Regionals Baby!!

Yesterday, our cross country team went to Lewiston for our Regionals meet. Let's just say that not only does Lewiston stink as in "Phew, that smells disgusting!" but they also weren't very prepared for this meet. But I'm not going to bash on them because we all still had a pretty good time!

Well, we started off our "journey" with a team dinner at Andrew Reagan's house the night before our races. We had the usual--spaghetti. Spaghetti never gets old though! That's one of the great things about cross country is that you get it every week :).

Gotta love meal-time photos! :)

 Noelle and Erin were sharing secrets, so Jake and Michael, thought it would be funny to imitate them... it was pretty funny.

And this really probably isn't significant to any of you, but this week, we had BLUE Gatorade! And it was scrumptious! We usually have yellow, but blue was a delicious change and everyone absolutely loved it!

Okay, onward! After that team dinner, we all went to bed, then woke up, some of us went to school (some of us skipped...), and loaded up on the bus at 9:30 am. And here's our adventure starting from then!

Everyone doing their thing before the races...

This was the JV Girls race... our team got 2nd! I think this is the best JV Girls have done in a long time, so good job, girls!

We have way too many JV Boys, which is a good thing, but I'm not going to put up a picture of every single guy... sorry, I know you all were dying to see all of them :). Our JV Boys got 1st and they had some fantastic races! Way to go, guys!

And our Varsity girls!! They did amazing!!! They got 1st place for the first time in around 6 years so that says something. I'm so stinkin' proud of you all :). Oh, and that's Malia in the bottom right corner. She's in Lakeland 1st ward and I had an empty space on this collage, so I plopped her in there... anyway, she's awesome too!

And then there are our Varsity Boys. They got 1st as a team too and an almost perfect score of 16! Our boys are amazing and that's pretty much all there is to say!

Sorry LCHS, but you got beaten. Badly. Muaha!

Everyone on our team just goofing off during the awards ceremony... gotta love 'em!

Aaaaand on our way back from the meet. That's Kendall, Courtney, Noelle and me with Malia, Courtney, Kendall, Alex and me at Burger King (we sneaked over there while everyone was buying dinner at Albertson's :) ), me eating a 16-layer Oreo cookie, and Cody with Jessie! Yeah, we had a good time!

And that's Regionals! Hope you enjoyed it!

SURPRISE!!!

I am now making this "blog-official". Before my grandparents left Coeur d'Alene to go back to San Diego, they had my sisters and me solve this little puzzle last week. We were given a box full of sand with a bunch of Scrabble letters in it and told to find all the letters and spell out what we thought they were supposed to say. 

We got a few letters and I jokingly spelled out "fiesta" but surprisingly that was one of the words... and the next word was "mexican".

So then they told us to say what we thought this meant. We wanted to say what we thought but we thought it was too good to be true. But it's not! They told us we're going...

on a cruise along the shore of Mexico in January!! We're all so excited and super thankful for this amazing surprise! It's going to be a blast!

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Post #6! Well, for this post, I'm choosing to do my five most favorite things about the "Halloween season." I don't know if I'll get around to doing it for the next two weeks so it's better now than never! Anyway, here it is:

#1 -- Candy!

I had to add this one! Even though I don't get to eat any candy until after State, it makes it all worth it even more. Then I'm twice as excited to eat all those sweets! :) Candy is what brings joy (and A LOT of energy) to little children each Halloween. If it wasn't for candy, Halloween wouldn't mean nearly as much to a lot of people! :)

#2 -- Pumpkins

Ah pumpkins! You can carve them, admire them, eat them I'm sure, if you really wanted to. It amazes me how many different shapes and sizes there are of pumpkins out there. Above is the Greenbluff pumpkin patch and they've got some good ones. And another cool thing is that anything pumpkin-flavored is delicious! Doughnuts, bread, ice cream (I had it when I was little at Baskin Robbins), cookies, cake, everything! What's interesting though, and something that I just looked up because I wanted to sound smart on one of these posts, is that pumpkins have a symbol behind them. Yep! It's true! :) According to a very informational website called Halloween Symbols, "On the British isles, the scary face of the jack-o-lantern was used to frighten away evil spirits and cast a 'spell of protection over the household.'  The Celts carved the frightening faces into gourds or turnips, not the American pumpkin." Well, there ya go! Now you can go around, sounding smart and telling everyone that cute little fact. Okay, onward!

