masquerade.

My stellar roommate Carly (babe on the left) and her friends threw the most amazing masquerade party ever. It was held in the ballroom at the Blue Bird and there was a live band, an incredible DJ, and lots of super fun people. This night was probably the most fun I have had up at college so far. Although there are a shortage of boys up here at USU, I'm so grateful for my awesome girls who make me so happy and dance weirdly with me in public.

(we may or may not have been on the roof when we weren't supposed to be)

So clearly I wouldn't be representing myself very well if I didn't get a cat mask so....I was a cat. Because I am Emily McKenna.

 Such good roommates and such good friends. How did I get so lucky?

 Never has there been a picture that more accurately describes our relationship.

one year of twins.

So let me just start this post off with a little background story.  Well hello my name is Emily and ever since my sister's wedding day I was waiting and begging for her to get pregnant. Literally every time I saw her I would nag her to start having babies. There was honestly nothing I wanted more than to be an aunt. Well I had to wait like four years for them to finally get pregnant, but it was defiantly worth the wait because they got two little blessings instead of one. I probably cried like everyday of her pregnancy because I was just so happy. I was so creepy and overly obsessed that I would take pictures with her growing belly every time I saw her and wouldn't even want her to be in the picture because I only cared about the babies. (sorry Karli)

example...

The babies were finally born, and we all of course fell completely in love with these little boys. 

Well that was one year ago as of yesterday! The twins are one, and I can't believe it. It has been such an amazing year, and I have loved being an aunt more than anything. If you follow me on Instagram your probably are so sick of all my posts with the babies, but sorry I can't help it. I can't even imagine how obsessed I'm going to be with my own children...watch out social media. Yesterday they had a cute little pool party with some family and friends. While I was in Oregon in July I went to Powell's Books and found some really cool vintage Disney books from the 60's. The artwork is old-fashioned and I loved them, so I got one each for the boys and wrote a little message on the inside. 

I think they liked the books, because they both gave them some sweet kisses. 

fish and monkeys.

Breaking news...Caroline and I are now parents. On Labor Day we bought ourselves a beta fish, and I know all fish owners say their fish is the cutest, but ours really is. He's a light lavender and cranberry color, and he either does a lot of drugs or he's just extremely hyperactive. We named him Judy after our tennis coach, Scott Judy. Coach Judy made Caroline and I doubles partners our Junior year, and that's how we became best friends. We figured the only real way to thank Judy for our friendship was to name a fish after him. So there ya go Scott...hope you feel honored.

On Wednesday I drove down to Salt Lake for the night to go to the Arctic Monkeys concert. Even though I had to drive down there from Logan and then wait in line for four hours, it was so worth it. There's honestly no better feeling than being front row at a concert, feeling the music in your chest, and screaming so loud your throat hurts. If I could spend every night at a concert, I seriously would.  If you've never listened to the Arctic Monkeys before I would suggest you do that, probably start off with Do I Wanna Know? or Fluorescent Adolescent. 

Also, last night was USU's Institute opening social. Can I just say that I already love institute. I loved seminary, but institute is even better. I'm taking a class called Teachings of the Living Prophets, which is pretty much just studying past conference talks. It is really awesome (despite the fact there are only three boys in our class and one of them is married). I love getting the opportunity to learn more about the gospel and feel the spirit with my peers. The opening social was super fun. They had food, games, movies, a dance, and lots of new people! I feel very lucky to be apart of a gospel that creates such a positive and happy environment.

blast from the past.

This Friday was USU's 80's dance. A couple observations from my evening... 

1. No one is capable of dancing these, only moshing. 

2. It is in fact possible to be drenched in sweat but only have 20% of it be your own.

3. The 80's had really good music.  

4. College students don't understand the concept of gravity. (aka countless dropped crowd surfers)

5. Really loud music makes my face jiggle.

It was super crowded, but still super fun. We only stayed an hour or so since you can only be entertained by violent jumping and shoving for so long. Caroline, myself, and two of our friends from high school went to the D.I. beforehand to get some classy 80's apparel, and we found some good stuff. I particularly enjoy Sydney's baby pink fringe vest. It is crocheted and clearly homemade. The fact that someone took the time to create that masterpiece makes me appreciate mankind on a deeper and more emotional level. Anyways, it was a good night with good people, and I feel super lucky to have the amazing friends that I do. 

               

Roommates!

Also yesterday was International Bacon Day...so obviously we celebrated that. 

gettin' in the groove.

