The Final Wedding & The First Day of School

I have come to a point with my weekly blogging that I start to feel guilty if I don't blog each Sunday, even though I am sure most of you don't really pay that much attention to when I blog. And yet here I am on a Tuesday night, stressing out that I still have not blogged. Life is busy... and you will see that here!

Monday August 15

It was McKenzie's first full normal day in Tucson... unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot going on so it wasn't the most exciting day of our lives. We went to Target to do a little bit of school and essentials shopping, we registered for our institute class (we are taking the same one because we are cute sisters), and then we walked through her classes for the first time. 

Later in the day I had to go to the Wildcat to interview some potential new photographers for the photo desk, and while I was in my interviews McKenzie went and did a little job hunting with Rory. She decided to apply to American Apparel which is practically on campus, and for the application they asked everyone to turn in three photos of themselves that showed their style. So after I was done with my interviews I took McKenzie to Reid Park so we could snap some pictures in three outfits, and also so I could catch some pokemon. 

Tuesday August 16

On Tuesday I took McKenzie to apply at Buffalo Exchange because she's currently unemployed, so that was an adventure. We also pretty much did nothing for most of the day because I am not the entertaining sister. I did have more interviews for the Daily Wildcat. Courtney and I were able to finalize all the people we wanted to hire. It was pretty funny because we loved everyone we interviewed on Monday and we were so scared that we were going to love everyone and that we would have to make tough decisions. We did eventually narrow down the people to hire, and it broke my heart a little bit to not hire a few people... but such is the work world.

After all the interviews and doing some finalizations for our upcoming major photo desk meeting, I went home and waited for Jenny to arrive in Tucson. She was riding a bus from Phoenix to Tucson, and it was supposed to arrive at 6, but she didn't end up getting in until 8. Steph, Kenzie and I drove through the monsoon to pick her up, and then we had our first roomie dinner of the semester at Native New Yorker. I am excited about my roommate situation this semester, it's going to be a party all the time, and I'll be real sad when I leave in December.

Finally we all have the same hair color

Wednesday August 17

Rory and I had our peer mentor boot camp on Wednesday. It's the same old same old that I hear at every orientation/boot camp for Project FOCUS, but it was exciting to see everyone after a long summer and to meet all the new interns. I feel so official since I am now the "oldest" peer mentor, meaning I have worked there the longest out of all the peer mentors. I guess you could say I am pretty fancy.

In the late afternoon Courtney and I had our first big photo desk meeting. We are trying really hard this semester to have regular photo desk meetings. In the past the photo desk rarely had desk meetings.... like maybe once a semester, and not everyone would come. So we are determined. We were able to get about 90% of our photographers at the meeting so I would say that was a definite success. I was so excited to see all the new hires there, and also all my favorite vets. I am very excited about the photo staff, and I just know it's going to be such a solid and smooth (hopefully) semester.

After the meeting I rushed over to the Stake president's office for my temple recommend interview. I was really super freaking nervous that he would tell me that I needed to wait longer to go through, but I've been working on my patience a whole lot throughout my preparation process, so I went in believing that I would be okay if it wasn't my time yet. I am so thankful that I did get his signature on my recommend, and that I would be able to go through the temple that weekend when I went to Canada!

After my interview I ran back to my house, packed up all the final things, and walked out the door with Rory and McKenzie to make our way back to Mesa. We stopped in Casa Grande for some dinner and I noticed a little tear in my tire. My initial reaction was NOT FREAKING AGAIN... I am so done with tire issues. But I had made it to Casa Grande and the tire was still pumped good, so I decided not to tell Kenzie and Rory about it and just continue on our way to Mesa. I know... it was risky. But I did make it home okay, and the tire still had not given out.

Thursday August 18

I woke up early in the morning to find that the tire had gone flat over night, which meant (since I still do not have a spare tire for the car) that I would have to do the whole shebang that I went through a month earlier. LUCKILY I was not alone this time. I had my siblings with me, which was good because the miraculous power that came over me that allowed me to change the tire the last time was certainly not with me in any way on Thursday. So I jacked up the car, Kenzie was able to loosen one of the lug nuts and Rory loosened the rest. Then we drove our truck over to Discount Tire to buy a new tire for our wheel. I am pretty much a pro at this process so I took the lead. We were able to get our new tire back on the car within an hour and a half. Which was really good considering we had to leave for a flight at noon, and I had to go to Deseret Book to get all the essentials for the temple.

Eventually it was time for my family's (minus my father who was leaving the next day) flight to Great Falls, Montana. 

My aunt Elin picked us up in Great Falls. We ran a little bit of errands for Mary-Margaret's wedding and then we started our drive up to Lethbridge, Alberta. 

We arrived later in the night so nothing too exciting happened once we got to my grandparents house. We just talked to my grandpa and aunt for a bit, and then settled ourselves into our sleeping areas and then hit the hay.

