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

"did you like your freshmen year?"

I can't even count how many people have asked me this in the last couple weeks. And here is my {attempt at a} short blog post to explain why I had the greatest 8 months.

Brigham Young University. 
It's my favorite place in the world, thanks to all the memories it now holds!

First off, I made the most amazing friends. In high school I had a really, really close group of friends. I went to college thinking "oh, I'll make lots of friends but nothing can compare to the awesome girls I had from high school!"
And the number one thing I learned at college is that all friendships are different. They depend on where you are in life and what you need. Kayla and Cady were everything I could have asked for. They are the absolute greatest and without them, freshmen year would have been pretty darn dull!

Look at these two! How could you NOT just love them??

KAYLA:
Another question I get is "did you like your roommate?"

Yeah. Yeah I really did. I lucked out! We had so many crazy memories and deep talks. She is hands-down the most caring person I have ever met. She is always there to listen and has great advice. She will be the best missionary ever and her testimony is so strong! She was such an awesome support to me, from cooking me pre-econ-test breakfasts {I'm not exaggerating} to making fantastic posters for my ceiling to motivate me in econ { (; } to being the biggest birthday planner ever. From the first night bawling about wanting to go home to the last day bawling in the SLC airport because we didn't want to go home... this girl became my best friend! I mean, you should have seen some of our crazy nights in 2116.

CADY:

I'm not sure when it happened, possibly after the M&M mess or the random late night talks that started at the beginning of the year, but somehow the girl across the hall from me became my diet-coke-loving, library-going, daily-running, advice-giving, speed-walking, loud-talking partner in crime! {no, actually some people, cough cough, couldn't comprehend that once in a rare while, Cady and I weren't together!}

CADY & KAYLA:

Where do I start about the three of us? Dance parties at two a.m.? Good night talks that lasted a minimum of two hours EVERY SINGLE NIGHT without fail? Our epic social plans? Our lists? MOA cafe lunches? Our addiction to subway cookies? Our endless laughs?

THE HALL/RELIEF SOCIETY:

from the very first night at college^^^

our epic music video

to our sleepover/girls night^^^

1. There was NO DRAMA in my hall. unbelievable right?! We all got along! (:
2. It's fun living in the dorms because it also means you have 40 closets. I'm pretty sure I never wore my own clothes. ever.
3. My hall was also my relief society. It's hard to explain how fantastic it is to see these girls every single day then see them at church. You watch them live their standards. You know that they actually care when they ask what's new. just... ahhhh I loved my hall! These girls were SO FUN!

MY WARD {YSA 114}:

These people. ahhh. so great. Every single Sunday was amazing! You learn so much just by listening to them! And ward prayer?? One of my favorite parts of the week.

MY HOME:
I never thought that I would consider a 20 x 15 ft room, a bathroom shared with 40 girls, and a kitchen shared with the entire building as my home. But I do!

please excuse the mess, we were in the middle of packing to come home.

Coming home to that little dorm room every day was great. Taylor Hall really did become my favorite place. LIVE IN THE DORMS, PEOPLE. DO IT.

THIS AWESOME GROUP OF PEOPLE:

look at these studs! Also, please note that dylan and I were the intramural champs if you don't remember :D

BYU social life is crazy, guys. First of all, it is perfectly normal for social things to begin at 11 pm. Also, it's perfectly ok to schedule multiple social things in a row. Like, oh, I'll go to lunch with ..., then the library with {usually cady or by myself}, then meet everyone for dinner, then go on a date or something, then meet everyone in the lobby at 10:30, then maybe watch a movie with Cady and Kayla at 1 or 2. I'm telling you, I considered going to bed before two a.m. as "early". From crepes and in-n-out at midnight, to capture the flag, to the trampoline place, to dollar movies, to 80s nights, to card games, to spur of the moment adventures these people made my freshmen year. It was fun knowing that any time, these guys were ready for fun!

Within months they will be across the globe! From Canada, to Japan, to the Philippines, to Panama, to Chile, to Belgium, to Mexico, to who-knows-where-else, I can't wait for missionary mondays!! They are amazing and freshmen year would have been no where as fun without them!
{also, I wouldn't have gotten any birthday cards without them, so that's a plus!}

Ahhh... freshmen year was the greatest!

I won't be back at BYU for 2 years, but hey, this last year was a good way to say goodbye!

-Erica

could life get any better?

no. I really don't think it could, in case you were wondering. and because we only have a week left of freshmen year, we've been living it up!

Here are just a few of the most recent activities! {in no particular order}

Capture the Flag {boundaries: most of main campus}

This isn't quite the whole group, but still a fantastic picture. What did you do with your friday night?

Hot Springs

The hot springs were quite... hot {shock, yes} but the water fall was freezing cold. Hence the awesome look on our faces in the second picture. This place was so much fun and definitely worth the hour hike in!

General Conference in SLC!

A big group of us went to the Sunday afternoon session of Conference in Salt Lake! {I know... there's only two people in the above picture. I don't feel like downloading and uploading the other pictures}. I'm so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

the Temple Square flowers though...

Giant Cardboard Castles.

BYU built the world's largest cardboard box castle again this year. Have I told you that I go to the best university in the world? Oh ok, yeah I do. {ok, so I may be a little biased but it's true!} Also, I made the cougar tweet beat about it. I'm sorta disappointed because none of my good tweets make it, then my sub-par tweets make it #disappointment

just a few quick and recent bragging links {not that I personally have really contributed to this BYU awesomeness, but I still like to brag about it. kay bye}

>>>BYU Mathletes beat Yale and Princeton.
>>>BYU is the #2 school for Entrepreneurship 
>>>Just appreciate how cool this link is.
>>>Also, Provo, UT was ranked the happiest city in the US
>>>Andy Grammer is coming to BYU tomorrow. $5 a ticket. but I forgot to buy a ticket until they were sold out soooo oops. oh well!

Rent-a-Puppy {times two}

Sorry for the picture overload! But guys, you literally pay $15 and someone brings you a puppy then comes back in an hour to pick it up. Whoever came up with the idea is brilliant. So we spent Friday afternoon laying on the grass and playing with puppies. BEST DAY EVER.

Also, are we talking about my love for BYU and the dorms and freshmen year? Because it's real.

The last couple of weeks have also consisted of plenty of In-n-Out, Denny's and Crepes runs, along with HumorU dates {by the way, my sociology TA is in Humor U and he was hilarious. high five for me having a cool TA}, games, late night talks, oh and homework. I know, right? Surprisingly, I've done a ton of homework lately too. And by lately, I mean the entire semester. But that's ok {insert thumbs up emoji here}

Finals start this week! 2 down, 5 more to go! I'm pretty dang nervous for them, and now that I just spent a good 30 minutes on a blog post, I should probably get back to studying {everyone needs a break though, right?!}. Have a great week! (:

-Erica

p.s. I have just over a week left of freshmen year. I would say that it's bittersweet but that's lying because it's really only bitter. I am sooo not ready to go home for the summer without all these awesome people I've become friends with... seriously though. don't make me go. I would almost rather go through another 14 weeks of classes and constant homework then have to go home for the summer and not be able to have all these crazy adventures.

Last night we took ward pictures at ward prayer {yes, ward prayer is a thing} Photo credit to Zack!

what do you mean there's only one Sunday left in my freshmen year? Where did the time go??