CNA Offical

I'm graduated! 

Well kind of. 

I got my nursing assistant certification. 

Of course to be an RN I still have a long way to go..

But it's a start! 

 

I can't wait to get a job working as a CNA. 

I can already tell that I am going to love it.

And not only because I'll be making more mula! 

My teacher was so awesome and I felt like she taught us everything we needed to know and more. 

I'm going to miss our class and all the people we worked with though.

I Love to See the Temple

I'm going there someday.

I didn't think that someday would come so soon. 

But I am so grateful that I am able to go and make these covenants with the Lord and receive the blessings he has in store for me.  

 Also I am so grateful that I have so many people that were worthy and willing to come support me on this special day.

This picture isn't even an eighth of everyone who came. 

The feelings I felt in the temple are sacred and I will forever hold them dear to my heart.

But I know even more now without a doubt this church is true. 

I absolutely love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

RIP Cream Puff Grandma

So you're probably wondering why I call her cream puff grandma.

She isn't really my grandma just to clarify. 

Or even related for that matter. 

Anyways..

Every time I go to her house, she would give me cream puffs.

Hence the name cream puff grandma. 

 Funerals are always such a sad thing, but happy at the same time. 

I'm so glad we believe families are forever and that there is something after this life.

She is in a better place with her loving Heavenly Father and loved ones.

 It was really special when all her grand kids took the flowers out of the wreaths and laid them on the casket. She is loved by so many people.

 Although we are going to miss her lots, it was nice to have everyone together before Emma left on her mission to Mexico. We love you and miss you lots Grandma Ann but will see you again.

Families are Forever

Families are Forever! 

And so are these awesome pictures that Kylee Maughan took for us. 

I leave fairly soon for my mission and I was getting tired of the baby shrine all over the house so we finally got some updated family pictures. 

It worked out nice that she was in town for some awesome weather and that we were able to get some pictures taken in our own back yard. Call me conceded but I think I have one hot family!

My family may be small but I am so blessed to have them. As cheesy as it is, I wouldn't be who I am today without them. They have given me the gospel which brings me so much happiness, take me on vacations to create life long memories, and provide everything I could need and love me unconditionally (no matter how stubborn I am!) 

I could go on for days..

But I'll spare you the sappyness 

There is just so much love <3

Next Adventure: Mission Call

General Conference 2012 

President Monson announced that the mission age has changed from 21 to 19 for girls.

Am I going?

Heck no.

Or so I thought..

Long story short, super short.

My dad told me to pray about it and read my patriarchal blessing. 

After lots of procrastinating I finally did. 

 I didn't feel like I had to but that I suddenly wanted to. 

So here I am, mission call in hand. 

When I got my call out of the mailbox I had never felt the spirit so strong 

assuring me that I'm doing the right thing.

It was pretty neat. 

So then we went into rush mode for people to come over and watch me open it. 

Which this picture pretty much captures it all.

Excitement. Happiness. Surprise. Everything happy and good. 

I'M GOING TO PIURA PERU!!! 

Feburary 12th. 

What a blessing it will be to serve the lord for 18 months.

Paintball and Playtime

This whole week has just been full of fun, fun and more FUN!!! 

Where everyday is cousin day.

For this cousin day the boys wanted to go paint-baling and the girls.. shopping.

Well minus me and Jenna that is, so we joined the boys.

 Today was a day of first..

First day wearing a sweatshirt inside out.

First day shooting a paintball gun.

And I'm sure you can guess it, first day getting shot (noticed the giant yellow splat on my shoulder)

OWCH!!!

Oh and first day building a human pyramid. 

We went through cases and cases of balls, but I mean there were ONLY 15 of us.

Eventually we ran out and a lot more random people showed up, which meant time to move parties. 

Everybody went over to my Uncle Gary's to eat food, LOTS OF IT!!!

Sit around the camp fire, and just have a good time.

 Which for us meant many failed attempts at a cousin pyramid and acrobatics..

Gymnast blood seems to run in this family, or at least we act like it does. 

I really don't want these guys to go home, ever!!! 

Can grandpa just turn 90 every year please? 

Happy Birthday Gramps

You best believe it, my grandpa is 90! 

