Tay-J

(You can pronounce it "Tay-jay" or "Tayj" depending on how you're feeling.)

I love having best friends visit 😍

Taylor's the best because we didn't have to feel like we were running around 24/7 trying to cram every New York thing into a short weekend. We simply enjoyed being together, just the two of us chillin' in New York. So here's to you, Tayj. Thanks for being a real true.

Taylor's eyes look beautiful in this picture. I really can't look away. 

This picture was taken as a couple was making out behind us and we thought it was hilarious.

We felt like such rebels taking photos in the fountain. After we got out suddenly everyone else started doing the same.
#trendy

I'm pretty sure the Brooklyn Bridge was Tay's favorite part of the city. We went twice.

Papa

Dear Papa,

Thank you for your stories and your humor. Thank you for Pagosa, for your love of the West, for your love of the outdoors, and for passing those on to me. Thank you for your generosity, tenderness, and kindness. Thank you for instilling in me a love of learning and for being the encouragement I needed to pursue my PhD. Thank you for teaching your kids and grandkids to serve and love others and to love each other. Lastly, thank you for my bowl -- that beautiful, beautiful bowl. 

I love you.

xo

Courtney

January

I'm baaaack. I forgot how fun it is to have snow throughout the winter! Many people disagree with me, but I love the snow. It's such a different kind of pretty and getting to bundle up is fun and exciting. I haven't worn snow boots for the last four years, so that was actually more exciting for me than it should have been. I was talking to a friend the other day and they expressed how they wished it stopped snowing after Christmas. I immediately rejected that -- Christmas is just the beginning of winter! It's like an exciting little introduction, but it's not the real winter. We figured out where this difference of opinion came from: the skier's perspective. She doesn't ski. I do. All skiers know that the best skiing is always after Christmas. Occasionally you get some really great days in December, but not consistently. So thank goodness for skiing, which has shaped my perspective on winter as a whole.

Anyway, that was just a quick little blurb about my thoughts on the upcoming winter. Here's what actually happened this month:
- school
- research (LOVE my lab!)
- Chobani store (so smooth, so delicious)
- MTV TRL taping (turns out 1- Drake Bell literally is only famous for Drake & Josh, 2- MTV TRL is the stupidest tv show giving you updates about what you see on social media, and 3- it's still fun to go to stupid shows when you photo bomb a pic with Drake Bell and he hands you a vinyl of his new "album" and when you get a free T-Grizzley shirt)
- I bought a drawing of myself from Joey of Bad Portraits in Central Park. We sat chatting about life and books while he sketched and it was really lovely.
- Megyn Kelly Taping (I had no clue who Megyn Kelly was, but the Avett Brothers were playing and one of them smiled and waved at me which was super exciting)

Christian and I photo bombed these girls then asked them to send me the pic hahaha. Oops ;)

Looks just like me, right?

I gave up on the "win-a-trip" poster contest, but I really think Susan's should have won.

Look carefully and you'll see me peering up behind the Avett Brothers (!!!)

SECOND HOME

My winter break was forever long, which I loved. When everyone in Seattle started school, I still had a week left, so naturally I decided to pop on up to Seattle for a few days and pester them all during syllabus week. Oh how I miss Seattle. I don't think I moved there realizing how much I would truly fall in love with the city. I believe that Seattle brought out the best in me. It uncovered this part of me that I couldn't uncover by myself. Maybe that's just because I was a little older and living on my own and those things force you to "find yourself." Or maybe it really was the city itself. Either way, I truly feel myself there. I'm at ease and don't feel like I'm pretending to be or do anything - I'm just me. When I realized that's how I feel in Seattle and that's how I feel in Utah with my family and the Cats, I realized that it really was home (remember, I don't use that word lightly).

Anyway, my trip was lovely. I stayed with Sara at La CoSa (last time I'll be there before her and Shamil move!), spent hours sitting in the living room at the Bat House, ate Lost Lake hashbrowns, sat and talked with Brother Ashcroft, checked on my Galaga high score at the HUB, realized they had taken away the Galaga machine, decided to claim that I had the final Galaga high score and would take that accomplishment with me forever, wandered Pike Place to eat Ellenos and my favorite bread with balsamic samples, hung out with all of my favorite lax ladies, and ate burgers with my freshman crew at EJs.

The weather was overcast and the sky spit on my face the whole time and it was beautiful.

La CoSa forever!!!

