I've got the magic....

The week after the big proposal my roomie Trisha made plans to go to a B.o.B/Jason DeRulo concert at UVU. She said it could be our girls night engagement celebration of sorts. Luckily there were still tickets available the day of! It was so fun and surprisingly, they both were actually pretty good live.

On my long drives to work I sometimes resort to listening to the radio to keep me entertained (or awake...). Most of their songs are ones I've heard over and over this summer and fall. :)

Trish and Badash

B.o.B

Ash showin off some MDT moves and Lisa the creeper!

Ash and me

These girls keep me young :)

Here was my favorite from the night...

We're engaged!

This is quite possibly the most exciting post I've ever written. Justin and I are engaged! He proposed last weekend in Park City and I said yes! Crazy right?

Here's the story.....

Justin told me we were going to visit his roommate

who was staying at his family's cabin in Park City.

He handed me directions that said the cabin was on "Memory Lane".

Following the directions, we turned onto a street that overlooks Park City

and just happened to have a temporary sign, "Memory Lane" posted on it.

At that point I kinda suspected something. :)

Here are some pictures of the view of Park City...

and "Memory Lane"

At the end of the cul-de-sac, Justin had set up a projector

to watch a video of all our dating memories

and pictures from the last five years or so.

Then he told me there was something across the ridge he wanted me to see.

Down in the valley I saw an area lit up with Christmas lights.

I later found out Justin and Ashley had had a busy and cold afternoon getting this contraption ready. A couple hundred feet of Christmas lights, some bamboo sticks, and a few rolls of aluminum foil later...

I turned back and Justin was on one knee. He popped the question and I said yes!

We are such zoobies in our Cougar blue!

We celebrated afterwards with dinner down on Main Street in Park City and then headed home for a photo shoot courtesy of Mom and sparkling cider!

I love that now we both have new accessories on matching fingers.

Hopefully, though, he gets to take his off soon.

Here are the fruits of the photo shoot! Justin was a good sport.

More pictures Mom took...

Naturally, we used the reindeer glasses for our celebration with the family.

Ash was Justin's accomplice the whole day setting everything up.

We owe her big time!

It feels crazy to be engaged after dating for so long. Marrying Justin was always in the back of my mind but now I just feel like I'm letting everyone in on the secret. Plus I have a pretty, shiny something on a finger! If you had told seventeen year-old Allie, drooling at "math boy" in AP calculus that I was going to marry him, I would have died of happiness. He was my dream boy then and he's still my biggest crush!

Tonight I'm celebrating with my girls... Jason DeRulo and B.O.B. concert at UVU!

PS Thanks to Mom for letting me steal her blog post :)

Football and the moonlit ride

So the cougs' record may not be too impressive this season but I'm no fair-weathered fan. The games have still been fun even though they are having a rough time. I'm glad the Washington game was at home so we could see them win! Here's some pics from that game and the not-so-lovely Nevada game.

We look like such zoobies in this one! But check out my sweet alumni t-shirt...

In other football news, Justin started playing on an intramural flag football team with some friends! Being the good gf that I am, I showed up with fruit snacks and animal crackers for the whole team. After a few plays, Justin comes over to the sidelines and says "I think something's wrong with my finger". Being a good nurse, I quickly assessed the inflamed, distorted finger. A trip to the local instacare and an xray later we find out he broke the tip of this left ring finger. Amazing how he played six years of tackle and never broke a bone but ten minutes of intramurals did him in. I guess his intramural football career just wasn't meant to be. So now Justin is sporting a lovely new accessory- a fatty finger splint. Luckily this poor boy had a sweet nurse to administer ibuprofen and change his splint every few days!

I don't think I have any pictures of the splint but don't worry I'm sure it'll make appearances in future photos. It's hard to miss!

Totally unrelated but the other night we went with Trisha and Brent to do the moonlit ride at Sundance! Ty and Sonya did this for their first date and Trish and I have been itching to go for a while. It was soooooo cold. Seriously. so. cold. There was a long line and I was really wondering if it was worth it. Don't worry, it was. It was strange to be riding a lift with no snow but pretty in the mountains with the full moon. Made me excited for ski season... and wearing my warm ski gear.

