my McCarty reunion

Family is pretty much the greatest thing ever, right? So how about my whole McCarty family all gathered on the coast of Oregon My favorite people getting together at my favorite place! Here are a shmishsmash of pictures to tell you about the trip...

I always love seeing my sisters, and now they come with extra bonuses cause they always bring along my cute nephews. I seriously could not be more obsessed with these humans.

One of my favorite places to go when we visit Oregon is the Bandon Zoo because ALL zoos should let you play with baby animals don't you think?!

And seriously? Baby foxes. Is this Heaven?!

Oh yeah and watching baby James walking up to all the animals and saying "woof woof" was probably the cutest thing I had ever seen.

This was the view that I woke up to every morning. Hi?! Ok, so maybe it wasn't actually this sunny everyday because this is the coast of Oregon we are talking about here. But, still I couldn't believe how perfect this was.

I convinced my parents to go hiking with me, and we went on a stunning hike called the Arago Pack Trail. I loved it. I can never get over how green and perfec Oregon is. I think it's now one of my dreams to hike the entire Oregon Coast Trai (so like, who wants to hike 400 miles with me...?).

I love these people, and I love this place.

AND MY BABY EDDIE EVEN GOT TO COME ALONG!

The highlight of the trip was celebrating my amazing grandmother's 90th birthday. This woman is amazing, and I am so lucky to still have her around and to be a part of her incredible family.

She sure has created an incredible family.

Love you grandma and the rest of the McCarty fam. So glad I got to spend time with everyone and celebrate the legacy that my grandma has created.

my magical trip with Mama C

What better way is there to celebrate finishing college than by hitting all of the Orlando theme parks with your incredible mama? There is not one. There just is not.

I texted my mom a couple months ago and said: We should go to Disney World. Her response: Ok when?
So what followed was a perfect week of theme parks, laughing, happiness, diet coke, selfies, good food, magic, and just me and my mama having the best time.

Day 1 and 2 were spent theme park hopping at Disney World doing stuff like...

 hanging out with Chip and Dale...

taking selfies with Cinderella's castle...

 doing two of my favorite things in life: eating ice cream and riding carousels...

 getting caught in the rain (every single day we were in Florida)...

and of course riding ALL the rides.

I think that the absolute best part of Disney was our second night there. We were riding Thunder Mountain while the firework show was going off. I am obsessed with fireworks and watching them while zipping around on the little roller coaster was so so perfect (it almost made me actually enjoy riding a roller coaster. a rare rare thing for me.)

Day 3 was spent hanging out with my boy HP (Harry Potter for those of you who might not be quite as well acquainted with him) and running all around the rest of Universal Studios.

 You know we figured since we were in the neighborhood we might as well see how Harry, Hermione, and and Ron were doing.

There seemed to be this fun pattern of my mom and me getting stuck on rides during our trip. We hung out on the Harry Potter ride for a good five minutes. Five minutes feels significantly longer when you are harnessed in, you are facing the ceiling, and you are in the middle of trying to save Hogwarts.

Guess who just got accepted to the graduate program at Hogwarts University? Looks like I'll be taking the express train to school from now on.

You may have seen my instagram or facebook post about butter beer. It was not a great experience. Last time I went to Harry Potter world I didn't try it because it just didn't really look appealing to me. I got a lot of flack for this and was told that I HAD TO TRY IT. I tried it, and my mom caught my lovely reaction to this monstrous drink all on camera. It's pretty much butterscotch flavored cream soda. I mean if that's your thing? Cool. But, I'm gunna stick with my muggle diet coke from now on.

The rest of the day was spent romping the rest of the park. My mom made me ride Jurrasic Park twice. Maybe because I cried the first time. Oh shoot, did I really just admit that? It's ok, it wasn't as bad as I had remembered, and my mom bought me a new tank as a post ride prize.

Day 4. After Universal I thought that the fun was over. LITTLE DID I KNOW! My mom had planned a surprise day for me?!?! I have long been promised by my parents that I would get to swim with dolphins after a failed attempt on a previous trip. Well, Mama C came through, and the experience did not disappoint. We spent our last day doing the Trainer for a Day program at Discovery Cove and making best friends with dolphins, sharks, sting rays, and sloths, and it could not have been more amazing.

 You guys. I'm on the sloth train now. This little lady (the sloth not the trainer...but uhh she was nice too I guess) was adorable. 

 But I mean, this one time, me and a dolphin fell in love with each other.

 No seriously, look at all that happy.

 SO MUCH HAPPY!

 So satisfying to check things off of the life list.

 Should you ever have the opportunity to be propelled through the water by dolphins, do not pass it up. I repeat: do not pass it up.

So pretty much the takeaway message here is that I love my Mama and I could not be more grateful for this trip she took me on. And I know even though he wasn't there, Papa C was a big part of this trip too, and I am grateful for him also.

Happy Mother's day to this amazing woman and Happy 30th Anniversary to the most amazing parents in the world. I am not just lucky, I am blessed.

peace. love. and magic.

my graduation

So...I realize graduation was a couple weeks ago, and you are probably so so sick of hearing about it...but, I'm going to talk about it anyways. Sorry everyone, but I haven't had my computer for the past week, so we are going to have to catch up now.

To chat about it, here are more pictures of me than you have ever had any desire to see...

Here I am all diploma-ed up. Ok not really, that's just a diploma cover, but we can all pretend. A lot of people seemed kind of annoyed by the whole graduation thing, and I even had quite a few people tell me they weren't going to walk. Here's the thing, if I spent thousands of hours in classes to graduated, you betcha I'm sitting through a 2 hour long ceremony to walk across that stage.

