Yes everyone, it snowed!

...in the mountains. But I can't not say anything about this beautiful weather outside. Excuse the plethora of seasonal blog posts for the next few months.

Why do I love this weather so much? I remember growing up and waking up to the sound of my dad's tractor shoveling snow right outside my bedroom window. He would make a huge pile of it right outside the kitchen and that's what we would play in all winter long. We tried making forts by carving mazes, but we never were patient enough to make it deeper than a foot. Sarah's glasses would get fogged up and that shaggy hair would get in her face while trying to distinguish herself as the general contractor. Nicole would try to push everyone off the top of "her" castle, and Jake would just sit there and watch, content as a blue marshmallow with dark pink cheeks cratered with dimples.


Half of us now are grown up and moved out of the house. One thing that brings us back together is this anticipation for the winter season to come. The leaves are changing, I can smell the hot chocolate, I'm planning what to surprise everyone with for Christmas, and I get a chance to spend a lot of time with my family. Since we're getting older, it's actually calm at the Hawkes' house now-a-days, so the Holidays will be relaxing and rejuvenating. Our cabin will even be (somewhat) complete to have Thanksgiving in! It will be the first of many Thanksgiving dinners in that pioneer-looking home on our farm in Idaho with a magnificent view of the Tetons.  The size of the cabin also reflects my parent's excitement for grandchildren. Maybe we'll have a big snowbank there for them to play on. Nicole?

 Halloween '97. A Spanish queen (?), a bear, and a...I have no idea.

Dad showing me what I got from Santa. Oh how I wish I could find another nightgown like that in my size...

Let's be honest, I think this weather is just getting me more excited for Christmas break to be here already. 10 weeks from tomorrow and I'll be out of my last final on my way home with a huge smile on my face.

Conference weekend...the aftermath.

General Conference gets better every year. You can call me a "Utah Mormon" for saying that...now officially a "Utah member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." But it really does, and it's probably because I'm getting older and understanding a lot more about my religion. 


Even though I slept through half of the last session, it was a powerful weekend. I went to the Sunday morning session in Salt Lake, which were back-to-back amazing talks. It was great to hear President Monson speak about his relationship with God, and great to hear Elder Callister speak about the Book of Mormon. The rest of the day was so calm just spending it with close friends and family...a BBQ (basically), watching Disney movies and making peach cobbler. In sweats.


So now, why does BYU make us go to school the day after Conference? We're all on a high, then we come back bright and early Monday morning to get through another week of school. I was dreading coming back to Provo last night. We should take advantage of a Fall break and make it the week after conference. Instead we get homework piled on for those midterms coming up. (In 2 weeks we're halfway done with the semester...what?) I just think it's cruel to make students come back so quickly after a weekend like that. That's what I get for going to a private university.


Maybe I'll just instigate my own Fall break. 

5 reasons why I love Fall.

I think there is much to be said about the phrase, "It's the time of year when the world falls in love."


Not just romance. I fall in love with everything autumn. Here's why I'm so excited for the next 3 months:

1. Everyone comes together. Families, friends, coworkers...all to celebrate this time of year. The holidays bring out love in others they wouldn't show otherwise.
2. Dressing up to go out for a girls' night. a.k.a. Fall fashion.
3. The leaves changing. I think that's about all I need to say about that one.
4. Waking up and seeing the first snowfall outside my bedroom window...knowing that my dad is going to call me in less than an hour to see if I want to go skiing on Saturday.
5. I'll just sum up everything in this last-but-not-least-checklist: hot chocolate. pumpkins. parties. baked cinnamon apples. crisp air. football. cuddling. s'mores. ice skating. hoodies. love.

Three and a half things.

First thing: It's kinda fun to keep changing this blog header...I promise I'll stop soon. It took me a little longer to figure out than I thought it would, but thankfully I don't really have any homework this weekend. That's the beauty of being a broadcast journalism major: lots of labs. We do homework in class. AWESOME.


Second thing: so proud of my team last night. We looked great, and there was so much energy! It was entertainment at it's best. Clean, fun entertainment. That's how BYU is supposed to play, ESPN. I promised we'd give you a great show. (Kyle Van Noy's 93 yd. touchdown...ahem.) 


Third thing: John Legend? Guilty pleasure? Actually, that's not guilty. If any man sang this to me...wow.
(I'm not a huge fan of the violence in the video, I would just suggest putting the song on in the background--the lyrics are beautiful.)

Third and a half thing: I'm off to the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame tonight. Congrats to Carl McGown along with others who are being inducted tonight. Coach McGown led the Cougs to 2 national championships in volleyball, along with coaching the USA team. He's a legend himself.

Still a fan.

Well...it happens. It's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

No, It's not. Although, I must admit that last weekend made me go from "I root for BYU and whoever plays Utah," to "I root for Utah whenever they're not playing BYU." It was tough to stay the whole game, but I did it--I'm still a Cougar. I'll never let my Cougs down. But, Utah's a great school, with a great football team. I respect them. I think I was more sad that instead of having a healthy rivalry, the whole game it was just like, "oh...I'm so sorry." I still love my football boys, regardless of the number on the scoreboard.

 This is before the game, where Spencer was convinced we

were going to kill them, but still had some hope in his Utes.

...and this is when he realized they were going to kill us.

Of all the games to bring a Utah fan to, this was the one? 

Jimmer is (was) on our team, though. I'll never let you forget it.