Well I have lived away from my mommy and daddy for 10 days now, and I'm surprisingly still alive! It's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I always have the habit of getting all worked up and super nervous before big events, but everything always ends up working out just fine. I think I have adjusted pretty well to having to do things for myself now, like cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping. Since I have so much family in Logan with me I haven't really had the chance to feel homesick yet. I really miss my cat though. I even had to FaceTime him like the third day I got here. College is so different from high school, and I love it. There is always something fun going on either in your dorm or somewhere around campus. This week there was a giant slip and slide down Old Main, volleyball tournaments, movies on the quad, lots of free food (which I have a new found appreciation for), and we had a waffle party in our kitchen with lots of friends. We finished our early class- which was so boring and terrible but at least I met some cool people- and then we started our regular classes today. I am taking American Institutions, Creative Arts, Math for Elementary Teachers, and Intelligent Life in the Universe. Hopefully those classes aren't too hard...they seem fine as of the first day haha. I'm sure I will be crying in my piles of homework in a few weeks. I just don't feel smart enough to be taking classes that cost this much money. Anyways, I love my roommates, and we all feel super lucky that we get along so well. We could have been paired with anyone in this whole building, but we were lucky enough to get paired with each other. 

Here is an example of our fancy cookings skills...

First day of school!

So Caroline and I decided to do that thing where you draw someone's face in one continuous line without looking down at what you're drawing and this was the results...

Looks just like us. 

emily the aggie.

Well folks, I have officially moved out of my house! Crazy. I will never live under my parents' roof as a dependent again. If I think about it long enough I start to cry, but hopefully the depression of growing up will go away once classes actually start. I am taking an early two credit course called Connections that starts on Wednesday, and then regular classes being on the 25th. I am extremely scared and nervous for all of the unknowns about this whole college thing, but I'm trying really hard to remember all the fun things I will get to experience here as well. I feel very lucky to have my best friend here with me who creates such a sense of stability in my life, which is greatly appreciated in this part of my life. I also feel very lucky to only live one hour away from home, and to have two of my siblings up here in Logan with me. As far as college experiences go, I have an easy one.

We moved in yesterday, as well as two of our other roommates- who I already love. We have two more girls who aren't moving in until later this week, so as of now it's just us four. It was a really strange experience unpacking all my things and finding a new home for them, but it was super fun too. I've never been the person in charge of deciding where the blender goes or how I want to organize the bathroom. It's going to be interesting getting used to making my own decisions instead of asking my mom.

 Clearly not happy about saying goodbye to this woman.

 Caroline and I decided that we would just decorate our room with whatever weird artwork we could find during the summer, and we didn't really care too much about being all matchy matchy. We are both so in love with how everything turned out, and I'm so relieved that this dorm room is able to feel a little homey. 

 I got this duvet at Anthropologie, and I'm obsessed. It's super colorful, plus it's super comfortable. 

 I have about 30 books on my shelf in my bedroom back home, so it was pretty much a crisis knowing I could only take a few of them.

 Caroline's side of the room.

 If you know either me or Caroline you probably know that we are pretty weird, so it's no surprise that our shelf below our mirror looks the way it does. We both just brought random statues and figurines that vary from a cat, to an old baby doll, to a skull teapot, to a statue of Jesus. Even though it is pretty scary and strange...we love it. I also started hanging up my Polaroids above our computers, and I will continue to add more as the year goes on. 

Our bathroom.

I'm super excited to see what this year has in store for me, and I feel so blessed to have so many people around me who support and love me. Go Aggies!

ma & ny.

At the beginning of August my parents, my brother, and myself all took a little trip to Massachusetts and New York. It was such a fun trip to have right before me and Jake both left for college. We flew into Boston and spent a couple nights there. My family used to live in Massachusetts and I was actually born there, but have no memory of it since we moved when I was still a baby. It was really fun to see the hospital I was born in and our old house and neighborhood. We also got to walk around by the water and explore on the Freedom Trail where we got to see a lot of historical sights that I honestly don't really remember the names of haha. I know we saw Paul Revere's grave and where the Boston Massacre occurred and other important things like that...I probably should have paid better attention. Also in Boston we got to go to the One Direction concert. If you know me personally, then you understand that this is about the biggest deal in the whole world. You could say I'm a pretty big fan (don't judge). Our seats were super close to the stage, and it was just completely perfect. I am still hyperventilating and it's been ten days since that night. Everyone supported me and came with me to the show, and Jake even held a poster that said "lick my beard". My family is awesome.

After our time in MA, we drove about 5 hours to Palmyra, New York. We got to see a ton of church history sights like Joseph Smith's home, where the Book of Mormon was first printed, Hill Cumorah, and the sacred grove. It was incredible to see in real life all the places I've learned about in church since before I can remember. The spirit was very present the whole time, and my testimony of the resturation was strengthened. I'm very glad we made this stop part of our trip.

From Palmyra we drove another 5 hours down to New York City, which is seriously one of my favorite places in the world. It is definitely a dream of mine to live in NYC before I have kids. We stayed in a hotel on Time Square, which was so fun to be so close to the action. We went to two musicals- Rocky and Newsies- which were both fabulous. It was my second time seeing Newsies on Broadway so I knew it was going to be amazing, but I had no idea that Rocky would be as awesome as it was. It had an amazing set and really good music. We did other typical tourist things like Rockefeller, Central Park, a harbor tour, Yankees Game, and of course lots and lots of good eating.

I made another little video of the trip which I posted below. It was such a great trip with my very best friends!