Suzanne Marie Barrand

Ice Skating/Super Ghetto Date

2012-03-05T20:39:00.007-07:00

I few months ago I bought a Groupon for an ice skating outing for 4. Well Brian and I decided to go on Saturday and we took my friend Anna and her fiance with us! It was super excited about it...until we got there. Not only am I the worst person to be put in charge of following the GPS (we had to make multiple U-Turns), but this winter has been freakishly warm. When we got up to Midway (in the middle of the mountains) more than half of the ice rink was not fit for staking. It happened to be the last day the place was open to skate because it was just too warm. So we all skated around for a while and then went out to dinner at a semi-ghetto Mexican place, where the waitress really didn't speak to us the entire time. It was fun because Anna was there and we just had a good time, but it was still a pretty ghetto date.

Brian skating on the super ghetto rink

Brian and I on our super ghetto date!!

The 4th Annual Oscars Party!!

2012-03-05T19:52:00.012-07:00

Every year Alice and I throw an Oscars Night Party!! It is mostly just for the two of us, but in recent years more people have been invited to come. Once the Oscar nominations come out we spend a weekend or two watching the movies that are nominated for best picture and maybe a few others that are nominated for multiple Oscars. That way when Oscars night finally arrives we are all ready to play our Oscars game!! We have various rules about picking winners and how many points are rewarded. Alice also makes Oscar man shaped pancakes. So great!! And guess what!! I won this year!!! I actually dominated!!!! 33-26! The winner always gets to take a "domination picture" with the loser.

Making blueberry, Oscar-man pancakes!! She is a pro!

She was starting to get really good at flipping the pancakes in the air....until I got the camera out, and this happened. Poor Oscar Man

The BEST Oscar Man pancake EVER!!

Brian decided to play our Oscar's game too!! So he filled out the ballot while we made pancakes.

Dominated Alice!

Our attempt at a slapping picture

Dominated Brian!

Snowshoeing, At Last!!

2012-02-15T15:47:00.007-07:00

After waiting months and months for the snow to come, Brian and I finally were able to go snowshoeing!!! I had mentioned around Brian that I would love to have some snowshoes, cause it would be really fun to go. So, Brian's dad got me a pair for Christmas!! I was so excited!! Unfortunately, there is literally no snow here. It has snowed down in the Salt Lake Valley probably three times all winter, but it is too warm and the snow melts within the next day. Thankfully, there is finally snow in the mountains. It was a really fun time to go too. It was snowing pretty heavily, but was still fairly warm and NOT wind. So great and so beautiful!

Brian, my little triathlete, is obviously in better shape than me. So he was always walking way ahead of me.

Scaling the mountain!! Since it was so warm the snowflakes were so wet. By the end of the hike I had a frozen snow hat stuck to my hair.

Rocking our flares!! Thanks mom!

Beauty and The Beast 2012 3D Release: Aka The Greatest Day of My Life!

2012-01-26T17:24:00.007-07:00

A few years ago I was surfing the Internet, and came across an article stating that Beauty and the Beast (my favorite Disney movie) was being re released in theaters!! So I called Mckeely up (cause it is her favorite movie too) and told her that when it came out we were going!! Well 2 or 3 years later it finally happened!!! I flew to Boise with the only reason for travel was to take Mckeely to the movies!! Maleeya came with us too, so it was a little girls day out to the movies. It was so great!! The most amazing hour and a half of my life.

1st Picture: Both girls look so unimpressed

2nd Picture: All smiles!!

3rd Picture: Matthew wanted in on the fun

It was become a tradition to get the girls pink (strawberry) milk when we go to the movies. Unfortunately, my bag wasn't big enough, so McKeely helped me sneak in her milk. You can't even tell she has it in her pocket.

They were really excited about their kid size 3D glasses and random Beauty and the Beast tickets!

Getting ready for the movie to start! All my dreams came true at 12:25 on January 21, 2012

New Years Eve 2011: Salt Lake City

2012-01-26T17:10:00.008-07:00

In keeping up with my current New Year's Even tradition, I spent the night in a different city! It just so happened to be the city I'm currently living in, Salt Lake City!! There were some activities going on inside the Salt Palace, but nothing that interested us too much. So, Brian and I spent the night just wandering around and enjoying the night.

We meandered through Temple Square to see all the lights

The Salt Palace was shooting off fireworks at midnight, so we decided to drive up the hill next to the Capitol building to watch them! This was basically our view (These are not pictures I took because my camera was being testy at the time)

We parked the car on the hill, and sat in the back!! It was actually really fun. There was a group of random people that had the same idea that we did, so we all had a fun little mini countdown up on the Capitol hill!!

Breaking Dawn: Part 1

2012-01-26T16:46:00.004-07:00

Confession....I'm a Twilight fan. And yes, I went to the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn. Alice and I had a blast, of course. There are so many screaming teenage girls at the premier, that it is a necessity to go really early to wait in line for a good seat in the theater. The night was filled with Diet Coke, Sweet Tooth Fairy, and LOTS of laughing. However, the best part of the night was when the meth addict waiting in line behind us, left us to watch her sleeping daughter so she could wander away to an unknown location. How did she know we weren't creepy child kidnappers? She didn't, but she left her child with us anyway....Really responsible meth addict, really responsible.

Alice being creepy with the abandoned, sleeping child.

Waiting in line in the theater!!

I May Or May Not Be A Traitor

2012-01-26T16:28:00.007-07:00

So.... it is a well known fact that the University of Utah and Brigham Young University are rivals. I went to BYU and Brian went to the U of U. I couldn't care less about the competition between the schools, so I've kind of sided with Brian...at least when it comes to football. This is the first year that the U has been in the Pac 12, so I took advantage of Brian's student tickets and got front row (practically) seats to a football game. A game that happened to be the U of U's very first Pac 12 win!!! Am I a BYU fan? Or am I a Ute fan? I guess we will never know.

Brian and I in the MUSS - The Mighty Utah Student Section

Falling Into Fall: The Great Outdoors and The Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-23T21:30:00.007-06:00

I love fall! Mostly I love October!!! There is so much to do! Corn mazes, haunted houses, the pumpkin patch, and it is finally cool enough to be able to stand being outside! This year I got to do something I've never done before....four wheeling! Brian's dad has some four wheelers, so we went up to his dad's house and rode around for a while! It was really awesome, cause it was so beautiful and I didn't have to do anything but hold on!

Me and Brian on the four wheeler

Greg (Brian's "Emily") came with us too!! So Brian had to go take a picture with him too

My view from the back seat!!

I was able to go four wheeling for the first time and Brian was able to go to the pumpkin patch for the first time!! I love the pumpkin patch!! The giant red barn, the hay ride through the apple orchard to the pumpkin patch, and picking out your own pumpkin? It doesn't get much better than that!

Brian was determined to find the biggest pumpkin in the patch, so we walked all the way to the back of the patch. But he kept walking cause he was sure the farm was hiding the good ones way in the back....I eventually lost him in the weeds and darkness.

He picked this pumpkin after carrying a big one around the whole time. Then while walking back he ended up picking out another big one....indecisive..

I also have a picture with the pumpkin I chose. So Brian took the picture...and kept taking pictures of me...until finally I had to put my hand up...

Brian picked a pumpkin, but when we started walking back to the hayride, he kept stopping and comparing pumpkins, just to make sure he had the best one.

Me and Brian and our final choices of pumpkins!

My friends!!

Burning Down The House

2011-10-23T21:14:00.004-06:00

I recently moved into a cute old house in Sugarhouse, and may I emphasize OLD. OK, it isn't that old, but still pretty old. Well, it doesn't have fire alarms. So of course, being the good parents that they are, my parents bought me a fire alarm AND a fire extinguisher. Mostly because our dryer gets REALLY hot and I was afraid it was going to catch on fire. I put the fire extinguisher on a shelf by the dryer and didn't think much about it. Well, about a week after I got that thing I was making a blanket and had all the lights on and had the candles burning. Well my roommate, Ashley, came home from work with a take out bag of food. I needed to get something from the basement and was too afraid to go myself, so I had her go with me. We were literally down there for about 30 seconds before we heard a weird noise coming from upstairs. It sounded like firecrackers, so naturally I ran away. But then Ashley heard one of her little dogs yelping and ran up the stairs as fast as she could. We had no idea what was happening!!! Ashley fell UP the stairs so she continued on her hands and knees to rescue her puppy. I looked into the living room and saw the candle reflecting off of a picture frame and thought that those firecracker noises were actually fire burning down my house!! So as Ashley is crawling on the ground, I jump on top of the dryer to get to the fire extinguisher and run into the living room. Ashley is all confused on why all of the sudden I have an extinguisher in my hand, only then do we realize what was really going on....

Well....little Magic had decided he was hungry in the 30 seconds we were in the basement and had tried to get Ashley's food she had brought home. Well instead of getting to the food he got his little head stuck in the handle of the take home bag. He freaked out and ran away (with the bag attached to him) and it made that crackling noise which freaked him out even more, and that was when he started yelping.

The little troublemaker!

The candle that made me think the house was on fire.

Not to fear!!!I got the fire extinguisher!!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Josh Groban Concert!!

2011-10-23T20:58:00.006-06:00

There is one thing my mom loves more than anything, and that is Josh Groban. She only listens to his CDs, literally ONLY him. Well for some crazy reason she was able to buy pre-sale tickets, so our seats were crazy close!! The best part about it was that we were 17 rows from the stage, and like 3 rows away from the mini stage that was set up at the back of the seating area. So no matter where he was, we were super close to him. His voice is so amazing and my mom loves him, so it was really fun to be able to go see him live! Here are some pictures from the best night of my mom's life!

Before the show we ate dinner at The Olive Garden (probably the only thing my mom loves more than Josh Groban) and when she got her food she got all sad and upset and said, "Oh...this is so good." It was just really hilarious.

Main Stage

Mini Back Stage

Mother and Daughter with JOSH!

Walking back to the hotel. Mom is a very polite J-walker

Of course I got a tee shirt!!

And of course I pulled out "The Nixon"

Washington D.C. -- 'Merica's Capital

2011-08-08T20:12:00.054-06:00

John moved to a new and exciting place!!! So, of course, I went to visit him in Washington D.C. It was so great. There are a million and one things to do there, so we packed as much as we could into the week I was there.

The Dome Tour:
John has been waiting months and months to go on a tour of the Capitol's dome. It is not a normal touristy thing to do, and he happened to get one for the first day I was in town. Why is it so special? A Congressman has to take you on the tour and they are limited to the amount that they are allowed to do. Which makes it awesome. And Congress was right in the middle of a fight over the debt ceiling, so everyone was super busy. Which makes it even cooler that we still got to go. Since D.C. is like 105 degrees with more humidity than is necessary, inside the dome was HOT. I was advised to leave my sweater in the Congressman's office.

Our first stop, outside of the original dome.

There were a million stairs....ok, or like 400

Halfway to the top!

A secret window!

Me, John, and Jennifer (the one that made the whole thing happen)

Right under Washington's Apotheosis - as high as you can get inside the dome. The tour guide told us that the people at the bottom in the rotunda couldn't hear us no matter how loud we yelled. We proved him wrong when everyone in the group yelled at the same time.

Headed outside!

The top of the original dome

Umm....'Merica? Please water the grass at the National Mall, it is embarrassing.

I was super excited!

Looking up to the tip top of the dome. You can't see her, but the statue "Freedom" sits on top.

The Capitol Building Tour:
Since John always has connections in whatever city he happens to be in, we got a private tour of the Capitol building.

View from the rotunda to Washington's Apotheosis

Each state is allowed to have two statues in the Capitol building. I found the ones that mattered.

