Fall Break

I needed a break from school and work and Salt Lake City, and that's exactly what I got this past week.  I went home for five wonderful days.  It was really great being home.  On the drive back up, my sister and her roommate came back up with me.  It was awesome rockin' out on the road with them.  We listened to awesome tunes and it was like blast from the past when we used to go on vacation when we were little.  Oh how I wish fall break wasn't almost over, but I just keep telling myself in 9 weeks I will have a bachelor's degree.  :)  Then it will be like a permanent break until I go back for a Masters Degree.

Pictures, as promised.

Here is the newest member of the Whatcott Family. McKay Robert Whatcott was born on Thursday, September 1, at 2:12am to Logan and Whitney Whatcott.  He was 20.5 inches long and 7 lbs 14 oz.  He is super adorable and I wish we didn't live four hours away from each other.  Being an aunt is the best. 

The happy family

Here are some pictures from Florida.  The temple is the Orlando, FL temple. I realized I don't have nearly as many pictures as I thought I did.  I will have to download and upload more.  However, they are all on Facebook.

Beautiful sunset at my cousin's baseball game.  I know, pictures never do sunsets justice.

My sister was really excited to see palm trees.  Don't know why, St. George has palm trees too.

On the plane, going to Florida

My laptop was chosen to be randomly searched in Las Vegas for weapons or something. 

She took a Dramamine and was completely out of it.

Well there you have it!  More will be added soon. 

So I haven't updated this thing in a long time...

1. School.
It's my last semester EVER (as an undergrad student).  GO ME.  I'm taking some cool classes, and not so cool classes but it's still going to be a good semester.  I'm taking a jazz dance class, it's super great to be back in my element.  (get it? SUPER GREAT?!) haha
Other classes I'm taking involve Stress Management, Psychology of Gender, Personality Theory, Child and Infant Development and Parables of Jesus.  I love my Institute class.  I love the University of Utah.  I am a true UTE.

2.  I'm quitting Fortis College.
I have absolutely hated not having my nights or weekends anymore and what I've hated even more is having worked 32 hours a week plus going to school full-time.  Let's just say I've been pretty busy the last two weeks.  I'm excited to start a new job that will only be ten hours a week and continue working at my other job, that is also only ten hours a week.  Life is looking up again.

3.  I went to Florida 8/19/2011-8/21/2011.
My mom and sister accompanied me on my journey.  We mainly went because when I turned 23, I would no longer be able to fly free on SkyWest/Delta and we did cool things.  Here is a copy of the itinerary so I won't forget it in 50 years.  Feel free to skip ahead if you so desire.
Thursday:  Skipped work and flew to St. George, UT.  Hung with the family for a few hours and then drove to Las Vegas to catch our plane that was leaving at 10:40pm.  Flew to Orlando, FL.
Friday:  Arrived at 6:05am although it was only a 3.5 hour flight.  Went to Breakfast at Denny's.  Went to the Orlando Florida Temple where we saw lizards mating (haha gross).  Went shopping and bought some fun clothes.  Drove to Lakeland, FL where we ate dinner at an amazing Mexican food restaurant and had the sweetest waitress.  Went to Walgreen's where we got a polka-dot umbrella (it was kinda rainy)... the umbrella went flying when I tried to open it.  It was hilarious.  We also got coconut Twix.  Delicious.  Went to my cousin's baseball game.  He is a "Clearwater Thresher" and they won 1-0 in an extra inning.  Go Jordan!  Went to bed... we were dead tired.
Saturday:  Woke up and drove to Tampa, FL and went to MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry).  Jacee and I did a ropes course that was super intense.  Got smoothies and Subway on our way to Siesta Key Beach that is ranked number one in the United States.  Yeah, only the best for us ;) At the beach, we only had one towel and we all sat on the sand and used the towel as a tablecloth.  I'm sure it was a hilarious sight.  Decided to feed a bird, and unbeknownst to us, a whole flock surrounded us.  We didn't feed any more after that.  Swam some more and then a huge storm came in and we left to our hotel.  For dinner that night, we went to a ghetto pizzeria that gave us these free mini breadsticks that were burnt and disgusting.  We had a good laugh about that. 
Sunday:  Stayed at the airport in Tampa for four hours.  Flew to Miami, FL.  Froze to death in Miami inside the airport for 30 minutes or so until we flew to Memphis, TN.  We flew first class.  I love first class, it was amazing and it was free.  Once in Memphis,  we also froze for about 30 minutes before flying to Las Vegas, NV.  Once in Las Vegas, we ate dinner and hung out until my flight left to Salt Lake City.  That was such a long and exhausting^2 day.  We started off the day at 5:30am and I arrived in Salt Lake City at 8:30pm.  I was in an airplane for 7 hours overall that day.  And I started school the next day at 8:05am.
I'm grateful my mom and sister could do that with me.  It was a blast with all three of us. 

4.  I had a good Birthday.
I turned 23 years old.  I feel kinda old now.  I didn't do anything special on my actual birthday because I had to go to school and Fortis, but I did go to Florida beforehand and will celebrate this weekend in St. George.  My roommates surprised me with decorating my chalk wall in my bedroom with chalk and a Justin Beiber poster, the movie "Step Up" to complete my collection and a whole slew of candy.  Overall, it was a good day.


