...HOOTENANNY!...

Ahhhh the Hootenanny... The notorious Tallahassee YSA event of the year... Many people meet, some date, few get hitched... What is a hootenanny you might ask? Well let me tell you... A hootenanny is a dance/bonfire where everyone dresses up in their best western wear and everyone learns how to be a true cowboy/girl... They have a guy come from Alabama who you can't even understand and he teaches everyone how to square dance.... I LOVE the square dancing part... it is the best!

This year Tyler Markovitz, Kimmy Liljenquist, and Josh Trubey came up to visit me for the Hootenanny and I think they had fun... I just had fun having them visit me up here! I took them up to the old Capitol (it was boring) and then we headed over to Quincy for the activity... My bestie, Katie and her boyfriend, Sam were there too and it was a blast... We were true cowboys and girls... until next year!

Kimmy, Tyler, Josh and I after church!
Me and Kimmy in front of the handicap parking sign.... enough said :)
Kimmy and I in our cowgirl finest! yeeeeeHAW!!!!
Me and Sara! I LOVE LOVE LOVE her!
Me, Emillie, and Katie! I love them!
Me and my Katie... she's the best friend I could have ever asked for!
Kimmy and I in front of the old Capitol building... I think that was one of the most boring things ever! haha

...Things Are Sweeter In Tennessee...

For Thanksgiving, my grandparents rented a cabin in Gatlinburg, TN for all of our family to come for a family reunion. I'd never been up there before and I've never been that north for the fall, so I was hoping for some freezing cold weather and maybe some snow, but mostly I was excited to see all of my cousins! In our 6 bedroom, 8 bathroom, game room, movie room, hot-tub/sauna, 4 story cabin there was Grandma and Grandpa, my Uncle Clays family (Aunt Elaine, CJ, Jeremy, and Courtney), my family, Uncle Chad's family (Aunt Natalie and Chandler), Aunt Jodi's family (Uncle Nathan, Taylor, Kaitlyn, and Grandma Alice), and Aunt Jamie's family (Uncle Jeremy, Ashley, Ethan, Hayden, Brice, and baby Will still not born yet). It was a full house, but sooo much fun!

My parents met me in Lake City and then we drove up there all afternoon, evening, and night... By the time we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and it took us an hour to drive the 32 miles and I forced everyone to listen to the New Moon soundtrack, I think everyone was super stoked to see our cabin all lit up on the mountain side... It was late and I was sooo tired, but the second we entered into the cabin, excitement set in... It was the most amazing house I ever saw! The next day the rest of the families came. We all mostly relaxed on the trip and Thanksgiving was so much fun with all of us having our own individual jobs to do to help make the dinner... At one point Lindsey, CJ and I went on an "adventure" and went "exploring" on the golf course next to the cabin... Lindsey forced CJ and I to jump across this little "crick" (aka creek) and I feel in and got soooo muddy! The rest of the time we just explored Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg... My mom's favorite part was riding the aerial lift to Ober Gatlinburg and seeing the city from the air... My favorite part was getting to play with the little cousins while waiting to go eat dinner at this apple farm's restaurant... I got to play with Brice and he was so fascinated by the Christmas lights on the trees... The most entertaining thing was when CJ, Lindsey and I went to the outlet malls with Uncle Chad and Aunt Natalie and Lindsey and I got Coach rings! and then we all drove back up the mountain in Uncle Chad's rental car- a mustang that prob. only fit three people max and we crammed five!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have been able to go visit with my family up there and get to see the beautiful mountains and an area I have never seen before... Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for giving me that opportunity and it is for sure one that I will never ever forget!

