If an "update" is what you want to call this. 

Basically, here's what you've missed/what I've neglected to blog about as of yet.

1: Papa had his gala for Mentors International. I wish you could all hear my dad ask billionaires for money. He is the most eloquent, classy guy that I know. The benefit show was amazing, complete with Elder Oaks daughter on the violin and some other fantasticly talented woman whose name I can't recall.

Matthew won this plant, and he was one proud father of it.

2: I hung out with all of my roommates for the first time! All four of us are crazy busy and I'm never ever at our apartment and this was the first time we all got to hang out together. We went to dinner at the cutest restaurant in the Riverwoods and we saw that actor from The Best Two Years! I really, really like my roommates. I know that in some other life, if I wasn't juggling school, work, AND a boyfriend, that we could have become really great friends.

3: Matthew and I went to Hee Haws. haha. I was craving a hayride, and Matthew enjoys all things haunted, so we went down the street for a haunted hayride at Hee Haws. It was the scariest one that I have ever been to, and we really enjoyed it.

 

4: We also carved pumpkins! We took Nathan down with us to Maceys to pick out the best pumpkins in the bunch, and carved away. It was the first time I've ever carved something other than two triangles and a jagged mouth into a pumpkin, and I was pretty proud! 

5: and last, but definitely not least, we all flew up to Disneyland for my birthday! This girl has now entered a whole new decade of life. Disneyland was so much fun. I got to go on all of my favorite rides and spend time with my favorite people. I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Oh, and p.s. For my birthday, Matthew gave me two good books, and a deep tissue massage at a local spa! I just got to go to the massage today, and it was my first real massage. It. was. glorious. I'm thinking I'm going to need more of those in the future.

Adam and his fiance, Kenzie. She's hardcore, as you can tell.

Hopefully I'll be blogging more often!

Tonight I'm off to see Footloose with the boyfriend!

What are your weekend plans?

Papa has been writing a book..

about Nathan's drowning accident and such..

and he wants each of his children to write a small tid-bit about Nathan and what we've learned from him that papa can add to his book.

help me??

just tell me if I sound like an idiot. mkay? Because this book is going to be published for all the world to see. {meaning..all of Utah and those who shop at Desert Book.}

Here's mine: {unless you guys think it sounds stupid. Then I'll write up something else.}

Nathan and I are significantly close in age, so growing up we had most of the same friends and there was rarely a time when we did something without the other. I will always be able to recall my mom telling us of how we were "partners in crime", although I was always pretty good at getting Nathan blamed for our mischievousness. We liked to run around the neighborhood barefoot, eating our Ramen Noodle seasoning packets and dance to the Backstreet Boys on the brick wall on the side of our house. Nathan truly always has been my very best friend in the world.

The week Nathan's accident occurred, I was staying with a friend in Salt Lake City, and I used to get exceptionally homesick. Because of this, I would call home every night and talk to each member of my family. Nathan was the last person I talked to the day before his drowning and he knew how homesick I was, so he was telling me a few jokes before we had to hang up. The last words he said to me that night, which happened to be the last words I ever heard him speak, were, "Be safe, have fun, I love you, Kalynn!"

This memory stands as a reminder of how caring Nathan has always been. He was the peacemaker of our family, so it seems fitting now that he is still the one teaching us about love, humility, patience, optimism, and faith. Nathan's strength makes me stronger. It makes our family, as a unit, stronger. It makes every person he comes in contact with stronger. Not a day goes by when I am not profoundly influenced by Nathan and what he has to teach me. I truly believe that even through all of his pain Nathan is a happy person. If there is anything to learn from Nathan, it's that as long as you've got something to hold on to, whether it be family, or perhaps God, then you can choose to be happy and life is still worth living. And I believe Nathan does that perfectly.

As always,
Kalynn Eve.