i love new years. i love nostalgia. i love reflecting on life. and i love having a clean slate, a fresh start to a brand new year.
 2013 was a great year. i don't feel like there were any major, drastically life-changing events, but instead it was filled with a lot of small, special experiences that i learned and grew from as nicolaus and i chugged along with school and work and life.
our year was started in australia. 
we took a few road trips to encinitas, newbury park, phoenix and albuquerque. 
went camping in a few different canyons. 
had 2 new nieces born. 
i delved into the graphic design program at byu. and nicolaus begun the business program at uvu.
had a few good friends leave on lds missions, a few get married and a few more have babies.
saw camera obscura, the national, rodriguez, blitzen trapper and belle and sebastian play live.  
we moved out of our teeny, tiny studio apartment into a condo with real bedrooms and a real kitchen. and nick's little sister, abigayle moved in with us.
i went with my dad and brother to australia to go to my oumie's (grandma's) funeral. it was the first time in 15 years that all 7 of my dad's siblings were in the same place at the same time.
nicolaus went on a motorcycle trip to idaho with his dad.
we got our first real, grown-up calling in church teaching the 15-16 year old sunday school class.
nick quit his pest control job and started working at the skate shop, milosport.
i did an internship with sycamore street press.
my mom's book was published!
and we ended the year with a real bang on new year's eve by trekking out to the other side of utah lake and shooting some guns with friends. afterwards we made a hot chocolate stop then headed up to nick's parent's house to make pizza, play games and ring in the new year with friends and family. it struck me at about 11:30 when we weren't doing anything but sitting around talking that there was nowhere i would have rather been. having been to my fair share of new year's parties that were always pretty fun but also always had me feeling rather uncomfortable and awkward to an extent. big crowds have never been my thing. but sitting around with a small group of people i love is another story.
i guess when i start thinking about it we had a lot of adventures in 2013. growing up is still this strange thing i'm trying to wrap my head around, but i do just seem to be loving life more and more. i'm learning that the more you try new, scary things and get out of your comfort zone, the more full your life will be. life has this way of stretching and trying our patience, but i think that's when we learn the most. and to wrap this scatterbrained post up, here's a quote from pinterest that i love:
"good times become good memories and bad times become good lessons."