Life is Good

School is even busier than last year! Yesterday I had two tests and then today, a paper due. The rest of my week should be good, though this weekend didn't involve much rest. However, through all the studying, it did involve my friend Shanan's birthday. His roommate, Jordan, threw him a BBQ at Jordan's grandparents house, since it is Montecito. So, all of us found rides over there and got to gather with music, ping pong, great food and great people. It was so much fun to just get off campus for a while and be in a house. And Jordan's family was so nice to have all of us over and cook a full on meal for 20 people. We spent the evening simply hanging out and playing volleyball/soccer with a giant bouncy ball (so great!) and celebrating Shanan's birthday. Also, Brad brought his blow dart gun, which he let all that wanted to, try. On my second try I actually manged to hit the can we used as a target! It was exciting.

Other fun happenings this year have included going to the farmers market, dinner, making dinner a couple of time with Brent. We are getting pretty good at stealing food from the DC to add to our creations.

Rooming has been going good as well. A couple weeks ago the three of us stayed up till like 3 talking. I began mocking Barrett, because every night she says that she is just going to sleep on the futon because she doesn't want to climb up into her bed. I climbed on her bed and said I was just going to sleep there. Her response was to go and lay on Amy's bed and then Amy climbed up onto mine. We turned out the light and ended up talking for another while and then eventually all just fell asleep. Waking up was so confusing. Oh, the randomness of college.

Also, It has been so hot lately that Barrett and I decided to sleep outside the other night. It was really nice down on the lawn, under the stars. We woke up around 4 and headed back inside though because we didn't want people to start waking up, walking around and wonder why two people were just sleeping on the grass. So, when we went back to our room, I decided that it was too hot to sleep on my top bunk and so i slept on the futon. At 9:00 my wake up call came in the form of a heavy object coming in contact with my jaw. It was Barrett's phone that fell from her bed (she also has a top bunk) coming in contact with my face. As she searched her bed for it, I whimpered and held it up to her. We started laughing, but my jaw is still a bit bruised.

Oh, and I almost forgot. There was a karaoke night a couple weeks ago, which was really fun. Amy, Shea, John (new RD of my old dorm) and I sang "Ice Ice Baby"...pretty hilarious and so fun.

Well, as you can see, college life has been great. I'm really excited to go home for our four day break next weekend though. It will be nice to get away for a few days, have some time with my family and hopefully just relax.

Oh, speaking of family, my mom, Katie and my grandma came up to visit me last week. It was really great; we went to the zoo, had lunch and dinner and just drove around Santa Barbara. It was really fun to see them, although I was sick, so that was kind of a bummer.

Anyway, I'll update soon about some deeper stuff going on in my life.

Over and out. :)

Wacky Adventures at Westmont

Being back at school has been busier than I had ever imagined. I can't believe I've only been here two weeks; it feels like two months. My classes all require an insane amount of reading this semester, but I think I'm really going to like most of them. I'm taking Principles of Art, History of Western Art (which is SO interesting, but also SO much information to take in), Major American Writers (I'm really enjoying that, since I feel like I don't really have a good basis of American Literature), Christian Doctrine and Outdoor Education (we get to hike, boulder/rock climb and kayak for that class!!! how sweet is that?!?!). Despite the work load, classes are going well so far.
In addition to classes, it's been great being back and seeing everyone again. Already this year we have had quite a few memorable experiences; late night walks in the moonlight, a night hike in order to show Shanan this awesome tree house we found, cooking dinner in the common kitchen, Barrett going on a rampage, throwing things around the room and a section beach day. Barrett's rampage was initiated one night when she said she "...simply wanted people to let her annoy them, but they [were] ignoring [her] efforts." She sat down in the middle of our floor, doing Indian calls and throwing objects at the ceiling. Amy and I tried to sedate her by the method of smothering her with a blanket. It failed and Barrett then grabbed a jacket and threw it in the air, hitting a string we have going across our room with pictures hanging on it and causing all the pictures to fly every which way. Hysterical.
Another evening, Shanan made us all laugh so hard we cried. I don't even know exactly what he said...something about a cookie, but in one of the weirdest voices I've ever heard. As soon as the tears of laughter began coming to our eyes, he jumps up from the table, screaming "I made Barrett cry!" and then does a victory lap around the building, which only made the three of us laugh harder.
But, I think so far the most embarrassing moment of the year goes to me (surprise, surprise). One afternoon I decided it was necessary to build a contraption that would allow the hot water pot and i'ts heating base to stick to the desk for easier access. I was quite proud of my invention, despite my roommates unsupportive comments. Later that evening a wire rack that was holding pictures falls off the wall and crashes down. As I was trying to stand on my desk, putting the thing back on the wall, Amy and Barrett start making fun of me, sarcastically saying how great my handy work is. I retort "Well, my hot water heater contraption has stayed so far and it's been all afternoon...and it will be there forever." Just then, I stepped to the left onto the edge of my desk, hitting the hot water pot, causing it to fall and spill all over Barrett and the futon that was underneath it. Luckily it wasn't hot, but it was full and she was completely soaked. We all couldn't breath for the next ten minutes because we were laughing so hard. Then Barrett thought it would be good punishment to tackle me, but she forgot to move her bowl of coffee ice cream, which my face went into. She saw that it was already ruined and proceeded to smash my face into it even more. Our suite mates actually came over to see if we were okay because they didn't know if we were all laughing or crying. They probably think we are insane...not too far off either.
It's been different being back with college students all the time, but I'm loving the randomness that college life brings. It was so much easier to adjust this year, coming back to something that is familiar. Living in Armington with Amy and Barrett has also been great thus far. We have been having a lot of fun and not getting much studying done...kidding, of course we are getting our school work done.
Anyway, I'll tell more about being back at Westmont soon.
Ciao!