My house in Gatlinburg... I love it! plus its for sale!
Me and my cousin Jeremy!
my cousin CJ... he's hott stuff!
Me and Lindsey waiting on our parents....
My little cousin Ethan... we were both starving and decided to sit together and vent about being hungry!
Me and my little baby Brice.... I'm going to be a great mom huh? lol
I love this picture of our cousins.... We all are doing our own thing--showing our personalities...
Me, Amber, and Lindsey at Ober Gatlinberg...
Lindsey and her long lost twin the dinosaur!
Lindsey forced me to jump over this massive little river thing and I fell in... It sucked!
Me and Kate waiting on the other cousins to get there!
The Hornsby girls, plus my little Brice-ipoo!
Katilyn didn't want me to kiss her--she eventually got over it!
I love this picture of them... too cute!

...13 Missionaries...

When I came to Tallahassee 5th Ward (aka the Singles Ward) I was really confused when I came in and there were eight missionaries in the ward.... we have 2 elders who serve on FSU campus, 2 elders serving at FAMU, 2 elders serving on TCC campus, and then 2 sister missionaries who serve all of the campuses. When I became a ward missionary, I got really close with all of them as we helped share the gospel with those in Tallahassee... I've always tried to feed the sisters once a month because I have plenty of friends on missions and hope that someone is feeding them too... well I thought it would be cool if I could feed all the missionaries, so when Jay, Katie, Tiara and I were at the apartment and Jay and Tiara were debating who had the better chili, I decided that we should have a chili cook-off and invite the missionaries... well it was transfer day, so instead of feeding the 8 missionaries in our ward, we ended up feeding the other elders who drove them to our house, totaling to 13 missionaries in my small apartment all at once... It was awesome getting to know the new missionaries and getting to know the other missionaries that were in our ward already even better! I love working with them; it's such a rewarding work!

P.S. Jay's chili won!

Elder Perkins and Elder O'Noines have a bro-mance haha jk
Elder Perkins, Elder Carlisle, Elder Fagg, Elder Barney, Elder O'Niones, Elder Egbert, Elder Packer, Katie and I.
Katie's AWESOME cupcakes!

...Halloween!...

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday... I think being Laurel Marzek's best friend growing up would explain why... We would always watch cheesy Halloween movies like the Halloween town series, Hocus Pocus, Tim Burton movies, etc. Since I've moved to Tallahassee, I've always missed Laurel the most at Halloween....

This Halloween Jay and I carved pumpkins in honor of a tradition Laurel and I would do and then Jay got me a gingerbread haunted house to do.... But for actual Halloween I drove home for a Halloween party at the Liljenquist's house... too bad that when I was 2 1/2 hours into my trip I found out that the party had been the night before! Since I missed it I decided to go to the Leesburg Ward's trunk-or-treat with my little cousins... I made a Tiger Lilly outfit and loved dressing up with my little cousins! It was so fun... we even made the haunted house that Jay got... probably one of my favorite Halloweens I have had in a long time... I even topped it off with a quick trip over to visit Mama Marzek so we could celebrate her favorite holiday too...

...St. Augustine...

I have always been in love with St. Augustine- I'm not sure whether it is the history, or the people, or the costal town feel, either way it is one of my favorite places on earth. Jay and Greg Rhinehart, my two best guy friends, were wanting to make a day trip over there to hit up the beach and they invited me along. We wondered around most of the day and I got to take a lot of pictures... I think that is my favorite thing to do there -wonder around. I got to go explore Flagler College and the fort and the city hall... After our exploration, we went over to the beach... I think St. Augustine beach is one of the prettiest beaches on the Atlantic coast. Dispite it being freezing, the water was pretty and so were the dunes... I guess it was wedding day on the beach because in the hour and a half that we were there, there were three weddings... I loved getting to know Jay and Greg better and getting to be in one of my favorite places doing what I love - relaxing!

...Meet The Wallaces...

In October, Katie's parents came to visit and they took us out to eat at Momos, where you can get a pizza slice as big as your head, literally... I loved meeting her family... Her parents are so in love and her sister, Josie, is hilarious! After Momos, Katie, Josie, and I all decided to go swiming in Landis Green's fountain... it was a lot of fun and I can't wait till they come and visit again!