What I've been up to

Warning: This is going to be a long one... luckily it's mostly just pictures

Since I'm new to the blogging world I figured I should fill some people in on what's been going on in my life. So here's the last 5ish months of my life for you in a nutshell. enjoy...

So I completed my 1st year of teaching and I absolutely loved it! I got to work with these amazing women who taught me so much, not only about teaching, but about life. I will forever be so grateful for their examples and their friendship.

I had such a great experience teaching at Mt. Mahogany Elementary and am so lucky I was able to teach there with such amazing co-workers and students. I know I will never forget my first year and the teacher it has helped me become.

Well, since I worked hard during the school year I decided once school was out I needed to play hard so here's some of the things I've been up to as of late: (some of these things took place toward the end of the school year)

• Spring Break! Yep, that's right, I actually got a spring break this year. Since Emily, Tati, and I all taught this year we got to take advantage of public school breaks. And though we all taught for different districts luckily the break was the same week for all of us so we decided to take to the sun and head for sunny California. Thank you Tati and your family for the wonderful hospitality!

This is at the wonderful rest stop where Emily and I got to stop on the way down. The lady was so excited to tell us they had 2 toilets we didn't know exactly what she meant until we saw these gems.

Disneyland: Emily, Carly, Tati & me

Beach day

California Adventure

Oceanside pier

• Graduation! After 5 years at BYU (Romania kind of set me back a little bit but I wouldn't take that experience away for the life of me) I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Special Education with a minor in MFHD (Marriage, Family, and Human Development).

Tati and me: who would have thought at this time that we'd be working together at the same school next year. So excited! :)

The "Sean Face"

Best cohort ever! Severe SpEd friends

gotta love our tire swing

roommies

• Cinco de Mayo and Nemo's Birthday!

We even had a piñata

Our faithful fish Nemo has lasted a whole year! And he's still going strong. We love you buddy!

• Moab and Canyonlands: After my last day of school was over I went home and packed for a quick trip to Moab with some friends from my ward in Provo. We went jeeping and hiking and our 2nd day there I randomly ran into my cousins and ended up staying the rest of the weekend with them in Canyonlands where we did some more jeeping.

Friends from the ward

4-wheeling with the cousins

4-wheeling with the cousins

• Bountiful Car Show. It was rainy and kind of cold but it was a lot of fun.

• Hiking at Zions National Park with Beth, Tom, and JonBoy

• Hogle Zoo with my sisters and their kids

• Lots of days up in Midway. My parents bought a "vacation" home up in Midway back in October and after months and months (okay, more like years and years- 3 to be exact) of searching for a new house they decided to stop paying rent for a condo in Bountiful and move up to Midway full-time. They're still looking for a house but for now we get to be somewhere that feels a little more like home. Midway is gorgeous and I love it here but I really miss Bountiful. It's weird to go to Bountiful and not have a house to go to there. My parents used to determine how long they've been in Bountiful by how old I am because we moved there when I was only a few months old. Wherever my parents end up, Bountiful will always be my home.

• 7 Peaks with the entire fam

Ainsley and Caden talking about who knows what

• Las Vegas: Paige Nelson (Anderson)- basically like a little sister to me, and Brooke's little sister- got married on June 26th down in Vegas. We decided to make a little vacation out of it and 9 of us drove down for the event. It was a lot of fun.

the atrium at the Bellagio

At the Golden Nugget

• America Week: I wasn't able to participate in America Week with the Bountiful boys as much as I would have liked to but it was still fun going to the few things I could attend.

Bees Game

Camping

• For the past 3 years my family has started a new tradition. While Beth and Tom are in town we rent jet skis and either go to Jordanelle or Deer Creek and have a blast at the beach, swimming and riding on the jet skis. This year we did it on the 3rd of July and got to have some of our cousins join us as well. Afterwards we had a huge family party at our house (since it is now so close to Deer Creek) where my grandparents and all my aunts and uncles from my mom's side of the family came. It was so fun to have so much family together.

Will and Ainsley playing on the beach at Deer Creek

Reese family out on a ride

• Camping out for the 4th of July Parade in Provo: In all my years of living in Provo, I had never done this and I'm really glad I did. It was a lot of fun and I actually got a lot more sleep than I thought I would, maybe I was just exhausted from the busy weekend.

Playing games at our "camp site" the night before

Watching the parade

• Ben Folds with the Utah Symphony concert at Deer Valley with Kiera. So fun!

Other things with no picture documentation:

• Went fourwheeling with the fam up by our house in Midway and Wasatch Mountain State Park
• Had a BBQ at my great friend Erica's house with a bunch of high school friends. It was so fun to see everyone and just chat.
• I tubed the Provo River for the 1st time and loved it
• I got a great job for next school year and I'm super excited about it. I get to work at Eagle Valley Elementary School in Eagle Mountain in a life skills class for grades 1-3. Best part... I get to stay in the district which I love and I get to work with my friend Tati- she'll be teaching the 4th-6th grade class at the same school.
• I found a great place to live in Cottonwood Heights and the commute is only 2 minutes longer than it would be from Provo.

And it's a good thing I got to do all those great things because on July 22nd this took place. Lucky me.