BYU...Here She Comes!!

The CRAZY girl was in Provo!

I know, can you believe it?!  One of my good friends Monica came to Provo at the beginning of January and it was her first time in Utah!  She's going to school right now at the University of Miami, but she had a longer Winter Break than I did, so she came to see what Provo was like and why the heck I loved this cold, snowy place so much! :)  Monica and I basically grew up together in Oregon through gymnastics.  I'm pretty sure we officially met sometime while we were in middle school when we merged into the same work out group in level 7.  At that time there were about 20 girls in our work out group which means we had lots of friends to go play with everyday at gym!  Talk about fun!  Over the next few years as Monica and I started high school, those girls that were once in our group started dropping like flies!  They either got injured and had to stop gymnastics, moved too far away from Portland, or just decided that they didn't like the sport anymore and quit.  Gymnastics is not a sport to just stay in because you like the friends or because you like to go every once in a while.... were talkin four hour practices four to five days a week, multiple injuries at once (not to mention, your body feels like its going to fall apart during and after almost EVERY practice, yet you still have to keep going or hours of conditioning is your fate :) )  and crazy head games from being terrified to throw your body around on a hard piece of wood thats only four inches wide.  But as crazy as it sounds... we still LOVED it!  Monica and I stuck together and starting in probably our Sophomore year of high school became really close friends.  We ended up being the last two girls out of our group of 20 that stuck through the sport until we graduated.  Monica and I have been there through each other's most difficult times during our high school years (and most of those difficult times involved gymnastics because ...well at least I didn't have much of a life outside of the sport).  During those years, we traveled together all over the United States, laughed so hard that we thought our stomachs would pop, cried until there were no more tears, and pushed each other to be our very best everyday.  I honestly don't know how I would have made it through gymnastics without her, especially during the times of my injury.  That was one of the most difficult times in my life so far, and Monica was there with an encouraging word through it all.  We will definitely be best friends for years to come and I am so lucky to claim her as a friend!  So thank you Monica!!!  You are one of the best friends that anyone could ask for... and I'm SO HAPPY YOU CAME TO PROVO TO VISIT ME!!!! 

Wasatch Elementary School...it was FREEZING!!

She came on a PERFECT week!  President Monson came to speak to us in the Marriott Center AND Elder Holland all while she was here!  They were both absolutely amazing if you can imagine.  By the way, I would encourage you all to listen to or read Elder Holland's talk that he just gave at BYU on Tuesday, January 13, 2008.  I don't think it is up yet...but if you can, watch it because it just makes it SO much better!  He is amazing!

This was her first time in Utah so we went to Temple Square and ate at The Garden, which was delicious (my first time), and then we went and watched the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  I think that was my fifth time seeing it and I swear it is just as good every time!  

She is the best!  I think we were asked at least five times if we were sisters... it was pretty funny because we always get that!