So long sweet summer

Wow it's been a crazy end to summer these last few weeks. Not only has the month of August flown by...but I feel like so much has happened in, what feels like, such a short amount of time.

A few weeks after my last post (YEAR ONE), my bestest friends FINALLY came home from their missions. Bless them for being such valiant missionaries, but man did I miss them! They picked me up from the airport and it's like we picked up right where we left off. Except we had a lot more spirital conversations...since that's all they know how to talk about still... ;) haha. A girls week in California was exactly what I needed after such a long, lonely summer. Being back with my main group made everything feel normal again. Although I have to admit, I didn't feel very married while I was with them. I felt like we were all going to leave the next week and go back to BYU to start another semester at Lanai. Ha. So weird.

Nate finished his internship that same week and met us out in Southern California that weekend. Kaitlin & Aimee didn't get to know him very well before they left for distant lands and we got engaged, so naturally I was very excited to have him around for my final few days visiting them. We ate lots of good food, stayed up way too late, and of course, got the worst sunburns ever after refusing to put sunscreen on at the beach. Oops.

Kaitlin was kind enough to take some pictures of us while we were hanging out in Oxnard at their family's beach house. A big part of me was really sad she wasn't in the states when it was time to get our engagements done last year, so it was super fun pretending like that's what we were doing with her this time. Nate was a really good sport about it :) And as always, they turned out amazing and I still think she's the very best.

It's always hard coming back from a long vacation and having to get back into the swing of work again right away. It honestly took me days to get fully concentrated once I was back in the office.

Nate has plenty of prep work to keep him busy until school starts at the beginning of September. We sat down the other night and made a list of all the hospitals he'd like to apply to for fellowships next year. Most of the applications are due by the end of September, but for positions that won't start until after he graduates in May. It's so exciting and scary to think that we could be somewhere on the complete opposite side of the country this time next year. We just have no idea. What I do know is how grateful I am that no matter where we end up, this guy is gonna be by my side the whole time. The best part of this summer ending is that he's finally back home with me for good. I can't get enough of him :)

Life lately according to my iPhone

It's the final countdown. Nate's officially completed 80% of his internship, leaving him with roughly 2 weeks left. Meanwhile, I've been twiddling my thumbs down here in Texas, trying to keep myself busy at work every day and at home by myself every night. 

Here's a little look at what my summer has consisted of thus far:

Sending workout selfies to my husband. It's fine. Muscles are cool and stuff. 

The first month was the absolute hardest. We caved and bought two round-trip flights for me to go up and visit him. This was the first - spent mostly in Panaca (Nate's hometown 2.5hrs from Vegas). It was wonderful.

Shameful selfies at work. Cause I was wearing polka dots aaand a braid. It was a big step.

We have the greatest friends here in College Station. I honestly wasn't expecting to make such amazing friendships while Nate and I were here for two years of school. It's only been one year and I feel like we'll be in touch with some of these familes for the rest of our lives. They're so awesome. This is Sailor. She's 3 and she acts like she's 16 and she's one of my favorite people in all the land. I like to color with her and feed her lots of sugar >:) 

This is cute Nathan with some of our favorite nieces :) They live in Southern California and Nate was nice enough to go down there and help them move a few weekends ago. They love him because he takes them out for breakfast burritos and donuts when he comes to town.

This marked part 2 of 2 of my trips to Vegas this summer. I had July 4 off so we took full advantage of the long weekend. My flight got in at 6:30am and I've never seen that airport so empty in my entire life. Usually it's a mad house, but the only person I saw was the cleaning lady in the bathroom downstairs!

We had to wait an hour until the place we wanted to go for breakfast opened it's doors. So we sat in the car and giggled at each other until it hit 7:30am. It was so nice to finally be able to sit across from him while eating a meal.

We aren't very rich, so we tried to keep ourselves busy the rest of the day without spending lots of money. Part of this resulted in us trying to sneak into the Red Rock Hotel pool with one of our old hotel cards...didn't work. They had that place fully guarded and we felt dumb for trying. But it was actually pretty fun(ny).

The accountant at the hospital Nate is interning at hooked us up with tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show called KA. It was preeeeetty cool. Neither of us had been to a show like that before - I honestly didn't even know where to look half the time because I felt like there was something going on in every corner of the room, but it was thoroughly entertaining, and that's all that matters. Also, very asian. Very, very asian.

We made our way over to Panaca the next day. It wouldn't be a trip unless we went to see Nate's parents. Nate calls this part of the desert 'dino poop', cause that's what it looks like. Duh.

There's this old man in Nate's home ward that always comes up and talks to us (me) and whispers sweet nothings into my ear, except he doesn't really whisper, he talks really loud and makes sure everyone can hear what he's saying. It's quite uncomfortable but the attention is nice...I guess...? I can always count on a good hand massage from him while he's doing it. 

Goodbyes never get easier. I left Vegas that night knowing I'd have to survive the remaining 5 weeks until Nate finishes. Tears were shed. It was embarrassing. Whatever.