#3 -- Costumes

This picture is from two years ago because surprisingly (which it is if you know me), I didn't have any photos of me dressed up from Halloween last year! Crazy, right?! Either way, costumes rock! I already did a post about how I love to dress up, so this just goes to prove that I guess? Costumes make Halloween worth celebrating... yes, more than candy does!

#4 -- Apple Dumplings

 First of all, I'm pretty sure that these dumplings aren't "World Famous," but nonetheless, they are super duper scrumdidlyumptious! If you have never had one, I would most definitely say to go try one. Even if you have to go to Greenbluff just for that, it's so worth it. Then again, I'm not the one paying for gas whenever we go there, so I wouldn't know for sure... anyway, they are like a little treat sent from heaven. I cannot fully describe the goodness of these things!

#5 -- Colorful Trees

This isn't the best photo to capture what I'm going for here, but it works. I'm sure I'm not the only one here that loves the colorful leaves... while they're still on the trees. They're still pretty on the ground, but then it takes forever to rake them all up. Which I'm fine with doing the first time. After that, it gets kind of tiring. But I guess the beautiful colors everywhere are pretty worth it!

"Lucky"

I've fallen in love with this version of the song! It probably has to do with the characters singing it too, but still, I just love it! It's so cute to see Quinn start to fall for him... I don't know. Whatever it is, this is a great video and song. Sorry to those of you who don't even know what I'm talking about. I just had to post this video! :)

"These are a few of my favorite things..." Explanation Here!

Okey dokey, so this week, I've been a little busy. So I'll either double up on this Saturday's post or just skip last Saturday's. I'll probably end up doing the second one so don't worry, this week I will most likely post my favorite things in time... that is, if you were worried :).

"Toxic" number by Val Chmerkovskiy & Mark Ballas

This season, I haven't really gotten into Dancing with the Stars like I usually do, but I was watching the results show for the first time the other night and there was this amazing duet done by two of the dancers. Mark Ballas was one of them and he's one of the pros on the show while his "ballroom rival" for the duet, Val Chmerkovskiy isn't, but his big brother, Maks, is. They did a number to "Toxic" and played the violin and guitar... it was really cool and made me smile. And the girls they danced with, Lacey and some other girl (I have no idea who it was, but she's super flexible!), are SUPER good! Sooo, here it is: (To see the actual thing, skip to 1:50)

I love the look that Val gives Mark when they're finished :)

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Here's my 5th edition of this post. Thanks for the comments to those who commented! :) I'm happy to see that people still read this haha!

#1 -- Penguin Bars

If you haven't ever had these chocolate bars full of deliciousness, get them during your next visit to Europe! They are SO scrumptious! My grandpa would always get them for my mom mostly whenever he would come back from England and I would always end up eating most of them. Then over the summer, I went to World Market in Boise and guess what was there? Penguin Bars!! So you don't really have to go all the way to England. They're in Boise too :) Oh and probably Spokane...

#2 -- My Scriptures

My scriptures are most definitely the best books I own. They're so nice to go to when I need to feel peace and inspiration. They're filled with so much knowledge and gospel doctrine. I'm sure that something important can be found in each verse, whether it's a principle or a cool story. I could study these scriptures for years and still not find every single important piece of doctrine or principle in them. That's how amazing they are!

#3 -- My Journal

Yes, I've only filled two whole journals so far, but I have written in other ones and ripped out the pages. I just recently started writing in my journal daily again and it's helped me so much to remember what I need to. I also find peace in writing down my thoughts and experiences. Sometimes they bring in memories that make me smile and others that make me sad, but it's nice to reflect on what goes on in my life. Not to mention that it's very entertaining to read back on old entries. :)

#4 -- The Look of Newton Running Shoes in My Cross Country Bag :)

Saturday night, I got back from Yakima and found a box of Newton running shoes on my bed. I was SO excited!! My dad got a great deal on a pair for me and a pair for him so I'm pretty stoked. These shoes are pretty much the best made out there and I'm lucky enough to own a pair. I can't wait to run in them!

#5 -- Hand-Written Letters

Hand-written letters are some of the most fun things to look back on. I have a whole box just full of them that I read through whenever I'm feeling down or have nothing to do. It's nice to read about friends and family that you never see. If I ever need a booster, I read the ones that have had a lot of care and love put into them. And the hand-written ones are ten times better because the people actually took the time to write them and personalize them instead of just choosing a cool font on the computer--which, I'll admit, I'm guilty of doing a lot of the time, but when I write letters, it's a lot cooler. :)