i'm packing to go back to school today. i'm not one of those people who only take some of their clothes with them to school. in high school, i remember people saying things like, "you really don't need as much clothes for college as you think you do." and i never understood that. it's not like you're going on vacation. you're at school for more of the year than you are at home. all that too say, it's a lot of work to pack my clothes. i pretty much take my entire closet. which is preeeeeeeetty full. but i changed up my technique this year. space bags for the win.

it's weird to think that the summer is over. i mean, i suppose i technically have two more days. but packing and driving 10 hours don't exactly scream "summer" to me. but i'm looking forward to seeing my friends, although i'll miss laying around until 3pm reading blogs.

it was a good summer. certainly different than i anticipated it being. but it was good.
now, off to do more packing.

so long summer.
ko.

where i'm headed.

i finished the last day of my internship yesterday. and now i'm headed to one of my favorite places. the lake.

amanda and i are headed down for a long, long weekend. and we're planning on doing lots of lounging and lots of reading and relaxing. so i won't be around here until late next week.

have a happy weekend.
ko

a quick trip back to school.

this last semester at school was one of my very favorites. i found myself in the most wonderful group of friends. i miss them all every. single. day. so, i was obviously thrilled when i got the chance to go back to school for a few days and see some of my friends that are still there.

what made the trip even better is the reason i was going. my friend of 13 years, amanda, decided to come to iwu this year for school. i'm so excited for her to join me for my last year of school and i think she is going to love it. 

i nearly cried my eyes out when i saw paige. oh i miss my cousin so much. 

paige and i met at our freshman registration, so this trip was like coming full circle for us. and really going through registration with amanda was so weird. i kept thinking about when i registered and it feels like forever ago. it's also so weird that i'm about to start my senior year of college. the "what are you going to do when you graduate?" questions have started and it just feels weird. its gone crazy fast and its gone crazy slow. and it's almost over but graduation seems so far away too. and now amanda is going to be there too and my worlds are colliding a little bit, but i'm hopeful that its going to be a beautiful collision and i can't wait to see it happen.

i also saw my precious, precious friend rhoda, who i love so much i could cry. we sent this picture to some of our friends who weren't there. 

and courtney happened to be in the area, so i got to see her too. moo moo was thrilled to see her.

and we stayed at theeeeee cutest bed and breakfast. omg. it was adorable and i want to live there. we stayed in rooms 3 and 4, but i forgot to take a pictures.

the food was so delicious. i wish i would have taken a picture of breakfast the first morning. cause it was out of this world tasty.

but you know, you can only stand on a chair in someone else's bed and breakfast so many mornings.

and they had these precious little trees all over. and the house was just adorable. i might just book myself a night there next time i want to take myself on a date or vacation.

the only bad part of the trip was the drive to and from the airport. i've driven that drive a gazillion times. 

and i was boooooooooored.

bring on the selfies.

i never take selfies. unless it's on snapchat. so enjoy this. it won't happen again for 9248397 years.

see ya players.

ko.

a family bridal shower. for a different bride!

when my sister jocilyn got married is the first time i remember all my cousins from my mom's side being together. i was only 8 then. now we've all grown up and several cousins are old enough to get married. this means that we get to see each other a lot more often. we've had 3 cousin weddings in the last year and are headed to california in october for another one. 

since the whole family was together for kelsey's wedding, aunt susan had the brilliant idea of hosting a family bridal shower for nicole. 

unfortunately it was at 7am the day after kelsey's wedding. not my favorite. but still fun.

mason was the only boy allowed. sweet baby.

aunt susan hosted a shower for kelsey last time she was in town and it was baseball themed. i'm now realizing that i never blogged about it. sorry kels. anyway, nicole and ken are going to tahiti for their honeymoon, so aunt sue threw a tahitian themed shower. she's so creative. 

the bride!

mom and the L's.

aunt ali, katie, megan and mason.

jessica, the lovely host, and aunt adie.

the J's.

nana and jocilyn.

me and nicole.

isn't she cute?

the sisters.

the sister's and nana.

katie :)

and the girl cousins on my mom's side minus kelsey who was obviously gone and natalie, who had to fly back to california that morning.

i love getting together with the cousins. we have so much fun together. i hope you felt special at your shower, nicole, and i can't wait to see you in a few months for your big day!

ko.

wedding flowers.

i'm getting really clever with these post titles, huh?

i didn't take really take any pictures the day of kelsey's wedding. i wanted to be respectful of the photographers we hired, and i had pleeeeeenty of other things to do. but i couldn't resist taking pictures of the flowers.

i love taking pictures of flowers. the very first time i used a DSLR camera, i went in aunt cindy's backyard and took pictures of flowers and grass and water spigots. i didn't know what an aperture was. i didn't know what bokeh was, but i liked getting close and personal with a flower and isolating it from its surroundings.

i shoot on full manual now and i know what all those words mean, but i still like taking pictures of flowers.

and the bouquets were beautiful, so that makes it even more fun.
ko.

kelsey's wedding rehearsal.

my sister got married the saturday after july 4th. all of my mom's family was able to come to the wedding and most of them were even able to come for the rehearsal. there are a lot of cousins, so it is always a good time. 

my cousin, nicole, took pictures for me since i had to be in the rehearsal. thanks for doing that nicole!

not sure what we were all staring at so intently.

what am i doing. anyone? anyone?

nicole's fiance, ken, and my cousin austin are a bunch of jokesters. they get along really well.

kelsey's face....

happily ever practiced.

and the only one in color. cause i liked it better that way. my cousin, megan, her son, mason,her mom/my aunt alison, my aunt adie and me.

it was good day, except for the part where i burned my knee and two fingers hot gluing kelsey's rehearsal bouquet. it was seriously so painful. i ended up peeling off some of my skin when i tried to get the glue off and my fingers hurt so bad that i didn't think i was going to be able to do everyone's hair for the wedding the next day. but, thanks the Lord, they felt just fine the next morning!

so dramatic.

happy friday!

ko.