Another Fun Weekend

**WARNING: This post does have a lot of pictures :)***

So I've complained about Utah over and over for years. But recently, we've been having so much fun and have really enjoyed this fall semester so far. I don't know if it's because it's our last year at BYU or if we're finally trying to embrace Utah instead of criticize it. Also, we've been budgeting a little bit better which has required more planning. From my experience, more planning leads to a more exciting and fulfilling life, as well as spending less! We've gone on a ton of fun dates and most of them have been FREE (best part).

This weekend, I had my first test of the semester for Medical Speech Pathology. I studied, took it Friday night and did well! Since that was out of the way, Saturday was packed with tons of activities. Blaine didn't have to work Saturday morning, so we decided to hike the Y (we're really working on that senior year bucket list). Also, we thought it'd be a good workout for Rue. We had such a good time. Not gonna lie, I was struggling the whole time even though I've been running and working out more. It was so embarrassing. I couldn't believe how bad I was panting. I blame it all on the high elevation. My Florida lungs will never get used to it :) Blaine was worried that Rue was going to tire out really fast. She did amazing. We stopped frequently for breaks (more for me than for Rue) and gave her plenty of water. She loved it. When we reached the top, we took a good 20-minute break and had snacks. The view from up there is incredible. I love pointing out all of the spots on campus and in Provo. Right when we were heading down, we saw this HUGE tarantula. It was so creepy and gross. Seeing that made me not want to hike the Y again! But Rue enjoyed it so much that we might have to go back soon or in the spring. 

After the first couple of turns

They beat me to the top!

It looked bigger in person - trust me.  

BYU's campus

After hiking, Blaine went to go play 9 holes of golf with his friend, Matt Larsen. After that, we went on a double date to Chalk the Block - an event at The Shops at the Riverwoods that benefited a local school of kids with autism. It was so cool, and again, free! They had over 100 artists in attendance drawing in the parking lots with chalk. It was so impressive. The only downside about that night was that we could've taken Rue and didn't know! There aren't many places where we can actually take her so we were pretty bummed out when we saw a bunch of dogs and didn't have Rue. 

Blaine's favorite

My favorite!

Anyway, we finished our date with a trip to the Creamery for some ice cream. It was also so good. I had Coconut Joy, which is basically an Almond Joy in ice cream form. Blaine had a Peanut Butter Trail Sundae. The Creamery's flavors are so delicious and unique and they're so much cheaper than Coldstone! Go BYU :) 

Sunday was also a special day. We attended the Brigham City Temple dedication. Even though we didn't actually attend the temple, the Spirit was felt so strongly at the chapel. After the dedication, we had the Stevensons over for dinner. Now that I have a (very sick) pregnant best friend who also happens to be my neighbor, she's been coming over for dinner, lunch, and breakfast or just for snacks! Its so nice to have her so close to help her in whatever way I can. I can't wait to meet Baby Stevenson in March :)

Since this weekend was so busy and full of activities, it went by super fast! This upcoming week is going to be just as busy. It's Blaine's 25th birthday (so excited :]) and we both have several midterms. Here's to another exciting week in Provo! 

Senior Year Bucket List

Yup, it's our last year at BYU. We can't wait to graduate in April. So far, we're really enjoying this fall semester. I am taking professional practices (for my major - which is so helpful), medical speech pathology (super cool), introduction to Spanish literature, and an introduction to family life sciences class that is basically all about The Family: A Proclamation to the World with social sciences tied in. It's really interesting. Blaine's taking organizational behavior (which he is liking very much, surprisingly), an ethics class, managerial economics, marketing and supply chain management. He's a lot less busy than less semester, but still busy. It's crazy to think that this is our last fall semester at BYU! As much as we want to move on to the next stage of our life, we also want to enjoy and embrace our last year here. So we created a little bucket list of things to do that are typical or original to BYU. Some of the things on here we've done before and there are others that we haven't done! I don't want to leave BYU with longings or any regrets. So we're trying to participate and live the BYU life as much as possible! Instead of going to Coldstone for ice cream, we're going to the Creamery...stuff like that. So here's to our last year at BYU :) 
To do before we graduate: Go watch Divine Comedy
Eat at Legends Grille
Eat at the Moa Cafe
Drink as much Creamery Chocolate Milk as possible
Go to a basketball game
Hike Bridal Veil Falls
Whenever we want ice cream, go to the Creamery on 9th
Hike the Y
Participate in a homecoming event
Run the Rex Lee Run
Go to a football game
Go to an exhibition at the MOA
Hike Mt. Timpanogos
Go to a soccer game
Stay in the library until you hear the music playing
Take a picture with Cosmo
Go to a rugby game
Eat at Brick Oven whenever we want pizza
Win one last intramural champion shirt (Blaine)
Go to a volleyball game
Watch one last CES Fireside in person
Watch $1 movies at the Varsity Theater
Eat at JDawg's
Attempt getting a 100% in the testing center
Watch a laser light show at the planetarium

