late night food runs and good byes.

well... let's be honest, this is probably my last post before London! {especially with my slacking blog skills over this last summer} I can't believe how fast the last couple of days have gone by! And in case you're wondering, I still haven't even pulled out my suitcase to pack yet. ooops. Life has been pretty busy. proof:

Ice cream and Harry Potter with Kels

morning jogs have probably become my favorite part of the day. probably because I live in such a beautiful place ^^

Celebrating/mourning my last night at the theater! 3 years since I started working there, and I loved {almost} every moment of it! My coworkers were the bomb. ...and mark was a bonus since he doesn't work actually work there

Marissa was baptized! WOW. it was the best baptism ever.

Nathan gave his farewell talk! {and yes, I'm short} This kid is awesome, Ecuador is so lucky.

this is actually from forever ago, but our adventures this summer have been great.

Mom: Let's take a picture!
Us: make funny faces
Mom: No, serious picture!
Us: *immediately makes an even dorkier face*

We dropped him off at BYU today!

I said goodbye to my Prius today {"my" as in "my parents prius since they paid for it but just let me call it mine"} I'll sure miss you, my sweet little MJ. It's been real. We've had some great memories over the last year.

Guys, I went through some serious BYU withdrawls today. Serious. Dropping Zach off and getting to see Cady one last time was so bittersweet. I love BYU with all of my heart. Just seeing all those awesome kids walking around... ahhhh. While I was in the bookstore I started talking to two guys behind me in line and they just invited me to watch the game with them this weekend. Talk about me missing friendly {and handsome} people like them! {dang london. ruining my hanging-out-with-handsome-rms social life.} Also, when they asked me what year I was, it was the best feeling in the world to be able to say "sophomore" because I lost far too many conversations last year to the freshmen factor. Thank you for getting older. TWO YEARS TILL I'M BACK AT BYU, BABY. And in case you're wondering, right after those two {handsome} boys invited me to their football game watching party I told them I was leaving for a study abroad, so we started talking about that. Then my mom walked up and loudly exclaimed "and she turned in her mission papers yesterday!" dang, killer of a conversation. even more so than the freshmen thing. It's a rough life, ya know. *sigh* it's all good.

Tomorrow we head back home, then I'll have a solid 36 hours to pack for London! Then the real adventures begin (:

-Erica

summer update.

hello!

So I'm currently telling myself that the reason I have become so bad at blogging lately is actually because I'm saving all my superior blogging skills for L O N D O N {34 days my friends!} Good enough excuse, am I right? But because I've learned how much I love looking back at my blog, I'll do a quick update on this summer {because, memories.}

***The only thing that stands between me and turning in my mission papers is a couple blood tests, 2 interviews, and EXACTLY ONE MONTH. I can't even tell you how much I want to turn them in. It's a weird feeling knowing that I didn't even consider a mission for almost 19 years of my life, and now I can't think of my life without it. 

***I went to the valley for the 24th {remember last year?} Which also included horseback riding, family meals galore, and riding the Cumbres and Toltec Railraod! It's the highest, longest narrow-gage railroad in the world! It took us through the prettiest places... I didn't take my good camera so yay for phones.

this was post family ping pong tournament. zach beat me {BARELY} in quarter finals. That bracket should have been mine and Amanda's.

back of the cabin!!^^

sorry, that was quite the set of random pictures. but it's late and I think I forgot how to blog.

***YSA activites...

***saying goodbye to Kayla. SHE'S OFFICIALLY IN THE PHILIPPINES. I will admit that I did my fair share of crying, it's been hard not being able to send her a random text, or call about stupid things, or snapchat something weird. But she's doing what she's supposed to and I am so happy for her! Here's her blog: http://sisterkaylalockwood.blogspot.com/

the last picture with all three mileys before we reunite #byu2016

***this is what the other {non-working} part of my summer looks like:

saying goodbye to lloyd^^

I miss these people. Most of them are on missions {seriously though. all my friends are on missions. Kayla, Dylan, Michael, Sam, Lloyd... and quite a few other's have their calls. it makes checking my email about 100 times better}

*** HUNTER WAS CALLED TO KOBE JAPAN!!!!! {yes, that many exclamation points were necessary.} It's the same mission as Dylan. Seriously, of all the missions in the world, 2 of my greatest friends get to be together!

Well. there was your series of low-quality photos from Erica. you're welcome. I hope you guys are all having a wonderful summer! I sure am {in a weird sort of way.} It feels like it's dragged by, but I just tell myself that this is my last summer home... I'm on to bigger and better things, folks! But it's not all bad. I've loved getting to know the Montrose kids a little bit better and I've loved rewatching The Paradise with my mom {the ending is just a heart wrenching the second time through, I promise} and going to dairy queen with Zach.

Alright. I'm gonna get all sappy on you now, this is my blog: I miss BYU and my friends there more than I can even describe. I know it's corny and I know that it's all I seem to talk about. But listen, I had the best 8 months. ever. It's not the situation where I look back at it and make it seem better than it really was... every moment truly was great. I miss the HBLL {is it weird to miss a library?} I miss homework {I really, really do. my life honestly feels somewhat pointless when I come home after work with nothing left to do. I've taken to reading real books. I'll post a picture of my amazon purchases sometime, it's actually really weird. but I love it? i know.} I miss late night talks with Cady and Kayla. I miss CANC dinners with half my ward. I miss weekly devotionals. I miss crazy three a.m. adventures to the crepe place or dennys. I miss tunnel singing and vendy runs before church. everything. it's not that I hated high school, I actually really liked it. but college was the first time I felt like I really had somewhere to be {wow. that was corny. I shouldn't blog past midnight} Oh, BYU I love you so much.

