It's been a fun schoolyear.

A photo dump of some memories from junior year.

Although it's been real BYU, full of learning experiences and happy times and all that, I must say that I'm glad we're separating for the next 4 months. I'll be back soon for our finale.

(pictures in reverse chronological order)

Pando concert in a parking garage.

Ward Prom.

BYU vs. UofU ultimate frisbee.

BFF Nick and church.

The Wash Hut.

St. George.

Zion's National Park.

Elf and his kitty.

Exploring and ice cream with the roommates.

Harry gettin' pulled over on his scooter.

Adventures in Park City.

Wolves.

The Jordan.

I got a purple bikeinabox.

Sidelining BYU women's soccer.

Nice notes are nice I guess.

This is my happy journal.

I tape happy things into it.

Some of the happiest things are nice notes.

Every Sunday night around here people write "nice notes" to each other, which get delivered to your door.

And they're very nice.

I'm surrounded by some of the kindest, most genuine people here at school and I feel so lucky!
If you've ever written me a nice note, it's in here!
Creepy? Maybe.

I'm grateful for these silly little slips of paper that make me happy.

Even when I don't know I need them.

happiness is a choice

i am a firm believer that happiness is a choice

but sometimes i forget that i decided to believe that

i first discovered this in high school

i'm sure that i'm not the only one that thought high school suuuuuuuucked

and was just waiting for graduation to bust out of the prison of anti-morality

but i definitely was not going to last all through senior year in a depressed state of mind

after a mental kick in the butt i learned that 

even when life is not going my way i can still make the most of it and choose to be happy

"fake it 'til you make it" kinda thing

i kinda had this philosophy in cheer too - smile like an idiot until you're smiling for reals

anyways

my life is awesome right now and nowhere near high school status

(even though we both look like we're still in high school)

(ps - this picture was to show how our hairs are the same color, crazy right??)

but holy cowwww what am i doing??

i'm at the point of another mid-college crisis

where i am not enjoying my classes

(well, one i absolutely love) but the rest i'm having a hard time with

adolescent development, the professor reads her slides word for word

which she has copied from the textbook

which i read the night before

what is the point of taking this class again if i can just read the book on my own?

which is SO disappointing because THIS is what i want to be learning and doing in the future

so i just want to be done

i want to stop school, but i want a degree so i won't

i want to change my major to art history, but i don't want to tack on 2 more years of school

 ilovefamilystudiesilovefamilystudiesilovefamilystudies

while going through this mental breakdown of not caring-ness

the pretty cool guy in the picture above reminded me

that even when things aren't going my way

i can still make the most it and choose to be happy

i remember in church this past year someone said that happiness is a choice

because it is a consequence of righteous living

so yes, school is not going how i want it to right now

but as long as i am living my life the way my heavenly father wants me to

i can be happy because He will always be there for me and He wants to bless me

it's a comfort to know that everything works out in the end

#ldsconf

Conference was kewl.

I spent Saturday at home with my roommates and then went up to Park City with some nice friendlies.

Umm... this is us watching conference.

And I took a video of Chylie bouncing gummy bears off the floor across the room into Harry's mouth during the rest hymn, but I can't make it load.

But HERE are the FUN pictures.

Biking around and exploring the all the art galleries on Main St!!!

 Hopping the fence to go on a leisurely walk through the woods and getting yelled at for trespassing!!!

Ancient graveyards!!!

For reals it was way fun Mom.

Californication

My friendlies and I went to California the week before school started. I created a texting group named "Californication" to be funny but got in trouble. IT'S A SONG I SWEAR!!!

We stayed at a friend's family's condo in Del Mar.
The view was just awful.

I mean, we only watched the sun set over the ocean as we ate dinner every. single. night.

(outside the front door, wet-suiting up, walking to the beach)

No but seriously, the beach was an 82 second walk away. Our routine was:
wake up
make breakfast
go to the beach and surf, boogie board, swim, nap, bury people
swim in the pool/jacuzzi
eat lunch
go back to the beach
eat dinner
swim some more
watch a movie
sleep

One of the most memorable things from this trip was probably Evelyn, the woman we were staying with. She is the shortest, fiery-est, sassiest, tannest, most charitable person ever. She was letting us stay for free but kept trying to buy us things and feed us. Seriously Evelyn! Stop being so nice! I'll also remember singing at the nursing home Evelyn's parent's were staying in. Another thing I'll remember is the fact that all 9 of us were sleeping in tiny condo for 5 days, but never got sick of each other or fought. (Jk I got mad at Trent once. YOU CAN'T DELETE PICTURES FROM MY PHONE EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE HOW YOU LOOK.) I also loved walking along the water at night.

I love California. And having friends. That are almost like family.

Homeless

Ugh the infamous "homeless period" at BYU.

My contract at my old apartment ran out, but the contract at the new apartment wasn't happenin' for like, 10 days. So I had 3 options. 

1. Sleep on someone's apartment floor for a week and work on campus.

2. Find someone's house to live in around Utah and not work.

3. Be homeless and work on campus while also making some spare change while begging.

Instead I chose Option 4, and flew home to BELLINGHAMMMMMM.

Things I did during my week in the motherland:

 1.) Played ping-pong on the Seattle waterfront with the homeless.
(Hempfest was going on...THAT was fun.)

2. Ate pho. My other lover.

3.) Walked around Artist's Point at Mount Baker.

 4.) Turned 20 and ate cake.

