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 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 birthday!!!

(Insert Taylor Swift lyric about being 22 here.)

So yeah. Woof. I'm 22 now, which could not seem more old to me, but at the same time I know that I am still an infant, so yeah confliction. But, I always love my birthday. It is truly one of the greatest days of the year, cause it is not only a day where I can get away with whatever I want and use the excuse, "It's my birthday today," but also a day that never ceases to remind me that I have the most awesome friends and family ever. EVER.

I mean of course when you wake up to text messages and emails with these pictures, you KNOW you have a good day ahead of you.

My cute nephew Daniel,

my sweet puppy Eddie, 

and my best friend Kari who is on a mission.

I seriously received so much love on my birthday and spent the whole day being absolutely and completely happy. I decided to keep my celebrating small this year (you know now that I'm getting so old....) and went out to a perfect dinner with my two loves Chelsea and Alison.

 So lucky to have made friends like these when I came out to Utah.

And at dinner we even got free dessert. I at first assumed it was because it was my birthday, but then when I said something about that to the chef he just said, oh happy birthday, I had just wanted to make you guys dessert. Being a girl has some perks occasionally...like free dessert.

Birthday's are so great. I'm feeling real good about 22. I'm thinking some really incredible things are going to happen in my life between now and 23.

peace. love. and birthdays.

p.s. so that you at least believe me a little when I tell you that I am old, my application for graduation got accepted this week. 

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.

my friends and family

Aren't friends and family perfect? Well, I've been filled with both this past week and it has been so so lovely. I finally got to meet my precious nephew Daniel, or little Danny as I like to call him ;) I was also able to enjoy a visit from my cute married friends, Chandler and Alison Frame. Plus, the whole fam was here for one of my favorite holidays, the 4th of July (Go America!)

Thanks for visiting me Al and Chan, and for taking care of a little bit of my I miss my Provo friends blues.

Obviously I dressed up for the 4th, and of course I dressed up puppy too. We matched in our American flag wear and might I say, we looked fantastic. 

Baby bibs tell no lies. That's a thing right? I don't know, whatever, isn't my nephew James cute? Can't believe this seven month old is already so huge!!

But even if James is getting big, I still have tiny Daniel to snuggle with.

  Uhg, I just love my nephews SO much. 

All the Cronquist girls with their babies!!! Yes, Eddie is my baby. If I have to wake up with him in the middle of the night cause he is crying, I get to call him my baby. 

I thank Heavenly Father daily for giving me the most incredible friends and family. I am so lucky to be surrounded by intelligent, funny, beautiful, and happy people all day, erryday. My life really is great and it's the people around me that make it great. So, if you are one of those people who make my life great, THANK YOU. Thank you for adding to my happiness, making me laugh, and really, thanks for putting up with me. I love you. 

peace. love. and friends & fam. 

my nephew number two

Welcome to the family perfect new baby!!! My big sister Rochelle and her husband Matt finally had their little guy last week. Daniel Dean Welker is an adorable 8 lbs 21 1/2 inches, and even though I haven't met him, I am already absolutely obsessed with him. I have been assured that even though Daniel and Danielle are awfully similar names my new nephew was not named after me. Deny it all you want Rochelle and Matt. Dani & Danny forever.

Ahh! Just look at him. I was never baby obsessed until I saw my sisters' kids, but I am dying to hold this little guy and to kiss his tiny nose. 

James came right between my mamma and papa's birthdays. My sister gave them another grand baby for their birthday...I gave them 30 min phone calls. Gosh Rochelle way to one (or one hundred) up me. ;)

I absolutely cannot wait to see my nephew's this summer. I am almost surprised at how incredibly bummed I am to be leaving Provo for the summer at the end of this month, but spending time with  James and Daniel is pulling me home (well, and some trips I am planning on taking to visit my friends interning along the East Coast, you'll hear all about those no worries). 

And just so James doesn't think that I've forgotten about him with the excitement of another nephew here...

I HAVE THE CUTEST NEPHEWS THAT EVER HAPPENED

......but just wait till you see my kids one day

peace. love. and baby Daniel.