say goodbye to 2011

I am the luckiest. I cant believe today is the last day of 2011. Time flies. I decided to summarize my year in pictures. Going through all of the pictures made me so happy and so sad. My pictures of south america... I almost cried. I miss my family so much, and I wouldn't even be able to express my love for them in words. Then I came back to Utah and got back into my last classes before the accounting program took over my life. Spring was SO fun. It was great to be back, campus wasn't crowded and I still had my friends. Then my second Summer time of the year came. The moment of truth. All of my friends left me for either boyfriends, jobs, or decided to leave the country... I didn't know anyone who was staying summer term. I decided to move to King Henry with random roommates which ended up to be one of the best decisions ever. I met my roommate and best friend Stacy along with all of my other great friends from that ward.  We did fun things everyday and everyone had so much free time. I got to go to a family reunion in Rexburg and spend some time in Oregon before FALL. Fall. I started the accounting program and moved back to Lanai. I met more amazing people at Lanai, my best friend Cait was back from her study abroad and life was good. But crazy. The accounting program is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my entire life, but it is so rewarding and I can't imagine myself in any other major. During fall, my dad, Hailey, and Thomas came to visit Provo for a weekend, I got to go to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my mommy. Then before I knew it, I was home for Thanksgiving, then it was finals. And I was in Hawaii with my family. Its crazy how time just FLIES. I had to be so selective on the pictures I included and I still have a TON. This year was amazing. It's amazing how much you can learn and grow in a year. The things we go through, the habits we form all make us into the person we are today. The thing I learned in 2011, is that its all about the people. You could be doing the coolest thing of your entire life, but if you arent with someone you care about, then it doesn't even matter. In 2011, I met people that have changed my life forever. I finally got to spend time with my dad's side of the family in Uruguay and they took my heart. I've never felt so much love in my entire life. I got to spend time with my brothers and sisters, who are growing up so fast and surprise me by their maturity. I met incredible people at BYU - my friends at Lanai, King Henry, Liberty Square, through the Accounting Program, and my random encounters. Going through all of the pictures, I found myself wanting to just write paragraphs about sooo many people and just having pictures of their faces because I love them so much. But this post would have gone on forever because I love too many people. I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world because the people in my life are truly amazing. 

January

We started out the new year at the beach in Montevideo, Uruguay 

 quinceañera <3

My sister had her quinceañera

My crazy sister. 

I experienced  real soccer games. 

 February 

Spent some time at the beach with Luli :) 

Volunteered at CRE as a receptionist.

plenty of days in the sun. 

Argentina! Love this boy. 

La Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.


March 

Brasil. 

I drove this kid crazy because I love him just sooooo much. 

Said Goodbye :( 

When I got home, my bffe Cait flew out and visited Oregon :) 

We really missed shopping together. 

Then Jon flew out to Oregon! And we drove back to Utah with Hailey and then my family joined us all there for SPRING BREAK 

April

Vegas with my family 

Festival of Colors.  I was sooo happy to be back in Utah 

Spring time roomates :) 

My new ward at Liberty Square. My calling: Ward photographer, how fitting.

May 

Rosa took us to see the blue man group!

Ziplined in Vegas. 

I'd be crazy if I didn't mention FINALLY MEETING THE LOVE OF MY LIFE; DAVID ARCHULETA. 

June

First time Stacy and I actually hung out :) 

So many days at Seven Peaks. 

I love these people. 

July 

Family Reunion in Idaho! Fourth of July parade :)

 everyday adventures :)

 so much camping :)

 camping

gosh i love these boys (and stacy duh)

August

Bri and I road tripped to Vegas to see our best friend MAGZ wedding.

went home before school started, and stayed at the coast for a few days  

got to see my best friend britnee

My best friends picked me up from the airport and we went to LUPE FIASCO concert!

September

Started the ACCOUNTING PROGRAM 

Started and finished the WAREN CASE. (The first picture we took as an accounting group, gosh  I love them)

Dinner at Brad's grandparents was also one of my favorite things, and here we are after in beautiful SLC. 

I couldn't forget football games with my Best friends. 

I'm pretty sure I was DYING in this picture. DAVID ARCHULETA. twice in one year!? Dream come true. 

October 

We made a trip to Zion's National Park for the weekend, beautiful.

My loves came and visited me for my birthday!

I TURNED 21. AND luckily I got all my best friends together for dinner. (well... a few missing...)

MY BIRTHDAY PARTY! Best day ever, have I mentioned how amazing my friends are?

