HAPPY EARTH DAY

Dear Earth,

Happy Earth Day.  Thank you for your incredible sunsets, majestic mountains, mesmerizing forests, the intricate circle of life, stunning waterfalls, colorful skies, that perfect powder, and just being all around fascinating.

Yours truly,

Courtney

Another Whirlwind Update

They say there are three S's as a college student -- Study. Social. Sleep. -- and you get to choose two of them. Well, apparently "Blogging" is not an option, so I apologize to my few readers (shoutout to Ashlyn, TayJ, Kathy, and Aunt Marge) that these last few weeks of my super exciting life of studying, socializing, and sleeping have gone undocumented (although, I would like to note that despite the sparse posts lately, I am defying scientific evidence through this blog since "Blogging" does not start with an S, right?) Anyways... what have I been up to?

I have been enjoying the BEAUTIFUL UW campus -- rain and shine.

UW Lacrosse home games!  Three games in one day leads to major soreness, but it was so worth the undefeated weekend.  It's only been a couple weeks since the season ended and I'm already having withdrawals...I want to play more lacrosse.

Thanks, James for coming and supporting!

Tina, Yolanda, and I all went to the temple together one Friday afternoon.  It was their first time inside and was quite a special experience.  I love the peace and the Spirit that I always feel at the temple.  If you have not yet, go listen to this awesome talk by President Monson from the recent General Conference about the importance of temples :D

Traveled to Oregon for Regionals (took second overall in the region!) and THE NUGENT GIRLS CAME AND VISITED ME :D :D :D  Seriously was such a treat to see them and spend an evening together.  I love my family!

College night at the Mariner's game.  I can never pass up a night of baseball, friends, and garlic fries.

Had the awesome opportunity to volunteer at Special Olympics Washington's first ever unified soccer tournament.  I loved spending the morning helping out and learning about this really neat program.  Each team played with two college students and three disabled members from the school's local community.  It was really neat to see schools from all over the state (and even outside of Washington) and people from every walk of life gather and play soccer together. #playunify

Spring Break was perfect.

Hiking Rattlesnake with Taylor. Skiing at Snowbird with Steven, Chris, and Taylor. Showing Emma around Salt Lake. Girls' day in Park City with Mom. Skiing at Snowbird with Dad. Coaching Olympus Lacrosse. Giving Cynthia the Salt Lake City tour. Hiking Grandeur Peak with Cynthia and Mom. Taking pictures at the Great Salt Lake with Cynthia, Shlyn, and Zoe. Eating Cafe Rio with pretty much everyone. Making SBO posters late at night with Marty, Mom, and Dad. Hot tubbing with Zoe in Ashlyn's hot tub. Finding giant houses with Ashlyn, Adam, and Zoe. Getting Hector's burritos too late at night. Hiking Mount Olympus with Cynthia. General Women's Conference with Cynthia, Zoe, and Ashlyn. Unsuccessful Fast Offering runs with Christopher. Teaching Nicholas how to walk on stilts. Spontaneous visits from Carly. Being home with everyone I love <3 See you all again in 10 short weeks! 

We all laughed at this picture because it kind of looks like my leg is Taylor's arm hahah.

Taylor and I showed Steven and Chris what real black diamond skiing is ;) And hey, they did pretty good!

She "carried me" through the whole weekend. Love my Tay J!

I got to spend an afternoon with Emma! Carly, Shlyn, and I took her to Cafe Rio and hiked Ensign Peak :D

I was so excited to have my Washington and Utah lives collide and had to take a picture to prove it.

My favorite ski buddy :)

I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday...

So lucky I got to spend so much time with my BEST FRIEND.

Throwin' our Dubs up! 

Zoe and I call this our band photo. Next step? Form a band.

Shlyn always keeps me laughing.

Mount Olympus

My city.

It's that time of the year again...

The way to survive dead week??

cherry blossoms

The darkest quarter of the year always seems to reward us in the end :D

Mt. Si

FINALLY I hiked in Washington!  And a great hike it was.  Some of the lacrosse team all decided to go hike Mt. Si, about 45 minutes East of Seattle.  Round trip totals of 8 miles, 4 hours, 3500 feet elevation gain, and extreme soreness.  The hike is beautiful and the summit is stunning.  This world is just incredible, isn't it??

Rachael, Mi, Lauren, Audrey, Anna, me, Kalili, Jojo, Maddie, Emma (and dog Valentine)

Tina's Baptism

I've had the wonderful opportunity to get to know the amazing Tina these last few months, both through taking lessons with the missionaries and during our fun adventures discovering delicious food and always having a fun time together, and today she was baptized!  So excited and happy for her!  Meeting with Tina and the missionaries has been a great blessing to me and helped me strengthen my testimony.  Heavenly Father loves each one of us.  He loves us all individually for who we are as we are.  He helps me realize my imperfections and turn them into strengths.  When I have a question, I kneel down in prayer and He will help me find the answer.  He knows me better than I know myself and I know that I can trust Him to lead me in the direction that is best and happiest for me.  I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to "live the gospel joyful!" (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

Elder Stringham, Tina, me, Elder Halliday 

"Candid squad prom photo"
Me, Danielle, Tina, Ashleigh, Elder Halliday, Elder Stringham"

Just Smile

Here I am, walking to get help to prepare for a final and I find myself just smiling, for practically no reason at all!  I mean, I shouldn't be excited about preparing for a final, right?...but I am.  I am just happy here, doing exactly what I'm doing.  And I am excited about all the opportunities that await.  And that is a pretty good feeling.  Why not smile?