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 pick-me-up

Sometimes you just need a pick-me-up. Sometimes you really really need one and your mom sends you a video of fall time in Georgia complete with crunchy leaves and your puppy (seriously sometimes moms just know what you need even when they don't know that you need it).

I've been feeling pretty down the past few days, so I've been searching around for all sorts of pick-me-ups and really it has helped in some small ways. If you know me or if you have read my blog, you know that I strongly believe that it is important to be positive, that you shouldn't allow negative energy in your life, and most importantly that both of these are entirely controlled by you. So, I've been trying very hard to make the right choices here, but sometimes it's just harder than others, and that's where the pick-me-ups come into play.

So, just in case you needed a pick-me-up too, here are some of the things that I turn to when I need a little brightening....

Nothing makes you feel better than looking good. Wearing sweatpants or a t-shirt cause you're just not feeling it that day will not make you feel better about yourself. I say it too much and I don't say it enough but: Look good. Feel good. Do good. (Really though, I need a shirt with that printed on it.)

Sometimes all you need is a good laugh. Fun fact, people used to tell me all the time when I was younger that I should be a stand up comedian. No no, I know you're thinking, what happened to this girl. She used to be funny??? I know I know, I still have my moments sometimes though, ok! But, even if I'm not making others laugh I still love to laugh myself, and let's be honest sometimes this includes laughing at myself cause I am just oh so uncomfortably aware of how insane I can be sometimes. So, just in case you need a laugh pick-me-up (don't even care that this meme is old cause I still laugh when I see it haterzz)...

Music is one of the ultimate pick-me-ups in life. I discovered Lord Huron about exactly a year ago, and I still listen to this album all the time. That is how good it is people. This album warms my soul, and I love it, and it makes me feel like I can go on any adventure that I want. So, in order to make myself feel a little better Lord Huron's Lonesome Dreams has actually been on repeat all day. 

And the place where I have found and always will find the most peace is the Gospel. Christ's love for me is incredible and I know that I can always find comfort in the Lord. I usually read through my scriptures by chapter, but last night I felt like I should venture around and do a little exploring. Where I didn't expect to find myself was reading scriptures about kindness. No matter how I am feeling, I must always always always remember to be kind, and I have no greater example to look to than Christ. After reading 1 Nephi 19:9 the only thing I could think all day was BE KIND. So, even though I might be just slightly lower than usual, I will not and cannot let myself forget that kindness comes first. Nothing will make you feel better about yourself and everyone around you than simple kindness.

I hope that if your day is a bummer that this makes you feel a little brighter, and even more so, I hope your day was already absolutely fantastic to begin with. 

Seriously though...

"Either you run the day, or the day run you."

Jim Rohn

peace. love. and pick-me-ups.

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 new puppy

I have a new puppy and he is so so perfect!! We hadn't decided on a name for him his first few days in our home, and we resorted to calling him puppy, which he has accepted as him name. Though, he is now our little Idefix or Eddie as we will most usually call him as we are worried that his name, taken from a puppy in the French comic book Asterix, may be confusing to those not familiar with its inspiration. Anyways, he is the cutest, has the greatest personality, and is already my new best friend. The Cronquists really have good luck with dogs, don't we?

So, a little about my little guy Eddie.

Likes:

Playing in the grass

Sleeping upside down

Snuggling

Chewing on everything

Trying to eat  flowers and grass

Running around

Being adorable all the time

Dislikes:

Being ignored

Going to bed without a cuddle buddy

Leashes

Only an hour after me and Eddie had met and we were already in love. But, I mean look at that little guy. How could you NOT be in love!! 

Eddie was pretty tentative about the grass when we first let him outside. After 12 weeks of experiencing only the indoors and a back porch, this stuff was a little weird. Though, he has become a fast fan of chewing grass, rolling in grass, romping through the grass, etc. 

Eddie and I have grown accustomed to taking naps together. This is probably an absolutely terrible habit that I am forming in him. I guess I have no one to blame but myself that I had to get up with him every few hours last night to help him go back to sleep. What can I say? We both like to snuggle. 

Another favorite activity of ours is playing outside together. We love love love romping in the sunshine. 

I've always grown up with a dog in the house, so the last few months without our sweetie Blizzard have been tough. It's nice to have someone following me around again and greeting me at the door. Eddie is by no means a replacement for the love we had for out last dog, but a whole new creature to spend our time adoring. Animals are such an incredible gift to the world and Eddie is already filling my life with laughs and joy. (But seriously, this dog cracks me up all the time, he is a ham.)

Here's to the newest member of our family and years of enjoying each others snuggles. 

peace. love. and puppies.