ChristmasCruisin&NewYears&WinterSemester

So I know its like way past the time to write about christmas break butttt my break was just too good to not write about!
To start off, for Christmas this year my family decided to go on a cruise! We went on a 5 day Carnival cruise to Progreso & Cozumel, Mexico. It was my first cruise so it was definitely a cool thing to experience. Luckily, the extent of getting sea sick was just feeling queazy the last day at sea because the ship was really rocky. However, all of the good food and relaxing hours on the boat made up for it. Overall though, my favorite part had to be the two days we spent in Mexico. I really liked how we went to both Progreso and Cozumel because I got to see two very different parts of Mexico. In Progreso, its much more rustic and not as modern as opposed to Cozumel which is very modern and highly centered on tourists.
Our excursion in Progreso consisted of a van ride an hour from shore to a place where we hopped on bikes and biked out to snorkel in two cenotes. For those of you who don't know what a cenote is (because I didn't), here's the official definition from dictionary.com -
Ce-no-te [suh-noh-tee]
noun 
a deep natural well or sinkhole, especially in Central American, formed by the collapse of surface limestone that exposes groundwater underneath, and so metimes used by the ancient Mayans for sacrificial offerings.

There were dogs everywhere! This one was just chilling while we all grabbed bikes from this little pavilion.

Unfortunately, I only got a picture of 1 of the cenotes that we went to, but look how gorgeous this is?! It drops off and it was really cool to snorkel in. Very cool. 

I asked our tour guide if this was a petting zoo, but he responded saying that people were raising these animals to eat. "That's Christmas dinner right over there! Ha!" 

We got to see a lot of Progreso on the van ride which was really cool. We saw real people and their run down houses like this one.

The view right off the ship. The port is actually the rocky horizontal strip in the picture. Progreso's port is the longest in the world! It's 4 miles long. 

Our next stop was in Cozumel where we got on a boat and rode to a snorkeling spot off the beach. After we snorkeled for awhile, we went and spent the rest of our time on the beach. It was cool because there were these huge inflatable slides and different things that were fun. I got to paddle board too which was also something that I really enjoyed.

The water was absolutely GORGEOUS!

Drinking our pepsi on Christmas day on the beach! #cheers

Eating a snow cone and taking a picture with the creepy Mexican grinch pretty much made it the best Christmas ever! 

Overall, the cruise was such a fun experience and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my family! I will admit that the cruise ship itself got boring after awhile, but it was actually kind of nice to have nothing to do and nowhere to be all day. We went to a lot of shows and cool things at night, so I was grateful to just relax a lot during the day on the ship.

After we got back, I spent a lot of time with friends and family and tried to soak up as much of the Texas warmth as I could before I had to return the icebox more commonly known as Utah. For New Years, Briana and I drove out to Friendswood to spend it with the Ellsworths. We sang karaoke, played Bunco and ate all night so it was definitely a ton of fun. We had a confetti fight at midnight and that lasted for a good hour. Who knew chunking little pieces of paper at your family could be so fun?

  

This picture cracks me up

confetti angel!

Isn't he the cutest?!

This was shelby ALL through the fight.  

What the night ended with. #classic

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS: 

1. Establish more of a sound sleep and study schedule 

2. Watch, listen, or read some kind of guidance from general authorities every Sunday

3. Run & exercise more 

Still working on some, but I think these are pretty sound for now... 

So now that I've caught up, here's a little update about how my life has been in January 2013 so far! 

1. I'm in all new classes (totally weird and different from high school, but I love it)

2. I'm in a drawing class and am TOTALLY loving it. I'm so excited to be doing art again in a conventional manner. 

3. IT'S FREEZING HERE. Like seriously, in the negatives and 1 digit degrees. 

4. I have an 8:00 class everyday. You know what that means? I get no sleep. I am currently in the process of trying to establish a normal, healthy sleep schedule and I am failing. 

