Monday, March 26, 2012

The Weekend I've Been Waiting For Finally Came!


Well, after waiting what seemed to be an eternity, The Hunger Games finally came out!! I have been waiting for this past weekend for a very very long time! Here's the run down of what went down.

Kaytlyn, who I'm sure you recall from previous posts, was nice enough to buy us tickets for the midnight showing on the IMAX screen!!







There is Kaytlyn and I waiting for the movie to start. She's even wearing the District 12 shirt I got her for her birthday! That movie was wesome!!! It was as good as I hoped it would be. A lot of people complained about the camera work, or that a few parts were left out, but it can't be perfect unless the movie is going to be 10 hours long. So I thought they did a great job and loved it. I will probably see it again before it leaves theater. (Side note: I wanted a Dr. Pepper so bad! But I haven't had soda since New Years, so I went with lemonade instead.)

Despite getting home at 3 am after a really long Thursday, I made it over to Kaytlyns about 11 that next morning for a busy day I had planned us. Since she took me on a date to the movie, it was only fair that I took her out. First stop of the day. Hogle Zoo!! Most people don't know this about me, but I LOVE animals. Nothing excites me like seeing a large jungle cat. (lion, tiger, cougar, etc)



There is me with a very large tiger. So of course, I was like a kid in a candy store. I'm sure Kaytlyn thinks I'm super weird, but oh well. Kaytlyn's personal favorite animal was the Giraffes. All three of them were outside and walking around. One of them was right next to us licking some kids hands.


That's mostly us, not so much giraffe, but you can still see one back there. Some other notable animals were the elephants which are fun cause they are huge! Also the monkeys, little ones, big gorillas, the chimpanzees, pretty much all of them kept us really entertained! After we were sure to see all the exhibits and cross them off our handy little map we had a lot of time to kill until our next adventure... so we improvised.

Just that weekend the new City Creek Center opened up in downtown SLC. I had seen it all over the news so we went to check it out. Lets just say that place is a little to high end for me. We looked at the Rolex store, and a tiny, ugly watch that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing, was nearly $9,000!! Another one in the front display was nearly $80,000!! I can't even imagine how much the ones inside the other cases were. We walked around and saw some other stores, most of which I'll never be able to buy anything at, but never the less that place is really nice! To avoid having to pay for parking we got of there and went over to the Gateway. That place had a nice run, but I think we might be seeing it's last days. It felt like me and Kaytlyn were the only ones walking around the whole place. It was like a ghost town! Well us, and a few shady creeps in hot topic. But that was basically it! Once hunger set in, we headed for dinner. And lets just say, with me and Kaytlyn both being so indecisive, picking a place to eat is no easy task. So once again, we settled for Applebees because we both know there are plenty of options. Now onto the final part of our date night.




THE JAZZ GAME! I was way excited for this. A little back story behind this, Kaytlyn knows I love the Jazz, and going to games. She hadn't been to a game in a really long time so when I checked the schedule and saw they  had a game that weekend I jumped online and got tickets first thing. I told her I had our date planned, but wouldn't tell her what we were doing for it. I like surprising people, except I'm awful at it, because I always get to excited and just give it away. So one night when we were Skyping, I emailed her the link to download our tickets and ruined the surprise. She was excited to go though (or at least she pretended to be because she knew I was excited)  We got there about an hour early and watched a few of the players shoot around and warm up. Even got some sexy visors!


Clearly, she doesn't understand the difference between a goofy picture, and a regular picture. The game was awesome and the Jazz destroyed the Nuggets by 20 points! We left a few minutes early to beat traffic but heaven forbid this perfect day went off without a hitch. I was so close... but upon arrival back to my car, a lovely pink envelop was sweetly placed on my windshield. A flippin' ticket! Was I parked in a red zone? No. Did I not have a parking pass? No. On the ticket it said "Plate Infraction." Your probably thinking the same thing we were... WTF?! I was clueless, and the next block up a police officer was sitting in the middle of an intersection with his lights on, not sure why but he was... So we walked up there and got his attention form the sidewalk. He rolled his window down and we said we had a question for him. Now we assumed he would walk over and talk to us, but instead, he sat in his car in the middle of his intersection, so rather than yelling across 3 lanes of traffic we ran over to him and asked him what that meant. He looked it up in his handy dandy code book, and it said I was either missing a plate, missing the proper stickers, or they weren't valid. Well I'm an upstanding citizen and keep my registration up to date. So I went back to my car to figure out what this could be about... Some goon stole the month sticker off my license plate!! I thought those things were impossible to get off?! Well its a $30 ticket.. which isn't awful, but I still don't want to pay. I emailed them to see if I can fax a copy of my registration showing that it's valid but we will see if I hear back. If not I'll give in and pay. But honestly... who steals a month sticker? It's the year one you need renewed! What a Dumb A.So despite that little set back, it was a perfect day with Kaytlyn.

The next morning we had plans to go to baptisms at the Jordan River Temple. It was a good time. There was a nice old worker in there that kept me pretty entertained by asking "how long have you two been going together?" Then winking at us as he left the room, he even stopped me in the locker room after I changed and gave me tips on making marriage work. I got a good kick out of it! We didn't happen to get a picture of us at the temple, but since it's her favorite temple and right by her house I'll hunt down a picture from the Google machine!


That afternoon we made our way up to Ogden with her family. Her sister Lora is engaged and her fiance's side of the family was hosting a little wedding shower get together so we went up for that. It was fun playing games with them and eating food and there were some characters there. That was my second time meeting them and they are a hilarious family! We had a blast. That night we just sat around and relaxed because we fit a lot into our busy weekend!