So we had a few Halloween costumes. 1. ZOOBS. 

2. DRUGGIES

3. SIAMESE TWINS. 

Of course. :) Happy Halloween!

November 

Kept up with endless projects with my accounting group. 

Finished Test Week and headed straight to VEGAS to celebrate my 21st with my mommy!

We saw Phantom of the Opera. SO GOOD WOW. and Lion King! Both Great shows. 

Home for Thanksgiving! Family bowling outing with all my cousins! 

I couldn't forget BREAKING DAWN MIDNIGHT SHOWING!

December

Said Goodbye to my accounting family :( This was our last day as a group. 

Hawaii with my family!

Got to see JIMMER play the Blazers!  Wow I love the Blazers. 

Spent some time in the snow with my best friend Catie!

Got to see my high school best friends :) Gosh I love them. 

As time continues to fly by, I hope that in this new year, I can manage to remember what is important. To treat the people that I currently know, and will meet with kindness. To always do my best and to never let any good opportunity pass me by. To treat every moment as something special and always see the positive in everyone and everything. There is so much in life to be thankful for. If we are always criticizing or complaining, who would want to be around us. My biggest pet peeve is when people complain or aren't grateful. You can always find a positive thing to say about every person, about every situation. Some positives may be hard to find at first, but trust me, they're there. Even when times are hard, or things are going wrong, they happen for a reason. To help us grow, to teach us a lesson, or maybe we aren't supposed to understand why. But that's how life goes. Time flies. Life is for enjoying, for taking advantage of. There are so many people to meet, so many places to see! With this new year comes new adventures, new opportunities, and endless possibilities. Carpe Diem! Happy 2012!

b

PS. See you in 2 days New York!!

Nike Family.

I'm finally home! Good old Beaverton Oregon. There is nothing like being home. 

When I was a little girl, we moved around a lot. I was born in Utah, while my parents were at BYU. Then, we moved to Illinois while my dad went to Northwestern. Then we moved to Florida, and we moved twice there.  When we moved to Oregon,  even though I was only eight years old, I made my dad promise me we wouldn't move for at least five years. I wanted a place that felt like home. 13 years later, and we still live in Beaverton, Oregon.

One of the coolest things about being from Beaverton, is that, it is the world headquarters of Nike. I'm pretty sure everyone who knows me knows, but just in case you don't, my dad works for Nike, and that's why we live here. Growing up, everyone always had Nikes. At my high school, if you didn't own at least three pairs, you weren't cool. Some of my guy friends in high school would walk around school super awkwardly just to not crease their shoes. Some had over 50 pairs of Nikes. Boys would spend their whole paychecks on Nike shoes and camp out overnight to get the latest pair. I didn't own a pair of vans until my junior year of high school. And that's because I got them as a gift- my dad would never buy us the competition! And if you wore Adidas to my house... oh boy. You'd get a hard time from my dad hahah. 

Thats one of the best parts about coming home. Seeing all of the fresh pairs of Nikes. I love the way the boys dress here and the Nike culture.  It's weird that its actually something I miss. 

When I first moved out to Provo, I was a little bit shocked at how few people actually wore Nike shoes... I mean, don't all guys have Nikes? What the Sketchers? New Balance? Pumas? ADIDAS? It took a long time to get used to. For the first year at school, EVERY person that I saw wearing Nikes would get a compliment. I actually bought my freshman year boyfriend Nikes because his Adidas bothered me so much. I had no idea that to regular people, Nike's were kind of a big deal. I realize now that not everyone is fortunate enough to have a parent or a friend working for Nike, and that not everyone has the Employee Store close by. What a shame.

I'm a Nike girl 4 lyfe. My dad has such a cool job. He gets to see famous athletes, travel the world, go to the Olympics and World Cups, and he always brings us home the latest Nike gear. AND since my dad has worked at Nike for 13 years now... we accumulated quite a few Nikes. While I've been home, I've taken a couple pictures because it's actually quite ridiculous. (that's what started the obsessive rant and post about my obsession of nikes) 

My dad's favorite style of Nike: Nike Air Max

He has them in every color:

Those aren't even a fraction of the shoes my dad has. 

One of the chores in our house is putting the shoes away. hahah

mine and my sister's shoes - we wear the same size

my 15 year old brothers collection. 

Yes sir, we are a Nike family. Proud of it. I don't think I'll ever own a differnt pair of running shoes - and neither will my future children. :) 

For all of those out there who haven't thought of a Christmas present yet... you know what to buy your special someone! hahahaha. and for those of you who camped out last night at the ES to get the new Concords, I hope they are everything you've ever dreamed of and more! hahaha. happy holidays!

b

Alohaaaaaaa

Hawaii.