P.S.
If any fellow Cougars have anything we should add to this list, let me know!

Golf Intramural Champion

Intramurals are a pretty big deal at BYU. Everybody wants a shirt saying that they're an intramural champion. Blaine played on intramural soccer, basketball, and flag football teams in the past, but he'd always get hurt. So he has sticked to golf for the last 3 years. Blaine has won the golf intramural twice before with his friend, Brad Pendleton. This year, they really wanted to win the whole thing. Blaine said that they played really well but it just wasn't meant to be for them this year. But luckily, Blaine won the individual competition for getting closest to the pin. So he still won a shirt (apparently, the most important thing) and a 9-hole gift card for Sleepy Ridge Golf Course! This kid has skills. I'm so glad that he was able to get one more shirt his last year at BYU!

My champion <3

This Weekend

This weekend went by super fast, but it was a great one. On Friday, we went on a double date with our good friends, Ryan and Kailyn Slaugh, to a restaurant in Provo called Molly's. It was our first time, but Ryan and Kailyn have been here before and love it. Molly's catered at their wedding. Molly's is a cafeteria-style restaurant where you stand in line and order the food you want. Their dishes are homestyle cooking and everything on the menu looked delicious. Molly's is usually open only for lunch, but this Friday was the first night that they were open for dinner. I had a pulled pork sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy, while Blaine had beef brisket with salad and potatoes. The portions were large and everything was oh so good. I shared a chocolate cream cheese cake with Kailyn, but when we were about to leave, a waitress came by asking us if we wanted to take more cake home. Free cake is always awesome. We will definitely be going back to Molly's! After Molly's, they came over to our place and met Rue. I think Rue really liked them :) We had such a good time with Ryan and Kailyn. We miss living so close to them and being in the same ward together!

On Saturday night, I ran my first 5k with my good friends, Mechaella Matute and Kailyn. I've been wanting to start running for a while now, even though I've never really liked running. Over the summer, I saw a livingsocial for a 5k that benefited a family with a dad who has multiple sclerosis and decided to do it. And these awesome girls decided to do it with me, too. Nina signed up as well, but who knew that she was going to be 16 weeks pregnant and super sick in September! :) I've been running with Mechaella a couple of times a week. Having a running buddy has helped me tremendously! Even though I have improved since I've started running, I'm still not that great. It was not until this past Monday that I actually completed 3.1 miles. I felt totally unprepared for Saturday. 

So this 5k is one of its kind in Utah. It was a night-time 5k. It's called Run the Rave. Everybody wears glow sticks and little paper luminaires were lighting our path. It was really cool. There was paint to paint yourself with, but we weren't really interested in that. It stains your clothes and smelled weird. When we arrived and registered, we realized that we would be running on the beach of the Great Salt Lake. This made me really nervous since running on sand is much harder than running on pavement! There were some parts in the sand that were pretty firm and others that felt like quicksand. It smelled really bad the whole race. We didn't realize this till we were done, but there were dead birds on the beach. Thank goodness it was too dark for us to see them. Nasty! It was also kind of chilly, but that problem was solved once we started moving. The breeze of the lake felt nice while we were running. Also, there were monstrous mosquitoes. I had long pants and a long sleeved shirt on, but I felt bad for Mechaella and Kailyn! I didn't think about the possibility of mosquitoes! But regardless, the 5k was a ton of fun. Blaine and Rue came to support us. Ryan had to work and couldn't come. We ran it together in 32:08. That's my best time ever. I wouldn't have been able to do it without Kailyn and Mechaella. They were so supportive and stayed with me at the times that I just wanted to slow down or stop altogether!

