Winter Wonderland

SNOW!!! My Ma needed us to shovel our driveway so she could get out and run errands... it took us a while. Our driveway isn't the shortest..... This first pic is us shoveling the driveway. Good times.

I was sooo excited. woohoooo. Actually, it was kind of fun.

My sis Moriah knocking some snow off a tree.

I'm not a fan of cats, but our cat Tigger can be cute sooometimes.

Pretty mountains. Ahh there's nothing better than the Bitterroot.

Christmas 2008

Grammer wanted us to take a picture all together so she could send it to our relatives off in China (they're teaching or something) and I gladly volunteered to take the pic since I hadn't showered yet for the day, or done anything to make myself presentable since I flew in the night before. haha tricky/lazy me.

Pictured is Grammer, my family -minus me and my older sis (who didn't come for Christmas), and our Aunt Julie (bottom right).

Grammer's Family

Here are all the pictures that I received. Thanks everyone for sending them! They're off being printed right now-I decided to put them in a slideshow so the whole fam can see (and enjoy) all the pictures I got. We have one CUTE family!! :) And it's not too late to email me pictures. If you noticed anybody that didn't get into the slideshow (and have a pic for them), send it to me!!!

For people not in my family-we have the coolest Grammer Hughes EVER. So I thought she might like a photo album of her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids for Christmas....

ENJOY!

***disclaimer: Grammer wont see this slideshow-i'm printing off actual hard copies of all the pics for her... haha. So dont worry about the music! Jordan was worried... it was a valid worry, though. I dont think she would have liked the music, either. :)

Shout out to Nicole Sheahan

My buddy Nicole Sheahan is a new singer/songwriter and I wanted to give her a little shout out so all my other friends can enjoy her music! She is great. Yay for Montana girls.

Her CD is on itunes, and here are a few links to get you started (if you're interested)...

http://mormonartist.net/issue-2/nicole-sheahan/ (magazine interview)

http://www.yldsr.com/segments/new-artist-show .html (radio interview)

http://www.myspace.com/nicolesheahan

http://www.nicolesheahan.com

Jon McLaughlin Show

I really enjoy going to concerts, seeing musicians in their element. You can tell some people were just born with an awesome gift of music so it's fun to hear them sing and perform, and just know that they love what they do.

I heard on the radio (our very own 99.5fm) that Jon McLaughlin was playing at a store in SLC to promote his new CD 'OK Now', so I went to check it out. There wasn't a huge crowd there, so it was a cool experience. His voice is incredible and he was so intense on the keyboard that he reminded me of Schroeder from Peanuts, the little piano dude.

If you haven't heard of Jon McLaughlin, definitely check him out. Some of his more famous songs are 'So Close' from Enchanted, Beautiful Disaster (which was on the radio a while ago), and Beating My Heart (which is currently on the radio). Very talented kid.

Knittin Time

I'm so excited... some girls and I are going to learn how to KNIT! Random, you ask? Yes, very. But I'm stoked!

Expect to see some pictures of the finished products on here soon.... so put in your orders now for what you want.

p.s. Have any rad ideas for knitting projects? Let me know!

Booya Grandma.

SYTYCD Concert!

Only REAL fans use the acronyms. haha jk...

Uh, awkward, but anyway.... Last week (September 23rd) me, my buddy Kate, our friends Chris and Trenton, Colt and his fiance Sally, and Trenton's sister and her husband went to a SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE concert! WOOT! We faithfully watched the show all summer long, knew all the dances, knew all the dancers, knew their favorite outfits, knew who was crushing on whom, watched and were excited for Cat Deeley's outfits every week, and basically loved everything about Nigel Lithgoe and his show (even Mary Murphy's screams). Yes, we were the SYTYCD nerds of Summer 2008.

The concert was incredible, though. They danced all of our favorite routines. The door routine, the suitcase routine, the white dress routine, the half dress routine... okay. So maybe we weren't the ULTIMATE nerds. I still dont know the routine names, but we had our own way to differentiate between the dances....

Gev was my favorite. He was this tiny little guy, but he could break dance like no other! He is from Russia, but is 'from' SLC. Very cool dude. And Courtney shouldn't break his heart by always telling him she has a boyfriend, when everybody knows they should date. ha jk.... but seriously. Am I right?

But Joshua, Katee, Twitch, Courtney, Gev, Kerrington, Chelsea, and all the others... we will miss the fun! Til next season.

Bonfire

This wasn't so much a bonfire as an icecream making night. Super fun! Wendy had a special recipe to make baggy icecream. And yes, it was sooo good! This bonfire happened about a month ago, so I'm a bit behind the times on updating. And thanks go to Wendy for the pics!!

