reason to go other than it sounding like a great adventure. Traveling is pretty much my most favorite thing ever, as I’m sure you’ve gathered from my blog if you’ve ever looked at it before. The only thing that gets in the way is a shortage of vacation days… somehow I seem to burn through those way to quickly.

Without further adieu, here is the trip in photos. It’s ok if you admit you only wanted to see pictures. Hayley got a new camera and brought it with her, so there are some pretty great ones. Unless the picture is of Hayley, it was most likely taken by her (the not-as-great-quality ones are from my phone). I promise she let me steal her work.



Started out the day with a nice Thanksgiving parade and cute Christmas market



The contrast between the blue of the sky and the blue of Lake Michigan was ridiculously captivating. Totally worth the Thanksgiving Day cold. Don’t worry, we went to a warm restaurant right after this. That night we went to a hilarious Second City show and enjoyed all-you-can-drink hot chocolate.



We spent most of Friday getting lost in the Art Institute of Chicago before eating pizza and checking out the night view at the top of the Sear’s Tower (fine, I guess it’s called the Willis Tower now).




We covered a lot of ground Saturday walking along the river, checking out an almost-abandoned Navy Pier (where Hayley’s hair cooperated, but mine was going insane), visiting the Zoo and surrounding park, stopping by the Christmas market again for more treats, hanging out around the cool outdoor art displays and watching ice skaters.



And because Hayley specifically said she went to Chicago to recreate Kanye videos, here is this gem with a “behind the scenes” shot.

On Sunday, we went back home to the real world. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well! Now on to counting the days until Christmas…

2013 in Review

I’ve been entirely terrible at blogging since I’ve returned to the states (note the lack of a single post in December. Oops!), but there have been so many major developments this year that I felt it would be shameful if I missed my annual review.

So, without further adieu, here’s a snapshot of my 2013!

JANUARY

Locations: Asahikawa, Japan

Included: I got transferred to the coldest area for sister missionaries in Japan just in time for the winter! Battling the snow every day was sometimes crazy, but it was also beautiful. Asahikawa also is home to a sweet zoo where they have a penguin walk, so I got to make some new animal friends. I may have gone on three p-days.

FEBRUARY

Locations: Asahikawa, Japan

Included: February continued to be super cold, but it took a turn for the awesome when we got to go to the world-famous yuki matsuri (a.k.a. snow festival) in Sapporo and the winter festival in Asahikawa. The sculptures were the size of buildings!

MARCH

Locations: Asahikawa, Japan

Included: The snow… was still a main feature of this month. I celebrated my 24th birthday and continued having fun serving the wonderful people in Japan.

APRIL

Locations: Asahikawa, Japan

Included: April was the first month the age change for girl missionaries hit our mission, so all of a sudden our numbers tripled! I also got my first non-Japanese companion, Sister Lundstrom from Ohio, and we had way too much fun together.

MAY

Locations: Asahikawa & Sapporo, Japan

Included: In May I was transferred to Sapporo to be a sister training leader, which meant my companion and I got to visit all of the areas in our mission to split up and train with the sister missionaries. It was so much fun to get team up with everyone, and a dream come true to see all of the different areas! We usually went to two locations in a week, so we were living out of our suitcases and hardly ever were in our own apartment.

JUNE

Locations: Sapporo, Japan; Portland, Ore.

Included: This was my last month of the mission and it was fast and crazy and fun as we continued to travel around Hokkaido every week. It was actually perfect because I got to see all of the people I had come to love in all of my areas one more time before I headed back to the states. Leaving was sad, but being reunited with my family after a year and a half was wonderful. I also enjoyed the whole being able to sleep in again thing too.

JULY

Locations: Portland, Ore.; Provo, Utah

Included: This was a whirlwind month of adjusting to being home, reuniting with friends, landing a job at KSL.com and then finding an apartment in Salt Lake City. It was crazy how fast things moved, but it all worked out so perfectly I know it was definitely what I was supposed to do.

AUGUST

Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah

Included: Moving to Salt Lake and getting settled at work was the biggest part of this month. It was a fun adventure! We also had a mini mission reunion when my last companion came into town from Japan, so I didn’t have to miss my mission friends for too long.

SEPTEMBER

Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah

Included: September was a pretty chill month. I continued to have fun exploring the area and Amber even came down from Provo a few times to eat something delicious.

OCTOBER

Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah

Included: I kept working and living and enjoyed the fall colors.