Friday August 19

We all had to wake up early in the morning to go pick up some things from Mary-Margaret's house to take down to Raymond, where her reception was being held. While we were stuffing our vehicles, my mom accidentally let the truck door of one of the cars fall on my Grandpa and he got a giant gash in his head... that's exactly what you want to happen to you one day before all the wedding pictures hahahah. It was a pretty humorous situation.

Once we had all our cars stuffed, we made our way down to Raymond. The reception was being held at the cutest barn in Raymond. Our clan was unfortunately not a lot of help besides bringing all the decorations to the barn, so we went back to Lethbridge to go to the mall for a little bit of shopping. Rory got his hair cut at a barber, I lost my grandpa in the bathroom and then I lost the rest of my family, I did eventually find my family and I got the Canadian essentials: Purdy's and Kernels. An eventful mall trip indeed. 

After we went to the mall my aunt Tobi had set up an appointment for my sister, myself and my mother to get out nails done for the wedding. She sent us to a lady named Lacie who did the rest of the bridal party's nails. She was awesome! I usually hate getting my nails done because everyone judges me for my weird peeling skin, but she rocked. While everyone was getting their nails done, the rest of the party group did some face swaps on snapchat AKA Avery's favorite thing in the world.

After we got our nails done, Elin and Rory went to Calgary to pick my Dad up from the airport, while my mother and my sisters did a little more shopping for the final touches for our wedding attire.

I decided it would be best if I went to sleep early on Friday night because I had to be at the temple at 7:30 AM in Cardston, and it was almost an hour drive. So yeah, I needed to be up early, which meant going to sleep early.

Saturday August 20
THE BIG DAY

You can't start a big day in Canada without some Tim Horton's honey cruellers and an energy drink.

So I have been preparing to go through the temple for quite some time, and I had been hoping for the past couple weeks that I would be able to go through before Annabeth's wedding... but my class wasn't finished yet... and then I really wanted to go through before Sadie's wedding... but I couldn't find a time to meet with my Bishop, let alone my stake president... and so I really really wanted to go through before Mary-Margaret's wedding (I also thought it would be really really really cool to go through for the first time in Canada). After some failed plans and learning that what I want isn't always what's meant to be, I was finally able to get everything straightened out to go through in Cardston on Saturday morning. I didn't tell any of my family besides my aunt and Grandpa because I really didn't want to take any attention away from Mary-Margaret's day, but I was super excited that I got to surprise her when she and Blake were sealed. It was honestly just the most amazing morning, and I am grateful for the timeline that ended up happening. 

I did have a little bit of time between the end of my session and the sealing, so my mom, dad and Rory went to Dave's in Cardston for a small snack. One of my best friend's from when I was younger, her parents own that restaurant, so we thought maybe we would run into them... and we did! It was awesome to catch up with them.

After the sealing it was picture time. My aunt Tobi asked me to take candid photos during the day that maybe their paid photographer wasn't catching, so here are a few (you are going to die over how beautiful Mary-Margaret's dress is):

After all the pictures we made a quick pit stop at Dairy Queen before going to the luncheon at Blake's house in Raymond. It was a grand old time especially because they ordered giant tubs of Cow Ice Cream (the best ice cream in Canada). 

I also took a few photos at the luncheon: 

After the luncheon my family +Elin and my Grandpa went back to Lethbridge because there was a small break between the luncheon and the reception. Elin and I were in charge of developing a couple of the photos I took of Mary-Margaret and Blake at the temple for one of the frames at the reception. Once we were done developing the photos it was pretty much time for us to head back out to Raymond for the calling reception. The rest of my family slept for a little bit and came a little bit later. I stuck around and took some photos.

The reception was a freaking blast. It was so well organized. You came in, waited in line to greet the bride and groom, then got your dinner and mingled. The perfect set up in my opinion. Then there was an epic dance party. Mary-Margaret is actually the most perfect bride and went around and danced with every single person on the dance floor. She's the sweetest person in the world. But I do have to admit that the best dancer of the night was Avery... that girl never stopped. And when asked where she learned the moves she displayed that night, she says that no one taught her, she just feels the music. That girl hahah...

Yes, they are the cutest ever

Emma got a little emotional during the bride and groom's first dance

You know it's a party when my Dad even joins in on the dancing

My father giving Blake a little talk... who does he even think he is hahah

Eventually the party ended and it was time for clean up. Since we weren't much help during set up, we made sure we would be a lot help during the clean up. I was happy to help but HOLY CRAP there were SO many mosquitos... I was being eaten alive... seriously my legs look I have some crazy foreign disease because of all the mosquito bites I got during the clean up.

Sunday August 21

Sunday was the day we came back to America but our flight out of Great Falls didn't leave until 6, so we got to have a slow morning. With all the wedding craze we didn't get to have our periodic catch up with the McLeods so my aunt Tobi and uncle Sean and Emma came over to visit for a little bit. 