John was told that there was a shooting in Statuary Hall a few years back, and a bullet hit one of the statues...this statue.

IDAHO!!!!! I believe this is a statue of William Borah, as in Mount Borah.

Brigham Young!! Utah Represent!

The Library of Congress:

First stop - getting me a library card

Inside the entrance to the library. So beautiful.

Part of Jefferson's library. His library was donated to the government and was transformed into the Library of Congress.

So the fountain outside was very strange. The people and horses were all twisted in weird ways. In addition to that, the horses were half horse, half mermaid. John and I played with "horse" and "mermaid" for a while until we created the perfect word to describe them....hormaid (like whore-maid) haha...good one brother.

Ford's Theater and the Smithsonian:
John and I took an audio tour of Ford's theater, where President Lincoln was shot. There was a nice little museum and then a little lecture about the events of that night.

After Ford's Theater we were suppose to take a walking tour of Lincoln's life, but we were late and missed it. So we went to one of the Smithsonians instead. It was huge, but had a few really cool items of interest.

Pondering...cause I'm smart....and at the Smithsonian

An entire room all about coins!! Picture was taken just for you dad.

Boiler Up!!

Stephen Colbert. I LOVE HIM

Apolo Ohno's states. My love for him is still going strong.

Manchester United v. FC Barcelona
The soccer frenzy continues!! I love soccer! So John took me to see a couple of awesome primer league teams play! I have yet to decide which international team I want to call my favorite, but it is not Barcelona....so we cheered for Manchester United. They won, of course, cause I'm a good luck charm. The skill of these players was out of control! It is amazing how good they are.

Arlington Cemetery:
Our friend from home, Catherine Gilbert was kind enough to show us around Arlington Cemetery!

John F. Kennedy's tomb and the Eternal Flame

View from JFK's tomb - a perfect view of the Lincoln Memorial

The Tomb of the Unknowns: The process of guarding the tomb and the changing of the guard is very elaborate. Soldiers must study for 2 years and memorize 7 pages of the history of Arlington Cemetery before they can just get a practice walk. It was really cool to see.

Walking the Monuments - Mormon and American
On Sunday night we decided we would take a walk around all the awesome monuments in D.C. We started at the temple and then hit up the 'Merican monuments. My best guy friend, Thayne, just so happens to live in D.C. so he came with us, and John's friend Tara came. Thank you Tara for bringing your "nerdy" camera and taking all these awesome pictures!

The White House - aka 'Bama's House

The Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Newseum
The newseum is an awesome museum dedicated to...wait for it....the news. It has news papers and videos from a lot of the major events in recent history - aka September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, the fall of the Berlin Wall, etc.

The largest piece of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany

The largest elevator ever

Awesome view of the Capitol Building AND the Canadian Embassy.

Haha

Newspapers from September 12, 2001. There was a really great video you could watch with amazing footage from 9/11. It was really well done and really cool to be able to see.

Washington Nationals!!
Washington Nationals baseball game...you can't get more American than that! I even ate a hot dog and watched the President's race.

John's friends made him a microphone...he loved it

Before leaving for the game it was raining pretty hard. As we were walking out of the door the conversation went like this.
John: You are wearing a white t-shirt in the rain?
Me: Yeah, I have an undershirt on. It will be fine.
John: Ok....I'm just saying that you are probably going to get raped and I'm not going to do anything about it...
**Please note that John ALSO has a white shirt on.

Walking the Monuments: Part 2
On Tuesday John had to work, so Tara took me around to see all the monuments that we didn't have time to see on Sunday. Tara didn't have her fancy camera with her, so unfortunately these pictures were taken by my camera...and my camera isn't very good at night shots.

The Jefferson Memorial

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Korean War Memorial

There are faces etched all along the wall

The detail on these statues is amazing

The Vietnam War Memorial

There is a huge wall with the name of every soldier that died in the war. It is built into the ground. We walked past it on Sunday and I didn't even notice it, but it was awesome.

Mount Vernon:

I am "here"

The Washington's Mansion

The Haha Wall. Funny cause people tripped down it a lot? But it is really called The Haha Wall.

Ever since I saw a video of Nixon at the Newseum I've been pulling out the peace and/or victory sign.

The ice shed. Back in the day it was a sign of real wealth to have one of these. G.W. was loaded.

The tomb of Martha and George Washington

The view from the back porch of the mansion

I saw three things at Mount Vernon that I had never seen before...and John made fun of me....a catepillar, a cardinal, and umbrella bags.

My Canadian!!! 3 Weeks of Awesomeness

2011-08-08T17:36:00.069-06:00

I love it when Jackie comes to visit! She is "my person" and I miss her when she is in Canada. One day America will love her as much as I do and let her come back to stay. Until then, I have these awesome pictures of awesome memories to tide me over.

4th of July Weekend at the Barrand House:
I need a scooter. I love scooters so much it is embarrassing. The first thing Jackie and I did when we got into Idaho Falls was march over to Denise and Sarah's house to borrow their scooters!! I scooted around town all day!! It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday! Jackie had bought us matching 4th of July t-shirts, so we rocked those too....cause we are 'Merican! They said "Let Freedom Swing"

Jackie's first time on a scoot scoot!

Jackie thinks she looks so hardcore in this picture. I was too busy texting Denise about another helmet to notice. We had to break into her house to get the helmet, but better safe than sorry!

Scoot Scootin 'Merican Style!

Feeding the Ducks

We had matching hairstyles. Mckeely is basically me....in a miniature size.

BBQ and pop rocks!

We got to the baseball game early, so we played outside at the park for a while.

Matt was explaining the rules of baseball to Paulin (our like 17th cousin from France)

Poor Maveric was so tired he didn't know what to do with himself. He was all over the place. Sarah was DONE fussing with him, and apparently Mckeely thought it was funny.

Onto the fireworks!!! Sarah's family surprised us and came to watch the fireworks with us. It was one big happy family.

As Jackie and I were heading back to Utah, we stopped at Shamrock Park to do a little ice blocking!

I wasn't very good. I didn't even make it half way down the hill before I biffed it.

Maveric had had enough and wandered off all upset to find Granny and Papa

California Adventure and Disneyland!!
After the excitement of the 4th of July Jackie, Valerie and I headed off to California for a weekend at Disneyland!! Good old Steve Phillips lives in California, so he came for the weekend of fun and adventure too!! It was just like old times. Here is an overload of pictures from the weekend

Jackie bought this hat in St. George and is obsessed with it. She made me take like 8 pictures of her in it.

The ONLY picture of all 4 of us

The Haunted Mansion!!!

The Buzz Lightyear ride. A ride and laser tag competition all at the same time!!

While riding Space Mountain it broke down....so we got trapped on the ride for a while. It was worth it cause once it was fixed we got to go on it again, WITHOUT waiting in line!

We rode Splash Mountain and Jackie was in the very front, which is like the only spot that gets wet. Her clothes dried pretty fast, but at this point it just looked like she peed her pants.

Rumor has it that if you kiss a frog it will turn into a prince....

Valerie lost her ticket, so we had to go to customer service to get her a new one.

In addition to getting her ticket, she told the lady that it was Jackie's birthday!! So we all got cool pins and Jackie got to talk on the special birthday phone.

Steve got a "First time at Disneyland" pin.

Jackie got a birthday pin. Valerie and I got pins that said we were celebrating a birthday. Jackie probably got over 50 Happy Birthdays and I got called a princess once. It was awesome.

The perfect hat for Steve...but he wouldn't buy it...

A birthday hat just for Jackie!!

Super cute Minnie ears that Jackie bought.

The guy inside of the Indian Jones ride told us to skip to the line, and this is how Jackie skips, apparently.

Chillin, waiting for our fast pass to go into effect!!

Jackie got an awesome painting done of herself. Beautiful!!

We kept seeing these signs on the ride that told us we couldn't do this awesome action....

So we did it anyway....troublemakers.

At the end of the night right before the park closes is the best time to hit up your favorite ride. There are like 5 people there so you just get on the ride and run to the entrance as fast as you can. This year we decided on ending our Disneyland marathon with Splash Mountain! We rode it like 6 times in 30 min. We got so wet. It was so great.

On the big fall on the ride they take a picture. Each time we did something different. This was the best one.

Harry Potter 7: Part 2 - The End of An Era
The very last Harry Potter movie EVER came out while Jackie was in town. So of course we hit up the midnight preimer!! 12:01 July 15th, 2011. The end of the Harry Potter Era.

We played Mad Gab while we waited

Our awesome matching t-shirts!!! Its Tradition

They let us into the theater at 8pm to wait for the movie. So I looked up a die-hard Harry Potter quiz to play while we waited. Jackie won. She is the biggest nerd.

Since Alice was dressed like Harry Potter, she had to fight Voldemort!!

I love him

Since Alice was dressed like Harry Potter, and I love Harry Potter....I was confused on which one I should love....

I love Harry Potter, I love California, I love Scooters, but most importantly I love my Canadian!!

Utah Bucket List: Salt Flats

2011-08-08T17:19:00.009-06:00

After living in Utah for 5 years, I finally knocked off the one thing on my Utah Bucket List. The idea of the salt flat was always interesting to me, but after I saw them on Pirates of the Caribbean, I knew I HAD to go see them. I was under the impression that they were close to Salt Lake....but I was very wrong. The Salt Flats are located like 2 hours west of Salt Lake City. They are pretty much awesome.

Aw Yeah!!! Happy Moment!

Oh you better believe I licked it!!

Naturally, I molested the Salt Flats

Then, in the words of Heather, I turned into an alien. Haha my camera was all tripped out over all the white!

The Adventures of Suecicle and Alicita: Summer Edition

2011-08-08T17:04:00.009-06:00

Well summer is here and now that the rain has finally stopped, it was time to get outside! Alice and I decided it was time to enjoy nature. So we took a hike! We had a pleasant surprise at the top of the hike. SNOW!

In nature!

We had matching hair-dos. Cause we are THAT cool

I love snow. End of story.

I guess during a normal summer, when it doesn't rain for a month straight, you can walk right up to the bottom of the waterfall. That is obviously not the case this year. You could walk right out on the snow that covered the river.

Bye Bye Baby

2011-08-08T16:23:00.024-06:00

After 10 long years and a few dumb moves on my part, it is time to say goodbye to my baby.

This car has been with me through a lot in the last 10 years, and unfortunately I have to say goodbye. To make a long story short, I was visiting Matthew and Sarah and on my way home I was being a irresponsible driver. I was messing with the radio and fussing with my things and failed to see the car in front of me was stopped. Yup, all my fault. My first car accident ever and it totaled my poor baby. I feel so incomplete without it....

On a happier note, I had a great time while visiting the little ones!!! We went to the Discovery Center and played outside and I waxed my nose for the first time!

The Discovery Center:

Bubble Machine. We spent a majority of our time at this station.

We couldn't keep Maveric away from this ball. Every time we turned our backs he was back chasing that thing around.

This was their second favorite thing. We passed in on the our way in and the kids talked about it the WHOLE time.

Backyard Fun:

Haha I love this picture. Maleeya looks so unimpressed.

Waxing:
Sarah is such a pro at pretty much everything. She has recently taken up the art of nose waxing.

Oh we look GOOD

Sarah used a little too much wax and it was just dripping out of her nose. Hilarious

No matter who you are or how tough you are, during your first time you will have a panic attack right before you pull out the first stick.

After my panic attack I just thought it was funny....cause it doesn't hurt at all. Good times.

The Adventures of Suecicle and Alicita: 2.0

2011-06-01T04:12:00.011-06:00

Alice came to stay with me for the weekend....so we played.... a lot! To kick off the weekend we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 with her sister and her sister's family and then ate Chinese food. Her family is so cute and hilarious, it was just a good time. Then we hit Boondocks Family Fun Center for the night! I don't want to brag, but we are REALLY good at laser tag and arcade games....it's no big deal.

