Party at Pitcher Manor

Friday night was about the most fun any BYU student could hope for.  My roommate, Jessi, is from Park City and her family has an awesome house up in the mountains.  They are some of the most warm and welcoming people and always invite us to come up and enjoy their house for overnight trips and whatnot.

We were going to do a real camp out this weekend, but the planning kind of failed, so we decided to do the next best thing: a camp out in Jessi's backyard in the beautiful mountains of Park City.

We had the best time!

When we got there Friday night, we made some s'mores and roasted Starbursts (if you haven't tried it, you HAVE to...it's the best thing ever)

Then we were going to play the name game, a Provo favorite.  That is, we were GOING to play, until we discovered Jessi's HUGE storage closet full of costumes.  We decided to play dress up instead.  And yes, the boys were in on it.  I think they were actually the ones who decided we should do it!  

Some pics of the madness that ensued:

 How Clay squeezed himself into this tiny cowboy costume... I will never know

"WHERE'S RACHEL!?"

 Not creepy...at all...

 "I'm a mouse...duh"

As you can see, most of the costumes were pretty rad.  The Pitchers take Halloween pretty seriously apparently.

Then we headed out to the backyard to sleep under the stars.  It was a fabulous experience.  Pretty stinking cold, but we had warm sleeping bags and snuggled up to one another.

The next morning, we went for a hike in the mountains surrounding Jessi's house.

I dressed for the occasion: Ecuador grunge band, running shorts with innumerable butt pockets, and socks and sandals.  Just doing what I do best.

It was gorgeous!  All the leaves were changing color (all that red on the far mountains are trees!)

Meet Lauren McFadyen, my new roommate. She likes to party.

 Love all my roommates! Including Nat and Nicole, who don't actually live with us but practically do. Sidenote: we want to make a "bed" room where we pile a bunch of mattresses and have sleepovers every night in our apartment and use the other rooms for studying and closet space and anything else we ever need.  Best idea ever, right?

The boys beat us to the bottom.

We love them. They love each other. Sometimes they love us too.

I love spending time at the Pitcher's.  We are planning The Second Annual Classy Christmas Party which will be held there in December. You guys will all love the Pitcher Manor as much as I do!

End of Summer, etc.

As it has been over two months since my last post...I have much to write about!

I'm going to try to keep this short and use mostly pictures:

My good friend Abby and I have been training for the St. George Marathon (as well as my mom and brother, but they are in California training without me!).  In preparation for the marathon, we decided to sign up for a midnight half marathon up near Salt Lake City.  Naturally, we had to buy matching outfits...

 The race began at 10pm and we were supposed to try to beat the midnight hour!  I'm proud to say that my time was 1:38, so I beat the midnight hour by 22 minutes, and Abby was well under too.  I also managed to snag third place overall for the women!  Here I am with my crappy light up tiara and rose and super uggo trophy that I now don't know what to do with:

I said goodbye to my best friend, Katie as she headed to the Missionary Training Center for three months and then off to Japan for a year and a half!  She is the cutest missionary.  How do I know? Well... the missionaries tend to walk up to the Provo temple on Sundays and I just happened to find out from a mutual friend who saw Katie her first Sunday at the temple that she usually goes around 4pm. Soooo... my new roommate Carley and I decided to try to find her. And find her we did!

Doesn't she look beautiful!? The people of Japan are just so so lucky. 

Here is what I did for the first week after Katie left:

Yes, I ate my feelings. Judge me.

 Then my family came to visit me in Utah. WITH BOON!

We made a trip down south about twenty miles to a place called Mona, where they have a pond and some rope swings. 

My mom is legit!

Boon enjoyed the sun.

My dad went off the swing before I had a chance to snap a picture.  He was so scared he forgot to take off his shirt...haha

Uncle David on the rope

I love my family! It was so good to spend some time with them out here and show them around!

Then I made the trip back to California with them to finish up my summer in the Golden State.

There I spent some more quality time with Boon

 I went to beautiful Balboa Island.

And spent some time with this weird guy who likes to bundle up in pink blankets on the beach...

I then returned to Provo to start school.  It's been a really busy semester so far, but I have managed to have a little bit of fun.  As my marathon training continues (we're only two weeks away now!)  I've gotten much faster at running.  I broke 6 minutes for my mile time a couple weeks ago!

Apparently one mile is hardly anything when you have to do 22 mile long runs.  It's just a simple sprint to me now...

We celebrated my wonderful roommate, Jessi's, birthday with some cheap pizza and fake birthday candles!

And then had a real birthday party for her at her grandma's barn in Alpine, complete with limbo and a piñata. So fun!

Although I'm super busy, I have been keeping up with the celeb gossip.  This is by far my favorite thing to happen in a while:

 I guess this was bound to happen one of these days. 

Our favorite would you rather question this entire summer:

"Would you rather have Nickelback (he doesn't have an actual name I don't think) be your dad or P!nk be your mom?"

Who knew this whole time he's been dating Avril?  And apparently they met while they were collaborating on a music project. Oh sweet heavens, help us all.

A few weeks ago our neighbors had a "Euro trash" dance party.  The guys had no problem dressing up...mullets, ultra deep V's, and fanny packs were all in the mix.  But I had no idea what to wear, so I threw on a beret and my dancing shoes.  I think it worked.

And there is still more to come from this past weekend!

Love you all dearly and stay tuned!