NOVEMBER

Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah; All over California

Included: The best part of this month was hands down tagging along with Amber and her friend for a Thanksgiving road trip to California. We hit up an extra-magical Disneyland on Thanksgiving, enjoyed warm beaches and visited the animals at the San Diego Zoo (in case anyone was wondering, I think I’ve been to three zoos this year for a total of six times). It was kind of hard to come back to cold Utah… as you may have guessed, I’ve had more than my fill of chilly weather this past year.

DECEMBER

Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Ore.

Included: The Christmas season featured fun parties in Salt Lake and then wonderful reunions back home in Portland! I got a fabulous week off from work to come home. I wasn’t here for Christmas last year, so that just made it even more special. It was a perfect end to a big year.

And that was 2013! I hope you all had a fantastic year as well, and that 2014 will be even more amazing.

*Song of the day = London, by She & Him. My next destination, perhaps?

Year in Review 2011

I know it’s not quite the end of the year yet, but since I’m about to disappear for 18 months I think I deserve some leeway. I just loved doing my year in review so much last year that I wanted to do it again! Plus so many fun and important things happened this year there was no way I could skip this.

JANUARY

Locations: Provo

Included: January was a long time ago so I have to admit that I don’t remember exactly what I did with myself. But, I know that I was at school having fun doing things like going to basketball games and Sam’s swim meets. I also made a wonderful repeat trip to the Sundance Film Festival with Rebecca.

FEBRUARY

Locations: Provo

Included: What I’m gathering from my photos is that to survive school and the winter my roommates and I decorated our apartment with lots of fun Valentines stuff (most of which we never took down). And I made a lasagna.

MARCH

Locations: Provo, Orderville

Included: March is always an automatic win because it contains my birthday. However, this time there was a sad note when I had to say goodbye to my grandmother, but it at least came with a nice side effect in that I got to see my family and stop by Zion’s National Park for the first time.

APRIL

Locations: Provo, Houston

Included: So much happened this month it’s crazy! First and foremost, I graduated from BYU. And there were a lot of fun parties and such that went along with it. A couple of days after graduation Amber and I flew down to Houston for my roommate Sam’s wedding to Erick! It was so beautiful.

MAY

Locations: Honolulu, Portland, Washington D.C.

Included: My family and I were able to make it back to Hawaii! It was the just what I needed right after finishing school. I got to relax at home for a little bit, and then moved back to Washington, D.C. for another internship. This time I interned for my Senator, Ron Wyden, and it was an fabulous experience. Annie even came to visit me for Memorial Day.

JUNE

Locations: Washington D.C., New York City

Included: I continued my internship, and Amber came and visited me! We spent some time in the district before meeting up with Annie in New York City for a weekend of adventure.

JULY

Locations: Washington D.C.

Included: July in D.C. is always just a magical thing for obvious reasons. Plus, Annie came down and visited me again for the 4th of July weekend. Some other friends came a stopped by too!

AUGUST

Locations: Washington D.C.

Included: My internship ended in the middle of August, and then I got to have a fantastic time doing things like sleep in and survive Hurricanes. Kaitlin came up from Richmond to visit me too, so we got to play in the district together and check out the new MLK Memorial.

SEPTEMBER

Locations: Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Honesdale

Included: I decided to stick around the D.C. area while I figured out a more long-term plan for my life. I think I visited every single museum in the district. Best of all I was able to take a road trip up to Honesdale, PA to visit Annie at her place for once!

OCTOBER

Locations: Washington D.C., Portland

Included: I played around in D.C. a little bit more and hung out with some lovely friends before moving back home to Portland to put in my mission papers. I got called to Sapporo, Japan!

NOVEMBER

Locations: Portland

Included: I got to enjoy being home in the fall for the first time since high school, and because they are awesome friends both Melissa and Annie came to visit me. Amber even came home for an extra long Thanksgiving break.

DECEMBER

Locations: Portland

Included: Leaving for my mission to Japan! Well, in a few days. But it will be in this month.

I love you all and hope you’ll continue to stalk my blog while I’m on my adventures in Japan! It’s crazy that I report to the MTC this Wednesday, but I think I am ready to be busy again and am really excited to serve. This next year and a half will definitely hold a lot of changes, and I hope you stick around for the ride!

If you’re in the market for a new hobby, might I suggest writing letters to me? Amber will be keeping my address updated in the sidebar, and I would love to get anything from you, even if it’s just a doodle on a sticky note! I’m not picky.

Miss you already! But don’t worry; I’ll be back before you know it.

*song = Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing performed by Sufjan Stevens