Looking at these two pictures together is hilarious. I wanted to do my molesting pose...and so did Alice. I think I got the better looking guy ;)

Rocking out to some Backstreet Boys. Gotta love it

Alice had to PEE when we got to Boondocks. I kept staring at the sign and I couldn't figure out what "Jed" meant. Who is jed? Why does it say that? Don't worry, I figured out that it was the men's bathroom just in time to save Alice from embarrassment.

Laser freaking Tag!! We were awesome! And Alice got 2nd place...cause she is THAT cool

Coins = games....yeah, I was happy

Games of chance, shooting spiders, dancing and Deal or No Deal. You name it, we played it.

We won some pretty sweet stuff...the 90s would be so jealous of us

Maid of Honor - Round 2

2011-06-01T03:03:00.039-06:00

Welp!! Noel Curtis is now Noel Metcalf. She got married on April 30, 2011 in the Los Angeles Temple! She looked so beautiful and the day was just perfect! It was really more like a perfect weekend. On Friday (day before the wedding) Noel, Matt, Kacie Gene and I went to the beach to take pictures of the happy couple. I was there doing my Maid of Honor duties, and Kacie Gene was the talented photographer.

Helping Noel get dressed

Posting to Facebook (VERY important)

Later that night there was a little dinner before a big group of us hit up the Dodgers game! I bought an awesome Dodgers hat just for the occasion. It was really fun. There were even fireworks after the game, so we got to go down onto the field to watch them.

The wedding day finally came and the entire day was absolutely perfect! Noel looked amazing, it was a beautiful day and everyone had a good time.

All 4 bridesmaids: Laila, Me, Kacie Gene and Monica!

Jen...one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet

The Wedding Party

The Bride and Maid of Honor

2 of the 3 Bridesmaids with the Bride

Best Man and Maid of Honor

Curtis Family...LOVE them

We may have stopped at In N Out on the way to the reception....

Touch up before the ring ceremony

Miss Tauna! She did MY hair and Noel's hair for the wedding...AND she is adorable.

Giving my speech, which I might have cried during...

Even Steve came! He drove down from school to hang out with us for the night. It was SO good to see him!

Kacie Gene...I love love LOVE this girl!!

When all was said and done, everyone was exhausted and everyone was happy! Yay for the happy new couple!!

One Day....Two Celebrations!

2011-04-10T05:11:00.025-06:00

March 26th, 2011.... I couldn't have asked for a better day! 1) It was the season opener for the REAL SALT LAKE!!!!My boys are BACK!! At least twice a month from now until October, I get to see my favorite team play...and by play, I mean kick trash. 2) The annual Holi Festival of Colors at the Hindu Temple that brings thousands and thousands of people to Spanish Fork, Utah. This is the third or fourth year that I've gone to it, but this year is the year we got smart about it!. Once the color is thrown in the air you literally cannot breathe. There is a lot of choking and a lot of coughing and not a lot of anything else. So this year Alice and I bought bandannas to go over our faces! It was 1000 times better! There was one other thing we did differently this year. Many years ago when I first came to Utah, there was only 1 throwing of the color. In the past 5 years this festival has exploded and now they do color throwings every 2 hours. When there was only one throwing it was really easy to keep clean and white up until it was time to throw the color. Now, there is no hope at all. The minute you walk onto the temple property and people see you haven't been hit with color, they throw it at you. The past few years I have held back throwing color early because it seemed kind of disrespectful to the culture and the people. This year Alice and I resisted throwing the color early for a little while, but then decided that we would try it out. Oh my word! It is so much fun just throwing color at people! We felt like we were in Harry Potter and every time we case a spell colored powder would fly out of our hands. It was SO much more fun!! Needless to say, I'm glad we broke the rules a little this year.

This kid was hilarious. This year we got stopped at the gates and our bags were searched for outside color. As we are standing there I turn around and see this little boy holding a bag of illegal, outside color. So naturally, I say, "That is totally illegal. You better hide it." As he is frantically searching for a place to hide it, Alice whispers "Stick it down your pants!" and he did it! When we decided to take gangster pictures with him, my picture came out with him being more in love with me. We started our day off by teaching a little boy how to smuggle in illegal substances.

I've been hit!

Because it had been raining and snowing the entire day before the festival, the nice grassy hill we usually sit on was transformed into this muddy mess. We did not venture down it.

There was a weird little lake next to some weird little midget camel cows. I'm concerned about the kind of animal breeding going on at this place....

It begins! This picture is pointed at the sky. As you can (or can't see) the sun is not visible. That is how intense the color is.

Before and After

After the festival, a shower, food and a nap Alice and I drove back to Salt Lake of the Real Salt Lake Game. We played the LA Galaxy...which happens to be the team beautiful David Beckham plays for. Since we have a player with the last name of Beckerman, there was an awesome sign that said "Our Becks is better than your Becks." It made my night....my very cold and rainy night.

That giant flag made its way around the entire stadium. I was really excited about it.

The Two Johnsons In My Life - Part Two: Paper Hearts and Championships

2011-04-07T03:56:00.009-06:00

Alice Johnson and Will Johnson - the 2 Johnsons in my life. Alice and I have been friends for about 5 years now. Simply put, she is an amazing person and an amazing friend. I was having a really difficult week and was having a really hard time. At the end of that awful week I had to fly to Boise to take an entrance exam for the Treasure Valley nursing program. When I got back home to Utah I had the greatest surprise waiting for me.

She had decorated my room with this sign and a bunch of paper hearts, and each of the hearts had something nice written on it. It is probably the nicest thing that anyone has every done for me. I nearly cried when I first saw it! All I can say is that I love my Alicita.

Will Johnson has been apart of my life for about a year now. He is my favorite player on the Real Salt Lake soccer team. Thank heavens it is soccer season again!! For my birthday, Matthew bought me some tickets to go to the first Real game since October. I took my friend Cookie with me and it was SO cold, but SO worth it. I love my boys.

Rooney: 200 People, 1 Garage

2011-04-07T03:32:00.010-06:00

Alice and I have a lot of things in common, but the most important thing we have in common is our love for the band Rooney! A few years ago we randomly found out that they were playing in the back parking lot of a yogurt shop, and of course we went and of course it was awesome! Well one day as I was listening to the radio, I heard a new Rooney song. New song = new album = concert tours! I immediately looked up to see when they were going to be in Salt Lake City, and thank heavens we only had to wait a couple of weeks to see them. I got tickets for me and Alice to go. Alice was so excited she almost peed her pants! OK, maybe not THAT excited, but we knew it was going to be awesome!! When the day finally came to see the show, it turned out that they were playing in some random garage downtown. When i say garage, I literally mean garage. Rooney, the great Rooney played one of the greatest concerts I've ever been to inside of what appeared to be a 4 car garage, with a limit of 200 people. It was small and AWESOME. They sounded so good, and it was such a blast. No one does concerts better than me and Alice.

Waiting for the concert to start

Our "Rooney Concert" pose.

We like to PARTY

Crowd surfing....greatest exit ever.

Portland + Tahnee = Love

2011-04-07T03:15:00.013-06:00

Tahnee moved to Portland about 3 or 4 years ago, and ever since then I have been promising her that I would come and visit her. Well I finally did it!! It was so much fun!! Tahnee and I have been friends since we were in elementary school. I just love her so much, and I'm so happy that I got a chance to spend some time with her.

Yeah!! I love her

For part of the time I was with Tahnee, we decided to drive to Seattle and spend some time with her sister, Sage. We did acupuncture, act Vietnamese food, saw the sights and walked around the markets. I love Seattle....it's one of the greatest cities on earth.

The Troll

Tahnee likes to drink. Haha

It was a nice vacation, a much needed vacation. Our time was spent sleeping, going to shows and playing in Seattle. I can't think of a better way to spend my time.

Sundance Film Festival

2011-04-07T02:07:00.013-06:00

Movies, movies, and more movies. Two weeks where Park City, Utah is packed full of people from all over the world (including movie stars) that come to see as many movies as they can. Alice and I decided to make the drive up to Park City, ride the buses around, wait in line and watch movies. I worked during the first weekend of Sundance, so come Monday I hadn't really slept in a few days. While sitting in class on Monday afternoon Alice informs me that EWAN MCGREGOR's movie was premiering that night!! 1) Ewan McGregor is my #1 always and forever, 2) There were about 10 movies that were doing their World Premier at the film festival, and most of the time the actors were at those premiers. How could I possibly turn down the opportunity to see Ewan McGregor?!?! So after sleeping for about an hour, I drove to Provo, picked up Alice and we headed to Park City to get in the wait list line for Ewan McGregor's movie. That one night we met so many awesome people, and when we went back over the weekend we met even more awesome people. All of the people were so friendly and happy. Everyone was there to have a good time and see good movies. Well there was good news and bad news about that spontaneous Monday evening trip. Bad news - Ewan McGregor wasn't there! For whatever reason he couldn't make it. It is probably for the better though, because I don't think I would have been able to breathe being in the same room as that beautiful, BEAUTIFUL man. Good news - We were lucky enough to get into the theater to see the movie. The movie we saw was called Perfect Sense. Everything about the movie was beautiful. The basic story line is that a chef and a scientist fall in love during an epidemic which causes people to lose their senses, one by one. It had a message that no matter what is happening, life goes on and love is always there.

I was really excited....for EWAN MCGREGOR!

On our way! Alice found my flashlight...

Inside the theater, waiting for "Perfect Sense"

Alice found Dominic Cooper

I found some bagpipes

On Saturday, we stopped at Mc Donalds on the way up to Park City and I got the biggest chicken nugget EVER

Alice managed to lose her sunglasses

Wait List Numbers

We got into another movie! This one was a documentary about September 11th

Working the camera in front of the Sundance sign, just like a celebrity

What Happens in Vegas, Stays In Vegas

2011-01-06T22:24:00.050-07:00

Las Vegas....America's Playground. Lights, music, dancing, gambling, parties...who wouldn't want to spend New Year's in Vegas? After a ridiculously huge snow storm prevented Alice and I from driving to Denver, we decided to hitch a ride and hang out in Vegas with John and his friends. No one knows how to party in Vegas better than John. Here is the story of the greatest New Year's yet.

New Year's Eve:
Alice and I grabbed a ride with some of John's friends, Dave and Lindsay. I got car sick (of course) and the roads were bad in some places, but we made it to Vegas! John had reservations at Mandalay Bay and our room was huge. John managed to get a double upgrade and since we had two air mattresses, it was the perfect size for all 7 of us.

Some time between the time John checked into the hotel and the time my car got there, a rule was made that there was no pooping in the room. So we settled into the room and the boys all went down to the lobby to place bets on the New Year's Day football games and to, well, take a poop. As you can imagine they were gone for some time, so the girls got together and played Texas Hold 'Em. Alex taught us all how to play and then we gambled with the carmels my mom had sent down with John. We got pretty into the game and learning how to do a winning poker face. We put our sunglasses on and everything!

At around 10pm we decided it was time to go outside and join the party that was happening on the strip! For New Year's Eve they close the strip to cars, so it was just a mad house with people EVERYWHERE....drunk people everywhere. Everyone was high-fiving and yelling and laughing with everyone they passed on the street. It was so fun. John decided that it was his goal to be the most obnoxious person on the strip (his words, not mine), so he was loud and cheered and started "USA! USA!" chants throughout the whole night.

We needed to get someone to take this picture for us, so John pointed at a man and said "You 'Merican? Are you 'Merican?!" and only after he said yes, John allowed him to take our picture.

John liked to try and lick all the signs we passed while riding on the moving sidewalks.