5.  I became an Aunt today. 
My brother and sister in law had an adorable little boy this morning around 2:15am.  Poor Whitney was in labor for about 15 hours.  They named him McKay Robert Whatcott.  I cannot wait to meet him this weekend.  He is a cutie for sure, and seriously, I'm not even biased at all.  For reals, he really is that cute.  The due date was actually on my birthday (August 30th) but I'm quite glad he was born on September 1, 2011 because birthdays are (mine) 8/30. (Mom) 8/31, and now (McKay) 9/1.  It will always be such a fun birthday celebration time for us.

Well that about sums it all up!  Get ready for pictures in the near future.  Yeah I have a lot of posting I need to do still.

Lagoon

On Wednesday (7/27/11), I had the chance to go to Lagoon with my parents and younger siblings, and some family friends from St. George.  Many memories were made and a LOT of laughs were shared.  Even though the power went out for about an hour and it was a super hot day, we had so much fun. 

My not brightest moment was when I was sitting on The Cliffhangover, fixing my shoes when the chest/shoulder restraints came down and locked in place.  Yes, I was stuck bent over.  The worker came over, lifted up the restraint as high as it could go, which was only a couple inches and I had to slide out.  He asked me to slide back into the seat but there was NO possible way for me to do that so he ended up having to lift up the whole row of seats and then lock them all back down.  I was laughing so hard, all my family was too and it seemed everyone thought it was hysterical. Oh Good Times.  Even the worker thought it was hilarious, or really pathetic but he was even laughing so I am assuming the first option.  I just like to keep people on their toes on what will happen to me next. 

After I dropped my mom, brother and sister off at the airport, my dad and I went to dinner at Hires Big H, and it was delicious.  It was great spending an extra couple hours with him.  Enjoy the pictures, better yet, enjoy Lagoon with me next time I go!

Pioneer Day

While growing up in St. George, Pioneer Day was just another holiday in July.  It wasn't ever celebrated as big as Independence Day, but it was a still a day where people didn't have to go to work.  Since I moved to Salt Lake, this is the first time I'm actually celebrating this day.  Last year I was in Salt Lake too, but I only participated by watching the fireworks on my roof.  I ended up teaching in Relief Society at church yesterday and the lesson was on "LDS Women Are Incredible".  I started off the lesson with a story of a pioneer in the Willie Handcart Company who wrote the lyrics to the song "As Sisters in Zion".  What an amazing person.  This year I went to the Days of '47 Parade and it was amazing!  Floats these days are incredible.  The theme this year was "Press Forward Pioneers".  Many floats put a special twist on the theme, and the University of Utah was no exception!  Since this is the first year as PAC 12 members, we are the pioneers of future U of U students in the PAC 12 conference. 

The most amazing person was in the parade, President Thomas Spencer Monson.  He had at least six body guards with him.  He and his wife were in what looked like a bullet proof car.  It was so neat.  The governor of Utah was also in the parade and he did not have as nearly as many body guards as the Prophet did.  My only thought for President Monson having double the amount of body guards as Governor Herbert is that Pres. Monson is simply more important.  :)  I'm very excited for fireworks tonight.  It has been a good day! 

Happy Pioneer Day!

Jordanelle Lake

The second counselor in my college ward bishopric is awesome, and let the ward members go out to the lake with them yesterday.  It was so much fun.  My summer is now complete with that trip.  I was very fortunate to be with the first group tubing out on the lake.  We had two tubes out and once, and so four people were tubing at a time.  I had so much fun jumping from tube to tube and standing up while everything was in action.  It was a blast.  People got to see the crazy adventure seeking personality of mine in action for a little bit!  haha My arms have not been this sore in way too long.  After the sun set, there was this boat show with different kinds of boats all decked out in lights and they had a parade thing going on in the water.  It was so beautiful.  After the boat show, there were fireworks.  My ward group was practically as close as we could get to where people were lighting them off and they were HUGE!!  It was so pretty being so close to them.  Sometimes little things like boat shows and fireworks and huge things like people sharing their fun toys makes life so memorable.  I'm so happy that I feel so close and love my ward family!  I did take some pictures but they don't do anything justice so I will wait until others share their pictures with me before I add pictures to this post.

So I got a new job...

... at a place called Fortis College.  It's a grown up job, and I'm still adjusting to the idea that I will only have Fridays and Sundays off each week.  I haven't asked about asking for time off when I will want or need it but that's okay, it'll be figured out.  I get to dress up like a professional which means my wardrobe needs a major makeover.  I only have one pair of dress pants and very few career-like clothing.  Next paycheck, shopping time!  My job duties include enrolling new students, collecting tuition payments and the basic receptionist responsibilities, and I'm sure so much more that I don't know about yet.  I am excited that I will be able to start saving money and I won't have to live paycheck to paycheck anymore.  Today was my first day on the job and it went by super fast, except the last hour.  8pm is a kinda late closing time, but hey the saying goes beggars can't be choosers.  It will be fun and great to learn the administration side of school since I do want to be a high school counselor.