Happy Birthday To Me!

So my family was two weeks early on the delivery, but I'm not complaining!

What a wonderful21st birthday gift!

 Cant wait to take the Go Pro out on the mountain as well as mount it to my longboard when I get back home.

A special shout out to my sister for the awesome new additions to my Krochet Kids collection.

Not only do I have some sweet new beanies and a new case for my laptop, but it's so wonderful that we are able to help the beautiful women of Uganda and Peru empower themselves through these purchases.

To find out more about KKi: https://www.krochetkids.org

Goosebumps, Every Time.

"I Can't Make You Love Me"

Bon Iver

Turn down the lights;
Turn down the bed.
Turn down these voices
Inside my head.

Lay down with me;
Tell me no lies.
Just hold me close;
Don't patronize.

Don't patronize me.

[Chorus:]
'Cuz I can't make you love me
If you don't.
You can't make your heart feel
Something it won't.
Here in the dark
In these final hours,
I will lay down my heart
And I'll feel the power;
But you won't.
No, you won't.
'Cuz I can't make you love me
If you don't.

I'll close my eyes,
Then I won't see
The love you don't feel
When you're holding me.

Morning will come,
And I'll do what's right;
Just give me till then
To give up this fight.

And I will give up this fight.

[Chorus]

So, Now What?

What am I going to do once this girl leaves me all alone in Montana for the summer?

Brb, I'm already crying.

The Finale

So sad to announce, but this past tuesday was the last tuesday night broom ball event of the season.

It was a chilly night spent with great company and good games, but i'm sad to see it go.

Until next winter broom ball, you've done us well.

Besos.

Fresh Life:Bozeman

This Sunday, I was given the opportunity to join something that is so much greater than myself.

My friend, Niles, invited me to the opening day of a new church that was opening up in Bozeman. The church is called Fresh Life and was started in Montana and has spread across the state at a rapid speed. Fresh Life is not "your grandma's church". It takes His word and is projected out in a younger and fresh way (hence the name; Fresh Life). 

Pastor Levi is an absolutely amazing Pastor who has a way of captivating the entire congregation. 

Niles and I left Big Sky at 6:50 am to head to Bozeman to help set up.

I was recruited as part of the Guest Services team.

This entailed greeting the guests as they came in, passing out bulletins, and just being the first friendly face they saw when coming through the door. 

I got to meet a lot of awesome and inspirational people and have started my journey into reconnecting with Him and His word.

 For lent, besides giving up soda, I also decided to start reading the bible and studying it on the daily. 

The combination of weekly bible study, reading the bible daily, and going to Fresh Life every sunday is so exciting to me. 

The Lord is being reignited in my soul. 

I am so blessed and excited to be gaining that passion back in my life.

To learn more about Fresh Life, go to: http://freshlifechurch.com

Quick meeting before the service began. Amazing to see all the volunteers who came out to support.

The view from above at all 100+ people who attended the opening!

Employee Ski Days are the Best Kind of Days

Only two days a month, the employees of the Yellowstone Club get the opportunity to enjoy the perks of being the only private ski resort in the world. A few days before this month's ski days we had some fresh powder fall and build up quite a bit. So when the time came for employee ski day, we got to take full advantage of "private powder".

I also recently found out, through my friend who happens to be a snowboard instructor at the YC, that employees are able to get free snowboard or ski lessons if they are not booked up. My snowboard instructing friend, Ryan, happened not to be booked up for the afternoon and I decided to take advantage of some free lessons with good company! 

Ryan helped me fine tune my turns and get even more comfortable on my toes. 

My biggest issue is the fact that I am trying to maneuver my snowboard like my surfboard. It is habit for me to use my back foot to steer and with snowboarding, the weight needs to be on the front of your board, using your toes. 

It is a little intimidating to put that weight forward on your board as you bomb down a mountain, but that fear of speed will eventually diminish as I start getting more confidence in the control of my board. 

Riding powder has been my absolute favorite.

When riding powder, you have to shift your weight to the back of your board, in order to keep the nose up and out of the snow. The weight shift of riding in powder reminds me of carving a wave. 

Ryan could tell I was a surfer back home, based on the way I would carve the powder. 

He also said my confidence on the powder increased so much more.

I know I can't count on riding powder all the time, so I need to get used to that toe.

Even though I am not going down any black diamonds yet (at least not purposefully) I can see a vast improvement in my skills and confidence and I am excited to see where I'll be at the end of the season!

La Parrilla

Katie and I had to run some errands in town (Bozeman) for work 

& we decided to stop into a recommended restaurant, La Parrilla.

The best way to describe it? A Mexican grill with small town flare.

KT had a cheesy quesadilla with a side of guacamole,

while I enjoyed a classic burrito packed with black beans, steak, cheese, lettuce, and fresh salsa.

We may have gotten simple dishes, but the taste was anything but simple.

We left with happy & extremely full tummies.

We did have room for our Mcflurries though.

La Parrilla, we will be back!

A Little Sorority Swag Is Always A Good Idea

The roommate and I got matching letters.

We are beyond excited to sport our Montana inspired letters, just incase you couldn't tell.

I also received a few other goodies in the mail.

Thanks to the homie, Elizabeth back at school, for sending me my maroon long sleeve that our entire chapter ordered. I'll be rocking the "X" and a "horseshoe" all around Montana now.

Line Dancing

Cody, a friend from Bible Study, invited Katie and I to go line dancing on Monday night.

It was a completely spur of the moment decision to go but "when in Montana..."

New Friends in Big Sky

Hey everyone, meet Keith & Cami.

I met Cami one day as I was working on my toe edge on the "magic carpet" over on the mountain.

She was working on her toe edge as well and had really started to get it down.

One of the lift operators had been watching her all day and told me to watch her to get some pointers.

Eventually, Cami came up to me and offered some advice and support.

We ended up taking a couple beginner runs together and exchanged numbers.

We had lunch together, and that's when her friend, Keith, ended up joining us.

Keith & Cami are from Wyoming and made their way out here for a change.

Keith already had a lift operator job lined up out here and when Cami found out he was moving out here, she decided to join him, as Cami has a sister out here that works at the resort.

When I met the two of them on Sunday, I had found out they had only been out here since the previous Tuesday! 

Cami and I continued to ride together the rest of the day and even met up on Monday to ride again.

It is really nice having someone to ride with that is on your level. 

It makes things more enjoyable when you have a buddy to ride with, ya know?

Keith and I took a couple runs together while Cami took a water break and he lead me to a run that had a natural half pipe. Riding up and down the sides of that was an absolute blast.

I was worried to take that first run with Keith at because I knew his skill level was going to be way above mine, but he stayed slow for me and made sure I was alright the entire time so I really was able to enjoy the runs, instead for feeling stressed out and rushed about keeping up.

I'm stoked to have some new friends on the mountain and I'm stoked to have a fellow female snowboarding friend to shred with at our own pace!