There's good in Idaho. There is.

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Sweater: Madewell; Shirt: Madewell; Pants: Citizens; Hat: Nords

This morning I sat at my kitchen table with my brother and talked about college life. He's leaving for school next Wednesday and worried about "eating" (if he only knew how many I-want-to-be-a-wife girls there are hoping/praying for a boy to feed). 

And you know what I realized? I miss being a college girl. 

College life is fun. 

Being a mom is more fun- but college was a different kind of fun. It like the find-out-who-you-are-and-just-be-yourself kind of fun. Everyone needs that at some point. So, being secluded in the middle of a snowy desert at a school where there is almost nothing to do so you are just left with your friends, your imagination, your TV and and Taco Bell, is okay.

K, life lesson over.

I've been listing things in my mind today- things I hated/things I love about the tiny town of Rexburg. There really were some things that I loved- aside from friends, classes, and McKay.

First, hated:

Psychotic crickets. PSYCHOTIC. World record for loudest crickets in the world- and the loudest family of them lived right outside McKay and my apartment window in the summer. I was seven months pregnant and couldn't sleep, so I would venture outside at 2am with a bottle of the most toxic thing I could find (oven cleaner) and douse the rocks outside of our window. And they still chirped.

Snow. Five feet of it on top of your car.

Insane and unnecessary wind. Girls at college in search of a husband spend lots of time in the morning doing their hair. I did this and it was ridiculous because I would walk to my car and within ten feet of my apartment door, my hair would be ruined. 

Hills. The campus was on a hill, so between classes, you had to walk up many hills. In the middle of the winter there would be snow, so you pretty much did a pioneer trek in-between every class- at least that's what it felt like to me.

Smell. Some days it just smelled like a sewer. It wasn't just me. I would drive my car to WalMart and in the parking lot would be a dozen other people sniffing the air with a disgusted look on their face. I don't get it. It was just weird.

But, really loved:

The campus. I really really loved our school. There was just a special feeling  that I have never felt anywhere else. And of course, a temple right there. Best thing ever.

Cocoa Bean. Obviously. Just the best cupcakes I have ever had in my entire life. I've never been a huge cake-cupcake eater. I like pies. But this place converted me to the other side. 

Idaho Boys (McKay). He's from Idaho.You know those boys in country songs that show up at your door after a fight, short-of-breath because they ran all the way to your doorstep from their house? Yes, McKay did that.

Nature Park. This was my special spot in Rexburg. It's just a little park with a little pond and some trails and some ducks. I would drive my car there a lot, just to think. I drove there sometimes to think about McKay when I was falling in love with him. When I was pregnant, I went there to tan. There aren't many other places secluded enough to lay around eight months pregnant in a bikini (which I only wear in seclusion anyway). McKay and I hung out there a lot our last summer. We would bring our towels, iPods, and popsicles, and lay in the sun. 

Cabin where I got engaged. My favorite place in the state of Idaho. McKay surprised me on a trip to Jackson Hole, and brought me back here during our last semester. You can see here.

The cat house. One day, we found a cat house. It's just like it sounds- a house...full of cats. FULL. If you tell someone to close their eyes and bring them up to the window, in the dark, and then you say "open your eyes!" It's really funny and they are scared at first and then amazed. They also have really really cute kittens. Chad brought one home to Wa after Jax was born. Our family loves kittens.

That backroad. It's the dirt road next to McKay's apartment where he told me he loved me, where we had most of our important talks, and also some of our best kisses. It's also where we "off-roaded" almost every night as McKay drove about 100mph trying to get me home before curfew.

:)