February Happenings

February was such a busy month. I felt like something big was happening every other day. 

To start off, we watched the Super Bowl at Katina and Spencer's house (Bruce's brother). I was rooting for the Broncos but I like the Seahawks as well. I was just bummed out that it was such a boring game. Thank goodness for Bruno Mars, good food and girl talk! 

Bruce took the NCLEX exam and passed! We are all so happy and proud of him. Now he can start applying for jobs. Bruce is going to be one great nurse!

Our stake had a youth temple fireside on temple grounds. It was the closest I've been to the temple so far. It was a great night. We saw the sunset behind the temple and saw the temple light up when it got dark. It is such a beautiful building. I really cannot wait until it's open (2 more months!). It was a great night for our young women. I really feel them growing stronger in the gospel. When this presidency was first called, we had 1 or 2 girls attending church on Sunday. This last Sunday, we had over 10 girls. 

We went to Wynwood Art walk one Saturday. Its an area in Miami that hasn't had the greatest history. Its still a pretty bad neighborhood, but there's a big artistic movement going on there that is supposed to turn this neighborhood around. I think its working. There were so many people there and there are many more businesses and cool restaurants opening. We had some yummy burritos from a food truck and also had our favorite Cuban ice cream from Azucar. I loved seeing all the artwork and definitely want to go back and see more of the galleries. 

Great friends - Jackie and Valentina 

Damaris caught us taking a couples "selfie". 

LOVE Azucar's ice cream

These murals are property of Goldman Sachs. They're part of this big cultural/art movement. 

Goofing around

The boys trying to appreciate the art

A lot more happened in February...but there will be posts on that soon!

I'm 23!

My birthday this year was a lot of fun. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday, except for maybe getting a better score on my midterm. Yeah, I had to take a test on Friday (a day before my birthday) and Saturday morning. Can you believe it? At least the testing center was nice and gave me this pencil...



On Friday, Blaine took me to see The Sleeping Beauty by BYU's Theater Ballet. It was a lot of fun for me - not so much for Blaine. Blaine actually appreciates the arts and dance, but I think theater ballet was too slow for him. Anyway, I have always wanted to watch The Sleeping Beauty and Blaine needed to learn the story since she is my favorite princess. The dancers did a good job, but it wasn't anything out of this world. But the live philarmonic band was amazing!

On my actual birthday, Blaine took me to Kneaders for breakfast. Kneaders is my favorite breakfast spot in Provo. That afternoon, we went out to lunch with Matt and Nina at Station 22. We had never been before. It was a totally, cool, yummy and hip place. I'm sad that we only have another 2 months to get back there. We ordered the chicken and waffles (a first for me) and it was really good! The rest of their menu was really original. I wanted to order everything on there. 

At night time, Blaine took me for a quick shopping trip at City Creek with all the gift cards I got for my birthday. We had dinner at Magleby's Fresh (another new place for us) and came home pretty early to relax! It was a great day. Of course, the texts, phone calls, and birthday packages from family and friends made it even better! 

Gifts from my family!

Another random fact: I love pistachios :)

Sunday night, Blaine attempted to throw me a surprise party. I knew something was up when he wanted to clean the house and starting chopping vegetables while I was upstairs. He spilled the beans finally and I helped him set up. He did a great job though. A ton of our friends came and I hadn't had so much fun in a long time. While all the girls were talking in the kitchen, we realized that the guys were all breaking it down and playing Dance Central. Some of these guys are usually very shy and would never do such a thing. It was so fun to watch. They were having a great time, laughing their heads off and sweating quite a bit! 

I wish I would've taken more pictures. They were out of control...

I love my friends!
Stevensons, Slaughs, Monsons, Dawsons,
Steve & Mechaella, Simmons

Thanks to everybody who came to wish me a happy birthday! It wouldn't have been the same without you guys! And a big thank you to Blaine for throwing me this party! I love you babe! 

For my birthday gift, we bought flights to Florida to visit my family and run the Disney Princess Half Marathon! More on that soon! :)

The Pie & Thriller

On Friday night, Blaine and I headed to Salt Lake City for dinner and a show. We met up with Michele and ate dinner at The Pie. It's a little underground restaurant right by the U (I know, I kinda felt like a traitor). But man, it was so good! I don't know why we hadn't heard of this place before! We had their plain cheese pizza and it was heavenly. It's a really cool place and their service was amazing. We were in and out in no time. We definitely want to go back again - soon!

After the show, we walked over to Kingsbury Hall to watch the Halloween dance show, Thriller. I had seen it twice before, but I really wanted to see it one more time just in case if we're not around next October. Blaine was sweet it enough to get us tickets :) It is such a unique Halloween activity. They finally added 3 new dances to the show. They had a stepping routine by "werewolves" that I really enjoyed. They added a rope dancing act and one of The Grudge that was seriously creepy. My favorites were still the Dem Bones tap dance (the dancers were dressed as skeletons and played tricks on your mind using black light) and Salem's Mass (a contemporary dance recounting the story of Salem's Witch Trials). Even though I had fun, I felt like the show dragged on a little bit longer than usual. They had a lot of filler videos and acts that were a little boring. I thought it was unnecessary since their dances are so good. But anyway, I'm glad we went. It is such a good show and it definitely got me a little bit more excited for Halloween! 

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!