And Just Like that Summer is Over...

Man, am I slacking on the updates or what. I am back at school now, but before I get into that, I'll briefly say a few things about the last weeks of my summer.

-I was able to high jump once this summer! It felt so good to be back out there and reminisce about my track experience. It was also a lot of fun to see Coach Jim and to be able to take a few jumps that kind of just clicked in a way.

-I was able to spend some time with some people that are important to me before the summer ended. Amy, August, Grace and I got to have a last hang out and we tie-dyed, which was quite the experience. We also made smores, which was even more of an experience as you can see... haha . August pulled it out of the broiler and flames were everywhere...it was great.

-I went on a series of adventures with Amy (from college Amy) and Shanan throughout southern California. It included getting lost many times, an awful cop giving me a parking ticket, but also many laughs.

-I was able to go to the beach one night with Amy (from home). We had lots of fun taking pictures and having some good conversations.-August and I painted another picture. It included things from our lives that we like and yes, there is a cemetery because we like them :). August also taught me how to make yogurt, which turned out delicious!

-My parents went out of town as well, so I got to hang with Katie for a couple days. We had fun and even went to the candy store and to see Despicable Me, which is an awesome movie if you were thinking about seeing it.

Well, that was a quick overview of the highlights from the last few weeks of my summer. Oh, and did I mention that Justin got an internship in LA, so he is now back, living with my family. They gave him my room too. :( haha, i'm kidding...it's not a big deal. He keeps joking he is going to paint it dark red, which i said would be cool, and add shag carpet. haha

Hopetown Lighthouse!

