Coast to Coast

In the past three months Adam and I have been in Texas, Illinois, Utah, Florida, California and Colorado. We started traveling for the holidays and haven't really seemed to stop since. In a few weeks when we head out for summer sales again, we'll be going to North Carolina & Virginia (which are new to my book). I'm pretty excited because I think we'll be in a really cool area - and close to a couple lakes! Which I am super excited about....I'm definitely bringing my fishing poles and swimsuit. I LOVE summer.

We just got back a couple days ago from visiting Cami and Zach in Boulder, and although it was only a weekend trip, we always love to see them! We ate lots of good food, watched general conference, celebrated Zach's birthday, and went shooting in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was gorgeous up there, and the weather was perfect! Even got a little sun, woohoo! We shot some skeet, well Zach and Adam shot some skeet, and Cami and I attempted...wasn't on my A-game that day. I got pretty good at the skeet thrower though! My arm still kind of hurts from doing it. Panz, I know. One of the funniest parts of the day was everyone attempting to do the stanky leg. Ever since Cami told us about her visiting teacher trying to do all these dance moves, (and after watching all the videos on youtube) we were all attempting the stanky leg, the jerk, and trying to find out was the dougie was. I just look like I'm posing on a surfboard...I couldn't seem to keep my arm down when I did it. I'm sure we all looked completely retarded, but we had a kick doing it. (The jerk is pretty much impossible. I think I just need to work on my skills a bit more.)

stanky leg.

It was a fun weekend getaway :) Can't wait to do it again!

I hope you all look at those videos...and attempt the dancing.

Photography

I recently did an engagement shoot for one of my beautiful friends that I met on our study abroad, Christina, and her fiance Robert. I posted more pictures of them at my other blog for my photography...

(hollybeckphotography.blogspot.com)

Craft Shows

Craft Show #1

Why yes, my booth is in a bathroom.

Craft Show #2

A few months ago I did my first (and second!) crafts shows. They were pretty small, but I think they were a pretty good success seeing as I'd never done one before. The first was held in a model home in which I set up shop in a bathroom (don't worry, it was clean :) because every other space in the house was practically full unless I wanted to tuck myself in a water closet. And the second was at a lady's house from my mom's ward. They were both good learning experiences and I hope to do more in the future. Some of the things I sold were my tooth pillows, pacifier clips, onesies, pocket tissue holders, necklaces, headbands, and custom dolls. I have lots of new projects I want to work on, so we'll see how that goes! If you want to see some of the things I make now, check out hollyhobbyshop.etsy.com sometime!

Can't Seem to Slow Down

I think it's pretty obvious that Adam and I love to travel and see new places. This past month we have been in Houston, Chicago, and Florida - we've spent way more time on the road than we have at home! We went to Houston to visit Adam's family after Christmas, and while we were down there we had family pictures taken by Kurtis' girlfriend Marisa, and she did a great job! I love all of them, but I have a few favorites :)

Dad, Kristen, Kurtis, Adam, Me & Mom

I love his family <3

We spent almost 2 weeks hanging out with them, going to movies, jumping in their FREEZING cold pool (then steaming hot tub), watching Kurtis and Adam play Call of Duty, shopping, and on a whim got plane tickets to Chicago. I jokingly said we should go out there to help Adam's mom find an apartment and started looking at tickets, and a couple days later we ended up in the windy city! I miss being in Chicago in the winter (I lived there for my last 2 years of high school), even though it is colder than cold! I love dressing up for winter, and you almost feel like you should be extra fashionable when you're in a city like Chicago. Granted, we packed for Texas weather...so I had to have my mom send me my winter coat. It was still amazing nonetheless, and we found her an apartment on Michigan Avenue right next to Millennium Park and with a view of Navy Pier. So perfect!

Taking the bus for the first time in the city! And...it got in an accident! Bad omen?
Needless to say she didn't get that apartment!

Ice cream treats at Ghirardelli's :) Delicious!

After a cold and windy trip in Chicago, we headed home to Utah for a few days before heading to Florida to go to Disneyworld and Universal Studios! My birthday/Christmas present this year from Adam was to go to Hogwarts...because I LOVE the Harry Potter movies and books. Not in an obsessive way, but in the way that I can pretty much watch any of the movies and never get sick of them. We spent 4 days at Disneyworld and 4 days at Universal with hardly any lines and perfect weather...needless to say it was SUCH a fun trip - who doesn't like feeling like a kid again?

Enjoying some cultural experiences at Epcot.

Oh my goodness, he makes me smile.

Yes...we did. But only because Hulk Hogan was supposed to be there!

