WEDNESDAY (August 17th)
At about 9:00 in the morning, I said goodbye to Saline, Michigan! :( My parents and I headed out, first to visit my dad's parents (Grandma & Grandpa Frasier) in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. We got there in the evening, just in time for dinner.
After dinner, Mom and Dad and I headed downstairs into the basement to go to bed. Dad found my mom's bathroom bag - the strap had accidentally torn off, and was coming unraveled, so like the wonderfully mature adult man that he is, began wrapping the string around all of the chairs and support posts in the basement (as well as my mom). I only included this silly story because it made me laugh. Sometimes my parents are more like little kids than I am, I love it. :) I really miss them.
THURSDAY (August 18th)
I woke up with some of the craziest bedhead of my life!
At about noon, my Uncle Phil, Aunty Joanna, and my cousins Bruce & Chad stopped by before leaving to take Chad to college in Montana. I felt like a midget, I swear all of my cousins are at least a foot taller than me! It was great to see them. :)
After dinner, Grandma Joan, Mom & I went on a little walk. It was really nice, but sort of scary since there are lots of bears in Northern Wisconsin, and I was entrusted to carry the bear spray... I should have taken a picture of it, but I forgot to! The best way to explain what it is, is that it's like pepper spray on steroids. :)
When we got home, we ate some amazing homemade popcorn and drank root beer. Grandma Joan makes the best popcorn in the world!
FRIDAY (August 19th)
Maggie slept with me every single night on the trip. She was sooooooo cuddly, like a little baby!! I miss her a ton. She woke up this particular morning especially cuddly, so I took a picture. :)
At around noon we left Grandma & Grandpa Frasier's house, and headed for Madison, Wisconsin, where my mom's parents live (Grandma & Grandpa Pilgrim). Grandma Loraine had told us Grandpa Roger was going to make something "unique" for dinner, so I was super curious to find out what it was...We got to their house in the afternoon. The special dinner that Grandpa made for us was a Cajun-style foil dinner cooked on the grill - shrimp, corn on the cob, sausage and potatoes. It was amazing!
Speaking of dinner, Grandpa told me I could pick out whatever I wanted to make for dinner the next day, so we went grocery shopping for lots of things I needed. (We also made a pit stop at Culvers haha...) When we got home, we stated making the frozen lemonade pie, since it had to freeze overnight.
We ended the day by watching a bunch of marching band and wind ensemble videos from when I was still in high school. It made me miss playing with the band so much; it was such a huge part of my life for four years. It was hard to keep it together on some of my favorite songs.
SATURDAY (August 20th)
Saturday was pretty chill. For most of the day, we just visited with each other and played with Maggie. We didn't do much overall, except for make a really, really, REALLY yummy dinner! We made creamy Tuscan garlic chicken over spaghetti steamed peas, a caprese salad with pesto dressing and had the frozen lemonade pie for dessert. My last home-cooked meal (for four months at least) was so good!!
After dinner, we visited GG (but forgot to take a picture with her). We brought her a piece of the frozen lemonade pie, and Maggie. :) She seemed to like the pie, and kept telling Maggie not to pee on her or the carpet! We opened the patio door, since her apartment was so hot, and Maggie instantly went over and put her paws up on the screen like a little kid and intently gazed out the window (and barked at anyone who passed by haha...)
When we got home, we got a surprise visit from my Great-aunt Donna and Great-uncle Bill. It was nice to visit with them, and very thoughtful of them to come over and see me before I left. Again, I forgot to take a picture with them...
After they left, we watched Pan. It was a cute movie, but nothing spectacular.
SUNDAY (August 21st)
On Sunday morning, we left Madison (and Maggie, which was the hardest part for me). I woke up later than everyone else, so I got to eat the last piece of pie for breakfast since all the other food was put away. Best breakfast ever!
We basically spent the whole day driving. We drove over the most BORING state in the whole United States - Nebraska. A few highlights (or rather, lowlights) of the trip were that I got a bag of sour skittle that made my mouth raw, and we ate at a dinky little Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was actually very terrible. :(
We finally got to Sidney, Nebraska late that night, and I got some dill pickle chips, which made everything better. :)
MONDAY (August 22nd)
For most of this leg of the trip, we were in Wyoming. It was so nice to see rock formations and the beginning of mountains!! Cornfields get old after about 45 minutes.
