A Slab Good-Bye

I'm realizing that I'm not really a fan of growing up :( Especially when growing up means that friends graduate and move away. Erin and J.J. finished school in December and have left for Texas for the summer and then they will be going to school in Iowa. Yeah for them, boo for me. Before they left we wanted Allisyn and Addie to have one more chance to play and to see each other so we met for lunch at a newer (I think that it's actually been there for a year or two now but it was my first time going) place called Slab Pizza. It was really good and I would highly recommend it. There were so many different choices and it was hard to narrow it down so Brea and I got two different kinds- The Chicken Club and Rosemary-Potato Bacon and shared (they were both super yummy!). 

It was fun to watch the girls play, they were both ready for naps by the end but they were certainly having fun chasing each other in circles around the table. 

Jamie even returned from her mission a couple days before so she joined us to get as much Erin and Allisyn time as possible.

The Chicken Club....I may or may not have recreated it a couple of times at work this past week :)

The Rosemary-Potato Bacon...I thought that it sounded a little strange at first but it was really good.

They were really good size pieces. Because the place was right by campus Darrell came down and joined us for lunch as well.

Addie and Allisyn were so funny, Addie would lead and Allisyn would follow (along with my water bottle, both Alli and Addie love it for some reason and seem to think that it is theirs).

It's hard to believe that we have been friends for 5 years now, my how the time has flown!

Skousen Family

Thanks to friends I've been getting a chance to work on my photography lately. General Conference weekend Brea and Darrell had asked if I would take some family pictures for them, after the last session I headed down to Provo to take them. We went over to the the duck pond and water falls by Heritage Housing on BYU's campus. I took pictures for them 6 months ago after the last Conference, I just have to say getting pictures with Addie looking at me and smiling was a lot harder than it was last time. I'm pretty proud of what I got, I still have a lot of improving to do but I am getting better.

Take a Deep Breath

It has been raining pretty much all day here in Provo...at home when it would rain I would go outside and take a deep breath- smelling the fresh, clean, pure smell that would be there. Here if I take a deep breath when it is raining I am left feeling like coughing. Listening and watching the rain falling outside made me realize how excited I am to go here:

and here:

I was realizing the other day that I haven't really been "home" since Christmas 2009. I miss it so much and am ready to back for a visit, I know that it will be a short visit but I'm ready for the rejuvenation that it will give me.

Zai Jian to Sister Peterson

On Wednesday my freshman roommate Erika entered the MTC here in Provo. She will be there for 12 weeks before going to TAIWAN!!!

She flew in early and Tuesday evening we had a good-bye get-together at another roommate, Chelsea's apartment. It was fun to be able to see Erika for a little while and get to talk to her a bit. I'm so excited for her that she is going on a mission and super duper excited that she is going to Taiwan.

Because I came at the end of the party and a lot of other people had already come and gone there wasn't lots of people in this picture but we decided to get as many 55th-ers as there was before the rest left. I love how close my ward is and that we continually gather in large groups and always want to take a picture of everyone that is there.

Erika and Chelsea

Katie and Erika, this guy in Chelsea's ward was super sweet and had written something around 6 pages of advice for Erika from his own experience on the mission. It was super sweet considering he didn't even know Erika...so she spent sometime reading that after everyone else had left.

By the time everyone had left we realized that we were all very hungry, especially Erika who had been standing close to 3 hours talking with people and not eating anything...so we made a trip to In 'n' Out Burger, my first real experience there.

Chelsea, Katie, and David---obviously all very distracted by different things :D

When we dropped Erika and Chelsea back off at Chelsea's apartment there was much time taken with hugs before we could leave.

I'm so excited for Erika with the adventures that she is going to experience and that she has made this decision to devote her time to serve Heavenly Father. The people of Taiwan will be very blessed to have her serve them, she will bring a spirit and love that only she can.

PhotoHunt: Monthly

I hate to say it but the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of monthly was not the most appropriate for blogging (well for some it might be, but not for mine :D), so I cleared that away from my mind and thought of the best thing that I do monthly...I get to go to the Temple! At school I wasn't the best at attending the Temple (which is really sad considering it's right up the street), but here we have worked hard at attending at least once a month, and I love being able to attend- even when I hit my head on the font :D

Girls Day

This morning I had to take a test and I didn't do as well as I had hoped to do :( so when I was done I was ready to spend sometime with the girls. I called up my friend Brea and we decided to go to a Bridal Show that was going on at Provo High School for the fun of it, we had tons of fun and got lots of free samples (yummy chocolate dipped strawberries...one catering business was even making fresh crepes with sliced strawberries and other yumminess :D). There was this cool thing called a Photobooth where we got to take our pictures and they even printed out a copy and let us take one. I have decided that when I get married a photobooth is defintely something that I want to do, it doesn't have to be professionally done but I at least want one..this place was really cool as they had you go into the booth and they took 4 pictures, they then print out two copies of the pictures: one for you and then the other copy you paste onto a scrapbook page and you get to decorate it and write notes to the bride/groom. When the night is over all the pages are put into a album for the bride and groom. I love the photobooth idea because you use props and it just lets people use their imagination and have fun. Here is an example of someone where they made their own. I will put my pictures from our photobooth up as soon as I get my copy back from Brea.
When we were done with the show we decided to head over to the mall and just wander around for awhile, while we were there Leah called and asked to come join us, we just sat and talked for at least an hour- we all commented on how nice and fun it was to be together and just hang out again, we all kind of miss it. Randomly Leah decided that she wanted come ice cream, then it moved to we were going to go and get gelato, but then Brea wanted ice cream and said we should just go to Macey's but then Leah was like no that's not really ice cream so then I suggested that we go to the creamery, so we headed there-- it was so much fun, we had the country music blasting and we were all singing at the top of our lungs/ and talking. They were just about to get in line when Leah was like, let's just get half a gallon and share- so we went to the back and grabbed some cookies 'n' cream ice cream and headed to the checkout line, I decided randomly that I was going to buy some balloons, we decided that we wanted the cow print ones. I had paid for them and everything and she was just about to fill them up for us when she realized that they were all out of helium, so sadly no cow ballons :( We grabbed our ice cream and drove up by the temple, the first place Leah parked was right behind a brick wall so we couldn't see the temple, so then she moved to the next spot, this one was behind a tree and I couldn't see the temple, finally our 3rd spot we could all see the temple, yeah! We ate ice cream and talked for another 40 minutes or so. Sadly our girls day ended, Brea had a date and Leah had to go to work. I was so sad to see it all ended but I loved getting to see my friends again and having time just to spend with them.

Haha, I totally love this one..we took one with Brea's camera and in that one Leah and Brea were totally normal and really cute but then I did a funny face with a plastic spoon and then in this one it was the opposite.

Hey, not bad considering that I took this picture!

Leah eating her spoon and most likely looking at her phone :D

Brea..haha it was so funny, when we were at the Bridal show they were doing people's hair, this one lady at another booth asked if Brea had, had her hair done--Brea's hair was still wet and thrown up sloppy on top of her head.

It looks like we ate the whole carton but we really didn't eat the whole thing.

Brea and Leah diving into the ice cream (they raced to get the first bite)

Leah super excited with the spoons at the Creamery (I just thought of something- it looks like she is touching that spoon with her tongue and then later Brea was sucking on one..hopefully it wasn't the same one- of course it wouldn't really be the same time :D)

Cute Brea at the mall.

Close-up of Leah (she worked the night before 11pm to 7am and then had to be at school at 1pm-yuck)

More wide awake Leah!