Me and D made some awesome Strawberry icecream with marshmallow chunks. A bug flew into one of our bags, but the bags got mixed up and who knows where the bug went. I didn't find the bug in mine....

Fellow ice-cream makers

This was harder than it looked... incredibly cold plastic bags aren't good for the hands. Especially when you have to shake them around a lot. brrr!

Apparently it works best when you wrap newspaper around your plastic baggies. That way you dont feel the cold as much...

If you build it.... they will come....

I'm not too sure what 'they' will be. Perhaps clothes? Junk? Who knows. BUT, I did build them!

The dresser... OH MAN. I almost gave up on that. This had 1,000 screws to put in and my little screwdriver was giving me blisters on my fingers (yeah yeah, sob story. 3 weeks later, and I still have remnants of the blister on my finger). I basically gave up for the day when I walked into the living room and saw that my roommate had a stinking electric screwdriver (uhhh are they called electric? I have no clue. But the kind that you can push a button and they screw screws for you). I dont know if I've ever used one of those before, but luckily it was pretty straightforward. pheww. Luckily for me I'm a college graduate. Otherwise I probably couldn't have figured it out. haha jk...

The instructions say you can build it in 1 hour, but I'm pretty sure it took me close to 3 hours. Hey-I've never built anything before! And they had probably timed Bob Villa building one.

The lovely bookcase that I built with my pink flowered hammer (that also transforms into a screwdriver).

Also, I hope Kate notices the 'Happy Halloween' thing hanging on the doorknob (and that door never gets opened, I have 3 doors to my room. So it's a perfect hanging spot. haha). The sign adorned me and Kate's bedroom wall during the Summer. Apparently Halloween is an everyday thing in the life of Berkley.

And please disregard the random clutter and junk inside the bookcase... haha

Family Vacation

After my graduation my family and I vacationed for a few days at all the random Utah tourist attraction places (whatever you call those things). I can now say I've probably been to anything worth looking at in Utah. haha jk...

Moriah and Jordan chillin on the tracks at the Golden Spike monument place.... There were ugly bugs everywhere that kept randomly landing on us.... don't ask why. I think they were friendly and liked people? They especially liked my little sister, Naomi. haha

THE coolest hat ever. We found it in a random gift shop. It folds up into this little round purse looking-thingy! I didn't get it, but we all had fun trying it on... That brim went ALL the way around the hat. Guten times. I also like how Jordan's face is creepy and slightly morphs into the background...

Another stop on our amazing race was Antelope Island. The sky was beautiful that day! The fam had fun skipping rocks and trying not to hit the people that were floating in the lake. But let me tell you what... that place stunk like no other! Please note Jordan and Naomi's faces. haha. Apparently me and Moriah are the only ones that can pull through the pain of incredibly smelly things.

Another random stop on our family adventure was the BYU stuffed animal museum (whatever it's called). They had a lot of really random, cool animals there. And yes, we're behind the barricade. Don't worry about it. haha

The whole fam also went to a Bee's game while they were in town. I enjoy sports, but sometimes baseball games get a little long for me... might have come from the time when my Dad drug me to one of my little brother's little league games when I was younger and the game ended up going into thousands of extra innings. Possibly the longest game on record. Seriously.

Graduation

HOLY COW! I finally graduated! About time, huh? Even though I'm making this update a month after my graduation, it still doesn't feel like I've graduated.... my mind is forever in the time frame of, 'work 4 months, go to school 8 months'. It's going to blow my mind when I finally realize that I have to keep working after 4 months is up. Ask me in December how I'm handling my job... I hope I survive. haha

But anywho... I finally got my degree in Business, Finance, and German.

I got to walk with my buddy Eric Katschke! I've known him since one of my first years up at school, so it was fun being able to sit with him during the ceremony.

Me with my roommates (and Chris Black). I'm going to miss these folks!

Me with my lovely sistahs. Yeahh for the Hughes girls! My sisters are the BEST!

Me with the coolest Professor of all time... Brother Kusch! (who also happened to be my Stake President).

My whole family came to see me graduate. I love my family!

Summer FHE times

This summer we had a blast with our FHE group! These guys are great. So many memories... Rigby Lake, water balloon fights, Logan splitting his head open outside our apartment, Stewart always crossing the chastity lines and attacking me in my bed or bedroom (or always attacking me in general), Michael Fish being Michael Fish (yeah Michael Fish!), Marcus taking us floating and me quizzing his German skills, Jason's longboarding and crazy entrances/faces, and yadda yadda yadda.... our lives have been changed forever. haha

Stewart is the craziest guy I know.

