A Week of Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful week this has been spending time with my family and all of our craziness! There is never a dull moment with the Cherry family.

Monday: Well, my family wasn't here yet, but I had FHE! We made turkey cupcakes and had a lovely time :)

Tuesday: My family came! Well, they came to Utah and dropped off Hannah at my apartment and we went to get Jamba Juice with Alex and Sydney followed by a princess party! We watched Ever After and had a lovely time.  After our movie, I drove Alex and Sydney home and continued northward to Highland. Hannah and I got there right as my Uncle Russ and his family was getting there.  We had a fantastic time talking, laughing, eating, cooking, doing the dishes, and being our crazy selves.

Me with Hunter and our cousin Josh who is almost as tall as me! What the heck! :)

Wednesday: A day of shopping with my mommy and my aunts :D The evening's festivities included the opening ceremonies for our Festivus celebration.

 Master of Maui

Bridger and I graced Provo with our presence for a little bit as we gathered our things in preparation for the annual Turkey Trot. 

Thursday: Happy Turkey Day! We started out the day with our Cherry family tradition of running a Turkey Trot 5K. I shaved 4 minutes off my time from last year! And I didn't even train this year! Weird...

 Pre-race

 During race

 Post-race

 Bridger and his walker

 Happy to be done! I finished 18th in my division :D

We got home and took turns moaning and groaning and stumbling to the shower.  Some of us took naps while others helped prepare dinner and then: the feast. Dinner was wonderful and the conversation was fantastic.  I got teased endlessly after dinner as we sat around the table waiting for our food to digest and make room for dessert. And I loved every minute of it. Then I participated in the post-dinner nap and football game viewing. After getting tripped over (I was sleeping on the floor) I woke up and a few of us went to the park to play football.  After our game, some of us went to see the new Muppet movie.  It was so cute and I loved it. After the movie, Festivus continued and we talked and laughed and just enjoyed each others' company.

My dad, Bridger and Maggie pre-feast napping

My spot at dinner.  Yes my name card is spelled wrong (but that's ok because I'm used to it) and yes I am drinking out of Ben's cup from last time he was here. 

Friday: No Black Friday shopping for me! (A first in many years!) We went bowling in the morning. I killed everyone with my 132 and 171 (my best score ever!) and then we partook in another Cherry family tradition: lunch at Weinerschnitzel. Yum. I haven't eaten there in a very long time.

 Hannah, Emily and Marley modeling their florescent facial hair. 

 Hunter and Russ really liked my hat. 

After lunch, we meandered back to Gooma and Goompa's house and sort of chilled for a bit before I went shopping (again!) with my mom and Aunt Colleen. After our shopping adventure, we met up with the rest of the clan at Crown Burger in Salt Lake (yes, another Cherry family tradition.  Do you notice how most of our traditions revolve around food?) and then we went to see the lights on Temple Square.  It was wonderful spending time with my family and we haven't all been to see the lights since I was a very small child.

Aren't my grandparents adorable?

My part of the family.

The Montana Cherrys

Bridger and Marley

Me and Hannah

I love the look on Mitchell's face as he was telling me about Baby Jesus. 

Striking poses on Temple Square.

Saturday: The final day all of us were together.  My mom took Bridger and I grocery shopping.  Now we know that Bridger actually has food and will actually eat. I got some other things that I needed and we packed the car and sent off my family and the Montana Cherrys. After a dinner of crackers and treats (I was in a grazing mood), I helped Gooma and Goompa set up their Christmas tree and decorate their house for Christmas.  I absolutely love helping them out.  I don't get to set up or decorate for Christmas at home anymore so I am grateful my grandparents let me help them. :) We didn't get to the outside lights this year, but the inside looks gorgeous.

 Jean Claude and Harold dutifully guard the fireplace. 

The tree!

Sunday: I slept in (until 9:00!), the latest I've slept in all week! And I went to my grandparents' ward. We had an...um...interesting sacrament meeting.  It was a farewell for a sister missionary and she was a very interesting speaker.  Her message was wonderful, the execution of the message was, well...not my cup of tea (I mean hot chocolate ;).  Sunday School we had a great lesson on trials that I really enjoyed. And Relief Society was Relief Society.  Non-Singles Ward Relief Society is not my favorite thing in the world, but it was pretty good today.  I didn't come home ranting my opinions, so I consider it a good day. :) We had dinner at my Aunt MaryAnn's and a birthday party for my cousin Madison. Food was delicious. The company was wonderful.  And I was happy :) I came back to good ol' Provo and bonded with McKensey and Emily while I unpacked my stuff. We went to Ward Prayer, set up the Christmas tree and then I went over to Ben's. :)

Now to get ready for a killer week.  Hopefully I'll make it out alive.