Worst part about this vacation? My crazy family.

Best part about this vacation? My crazy family.

Like I always say, My family isn’t perfect, but they’re perfect for me.

Sometimes we think that everyone else has a perfect family and that our family is the only one that has problems. But in reality, no family is perfect. Every family is unique, and every family has their struggles. I’m getting to the age where I’m beginning to see things more from my parents point of view. It’s weird. Weird to think that I’m at the age that in a few years, maybe 20 or so, I’ll be starting my own family. It’s weird to think about my parents when they were my age. How did they know what to do? How did they get through their years when they were struggling and poor? How do they control their bratty children?

Luckily, I still have a bazillion years before I have to worry about that.

Anyway, we’ll start this journey from the beginning.

So. My family decided to head to Hawaii without me. They came on a Wednesday, and I didn’t join them until that Friday because I had my Accounting Information Systems Final (kill me) at 7am that Friday. It was torture. They sent me a gazillion pictures of the beach while I was trapped in hbll (Harold B Lee Library). After my final (which ended at 10am), I booked it to the airport and made it just in time for my 11:30 flight and said ALOHA to Honolulu. s/o to tyler owens who picked me up from the Tanner building WITH McDonalds and booked it to the airport for me J

I finally arrived. Sometimes I forget what my family is like. Super sarcastic, super outspoken, and super active. It’s every man for himself and I’m pretty sure the times we laugh the hardest are when we are making fun of each other or other people. The week flew by. To summarize the week, here’s the top 5 funniest moments followed by a plethora of pictures.

1. One day, while we were on the beach, this woman, probably about 26, came up to my mom and asked for my mom to take a picture of her. So my mom’s like sure! The woman has a strong accent, and she says, “Make sure you get the waves and mountains in the picture” So she hands my mom her camera and starts rolling around in the ocean doing all of these sexy poses…. My mom took a few pictures and luckily the woman was satisfied. Hahahahah.  About an hour later, my sister and I were talking about how funny that was and we started to reenact it, two minutes into our hilarious joke, we look over and the same woman is sitting there. Watching us make fools out of ourselves. Awkward hahaha but so funny.

2. We were driving back after hiking Diamond Head, and it started to rain.  Hailey looks out the window sees a woman and says, “WHY DOES THAT OLD WOMAN HAVE A PLASTIC BAG ON HER HEAD?! We all looked, and right as we passed by in our Ford Explorer, she biffed it and fell to the ground. SO funny. Of course we were going to stop and help her….. but luckily she had her family there to help her up, so we figured she’d be fine.

3. My lovely sister, who had already changed races, decided she would be tanning during PRIME tanning hours. RAIN OR SHINE. Everyone knows prime tanning hours are 10-4 so sure enough, 10 am we head to the pool, even though it was cloudy and raining. Thomas and I stare at the pool while Hailey jumps in and tries to convince us that you can still tan through the clouds. She didn’t convince us. We come back a half an hour later, and we can’t tell if she was tanner, or if she was just purple from freezing. Hailey’s like, “yeah, when it started pouring, I almost drown because I would keep myself under water to keep warm and then come up for air only. That was a low point.” But like she says, “Pain is beauty” so she endured the rain for the five minute breaks of sunlight. Luckily it was sunny by 12… I laughed so hard those 2 hours though. My sister is probably one of THE funniest people I know, and she was on a roll.

4. Pictures. All my friends say I take a lot of pictures… hmmm, I wonder who I get it from.  My dad is always picture happy. So one night as we are walking, my dad sees a palm tree with really cool lights and wants a picture of Brandy leaning against the tree. Simple right? Think again. Brandy, my youngest sister, isn’t the most coordinated Molina. So, just to pose her is an adventure… Haileys yelling, “SUCK IN, CHIN UP, GLASSES OFF, PUT YOUR ARMS OUT SO THEY ARENT SQUISHED, TILT YOUR HEAD…” First picture, Brandy looks like she was blessed as an 11 year old with huge wabos because she was sucking in so hard. Second picture, she’s trying to remember to do all of these commands and she just falls over.  Needless to say, my dad didn’t get the picture he was expecting. Pictures are always super fun in our family (sarcasm). But, I personally love it. It’s a huuuge part of all of our outings. And I believe, if there aren’t pictures… it never really happened

5. Watching my dad tan. You think that out of all of us, the FULL HISPANIC one would get the darkest? Well. My dad was the one with SPF 100 the whole time, until the last day, where he let himself go and went sunscreen-less for an hour and a half. TOMATO. Hahahaha sucka. We love you dad. Sorry we are darker than you.  