John made friends with these drunks after a round of "USA! USA!" We chatted it up with a lot of random people throughout the night.

Me and my Alice...and Lindsey, she is hilarious in the background.

Most of the hotels had music playing outside and tons of people dancing in the streets. As we walked past we joined in with the dancing for a bit before moving on. As we passed Monte Carlo there was a HUGE dance party outside and a bunch of us got pulled in by random people to join in on the dancing. I decided it was time to cut loose and party it up! Alice got weirded out by the creeps and walked out of the dance. At that point all the guys that were trying to dance with her came over and started dancing with me. After about 30 more seconds I pulled myself out of that dance party too. There were too many creepy boys trying to do creepy things to us.

Sweet dance moves

John's Asia girlfriend...the relationship lasted about 3 minutes.

Our reaction to almost being molested outside of the Monte Carlo

We also stopped at the Bellagio to warm up a little bit before we welcomed in the new year. The ceiling in the entry way is amazing, as well as this room that they change every month or so.

Beautiful glass ceiling

This room was amzing. Full of real flowers and sparkly things

These guys were so funny. The main display had little streams of water that would shoot up and leap frog over each other. This guy decided he wanted to catch the water in his mouth. With the help of his buddies, he did just that. It was awesome. It was so amazing that John walked up to them and gave them 5 bucks...just for being so cool.

The greatest chocolate fountain of all time.

Around 11:30pm we parked ourselves in the middle of the Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd intersection to wait for the count down. John was convinced that there wasn't going to be a count down so when HIS watch said it was time, we counted down from 10. By the time we got to 1, a giant clock appeared on the billboard to countdown the last minute until midnight. Hilarious. When midnight finally came there were fireworks everywhere, and we were right in the middle of it! They were incredible!

This dude was hilarious. He just randomly came up to us and started chatting away. He tried really hard to do math (since he is a math major), but that was a bad idea because he was SO drunk! He was ready to hang out with us for the rest of the night.

These guys were gross....so freaking gross. The offered me a lot of weed. Thank heavens we all decided to move away from them... cause like I said...they were so gross.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

John and Dan had a dance-off with these girls on the way back to the hotel. Oh my gosh...it was hilarious

New Year's Day:
After everyone finally got up, complained about Dan snoring all night, and showered we went to eat some chicken wings and watch football! There was a cute waitress working, so John did the mature thing...and left her note. Alice, John and I went back to the hotel to nap while the rest of them went shopping. We were all preparing for the rockin awesome night we had ahead of us. John made reservations for the group at a piano bar. I had so much fun! We drank Red Bulls and clapped and sang.

Getting ready for a night on the town!

Gangsta Pimp

Party Girl

Air Guitar Master

Loving our Red Bull

Dancing in the bar

Crazy drunks

Since John has been to Vegas so many times, he has some crazy cool connections. So after the piano bar we headed over to The Palms to hit up the clubs! He got us in for cheap to all 4: The Ghost Bar (where we spent all our time), The Playboy Lounge, Rain and Moon. Before we left we checked out all the clubs, but only partied in the Ghost Bar. The greatest part about it is that the Palms has the most amazing view of the strip.

On our way to the clubs!

The View!!

Bust a Move!

Don't worry. We attracted a very beautiful man and his friends that hung out with us all night....

Well done Vegas...well done. After only 3 days I needed a whole day to recover from what I call a "Vegas Hangover." I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Happy New Year 2011

The Adventures of Suecicle and Alicita: The Death of a Knee

2010-12-28T22:56:00.013-07:00

Life is always an adventure when I'm with Alice. We decided that it was time for some winter fun, and ice skating was at the top of our list. I don't want to brag or anything...but I'm pretty dang graceful. While skating around with all the little kids I managed to catch my toe pick in the ice and fell flat on my face. Well....flat on my knee. The poor little thing took all the weight of my fall and a bruise developed immediately. After going home, drinking some hot chocolate and watching Inception, we discovered that my little knee was not so little anymore. For the first time in my life I managed to get a goose egg somewhere other than my head. So there is an extra little bump on my knee that has now turned a beautiful shade of purple.

Epic Fall

I felt totally fine after the fall....that ice ain't got nothin' on me!

Sexy Alicita

Once upon a time I had the greatest Halloween costume in the world. Thanks to my creative thinking and Noel's mad crafty skills....I became EVE! Alice and I went to a ward Halloween party and took some awesome pictures. Picture + Photoshop = Greatest Blanket Known To Man! Please take note of Hugh Jackman pouring water on himself (from the movie Australia). Love it. Love Alice

Christmas Time at the Barrand House

2010-12-28T22:34:00.016-07:00

The whole family was home for Christmas this year. We played games and ate food and laughed a lot. It was so much fun! Please enjoy the pictures.

Watching a movie with my girls

Uncle John and Lil Matthew

My boys

Playing Ned's Head

Granny and Maveric

Christmas Dinner...we are basically besties

"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house" - Kids Edition

Kids in their new PJs....greatest family photo ever

Showing off "the guns"

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

The Two Johnsons In My Life

2010-11-07T18:04:00.015-07:00

Life is good. Life is good for two very specific reasons.

Reason #1: Alice Johnson
Let me tell you the story of how Alice has become one of my very best friends. Alice and I were on the same dorm floor freshman year of college. She was down one hall and I was down the other. The two halls didn't interact very much, but Alice and I did have one thing in common; we both loved the TV show LOST. So once a week the floor got together for one hour and watched LOST. I didn't know a lot about Alice and when freshman year was over we both moved out and it was 2 years before I saw her again. I trace our friendship back to this one day when fate made our paths cross. I was walking home from class one day, which happened to be my birthday and for some reason I decided to go a different way. I ran into Alice and she was nice enough to invite me over to her apartment for some lunch. She didn't know that it was my birthday or that I was having a bad day. She was just was being Alice. We went to her house and she made me tuna helper, which I have since learned is an Alice trademark meal. We talked and caught up and when the meal was over I left. A few months later Alice called me because her roommates were moving out and she wanted to see if I wanted to move in with her. I looked at her apartment and shortly thereafter I moved in! The rest is history. We played and laughed, we cried and hugged, and now I have no idea what I would do without her. She is smart and funny and confident and always makes me feel good. She is an amazing example of everything that a person should be. I'm so thankful that simply crossing paths one day at school has led to one of the greatest friendships. Here is a look at the beginning of a veyr long friendship.

We throw colored flour at each other at the Festival of Colors

We rock out to Rooney in the parking lot of Spoon Me

We shnuggle in the Nook

We play on the monkey bars

We dress in really awesome clothes and hit up Dairy Queen when we really should be studying for finals.

We celebrate birthdays at the zoo

Reason #2: Will Johnson, #8 Real Salt Lake
Over the past year I have discoverd a new passion for soccer. Watching it, not playing it. Anyone that knows me knows that I have ZERO coordination on land. I am strictly a water animal. I do love soccer though....so so much. I have gone to as many Real Salt Lake games that I could and loved every single second of it. This past weekend was the first round of the MSL playoffs. I got really awesome tickets for a freakishly cheap price. My friend, Cookie, had a giant yellow cleat costume made for the world cup, so he wanted me to dress up as a giant soccer ball. After a failed attempt on my part, Noel managed to make the greatest costume!

Now on to Will Johnson. He is my favorite player on the Real Salt Lake team. He is only 23 years old and is a starter on the team. He is an agressive player that obviously puts in 110% for the entire 90 minutes of play. I think he is just a really great player. Not the best, but definitely my favorite. Even on top of that....he has the tightest and most amazing butt on the team. It makes going to a losing game SO worth it.

He is cute....in a geeky kind of way....just my type.

I will let you be the judge of that beautiful butt....

Oktoberfest!!

2010-09-06T02:27:00.011-06:00

Snow Bird, one of the big ski resorts, hosts Oktoberfest every year and have been doing it for like 50 years, so you know it has gotta be good. Noel, Zarah and I decided to check it out! There were lots of little booths and fun little cut outs to take pictures with. The best part of the day was the Keg Tapping! It took place inside of the main tent, which was huge. Everyone involved in the festival was dressed up, which made it that much better. We sat down at a table and enjoyed some of the entertainment (and food) and waited for the keg tapping, which we had no idea what it was. To our surprise, we sat down in the aisle that the entire keg parade would be marching down. Soon enough they hauled in a huge keg which was followed by a ton of people doing lots of random things. One guy was juggling 5 plastic rings. I was really impressed so I started to cheer for him and then he dropped them all. He turned to me and said, "Harassment from the crowd!" and grabbed me and I joined in on the parade!! As we were walking up to the front, he told me I had to juggle the rings. So we stood in the front as the rest of the people in the parade filed in, but I of course couldn't juggle them. It was so fun! The people were so friendly and fun! I loved it!

My favorite little gingerbread man

Funny how they just HAPPENED to make the exact same face

THE keg

The 3 of us chillin at Oktoberfest!

Traditionally, the mayor of the town taps the keg, which signifies the official start of Oktoberfest and then they do this hilarious little cheer in German. It was fun.

Eating my first Bratwurst....ever. What better place to do it than Oktoberfest!

Demolition Derby!

2010-09-06T02:15:00.008-06:00

Thanks to my good friend, Cookie, I have now experienced a demolition derby! Not only that, but I experienced it as a hick! Cookie has a friend that owns an old school bus, so he packs it full of people and brings them up to the Spanish Fork county fair for the demo derby. Most people dress up for it, so that is exactly what we did! Cookie is a pro at dressing up, but we tried to make me look like a hick. Just because I'm from Idaho doesn't mean that I know how to dress like a hick....

Oregon Coast Family Vacation

2010-09-06T01:35:00.028-06:00

There is one thing that I look forward to every year, and that is the Barrand family vacation! One of our favorite places to go is the Oregon coast, where we rent a beach house and play on the beach for a week. Since I'm not in school anymore I got to stay for the entire week, instead of just flying in for the weekend. Sarah's parents also came along this year, which made for an extra good time! Here are some pictures from the week!

Exploring the tide pools

These kids love books...which means I read every book they had about 12 times...every morning

I probably took a nap everyday...nope, I DID take a nap everyday

One of the fun things we did this year was Clamming!! Matt and Sarah made some clamming traps...not sure what they are called, but it was really fun! We had to hike down a mountain and across swampy grossness to get to the place we needed. Matthew and Mckeely had a really good time, but Maleeya was not impressed. She fell into the first hole we had dug and was therefore cranky the whole time. She was ready to leave before anyone else, so I ended up hauling her back across the swampy grossness and back up the huge hill....all in flip flops...carrying all of here stuff. Yeah, you could say that I love that girl a little bit.

Me and Sarah. Love her.

Even though we went to the beach in August, it was still FREEZING! But we still had a great time and the kids even loved playing in the little tide pools while Matt, Sarah and I hit the waves!

The kids love to go crabbing, and by kids I mean everyone. So we packed up food and chairs and blankets and parked ourselves on the end of the pier and spend the day catching crabs!

Love my girls

Mom being hilarious....like always

We caught a starfish. Mckeely had to examine it with her very scientific mind (just like her Aunt Sue-Ann)

Matt, the Cook

John finally made it! We, of course, had to start climbing on every rock possible. Then we all hiked up the huge sand hill to see what we could find. There were lots of cliffs and dangerous things, so we all had a designated child that we had to look after. My DC, as John started to call them, was my little Maleeya.

Overhead view of the tide pools

Matt almost fell into the water here trying to get a good pictures....boys...

July...You Know How To Treat A Lady

2010-07-28T02:53:00.048-06:00

This July has been full of some rockin awesome things! The month started out with, of course, the 4th of July. Idaho Falls is the BEST place to see fireworks, and Matthew and his whole little family came to join in on the fun. I love those little ones, they are just too fun. I saw a lot of my old friends and got to spend a lot of good time with my family.

