Farewell, Summer.

Want your life to change forever, in a good way? Work at a summer camp with amazing people.

My summer at camp ended not with a fizzle--but with a bang.

A bang into a rock, that is.

I was rappelling while working at UCYC and fell backwards over a cliff. It's a stupid little thing, and I only broke my knee. After I fell backwards, my equipment caught me, swinging me into the rock.

Mama Rachel fed me jello in the hospital.

That was about two months ago, and I'm all better now. I'm almost done with physical therapy, and I spent a solid month sitting around watching Netflix (I'm almost done with Breaking Bad) and walking around with crutches (Yeah! Arm muscles!)

In turn, I did not get to go on the mission trip to Ecuador, which is a bummer because I raised nearly all the funds I needed to raise. I will, however, be going on another mission trip to Ecuador or to the Dominican Republic later this year. I also didn't get to go to Texas to help Hannah move back or to see Natalie.

Another bummer that came with breaking my knee is that our family road trip had to be reduced from three weeks to only two weeks, meaning I only made it as far north as Portland, as the Industrial Commission only allows you out of the state for two weeks at a time when you're on Workers' Compensation.

I met so many encouraging people this summer, it's amazing.

But the road trip--that's another story for another post, which will be coming soon! For now, the summer (as great as it was) is now over.

Denver!

Dear me, oh my!

I haven't mentioned that I went to Denver for Thanksgiving!

I blame it on the crazy amount of final projects I had.

Sawyer + Sarah

So, yes. My final trip of 2014 was to Denver, Colorado. It was a short trip--I left Phoenix Wednesday night at 10:40 pm, and arrived back in Phoenix Saturday morning at 9 am. However, the brevity of the trip did not detract from the adventure.

This was my third (fourth?) and final year spending Thanksgiving in a different state than my parents. I initially was going to go to Tucson with them (to stay at the Hotel Congress and watch the ASU vs U of A game) but they stalled in making hotel reservations.

I found out in September that two of my friends, Sarah and Sawyer, would be unable to return to Phoenix for neither Thanksgiving nor Christmas, so I booked a plane ticket to Denver.

Life lesson: Consider checking your savings account before you book a plane ticket on a whim when you're in college. It may take months to recover. Not to say that happened to me.

As the weeks passed and as Thanskgiving drew nearer, I became increasingly excited to leave my homework behind for a while and head out to a new territory.

I've visited Denver once before, but this was my first time flying into Denver and spending time in the southern side, and my first time going in the winter.

It was basically freezing when I arrived. I'm so glad I bought a coat for this trip. When my flight landed, I took a moment to enjoy the art in the Denver airport (there are a lot of conspiracy theories about it) before getting in Sarah and Sawyer's car and going home and to bed.

I slept soundly on the most. comfortable.  air mattress ever. created. As soon as I awoke, we began drinking coffee and cooking food. I made my favorite dish, green bean casserole with fresh green beans. It was heavenly.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner picnic-style and discussed what we are most thankful for this year.

My list included my parents' house, Sarah + Sawyer, my boyfriend Adam, the ability to travel, and my education.

Because we ate so early, we had a full afternoon of time to kill. We sat around. We watched tv. We ate pie. We drank wine. We went shopping at 6 pm on Thanksgiving day.

Yeah, I just said that.

It was my first Black Friday experience, and it wasn't even on Black Friday. It was also incredibly tame--the line to enter Target had dismantled by the time we got there, and there were still piles of large televisions for people to purchase.

I bought two pairs of gloves and that was it.

We went to World of Beer afterwards and enjoyed the potluck there (our second Thanksgiving dinner) and local pumpkin ale. It was a very peaceful, low-key holiday, and I loved it.

Friday was spent crafting and watching the ASU vs U of A game on the air mattress.

Sarah has picked up watercolors as a hobby, and she's really good at it. Like, Etsy-good.

I, on the other hand, created glamorous stockings for Adam and I. They are argyle and metallic and shiny and spectacular.

Unfortunately, I awoke incredibly early Saturday morning to head home to Phoenix. It was a rough early morning, but the sunrise was beautiful from the Southwest gate and the view of snowcapped mountains under my airplane's wing really made for a gorgeous end to my trip.

I arrived back in Phoenix well rested and ready to finish the semester off.