Okay, last post about the Bahamas; sorry I've been so behind. The last couple days of our trip were excellent. We spent one of the days going out on a boat to Hopetown, which you can only get to by boat. Cool, right? Anyway, there is this really great (supposedly famous) lighthouse there that looks like a candy cane. But, before I get to that, I must share the story of the golf cart that must be remembered (like we could ever forget it ha). So, we were leaving the house to go into town, where we were going to catch the boat (the resort only allowed golf carts to be driven inside, so cars had to be left at the front). One cart was leaving to go up, while the other was going to be along in another half hour. So, it was Gary driving, with my mom and Katie in the front, Betsy and Jamie in the middle and I was in the back, with the backwards-facing seat. Gary being the crazy driver he is, goes off tearing down the driveway at top speed. Just then another golf cart, also going full speed, turns around the blind corner at the driveway entrance, which was not wide enough for two carts. We all braced ourselves for impact, as we crashed almost head on. Exciting, no? The poor guy in the other cart (who was part of maintenance at the resort) felt so bad and kept apologizing. No one was severely hurt, which was the important thing, so we all tried to tell him that it was okay. It was as much Gary's fault as it was his. Katie did bump her lip, Gary banged his arm, Jamie her knee and I, both a leg and an arm. It was a good thing I had been looking forward an braced myself, or I would have been out of the cart. So great, having to go back inside and tell the rest of our family we had, had a golf cart accident. Maybe someday we will actually manage to no damage any property of these vacation places...probably not. haha
Anyway, here are some pics of our trip to Hopetown, which was really neat, since it is basically a little town built on the water. on the boat...yeah i make weird faces Katie and my Aunt Julie...such a cute picturethe lighthouse! isn't it awesome!?family picture, trying to get the lighthouse in the background.going on up......and looking downBets, Jus and I at the top. After, the boat took us out to this great snorkeling spot, where you could dive and swim through the breaks in the reef. Emphasis on the word "could"; I'm not sure we were supposed to. Our little heads in the distance. We saw an awesome lobster! It was purpleAfter snorkeling, the Jib Room was recommended for dinner, so we all had just brought a change of clothes with us and used some random public showers at the boat docks and went. The dinner was great and it was right in the harbor. Jamie and I at dinner.
After dinner the Jib Room was having Limbo and Dance competitions. My mom and Gary took Katie back with their car and the rest of us stayed. Limboing was so fun! I haven't done that in forever. The guy that was running it was amazing as well. He set the bar at about 3.5 ft off the ground and then looked at my Aunt, gesturing for her to come over to where he was. She immediately grabs my arm and pushes me towards him. He then picked me up and limbo-ed under the bar... haha crazy. Justin and Jenna ended up tying for the winning spot. After, the Cha cha slide came on and somehow I got tricked into leading it for the entire restaurant. During the next song, which was the eclectic slide, everyone left the dance floor except Jamie, Betsy and I, which was really embarrassing, but totally fun. It was a pretty awesome last night in the Bahamas.
When we returned to the house, Jamie, Betsy, Justin and I sat up in the observation room (it had glass walls) talking for a bit. Lots of good conversations in that room. Another night Justin, Betsy and I stayed up until 3am just talking about everything from school to relationship advice and crushes...pretty different topics haha. Anyway, Justin and I had heard about this thing on youtube where a guy was making a movie from all these different people's lives on the date of July 24th. So, on that day, people were just supposed to film whatever it was they were doing and then upload it to youtube, answering the questions "What do you love? What do you fear? What's in your pockets? What makes you laugh?". It was a bummer we hadn't heard about it earlier, but we decided it would be cool to make a video telling what we had done, even if it was just for us. We talked a bit about our day and then decided to go down to the beach, since we had wanted to go every night that week. Jamie and Betsy weren't interested and stayed behind. It was a full moon when we walked down there, so everything was so bright. After we captured that on film, I walked down to the water and stood there in the water, moonlight and soft warm breeze, wishing I could simply capture that moment and how extremely peaceful, yet empowered I felt. It was totally one of those moments that leaves a lasting impact simply because of the amazing picture that is painted around you. Eventually we started our walk back up to the house, making it into a dance rather by turning some music on from Justin's computer. Have I mentioned how much I love the randomness of my family? It works so well for us all haha. Here's getting ready to leave...can't wait to see them again! Skiing this winter probably

Hooray for one room airports! :)

So blessed to have been able to travel so much this summer!

hurricane watch? i wish

again, the beach was spectacular!

justin and betsy buried me and made me a mermaid... :)

the house was very open and spacious and, like last year, we had a play some rounds of sardines. we got everyone to play this time and managed to sustain only minor injuries. we played in the pitch dark, which made things super hard and super scary. justin kept following me around, saying my name in what was one of the creepiest voices i've ever witnessed, hence naming it his "creepy munchkin voice". seriously, it is terrifying he can even make this voice. anyway, it wasn't me that got injured this time. betsy, jamie, justin and i had gone in my aunt and uncle's room to search and justin thought it would be hilarious to get in the closet and jump out at us as we walked out. he jumped out and betsy, who was in front, grabbed the door as a reaction and tried to slam it closed, hitting justin's head...pretty great backfire. jamie and i just screamed, laughed and then ran into my aunt, coming to see what had happened. i told her that justin had come out of the closet. her response was "Oh finally." haha poor justy...not like he doesn't deserve it.