Me and my little Maleeya. She is adorable

My daddy!

My Kate! I've known Kate since junior high. She was on my swim team and has always been such a good friend to me. I love her!

My big guy. It was cold (crazy, huh) so we were cuddling up to keep warm

THE face...last summer I taught her how to do it. This summer she is a master!

I love my girls.

Having a good time with Aunt Sue-Ann

LOVE her

July got even better when Jackie came to visit me...again! That is two time this year! We always have so much fun when we are together. It doesn't matter if we are sitting on the couch or going out for dinner, we are constantly laughing. Jackie is one of my best friends and I couldn't ask for more!

We can't hit up a movie without diet coke and peanut M&Ms.

According to Jackie my model face wasn't good enough, so Jackie showed me how to "make love to the camera."

Lunch at Zupas! This pictures captures typical Jackie. I love it.

Lunch at Zupas!

I've gotta have some sweets after I eat...its an addiction

Eating a Pots De Creme at the Little Chocolatiers chocolate shop. (A Shop run by little people that have a show on TLC)

At the chocolate shop! I love this girl. One of my very best friends.

After the chocolate shop Jackie took me on a little hike to one of her favorite places in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, neither of us were dressed properly for a hike and didn't do the whole thing...it would have been very dangerous in sandals.

I love it when I get the chance to see Jackie. She is one of my best friends and just an amazing person. I can't wait until I get to see her again!

The month of July was closed out with....(drum roll) MY BEST FRIENDS WEDDING!! Emily Hildebrandt changed her name to Emily McCormick on July 24, 2010. She got married at the Historic Shelton and I was her Maid of Honor!! It was just a beautiful wedding. I had to tell myself not to cry when she was walking down the aisle, because I was so happy for her. I didn't take a lot of pictures because she had THREE photographers and I knew I could get professional pictures later. Here are just a few pictures that I took during the wedding.

My hair

Getting ready in the bride's room

Yup, she is beautiful

Her cake and the bouquet she threw...which I caught...

Her Bouquet

My Bouquet

Chillin in the massage chair...it was so nice

Lacing up her dress...it only took 45 minutes...

Me...waiting to get the show on the road!

Walking down the aisle

Getting hitched

Side by side since we were 3 years old. 20 years later...nothing has changed. Love her

Soulmates

Cutting the cake

Their first dance...precious

Granny and Pop....the only grandparents I've ever known. Love them so much

As you can see, July was pretty dang good. I'm so thankful for all the amazing people that I have in my life. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Sports Fever

2010-05-16T16:20:00.016-06:00

Since Noel and I live in Salt Lake, we have been taking advantage of the sports events that happen in this crazy little town. Since Noel is from LA and a lifelong Lakers fan and I claim LA as a second home, we decided to hit up Game 4 of the Play-offs. The Lakers were playing the Jazz and were up 3 games to zero. If LA won this game they would continue on to try for Conference Champions! What an amazingly awesome game to go to! Noel found the tickets and I found the cute Lakers jerseys to wear. What kind of fans would we be if we didn't dress in the proper clothing for the game. Well I found the jerseys online and had the shipped so they would get to me by game day. Well game day was here and I was nervous about our special purple and gold package arriving and having no one home to sign for it. So as I left the apartment for work I left a note on the door for the UPS man to just leave the package and signed the bottom. Being that I have just moved into a new place, I didn't have any tape...of any kind. The only sticky thing I could find was a band aid...so I used it to stick my note to the door. Well I got home from work and the package hadn't arrived yet. Noel and I waiting around for a few hours to see if it would come before we went to the gym. Well as we are leaving for the gym we see the UPS truck in our complex. So we flip a U-turn and book it back to the apartment. Noel met the UPS man on the stairs and had this funny conversation,
Noel: I've been waiting for you ALL day!
UPS man: I know....and I haven't been hurrying.
That sassy delivery man....but at least we got our jerseys!! We decided to take the TRAX down to the Energy Solutions Arena (Delta Center) so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic and parking. There were a lot of people on the train that were headed to the game and there were a lot of Lakers fans too. So it was funny to listen to everyone tease back and forth about the upcoming game.

My special little note to the UPS man

Noel made purple mocktails...of course...to toast the game!

All of us on the TRAX

We found a drunk guy with a hilarious shirt..."Jesus plays for the Lakers."

Noel, me and the super nice usher guy

Love this lady

In addition to the Lakers game, which they of course won, Noel and I went to a Major League Soccer game to see the Real Salt Lake play. Turns out that people are HARDCORE about this soccer team. They won the MLS championship last year, so they are good. So we went to a game with some friends and just had a blast! All the fans are so much fun. After EVERY goal people throw streamers and confetti and run around like they just won the world cup. It was so awesome. Noel and I decided that we are going to become hardcore fans too.

Noel, Kyna, and Me at the game

The gang with Leo (who I will forever call Xango, because of a blond moment when I thought that was his name....)

Hilarious sign making fun of the other team, "Creamsicles Nom Nom Nom Nom"

Settling Down in SLC

2010-05-06T15:43:00.013-06:00

I've been living in Salt Lake City for about a month now and Noel is finally here!! Once she got her stuff moved into our new apartment we started to think about how we wanted to decorate. We have planned out how we are going to make this apartment our own and it is going to be amazing when it is all done. The biggest thing we decided was the color scheme for the living room. We are going to have black furniture and then add some color to the room with purple and blue pillows and decorations. Purple is not a very popular color so it has been difficult finding pieces that would look good in our apartment. We spent the day searching and searching for that one purple piece that will be the perfect shade to match everything else with. We were at Ross checking out with some blue pillows when we looked across to the return desk and saw a glass, purple bottle. We wanted it, and we got it! We were nervous about traveling with it because it was so important that it didn't break, so we carried it to the car like a little baby and Noel did a great job at st raping into the car.

Our "baby" all snuggled with our new blue pillows!

Noel and I live in Midvale which is just south of Salt Lake, so we are trying to get acquainted with the area and with Salt Lake. We have found gyms to work out in, stores to shop at and a new places to explore. Well we found an awesome park that over looks the whole city. It was beautiful and awesome! We also took a trip down the Trax and wandered around downtown for a bit. It was the first of many adventures to come.

Chillin at our new found park!

Noel put a $20 bill in the machine to pay for our Trax tickets and it gave change...in coins...

On the Trax

Hanging out in downtown Salt Lake City

I had a hard time getting some frozen chicken out of the freezer at Costco....

BUT....I won!!

The Academy Awards

2010-03-07T23:07:00.009-07:00

My dear friend Alice is an acting major at BYU, and an amazing actress. I knew if there was one person to watch the Oscars with it would be her. So we planned out our Oscars party! A party is not complete without food and games, and Alice had that all under control! She made us Oscar shaped pancakes and printed out an Oscars ballet for us to fill out. Here is how the game works: We got to choose 1) who we THOUGHT would win and 2) who we WANTED to win. Then when the winner was announced and we got it right, then we got 1 point. If we choice the same nominee for who we thought would win and who we wanted to win, then we got 3 points. When it was all said and done....I WON!!!! It was 18 to 14.5!!! I was pretty happy about it. I would have done better if "Avatar" had won more and "The Hurt Locker" had won less...but we had a good time.

Alicita working her magic

They.Are.Beautiful.

Alice was head for the first half of the Oscars. Then I pulled head when I got 3 points and she only got 1...then it was all down hill for her from there.

Domination!

Our ballets!!

Hitting The Slopes

2010-02-15T13:25:00.008-07:00

Noel and I have decided it is time to pick up some new hobbies. We went rock climbing a couple of weeks ago, and this weeks adventure was snowboarding! I've always wanted to learn how to board, so we just went. We rented some boards and headed up to Sundance for the morning. Considering it was my first time, I think I did pretty dang awesome. First and foremost, I taught myself how to stop. I fell on my butt really hard once and I knew my little toosh couldn't handle that again. We were only up at Sundance for 4 hours but we got some really good runs in. Out of everything that I have tried since I quit swimming, snowboarding is the first thing that I think I really love. Here are some pictures taken at Sundance.

I had to by some gloves for the slopes, and Noel kept making fun of me because I bought mittens. She said I looked like a 4 year old, but I LOVE them.

My first big fall....it hurt.... a lot

On the slopes

On the ski lift!

"WHAT! I OWN this mountain!"

Noel sassing the mountain.

Eating....American Style

2010-02-07T19:56:00.005-07:00

In honor of the Superbowl, McDonald's came out with a 50 piece chicken nugget meal. I don't have any idea how that much chicken is related to the Superbowl, but I guess McDonald's just does what it wants. Seriously? 50? It is so ridiculous that Heather and I just had to try and conquer it. We ended up stopping at 2 in the morning and the lady helping us just laughed. I guess it is unusual for two girls to buy that much food. We tried our very best to eat it all. Even when I was seconds away from vomiting it up all over the living room...I kept eating like a true American would! Unfortunately, we failed. In fact we didn't even come close to finishing it all...and the only thing we could say at the end of the night was, "That was a bad idea."

My Crazy Canuck

2010-02-07T19:05:00.027-07:00

Jackie came to see me!!! She flew all the way from Calgary to visit me for a week. It was so freaking awesome! Up until that point, it had been about two years since I had last see her, and it was like no time had passed at all. We spent the week doing what we do best...laughing hysterically.

We moved my queen size mattress out into the living room and did a good job at having movie parties. Jackie thought she could just casually kick the mattress and it would move. She was obviously mistaken and ended up on the floor. So funny

While she was in America I introduced her to the BEST PIZZA EVER...CRAIGO'S. It is seriously amazing. We also spent a day in Provo so she could visit BYU and remember on all the fun times she had there. The week was amazing to just be able to hang out with her, but the biggest thing we did was go up to Yellowstone and take a snow coach tour through the park. It was really fun to be able to see the park in the winter time, and we can make an adventure out of anything! Here are some pictures from our journey!

We drove up to West Yellowstone the night before so that we wouldn't have to worry about the roads. We ended up staying in a cute little hotel but for whatever reason we were up in the back building...all alone. It was sketchy....

Little Miss High Maintenance didn't let me turn the heater on in the hotel room because it was too loud, but it got COLD in the middle of the night. She also doesn't like it when I would try to sleep too close to her. So in the middle of the night I kept moving over to make sure I wasn't invading her space while she kept pulling the blanket off me!! Needless to say...I ended up with NO blanket in a freezing hotel room.

The Snow Coach

Entering the park!

Jackie is entering Wyoming for the first time EVER!

Looking at some animals we found

Photo op!

These crows or ravens or whatever they are have learned to unzip the backs in the parking lot and steal food and other items. Good thing Jackie was there to save the day.

The most famous geyser of all...Old Faithful!!

It was so amazing to have Jackie around. We had so much fun and have already planned her next trip to the states!!! Here are just some random pictures from the week for your enjoyment!!!

I love that silly Canadian!!!!

Cincinnati

2010-01-06T13:55:00.014-07:00

My goal in life to spend New Year's Eve in a different place every year is still going strong!! This year I went to Cincinnati to visit my brother and his wife. I freaking love John and Jena...they are so hilarious. Throughout my travels and my time in Cincinnati, I was able to have experience a lot of what makes Cincinnati awesome.

#1: Proctor and Gamble basically own the world. P&G owns hundreds of brands that you see in every single household. Crest, Tide, Dawn, and Pringles are just a few examples. My brother works for P&G and I was able to have a little tour of where he works. Here are a couple pictures of us hanging out at Proctor and Gamble.