90 YEARS OLD GUYS!!!

And man is he still looking good. 

6 kids later and everything.

So all of his wonderful children threw him a party! Cause who wouldn't want to celebrate that number? Talk about an accomplishment.

Ever since my grandma passed away and grandpa left for Rexburg it's hard to get the whole family together because well there is so dang many of us! But all the brothers and sisters came and every family member that's ever been born pretty much.

 

He may not be able to hear anything with all of us running around but it sure was great having him home for a while! 

 

Banks Lake: Extended Edition

Before I even start, let's rewind.

Banks lake: my family's yearly camp out on the beach. 

Traditions consist of..

Cliff Jumping

Wakeboarding

Tube Wars

Outhouses 

Alex Kastanis and Jeff Butcher

Cosmo

Campfires 

Lake Chelan Water Park

&

FRUIT AND SUNSCREEN!!! 

 

So basically we camp on the beach for a week with our boat. 

When we aren't out on the water, we are tanning or eating on the sand.

It's the life.

 

This year was a little extra exciting because Jeff was wonderful and brought a slack line. 

Tan on the rocks, get hot, attempt to slack line and fall in the water. 

Life is good guys, and it gets even better.

 We spent hours tubing and wrestling on tubes and napping on tubes. 

We like our inner tubes. Can you tell? 

But this year failed to have a tube war. I need some new compitition. 

Every year we take the same picture in the same spot. 

So this picture is self explanatory.

Excuse our grubbiness though considering we haven't showered in a few days..

Yuck I know..

 But when we've done all the camping we can do we still have one more adventure in store.

Lake Chelan Water Park!!!

Every single year we stop here on the way home. 

This year we were especially burnt..

Hence the yellow noses.

Turns out all the lifeguards liked our look so we shared some yellow nose love with them. 

Next stop Germany. 

Okay not really, just Levenworth. 

We took the scenic route home to grab ourselves a delicious german dinner in this quaint town.

Until next year..

Or really the year after cause I'll be in Peru on my misson.   

Alex is Here!

Every year since I can remember my cousin from Arizona comes to visit from Arizona! 

We go to banks lake and run around Olympia all week. 

I'll talk about Banks in another post though because it deserves it's own.

On our way home we took the detour and stopped in Leavenworth.

Which was awesome!!! 

It's this quaint little German town in the mountains. 

Then we spent a day in Seattle. 

Pikes Place.

Gum Wall.

Gyros. 

The Pier.

 Us and our cards..

We play them at banks, at birthday parties and everywhere. 

I'm glad that I got to spend 2 weeks with this awesome girl!!!

Reunited and It Feels So Good

I'M HOME!!! I'M HOME!!! I'M HOME I'M HOME I'M HOME!!!

As much as I wasn't really excited to come home, it's great to be back. 

Not to mention I missed all the rain and came home to a beautiful summer. 

I miss all my exploring buddies and kids already though && my host family.

I'm so glad I got to live in such an awesome place and have so many great experience while I was there. Olympia may not be as old as Europe or as "cool" but it sure does feel like home. 

This speaking English thing and having people understand me though..

 might take a little getting used to again.

But boy was I excited to get back behind the boat again!!! 

And to be with my family

and to see my bestfriends

and surprisingly to go back to the movie theaters and work

and then start my next adventure!

Almost Home Sweet Home

I can't believe my time in Ukraine and Europe has come to an end. 

Don't get me wrong I am excited to see my friends and family..

But I don't want to go back to America.

It will be a bitter sweet goodbye. 

  

For our last night we wanted to light off these giant lanterns.

Well it's kind of a funny story actually. 

We catch the bus to midan, and walk to the pedestrian bridge. 

To realize that we don't have a lighter..

Then attempt to ask a man in russian for a lighter.

Fail.

Epically.

He thought we wanted a cigarette. But hey he was nice enough to actually try and give us one.

Finally we understood each other and got a lighter. 

We get out on the extremely windy bridge and make our first attempt.

Fail.

Again.

Epically.

We ripped a hole in the lantern with the wind.

Try number two ended with the lantern on fire.

One more chance till we are out of lanterns. 

We manage to rip this one and then light it on fire.