This just looks like your normal old sketchy alley. And it is. But it's also the alley where I
left from every morning to get anywhere either by bike or car. It's the alley where Sara and
I one time found a disgusting GIANT pile of poop as we left for school together. It's the alley
that I drove into with Tina the first time she was coming over and she immediately freaked
out. One of the walls behind one of the neighboring restaurants says "RIP Waiter." I drove my
car with bike on top into the garage. Tina overcame her fear of this alley and always picked
me up back here. The garbage truck would park behind our garage and block us in. And it
was also the beautiful view from the windows of La CoSa #2.

JOJO MY LAX SOULMATE

I love when we all just sit around in the living room together doing nothing but hanging out.

These EJs reunions make me so happy. Me, Nick, Emma, James.

HOME

I love New York. It is such an amazing city. I have met so many wonderful people, love my program, and have loved getting to know a new city where everything feels so foreign at times. I've even heard the word "home" slip out of my own mouth a couple of times in reference to New York. As much as I love it, nothing quite compares to home home. Aka Utah... my mountains, my people, my home. 

With finals complete, no grad school applications to fill out, no projects to finish, and literally no responsibilities, I got to just relax and soak up every second of home that I could. It was perfect. Every time I come home, from the second I walk off the plane and to my dad's car and give both my parents big hugs, I feel entirely and completely encompassed with love. I wish I could describe the feeling, but I can't quite put it into words...love, fun, happiness (like that pure happiness where you just find yourself smiling even if you're just sitting doing nothing), excitement, love again...some combination of those words. Just know that I'm sitting here smiling to myself as I write about the way I feel when coming home.

First things first... In 'N Out Burger. This five years and running tradition with Shlyn is one of my favorites. Every time I come home, she picks me up late that night and we go eat burgers, fries, and shakes and spend forever catching up. 

That night when I finally got back home and started unpacking, I looked next to my bed and let out the most surprised scream-laugh that is probably possible from me. SAM. Oh Carine, you witty sly girl to call my mom and come over to my house before I had even arrived in Utah. Let me explain. You see, Carine and I have been hiding this picture back and forth for each other to find. It all started about a year ago when our dear friend Sam moved away from Seattle and we were responsible for taking his photo off of the ward bulletin board. I didn't realize that Carine had sneakily kept the photo and on our way to Jamba Juice one day, we made our usual stop at the MEB for me to turn in my homework (I often ended up driving to the MEB to turn in my homework with seconds to spare) and as I ran back out to the car and climbed in the driver's seat, Sam was staring back at me from my odometer. Since then, each of us has found Sam appearing in the most unsuspecting of places... box of Oreos, laptop, rearview mirror, leftover chicken alfredo, record player, guitar, boot, beanie, loaf of bread, journal, pillow, camping chair, etc. etc. etc.

Christmas Eve!!! Unfortunately Mom and Christopher were both sick :( They missed out on mine and Dad's great selfie game at church...but I guess that's fine. Usually we spend Christmas Eve at Asian Star, but since it was on a Sunday this year, we ordered takeout on Saturday night to save for Sunday dinner. It ended up working out perfectly since Mom and Christopher weren't feeling well anyway. That night we got to talk to Marty!!! Uh, I mean with Elder. He was so cute and happy. We loved getting to talk to him about his missionary life as well as catch him up on all that was happening here. He read us some scriptures in Japanese, which was really cool. He is doing wonderfully and makes us all so happy! We're excited to talk to him again on Mother's Day :) 

Christmas morning we had the pleasure of having the Nugents join us!! How fun to have little kids around. As I'm reading back to the sentence before, "had the pleasure" sounds like a really bland old lady phrase, but it really was a pleasure. I'm trying to change up my sentences so that I don't keep saying "it was fun to blah blah blah" so if anyone else has another suggestion of what I can say instead of "we had the pleasure of," I am all ears. Anyway, Mom still wasn't feeling 100% so she gladly sent Dad, the boys, and I out the door to continue our tradition of skiing on Christmas Day. The best snow (and this Christmas season..the only snow) always seems to fall on Christmas, but because it's Christmas, the slopes are usually empty. It's wonderful.

Kershaw. Also the only time you will see me voluntarily use the dog filter.

The sickness that was floating around the house finally hit me on December 28 (btw...happy birthday, Zo!) which was the day of our annual Adair Family Karaoke Party. I spent literally all day in bed trying to recharge for the night. I made it out with enough energy to cuddle with Livy and sing along to Defying Gravity while seated on the ground. Even though I couldn't belt out my favorite songs to my maximum ability, I still enjoyed watching everyone else haha. Definitely one of my favorite traditions.