#2: After eating lunch at a cute "hole in the wall" type oriental place, which was SO good, we headed over to eat some of Cincinnati's best ice cream, Graeter's. Graeter's huckleberry ice cream is Oprah's favorite ice cream, so it was fun to go in and try some. When we got into the store, we told the cute lady helping us that it was my first time in Cincinnati and she was determined to make it the best. She let me try all of their most famous flavors and explained the story behind the ice cream. It was really awesome.

Cute Jena and me in the back ground. Please notice how many tester spoons I have in my hand. I got filled up just on the testers!

Here we are at Graeter's!! That is Ebony, the awesome girl that made my experience fantastic!

The best part about this trip was that i was able to see Cincinnati but also spend time relaxing with John and Jena. We watched football and basketball and had a really great time. Two of the best things I did while visiting were very small things, but were also SO awesome!

Simple Pleasure #1: John let me drive his BMW....enough said

Simple Pleasure #2:
Jena is a science teacher and she wanted to try out some flame tests at home before she did it at school. Because she doesn't have a Bunsen burner in her classroom, trying to find an effective way to do these flame tests was quite an adventure.

There was A LOT of rubbing alcohol involved, so we were a bit scared...but Jena did awesome.

Success!!

For New Year's Eve we kept it low key. We went to dinner and then back to a friend's house to play Rock Band. It was so fun!! I have now advanced to the medium level on the guitar...I know...I'm awesome.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

One of the coolest adventures we went one while in Cincinnati was just a simple driving tour of all the hot spots of Cincinnati. We drove through Indian Hill, which has the biggest houses I've ever seen, on our way to see the famous Hyde Park. We also spotted at the cutest bakery, Busken Bakery, to get a cookie...a very good cookie.

After getting our cookie we drove across the original London Bridge (google it) and drove around Newport, KY...which is supposedly the place to be! They have lots of bars and things to do, so people like to cross over form Cincinnati to play over there in good old Kentucky.

As you can see this trip was rock awesome. I love John and Jena, they are the best! I just wish I lived closer to them!

Was It Worth It?

2009-10-22T12:15:00.011-06:00

It has happened...I was standing within 20 yards of Bono! That man is amazing and respectable in more ways than just his music. Now how I got to see U2 in concert is an interesting story. I work at the hospital with a lot of amazing doctors, one of my favorites is Dr. Andrew Garrity. Such a great doctor and such a great guy. Well he is a little bit of a rocker and told everyone months ago that he was going to see U2 play in Phoenix. Needless to say, I was jealous from minute one. Well about a week ago he casually mentions that he has TWO EXTRA FLOOR TICKETS and if I found a friend that I could have them. WHAT!!! I immediately texted Noel and the next day I called him and asked if I could buy the tickets from him. SaWEET! So we arranged to exchange and when I tried handing him the money he said, "Oh I'm trying to get some good karma in my life, so you just go ahead and take those." Of course I tried to make him take my money, but he wouldn't...gotta love that man. Well, I went home and bought my plane ticket to LA where I would meet up with Noel and then we would drive to Phoenix, stay with her uncle and then hit up U2. I flew in on Monday night, and then we drove through the night to get to Phoenix. It is only a 5 hour drive, but little did we know that there is literally NOTHING for 4 of those hours. So....it was a long drive. We pulled into her uncle's place at around 5am, slept for a few hours, got ready, went to her cousins girl scout activity, ate dinner, then headed for the concert. The traffic was insane, so we missed the opening act, which happened to be the Black Eyed Peas (I have seen them before, but it still would have been fun). As we are standing on the floor waiting for U2, I just so happened to spot Dr. Garrity about 5 people in front of us. Noel really wanted to meet the guy that made that trip possible, so we went and chatted with him for just a bit. I don't think I need to tell you how incredible the concert was!!!!! U2 knows how to put on a great show.

After the concert we headed out back to LA....through the nothingness. When we stopped to fill up on gas, I went into the gas station and had a funny conversation with the cashier (who happened to be black, so imagine this conversation with a black accent)

Cashier - "How YOU doing"
Me - "I'm good, how are you?"
Cashier - "Oh I'm good now that you are here."

I laugh and just wait my turn in the line. As I'm standing there he keeps peeking around the other people standing in front of me, and then finally continues...

Cashier - "Oh I remember you"
Me - "Oh do you? You remember ME?"
Cashier - "Oh yeah, you are the one with the pretty eyes."
Me - "Well that is interesting....I've never been here before"
Cashier - "Oh............well I thought that line would work on you."

Once I finally get up to the counter he pays me some more compliments and then I have to tell him once again I've never even been in Phoenix before. Black people = hilarious. After another long drive, Noel and I pull into LA at around 6:30am...just in time for her to change for work and drop me off at the FlyAway so I can get back to the airport. Poor Noel had to stay awake all day at work, which I have no idea how she did that, because I passed out every chance I got. As I'm walking through security, (looking gross from sweating at the concert, driving all night, and not sleeping) the guy (who happens to be black) that waves you through the metal detector says to me as I walk through - "I think you are pretty" and then just continues on his way. Hahaha well it is official!!! Both times I got hit on I was wearing sweatpants!!!! So to my mother....someone out there will take me even in sweatpants.

SO...After 18 hours of driving, 3 separate flights, crazy people in the airport, 1 speeding ticket (yeah, Arizona monitors speeding with cameras...) over the course of 3 days and a total of 8 hours of sleep...FREAK YES IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!

Noel's cousin Sara...she is a cutie.

We finally saw this sign after at least an hour stuck in traffic. We feel like they should have warned us earlier.

Noel was trying to teach me how to dance to her gangsta hip hop music...

At the concert!!!

This guy is like 7 feet tall!! Seriously? I shifted over so I could actually see the stage...

That red spaceship looking thing was the huge screen they projected the concert on...it was awesome.

Obviously we were excited!

During one song I was waving Noel's phone in the air and she asked for the camera. I didn't want to stop waving the phone so I just swung my hips around so she could reach the camera in my back pocket...this is the pose that came about by it.

Because of the nothingness that is Arizona, we ended up pulling over quite a few times to catch a little nap...so we camped out in Noel's car a lot.

Immortal Fish

2009-09-08T23:10:00.004-06:00

Denise and Sarah bought Peter some fish when he was like 14....and they are still alive! Eight years later and these fish are still alive. I'm not sure what they are feeding those fish, but dang, they just won't die! When they do die it will be a historic day, so I decided to blog about it now.

THE fish...I'm aware that you can't really see them, but they are there.

The Little Ones

2009-09-05T19:58:00.008-06:00

I LOVE my nieces and nephew! They are so freaking cute and I have so much fun with them. Whenever I put out my books to study, McKeely gets out a notebook and pen and "does her homework." She is also such a little girly girl. She loves to do my make-up...and she also loves to use bright colors. So when I was visiting my brother this week you can only imagine how much fun I had!

I turned around in the car and found Maleeya with bother of her hands straight up in her mouth. Weird

Matt and Sarah are moving to a new house so they have boxes everywhere while they are packing everything up. Anyway...I left them alone for 5 seconds and this is what I found.

Hug attack!!! (Notice my bright pink cheeks...thanks to Mckeely and her make-up skills)

Matt took us all out to see UP in 3-D...it was a blast!

Fluff Makes The World Go Round

2009-08-27T15:09:00.008-06:00

I grew up living off of peanut butter and fluff (marshmallow cream) sandwiches. When I went down to Utah to go to the Iron & Wine concert, I made Heather her very first peanut butter and fluff sandwich. I figure everyone should experience the bliss that is fluff.

She loved it...I knew she would

The whole reason for my visit to Utah was to hit up Iron & Wine in Salt Lake at the Twilight Concert Series (just some free concerts every Thursday night in Salt Lake). It was really fun to be able to just chill. While we were waiting for the concert to start we got stuck next to this creepy guy. Even once the concert started he didn't even watch the show, he just checked out all the ladies around him...in a creepy rapist kind of way.

I love Heather!

Alice's Birthday + Noel's Graduation = 4 Days of Utah Craziness

2009-08-15T16:00:00.020-06:00

I finally went back to visit Utah for the first time since I graduated. I never thought I would say this, but I miss Utah. I miss the college social life, the mountains and of course my friends. Some of my closest friends are still down in Utah, so going back was just full of fun and adventures.

Adventure #1: Alice's Birthday
My Miss Alicita's birthday was on July 21st, and since I wasn't able to make it down that week, we decided to celebrate Suzanne style. I've lived with Alice for a year now and I've known her for 4 years, and if there is only one thing I know about her it is that she LOVES Harry Potter....and I mean LOVES. Since I was already going to get her a cake (cause she loves the cake from Albertson's) I decided to step up the awesomeness of it. I photo-shopped Alice's face onto the head of Hermione in a Harry Potter picture and then stuck that sucker on the cake. Needless to say, Alice loved it.

The one and only cake

There is nothing I love more than to see Alice THIS happy.

The next day we hit up Salt Lake City to celebrate Alice being in my life. She had never been to the zoo, so I once again made all her dreams come true. Haha

Alice = Seductive Sexiness

2 happy little girls playing with the tigers

After an afternoon at the zoo and playing in the sun, we finished the evening off with dinner at Buca di Peppo. I highly recomment this Italian place to anyone...it is so good!

Alice invented this awesome dance to the awesome music that was playing in the restaurant.

Alice, her birthday cake, and her giant candle from Buca.

Adventure #2: Hanging with Heather
Words cannot describe how much fun I have with Heather and she is so hilarious on top of it all. We just spend one afternoon hanging out around Provo and still managed to get ourselves into some mischeif. While at dinner Heather told me a story about a time when she tried breaking a glass bottle on a wall in an alley way, but was unsuccessful. So of course we wanted to try it out again.

We didn't really have any brick walls to smash the bottle on, so we resorted to the curb. I failed at breaking it, but Heather didnt have any problems with it. Since she had failed in the past, we thought maybe it was because the rootbeer bottle she tried breaking in the story was stronger than the bottle we broke on the curb. So naturally we went to the story to buy some rootbeer and try our hand at smashing it on a wall.

The soda ended up exploding all over Heather...but only because her brain stopped working and she couldn't figure out how to work the car door.

Adventure #3: Noel's Graduation from BYU
My little girl is all grown up and graduating college!! Noel's graduation was the whole reason why I ventured down to Utah in the first place. Some of Noel's family and friends were able to come into town from California, so it was just a big party.

Noel ringing the Victory Bell

The black side of my family

My heels were hurting (no surprise) so I had taken them off, but Noel was wanting to take pictures with me by the BYU sign so I figured I should put my shoes back on...but the crosswalk turned faster than I could get my shoes on...so I just ran across with one heel on.

Noel and I at the BYU sign. After this picture she decided she wanted to take a picture of us on either side of the sign...but that wall to get up to the sign is a lot taller than it looks. So I had quite the time getting up there in a skirt and heels...

Noel just laughing at me as a ran through the bushes and tried climbing that stupid wall

HA! but I did it! and this picture is just classicly awesome

Grand Teton National Park

2009-08-12T11:15:00.033-06:00

It is a very obvious fact about me that I love France, but many people don't know about my love for Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons are my favorite place on the planet, I love them more than Paris....I know...they must be a big deal then. When I was younger my family would go camping there for a couple of weeks every summer and I just fell in love. We always stayed at a place called Colter Bay which is THE ISH! For family vacation this year my parents decided to go back up to the Tetons!!! As the time for vacation got closer and closer I got more and more excited! We rented a few cabins at the Jackson Lake Lodge, which was different but very fun. I was able to just go and chill at the Lodge and look for animals and then just walk back to my cabin. We were only up there for 4 days, but we filled those days with all types of fun!! Here are some pictures of my adventure with the family.

