catch-up #1: Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start

well, not actually from the very  beginning but the beginning of my summer :P
so...my summer started out at the end of April, returning home from a fantastci year at BYU. Up until that point, I never realized how difficult it was to say goodbye, it was never a problem for me before, but saying goodbye to my best friend for the next 2 years was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. He is serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Joao Pessoa, Brazil and I couldn't be prouder :) He sure is a great missionary! He was the best best friend a girl could ask for and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

{night before I left for home}

In the middle of June I got to go on a short backpacking trip with my dad and my little brother. We did a 17 miler on the AT (appalachian trail). It was way fun. The portion that we did had some abandoned mining towns on it and even a little cemetery in the middle of the woods.  We were fortunate enough to encounter a giant thunderstorm that night and I'm afraid that we got rather wet.

{hittin the road}

{not gonna lie, I was excited}

{here's the itty-bitty cemetery just chillin in the middle of the woods}

My 19th birthday was also in June! I know...not a terrible exciting age but a good one all the same :) For my birthday, I treated myself and took a half day off of work, went home and made my birthday cake (carrot cake from scratch...yum...it was pretty darn good if I do say so myself), and had dinner with my family! My bestie Jess also came over for dinner. Also, I discovered that I have one of the coolest little brothers ever (just kidding, I already knew that). After dinner, we were going to watch a movie and I didn't know what to watch so Daniel said he would go get one and he surprised me by having bought Tangled (a.k.a. the cutest movies ever)! So yeah, it was a pretty awesome day. Oh and I got a phone call from the best friend mentioned above, highlight of my day :)

{makin a wish}

{me and the lovely Jess <3)

 So I think that's about it for the first half of my summer...stay tuned for July (which is a tad more exciting :P)