Oh, Iowa...

I wrote this on Sunday: I’m currently at my grandparents’ house in St. Ansgar, IA which is about two hours away from Iowa City. I had my fourth Christmas today and I tell ya, it was real swell. Some of us are watching The Sound of Music now and the rest are playing dominoes. Life doesn’t get much more simple and I feel quite fortunate to have this time to slow down and hang with the fam.

Middle of nowhere, Iowa. On the way back from the grandparents.

My time in Iowa so far has been spent at both my mum and dad’s places—Christmas at both. Christmas night was spent at Vito’s and Joe’s Place. A lot of old friends were seen—Lara, Austin, Andy, Michelle, Jim, Dave and Nick—to name a few. My broham Michael was also there of course as we’ve gone together since I was 18.

Last night was awesome. Went to an ugly Xmas sweater party at Lara’s and then to Quinton’s with Lynde, Meredith and Jackie. Margaritas, three of my best friends, and Quinton’s were the perfect combination--I had a great time. It was basically an episode of Sex and the City!

It's now Wednesday: My time in Iowa has been short and sweet. I spent as much time as possible with both parents and Westy-peanut. I missed a couple good friends (Jenna, Keely, Brian) but hung out with Brendon, Adrian, Pratt, Hawkins, Libby and Kaily the past couple nights which was GREAT!

I head back to Colorado at 6:45am tomorrow so that'll be brutal. Meredith is visiting on Sunday and Jeremiah's brother Jethro and his wife Sima will be in town later that week. Needless to say, we'll be staying busy. I'll update soon with more pics from Christmas, including my favorite presents of the year. OH BOY!!!!

As of late...

There've been a lot of random events/shows I've been to the last couple months that are definitely worth mentioning. The winter season is here which also makes for more options in fashiooooonnn, my obvious favorite.

At some show I don't remember, Ha.

New skirt/shoes from Forever 21.
A crap-ass band, The Knew. I did, however, buy a sweet cowboy shirt from them.
Typical!

New scarf from Claires, new boots/bag from Nine West. This was also the day Jeremiah and I got togethahh...

Party at Adams.

Russ's Bday party!!

Stayin Fresh.

Halloween was two months ago...

In case you hadn't heard, Halloween was two months ago. I wasn't all that motivated to blog because I took far too many good pictures and blogger is super slow at uploading pics. I now have way too many EPIC pics from Nov/Dec that'll need posting so here are those from Halloween.

Eva, Thaddeus, Melanie and I planned a Halloween party and although shit got pretty bananas the party was a great success. Pumpkins were expensive that weekend but I talked the Safeway lady into letting me get ten for a STEAL! Oh, the thrill...

We were lucky to have Morgy and Spency's help with pumpkin carving!

We salted and baked these whilst the carving commenced.

Getting the goop outta the pumpkins was my favorite part.

Spencer, I only posted this to show/tell you to bring the mustache back!!

Spencer's signature pumpkin and Morgan's cat!

Mustache!

Angry mustache!

The start of the Halloween partay!

My roommate Melanie and me.

Haha, Tiv and Mark.

Statue of Liberty+sad lumberjack+officer of the law.

Signature.

With Carrina!!

Snake, where the wild things are, sad pajamas.

Candycorn and beer.

Thaddeus was a youtube video.

I'm not sure what Sean was...

Mustache!!

Happy Halloween;)

Today...

Today, Jeremiah and I went to Andrew and Marisa's house to chop down trees and eat burritos. I operated a chainsaw for the first time and ya know, it was pretty great!! Jeremiah and I are also looking for a different house so after A&M's we did a bit of house hunting. I currently live in a really fantastic neighborhood and I've become quite attached to the park nearby--So, I know when the time comes it'll be hard to part ways. I am excited, however, to fix up a junker in whichever way I so please! (yellows and greens, but maybe blues and dark blues)!! or maybe black/white with red accents. IDK! Jeremiah has done a lot of contract work so he'll be making most of the magic happen--I know he's pretty excited too:)

Anyway, I'll stop as I'm starting to sound too domesticated!

In other news, I'M COMING HOME TO IOWA ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!!!! And hooowee, i'm so gal dern excited! (That's how Spencer talks when he's making fun of me and my love for Iowa) But anyway, there's gonna be a lot of people coming home and a lot of parties and traditions and food and oh shit. Should be a real treat!

Oh boy, I have so many pictures and blog topics I haven't gotten to yet, so yeah. Right-o, stay tuned and cya next time.

Adventures...

So, Jeremiah went to good ol' Central America in November/October and whilst he was gone, my friend Thaddeus stayed in his room. I met Thaddeus at a UNI climbing comp after party a couple years ago and we've stayed in contact via facebook ever since. Thaddeus is pretty familiar with the Boulder Canyon area and he arrived right at the end of climbing season so we had some great adventures in the mountains!!!

This was the first trip Eva, Thaddeus and I made to Boulder Canyon. I was totally psyched to climb despite the gnarly weather that started as we drove into the mountains.

We reached the area we'd planned to go to and this is what we found haha. A little disappointed to say the least.
Since we were in Boulder anyway, Thaddeus suggested we stop by the tea factory.

It turned out to be just what we needed on a cold day.

A lot of the original artwork for the Celestial Seasonings boxes were on display too.

My favorite.

Our next climbing effort was even more fun as we actually tromped up the canyon looking for a good climbing face. The problem this time was we started a bit late and it started to get dark soon after the hike began. It was thrilling, though--not knowing where to go, hiking up through deep snow and mud and then sliding down. It was an extremely fulfilling day. It was really beautiful out. Before I lived here I was always afraid I'd get too used to the mountains and not appreciate them as much... That hasn't happened yet and I don't expect it will.

EEE!!!

It was completely dark before we got back down.

Another day, another adventure. Thaddeus and I decided to climb a 300ft, four pitch climb that I can't remember the name of. I don't even know where it was, actually--Thaddeus, fill me in!!

The beginning of the climb!!

It was definitely a perfect day. The weather had settled down quite a bit and the sun was out.

When you're doing multi-pitch, it's easiest to go back and forth between leading and being on top-rope. So, Thaddeus led the first and third pitch, and I led the second and forth.

Rappelling down.

It's cool seeing the cars in this one--you can tell how far up we were!! Being that exposed is a rush--I have to remind myself to not think about my only protection from the ground being the rope!!

Great success!!

On the way home. It was actually getting dark around then. Until next time, Thaddeus.