McKeely and I walking down to the water at Colter Bay

Colter Bay...aka heaven for me

We all went fishing, but the ladies just chilled while the men failed at catching anything. Lil Matthew got really good at throwing the line in....after he swung and stuck himself with the hook.

McKeely loves to paint nails, so we had a little party. I have to say she is getting better!! She is such a little girly girl.

Being the good aunt I am, I'm teaching the little ones how to do "the face"

I shared a bed with McKeely...a queen size bed. As you can see, I didn't have a lot of room. One night she rolled over and was literally on top of me. When I started laughing she woke up, looked at me, and said "NOW what do you want." It was really hilarious after lots of sugar and little sleep.

One morning Matt, Sarah and I decided to rent a canoe and take it out on Jackson Lake. It was fun...except Sarah and I were afraid of the waves from the motor boats. One time there were three motor boats making huge waves all around us. Just at that moment Matt caught a fish and abandoned the paddles! We lived, or course, but after a little screaming fit by the girls. Hahaha GOOD times.

Colter Bay offers boat tours of Jackson Lake, so the family and I went on one and learned all about how those Tetons were formed. I just love it there, it is so gorgeous.

My mom and I at Swan Lake. When I was little my mom and I would always go on this hike. It is lead by a ranger and is just a little 3 mile hike. The lake was named Swan Lake because a pair of swans use to live on the island in the middle of the lake. The funny thing is that those swans never had any young because they were both males. Haha gay swans, I love it.

If You Have 8 Legs...I Will Kill You

2009-06-14T13:24:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I walked into my room and found the biggest, thickest, grossest spider I've ever seen in my whole life. It was disgusting, so my roommate Ashley came in and saved me and killed that little monster. When it comes to killing bugs, if someone else is around, then I won't kill the thing. Sometimes situations arise that I have to step up and be a man and kill the bug on my own. For example, if I was home alone or in the shower...which is exactly what happened this morning. I was in the shower minding my own business when I looked up to see a gross little spider climbing up MY shower wall. I was almost finished in the shower, so I tried to be brave long enough to get out of the shower and have my roommate killed it. Well that dumb little spider kept falling off the wall a little ways and having to climb back up. Every time it fell down the wall I couldn't help but scream. My roommates weren't scared because they knew it was my "spider scream". I was afraid that the spider was going to fall into my shower water and then what was I going to do? So I jumped out of the shower, soapy and all, grabbed a shoe from Alice and I killed that little devil!!! I was a great victory.

The pathetic, shriveled up, dead spider that I killed

Ben Kweller: A Night to Remember!

2009-06-14T13:00:00.012-06:00

Meeting Heather Waddington last year has proved to be a great source of blessings in my life. Not only has she been a great friend and helped me through some of my hardest times, but she also has incredible taste and music!!! Heather has introduced me to many great bands and artists that I now LOVE. One of these artists is Ben Kweller...who is absolutely awesome. Last night night Heather and I ventured up to the Avalon in Salt Lake to see him play. The music was great, the company was great, the night was great.

Waiting outside the Avalon to get in

The opening act had a really cute guy in the band, so I called him to be on my team. Well, some random chick in the crowd was cat calling MY man....so I was going to start a girl fight...

As Heather was taking the picture these boys, these very good looking boys jumped in. They were funny and then asked me to be in a picture with them...I'm awesome, what can I say?

Heather was checking out the boys for me to see if they were hot...so I could hit on them

THE man himself

As we were looking for the venue, I saw this huge KFC sign and commented on it. Turns out that the very first KFC EVER was right here in Salt Lake. Of course I had to go eat there and take some pictures. So after the concert, Heather and I stopped by the original KFC.

The sign that got caught my attention and led to the best KFC experience of my life!

I HAD to molest this statue, or I wouldn't be the Suzanne you all know and love!

I love KFC...love = hugs

This is me eating freshly made mac and cheese from the one and only original KFC...it was delicious.

Men and Their Trucks

2009-05-22T19:33:00.004-06:00

The most magical thing happened today!! Thayne has a truck and a jeep. The jeep is stick-shift and the truck...well that is his baby. While Ben and Thayne were on their cruise, I knew that if I drove Thayne's truck he would be so mad and that would be the end of our friendship. Well today Thayne calls me and says he needs a favor. He got his truck detailed and needed to go and pick it up. Well of course I responded by saying that I can't drive a stick shift (knowing that he doesn't let many people drive his truck). He knew that I didn't drive stick shift and just said that I was going to be driving his truck back to his apartment!!!! Of course I had to document this rare occasion...me driving Thayne's truck!!!

I had to pull the seat WAY up to reach the pedals, so I looked a little bit ridiculous.

As You Like It

2009-05-21T19:55:00.005-06:00

Last night Natalie and I went to see Alice in her show "As You Like It." It was hilarious. Alice did such a great job!!! Her part was the best. She falls in love with a girl...that is dressed like a man. SO good! Hahaha, I loved it. I love my Alicita!!!

As Natalie and I were waiting for the show to start, 4 old people walked up to take their seats, but only two of them sat down. The other couple was sitting somewhere else, and put Natalie and I in charge of keeping an eye on their friends. Oh man, old people are so funny. I just love them. We had a good laugh about the report I was taking on their behavior.

Alice as Phebe

So Sexy It Hurts

2009-05-18T16:03:00.007-06:00

At ward prayer each Sunday, a different apartment is "spotlighted" so we can get to know the people in the apartment. A while back when Ben and Thayne had to do spotlight, the girls in my apartment dressed up like the boys in their apartment. During ward prayer we pretended to be them, and people had to guess who we were suppose to be. It was a real hit. Well it was my apartment's turn to be spotlighted, so it was time for the boys to pay us back. We got them all dressed up in our clothes and they put on a pretty great show. As ward prayer started, we turned on the song "Single Ladies" by Beyonce and they did a little cat walk for everyone. Boys in skirts is always funny...take a look.

Ben loves himself...you can just tell by the way he is checking himself out in my clothes

Thayne dressed as Alice....his face is so SAUCY!

Me dressed as Ben - a few months ago

Ben dressed as me

All the ladies

Words cannot explain how awesome those boys are. It was by far the most hilarious thing you will ever see.

Rock Climbing

2009-05-17T13:32:00.007-06:00

Rock climbing is seriously hardcore. I'm impressed with anyone that is good at climbing up a freaking mountain. I went rock climbing...outside...for the first time on Saturday with Logan Daniels. Just for reference, this kid is so hardcore. Anyway, we went up to Rock Canyon Park and owned the mountain! Logan also took me to this cool place to eat lunch...but I had to basically rock climb without a rope!!! It was really just a hike..that went straight up....on rocks...I couldn't believe I did it!!! I normally don't do dangerous things like that. But I told him that my brother would beat him up if I died, so it would have all worked out in the end. After we ate, we at to repel down from our spot...climbing down was not an option. It was just a lot of fun!

This is the first wall I've ever climbed!!! (Logan is at the top...not me)

Logan and I eating lunch...after I just climbed up the scariest hike ever....

I was afraid to walk off the edge and start repelling...but Logan made me do it...I didn't have a choice.

As you can see, I'm now hardcore. I may or may not be taking up rock climbing as a new hobby.

Reason #752,000

2009-05-13T13:47:00.003-06:00

Fact: I love France. I love everything about it, and no one's love for France could ever surpass mine. Well Mr. Lundy McKibbin thinks that just because he is minoring in French means he loves France more....but he is mistaken. I would just like to point out that EVERYTHING in my life seems to point to France. Here are a FEW examples from my life.

1) Ever After: I forced Emily to watch that movie every, single day when we were growing up. It happens to take place in France.

2) The only mascara I've ever used...L'Oreal PARIS

3) Jackie came up with the theory that your favorite Disney movie/princess actually defines you. Just by chance my favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast...which also takes place in France and has a lot of French in it.

The list could go on for days, so I'll get to the point

752,000) I don't re-read books. In the past, I never had the desire to re-read, but recently that attitude has been changing. Slowly I have been making a list of books I want to re-read once I'm graduated and have more time. Well being that Angels and Demons (the Movie) is coming out this weekend, I decided to watch The Da Vinci Code to get into a "Dan Brown" mood. As I was watching the movie it just hit me...I RE-READ THE DA VINCI CODE!

I read it in high school before I went to Europe and then I read it again my freshman year of college before the movie came out!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! The first book I've ever re-read just so happens to be set in FRANCE! Yeah, I'd say that my life revolves around France without any conscious effort on my part. My brain just pulls me towards that blessed country...I can't help it

Midnight Lovers In My Covers

2009-05-09T14:19:00.004-06:00

There is nothing better than hopping into bed and finding someone/something already there. I prefer a heated up rice bag to surprise me by keeping my bed nice and warm for me. Well last night I hopped into bed and found a very unpleasant companion....a crumbled up Dove Chocolate wrapper...doesn't seem that bad? Well it was. As I stretched out in bed, I though it was a giant spider attacking my leg and then proceeded to have a little spazz attack in the darkness of my room. I felt really dumb when I threw my covers off and discovered what was really going on.

The little devil that scared the crap out of me...the perfect example of an unwelcome midnight lover in my covers

Live Long and Prosper

2009-05-08T15:55:00.012-06:00

May is probably the best month, for one simple reason...it always has the best movie premiers. Here is a little of what May tastes like: X-Men Origins Wolverine, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, Terminator: Salvation...to name a few. Well so far Noel and I have gone to the Wolverine premier and Star Trek...both excellent movies. Here are my reviews:

Wolverine:
Hugh Jackman was named the Sexiest Man Alive for a reason! 75% of the time he running around without his shirt on and flexing his huge man muscles because he is angry. The other 25% of the time he is just running around buck naked! Props to the movie makers for getting the ladies interested. For the men, it was a pretty good action movie, although the explosive scenes were a little GQ...but I really liked it anyway

The Wolverine Premier started off with a little strip-tease by Noel

Then it turned into a gangsta photo shoot

Star Trek:
I am 100% sure that this movie couldn't have been any better. If the movie had ended after the 10 minute opening scene I would have been satisfied...that is how good the WHOLE thing was!! It was nonstop action and adventure from minute 1!! It was also hilarious. I love man-movies....so Star Trek is basically my new favorite movie.

Spock's "Live Long and Prosper" hand signal...notice mine...my hands are fairly retarded and my ring fingers can't functional without my pinkies...especially on my right hand.

Popcorn: $4.50
Diet Coke: $4.50
Movie Tickets: $18
Star Trek Movie Premier: PRICELESS

Breakfast in Bed

2009-04-28T10:10:00.006-06:00

Who doesn't like for sexy men to make them breakfast in bed? I know I love it. This story starts with all the food left over from my after graduation party. I went to visit Ben and Thayne to remind them to come and eat all this left over food and they said they were going to come over early to make themselves lunch for the day. Somehow coming to make lunch turned into a conversation about making breakfast too. So Noel stayed at my apartment and they boys showed up bright and early to make us breakfast!! It was so awesome! They made breakfast burritos which were amazing!! I can't even begin to explain how much I love those boys.

Men in the kitchen...mmmhmmmmm

With a full stomach, Thayne was ready for some cuddle time

They even cleaned up after!! Ben didn't want to throw the eggs away, so he started shoveling them into his mouth with a huge spoon. Oh men...

Graduation!!!

2009-04-26T14:50:00.012-06:00

On April 23-24, 2009 I participated in the graduation ceremonies at BYU. I only have a few classes to finish up and then I get my diploma in August. I'm so excited to be finished!! My whole family came down for my graduation. Denise and Sarah, and Emily and Sally also came down. It was such a happy time for me! I can't even begin to explain how much it meant to me to have all the people I love here to support me.

