home. well... ish.

i know that you've been getting sick of seeing pictures upon pictures of a little town i have lovingly called home over the past few months... but unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. 

why are sleepovers so much stinkin' fun?

even just moving my bed 5 feet made the last few hours in jerusalem simply epic.

besides the fact that there was no place for my mattress...

so true... so true...

if any of you four are reading this... just because i go to a different school does not mean that you can just forget about me.

[muahaha!]

recipe for a dogpile:

one person

a) lying down on the ground

b) being forcibly thrown to the ground

+

as many enthusiastic friends as can balance on top

=

one cute pic and a whole lotta pain for joan on the bottom!

we got skillz.

...but not enough to make it all the way to the top.

good try guys.

"a" for effort!

 under the j.c...

shhhhhh!

the school rivalry never ends... not even in jerusalem!

we decided for our last day evvvver, that we would walk from bethphage to jerusalem. (this is following the route that they still go down on palm sunday every year)

this was walking downnnnnnnn... the road was quite steep actually.

hence the airplane.

ok... fine. my yoga is a little shabby.

fashionable? 

considering i've been wearing the same clothes for the last three months, i was quite excited for the change! 

i think i followed this kid for 5 minutes...

fresh. bread. smells. so. goooooooooooooooood!

gummies!!!

don't ask.

we all know that it had to end.

but none of us knew that it was going to be that hard.

you know how they tell you to rip it off like a bandaid?

you have to do it all at the same time.

you can't take half of the group and leave the rest!

but they did.

professor chaddy (chadwick) and his amazing wife kim

the first group.

this was the "sweet 16" that got stuck at jfk on the way over 3 long months ago.

hopefully their luck is better this time!

those of us who were left went out and watched our last jerusalem sunset.

the huntingtons

the camera just can't do it justice.

airplane rides - 17 hours.

airplane meals - 4.

sitting in front of a screaming child while we took off and landed? priceless. 

wanna hear a great story?

after sitting on a plane, and never thinking that i would ever see anything but the tops of clouds, crop circles and airport security... we finally landed in salt lake city!

after resurrecting my phone (for the first time in 3 whole months!) i called my ride, and found out that she hadn't gotten the memo about when i would get in.

hmmmmmm... problem!

but luckily, i had several saviors that happened to live in orem, and that were merciful enough to take a very jet-lagged, semi-conscious college student to orem to her friend's house! (thinking back, i barely remember the ride... i'm pretty sure that i thought i was more conscious than i actually was...)

the next day, i went to a friends bridal shower, called all of my family, went to ikea (and pretended like i wasn't the walking dead) and then headed back to meet with my cousins that were going to take me out to dinner.

the cousins picked me up, and we drove to bamboo hut for dinner.

the last time i went to bamboo hut was with my family.

*sniffle*

 but i only have 2 more days til i see them!

we walked in, and my cousin turned around and said, "let's sit here."

but there are people in those seats..........

it just took me a really delayed second to realize:

dad.

mom.

brooke.

whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

you guys aren't supposed to be here!!!

and then i squealed.

(i never squeal.)

best. surprise. evvvvvvver.

turns out, everyone was in cahoots.

and i had no idea.

i'm blaming it on the fact that i was suffering from a severe case of jess-has-had-absolutely-no-sleep-in-the-past-three-days...

i wasn't on the top of my sleuthing game.

we went and drove up to midway, where we got to go stay in a little swiss-themed condo.

this is more green than i've seen combined in the last three months.

it was a little bit of a shock to see hills this big... and this green.

we went for a walk after church.

(do you notice something different about this picture?) 

the drinking fountain is cool... yes.

but i have different clothes!!!

the drinking fountain was pretty fun too.

sooooo green!

i just can't get over it.

my little sis.

isn't she pretty?

:)

it's good to be home.

well... almost.