Pre-Thanksgiving Post

We are now only a few days away from Thanksgiving! Only a few more days until I see my family! Ahh, I LOVE Thanksgiving.  It has always been one of my favorite holidays. Well, enough about Thanksgiving.  (I need to save something for next week!) Here is the past week's highlights.

Monday: Our family had FHE up at the Bishop's house in Highland with another family from our ward. We had a great lesson by my roommate Ashley, a fun battle of the sexes type game and, of course, amazing treats.

Tuesday: Devotional-always a highlight of my week :) I also cleaned for cleaning checks.  I think I was still kind of sick seeing as I almost blacked out multiple times...I was super dizzy.  Weird.

Wednesday: Since we moved where our office is at work, we are no longer allowed to do homework when we don't have anything to do.  Instead, if it is the closing shift, we get to leave early.  So Wednesday night I worked the ending shift and there was nothing to do so I got out an hour or so early.  After work, Ben and I worked on homework on campus until Emily got out of her evening class.  After we walked home, I grabbed my bowing shoes and the football tickets from last weekend's game and Ben and I headed to the bowling alley for our free game of bowling thanks to our Cougs scoring more than 30 points at the game.  There was a wait so we ate dinner at Costa Vida. I loved it. I think I like it better than Cafe Rio. After dinner, we bowled our free game.  Ben didn't do so hot and I had a stellar game.  150. Yes, you read that right: 150.  I haven't done that well since my senior year of high school.  I got a turkey :) But no one was there to give me a Snickers :( Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Bowling was followed by even more homework. Yay.

Thursday: Thursday I had work and class.  I didn't have a work meeting so I went to a guest lecture with Ben for his PR class. I went to New Testament and then took a 45 minute nap in the Wilk because I was exhausted. A band was playing Van Halen songs on the terrace as I drifted into sleep.  I couldn't think of a better way to fall asleep :) I got a little bit of homework done before I headed off to history where we talked about the Mongols.  They were an interesting group, let me tell you...I went to work and grabbed dinner at the CougarEat after while I waited for Ben to get out of his class so we could go to the volleyball game.  Our girls lost :( but we still had a fun time watching them. I MISS VOLLEYBALL!!!!! After the game, we went to Ben's to do homework...I had finished mine so I got to help Ben with his.  We watched MegaMind for a research paper he is doing.  He has the best homework assignments!

Friday: I went to the Temple with Emily at 5:00 am and we were home by 6:00 which was nice because that gave me enough time to shower, start my crock-pot dinner and take a nap before I had to go to work at 8:00.  I worked until noon and met Sydney (and eventually Alex) at Jamba Juice for our weekly treat and chat. I tried something new! (At Ben's suggestion) And it was delicious!! I highly recommend the Apple Cinnamon Cheer.  It is amazing.  You won't regret it. After Jamba, I went home and Emily and I went grocery shopping.  After we got home, I watched the Sing-Off and attempted to do some homework. Ben came over and we ate the delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup I made for dinner with some of my roommates who were home (Emily, McKensey and Brittany). After dinner, Ben and I went to VOCAL POINT!!!! Yes, Ben is amazing and got us tickets to the concert.  They are fantastic.  I am amazed and what people can do with their voices! I love Vocal Point and I am so glad we were able to go on a date to see them!  What made the date even more perfect was as we were walking outside after the concert, it was SNOWING! Not just those measly flakes.  No.  It was the HUGE, fluffy snowflakes that make the world look like a snow globe. So we listened to Christmas music all the way home :) It was wonderful.