Welp - took me long enough to get one of these bad boys. This makes me SUPER official, right? I even get access to THE STAIR WELL. I'm really moving up fast. It's really exciting.

This is what our weekends look like. Woo hoo. I feel bad for Nate cause he definitely has it much worse than me. Once he gets home from work he literally has nothing to do. He doesn't have anyone to hang out with or anywhere to go...so he just hangs out in his little casita reading or watching TV or going on walks, or prepping for the fellowships he'll have to apply to this fall. Poor guy.

This is what myyyy weekends look like. Sometimes. When Sailor is in a good mood and wants to come play with me. Check out her pruny hands - we did some serious swimming that day.

Look at cute Nathan in his hospital scrubs! :) The truth is, he's not technically supposed to wear scrubs for this internship, since he's interning under the CEO - he's typically found in nice business attire. This was a special day where they had him doing manual labor, so his boss sent me a picture of him and a cute text and it totally made my day. Love him :)

And for the most recent news in my life - I found a neglected sweet potato in my cupboard! It was not smelly, but it did start growing pink limbs and it reminded me of my sister's many guinea pigs. So there's that. 

The Month of May

May was our countdown month. Nate already had his flight plans for his internship in Vegas - so it was only a matter of time before he left me all alone in this little college town. We tried our best to live up the last few weeks we had together before being separated for the entire summer...

On the first Friday of every month, the city of Bryan becomes overrun by all sorts of bands and musicians and food trucks. Obviously we had to join in on the fun along with everyone else in the Bryan-College Station area.

Nate finally finished his classes for the semester! One year down, one to go!! His class went out to celebrate at a local bar and he dragged me along. We may or may not have witnessed one of his professors getting completely wasted...

Mother's Day was this month. Shout out to my awesome mom who put up with 5 very strange children for the last 25 years of her life. Honestly don't know how you did it, but I grow more and more grateful for you every single day. 

Our awesome friends April & Joey had a huge crawfish boil. The picture above was just some of the FIRST BATCH. Crawfish for daaays. 

They kept making fun of me because I had to thoroughly clean everything off the small piece of meat before putting it in my mouth. Fish guts. Yuck. I'm pretty sure my hands were stained red for the next 24 hours. But it was delicious and super fun :) 

We're blessed with a nice apartment with amenities galooore, so we've been BBQing a lot lately, and it's the best. Nate's a grill master.

We also decided that we could eat out as much as we wanted the last week Nate was here, so this is us finishing off our gigantic sandwiches from Central Market and a huge batch of mouth-watering french fries. (seriously my mouth is watering right now typing this)

Non-stop contruction right by our apartment. I swear construction projects follow us everywhere we live. It's a nightmare.

Sunday walks while it's still cool enough outside...and while I still have someone to walk with...

It rained the entire last week that Nate was here. I think Texas was just as sad as I was because we probably lost the same amount of water. 

In all seriousness though, this has probably been the hardest adjustment I've ever had to go through. I'm so pathetic. I have to admit, I've had a pretty nice life. I've had my fair share of heartache and trials, but this one takes the cake I think. Pray that I survive these next 10 weeks all by myself. 

TOP 5

Some of my most favorite days spent in Chicago this summer have happened just within the past five days. Might as well go out with a bang, right?

Went out to the lake for some wakeboarding and 

came back a little more tan and a lot more sore :)

Oh yeah, and then remember that one time Emily
and I locked ourselves out of our house and I
tried to break us in? Didn't work. Not even close.

Started this charmer for my book report at 

work (shocking, I know). It's actually quite good.

"Happiness it where you find it, 

not where you look for it."

I took a bathroom break at work yesterday and came 

out to hear the incredible voice of Haley Reinhart 

echoing off the walls of the office. Sure enough she 

was belting it in cafe down the hall. 

We spent Monday night playing beach volleyball 

off of North Shore Beach. So glad I captured 

the moment. The sunset was breathtaking. 

5 more days until I'm on a plane to California to 

see 5 of my favorite people. High five, anyone?

Life Lately, According to My Feet

Too bad you still have no idea what my life has been like lately. Ha. You're only looking at one part of it. 

I think maybe this happens more often than we may realize - whether it's people we meet/know or food we eat, maybe entire cultures at large...we focus on one part of it and place our judgement based on that one part, instead of choosing to experience all of it before putting a label on it or casting our final opinions towards it. Maybe a little unfair? According to my pictures, it looks like I've been spending a lot of time outside, or pent up in nice hotel rooms. Well let me be the one to tell you that that is definitely NOT the case :) 

My internship here in Chicago has been one of the most challenging/stressful/incredible experiences I have ever had. I have learned more than I could have ever imagined. I have one week left, and I still feel like I just got here. I can't believe it's almost over. My overtime hours are really taking a toll on me. Haha. In reality, most of the time I look like this:

Good thing I get to spend two weeks on the beaches of beautiful California with my best friends in 12 days. Yaaaaaaay :)