at another point in the game, we were all smashed under the couch cushions in the couch and were there for about a good minute and a half before we realized we were all there and no one was left looking. another round jamie was hiding in the service closet, which was in the main room. just as i was opening the door to look, justin comes out of nowhere and shoves me in, causing me to fall into jenna, who fell into a bucket and then as he is scrambling to close the door quickly, he falls on top of both of us.

through this game we also discovered that eight fully grown adults can fit into a single shower stall...the resort should put that on their brochures. kidding.

i love my family!

jamer and i

we went down to the clubhouse for karaoke one afternoon. the man in front started dancing with me...he was the sweaty-est person i've ever seen. i was cringing as he grabbed my arm, while jamie cheered and laughed. hahafamily picture...i think i had just played tennis. the bay with the trampoline and sail boat! dinner on the ocean was amazing, although while we were there, we were watching on the tv a tropical storm warning for tropical storm bonnie. we all started discussing what would happen if it became hurricane status and hit Abaco. we let our imaginations run a little wild, saying it could be made into a movie: a family on vacation, a storm hits and leaves one alive. somehow i was the one who would live because the title "the last little blond girl" was such a terrific title according to aunt julie. then we began talking about who would survive in a horror film.

bonnie did hit, but it was just with lots of lightning, thunder and rain...nothing too major. fun though

Oh, Abaco

Where to even begin about my trip to the Bahamas? Well, it started of with a red eye from LA to Miami, where we arrived at bright and early 6am (which was actually 3am CA time). After 6 hrs. in the ice box of an airport, we hopped on a plane that was taking us to Marsh Harbor, located on the Island of Abaco. When we arrived, we waited for the rest of our family to arrive, who were coming in on a later flight. I had a very relaxing afternoon; I took a walk down to the beach, laid in the hammock and read a book. What beats that? The rest of our family finally arrived and we spent the evening out by the pool catching up, though it had only been what 3 weeks since we last saw them. The rest of the evening Betsy, Justin and I flipped through the tv channels, trying to find a movie to watch. We ended up watching Planet of the Apes...weird movie. Totally entertaining though.

The next day we just hung around the resort and walked down to the beach, where we decided it would be fun to take some kayaks out to this small island a little ways away. Jamie and Betsy take off towards the island, Justin and I follow and then my Uncle Jeff brings up the rear by himself. We got about half way out when Justin goes "Um, Danielley, we are takin' on a lot of water back here". I turned around and saw that he was almost up to his waist in water and that it was slowly filling up the front of the kayak as well. "Start bailing!" I yelled, and we began frantically bailing, but we were taking on water faster than we could bail it out. Eventually we were just sitting in the filled kayak with the top of the kayak just under the surface of the water. Justin hopped (or rather, swam) out, hoping it would float again, but by that time it was too full of water so his weight didn't even effect it. So, I got out too and we tried tipping it over and then flipping it back, but we couldn't get it to drain. The whole time we were laughing hysterically, while his dad was paddling around us, yelling directions at us and freaking out...just a little. We just thought it was hilarious. We began trying to swim in with it, Justin pulling it in front and me pushing it from behind, but the current was pretty strong. Finally some guy on a paddle board came out and took it from us, giving us his paddle board to get out to the island. However, we only had kayak paddles, so that made it interesting. Justin tried swimming behind it, "pushing it" (he was slowing it down more than anything), while I sat on top and paddled. Finally he let go and I just took off, leaving him to swim the last of the stretch. Quite a funny memory...I didn't even know it was possible to sink a kayak. haha



here are some pictures of us hanging out in town the third day we were there.

what can i say? we're hardcore

aw, see we do like each other

oh, kaite...

Izzy was our waitress at a restaurant called Mangos. She was hilarious! So great, in fact that we took a picture with her before leaving.

On the fourth morning, we went out to the fake clay tennis courts and played some pretty good tennis. We met some other people staying at the resort and got a few games going with them. It was really fun. While we were playing against Gary and my Aunt Julie, I missed a ball and Justin jokingly goes "damn it danielle". My aunt goes "Those two words are never to be used in the same sentence!" So, to spite my aunt for standing up for the person who gets made of the most in the family, for the rest of the trip, the ongoing joke was damn it danielle since it had such a nice ring to it. For example, I was in the other room and Jamie dropped something in the kitchen and expresses her frustration by saying "damn it danielle". Then Gary had to chime in and say that saying "damn it" was only okay if my name was after it. So i guess my name is the new family expletive...great haha.