Feel free to tell me how talented I am.

Lucky for us this guy wanted to help  us.

Without speaking any english he got us another lantern and we managed to get this one working.

That is till it blew into a tree and got stuck..

What a memorable last night.

I'm going to miss this place and all the wonderful people I met <3

Plitvice Lakes

Excuse me while I just spam this post with pictures.

Plitvice Lakes are breathtaking.

Enough said.

So yea, lots of water and waterfalls. 

I wish I had longer here.

Island Hopping

Well this is my last Europe excursion for now.

I'm taking a boat to 2 different islands.

ISLAND NUMBER 1

That's right, be jealous. 

LOOK AT THIS WATER!!!

I got to jump off the top of the boat and swim here. 

Then..........

I........

Got.............

to....

EAT THIS........

I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into when I chose fish over chicken.

Note to self: Ask if the food's head will still be in tact.

Good thing I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty.

As you can see it was delicious.

After removing the head, bones, and eye balls. 

ISLAND NUMBER 2

More beautiful water. 

Ice cream. 

& Swimming

Can the boat just leave me here please?

 Just consider it a Birthday present since well my Birthday is tomorrow. 

I'm even celebrating today.

 Well because we are going to be traveling tomorrow we are celebrating tonight.

So this is my birthday dinner. 

As bummed as I am about not being home I couldn't ask for better people to celebrate with.

Not to mention better food. 

Peaches + Chicken = HAPPINESS 

Oh and look, we can see the restaurant we ate at from the window of our hostel. 

 

Another day in paradise

What more is there to say other then this is the best vacation ever?

Today is the day for sandy beaches! Yesss! 

Also the day for much needed relaxing and exploring.

 Slept in.

Worked out.

Got breakfast at the market.

BEACH  TIME!!!

I would be perfectly content with spending the rest of my life here. 

Gorgeous water, cliff jumping, and sunshine. 

We just went beach hopping all day long.

Then ended the day with some delicious gelato and a walk on the boardwalk.

Time is going by way to fast on this trip.

Croatia Day 1

Travel. Travel. Travel.

From Ukraine to Hungry, from Hungry to Croatia.

But to be in Europe seeing all these Beautiful things it is WORTH IT!!! 

After many hours spent on planes, trains and buses we are in Croatia. 

Can you say postcard photo or what? 

I can not get over the fact that I'm here on vacation.

Our first day we get there and we go to find our hostel..

Rumor is it's hard to find. Hard is an understatement actually.

But it's worth it. 

Were staying in this cute square area, that I swear could be in Italy. 

Well.. long story that I'll try to make short.

The hostel got booked for the wrong day. Woops. 

But turns out all the crappy rooms were gone and they felt bad.

Hence a private hostel.

Were talking living room, tv, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and not sharing a room.

I'm livin' the good life you guys.

 

As if it couldn't get any better.

There are sandy beaches and rocky beaches. 

So how else would you start off your first day of vacay then some cliff jumping?

Then relaxing in your nice hostel. 

This is going to be a good vacation!!!

Budapest by night

Goodbye Ukraine Hello Budapest!!! 

 Sometimes I have these moments where I'm like holy crap I'm in Europe. I just had one and I have a feeling I'll be having a lot more on this vacation. 

First Impressions of Budapest..

Beautiful, clean, modern yet old. 

It's going to be a good vacation!!!

 Anybody that knows me will tell you how much I love food.

I especially love trying new foods.

So you can imagine traveling and restaurants are some of my favorites.

Chicken + peaches + giant dumplings + that sauce = Fat and happy Katlyn :) 

I'm loving Budapest already!

 According to me Budapest is the most romantic place at night. 

They have got all these bridges that just reflect off the river and I can't get over how pretty it is.

Not to mention you could take a dinner boat buffet cruise to see it all.

We just walked all the bridges and didn't take the boat cruise. But note to all husbands, take your wife here someday. I'm in love with this place. 

 This is the parliament building. I don't want to know what their electricity bill is.. but it's worth it to create a view like this. 

Our last night in Budapest we climbed this hill so we could sit on a rooftop and overlook the city. I have never felt so sad to leave a place. This has been the best vacation I could ever ask for.