Oh what a year.

Dear Reader,

Well, it looks like 2010 is just about over. Yeah, you know what's coming. It's flashback time:

1. At the beginning of the year, in February, I hit up Vegas with some friends. It was my first time.

I loved it.

2. I went to Park City during Sundance season. Also a first. Didn't see a movie, but we did have a great photo shoot with Natalie's amazing camera.

3. The Festival of Colors. A lovely, chalky mess.

4. I interned at Deseret Book over the summer. I worked on 55 books, including President Monson's biography!

5. In May I turned 22! And I got to go home to Michigan for a few days.

6. Over the summer I went to Arches with some friends. And yes . . . it was another first.

7. I was called to be the Relief Society secretary. Best. Calling. Ever!

8. Cousin Cami got married. Cousin Laura and I took pictures of ourselves while we waited outside the Salt Lake Temple for the wedding to be over.

9. I hit up Michigan again at the end of summer (thank you frequent flier miles). Seriously, I haven't been to Michigan this many times in a year in like forever.

While I was there we saw Lake Michigan.

10. Drama, drama, drama, and . . . at the beginning of September I moved! I like my new bed a lot. But I didn't spend nearly enough time sleeping in it last semester as I wanted/needed to.

11. During the fall I interned at the Friend! And I loved it.

12. I also became a baking fiend. You may have picked up on that.

13. Halloween rolled around and Natalie and I carved pumpkins. And I dressed up as Lois Lane.

14. Concerts, concerts, and more concerts. The favorite being: Ingrid Michaelson.

15. Diwali, festival of lights, happened too. Of course, Natalie and I were there.

16. Last week I got endowed in the Detroit Temple! It was a good day. :)

17. So now I am home again in Michigan, ringing the new year in with this lovable fur ball.

It's been a . . . productive year. Very stressful. Very educational. But in the end it turned out wonderful!

So here's to 2011. My last semester of college. Graduation. Getting a real job.

Yeah . . .

Please don't be as scary as I think you're going to be.

They Call Us the Great Lake State

Dear Reader,

Michigan is called the Great Lake State for a reason. We have 5 very large (great, even) lakes surrounding our state. We learn to remember their names with the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). It's pretty awesome.

This weekend my family and I went to Lake Michigan.

The car ride west was exciting with Molly in the backseat. Let's just say, she gets excited about EVERYTHING.

For some geological reason there are sand dunes that line the lake. While they are really cool to look at, they are pretty difficult to climb.

Especially when you're wearing sandals and the sand is hot like fire, swallowing your feet whole. It's painful.

Molly was funny. Every time there was shade she would fall into it and wouldn't want to get up.

She was super excited to get to the beach and have cold sand/rocks to lay on.

Feeling the wind run through her ears.

Our walk back to the car was pretty exciting. We took a different path to see where it would lead (hoping it would get us back to the original trail eventually) and it ended up being...not a direct route back. Let's just put it that way. And it was really hot. So hot that my mom almost got heat stroke, and I wasn't feeling too well either. We forced ourselves to keep walking until we got to some shade.

This tree was our saving grace.

And this was our view as we recovered. We felt like death but at least the lake was pretty.

I know, we're pretty lame. But it was hot. And sand is hard.

At the end of the trip we still wanted to go back to that beach, though, so it wasn't all bad. Adventure is good.

We finished off the day in Kalamazoo with Aunt Robin and Uncle Jim, eating amazing pizza at this restaurant. Yes, it's called Bilbo's. And yes, there were Lord of the Rings references on the menu. I recommend it.