While in California a few months ago, Noel and I rocked at the go-carts and won ourselves these "victory bracelets." It became my good luck charm and was therefore fitting to wear to graduation.

This is funny because EVERYONE was on their cell phones during the processional

Graduation After Party!

No party is a party without a little bit of dancing!!! Notice McKeely's head banging. Haha, Matthew and McKeely are in love with the song 'Single Ladies' by Beyonce, so that is what we were jamming out to.

Reading Days - Always Full of Surprises

2009-04-16T23:23:00.015-06:00

The best part of every semester starts with the reading days. The University gives us 2 days to do nothing by study for finals. I love it....I get permission to stay inside all day...in my sweatpants. Study parties get intense as books and notes are spread out all over the place, and things get crazy because your brain is overloaded with all the information you have been studying for the past 7 hours. This semester we had a few surprises.

First Surprise: Ben and Thayne showed up at my apartment to make us all fruit smoothies!!! Those boys are TOO good to us. I.love.them.

My boys showing off their muscles. Thayne: His arms are about to bust out of that shirt!! Ben: His face...

The boys thought it was a good idea to throw a black jelly bean into the smoothie....Ben had to taste test it first.

Second Surprise: Snow. Mother Nature thought it was a good idea to force us to stay inside and study by pouring 6 inches of now on the ground. Happy Studying

My reaction to the snow as Noel and I were walking up to campus to sell our books back.

It was a lot of snow...

Since it had rained the entire day before it started to snow, the snow was really heavy...it was this car's lucky day...the tree was THAT close to hitting it

Noel had the genius idea of trying to pick this tree up. She said "the laws of physics dictates that if I lift it from the middle, the rest of it will lift itself up." I'm not sure where she got the idea that that idea would work.

Third Surprise: Noel stayed the night at my apartment. Noel slept on the couch and I slept on the floor...since I prefer that. Well I crashed on the floor and happened to pick the one spot that was wet (Alice spilled water and didn't tell anyone). Not sure how I managed it, but I found the water by simple Barrand luck.

"OH Great"

Man Love, Spanish Dancing, and French Toast

2009-04-12T13:24:00.013-06:00

I know what you are thinking right now, "Man, Suzanne is one cultured lady!" I know, I try. This weekend was full of many different cultures and...."orientations." Noel and I were hanging out with our big group of friends over the weekend, and at one point I look in the back of my car and fine THIS...
I guess Mike and Tyson really love each other. Isn't man love touching?

Noel and Mike arm-wrestled for shotgun...I can't remember who won.

Saturday was a fun day, because I got to attend the BYU Dance Company performance. Let me just tell you...they are good. The theme for the concert was something Spanish (of course I can't remember...i don't get along well with Spanish). There was a sci-fi routine, and with the help of black lights and neon, it was by far the coolest dance. Here is just a short section of it...

ALL the dancers came out for the final number...it was intense

From the left: Jen, Noel, Me, Zarah, and Tyson

After the show I caught Tyson carefully studying the dancers bios....I wonder why...

Good times!! After the dance we all went back to my apartment to eat some french toast. I was sitting on the couch finishing my episode of "Kings" (I'm obsessed now) while Noel made the french toast...because Noel is THAT good to me. While she was getting ready to cook I just here..."Uh....well....ok" She then goes on to tell me that she added way too much cinnamon to the eggs and milk. I said it would be just fine, and she was said "You don't understand, it's like the freaking red sea over here." Sure enough...she was right.

The "Freaking Red Sea"

After the french toast was cooked Noel states, "Dang, it's as dark as me!" Once again...she was right

Crazy Quinoa

2009-04-12T13:17:00.005-06:00

Kyna is one of the most hilarious people I know. Oh, I call her Quinoa sometimes. So Kyna's roommate was involved in promoting some health event on campus, and Kyna got talked into dressing up like a bunch of grapes. I couldn't miss it, so of course I brought my camera along to document.

She.Is.Awesome

Don't worry, she had a banana and a sandwich to keep her company

I walked into the Wilk a few hours later and found THIS...apparently banana man liked the outfit

A Food Fight, Midnight Premier, and Cement Canoes!

2009-04-05T22:33:00.007-06:00

It seems like no matter what the situation is, Noel and I always seem to make the most of it. Many of you are not aware of this, but last Thursday was a big deal. "Fast and Furious" finally came to theaters!!! Those racing movies are a semi-guilty pleasure for me. I love it and I can't help it. Noel and I decided to go to the midnight premier of it, because premiers are also so much fun. So to start the night off we hit up Applebees, because I was craving a chicken caesar salad. As I'm sitting there, minding my own business, Noel decided to start a food fight with me and threw her rice at my face. Well...being the good kid I was, I've never been in a food fight...ever, but I wasn't going to sit there and get schooled by Noel. So I loaded a crouton onto my fork and flung it at Noel's head. Well...long story short...I hit some random lady in the face with it. My bad. It was so hilarious at the time, and made for a good start to the evening. After Applebees the fun really started. We ended up going to the premier with a few of our guy friends, which it is always better to have the men around. The movie was awesome, the company was awesome and the night was awesome.

Noel brought Cold Stone into Applebees...she is THAT cool

We found these random guys just digging into half gallons of ice cream while waiting in line at the movies...of course Noel had to get a picture with him. Notice the guy with the spoon on the left...hilarious

The next day was a very lazy day. I slept in, because the movie didn't get out until after 2. I woke up the next morning with what I think a hangover would feel like. It must have been from a combination of a late night with lots of sugar. Man, I just bummed around all day. In the afternoon, Noel and I headed down to the lake to watch a CEMENT CANOE race. I know...crazy. I guess all the civil engineering programs around make cement canoes and race them. It happened to be WAY too windy to try and race them, but they did a swamp test, which means they were just testing to make sure it was all made out of cement. It was a fun little venture, but I was bummed that I didn't get to see people race those suckers.

The BYU canoe going into the water. I'm not sure why it is green....

Classic picture: I'm FREEZING and Noel (who is taking the picture) isn't even looking at the camera. haha I love it!

With my coat and blanket, the cold wasn't that bad. The problem was that I was wearing capris and flip flops and my blanket was too small...I thought my legs and feet were going to fall off. I didn't really want that, so I found a way to warm them up a little bit. Take THAT mother nature

Holi Festival of Colors

2009-03-29T14:43:00.008-06:00

Every spring thousands of people make their way to the Hindu Temple in Spanish Fork to celebrate the festival of colors. Let me tell you...it is just one big party! They have performances of dancing and music, along with food and of course, the throwing of the colors. At the festival the colors aren't thrown until the bonfire is lit, and then within 2 seconds the air is so full of powder that you can't breath. I love it!! This year they told us the reason for the burning of the witch (so I thought it was) at the festival.

The Legend of Holika and Prahlad
There was once a demon king by the name of Hiranyakashyap who won over the kingdom of earth. He was so egoistic that he commanded everybody in his kingdom to worship only him. But to his great disappointment, his son, Prahlad became an ardent devotee of Lord Naarayana and refused to worship his father.

Hiranyakashyap tried several ways to kill his son Prahlad but Lord Vishnu saved him every time. Finally, he asked his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. For, Hiranyakashyap knew that Holika had a boon, whereby, she could enter the fire unscathed.

Treacherously, Holika coaxed young Prahlad to sit in her lap and she herself took her seat in a blazing fire. The legend has it that Holika had to pay the price of her sinister desire by her life. Holika was not aware that the boon worked only when she entered the fire alone.
Prahlad, who kept chanting the name of Lord Naarayana all this while, came out unharmed, as the lord blessed him for his extreme devotion.
Thus, Holi derives its name from Holika. And, is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil.

Holi is also celebrated as the triumph of a devotee. As the legend depicts that anybody, howsoever strong, cannot harm a true devotee. And, those who dare torture a true devotee of god shall be reduced to ashes.

Celebration of the Legend
Even today, people enact the scene of 'Holika's burning to ashes' every year to mark the victory of good over evil.

Since there are always so many people at the festival, Noel and I prepared for it this year in a few new ways.
1) We went up to the Krishna Temple the day before to buy the color, and that way avoided the hour long wait at the festival.

Noel somehow managed to lose her soda in the car on the way up...not sure how that happens

2) Noel lined my car with plastic, so it stayed nice and clean after we were done at the festival.

While we were trying to find a spot to park, some people were putting Easter eggs on the cars they passed. So naturally, Noel got out and stole some of those eggs. We thought it might have some candy in it...but it didn't.

We finally found a rock awesome parking place and just had a blast at the festival. Here are some of our photos.

Me, Jen and Noel....BEFORE the throwing of the color

Throwing the color!!

AFTER....hahaha it is awesome

Don't worry...it gets EVERYWHERE...in your nose, ears, eyes, you name it

Making the World a Better Place

2009-03-22T14:16:00.005-06:00

For St. Patrick's Day Noel threw a party...a drinking party. It was fun and all, but the real fun for me didn't start until the next day....when Noel was on the biggest sugar high of her life because of all the soda she drank the night before. Oh man, she was on one!! Anyway, she thought of this genius idea to throw candy at people. So we grabbed some rolos and planted ourselves outside in the quad. We figured that people would WANT candy thrown at them. It was a good time with Noel!

Noel getting ready to throw her stash of candy at people walking by

The guy in white on the left was hit by candy...I'm pretty sure it was the best moment of his life

Guitars Unplugged - Hitting It Up VIP Style

2009-03-22T13:51:00.014-06:00

Over the weekend, Noel and I went to see the BYU Guitars Unplugged show. A few of our friends, Lundy and Troy McKibbin played in it. The show was so awesome, and to top it all off they had FREE churros. It was ridiculous. The best part of it was that Lundy made me one of his VIP guests, so I got in free! Man, that Lundy is too good to me. It is always so nice to get out and support friends.
Feeling the music

Me and my Noel

After the show, a bunch of us went to the park to hang out, where Lundy and Troy played us some more music.

Disney On Ice

2009-03-15T13:30:00.010-06:00

My parents are HILARIOUS. They are always thinking about ways to get the family together. Last year they took the grand-kids to see the circus in Salt Lake City and didn't even invite me to go!! So when I heard that they wanted to go see Disney on Ice with the grand-chillins I wanted to be apart of the fun also. Well, as it turned out the grandchildren couldn't come, but they still took me to see it anyway. Haha it was awesome!! I'm such a sucker for lights and big shows, they just suck me right in. So as you can imagine, Disneyland is about the coolest place on earth (almost). The whole Delta Center was taken over by Disney and I felt like I was 6 years old again. I loved it. I even convinced my mom to pay $10 just for cotton candy so that I could have this rock awesome flounder hat. My parents are THE best.

I fit right in with all the little ones running around in the same hat

It was very expensive cotton candy....

My mom is funny...she was waving to the characters just like all the 4 year olds. It was awesome.

Talent? I've Got It

2009-02-22T15:57:00.005-07:00

It is Sunday and what is better to do than make some brownies!!! I was trying to crack some eggs when the craziest thing happened!! I managed to just break off the shell of the egg and leave the inner membrane intact. Yeah...I'm just that good.

Who knew I had this crazy awesome talent?!?!

Hockey - Who Doesn't Love It?

2009-02-22T15:37:00.013-07:00

BYU hockey is finally here!! This year was the first year that the hockey team was made an official BYU sports team. Hockey is such a fun sport on its own, but when you get Noel and I together it just turns into a freaking party! We know a few people on the team and were the best fans ever. We yelled and cheered the entire time, it was awesome.

Noel and I at the hockey game

Our boys!

We accidentally met up with a friend that was on a date...and Noel being the sneaky girl she is, stole their candy. Good work

After the game we snuggled up in the nook...there is no better way to end the day