5. I'm about 90% done with my mission papers! I just have to finalize a few things and then I can submit them! 

6. I conquered the stomach flu or some kind of bad stomach bug last week and didn't get Jordan sick! YAY. 

7. I'm in 2 religion classes (Book of Mormon and Mission Prep) and I love it! I have such great teachers that leave me so spiritually enriched after each class. It's great. 

Actually, in talking about my religion classes and Book of Mormon, I just want to share a little bit of what we've been talking about. 

I've never been a great scriptorian or been able to interpret difficult scriptures on my own, so I absolutely love it when a teacher or speaker explains scriptures and doctrine in a way that I totally understand. For me, Brother Griffin does that. This past week in Book of Mormon class, we talked a lot about the devil and how he works in so many great ways to trick you. In Alma, we learn of Korihor who was deceived by the devil so much so that he truly believed that what he was teaching was the truth. In our lives today, there are Korihors all around us. There are always going to be people and things that distract us and try to sway us from the truth. However, when we fall into these traps and remove our center focus from Christ, a domino effect can happen on our entire lives. It occurs like this- 

No Christ = No hope = No Future = No prophecies = No forgiveness 

This proves the importance of centering ourselves toward Christ and how only through him are we able to grow and become better. So just as there is a negative domino effect, by adding just two simple letters to the first one, we have a much more desirable domino effect- 

Know Christ = Know hope = Know future = Know prophecies = Know forgiveness 

I love this because it lays it out so plainly. In Alma 30:52, Korihor writes after being struck dumb, "I know that I am dumb, for I cannot speak..." This is a lesson for all of us because we can see the effects of hearkening to the devil's voice. We gain nothing from following the devil, but gain SO much from following and knowing Christ. This is such a comfort to me because it only strengthens the fact that God and Christ are always there for me. If we trust in him and follow him, we will be blessed and be so much happier because of it.

Laugh of the Day: 

While in Cozumel, I decided to paddle board in the ocean. I had only paddle boarded once before in California where the water was much calmer, but I loved it so I decided to give it a shot. It was a little bit more challenging, but I managed to balance pretty well. Once I mastered just merely staying up, I decided to try to stand on only one foot. I could easily do it in California, but because the water was much more rocky in the ocean, it wasn't the same. Needless to say, I had quite a few falls off the paddle board. This was pretty funny in itself, but the funniest part of paddle boarding was when my brother Frank swam over and we both tried to balance at the same time. This was proving to be VERY difficult and we ate the water so many times. I can only imagine what we looked like because when you fall from a paddle board, it's not always so graceful.We had so many falls, but so many laughs. It was worth it.

Thanksgiving&TempleSquare&Invitational

So I'm laying on my bed, exhausted from finals and lonely because my roommate left last night and I realized that it was the perfect time to pop in a good movie. I don't know if you know this already, but I have a thing for movies. I absolutely love watching a good movie (especially if its a chick flick) and so when I find one that I love, I will literally watch it over and over again. I'll get stuck on a movie and watch it everyday even for like 2 weeks or so. Its crazy, but I love it.
So anyways, I decided to watch Julie & Julia. It is such a cute movie that I haven't seen in awhile so I decided it was a good choice. Well sure enough, I forgot that the movie is based a lot on Julie Powell and her blog that she writes cooking through Julia Child's cookbook. So my mind obviously goes to my blog and how I haven't written in forever. I think I was just afraid of the mega post from Thanksgiving and everything that's happened thus far. However, if I wait any longer it will be hopeless.

So here's a fair warning: This is going to be a mega post.

To start off, I have to talk about my Thanksgiving break!
It was perfect.
After debating where to spend it, Briana and I decided to road trip to Carlsbad, California to visit my dad's side of the family. It was such a blast, I can't believe we haven't been out there in so long! I loved seeing so much family that I haven't seen in SO long and getting to spend so much time with them. It was such a great experience.
The only downer was having to drive 10 hours there and 10 hours back. We switched off driving which wasn't too bad but it was basically a full days trip so that was exhausting. The scenery was beautiful in Utah and Arizona, but Nevada was pretty boring and California was only pretty at some parts. Here are some pics I managed to snap on the road and in Cali-

This is amusing to me because it's a real life plateau!! I had never seen one in real life before, isn't that crazy? You always learn the different landscapes in geography but it's not like Texas is full of them so I had just never seen one before!

