To my sister, a month before you're to be married,

We've grown up together our entire lives, being each others playmate, confidant, best friend.  Our childhood was one in the same; our stories both began in the house in the woods, in a little town in New Jersey. Memories of bike rides up and down our long driveway, the green green grass, Friday pizza nights with TGIF on the television, exploring the woods in our backyard, the old white house and the back woods trails. So many games, TV tag and Marco Polo, playing airplane and house, you teetering out in Mom's high heels, making up dances to the old 45s in the record case. Dance and soccer and gymnastics and softball. You, three years younger, you the little sister, you always there, my beloved shadow, a mini-version, a littler me. But as we grew up you became your own person, no longer always wanting to be just like big sister, you figured out who you were, you found your own way. You became who you were always going to be. I am so thankful for those years we spent growing up together in that beautiful bubble- you were born when I was three, and when I went away to college, it marked the end of twelve years sharing clothes, laughs, secrets, and that sister language only we could understand. All of my fondest memories include you, and I feel fortunate that we are always creating new ones too; we still laugh, and play, and yes, even fight sometimes. You are a beautiful person, and throughout our lives, I've always been incredibly protective. I only want the best for you, and now that you are 26, an adult by all means, about to get married, I can say with a happy heart that you've absolutely found the best in your Abe.  My wish for you is that you continue to follow your heart and your dreams, and that you continue to be the firecracker of a girl you've always been. I hope marriage only continues to encourage your heart to grow in every which way possible. I believe that you and Abe are meant to be, and I am so happy that you have found that one person for you. Remember to love, and to have fun, and to never forget the feeling you have right now- so young and in love, about to embark on the greatest journey of your life. So, little sister, this is for you. A wish for love and happiness, a wish for your future to be a bright as your present. I love you.

Friday night- birthday fun

Last night was such a great night. Two of my closest friends, Alana and Erin, celebrated their birthdays. The night began in downtown Phoenix, at the First Friday Art Walk, continued at a couple of bars- including Lost Leaf, my favorite...and ended at Hanny's, for a late night birthday dinner. The older I get, the more I appreciate birthdays. I'm not one to get sad about them at all- I think it's so awesome to have "made it" another year, and the whole idea of the celebration is fantastic! YES! Let's celebrate you and your life, and this past year, and let's toast to the next year. Birthdays are my favorite days, and this is even more so when they are the birthdays of people I love.

I've been friends with Erin since our freshman year in college, when we lived in the same dorm, and we both ended up rushing Pi Phi. We've been close ever since, spending birthdays and holiday parties, nights out, girl's trips and vacations across the country together. She's a really special person to me, so her birthday is a special day to me too, since I'm so happy she was born...as weird as it sounds! haha. And my sweet Alana- I met her my sophomore year of college and immediately fell in friend love with her. We've been the same kind of close ever since- spending those same girl's nights, trips, etc. Alana is one of my all-time favorite people, and to know her is to love her forever. Our group of girl friends has been close for a long time, and once you get to the point where you've all been friends for close to a decade, it's really just a big family. We're all so incredibly different, and it's so neat that over the years we've remained so close. Weddings, babies, up and downs...we've all been there for one another.

Last night was no different! It was super fun, and a night to remember for sure. Here are some photos from the evening-

downtown Art Walk


the birthday girls and me


my cute little besties and me


the gorgeous sisters


Erin, Kyle and Jeff (this was one of the few photos I took with my D60- you can totally tell the picture quality!)



Erin and me


sisters!


same shirt, kinda...


Alana, Em and me- these ladies are the best.


Pi Phis ;)


The Kolbes


Shirls and Sarah


Leah and Alana


Shirley and Nate, aren't they the cutest couple?!


walking downtown to Hanny's


birthday table one!


birthday table two! (still missing a couple of people)


Happy birthday Alana!


dinner


The Barnas...good people :)


me


Kati! I love this photo so much.


annnd, one of the lovely birthday girls! So pretty.


I hope all of you had a wonderful Friday night, whatever you did! I slept in super late this morning, and now I'm off for a day at the salon with Rhonda. Have a great day. :)

Congratulations to my beautiful baby sister!

If you're a follower of my blog you know that my sister Lauren and I are very close and the best of friends. So, it's with my heart full of so much love and excitement that I am happy to announce that she is engaged to be married! I wanted to wait and mention this until she blogged about it herself, and you can go check out that entry here. I love that she even had her fiance, Abe, get back down on one knee so she could take a photo for a little renactment. A true "Hawthorne" girl. ;) She and Abe have been friends since they were in junior high which I think that is just the neatest thing. I love how he treats her so well and makes her so happy- he's truly the best. Hank and I both couldn't be happier to call him our brother.

You should all definitely follow her blog- she's a great writer and definitely fun to read. Laur is a 6th grade teacher in Phoenix, and is one of the most amazing girls I know- it's neat to say that about your sister too! She was serious athlete growing up, and played collegiate soccer for the University of Wyoming. She's already looks fabulous, but will be starting a new "fitness" blog outside of her regular one, as she prepares for her wedding! If you missed the embedded links, you can click here to visit her blog.

Here's a photo of Lauren and Abe, her fiance, at Hank and my wedding in 2008. Cutest couple ever!

Congratulations, you two! I love you both so much.

Weekend in Review

This weekend I joined some of my closest girlfriends for a weekend at our old stomping grounds- Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ for the Homecoming festivities. We don't go every year, but this year worked out for a majority of us last minute, so we took the plunge and decided to go. Our usual girl's trip/travel group was whittled down a bit due to Amy and Carrie living in Florida and Minnesota, respectively, and Autumn and Brenda pregnant, so it turned out to be just five of us.