But I'm trying to not think about it as much. I have so much ahead of me. I have a study abroad, a mission, and three more years at byu.  I have stacks of missionaries to write. I have packing lists to write. but I have a feeling the future is going to be just dandy {different, definitely. but still great.} Bring it.

Kay, sappy I-miss-byu moment over. I'm going to try to post more, for my own sake. sheesh. blogging isn't that time-consuming, I don't know why I've slacked!

-Erica

best friends take gilbert.

I'm sure you're dying to know why I fell off the face of the blogging world over the last month {am I right??}. it goes something like this:

*phone rings* "Good afternoon, this is Erica" "so and so is on line 2!" & "how many copies do you want?" & "is that for the FUTA or SUTA? do you want me to do their 941 too?"

THEN

"what size of coke?" & "do you want butter on that popcorn?" with the oh-so-great "enjoy your show!"

THEN

*finally changes into sweatpants*
*watches "The Paradise" with my mom*
*reads one of the many books I ordered with my Amazon giftcard since my textbooks for fall are super cheap {heck yes.}*
*watches documentary*
*goes to bed at 10 pm*

...and that, my friends, is my last month summed up. See why blogging about it turns out to be rather hard? yep. me too.

OH. AND I FLEW TO ARIZONA FOR FIVE DAYS. 

For the sole purpose of visiting Cady {unfortunately plane tickets to Ohio to see Kayla were about 4 times as expensive...}

And now I'm going to explain the entire trip in a very extensive series of selfies and awkward pictures:
{pics or it didn't happen, right?}

--------

Baptisms in the new Gilbert Temple... fun fact: I'm pretty convinced this is a VERY close second to my favorite temple. But Oquirrh Mountain is still my favorite because you know, why not?

"Another meal, another Diet Coke"  ---our motto.

GUYS. THIS PLACE IS THE GREATEST INVENTION. you pick your cookies, you pick your ice cream, they make it into an ice cream sandwich. FOR TWO DOLLARS.

diet coke for dayz.

how else do you survive during an AZ summer? Swimming. lots and lots of swimming.

sno-cones. yes. these were THE best.

Cady's family has a pizza oven in their back yard! It was so fun making our own pizzas and eating with the Sister Missionaries!

my best friend is cute.

We saw the play "The Miracle Worker" about the woman who taught Helen Keller. It was absolutely amazing!

fun fact: Cady and her prom date took their pictures here. coincidently, that picture was Cady's profile picture when she commented on something on FB about living in Taylor Hall. So I facebook stalked her and decided she would be a cool friend. A year later and here we are. (:

Pazookies at Oreganos! {pazookie: large cookie fresh out of the oven, but still doughy. toped with ice cream. aka my new favorite food}

Fortune cookies!

Saying goodbye to Lloyd! I will definitely miss google hang outs with all these guys.

Who can resist $5 walmart t-shirts? We <3 America

fishing for Crawdads at Cady's cabin!

Say hello to matching pj's

watching Newsies! ...definitely my new favorite musical. anyone want to take me to broadway??

We spent at least 5 minutes just laying in bed between every activity.
swim-lay in bed-go get food- lay in bed- go running- lay in bed- watch a movie - lay in bed.
it was an exhausting trip.

saying goodbye was rough. seriously.

It was such an awesome trip! I missed our crazy conversations {we may or may not have spent a solid 2 hours planning our future business plans including all of our friends teaching languages and having an outdoor preschool and a self-sustaining community. don't worry about it} I missed having someone I could reminisce about BYU with. oh, and the HBLL. yes, we had several conversations about all the good times {and bad} spent in the library. I missed having an awesome running buddy. and laughing until I cried. I loved getting to know her family more and getting to spend a couple days at their cabin in Prescott! ...not to mention, Gilbert is ADORABLE! Big, but still awesome.

And, as shocked as I am to say this, I LOVE ARIZONA. Guys, it's the greatest! {second, of course, to Colorado.}

I am so glad I got to spend a few days with Cady, but dang is it making the rest of this summer a little rough. Not to mention that everyone is leaving on missions {Kayla reports next week. NEXT WEEK. ah I can't handle this}

My flight home was really rough guys. As we were pulling out the lady next to me asked me about my trip and whatnot. I told her I was just flying home and she asked if I was happy or sad. I said I was really sad to leave and she told me that she could tell. And she asked me about my friends. then she asked about college. and no lie, I spent 5 minutes explaining to a complete stranger how much I love BYU and how every single person I met there has been amazing. Have I told you have much I love BYU?

-Erica

p.s. are you wondering about the strange statues? read on:
it all started the day we were going to our last 80s night, back at BYU. Cady, Kayla, and I were at DI looking for clothes for the night {poor college students, remember?} when we saw these gems. a quarter a piece. Three matching statues. it was meant to be, right? I laughed and said, let's get matching statues! We bought them as a joke, then they went into a sack and got thrown under my bed.

fast forward to one of our last nights:
Kayla and I were packing up the room and I came across these three matching statues. We kinda looked at them, laughed, and tossed them into our "give to DI" pile. and we headed out to do something. We got back super late {or early in the morning, whatever you prefer} and, well, after some saving from Cady, we took our first {and last} group picture with our matching statues. no more DI for them. they were ours. {ps, go read THIS BLOGPOST for the first picture. don't judge, ok?} When I got back into the room, kayla and cady were on the floor crying/laughing hysterically. Kayla decided to name these statues "Miley" and thus was born the legacy of our matching Mileys. Now that we've gone our own ways, we like to snap a picture miley where ever she is and send it to the group. yeah, we're mature. but what can I say, I can't look at the little statue without thinking of Kayla and Cady!

#fall2016- we'll all be reunited again!