As one Chapter ends, Another one Begins!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful end of the year. The past month or so had definitely been full of fun and exciting memories. I figure now is as good of time as any to do a wrap up and give a "shortened" version of what all has happened this past year (some of which has already been mentioned and some of which you will now learn of now).

In February one of my best friends was married to the love of her life in the Salt Lake City Temple. I was one of the lucky girls that was able to be her bridesmaids as well as a few of my other friends. I was sad that I was unable to be in there for the ceremony, however we were all out there waiting for Sidney and Dan to come out. We took lots of pictures and had a wonderful evening with many family members and friends.

Then I whizzed off to Arizona to spend some time with Momma Jo, Kaitlyn, and Ciera (not to mention the little munchkins and GG). We had so much fun spending time in the sun, swimming, seeing the progress on the Gilbert temple, going to the zoo, and watching Kaitlyn win state at a Cheer competition. Lots of fun memories, but my favorite thing that I did while in Arizona was attend the Mesa, Arizona temple. I have been to a few temples to do baptisms for the dead, but never have  I felt a connection with any place as I did when I was in this temple. There were murals inside that were GORGEOUS! I can't wait to be able to go back again!

Then from Arizona, I flew to Florida and met my family for some fun adventures in Disney World. I was there for a week and crammed in many magical moments! I watched Seth have to keep a sugar packet held against a wall for five minutes as a punishment from a waiter at one of our restaurants, sang and dance in the rain to Disney music, received a magnificent sun burn (ouch), and had an all around blast with my family (thanks again Daddy and Mom, that was the best Christmas present EVER! Although I do love my new sewing machine...)

While in DisneyWorld, my parents and I decided that since I was not attending BYU (oh yeah, I am taking some time off from college for right now until I decide what it is that I want to actually get my degree in) that I would come back to Alaska in mid-March instead of the beginning of May so that I could get my knee checked out by Dr. Wade (he is the one that did my shoulder surgery my Senior year). So I spent some time with my friends, got all my stuff packed up and flew back home. When we met with Doctor Wade, he informed me that because I was tall and skinny/gangly my knee was experiencing patellar-maltracking. I could do specific exercises for it however it would should I stop I would experience chronic pain or I could have a lateral release done which would most likely be more effective. So I went ahead and had the knee surgery and did 6 weeks of physical therapy.

While recovering from my knee surgery, my boss from HAP Alaska-Yukon allowed me to come back to work earlier than my contracted date. So I was able to make money, recover, and meet lots of new friends. One of those friends was Daniel...you all have heard about how we met (if not then see one of my posts from July or August). Daniel and I have both been in Provo for the past two and half years but it took us both going to Alaska to meet. We both worked lots to earn money for school, pay of debt, and live off of. It was by far one of the best summers I've had!

I stayed in Alaska until the end of September; Mom, Leah and I drove down to Anchorage for me to catch my flight to go to Salt Lake City...or so we thought. My Grandma is a retired airline employee so I was flying on a standby ticket and now that Salt Lake is Delta's central hub it is virtually impossible to get out of Alaska on a Standby ticket to Salt Lake. So instead I surprised Daniel by flying into Las Vegas. I spent a few days there with Daniel and his family before coming back up to Provo.

Once I got to Provo, I moved in with Nic and Jacey (they were married in July, I was supposed to come to Utah for the wedding but tickets ended up being too expensive), got a job and started Dental Assisting School. The next few months all I did was work, study, and miss my family and Daniel (he was in St. George for almost two months). For Thanksgiving, I went down to St. George again and spent some more time getting to know Daniels family. This was the first Thanksgiving that I really got to help out with the preparations, it was a lot of fun!

In December I was able to go Christmas window painting with Daniel and his siblings. I never knew just how much work went into those paintings! It really is impressive the effort and time that goes into them. This was also the first Christmas that I didn't go home for Christmas, instead I went down to Daniel's family again. We drove down on Christmas eve, wrapped the remaining Christmas presents, and then I cuddled with Daniel. Daniel and I ended up falling asleep on the couch until Daniel's mom came out and said "It's five a.m., I'm going to bed so it's time for you guys to go to bed...in your separate bedrooms...now." Haha it was pretty funny. Since Daniel's family doesn't have any little kids, we ended up sleeping in until noon the next day and then leisurely got up and made breakfast before opening our Christmas presents. Then we drove down to Vegas, ate dinner with, and then went to see the floral exhibit that the Bellagio. After getting out fill of the funfilled Las Vegas strip we drove back to St. George to go back up to Provo. We left Vegas at 11 but did not end up leaving St. George until 3 a.m. Tavane's starter on her car died so we ended up taking David's truck back. What is normally a three to three and a half hour drive ended up being a 6 hour drive because we were driving in a white out for over half the trip. Poor Ben; it was an absolute nightmare!

The next day David's 4-wheel drive broke on his truck the next day (I was supposed to take Tavane to the airport the next morning). So we ended up going up to Sidney's parents house that night. I've been up here spending time with the Craguns ever since; it has been a fun/much needed break. We went and saw the Hobbit yesterday and then had some Costa Vida afterwards. Later on in the evening some friends came over to play games until we celebrated the New Year. Sadly Daniel was going to come up and surprise me last night but something came up so he couldn't make it, but we exchanged texts until midnight (he even sent me kiss over text message at midnight).

It truly has been a year of trials, excitement, and for me lots of love. I hope that this year ends up being just as good if not better. I am beginning yet another chapter of my life, for those of you that don't know, I will be moving to Arizona for a couple of months. Shortly after Thanksgiving I was offered a job with the company that I work for in Alaska, HAP Alaska, over the training programs for our driver guide. While there I will train for my CDL and possibly try to intern at a Dental office inbetween my work schedule (we'll see how much time I do actually have though). I hope you all have a wonderful new year!

Lots of love,
Ashlyn