This is not a cousin. People, my friend has a child. I repeat my friend has a child. And another on the way! Not gonna lie, last year when Isabelle was just a newborn and my mom and I visited Lexie and Critter, I had absolutely no idea how to hold her or calm her down or anything. I just stared in awe as my mom, Lexie, and Quincie so easily held her and played with her. Now that she is one, however, it's a whole different story. Isabelle and I totally hit it off. She is the cutest.

Seattle in Utah!! Tina came and slept over one night with me before she headed back to Seattle. It was wonderful to have some quality time together. Favorite activities: convincing my family to go to the Olympic qualifying ski jumping event, singing karaoke into the tiny microphone, watching the UW football game, stalking "potential soulmates" on Instagram, napping, making treats, and shopping for balloons. Why shopping for balloons?? Well, that is the perfect segue into my next pic. I have a very dear friend named Carine. Oh, you've heard of her? Well have you heard that her birthday is 12/30 and every year everyone is just doing family stuff and can never celebrate?? I was determined not to let her go another year without a party. One of her best friends and I have been in cahoots for the last couple of months to plan the perfect surprise evening. Katie told Carine that she would take her to Top Golf since everyone else was busy with family stuff. I told Carine that I was so sad I couldn't make it because our annual karaoke party was that night (hehehe but it wasn't! Remember?! I blocked her from my Snapchat story the night of karaoke so she wouldn't watch and get suspsicious). But when Katie and Carine showed up to Top Golf I was standing at the top of the stairs blowing 10 year old New Year's Eve horns and waving those clicker things that make a lot of noise while holding several balloons. Kevin met us there a few minutes later (he was supposed to be there with me with the horns and clickers...but none of us could match our timing quite right haha). Post-golf fun, we went to Katie's for further surprises! So again, we weren't quite able to make timing work out right to have Carine walk into the room with a million people ready to surprise her, but more friends just kept showing up and that was exciting. Finally, Carine got a kind-of party. She deserved it.

Taylor and I have officially found the best way to spend New Year's Eve. Each year either Snowbird or Alta hosts a torchlight parade where after it's dark, you don your ski apparel and wear lights of any kind that you can find and ski down the mountain along a run lit on either side by red torches. You and a crowd full of friends, family, and skiing-loving strangers light up the mountain in one giant ski-school-like snake while fireworks are shooting off literally directly above your head. I think the best way to describe it would be magical. Lots of fun and just magical. My entire family is excited to make this our new tradition. Plus it's early enough in the evening so the rest of the NYE parties can be attended -- no FOMO! *Virtual high-five, Taylor. Glad we finally made this happen.*

Sarah (Taylor's cousin), Tay-J, and myself. Notice the torchlit run behind us??

The best we could do this year were headlamps and Christopher's "pocket party" miniature disco ball light. Stay tuned
for next year's all out light apparel.

Blurry picture, but you get the idea.

I'd like to interrupt this broadcast for a quick shoutout to my dear brother, Martin. Aka Marty. Aka Elder. I should have done this earlier when I was talking about talking to Marty on Christmas Eve, but there's no such thing as talking about your family too much, so here are some pics to prove he's great. Not that you need proof, but still, here ya go.

So remember how I said that the torchlight parade is over early enough to hit up all the other New Year's parties? That's exactly what we did. Taylor, Zoe, Tessa, Ashlyn, and I (eeek almost all the Cats!!) piled in my mom's car (throwback to senior trip, Jackson Hole, and most other New Year's Eves) and drove up into the mountains to party at a cabin. When I say party, I really mean chat with people, play games, pop a confetti popper at midnight, and enjoy being in a beautiful cabin with our best friends. We slept over. Then we drove back down the mountains. Then we picked up Carl. Then we all went to brunch. Then we all went to Shlyn's house and hot tubbed. Then everyone came over to my house and we cooked pasta and made salad and sat around the dinner table and had family dinner. Ah it was such a perfect and wonderful and fun 24 hours together. It truly felt like old times and sometimes that's exactly what you want.

I spy Tessa, Shlyn, and Courtney.

The next couple of days are unphotographed, but they were lovely and relaxing. My mom and I spent the next 48 hours simply enjoying each other's company. We got massages, went to Ikea, tried to get Nielsen's ice cream, had Christopher pick up Bombay House, put together Ikea furniture while listening to Friends, watched TV, and just chatted. I treasure every moment with my mom. She is my role model and my best friend. It's always a sad day when I have to leave. Thank goodness for phone calls and frequent visits. If you're reading this, Mom, I love you and am so grateful for you!! I feel so loved by you and you always make our time together special and I love that. Can't wait to see you again soon 😘

Well, guys. That wraps up my time at home. I'm not really sure how else to sum it all up, besides "perfect." It really was perfect. Until next time, Utah. Love you lots.