I had the best time this weekend. I got to catch up with so many old, dear friends and my little heart felt like it was going to just burst from happiness the entire time. Many of you might not know this, but I was in a sorority throughout all four of my undergrad college years. I lived in the house/wing and loved every single second of the experience. When people meet me now, based off appearances they're sometimes surprised I was a "sorority girl," and I don't talk about it unless I'm with my sisters or if it comes up, so it's funny for me at times when people find out and it kind of bends stereotypes and preconceived notions. I love it. In case you're curious, I'm a Pi Phi alumni (Pi Beta Phi), which is actually the oldest sorority in the United States, we were founded in 1867 and there is more than likely a chapter in any major university you visit. Pi Phi is a huge, huge part of my life and it's a really special thing to me. I feel like it really shaped me into a wonderful woman, as cheesy as it sounds, and I met many of my very, very best friends through it. I know a lot of people have negative feelings towards Greek life, but for the most part those are people who probably haven't ever experienced it themselves. I am a huge proponent of "girl power" (haha), and a total girl's girl...so sorority life was made for someone like me. A big part of Homecoming is meeting up with all of the Pi Phis, and the active chapter will do a luncheon or banquet on the last day. This year we went out Friday night, Saturday morning for a late-start Tequila Sunrise, and Saturday night. Sunday was the luncheon. Overall the weekend was awesome. We ate yummy food, walked all over downtown, danced our butts off, and laughed 'til we cried. It's such a wonderful thing to be able to make new memories with old friends. Like I said earlier, my heart is so full of love and so happy, and I am so grateful for all of these amazing women in my life.

Now, pictures!

our room at the historic Monte Vista Hotel right in the heart of downtown Flagstaff. I LOVE this hotel so much, and the salon/spa Autumn and I worked at all through college is attached to this, so I would often have to go into the scary basement to get fresh towels. I am positive the place is haunted and Erin, Jenna and I swear we had a strange experience with the "Bellman Ghost." haha.



Jenna, Erin, and Shirley




dinner! We enjoyed a delicious Thai meal.






After dinner we headed down to Maloney's, which is a bar we used to frequent while in college. It is definitely not my kind of place now, but it was fun for awhile and we ran into a million people! I ended up seeing Kelli, my sister's best friend and one of my favorite people. Her boyfriend Mike attended NAU so they came up for the weekend and it was a pleasant surprise to see her. :)



Alana and me, squinty because the flash was way too bright for a dark bar!



more squints! ;)



outside, it was so cold. I swear I'm not that short, just crouching!



Katie and Terra, Autumn and my little sisters in Pi Phi and dear friends! I love them.





Big sis/little sis! Terra is one of the most important people to me in the whole, wide world. We've been through a lot together and now that she is back in the country I am so excited to spend as much time as possible with her. She is coming up this next weekend to stay with me, and I'm literally counting down the minutes. She is such a doll.



We spent Friday night bar hopping and ended the night at the Monte V, dancing to a fun band and being silly. Alana, Erin and I decided to eat pizza at 3am (NOT my style and I felt so gross the next day- although it was so delicious at the time), and went to sleep around 4am or so. The next morning was Tequila Sunrise, which is an NAU tradition where the bars open at 6am and it's just an all-around insane time. We thought about doing it/not going to sleep...but sleep won and we didn't wake up until around 8am and then headed downtown, still insanely tired!

Here we are! Alana does not look happy. ;)



heading down in the elevator


Here's Shirley, sitting on the patio at Charly's/Hotel Weatherford and enjoying brunch. We were incessantly entertained by the wasted, wasted people stumbling around!



beautiful day


tired faces...shortly after this I went back up to the room and napped my heart out with Jenna!


That night we decided to do Beaver St. Brewery for dinner and then go out once again to see friends and enjoy our last night in town! Dinner was okay, Shirley and I split a pizza (bad choice...pizza again?!) and a salad.

Jenna and Alana at dinner



Afterwards we went over to The Green Room.

Don't even ask what those drinks are...and yes, that is a Red Bull can floating in the pitcher.



Now this is a horrid picture of me, but the real gem is cute Shirley in the background. Her face makes me laugh every time and I'm leaving this up for Autumn's benefit!



Leah!



I stopped taking photos at this point because the night got a little crazy and I forgot to, but it was really fun time! :)

The next morning we slept in as late as possible and headed over to the Pi Phi luncheon I mentioned at the beginning of the entry! One of the neatest things about this afternoon was that one of my very special students, Anna, is a Pi Phi pledge now, so I'm taking part in her experience with her...I'm just so excited that she decided to do it and it's awesome that she's a part of something so special to me.

Jenna and Shirls downstairs in the conference room



Alumni photo!





Anna and me!



up in the chapter room- Michelle is in the middle and she is basically the chapter's "Mom." Her class was the founding Pi Phi class at NAU, and she's now the advisor. It's very neat to know her as an adult now, rather than the way it was before.



Here are some of the baby Pi Phis that rushed when I was a junior...they're all grown up and it's adorable.



more of the little ones



And finally, one more in the hallway!



So, that was my weekend! I definitely need to get to sleep now but I hope all of you had a beautiful past two days. I have a few things I want to blog about this week outside of day to day stuff, so I will be tackling that tomorrow night. Goodnight all! xo