We finally got to Provo around dinnertime, so we checked in to our hotel and went to the best restaurant I've ever been to in my entire LIFE. It's called La Jolla Gardens (it's an Italian restaurant), and everything tasted like it had been homemade. I can honestly never say that I have been to a restaurant where every single thing I ate felt like it was home-cooked by my mom! I also tried something new that I've never had before -an italian soda. (Hazelnut flavored!!! It was bomb!) On top of that, there were fake lemon trees creating a beautiful canopy inside the restaurant.TUESDAY (August 23rd)
The fun part came in the afternoon, when I moved into my dorm!!! It took me from lunchtime until about 7:00 at night. It was fun though. :)
After I finished, my parents and I met up with some good friends who used to live in Michigan, but moved away a year ago. I finally got to eat at the famous Cafe Rio! It was some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. (Why are all the restaurants here so good??) It was great to see Shayna and her family again too. :)WEDNESDAY (August 24th)
Wednesday was boring. I moved in a day early, so spent most of my day trying to finish some assignments my professors had given me before the first day of school. The hall was crazy with all the other girls moving in.
Sadly, this was my last day with my parents, so we went out to eat (again) at the Happy Sumo, which is in the same strip mall as La Jolla Gardens. It was pretty good, but not the best Japanese food I've ever had.
After that, Mom and Dad and I went on a walk around BYU. I feel kinda bad, because I acted really annoyed at them and was really grumpy. It was just hard to know how to act - I had so many feelings inside (homesickness, anxiety about getting lost on campus and making friends, and not wanting to say goodbye to my parents). When we got back to my dorm, though, we talked for a while on a bench, and I felt a little better. :)
THURSDAY - SATURDAY (August 25th-27th)
I grouped these days together because these three days were NSO (New Student Orientation). Early each morning, I would wake up, eat a quick breakfast, and meet my Y Group somewhere on campus. They organized the groups by the classes the students are taking, which naturally made it so most of the people in each group have similar majors.
Speaking of majors, on Friday, we got the chance to visit our respective colleges. Mine is the college of Life Sciences, and it was interesting to see all the different majors. As I was looking around, I realized that my major would be a really difficult major to use as a pre-med major. There are a ton of classes I have to take, and not a lot of them are pre-med prerequisites. So, last minute, I changed my major from Medical Laboratory Science to Physiology and Developmental Biology. I also had to change some of my classes, which somehow were open and fit my schedule!! That was amazing to me.
I also decided during NSO that I needed to take a step back and not work my first semester here. I felt really strongly that I needed to get a feel for how difficult it will be, and pace myself. I felt relieved after going in and telling my boss that I couldn't work this semester.
Some of the things we did at NSO were tour the campus and learn about each building, take a practice exam in the testing center, eat ice cream (my favorite part), attend devotionals, and engage in fun, late-night activities. I didn't take very many pictures, but I thought I'd include whatever ones I did take in a gallery at the bottom of this post.
The last night of NSO (yesterday), was the Saturday Night Finale. Karinne and I saw Noteworthy perform (an a cappella women's group), participated in a GIANT dating game, and went to the middle of the Wilkinson Student Center to do some speed dating. It's annoying how everything here seems to involve dating or mentions marriage. I just want to be here to learn! I guess I'm gonna just have to get used to it.
This was on display in the library! I'm glad I don't have to wear cate ears, whiskers, a tail and a beanie!
The marching band performed for us on Thursday night. Karinne plays trombone in it. They sounded amazing!!!
This was a really pretty reflection of the mountains in the windows of the Joseph F. Smith Building.
Walking - I feel like that's all I did for three days. On Friday, I walked over 7 miles total!
The tunnel leading from Heleman Halls toward the main campus.
The Cannon Center - where I will be eating a lot of my meals!
The little bench area outside my dorm where I said goodbye to Mom and Dad.
Home sweet home!
The hall where Karinne and I are staying. Apparently her dad stayed on three doors down from us when he was at BYU!
Our door. :)
My MAP (Major Academic Plan) - soooo complicated. I have to take a ton of classes. :(
The bishopric's wives brought us these AMAZING rice krispie treats. They had whole marshmallows in the middle!!
First roommate selfie! (The hat was WAY too big on me...)
The rogue sock that has literally been in the exact same spot since Friday.
Watch for my next post next Sunday!! Love and miss you all. :)
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