Love them!

Before the race - feeling empowered! 

Sweaty & glad to be done! 

We're planning on running another 5k together on September 29 for Operation Smile in Provo. It's an organization that raises money for children with cleft lip and cleft palate. I can see this whole running thing really becoming a hobby. It's a great way to be charitable and be fit!

Think Flat

This last Friday, we had the opportunity to attend the opening night of Think Flat, an exhibition at BYU's MOA (Museum of Art) on work by Andy Warhol and Takashi Murakami. One of my best friends and new neighbor, Nina, worked on it during her internship last summer. We went together and had such a great time. There were so many people in attendance. Blaine and I never go to things like this so it was really fun! And we decided that we should do it more often :) 

I took an AP Art History class my senior year in high school and really enjoyed it. I learned a lot and best of all, I learned how to appreciate art. Like I've mentioned before, I really like modern and pop art. And I really like Andy Warhol. So I had a blast! The coolest part about the exhibition was the installation Silver Clouds. It was a bunch of rectangular silver balloons in a room. How fun is that? I thought they were only going to have this installation for the opening night but the MOA is actually blowing up these balloons every single day till February 16th, 2013 (the day the exhibition ends). Isn't that awesome? 

Blaine was going all matrix. 

Andy Warhol's famous soup can 

All of the silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe were exhibited.
This one was my favorite.

Queen Elizabeth

Flowers by Takashi Murakami

At the exhibition, they had cookies, flower balloons, banana pops (referencing to Andy Warhol's banana print) and large Campbell tomato soup cans as centerpieces. It was all done very well. I loved it. I'm definitely planning on going back on a day when there aren't as many people to take a second look at everything.

After the exhibition, we went to Cubby's Chicago Beef, a new restaurant in Provo. It was really good. I ordered a beef sandwich that ended up being spicy but I still liked it. What Blaine and I really liked were their buffalo bleu cheese fries. Again, they were spicy but they were SO good. We'll be going back for sure.

It was a great night with good food, good art, and good friends! Even though we've seen Matt and Nina since we live so close, we actually hadn't gone on an actual double date till last weekend since we've been so busy! 

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, we went up to Idaho. It was our usual trip to Idaho. We talked with Grandmom and Pop Pop and they told us their stories about the good ol' days. Aunt Jan cooked delicious meals (my favorite was homemade margherita pizza with basil and tomatoes from her own garden). We went to Twin Falls to do some shopping and run some errands with Aunt Jan and Uncle Lynn. Uncle Lynn didn't fail to make us laugh, as always. We played with Mekhi, Aiden and Cage. We rode around on four-wheelers and the Rhino.

I've never see Pop Pop that close to a dog.

The only difference was that we had Rue and Aunt Jan has Rusty. The first day, Rusty was terrified of Rue. This is strange since Rusty is very playful and energetic. But I guess he met his match. The second day, he was warming up to her and they started playing. Well the playing never stopped. We had to monitor them constantly because our dog just loves other dogs. They would play non-stop. We're working on getting her used to dogs and not be so overly excited. Regardless, it was cute. I'm glad they got along.

On Saturday, Blaine helped Pop Pop fix a lawn mower. Right when they finished, we got a call from Aunt Jan saying that we were under a tornado warning. We hurried inside and it got bad quickly. We were planning on running over to Aunt Jan's but that was impossible. By the time we settled Grandmom and Pop Pop in, it started hailing really hard. The worst part was that our car was outside. Thankfully, nothing happened to it. The windows were rattling pretty hard and we saw the funnel of a tornado not to far away. It was kinda scary. Aunt Jan lost power for a couple of minutes. But thankfully, it all went by pretty fast and we didn't get directly hit by the tornado.

On Sunday afternoon after church, we went on a drive to Lake Cleveland. We had a good time skipping rocks. I am horrible at skipping rocks and I hadn't tried in like forever. Blaine is pretty good and so was Mekhi. Aiden was picking up large rocks and just throwing them. It was so funny. And, surprise surprise - it's getting cold. I was kinda dying. Hoodie season in the west has begun. I can't go anywhere without one because you never know when the temperature is going to drop! 

This crazy girl put her feet in the freezing water. 

We love having family relatively close. We're looking forward to spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with them soon!