I could have gone home really early, because finals weren't too bad, but I chose to stay and work up until the 23rd. It was a little creepy staying in my apartment by myself for 5 days, but I survived.
When I finally was able to make it out of Provo, I headed towards sunny Southern California for my grandparents' house. For the first time in a long time, my whole extended family on my mom's side was together. So we took professional family pictures. I haven't received those, yet, but here are some pre-shoot fun ones.
{Ericksen sibs}
{My sister could be a model.}
{my adorable grandparents--one of the greatest examples of love I've ever seen}
Christmas Eve was the traditional see a movie and go out to dinner. We saw "True Grit" (recommend it), and ate at B.J.'s (Pazookie? Please and Thank You).
Christmas Day was wonderful. Everyone was together and we just laughed and cried and loved. My Great-Uncle Jay was there to remind me how happy I'll be in my cardboard box, since I can't do much with an English degree, but I love it anyways. My cousin is studying art and my brother music so we figured our "Feed Us" sign will be beautifully written and crafted and my brother can play music for us to attract charity. But at least we will all be happy. Haha I love having Uncle Jay around (who got his masters in poetry, by the way...). We had the Christmas feast, which the teenagers were banned to the outside table since there was no room for us inside at the adult table. It was cold outside...but the food was good! Even though it was a short stay, it was so worth the trip.
A short 15 hour drive back to Oregon was what we did the next day. You could instantly tell when we crossed the California/Oregon border because it started to rain. We stopped by to see the Medford Temple, which none of us had ever seen before.
That night I picked up my mum and brother at the airport and we went to Ikea for my first time. My brother and I love "(500) Days of Summer", so we got a kick out of this. Also, when I first came to college, I wanted to study Interior Design/Architecture. Been wanting to since I was 14. I changed my mind on that, but I still love everything about home decor. GAH! That place was amazing.
Wednesday-Thursday, I made pillows for our beach house.
Thursday, I went shopping for the beach house with my mom all day (again, I'm loving this fresh pallet for home decor). My friend Grant came over to chat. We were sitting on my couch and he says: "So, do you have any plans tonight? Because my dad has tickets for the Blazers game tonight." Uh, yes I have plans. I'm going to my first NBA game wih Grant Collins. On the way there, I asked him who we were playing and I found out it was the Jazz!! WHAT?! I think he got annoyed about the fact that I kept mumbling something about this being the best night of my life.
Blazers won. We got free Chalupas. Good night.
good seats
Grant Collins and I
PS Grant Collins and I went to our Senior Prom together.
{feel like ions ago...}
Friday, my family, Grant, Allie and Caitlyn went up to our beach house for New Years celebrations. Many people ask just how cold the Oregon coast is, and, trust me, it's cold (I wore 3 coats every time I went out). BUT it's one of the prettiest places in the world, to me. We had some moving-in to do, but after a few hours of us girls trying to figure out how to put the stupid Ikea chairs together, our house looked more like a home. We found out some cool details about the area we moved in to. We saw these petrified logs all along the shoreline when we went out exploring and it was a little bit eerie. But we found out that around Christ's time 2000 years ago, the shoreline was further out and these stumps used to be a forest. A natural disaster came and blew out the tops of the trees and they think either a tsunami or a volcanic eruption is what caused these stumps to be petrified after the initial natural disaster. They finally reappeared some years ago after lots of years of erosion.
Check out pictures here.
We also found out that this town is slightly haunted. Of course.
After hours of playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii (another fav), we watched the ball drop and drank Martinellis. Then we passed out watching "How To Train Your Dragon".
I had a fun first day of 2011. We went to Lincoln City and walked around the little shops and ate salt water taffy. Then, of course, we ate at Mo's for lunch (if you ever hit up the Oregon coast, eat here-best seafood ever).
I went to church and hung out with the family the last day. Then I flew back to the snowy place where I currently reside. I missed Oregon the minute I spotted the snow.
But this semester has been so much fun and I love my classes and I'll see my family again, soon.
Happy twentyeleven!
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