After they left I helped film my Dad's parking video that we have been procrastinating for quite some time. Usually i am home in the summer so we have more time to create the video, but since I was in Tucson, there wasn't a lot of time, but we finally squeezed it in.

Eventually it was time to start the trek to Great Falls to fly back home. Guess who we saw in the airport... ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON! My mom and aunt saw him while we were waiting in line to check our bags, and then we ran into him again after security and actually stopped to talk to him. I am sure that happens to him a lot, but he was really nice and talked to us anyway. This was actually the first time that I have ever met an apostle, so it was a pretty big deal for me.

Eventually we arrived in Mesa around 8... but our journey was not over. Rory, Kenzie and I still had to drive back to Tucson. I was freaking out for McKenzie that we would be getting home so late the night before her first day of college, but she was amazingly calm about it all. I guess I stressed enough for the both of us. 

Caroline was staying at our house over the weekend, so I got to catch up with her and Spencer for a little bit before I decided I should probably go to sleep since I worked at 8 am the next morning.

Monday August 22

Even though I was stressing like crazy for Kenzie, I was remarkably calm about my first day. I am usually very prepared with all my school supplies, but senioritis is hitting me hard right now and I really just brought a small notebook and a pen for the day haha.

Kenzie and I ride to school together since she has class at 8 and I start work at 8. We of course had to take some first day of schools pics, and reenact some of Avery's second day of school pics. We even got to sneak in a roomie picture.

This year at work I get to work with Chase a lot again, so I am super excited because Chase is the coolest, and he isn't annoyed with me.... yet, so it's all good times for now. 

After work I have institute. McKenzie, Jenny, Tiana, Taylor and Jordan are all in the class with me so I am super pumped.

Then after institute I have ASN, which is my capstone class of journalism, which is kind of a terrifying class, but I am hoping for the best. I have a lot of homies in the class so I am pretty excited at the same time. 

I have a couple hour break before my next class, so I just worked on my Daily Wildcat work and then went to my final class on Monday, Publication Design. The professor is new to teaching, and you can tell he is a little rough at it, but I am excited for this class so I can be a master of InDesign.

My class got out a little bit early so I was able to catch the big FHE dinner that was welcoming everyone back from summer. I was able to meet a lot of new freshman and see some of my old friends from my freshman year who went on missions. Seeing all the new people made my psyched for the school year, it's going to be a party.

Tuesday August 23

Today was pretty cool because Chase didn't have anything specific to do on his schedule, so we were able to check out the vendor fair that was happening on the mall. We got TONS of free stuff. Sunglasses for days, pizza, a grocery bag full of food from Fry's, a bracelet, some chapstick, and even a fun photo from a photo booth about saving elephant.

I also got to work with the only new student this year, Jake. He's a hoot and a half, and I look forward to getting to know him more throughout the semester.

After work at Project Focus, I had a couple hour break before my class, so I went to the newsroom to start getting everything done for production. I got about 80% of my work done before my class started, and before the rest of production really started, so I rewarded myself with a Coca Cola from the vending machine at the J School, and the vending machine shot out TWO cokes, what a time to be alive. I unfortunately thought I looked like a freak with two coke bottles, so I tried to give the second one away to people in my next class, but no one wanted to take it until my home girl Tessa came along and relieved me of my freak status. I am excited to have a class with Tessa finally. We have Reporting Public Affairs together, which is almost everyone's least favorite class in the journalism school... I like government, I mean it is my minor... So I hope I end up enjoying the class more than people have in the past.

After my class I went back to the newsroom to finish up the remaining 20% of the photos. I ended up getting out at like 6:30 (which is amazing for the semester) and I was able to join Rory, Taylor, Natalie, Sam, Jenny and Kenzie for wing night at Native. It's kind of a tradition for Taylor to go to Native at the beginning of each semester, so there's no way I could have missed it.

So far school isn't too overwhelming, but I don't think my head is in the game yet. I am still in summer mode, and I better get into school mode soon haha or my life might become disastrous.

ALSO last week was mine and Sadie's 6th friendaversary week! That's right everyone. 6 years of best friendship. She was on her honeymoon all last week and I left for Canada right when she got back home, so once again we were unable to celebrate with each other like for the past two friendaversarys, but I want to give her a special shout out on my blog. She has played such an integral part in my life for the past 6 years, she has helped shape me into who I am today honestly. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry because she makes me laugh so much, she's always there to comfort me when things just aren't going my way, she's the greatest support system a friend could ever be. I am really just eternally grateful that she walked into my life, and now she's stuck forever, I'm never letting her leave. HAPPY SIX YEARS SADIE! (That's right Parker, your anniversary will never be as long as ours hahahah)