my Cincinnati weekend

When the going gets tough, the tough get going all the way to Cincinnati to hide out with their sister and baby nephew for the weekend. That's how the saying goes, right? Because that's what I did. Sorry Swift, but occasionally I say screw it to shaking it off, and it's okay to just run away instead.
Sometimes a week of drinking too much diet coke and spending too much on flowers for yourself isn't enough, and even the mountains don't feel far enough away from your everyday life, so you call your sister, buy a ticket, and show up at her house less than 24 hours later. I know this all might sound very dramatic, but I just need you to trust me and my decisions and accept me for the dramatic human that I am.

But I mean, come on?!?! Isn't the only thing you really want when you are feeling down is to walk downstairs from a sunshine nap and have your two year old nephew scream AUNT DANIELLE and start squealing and jump off of the couch even though he JUST saw you an hour ago. Seriously, that made you feel good just reading it, didn't it?

So I spent my weekend at the zoo with my nephew, and at the movies with my sister, and eating ice cream with her cute family and everything wasn't fixed when I got back to Provo, and I didn't magically feel like everything was perfect when my plane landed back in Salt Lake, but I did feel a little brighter, and a little more peaceful, and a little more like maybe this week won't be quite as bad as the one before.

Now that I'm back in Provo/Salt Lake and it IS time to shake it off, let's dance. Cause what better way is there to forget about everything else and just enjoy life?

peace. love. and getaways.

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 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 year in review

This year was good but tough. I can't really pin point one thing that made it so rough, but when I look back it's hard for me to just think yeah that's the good stuff. And really it wasn't bad, I have so few things in my life to complain about. There was no one big thing that made this year feel tricky, but it just kind of was.
One of the really interesting things about having a blog, is that it is really easy to go back and see what I was thinking of a year ago. Most people write down their New Year's resolutions and have no idea what they were by March (and that's being a little generous). All I have to do is scroll back for a while to know what mine were, so I thought I would look them up and see how I did....

1. Cut back on social media (I have a problem).

Nope.  No. Not really at all. AHH! I started being better about this by the end of the year, and I think that I have really stopped caring less. I think I may modify this for the next year to be use social media more effectively. 

2. Stop waiting till the last second to get everything done.

Hahahaha. Yeah I think I'm over trying to fix that problem. 

3. Remember to write all my wonderful friends serving missions.

I've been pretty ok about this!! I write my dear friend Kari who is serving an LDS mission in Costa Rica every week, and I try to send out a grouping of letters every couple months. 

4. Go on more adventures.

I try to see my whole life as an adventure and that satisfies me to my very core.

5. Let no one I know or no one I meet not realize how much truly I love them.
I'm glad I made this goal, and I really have worked hard on this. I have tried to become more and more comfortable with telling people I love them, and I pretty much never go to bed with out telling my roommates I love them; it makes our apartment feel much more homey. It means a lot to me that people know that I love them and I feel like that has strengthened a lot of my relationships this year.

6. Be my best. always. 

How can one really measure this. This is a life goal for my entire life really. 

So, that's how I did. Hopefully you did a little better. Haha. I will make you wait to see what my goals are for the year ahead (because I know you are just dying with anticipation to find out what they are!!). I need just a tad bit of time to really think about what I have ahead of me. 

I hope your Christmas was just as beautiful and warm as mine (internally warm, not externally...it's kinda cold here, but I like cold weather so don't worry too much about me). Also, I got a new camera for Christmas so if you don't see me taking and posting stunning pictures this year please pinch me when you see me (but like give me some times and be nice ok?). 

Happy New Year friends, family, and blog readers. I sure do love ya.

peace. love. and 2013.

p.s. I crossed four things off my Life List this year so that feels pretty successful to me!

my home for the holidays

To start off with MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!!!

I love love love this holiday and I am so so happy to be home celebrating, but it was quite the trek to make it back here thanks to a snow storm that came into Utah the day that everyone was trying to fly home for the holidays.

Luckily my friend driving me to the airport was clever enough to check the weather and see that it was going to be a little rough getting there. So my day started with getting up at 6:30 (actually the earliest I had woken up all semester...) and heading out at 7:00. Everything seemed like it was going great since I made it to the airport and made it on the plane and the plane was even almost empty so I had a whole row to myself! 

And then they kicked us off the plane and said the airport was shutting down....so I had to go sit around and wait for a couple hours. But, I mostly just hung out and watched Netflix so I mean I guess I survived. Eventually they let me back on the plane. YAY! and I still had a whole row to myself. more YAY! And then they told me that it was going to be another few hours before we actually took off. No more yay.

I had to take selfies of my disappointment to pass the time...

because my window looked like this and I couldn't even see outside.

But, eventually it cleared off and they started de-icing the plane. I really thought that this was going to be a quick process and I was kind of excited to see how it worked, and then I realized that this was going to take two hours and I decided to just sleep. Thank goodness I am a champ at sleeping on airplanes. I should probably put it under skills on my resume. 

And even though I got home six hours after I was supposed to and least I made it home. And since we got so delayed I got to land at night, which is one of my absolute favorite things. I'm obsessed with the lyrics in Lorde's song Tennis Court "Pretty soon I'll be getting on my first plane/ I'll see the veins of my city like they do in space." Because seriously this view mesmerizes me. 

But really it's all worth it now because I have spent the last several days just hanging out with the family, decorating the tree, and eating sweets more than I have been eating real food (woops). 

Plus now I get to hang out with this cute face all day.

I'm bummed that my sister Rochelle won't be here for the holidays as she and her hub and kiddo just moved to Germany, but I'm glad that I am home and happy and ready to celebrate with my fam. Christmas is so great. 

Merry Christmas darlings!!

peace. love. and home for the holidays

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 starry night

I love going on little adventures (this really shouldn't be new information to anyone). So, yes, the idea of driving an hour up to Strawberry Reservoir and standing out in the freezing cold to take pictures of stars was a very appealing idea to me, and that is exactly what I did last night. One of my friends wanted to try and get some pictures of star trails, and I really wanted to look at some lovely stars, so win/win.

There were a few mishaps including: not being able to find where the camera was left out in the field and damaging of equipment. But, other than that, really even with that, I truly enjoyed my evening with some real great people. Sorry I don't have any pics to share with you, I wasn't the one taking them and iPhones just don't really capture the night sky very well, but picture every star you have ever seen and that is how lovely it was. I think if I had reached out far enough I could have touched the big dipper. 

Nature is so perfect.

peace. love. and stars.

wait! also, this little cutie (my nephew James) and his mama (Diane) came to visit me 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.