5.) Biked around Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

6.) Found creepy Asian statues. Canada, art?

First Day

I went to the wrong class.

.

.

.

I still can't find the right one.

.

.

.

Yes, I'm a junior, not a freshman.

.

.

.

But guess what! Sooooo I was walking out of my apartment complex really early this morning, and I was NOT looking forward to work cause it is crizazy right now at the beginning of the new semester and there's a bunch of new people that don't quite have the hang of things yet. 

Anyways, I was walking, and this guy comes up on a little motor bike and is like, "Wanna ride up to campus??" And I was likeeee hmmmm, "I don't want to get kidnapped, but you're really cute, and your bike is so ghetto I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to do a very good job of kidnapping me anyways. So yeah I'll get on your bike and let you drive me around." (I didn't actually say that.) So I did! (And his bike was so weird he had to pedal it around and then a motor would kick on.) And he was really nice, and turns out he grew up like an hour away from my hometown and played against my high school in soccer. And he played soccer for BYU.

Picture of me right after the blessed event.

So that was cool. And the rest of my horrible day didn't seem so bad.

Nice people are the nicest!

Let's Talk About Sister Alayna Jones

This is my BFF and me.

Today is a momentous day because TODAY is the day that she reports to the Missionary Training Center to begin her 18 month adventure as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Lima, Peru (if her Visa ever comes in).

(an artistic representation of our love and friendship) 

Hannah: Alayna, I think you should go home and study. 

Alayna: Why?

Hannah: Because you’re getting weird and putting lotion on people’s necks.
Alayna: No I lost my balance and caught myself on the pump!
Hannah: You’re so full of it.
Alayna: Full of what? 
Hannah & Summer: It.

Kamilla: With an S-H in front.

Alayna and I met last year in the dorms. She had a class with my roommate Hannah, and then ended up constantly chilling in our room. Sophomore year, we all moved into an apartment together. And that is when we became good friends.

(The Silkworm, Coldplay guitar lessons, creation of House Rules, Twinsies)

We bonded over boy drama. In the beginning we didn't have a lot of common interests or hobbies, but boys was definitely one. Cough. We had a 9:00am stats class together. We would both roll out of bed at 8:45am, brush our teeth and walk up to class together. Then I chilled with her family over Thanksgiving break in Arizona. Seriously, one of the nicest families in the world. On the roadtrip back to Utah we got in a pretty major car accident. That sucked. But, oddly enough without the car crash Alayna and I probably wouldn't have become as good of friends as we are now.

(roadtrip and car crash)

We did literally everything together this past semester. Ok, not literally. But pretty much. We were a package deal. But both of us are cute and fun, so it was like a bonus package deal, right? Chiropractor trips twice a week because of the car crash, dinner group Monday-Thursday, same committee in our ward, hanging out by ourselves when we had no other friends, watching Spongebob after class, etc. Heck, we even dated guys who were roommates.

(top to bottom, left to right - chiropractor, dinner group, date night, chiropractor carpool, date night, librarying, publicity council bonding, being loners on a Saturday night)

Alayna: Summer, if you were a boy, I would totally date you.

Summer: Oh my gosh really?? I would totally date you too Alayna!

Alayna: Really?? Awwwww!!

We already decided that we’re going to be friends forever. She’s tried to convince me to stay single for the next 18 months so that we can live together again when she gets back. We’ll see what happens. For real though, life forever with Alayna would be a blast.

(couch time, froyo date, the departure of the dinner group text)

This girl is incredible. She claims to not be a runner, but she trained for the St. George Marathon all summer only to kind of break her foot a couple months before it was supposed to happen. After having her boot off for only 3 weeks and not running for over a month, she ran the entire marathon. 

She is a born leader. She was chair of the Publicity Committee in our ward this past semester, and I was a council member so I got to work under her. Publicity Committee doesn’t have many responsibilities to be honest. We make the Sacrament Meeting program, any activity flyers, and in general tell people what’s going on in the ward. But she totally made Publicity wayyy more involved in the ward than I thought possible. She went above and beyond to magnify her calling. The motto she came up with for us was "Be Annoying". As far as announcements go and stuff. I think we succeeded. 

She’s been through some serous trials. She’s from Joplin, MO, the town that was leveled by a tornado a couple of year ago. She was in her car driving home from graduation when it hit. She was homeless for a while because of it, but when she talks about it she isn’t bitter and shows incredible strength. 

She was an Anatomy TA. For those of you who don’t know, anatomy at BYU is BRUTAL. It sounds like a fun and interesting class to me, but since it’s so intense I’ll probably never take it haha. But Alayna (and Hannah) love it and worked so hard that they were able to become TA’s and help a lot of other students – without getting paid. 

She’s an incredible friend. In the picture above of our “couch time” I was having one of the worst days ever. Seriously I was a mess, and Alayna had been out of town for the past couple days. But as soon as she came home she recognized immediately that I was having issues, sat down with me, and knew exactly what to say to make me feel like a million dollars again. As you can see, I even took a picture of that moment so that I would never forget it. I’m so lucky that I got to spend this year with her.

(our last Sunday)

If there’s one thing that I know about Alayna, it’s that she loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. She knows that it’s true and that it is a real source of eternal happiness. I’m so happy that she gets this chance to give a year and a half of her life to teach the people of Peru and bring them closer to Christ. She’s going to be the cutest, tallest, best sister missionary down there. Peru is so lucky! Go get 'em Sister Alayna (she doesn't have a middle name) Jones!!