 My sister Diane, her baby James, and my mom and dad all came out for graduation, but unfortunately since my sister Rochelle lives so far away in Germany, she wasn't able to come. Diane and I took this picture to pretend like she was there with us.

 These two amazing humans, my mama and my papa (in the picture below), have been the most amazing support through my college years, and well...every year of my life. I could not be more grateful for all of their help in getting through school (and yeah..life).

 #actiontasselshot

 Seriously, my whole family is amazing (plus Rochelle, Matt, Jed, and Daniel who couldn't make it out).

Every time I tried to put my hat on this little future cougar, he just put it back on me. Guess we'll have to wait a million years till his graduation day to see him wearing a weird flat-topped and tassled hat. (No, seriously. Who invented graduation robes and hats and more importantly why?!)

 Rather than take all my pics just outside of the Marriot Center where my graduation was held, I wanted to take some pictures at my absolute favorite spot on campus, the fourth floor deck of the JFSB. If you have not wandered up there on a sunny day to study (or really any day because it's always so nice), you're not using your time on BYUs perfect campus correctly.

My family all taking pictures of me and looking directly at me, and no one could say Hey Danielle, your hat is really lopsided and off center. Thanks guys.

Well, I guess this is it for me and BYU. I am so grateful for the four years that I have spent here, for the friends I have made, the professors who have taught me, the things I have learned, and the memories I have made. I still remember getting my acceptance to BYU and crying with joy, and I'm going to be honest with you right now, I'm crying just a little while I type this knowing that it's all over. Even with the number of times I pulled all nighters, had meltdowns because I thought there was no way I was going to get everything done, and questioned what I was doing, I still think I might do it all over again given the chance (wait...I guess that's what grad school is. Ok yeah, give me some time to think about that one).  I'm looking forward to bigger things, but I also can't stop looking back on a beautiful four years.

peace. love. and go cougars!

my holiday away

I can't believe that for a second I thought about not going home for Thanksgiving! (I know, I know. But I'm starting to feel weird about graduating and leaving Provo, so it makes me think about making weird decisions sometimes.)

If you ever thought that vacation was for sitting around and relaxing, you have not vacationed with my family. My sense of adventure had to of come from somewhere right? But, it was so fun to be able to spend my Thanksgiving holiday with all of the people that I am the most grateful for. And, I guess all the pie was pretty great too...

For one of our adventures, we thought that the kiddies might enjoy checking out all the fish at the Georgia Aquarium. It was such a treat to see my little guppies getting so excited about the fishes.

Danny and Dani. Can't believe Rochelle is moving to Germany and of course taking this little guy with her. But hey, he'll probably look even cuter in lederhosen. 

Those babies!!! I'm not gunna lie, I don't always get the most excited about other peoples babies, but I just swoon when I see these cute nephews of mine. I can't even imagine how obsessed I'm going to be with my own kids one day. 

On my last day of my visit back east, I got to celebrate one whole year of being an auntie with this guy as he turned the big one year.

The great importance of birthdays must be taught at a young age!! Happy birthday sweet baby James. So proud to be your Auntie Dani and can't wait to celebrate more birthdays with ya kid.

Even my cute puppy got in on the celebrating. I was actually so worried he wasn't going to remember me since Eddie was such a little puppy when I left to go back to Utah. We joked that he probably thought I was dead and would think I was a ghost. But ghost or not, he was still thrilled to have me back so that we could catch up on our snuggles. 

Although Provo has been my home for almost four years now, it always feels great to go back to Atlanta and see my family. Hope you had a perfect Thanksgiving too, and I hope you also took advantage of the opportunity to eat pie for breakfast everyday like I did (it's good for you, trust me). 

peace. love. and pie. 

my Oregon joy

My mamma grew up on the Oregon coast and some of her family still lives there, so it is always such a treat to go visit every summer. I even got to cross three things off my life list while I was there. Oh boy!

So one of my favorite places to go to in Oregon is this wild life park in Bandon where they let you play with the baby animals. Even at 21 I beg my family to go here. Haha. nothing makes you feel like a child like family vacations. But, I mean you KNOW how I love my baby animals...

Just hanging with a baby black bear...

 and a baby fox!!!! My favorite animal. When they told me they had a baby fox I was going to get to play with, you cannot comprehend how excited I got. This little guys name was Todd, and I loved him, and I wanted to take him home with me. (life list check 1)

But, the fun didn't stop there, a baby bobcat!

 Ok this is just a regular baby. But, that face!

and last but not least, a baby caracal. 

The coast of Oregon is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. I just absolutely love it here and it's always nice to get a little cool weather in the midst of a hot Georgia summer. I didn't to go to Oregon last summer for the first time in forever, and I missed it so much. I can't imagine not making my way to the other side of America (at least every few years) for the rest of the my life.

 Yes, I am so obsessed with my dog that we brought him to Oregon. 

Aren't my parents cute? They take me on the greatest adventures.

It was pretty much the first not windy day ever in Oregon when we decided to go fly our kite, but it turned out brilliantly with just enough breeze to get our sharknado into the air. (life list check 2)

And to finish off my trip I had my grandma guide me through making one of her famous blackberry cobblers. Blackberries picked that day, homemade crust, and lots of sugar, I was pretty proud of the results. 

Can't wait till my next trip out west. This place is so perfect.

peace. love. and coast to coast.