Saturday: Got up and cleaned the church and had ward choir practice.  Then Ben and I went to the Temple followed by a trip to see good ol' Harold (aka the library) so I could work on a poetry project for my Children's Lit. class. Came home and ate dinner and worked on a few things before heading over to the football game.  Our last home game of the season, and it was freezing. But we had a lot of fun, even if we couldn't feel our toes or our noses.  We decided to leave at the 4th quarter because we were winning by a lot and because of the temperature. The final score ended up being 42-7. We came back to my apartment and ate popcorn and drank hot cocoa.  It was another wonderful night. :)

Sunday: Sacrament meeting was amazing. We had three fantastic talks on repentance and redemption. You could definitely feel the Spirit.  My family history Sunday School class was really good too! Brother Kyle (my FHE brother/home teacher) is the instructor for the class and he did an amazingly fantastical job today. We were all really involved and I gained some new insights about family history. Relief Society was taught by my FHE sister Emily.  She is too cute :) After church, we were home taught by Brother and Father Kyle. They are some of the greatest home teachers in the world. After we were home taught, McKensey, Brittany and I ate dinner and had a post-dinner snack before Ben came over and the four of us played games until I went to tithing settlement/ward prayer. After ward prayer Ben and I went over to his apartment and talked to his roommate Josh and we watched Veggie Tales. Another fantastic Sunday I'd say. :) 

Yet Another Week Has Come and Gone

Monday: FHE! YAY! I feel like I haven't been in forever because last week we didn't have it due to Halloween, the week before was the ward Halloween party and the week before that, I was taking an exam :( I missed my family! For our activity we played Helen Keller Karaoke.  Yes, it is as awful as it sounds.  You put in ear buds and get blindfolded while the DJ picks a song for you.  Then you have to sing it.  Some of my family got really into it and it was fun to watch.  I hated it when it was my turn, but it wasn't worth the fight to not do it.

This is the gorgeous sunset I saw on my way home :) 

Tuesday: I had a lovely chat with my roomies after dinner...for almost 2 hours...we got absolutely no homework done.  But, even though it wasn't ideal, we had a blast just chatting :) I also made cookies for my apartment and took some over to Ben because his head was exploding from studying for his logic exam.

Wednesday: I only had one class and no work! My art class got moved to Friday so I only had Joseph Smith at 9:00.  Our office was moving upstairs and when my shift was supposed to be, they didn't need any help so I got the day off :) My plan was to go to class then come home, be back no later than 10:30 and get to work on a 3-hour art project and some serious reading I needed to get done.  But no.  I came home at 10:15 only to find that I left my keys inside...and the door was locked. I called my two roommates who I knew weren't in class but no one answered their phone.  Soooo, I booked it back to campus to find Emily and borrow her keys but she was in class and didn't answer her phone. Luckily I had homework to work on while I waited.  I got a phone call from Ashley saying she saw I missed a call and asked what was up.  I told her what was going on and she said that she was home and the door was unlocked.  I booked it home again (this will be the third trip I've made in 45 minutes) and found not only one but two roommates...who had both been home the entire morning.  Yes, it was quite an awful morning.  But it did get exponentially better :) I left a note for someone in the testing center, so that made me happy :) Also, I went with Ben to the Divine Comedy tech show.  It was HILARIOUS (as always) and it was free which made it even better.  I really like the tech shows because you get to see all of the sketches instead of just the ones that make the cut. Also, we found out that Ben made it into WASHINGTON SEMINAR! Washington Seminar is an internship program in Washington D.C. He is super excited and I am very excited for him! It will make for a long summer for both of us but it is such an amazing opportunity for him!

Thursday: Nothing too exciting happened.  It was my first day in our new office! I really like it up there. But other than that...nothing really.  I took Emily to French Club and then went to Ben's to work on homework. Woohoo. Homework seems to consume my life.

Friday: I was siiiick. Yuck. I was up all night with my stupid stomach pains and they didn't go away until about 1:00 or 2:00 that afternoon and by that point I had an awesome case of vertigo and felt like my head was going to explode.  Needless to say, I did not go to work but rather, spent then entire day on the couch (literally, I moved to shower and to eat my meals) doing my reading and other homework, sleeping, and watching movies. Ben came over and watched a movie with me so it ended up being not a terrible day.