Sunday morning we went to her friends farewell and thought we were going to get off easy with only an hour of church... think again! Her mom wanted us to come to their ward so we ate a quick lunch and walked over in the middle of sacrament, and even stayed for Sunday School. We didn't want to be too ambitious and self righteous, so we took advantage of the perfect weather and went for a Sunday stroll around her neighborhood. It was such nice weather all weekend! I stuck around for Sunday dinner and watched the Jazz game that went into 4 overtimes before deciding I better get on the road.

Weekends typically go by fast. But when I'm up north with Kaytlyn they go by even faster and it's miserable! After spending a few perfect days up there it's never fun having to come back down and face reality! I can't wait till she comes down in a few weeks!!

Also as a side note I'd like to thanks my sister. She's the best! Whenever I come up she lets me stay at her house even though I'm always so busy I hardly get to see her. Shes the best sister I could ever ask for! 



Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Weekend I'll Never Forget




Well this weekend was something else! I took a trip up North to see the Lady Antebellum concert along with Darius Rucker and Thompson Square. My sister and I had been planning on this concert for months and months and I was so excited to go! The concert was on Valentine’s day so I decided to go up Friday after class so I could spend some time with my friend Kaytlyn as well as see some other friends.  I’ll start off with the concert experience!

 
The concert didn’t start until 7 and the doors opened at 5:30 but my sister and I had Inner Circle tickets so we wanted to be sure to get the best seats so we went about an hour and a half early. 

Once we got in the doors and passed security we booked our way down the stairs. That was a nice change, typically when I go to Energy Solutions Arena I have to take a few sets of stairs and escalators up to my seat so it was strange to be down on the floor! It was kind of a joke. They really don't want anyone being where they aren't supposed to be. We got 1 wristband just to get onto the floor. Another one to to get up to the general admission by the stage. And then 1 more big one to get into the Inner Circle. Here is my sis and I sporting our sleeve of wristbands. (Don't I look quiet happy and ridiculous?)

  As you can see, we can't get much closer to the stage. The first band to play was Thompson Square. They were awesome! They are a married couple and the guy is kind of a goon, but the girl is super attractive so its alright! I'll give the guy props. During their most popular song "Are you gonna kiss me or not" he stopped everything and gave her roses for Valentines. She got all teary eyed... yada yada... good job. 

After Thompson Square, Darius Rucker played. He has got to be one of my favorite country singers! There isn't a single song of his that i don't love! And although he's fairly new to the country stage, he's got plenty of experience with Hootie and the Blowfish so he was a great performer! He even played some of their songs and everyone went crazy.

After Darius Ruckers' set, they cleared off the stage for Lady A. Which meant it was time to go to our spots in the Inner Circle. Our punctuality paid off because we were the 5th and 6th person in line to go in so we got to pick right where we wanted to be. Front and Center. It was pretty surreal to look out and see exactly what they see every single night they perform. 
Finally Lady A hit the stage and they were UNBELIEVABLE! The only downside to our seats was a lot of the performance their backs were to us. But it was still the most amazing concert I've ever been to! they were really good about interacting with us, gabbing our hands, singing to us, and making our seats worth it!
After they were done they threw out a couple guitar pics right to us and I caught one. I showed my sister and she just held out her hands and I couldn't say no. So I gave it to her since she went to all the trouble of getting the tickets and making this concert happen! Needless to say that concert was probably a once in a lifetime experience!



So apart from the concert, I still had an incredible weekend! Friday night when I got up north I went over to Kaytlyn's house for family dinner. Her sister recently got engaged so her fiances family came over to plan the wedding and they were nice enough to let me join. After dinner I did something I'm not proud of. Kaytlyn is a big fan of the Twilight books and stuff, and has been to every DVD release. There happened to be one that night at midnight and I went with her. Not my proudest moment, but it actually wasn't that bad. We mostly just walked around Walmart looking at toys.(Kaytlyn please don't kill me for posting this!!) But this is when you know you've got the best friend ever!
     
Saturday Kaytlyn came down to my sisters house and we went to spend the day in Provo. We basically just hung out at the mall and wasted a whole bunch of time. But then I surprised her and had a little date planned with Brady, Jessica, Skyler and Jocelyn. I knew she had been wanting to see The Vow, so I bit the bullet and we went to see that. After the movie we went and made dinner at Skyler and Jocelyn's house then headed to Brady and Jessica's apartment and played Just Dance 3 and Taboo. It was a great date to say the least!!

Sunday Kaytlyn and I went to church, then lounged around and watched movies all day! It was great. That night I went to hang out with good ol' Casey Jo Brandt. I don't see her much anymore so it was nice to catch up and talk. We made some homemade Oreos. 

Monday I hung out with Kaytlyn and we watched movies and chilled for the first part of the day. Little Rascals is a classic! That night we went to her friend Mindy's house. Kaytlyn tends their kids and has seen them grow up since they were babies. I have heard countless stories about these kids so it was nice to finally meet them all. They were crazy! they had so much energy and were so hyper! But I had a blast. We had family night with them and after we helped them make their Valentine's to take to their classes. Kaytlyn even made me a hand made valentine. Probably the best one I've ever got! 

I didn't think I'd see Kaytlyn Tuesday because she had class and work and then I had the concert. But luckily she got sick. That's not a good thing that she was sick, but it meant I got to go over and see her again. She must have felt bad for me or something because she agreed to be my valentine. So I at least got to see her on Valentines day before the concert! It's hard to top a hand made card but I did my best.
                              
   
Needless to say it was the best weekend ever! And I can't wait until March 22.