Hogwarts was amazing! I only wish that everyone else didn't think it was amazing so I could enjoy it all to myself (and Adam of course). It was pretty busy all the time, but understandably busy because it is so cool. When you walk past the Hogsmeade sign you walk into a magical world of butterbeer (which is incredibly delicious and exactly how I imagined it to taste!), broomsticks, snow-covered rooftops and...hundreds of other tourists. Lame. But when I pointed my camera just above their heads it was perfect :). Zonko's and Honeydukes are the first stores you come upon, and they are full of gadgets and goodies galore. Overpriced obviously, but we couldn't resist eating a cauldron cake and chocolate frogs while wondering around the tricks and toys in Zonko's. We also ate at the Three Broomsticks which had the second best fish 'n' chips I've ever had (second to the Blue Dolphin in Opononi, NZ)...not something I expected at a restaurant in Universal Studious - but if you ever go there, you have to eat there...even if you don't like fish like me. I do love fish 'n' chips though. We rode all the rides, my favorite being the one through the castle - standing in line in the castle is almost as good as the ride itself! They have talking pictures, Dumbledore's office, and they even have Dumbledore, Harry, Ron & Hermione there. I don't know how they do it but it's some sort of 3-D pojection trick that makes it look like they're standing there talking. It's pretty awesome.

Zonko's - isn't it so bright and colorful?! Adam drinking his butterbeer.

Butterbeer 'stache! It's butterscotch flavored and so yummy.
Thinking about it makes me want another one!

The detail on the castle is amazing! Obviously it's not life size or it
would be the size of the entire park, but it is to scale, and huge.

Adam made this trip possible and it was so much fun! Sorry my posts are always incredibly long because I cram a whole month's worth of activities into one...but I'd much rather be out playing than blogging! We haven't even been home a week and I'm already itching to go somewhere! I've been looking at friends' pictures of Hawaii and Europe and I just want to go - you only live once right? Goodness...I can't wait for summer to go somewhere new :)

Kicking It Old School

Does this post remind you of those millions of emails you used to get when you first got emails and always filled them out thinking others will read them, but really just you and a couple others might? Yes! And that's why they're so fun to fill out!! I am a listmaker. I used to spend countless nights in high school staying up late just writing in a notebook titled 'Mis Suenos'...meaning 'my dreams' in Spanish (cheesy, I know), where I had all sorts of lists like this in it and my bucket list. If I can actually find it I'll post some of those on here because there's some good ones, haha. I actually just bought a book for myself recently that has pages full of random lists like these that you get to fill out as a 'mini-journal' called My Listography and it's AWESOME. Everyone should get one. Okay so here it goes! This is for you Collette!

4 Shows I Watch:
* Top Gear (favorite! Original British one though, NOT the American one)
* Nitro Circus

* Hannah Montana - yes, seriously. I think it's hilarious.
* Fantasy Factory

4 Things I am Passionate about:
* Adam - he's my favorite person in the whole world!
* Crafts. I love to make things :)
* Reading - I love good books that make me not be able to put them down.
* The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know where I would be without it today!

(*Traveling - I wish I could go everywhere!...I added a 5th, sorry!)

4 Phrases I say a lot:
* 'Cammers?' - because I get to talk to my sister a couple times a day and for some reason we always answer the phone in weird voices and always the same way
* 'Crap' - Yes, this is one I use way too often and wish it wasn't in my list of 4 phrases I say a lot.

* 'I love you'
* 'Holy mackerel'

4 Things I have learned from the past:
* Take advantage of all the time you have with friends and family
* Traveling is worth the money spent, even if you're broke when you come back - it's totally worth it.
* Don't sweat the small stuff, it's just not worth it
* Buy renter's insurance as soon as you get married. We learned the hard way.

4 Things I did Yesterday:
* Built Frosty the Snowman while Adam wrote his paper
* Ate at Wingers
* Helped Anson shovel snow for his fort
* Read and edited Adam's paper while he fell asleep on my shoulder.

4 Places I would love to visit:
* Europe
* New Zealand (miss you Liz & Craig!)
* Alaska
* The Pacific Northwest

4 Things I am looking forward to:
* Going to Hogwarts with Adam in just a few weeks!
* Adam being finished with his huge paper
* Being a mom someday
* Buying a house and having a place of our own

4 Things I love about Winter:
* Snowball fights
* Seeing family at Christmas
* Snow-covered trees that are so pretty
* Tubing/snowboarding

4 People to Tag:
* Cami Poss
* Lauren Schreiner
* Anna Miller
* Caroline Orien

NZ, AUS and SAMOA

Okay, so I realized I posted about life after New Zealand, before I even posted about life in New Zealand. Honest mistake. I know it's been a couple months since I last blogged (story of my life...still can't seem to get past that), but here's a brief log of how our journey went in New Zealand...highlighted with a few photos along the way. And by a few, I mean a few...it took a long time to narrow it down to just a couple! Here's to our journey...

