Happy Thursday, everybody! Today I am going to throw it back a little to 2015 and show y'all a few of my favorite memories from 2015 until now. Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did writing them.
The first memory is from when I travelled to Costa Rica! You see, we were only supposed to spend a week there doing mission work, but God had a bit of a different plan for us. On our last day, the volcano in San Jose decided to erupt. Due to the eruption, all the airports decided to shut down, which meant we would be extending our stay for a little longer! Such a struggle, right?! I couldn't have been more excited to stay a little longer in such a beautiful country! This photo was from our first extra day, where we got invited to a pool party with the church we had been helping out at. We swam, learned Costa Rican dance moves, and shared stories together. As you can tell, we were very excited to be stuck with these people for a little longer.
Concerts are one of my favorite things to do, and last summer, I got to see my favorite artist, Jeremy Loops. The concert in itself was awesome, but what made it so memorable was because my biggest inspiration was there. Ben Brown is a youtube star and photographer, and someone who I strive to be like one day. Not only did I get to meet him, but I got to be in his video and talk about my blog! It was a once in a life time experience, and will always be one of my favorite concerts. The photo below is a screenshot from his video, talking about my necklaces I make.
The coffee crawl- one of the best and worst ideas I have ever had. My friends and I decided to do what's called a "coffee crawl", basically where you go to different coffee shops all day and try them out. The first half of the day was great, and we enjoyed lots of iced coffees and lattes, but by the second half, we were all sick to our stomach from drinking so much, and not having any food in our bodies. Everyone felt horrible by the end of it. To top it off, I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out the next day, so I was already nervous for that and then feeling like throwing up, too. Thankfully, now we can look back on it and laugh, but there was no laughter coming out of anyones mouths that day!
Okay, the rest of these memories are all Link Year related because that is where I have spent the whole past year so I hope you enjoy these!
The first and last day of link year were both equally emotional. The first, because I had feeling of nervousness and awkwardness. The last, because I had feelings of grief and sadness. We started the year off by going to a spot and writing letters to ourselves, and we finished the year by going to the same spot and watching the sun set after a life changing year and reading the letters. On the last day, we shared memories and gave shout outs to people who impacted us. I don't think there was a dry eye in the area. This is one of my favorite memories of the year, because we started and ended there. It was so awkward because I didn't know anyone in the beginning, but it ended feeling like I was with family.
Thursdays at Link year were my favorite; we had family dinners, The Fort, and then my friends and I always did late night shenanigans. Basically, after The Fort, we started the night off by getting half price appetizers at Applebee's, and then went and did "hood rat" things. We stayed out until the sun would rise the next morning. My favorite thing we did was dumpster diving. For those who don't know, Krispy Kreme throws away donuts every night, in huge trash bags. What we would do, was after they closed, we would go and basically jump in their dumpster, and grab bags full of donuts. Then we would drive somewhere and sit and eat dozens of these trashed donuts!
Speaking of donuts, I have way too many good stories about this place. Hurts Donut...a place that has most of my money and memories from this year. If this shop would have been in Branson, I think I would have been broke, because I spent way too much money here. I don't think my friends and I ever went to Hurts before midnight, and I don't think we ever came back with out a story to share!
This years New Year's Eve party was the best. A bunch of my friends from Link Year flew in or drove to Dallas, and we all celebrated at my house! Everyone stayed the night, and we stayed up until 6am going to What a Burger, drinking lots of Martinelli, and watching Napoleon Dynamite. I think I heard "its lit" and "first _____ of 2016" a million times that night. This is my favorite memory from the year, by far. It was just awesome because so many of the people I love came to celebrate with me!
Okay, I know I said the New Years party was my favorite memory from this year, but this actually might be. I can have two favorites, right?! This weekend was filled with so many fun things that its hard to keep up with. We had a required event this weekend. There are two things that I love, roller skating, and the 80's. Our event just so happened to combine them together- 80's day at the rink! Lexi, Kaitlynn and I decided to all dress up together as our band, Fat Sunny. We rocked the leather pants, denim and big hair look. This picture is our album cover for our mix tape coming at you live January 15. Stay tuned.
I know I have written about this a lot already, but it was just so darn awesome that I had to include this in my throw back. IRELAND! The best month of my life. I won't write much about this, because most of y'all already know, but I will tell you that this was the funnest and coolest trips I have been on. Nothing beats traveling out of the country with some of your best friends. This was the lakeside manor that we lived in for the month.
This story is too funny not to share. So some friends and I really wanted to go to the Penny and Sparrow concert in Fayetteville. We thought that we could drive there, attend the concert, and make it back to Branson by 11 for curfew, but it just did't happen. We made it to the venue, and the opening act was supposed to come on at 7pm, and P&S at 8pm. We had to leave no later than 9:15pm to make it back on time. Well, the opening act didn't come on until 9. We had waited for two hours there and we didn't even get to see but one song by the opener. We didn't get to hear Penny and Sparrow at all, and we were running 30 minutes late to campus. We were in a huge rush to get back, so we had no choice but to speed. That didn't work out in our favor. Davis ended up getting 2 tickets in one night, and we didn't even make it back for curfew. The night was a huge bust.
Well, there you go! These are just a few of my favorite memories this year. I think I could have written a novel if I had the time, because there are just too many to choose from. I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!