On Actual Halloween

I decided kind of last minute to join Mallorie and Jaylene on their trip to Utah for he weekend. 

Mallorie's boyfriend Mark, and Mark's roommate Eli, came with us actually last minute. 

the ride to Provo was a lot of T-swizzle and good conversation.

When we actually got there i dropped everyone off at their events (after a frenzy of decisions of activities) and then gave Derek about 5 minutes warning before crashing he and Raycelan's Pumpkin carving festivities. (sorrynotsorry)

I'M SO GLAD I WENT. 

Being in Provo again made the whole summer come sweeping at me.

and the entire night i was sending a constant stream of silent "thank you" prayers to Heaven for all the incredible people i got to meet because of Sports Camps. and all the wonderful things i got to be a part of.

Raycelan is a perfect host.

I had just seen Derek like 2 weeks prior at the family reunion, but i had already missed him so much! So i'm glad i got to see him again, even if it was only for an hour or so. 

Dylan and Mitch were in California, which i was bummed about, because i wanted to say hi.

but next door to Raycelan's apartment was a halloween party, and i saw my old roommate, so we were talking and gushing and catching up. i love that Leah girl.  

and then through the window i saw Karl. 

and he gave me the most confused surprised look. 

And then it clicked and i saw him say, "Melissa Hansen?!" and he stood up, so i ran inside and we hugged and talked for a bit. He was wearing a dinosaur mariachi costume (yes.) and his hair was longer than he kept it in the summer and i was unabashedly staring at him the whole time, haha. 

more silent thank you prayers.

one specifically for a boy who is just a stinking great person. 

I watched everyone carve adorable pumpkins. we all ate chocolate. Then Raycelan whipped out her karaoke machine!!! YES. Derek and i rocked out at highest volume to "The Saga Continues". then He and Raycelan followed up with "Human". too. good. 

Derek and i just got to catch up and gossip about Jonathan's awesome girlfriend, and just plain chat. which i love. and for some reason it just was so perfect that this catch up chat happened in the kitchen of a Cinnamon Tree apartment, just like our chats over the summer. 

closure, full circle, Chiasmus, all phrases that work here. 

once My friends were done at their party thing, i said goodbye to everyone and picked up Mal, Jay, Mark and Eli. (I was driving, because neither Mal or Jay wanted to drive in Provo, because they don't know the layout.) we dropped the boys off at the place they were staying the night. Mal and Jay asked if there was anywhere cool that i loved during the summer that i wanted to show them. but by this point it was around 11:30, so everything was closed. i took the to the creamery to get ice cream, duh. and then very spur of the moment we decided to climb to the Y!

SO WE DID!

after we went to maceys and bought flashlights, and i stocked up on mango powerade. 

we started actually 'hiking' around midnight. 

I have a feeling that it was one of those nights that the 3 of us will remember for a long time. 

We sat there for a while. not leaving, for fear of spoiling the magic of midnight friendship crucibles.

by the time we got back to the car it was 1:40 or so. am. no big deal.  

we ended up crashing on the floor of  Jaylene's cousin's apartment in provo. 

but we didn't really sleep because it was FREEZING.

this was us at 8 am when we couldn't take it any longer and decided to leave:

YES.

 sidenote: the sun coming up over the mountains behind campus and the crisp morning whisked me right back to good old July, and i imagined it:

8 am, walking back with a group of squirrely girls from breakfast at the cannon center. probably all in our pajamas. smiling. for no apparent reason. just because i was happy. twisting my lanyard as we walked back to the dorms so they could get ready for their morning session of practice.

i know it sounds melodramatic, but standing on the curb outside that apartment on November 1, staring at Y mountain i definitely got teary eyed. 

more silent thank you prayers.

we picked up Mark, drove him to his sister's house in Orem, and then parked at a church building a few blocks away and tried to sleep for another 3 hours. i took a couple 20 minute naps bit couldn't ever actually fall asleep. this was us at 12:30 when we finally decided to just leave.

SO. UNBELIEVABLY ATTRACTIVE. 

we finally made it to Mal's family at about 1:30. they let us all take showers and get cleaned up, and then we spent the weekend there talking and laughing and visiting. they showed me Monsters University! my first time seeing it :)
This was my 3rd or 4th time visiting them. they're a great family, and we love 'em. 

Sunday afternoon, we drove home, talking about Harry Potter and listening to my super cheesy church music. and the backseat napped. Eli sorted into Hufflepuff.  Jay and i had some good talks in the front half of the car. it was a good drive back. 

hooray for road trips. 

hooray for memories

hooray for the best calendar year of my life.