Days 1-4: Fly to Los Angeles, CA, then onto a 14-hour flight to Auckland, NZ. Adam and I were the student facilitators for the study abroad, so we got to fly out a few days early with the professor and the other 2 student who'd be driving the vans along with us to get 'acclimated' to driving on the right side of the road so we didn't kill anyone when it came time for the other students to arrive. Holy mackerel, run-on sentence. Driving on the other side of the road wasn't as big of an adjustment as I thought it would be, except for the occasional freak-out when I would look over and not see anyone driving! However...there was someone driving, just not where I was used to seeing them. We did end up in the wrong lane once after a u-turn (because that just confuses you) and that caused a bit of a scare. We got to spend the first few days with our small group up in the Bay of Islands on the North Island (we were on Russell) and basically just got to play and eat fish 'n' chips = amazing. Our holiday park was super close to the ocean, so we got to beach comb and play in the water all day. I >

Days 5-20ish: The first 2 weeks of our trip with all the students were spent taking a journey from Auckland all the way down to our new home in Invercargill, New Zealand. Some of the fun things we got to do along the way were:

Sledging in Rotorua

It's pretty much a thick boogie board with handles

that you go down white water in - and it's a blast!

Hiking the Tongariro Crossing - Emerald Pools behind

us. Adam hiked Mount Doom from LOTR on this hike too.

Taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton. I didn't realize

how crazy my hair looked until after I saw the pictures!

Frolicking around glaciers - Franz Josef

Bungy jumping in Queenstown! Adam's the little

black dot connected to the white line :) We jumped

440 feet and it was amazing! I'll figure out how to load videos

and show our jumps later.

Day 20 & Beyond: Once we got to Invercargill we got to meet our wonderful host family - Liz & Craig Murch. Boy do we miss them! They are some of the funniest, most lovable, wonderful people and I can't wait until we get to see them again. We got sooooo lucky with our host family because several students didn't have as quite enjoyable of a stay as we did - we definitely lucked out.

The adventures continued in Invercargill with all of our fun classes and trips!

Kayaking class - no, synchronized pictures weren't part

of it, but our natural skills paid off for a great shot!

Our dear and loyal mode of transportation - our bikes.

Attached to us from the first day in Invercargill...buffest

my legs have ever been in my life.

Mountain boarding with Liz and Craig at Peter & Cindy's

family's ranch - so much fun and such a wonderful family!

The views were incredible everywhere!

Fishing for flounder on Oreti Beach! This was the one

flounder in our net (normally you catch around 20 I guess),

but we were happy about it! We caught some puffers too!

Lake Wakatipu outside Queenstown just before heading

to hike the Routeburn Track- it's this gorgeous everywhere!

Rock-climbing class - Adam showing his mad skills

Hiking the Remarkables just outside of Queenstown

(The LOTR scene where Sam starts drowning was filmed

on a lake up here)

Hiking the Kepler Trek - most beautiful hike in the whole

world! I thought Routeburn was incredible, and then I did

this hike! You hike along mountain peaks so much of the way,

and have the most incredible views the entire time.

After the program ended, Adam and I headed back up north

to Rotorua to do some of the things we missed out on! We couldn't

choose, so we did it all :) This is luging and is incredibly fun! It looks

like you're on a dorky little scooter, but what the picture doesn't show

you is that you ride these down the mountains and you fly! So much

fun! Definitely would be a liability in the US, so that's why you should

go to New Zealand! So much fun! We found a ticket on the ground so

Adam got an extra ride!

Zorbing - that's us in the ball coming down the grassy

hill! They fill it with warm water and push you down a hill -

it's awesome! It goes by fast though, but I think it's worth

doing once in a lifetime.

After New Zealand, we headed to Melbourne, Australia,

to visit my Uncle Russ and his family. They took us on an

amazing trip down the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles -

the stone pictured below - and all sorts of beautiful things there.

Feeding the parrots in the middle of a campground -

you just hold out your hand and they fly right to you!

They also have koala bears everywhere because there

are Eucalyptus trees all over. They're so cute!

Adam & Matilda became the best of buddies :) If any of you

know the turtle song, that's what Adam hooked her with,

it was bff's after that - I think she still talks about him sometimes.

Super cute - who can't resist those sweet faces?!

After Australia we headed home...almost! We made a pit stop in

Samoa for more fun. We just couldn't stop!

We stayed in the faale's behind us - the water was crystal clear

and incredible! A lot of the reef was damaged because of the tsunami,

but there were still tons of pretty fish to see!

Samoa is beautiful everywhere.

I mean it.

Some coral love.

One of the many blue starfish Adam found! I love

this picture :) Some nice Finnish travellers let us

borrow their snorkeling gear.

This is what happens when I take Dramamine to

avoid getting seasick - unconciousness.

Eating bat on the last night of our trip! They looked

like little werewolf/humans! Super creepy and not too tasty -

Yes, that is the head. Zoom in and it will look even grosser.

We finally headed home to the states after Samoa, and after a couple hours in LAX, we were free! And then we went to Disneyland. Refer to following post.

This sure was a lengthy one! I made up for lost times...hopefully you enjoy seeing a little of all the things we did!