PSF: Not Exactly Roughing It...

If you've been reading here lately or keeping up with me on facebook, you may have heard about the fabulous trip to Colorado my family and I took. If not, pay more attention don't worry I will fill you in!

About a week before Christmas, we found out that we were being an amazing gift; a trip to Colorado. A family who heard of our family and what we've been going through has a house in Beaver Creek. Every year around Christmas time, they pick a family and donate their house to them for a week. This year, they chose us. And let me tell you, this was no average trip! We were living the high life for that week, and it is a trip we will never forget I am sure!

First of all, as if staying in an amazing house and bringing 4 extra people (my sister's friends) with us wasn't enough, we were flown to Colorado on a private plane.Which was really, really amazing!

Definitely a step up from your average flight, don't ya think!? As we were flying in, we could already start to see the beautiful, snowy white mountains!

Once we landed, we drove about 30 minutes (with amazing views the whole way! Everywhere you looked, it was so pretty) to the awesome house we stayed in. Seriously, it was such a beautiful house!

The picture is kind of dark... I don't know why it didn't occur to me to take a picture during actual daylight.

As soon as we got to the house, my sister and her friends literally ran into the house and before I even got inside, they had claimed their bedrooms! The house was just as beautiful inside as out; it was 5 stories and 5 bedrooms! We all kind of ended up on our own floor; my sister and her friends were on the next to last floor, I was above them and my parents were in the huge master bedroom on the top floor.

This was my room.

Clearly, this was taken after I had been living in it a few days!

The room my sister and 2 of her friends stayed in

The room the other 2 girls stayed in. (Sorry crappy iPhone picture)

The living area upstairs on the main floor was beautiful! It had a really nice kitchen, dining room and living room where we spent a lot of time playing games and watching movies!

The kitchen is on the right, dining room on the left and the living room in the middle!

Not only was the house clearly amazing, but the trip itself was also a blast! My mom and I don't ski (hate it. Despise skiing. Tried it once, never again!), so we spent our days walking around town (before the temperature dropped later in the week to single digits, including 0), shopping, etc. We even went and drank Pear Martini's one day! They were so good!

Yum!!!

It was really nice to spend some time with her just the two of us! My dad took my sister and her friends skiing every day, and they (mostly) had a good time! They were even crazy brave enough to face the single digit weather.

Of course, New Years was an experience all in itself, but you read about that already.

The end of the week came way too quickly (we tried to negotiate another day, but it didn't work out) and we were sad to leave the beautiful mountains. We flew home on another amazing private plane as a last part of our high life week!

We are so grateful for this trip that was such a generous gift! It was so nice to completely escape from real life for a week and enjoy some R and R! Great memories were made, a lot of fun was had and the time was definitely well spent!




Hosted by Cecily and Lolli
(I'm accidentally posting this a day late because I forgot yesterday. Ooops!)

You Don't Know What You've Got Until It's Gone

You know that saying "You don't know what you've got until it's gone"? Like, you can't appreciate all the great things in life until they are taken away from you? Well, that has been on my mind the last couple days since it is sort of how I'm feeling since being back to school. However, I'm making a minor adjustment to that famous phrase. (I apologize to whoever made this quote up, but I am making it my own!) If you ask me? You don't know what you've got until its gone... and then you get it back!!!

When I was at home for break, I didn't really think about school and whether or not I missed it. I was just living in the moment, I guess, enjoying my time with my family. When it came time to come back to school Tuesday, I was apprehensive. I was really sad to leave and I wasn't really sure how I felt about coming back.

Even though a lot of me was sad, part of me was looking forward to going back. It had been a whole month since I had seen or (in most cases) talked to my sorority sisters. And I was ready for that to change. Deep down, I knew once I got back that things would be great!

And I was right; As soon as I got back, I didn't see how I had survived without all these people for a whole month!!! Every new person I saw, it was another fantastic reunion. My little sis, my "god daughter", and another one of our sisters picked me up from the shuttle bus. Just a few minutes before, I was thinking about how sad I was about leaving home. But as soon as I saw them, I just instantly became happier! It was so much fun to see them, to catch up with each others' lives and just to spend time with them again! As I got the sorority house, there were more and more sisters to see, and to catch up with, including my best friend. That was the best reunion of all; to finally see my best friend, to sit on her couch just like always, talking the night away!

At one point last night, I was sitting in the basement surrounded by some of my sisters and best friends, and I thought to myself "This is the life." The more and more time I get to spend with my sisters these last couple days, the happier I am to be here. Whether it's staying up late talking about boys, or sitting in a hospital room because one sister has appendicitis (true story), or just watching a movie; no matter what we are doing being back together makes me realize how much I actually missed these people, whether I knew it before or not.

Even though it sucks to say goodbye to my family, even though I was apprehensive about coming back, once I got back I realized how much I love it here. How much I love my sisters and I am so grateful to have them in my life! Which lead me to my conclusion, you don't know what you've got until it's gone.... and then you get it back. I had to be away from my sisters for awhile and then reunite with them in order to remember how great it is to have sisters! When I was at home, I never realized how much I missed sitting around with my sisters, talking and laughing. But that now that I am doing it again? I can't imagine being anywhere else!!

"It's not just letters, parties and good times. It is a feeling that will never leave you as long as you live. It is a responsibility and a duty to yourself and you sisters. It is an eternal love."