Michael Fish and Logan being their normal selves, with me looking guilty in the background... I wonder what I just did? haha

One of THE greatest semesters of all time! You girls are amazing!!!

Our amazingly attractive, hilarious, spiritual, nicest, uhhh what else... musically inclined, sportiest, manliest, strongest, corniest, FHE brothas!!! (Jason didn't make it to this FHE pic, but he's cool, too)

Hold on to your Horses

Hey friends. I know, I know, I've been told time and again that I should update my blog.... and dont worry. It will happen soon.... perhaps this week? Or maybe even the next?

Here's a sneak peak of what to expect:


Oh the joys and adventures of being a Hughes kid!!

Hopefully this can sustain you until I post more.

And expect a change in my layout... I'm realizing that my blog background is the boringest thing since 7am Business Law class. I'll try to get that fixed soon.

Summer Goodness

This semester is turning out to be one of the best on record! Even though the weather is annoying and it needs to get warmer, there's always something fun going on.... Luckily my class load isn't too heavy, so I get to play lots and lots. woohoo!

Us roommates all went to Craigos one night to indulge in the buffet. Ohhh baby.
Look how cute my roommates are! It's seriously a party everyday. I have a hard time getting any school work done when they're around.... BAD influences! haha

Me and Marcus went shooting the other day. So fun. I STINK at tossing/throwing the clay pigeons (uhh and shooting, too), so Marcus ended up throwing them himself AND shooting them at the same time. haha. I was no help at all.... sorry Marcus! But anywho, thats what the video is-Marcus throwing the clay pigeon AND shooting it! woohoo TALENT.

InTERNship

Yes, for all of you that laugh at me. That's how I say internship... I say the emphasis on TERN not IN. Don't make fun of me... that's just how I talk. haha

Anywho. Here are some pics from the last day at my internship! It was so fun. I'm definitely going to miss it. I think this was my first job I've ever been sad to leave....

Me with Sunshine, my supervisor!

My friends came down for 'Berkley's last lunch' (they wanted to call it Berkley's last supper...) and we had fun eating in the cafeteria. Usually we just grab food and eat it at our desks, so it was nice to have fun and take a break.


Sunshine (who leaves on her mission in a few weeks!) and Aaron. The baby belongs to my replacement, Mike. She's a cutie!

We made up the Project Coordinator team. Woohoo! We were the best.

Us in front of the sunstone

Thanks Tamilisa for taking these pics!

Here's a cute poem my friend Wendy sent me:


There once was this fine young Miss,

who said her internship was pure bliss.

She worked with the video and technical stuff,

And I never even saw her in a big huff.

She was sad to leave the highest tower in the city,

but because she is she get's this here little ditty.

We will all miss her so much,

but hopefully she will be kissing boys and such,

in the Rexburg we all know and love a bunch.

So fare the well my 25th then 22nd floor friend,

And on this email I will now press send.

Love,Wendy

Goblin Valley

Hi Friends!

I got to go on an adventure this weekend with Lynsey, her Dad, and a fun married couple named Clint and Natalie. We went down to Goblin Valley (Southern Utah area), where we got to do a lot of hiking and see a lot of cool formations. Goblin Valley is sure something else. I felt like I was on a different planet. One hike we went on may have been called ding or dang (seriously-those are the names), but we aren't sure. There weren't any signs-it was a crazy hike with a lot of rock scaling and climbing over boulders. It was all good times though and we made it home safely.

Here are some pictures of our good times:

Multicultural night

I went with some friends to a Chinese Restaurant that was AMAZING! Usually I'm not a huge fan of Chinese, but this place was something else. I think it was called 'Little World Chinese' or Small World Chinese or something along those lines... it was a hole-in-the wall type place. Apparently, from plaques and newspapers on the walls, it was the top voted Chinese place in SLC. So, if you guys are ever in SLC looking for a good Chinese restaurant, check this place out. I think its address is 1356 S. Main (yes that's from the top of my head, so don't trust it too much). And it doesn't say the name outside. It's a random, plain, white building. Good luck! And by good luck, I mean good luck.

After the Chinese, the boys brought us to a random park in SLC that had some crazy sculptures and artwork. It was a good multicultural night.

Eating the amazing Chinese! Notice how heaped our plates were! And it was only about $7.50/person.

This picture reminds me of an album cover. Yeah, we're that cool....

Me with Ridi, my co-worker. She's from Albania! She served her mission in Germany, so if I need help with my German Lit class this summer, I know who to call. What I would pay to be tri-lingual. Imagine!