There were obviously a gazillion more funny moments. And the ones I listed were probably the kind that you “had to be there.” So sorry if you didn’t think they were that funny, but they really were.

the best. 

my best friend. 

hiking diamond head. 

days at the beach. 

BYU-Hawaii. 

My dad is a genius. 

Ate out er day. CPK 

Hawaii temple :) 

Pearl Harbor

Polynesian Cultural Center 

Canoe rides 

Luau

daddy's girls :) 

my baby boy. 

<3

snorkeling. 

our snorkeling destination. 

Overall, I can say we had a great time together. The weather was beautiful and it was a great break after my intense 70+ hour studying week. For those of you who aren’t as cool as me, and get stuck in freezing weather, tough luck.  Hahah… regardless of where I am though, I love this time of year. Everyone heads home for the holidays.  And wherever home may be, I hope everyone is having a fantastic winter break. Remember to be thankful for the family you are given. Nobody has a perfect family, but we should all try to learn to love each other.

Aloha and Happy Holidays everyone!

B

331394-563

My Second Family.

Today was the last day of classes for my first semester in BYU's accounting program. 

You know how sometimes events in our lives seem so far away and then BAM. You are there. Where you've always pictured yourself. It always seemed so far away... but its actually happening and it almost feels like a dream. Well, ever since I can remember, I have pictured myself at BYU, in the accounting program. I was interested in it in middle school, and I told EVERYONE in high school of my plan to be a future accountant. And here I am, already done with my first semester. 

The great thing about my interest in accounting is that the school of my dreams, BYU, has the second ranked accounting program in the nation, and I now know why. The people in the program are some of the smartest, hardest working people I have ever met. BYU's accounting program is organized so well, and they overwhelm us with homework and projects. Not to mention, the tests are ridiculous. We have class at 8am Monday through Friday. Then, after class... if its a good day, homework will only take 4-5 hours. But most days arent good days. This past semester, was the hardest schooling I have experienced. There were days where I was in the tanner building from 8-8, and then I would come back at 10 and stay up late studying. 14+ hour days were not unusual. Its a tough program.

HOWEVER. I can not begin to express my love for accounting. I honestly love being a part of the program - we are treated like gold (the big four LOVE BYU students), we get lots of free stuff (I've gotten two sweatshirts, 300 dinners, tons of activities, gift cards, a trip to New York, Pens galore and a gazillion other things) and this really was the funnest semester I have ever had. I love my teachers, and more importantly I love my group. I was SO blessed to have Julia, Ammon, TJ, and Jace as the people that I had to work with everyday for the past four months. 

When we are born, we get sent to earth and get put into a family- who we spend the rest of our lives with. The accounting program is a little bit like that. On the first day of class, we get put with four other individuals that we will be working with for the entire semester. Let me tell you. Before starting the program I heard countless horror stories of some of the groups. I imagined all of the possibilities... they could smell bad, they could be lazy, they could never have time to meet, maybe not even care about accounting! Your group literally determines how your whole semester goes.  But luckily, someone who loves me a lot and is always looking out for me put me with exactly the people I needed. 

I've always believed that my family isn't perfect, but they are perfect for me. This is how I feel towards my accounting family. Sure, we may have our differences. But overall, we work hard together, finish all of our assignments, presentations and projects amazingly, get good grades, AND we have so much fun doing it.

I have come to know each one of these guys so well, and I really do care about them and love them. We've been through so much together, and I couldn't have made it through my first semester without them. Thanks. 

Julia and Ammon's Bday

My birthday!

TJ's bday!

When we first started the Warren Case

Finished the Warren Case transactions

Here's to late nights, making nicknames, wasting time, getting 10/10's on all of our quizzes, taking pictures during class, falling asleep, hanging out on weekends, battles over study rooms, field trips, seeing penny snatcher outside of class, Justin Bieber break time, sharing time, invading teachers offices, the warren case, making fun of others, Christmas music, snack time, going to whatever booth is open and taking everything, asking for blankets, my raps and random comments during class, and to all of the laughs and giggles. I love you guys. We really did have the best group in accounting group in history.

PS. I still have finals. It's not all fun from here on out. Wish me luck on what's about to be the hardest week of my whole life. hopefully I survive! Good luck to everyone else in their studies as well!

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