Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! With a new year bringing a new semester of school, a new blog design, and plenty of new adventures, it is time for my annual Year In Review post.

January:
This month was spent getting back into a new routine for the new semester. Every weekend it seemed like, was spent with my friends doing something fun. 
 Girls Nights

 Dances
 Breakfast Clubs
and Temple trips.

February:
Even though February is the shortest month, there was still a TON of things going on! All of them very fun and exciting. 
 Alec got his mission call to the Mexico Tijuana Mission!
 Jordan got his mission call too! His call was to the Atlanta Georgia North mission speaking Spanish. 
 Valentine's day! I helped Emily and some other people in her ward cut out these hearts for a stake dance we had. 
 Alice in Wonderland girls choice dance
I helped Emily build her first snowman
March:
March is my birthday month! And it really felt like I celebrated all month long.  
 I had a girls night with Alex and Sydney which included pizza and talking about boys, going to see Tangled, Creamery ice cream and a sleepover in their dorm room. 
Sydney and I had a princess party complete with crowns. 
 And my actual birthday! The cake and some pretty earrings my mommy got me. 

April:
April brought the end of my freshman year of college.  How crazy is that? I also got to see my family for the first time since Christmas. 
 I went to General Conference with my mommy and Emily


 We had our last complete Breakfast Club for two years
 The last ever BYU 68th Ward
I moved to Arizona
 And I shot my first gun on a Daddy Daughter Date to the shooting range. 

May:
In May I started work and continued living with my grandma in Arizona. I took a fun trip to San Jose, California to see three of my best friends:
 Jordan
 Emily
 and David. 
 I also moved into our family's house in Mesa at the end of the month.  
We have beautiful sunsets every night. 
And really gorgeous Sunday afternoons.

June:
The most exciting thing that happened: MY FAMILY CAME! After Bridger graduated, the whole family packed up and moved to Mesa. 
 My puppy Maggie came too. 
We also spent a lot of time in the pool. 
July:
July was HOT. And humid, thanks to the monsoon season. 
 4th of July was a bust. No fireworks because of wind and rain. 
 We had the great Cherry Family Boat Race

 Hunter and I lost horribly. 
 I also went to 3 DBacks baseball games: one for work, one with my family and one with the YSA in my stake. 

August: 
I was so excited to have August come! I was definitely ready for school to start.  The only thing I was sad about was leaving my job.  I absoltuely loved the work and my co-workers are some of the greatest people I have ever met. 
 Because I loved my job so much (working in the community relations department of a mining company) I declared a minor in Communications. 
 Here are my co-workers.  They were all so great and I laughed every single day at work. 
Sydney came to see me! We went to the Mesa Temple on Sunday morning before church and the sister missionary at the Visitor's Center thought we were sisters. :)
 So in addition to seeing me, Sydney came to Arizona to help me drive my car up to BYU.  We had quite the road trip...
Before school started, Sydney and I met up with Alex and Kathryn and went to lunch and hit up the mall. It was so great to see them again, especially Kathryn since I hadn't seen her since Late Summer Honors from last year. 
 And, of course, my favorite part about August: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

September:
September was such a fun month.  I met tons of new people, had a new ward, went to a ton of activities and made new friends :) 
 Football games with my new friend Ben. 
 Ward boating trip: SUCH a blast!
And sleep overs in the bathroom simply because we can. 

October:
October was quite a busy month...
 I went on a date to General Conference.
And I came home with a boyfriend :) 
 Homecoming!
Here I am with Ben and Anna at the parade.
 and the football game

 Both of my brothers got ordained the same day.
They're growing up! When did that happen?

 I had lots of fun dates with Ben like going to Bridal Veil Falls
 and more football games :)
 Our apartment dressed up as cowgirls for Halloween and Emily dressed up as a holy cow. 

November:
The end of the semester was in sight and there still seemed like there was so much to do! Every weekend it seemed was very full of various activities. 
 We had a girls night with Margaret since she was getting married right after finals. 
Ben and I went to see Vocal Point in concert and we had our first HUGE snow storm. 
Thanksgiving break was spent at my grandparents' with all of the Cherry's. It was great to have everyone around.  It hasn't happened in years. 
Here we are celebrating Festivus a little bit early. 
And the annual Cherry Family Turkey Trot 5K Run. 
 We also went as an entire clan to Temple Square to see the lights. 
 After everyone left my grandma's, I helped her set up and decorate the Christmas tree. 
December:
December brought the end of a semester, finals, Christmas and New Years. 
 
We had a Relief Society activity at Temple Square where we went behind the scenes of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We got to see all of the dresses and how they are made and we heard all of the stories behind the dresses. The night ended with listening to the Choir practice at the Conference Center. 
Ben's family came into town for a week so we got to spend time with them. It was so great! 
We all went to see White Christmas on campus and it was fantastic. I loved it. 
 Ben's nephew, Bradley, was blessed so we went up to Salt Lake for that.  He has got to be one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my entire life. 
 After Bradley's blessing, Ben and I went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional and saw the lights on Temple Square. 
 Christmas was great! I loved spending time with my family, even if we are a little weird. 
 The boys all got helicopters for Christmas so we spent a lot of time flying and crashing them. 
 And, I got a haircut.  Finally! After going a full 12 months without even a trim (I know, super unhealthy for my hair) I got some style put back into it but still kept the length. I really like it :)


Well, 2011 has been full of many changes and memories, highs and lows, but it has been the greatest year yet! Now, bring on 2012-go ahead and top 2011.  I am ready for the HUGE set of adventures that lie ahead.