Reflecting on One Year of Mawiage

This was saved as a draft from a long time ago. I figured I might as well publish it now!

Things we have done this past year:
Moved twice (Our studio apartment on Center Street, and now Wymount)
Bought a car from Mason's grandparents
Practiced the guitar together
Run 3 half marathons
Gone on vacation to Vernal, Utah, where we camped for the first time together!
Spent Christmas at the Waite plantation and Thanksgiving with the Parkes family
Made our first Christmas music video together!
Stumbled upon Strom Thurmond's hometown and his very own house (on our way back from our honeymoon)
Been to the beach in South Carolina
Gone on bike rides that are over 10 miles long! (A major feat for Bri)
Bought car insurance and renter's insurance (so grown up of us)
Mason dyed my hair red!
I got a drastic haircut
We filed taxes together

Hooray for one year!

School starts tomorrow

We are both feeling good about this upcoming semester. I have been taking a break from school for about a year (ish) and I am excited to be heading back! Normally before a semester begins I am filled with dread and apprehension, but this time around I am feeling very calm. This is going to be a big semester for me, because I am getting all of my generals done, and I also have a few other personal goals that I am going to be working on at the same time. I know that it will be tough, because it is always tough, but I think that in my time away from school I have learned some valuable things that will enable me to make it through this semester.

This is going to sound totally weird, but my job at the bakery has been like the greatest thing ever for me. It is unlike any job I have ever had before. Here are a few things I feel like my job has taught me since I started there in January:
-I remember things 1000x better if I am exposed to it multiple times in different ways. Ex: If someone tells me how to ice a cake, and then I ice it with them, and then ice it by myself, I am good to go. If someone were to just explain to me how to ice a cake, then I would not understand and it would be a mess!
-I am capable of getting up extremely early in the morning. Who knew? Haha. I feel like it helps me to get out of bed knowing that people are depending on me. If I don't show up to work, everyone else will be super stressed and we will not be able to do everything we need to do. I think that's taught me to be more responsible.
-I am able to learn new things. That is a good thing to know about myself; in the past I have felt like I have just reached my capacity. This job allowed me to stretch and grow in new ways, and that is a great feeling to have.
-I like having responsibility. I like being in charge of my own station with minimal supervision. It makes me feel good and helps me to feel like I have a clear purpose.

This list is not totally comprehensive, but those are the biggest things that come to mind.

Also, tonight Mason gave me a blessing. It was great and made me feel like I can do it! I am grateful that Mason can give me priesthood blessings and that he always tries to help me with school. I love him with my whole heart and I can't express that enough.

I asked Mason how he was feeling about this semester so I could put it in this post too, but he just said he wanted to write it in his journal instead. So that's why there's nothing about it here.

Anyway, here's to a new semester. We can do it!

Hiking the Y with Nate R.

Our friend Nate and his dear wifey Maddie are moving to Arkansas soon. Nate and Mason were roommates their freshman year at BYU and then again after their missions. They've gotten to be real good pals, and I like him a lot too. :)

One of the things on Nate's Provo Bucket List was to hike to the top of Y mountain. Seeing as he is leaving soon, and Mason and I are experts at hiking the Y (because of the one time we did it together last summer), we decided to make his dream come true, and one late April morning we did it!

Nate and I were both kind of dying a little on the hike to get to the actual Y on the side of the mountain. It is an indisputable fact that the trail leading up to the Y is a very terrible hike. It is SO steep, there's about a million switchbacks, and it's not even pretty. It's just dusty and rocky and steep. Did I mention how steep it was? I mean, really.

Eventually we made it to the Y, and then the real fun began! We went off on the little trail that leads to the top! We were on our way!

Soon we made it to Mouse Rock, which is cool because from a distance it actually looks just like a mouse. Close up, Nate was convinced it looked a lot more like a rabbit. Also like a lizard. Haha I'm not sure how a rock that is supposed to look like a mouse can possibly look like a rabbit AND a lizard simultaneously. It was funny!

It was a fun, pretty hike and the weather felt perfect. Lots of cloud cover, and cool but not too cold. We stopped for some Clif bars, saw our old dead nasty goat friend's skeleton laying on the side of the trail right where it was last year, and then... it happened.

Snow. Everywhere. We had gotten up so high on the east side of the mountain where the sun barely ever shines, and the snow was everywhere! It was beautiful, but SO slippery and actually really deep in some places. We struggled through it, Mason decided his new name was Captain Crampon because of his very grippy trail running shoes he was wearing, and Nate was starting to get grumpy. I'm sure we were quite a sight.

We actually ran into two guys who were looking for the summit who had given up and were on their way back down. I felt bad for them and we all wondered for a moment if we should keep going. Of course, we did! The terrain was steep and slippery and it was getting a little cold, but we WOULD find the summit! With Captain Crampon as our fearless leader, we could not fail.

Eventually, we made it. It was beautiful. Nate had mentioned on our way up the mountain that he wanted to scream, "WHO AM I????" from the top of the mountain, but we all forgot, so he didn't. We all took some pictures and drank in the beauty, and then realized that it looked like a big storm was rolling in so we had better skidattle. Also, someone who shall remain unnamed used our emergency toilet paper. Hopefully that proves to someone else who shall remain unnamed that bringing TP on adventures where there's no potty is not a laughable idea. ;)

The way down was even more slippery than the way up, and we all fell on our bums at least once. I was the record holder, with 5. Even Captain Crampon went down! Oh, and later Nate found a stick to help him get down the mountain, and Mason started calling him Admiral Ice Pick. They are goobers!

Finally we made it out of the snow and started down on the easiest part of the trail. Then it started to hail! HAIL! It was insane. We hustled along and eventually it stopped, but it was about 10 minutes of being hailed on I think.

Finally we made it down the super steep Y trail. Nate had holes in the toes of his shoes, so his entire big toe stuck out of one of them on the way down and we all laughed about it.

It was a blast. I'm sad to see the Robisons moving away, but I hope Arkansas holds happiness and many fun adventures for them.