Out with the old, in with the new.

How is it 2012?

This seriously blows my mind. I distinctly remember last year's New Year's Eve and it seems like it was literally yesterday.

And wow, so much has changed and happened in this year.

-Lousy job situation turned worse and then turned better and better. :)

-Nicole getting home.

-Best semester at BYU-Idaho to date (Both grade-wise and socially) :)

-Not having a summer but instead traveling and working for my 5 weeks off.

-BYU-Jerusalem Center.

-Israel.

-Jerusalem.

-Lovely Christmas.

-And a stellar last day of the year.

I've met some of my favorite people in the past year, people whom I hope I will know for years and year to come, had lots of new exciting experiences, saw the world, had adventure, lots of opportunities to grow, serve and LEARN. It's been a marvelous year.

And our last day of 2011 was marvelous (except for the little part where I felt so sick I thought I was going to die...)

We started with a lazy little day and then after we decided what we were going to do with the day, we headed north to the City.

Our preliminary itinerary included: Golden Gate Bridge pictures, clam chowder in bread bowls, Ghirardelli Square for ice cream, hanging with the Garff's, home.

Well, that got altered a little bit as we started on our adventure.

We decided to take the scenic drive (aka 280) up to the City so we then decided to stop in Half Moon Bay and get lunch. And then as we continued our drive, we stopped at a couple of overlooks to take pictures and such, and see how pretty California is.

So many surfers in Half Moon Bay. Wowza.

Gorgeous.

Sisters. :) (Ignore my crazy, windblown hair...)

Supes presh with Nate-o.

We then drove up and around to the City. :)

It's been a really long time since I've been to San Fran. But it was fun to be back. And it's always an adventure when we're on family trips. haha

Golden Onion Church... in San Francisco!

So we drove to the city to Baker Beach which is seriously a super good secret. (And just a heads-up, I'm totally going to copy the Whitlocks and take my wedding pictures there too....) So we took some presh little family pics, which look completely photoshopped, but they are legitimately taken in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. And we got to take artsy shots with our new little Christmas cameras. yippee! :) It was fun to be at the beach and hear the thunderous waves crashing.

Crazy, huge waves!

(p.s. thanks skimboarders for being such good models.)

Tell me these all don't look photoshopped.

:)

Pretttyyyy.

Sibs. :)

Three girls.

After about 8 pictures like this (with Nicole failing), we moved on to...

...This. (First try of Dan/Jack).

After a wardrobe addition and repositioning, we then got this one.

Hi California. Why are you always so gorgeous?

One of my faves. It looks like snow washed up on the beach.

Love.

Once the sun set (or started setting) we decided to leave and head to our next destination... which we decided would be the Wharf for some dinner. We went to Boudin's where I figured it would be delicious and they would have some non-seafood infested options but I was sadly mistaken. So while everyone else ordered clam chowder or crab/corn bisque, I got to have sourdough pizza. haha it was still delicious and I still ate way to much... I just wish that they didn't contaminate ALL their food with nasty stuff.

Following dinner, we walked through the little museum that explains their presh story of how they began which was interesting. Especially since I didn't really understand how sourdough bread was made... and now I do. Plus they make it into cute little shapes so that was fun to see, it was like a zoo of bread. Fun.

Sourdough fishies.

Sourdough crab.

We then headed over to Ghirardelli (which is also a tricky word to spell....) where we got peppermint bark samples (my FAVORITE) and ordered some ice cream sundaes. We totes got peanut butter and a regular sundae for the three amigos to share, Nallie shared hot chocolate and the parentals got a banana split. Delicious. But I ate WAY too much and for a little while, I didn't feel good at all.

It was a rough walk back to the car because I thought I was going to die. And the drive home was rough as well. But we survived.

After recuperating for a little while at home, I then headed to Colleen's for our annual party. I got there are like 10:00 and they were in the middle of Something Borrowed which, surprisingly, is a movie that I have seen before (and I was the only one there who had seen it before, craziness). We watched the movie and then we just hung out and talked until we could watch Dick Clark's NYE show (which doesn't start until 11:30... why?). We didn't want to listen to Lady Gaga so we muted it and we were a little bit sad that we didn't get to see the Biebs. Next year.

We got our Martenelli's all prepped and collected our poppers at 11:50 and then we did a 15 second countdown and then celebrated. Oh yes, we also got our glowstick necklaces and took some great glowstick pictures.

And then following that mini celebration, we decided to go on a walk around sketchy Los Altos. We made two immediate right turns and it was mighty dark (and kinda cold outside) but we did get to see some illegal fireworks, which was a good time. And then we got to scarred by the darkness of LA so we turned around and went home. (As a side note, it is really hard to text while walking in the pitch black... my eyes were killing me...)

We then got home, had some sword fights with our glowsticks, did some lice checks, etc and then we called it a night. Good thing we're all almost 21 years old yet we were acting like we were 7. And we left at 12:50 (and thus that's when I got home, thanks for being a stellar neighbor Colleeny) and I went to bed at approximately 1:10 or so.

Yay for 9:00 church.

Although it was pretty... good I guess. It was our "annual" hear-from-the-college-students Sacrament meeting, which is fun. Except it's always so hard to plan out and figure out what to say. Especially since I always feel like I have exciting stories (last year: skydiving; this year, Jerusalem). But that was supes presh, obviously. And people always give us lots of attention during the next two hours which is fun.

Actually, we didn't go to Sunday School. We hung out with our homies and chatted the entire time, typical. And then RS was presh.

And to top it all off, I got a cinnamon roll from YW. haha delish!

It was a lovely past couple of days! And now everyone is going to start school and I am going to be bored at home.... which just means lots more blogging. :)

Goodbye 2011. You've been great for so many reasons.

Hello 2012. You're going to be good and so full of adventure. :)