starting 2012 off the right way!

hey all! what do you think about my new blog header?? the lovely rachael designed it for me! she's going to be a wonderful graphic designer, isn't she?? thanks rach; you rock ;)

so this past weekend marked the first official weekend of the second semester, and my friends and i decided to take COMPLETE advantage of that fact! i haven't even slept in my own bed since wednesday night! but you know what? busy weekends are always always always the best weekends.

future roommates!

since the beautiful miss kaylie springer is leaving us to go study abroad this semester in italy (i'm going to miss her so much!!!), she decided to come visit us this weekend! or rather...come to pitt to pick us up and take us back to her house in mt. pleasant! what a pleasant little town :) see what i did there?? sooo...since everyone has decided to take my lead this semester and NOT schedule any friday classes (woohoo!), she picked us up on thursday and we made our way to seven springs for some snow tubing! it was a blast!! i had never been snow tubing before! and we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves! we also made friends with the one other family that was there through their extremely-energized little boy, michael. it was awesome...we raced! we went down in groups! we crashed against the wall! we laughed! we screamed! we tumbled! and the weather was just grand! i loved it. and i hope that we can somehow turn this into a tradition maybe!? 

rebecca.lauren.steph.kaylie.daniela.maggie.myself.

we also got to experience the famous pizza of mt. pleasant: jioio's! it was the biggest pizza that i have ever seen! and it was delicious! it had a sort of sweeter sauce to it...yummm. and of course we chowed down on some yummy cookies too. it was really fun having a slumber party with some of my very best friends :) oh, and i'm pretty sure that she has the most adorable dog i have ever seen! and we were even treated to a yummy breakfast in the morning! french toast and sausage and bacon...thank you mrs. springer!!! 

we couldn't even get past the fact that it was only friday! we decided to spend the night at the dawson residence and have some friends over to celebrate being reunited again! and the start to a new year and a new semester of course! it was even more awesome because two of my friends from home--suds and brian--were here to visit too!!! it was one big reunion! i have a feeling that this weekend is going to be hard to top....

 kaylie. myself. maggie.

 lauren x2

 DAVID!!!

 kimmy. kim. ruben. marissa. myself. 

me and rube!

yayayay!!! brian and suds came to visit!! :)

we all awoke bright and early on saturday morning craving a hearty breakfast...so we decided to venture on over to the strip district for delucas' famous breakfast! i just love this place--i want to take anyone and everyone who comes to visit me there!! i got an apple cinnamon crepe and it was amazing. it definitely paid to call ahead and reserve a table, there being 11 of us! but i just love when friends from home and friends from school hit it off so well :) laughs all around!!

apple cinnamon crepe 

after our stomachs were completelyyyy stuffed, we took advantage of the (once again) beautiful weather by walking around to see all of the cool things that the strip district had to offer. (i would be extremely happy if the winter season stayed like this!) all of you steelers and pens fans would go CRAZY there...just about every vendor has soooome sort of pittsburgh apparel...and it's all pretty much one-of-a-kind or just plain hilarious. i love it!

we had dinner in the good ole cafeteria that night and made our way down to dawson for slumber #3! we concluded our busy weekend with a movie night and card games until 4 in the morning! (well--the three of us who managed to stay awake that is!) we just were having way too much fun to even THINK about sleeping. and it seems as if nights like those are really easy to come by lately, and i'm so grateful for that.

blessed to have all these people in my life :)

sundays, of course mean homework. but you won't find me complaining, because i've had too good of a weekend to be unhappy about ANYTHING. i know it's sappy, but i'm so so so thankful for the people that have been put in my life. they all make me laugh in different ways and they keep me going each and every day. it's weekends like this one that make me want to work harder during the week.

thank you to all of my beautiful beautiful friends--you teach me something new about myself every single day, and you've made me certain that pittsburgh is exactly where i belong :)