After tennis, we returned to the house and since it was ridiculously hot outside, we wanted to get in the water. Justin and I went down to the beach and swam a bit. Have I talked at all about the beach yet? Well, I think it just might have been the most spectacular beach I have ever been to. There was no one else around (I think the entire week we were there we may have seen 10 people total on the beach...crazy!)

katie's model shotplaying in the sand...it was super soft!

Aunt Julie, Justin and my Mom

We also played croquet! I was terrible at it...Jamie kept laughing at how bad I was.

Here is Justin, Gary, Katie and I down to the clubhouse beach, where, as you can see in the background, there was a giant floating trampoline! One afternoon when Justin and I were jumping on it, he told me to try and do a flip off of it into the water. I did, but completely over-rotated and smacked on the water. So great haha. We eventually came back and played in the pool for a while.Then everyone thought it would be fun to drown me...yes, that shape under the water with legs sticking out is me.

I have such caring family members. :)

Well, that's all for now...more to come

Repelling!

Anyway, the other really fun thing we did in Zion was repelling. But, before I talk about that, I'll tell a little about my Aunt Julie's birthday, which was on Saturday.
We went out to dinner in town and then came back to where my parent's were staying to play cards for a bit. When it got dark, we decided we should head back to the campsite (also because Uncle Jeff was riding his bike back and when he left, Jamie realized she had forgotten to lock the car when she had gone to the campsite to get something. So, my mom was coming back with us to hang out for a while and so 6 of us piled in Jamie's 5 seater car (my Aunt and Jamie in the front and my mom, Betsy, Justin and I crammed in the back). We drive through the park entrance and try to pull over to the side of the road, having Justin lean out the window, trying to lock the car through the trees before Uncle Jeff gets back. As we pull back out on to the road, we see blue and red lights flashing behind us (great time to get pulled over when you have an illegal number of people in the back seat). Betsy immediately starts spazzing out saying "Oh my gosh! What are we going to do? Danielle, get down." Justin, my mom and I just gave her a look and I told her "that won't help. Maybe I should just push Justin out of the car and he can make a break for it through the woods." I think she honestly thought about it for a second haha...she doesn't do well under pressure. Anyway, the cop comes over to the car and begins flashing a light in at us, looking to see what Justin was doing hanging out the car window, probably. He showed him that all he had were keys and the cop proceeded to say that he pulled us over because the speed limit at the entrance to Zion is 15mph and we were going 25. He also commented on the fact that we were all squished in the back and after a while of him being back in his car, he let us go, giving us a warning. We had a few other infractions so this was pretty awesome. We all drove off cheering at the fact we didn't get any tickets. Of all the places for us to get pulled over...Zion. Pretty great.
After staying up late the night before, playing cards, we woke up and rode bikes down to the swimming hole. On the way over, we were ridding along the path, when all of the sudden Justin comes to a complete halt, causing me, Betsy and Jamie to crash into him and each other. Why he did this. "There was a lizard."
"Okay, but the path is wide enough for you to go around the lizard."
"I didn't know which way he was going to run though."
Wow...i cut my finger because he didn't swerve around the lizard. haha Anyway, swimming in the swimming hole was quite fun. It was a bit chilly, but it was a blast to jump off the rocks into the rapids and you were dry in minutes when you got out. After coming back from the swimming hole, we all got ready to go repelling in the canyon.

hiking up to the top so we could start the repel back down.

Love these guys! I guess that's a good thing, cause I kinda can't get rid of them even if i wanted to.

Betsy going around the rock face.

I'm ready to go! :)

and the repelling begins

Katie was not a big fan of it. But, Jamie was really good to her and once they got going she did fine.

Go Mamma, go!

Uncle Jeff is afraid of heights, so he wasn't a fan of this either...poor guy.

Aunt Julie's a natural

Into the cavern we go!

Looking up out of the canyon. At the end we could choose to climb through the walls of the canyon, where they came close together to get out...Justin, Gary and I tried it. It was not as easy as it looks. You have to kind of wedge yourself between the rocks to keep from having your shoes slip. Totally fun though.

Such a great trip! :)