Saturday: I felt pretty much back to my normal self.  (I think days like Friday are days that my body is telling me I need to slow down, calm down, and make sure I'm taking care of myself.  I kind of need those reminders sometimes and because I'm stubborn, making myself sick is one of the only ways I will listen...to myself...that doesn't make any sense really...) Anyways, I cleaned the church, went grocery shopping, took a quiz, worked on a biology project, finished a book for Children's Lit, got gas,  and went to the football game.  We killed Idaho 42-7.  It was cold, but even though I was freezing my butt off, it was the perfect fall night for a football game.  It isn't really football unless you're freezing :)

Sunday: The choir preformed in Sacrament Meeting today. And Ben, Bridger and I went to my grandparents' house to celebrate the November birthdays.  Someone (sometimes 2 people) have a birthday every week starting with Marly on November 3rd and ending with Justin and Morgan on December 3rd.  My Uncle Russ was there! That was a surprise. I didn't have time to prepare Ben...but he still likes me so I guess it went ok ;) Russ was giving a fireside in my grandparents' ward so we went and listened to that.  After we got back to Provo, I dropped off Bridger and Ben and I went home to have a lovely girls night with my roommates.  Probably our last one with Margaret before she gets married! We had an absolute blast. I love these girls so much. :)

 Birthday celebrations in the Cherry family are always wonderful :)

 We kinda love each other a lot. 

Look! We can get along and not fight about who gets to do the dishes. 

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Winter is here! With multiple snowfalls this week and one that actually stuck overnight, I am so ready for the holiday season and for SNOW! (Who thought I would ever say that after living in Marquette for six years...)

Let's start with Monday

• Happy Halloween! It was a gorgeous day so after work, Ben and I walked to his house and did homework in his backyard in the beautiful fall weather.  After which, we made dinner and continued in our homework escapades. My roommates reversed trick-or-treated us by coming over and bringing us candy.  It was a great Halloween :)

Tuesday

• Happy November! 
• It snowed! (It didn't stick, but it snowed!) 
• Devotional. Was. AMAZING! President Monson spoke AND he quoted Lion King in his talk. It was the highlight of my day. 
• Ben and I have officially been dating for a month so we went out to dinner at Zuppas.  Delicious.  It is one of my favorite places to go eat.  

Wednesday

• Ben and I went on a double date with his little sister Anna and Bridger.  We went bowling and had a lot of fun :) 

Thursday

• I had a wonderful, much needed, roommate night. One of the girls in our ward does Mary-Kay so she came over and gave us facials and we had a fantastic night.  We all felt really pretty and our hands and faces were so soft! 
• Also! Emily got asked on a date :)

Friday

• Friday was a pretty chill day.  I took a New Testament test after I got Jamba Juice with Alex and Sydney after work (Where I made a HUGE stack of books that I scanned.  I won for the day).  I called my mom and talked to her on the way home and for a good while after. After that, I got some homework done before making German pancakes for dinner.  After dinner, Ben and I made cookies at his house and watched The Incredibles.

See? There was still a book or two that I couldn't stack in fear of toppling the tower. 

Saturday

• I woke up at 8:00 and got my laundry started! Woohoo!
• A  little before 10:00 Ben, Emily and I went to the church to clean it.  I had to bring Emily back around 11:00 so she could practice her flute piece with her accompanist and then I went back to the church.  We finally left around 12:30.
• Ben and I ate a gourmet lunch of Pasta Roni that I prepared even with a microwave failure. 
• Emily and I went grocery shopping and I found a gluten-free cookie that looked delicious so I bought it and took it over to Anna on our way home. 
• After we unloaded the car and put away our groceries, I folded and put away my laundry and helped Emily with some job application stuff.
• By the time all of that was done, it was 4:00 and I still hadn't started my Crusades paper for my history class.  So, I took a power nap.  Followed by cranking out an almost 3 page paper in an hour and a half. 
• Dinner was prepared by the lovely Miss Emily and I actually ate the vegetable that was served! (A shock to all of those in the apartment)
• Ben and I went to the Women's volleyball game.  We won! I absolutely loved watching.  It made me miss volleyball a lot.  I wish I could practice and get decent again.  I love playing but I am so out of practice...

Sunday

• I woke up this morning to snow covering cars and roofs and the grass. 
• I smiled and turned on Christmas music :D
• I also decorated the apartment with Christmas stuff. I am soooo ready for the holidays.
• In ward choir we practiced a song for Thanksgiving as well as CHRISTMAS SONGS!!
• Church was amazing. I love Open Mic Sundays.  
• The roomies and I, along with Ben, went to the CES fireside by President Packer.  It was a great fireside.  How awesome is it that I have had the opportunity to hear from two general authorities in the last week? Only at BYU and only at this time in my life.  I am so lucky :)
• After ward prayer, I went over to Ben's and played the piano.  It was wonderful to play again.  I should do it more often.
• Now I sit, finishing this post and will soon jet off to bed so I can get enough sleep to start another crazy week in the life of me.