Summer update because it's already fall...

So I officially started my job as a nurse! I am almost done with my training and will have my very own patients soon! The drive up to SLC is not my favorite but once I am there I love it.

Summer was lovely. Here is a recap of events:

Ty got married!!! Thanks to yours truly. Well at least I did some of the introducing then Ty worked his magic. I love Ty and Sonya so much! The wedding was beautiful and so fun. You can now get updates on these Okie lovebirds at their very own blog (don't worry they are much better at updating than I am!).

The "Holt girls" just missing our newest addition!

I went on a pioneer trek!! Yes you read that right. I never got to go as a youth so I was pretty excited when I heard my BYU ward was going to do a trek. Then, I was asked to be our ward's first aid person and I knew I had to go. I couldn't turn down a chance to live out my childhood dream of becoming "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman". Each trekker was given a pioneer name and mine was Dr. Quinn, naturally. Unfortunately we didn't run into any rugged, indian-clad men a la Byron Sully....

The Macobinson family!

Here we are after a day of trekking. A little less enthused. My roomies will probably die when they know this pic is on the world wide web.

Other summer activities: picnic with the bffs

Celebrating the 4th with Carrie

Hikes with spotting scope in hand...

Timp caves

So I had this goal to celebrate one Pioneer Day 100%. I was a tad fanatical about it. I promised Justin this would be the only Pioneer Day I would celebrate. I figured I had to do it once while living in Utah. The day's activities started out with an early morning drive to SLC for the Days of '47 Pioneer Day Parade! It was a little hot but otherwise a lovely way to get into the pioneer spirit. Next up I dragged Justin over to a pioneer museum in Provo. We watched a blacksmith, looked at a pioneer schoolhouse and home, and then got free pioneer candy! He was a good sport. :) To top it all off a group of us went down to Spanish Fork for a fireworks show! Quite the Pioneer Day. I'm kinda relieved I don't feel the need to ever celebrate that holiday again....

Such a good bf supporting my pioneer day obsession

Helping all the parent-less Utah children play with dangerous years-old stilts- now that's the pioneer spirit!

Roomies at the fireworks

Bobsled ride in Park City for Mommy's birthday

Roadtrip to CA with a car full of boys for Caitlin's baptism!

Outdoor movie at the state capitol

More hiking- this time Stewart Falls.

I think that's it for summer! Next time I'll try updating more than once per season. :)

I'm a nurse!

Right after getting back from my trip to California, I found out I got a job at Primary Children's Medical Center! I had interviewed there right before leaving but wasn't sure how it went. Most of the applicants in my group interview had either worked there as a tech before or had done their capstone internships there. I had done neither so I felt super blessed to even get an interview. When I got the phone call with a job offer, I was ecstatic.

Trisha was a pal and took me out to celebrate my first real job!

When I was little I would tell my parents I was going to be a professional baby holder. My mom informed me that profession was called being a mother and I wouldn't get paid. Well, I'm just about as close to a baby holder as I can get! I feel really lucky to have gotten a job and especially lucky to be working at such a special hospital. It is one of the most colorful and happiest hospitals I have ever been in.

The final step to my journey of nursing school was passing the NCLEX. I did practice questions and flashcards everyday from April to June until my mind couldn't take it anymore. June 17th I took the test. It was pretty rough. Most of the time I felt like I had no idea what the questions were even asking. I got to my 75th question and the computer shut off! A few days later I looked up on the Utah DOPL website and searched my name. I was so relieved to see "Allison Joyce Holt: Registered Nurse". Here is the screenshot to prove it if anyone is skeptical....

So it's a done deal! I even passed the drug screening. I will be working at the Children's Medical Unit so my patients will be two to eighteen years-old. I love working with children and their families. Learning "the Healer's art" at BYU was incredible and I am so excited to finally do so as a real, live nurse!

Random trip home in May....

So I went home in May for no apparent reason. It was a decent trip. Nothing too big to report.

Boating at Folsom

A bridal shower for Sonya

Mother's Day

Took a casual trip to the airport

Then ran into this old friend...

Okay so the trip was a really big deal. I was a nervous wreck but it was so fun to see my best friend again. Life is good. :)