Taken at the beginning of the trip obviously... By the end, I was so dead and ready to get out of that tiny car. 

Driving through scenery like this just made it so much more tolerable.

Something cool I learned while at my grandparents: I'm related to this famous silent film cowboy! His name was Art Acord and he was famous in a bunch of silent films. He even has a whole book on him! So cool.

 1st sand sculpture of the trip...
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2nd one... a little better wouldn't you say?
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BEST! Briana and I sculpted this when it was really cold and overcast. We had to keep warm somehow! Davin (my cousin's adorable son) gave him a nose which I like to identify as a birthmark. It was cute.
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We had a lot of fun in the sand... Can't you tell? 

The first day we were there, my Uncle Rick let us borrow some cruisers so we went to the beach and rode around Carlsbad. I felt pretty 90s when I tied the jacket around the waist (:  

So check out the starfishes we found on the beach! The big one is obviously a little more impressive and exciting. Either way, you wouldn't find these babies in Texas!

Taken on Thanksgiving day. Isn't she just so adorable?! This is my cousin Sydney's cute baby, Amara! 

Black Friday! Best find was getting the entire Harry Potter series for only $16! $2 a movie. <3

By the end of the night, we had so much stuff that we could barely see Briana and April in the back! I would say we were pretty successful. 

Perhaps my favorite part of the trip was getting to visit the gorgeous San Diego temple! Briana and I got the chance to do baptisms inside and it was just gorgeous. I hope I get to back someday. 

So that pretty much sums up our trip to California! It was amazing and I can't wait to go back someday (:

Well anyways, what else has been happening in my life?
My ward took a trip to temple square at the beginning of the month in Salt Lake and that was amazing. Temple square is gorgeous covered in christmas lights!

So besides temple square, we had a pretty sick dance the other week and it was so much fun! It was an Invitational and Jordan and I went with a big group from our ward. We didn't know what to expect (because Cannon center dances are usually pretty lame), but it was actually way better than expected. It was nice to have a fun night and take a break from the stress of upcoming finals.

Our dates! 

So this sunday was our last sunday meeting as a ward for the semester. It was way sad because we had to say goodbye to a few people leaving on missions.

Jason! He's heading off the Washington D.C. He's pretty much the coolest guy
I've ever met so he will definitely be missed.  

Quinten! He's heading off to Madrid, Spain. He's hilarious and can steal anything from someone without them noticing, it's incredible! haha he's stolen my phone more than once, so I can testify to his thieving skills. 

So that's about it folks! Sorry for the plethora of pictures, but I feel like most people like to look at pictures rather than read a really long paragraph.

Only one more final to go: Statistics. 

Countdown to Texas: 4 days. 

I can do it! 

Laugh of the Day: 

So the other day, it snowed, then rained, then snowed again. Do you know what that means? Ice. Everywhere. So I was on campus working on a group project with my two friends Matt & Kevin. We were at the crosswalk at the top of freshman hill and they're joking around and taking bets on when I would slip on the hill. I'm like the clumsiest person ever so I mean it was a definitely good chance I would slip. Well anyways, I'm just kind of putting up with the teasing and was just like, "yall are so funny (not)" and determined now to prove them wrong by not slipping. However, when we get to the top, we see that the whole top of the hill is just glazed over with ice. I honestly didn't know how I was going to make it. So we start walking and I'm concentrating really hard to keep from losing it, but sure enough I start sliding. I was even doing anything! I mean, it was straight ice. Like I could've ice skated on it. So of course, I try to control the sliding and whoosh, I fall straight on my butt. I, of course, started dying of laughter, Kevin lost it, and Matt is laughing really hard but at the same time he is trying to help me up and see if I'm okay. It was just great. Luckily the rest of the hill seemed okay but I avoided it for the rest of the day after that. 

So there you have it! My first fall (and certainly not the last) in Utah. 

Documented for me to always go back and read. YES.