sexy sax

My friend Cam invited me to a saxophone concert at BYU the other day. Apparently these guys were pretty legit and a big deal in eastern europe. They were a quartet and i was certainly surprised at how great a sax band could be. 

The only downside: you could totally see all the drool and saliva coming out of their saxophones. absolutely disgusting. it was very distracting. 

Right before we went in to the theatre, who should walk in but President Uchtdorf. I was completely star struck! i was at a loss for words. We ended up sitting just a couple rows behind him. cool huh? 

I immediately snap-chatted everyone i knew and couldn't stop looking at him the whole concert. We didn't ever shake hands or say hi because Cam and I left at intermission (no judging-we had been there for over an hour and it wasn't even halfway yet). 

halloweenie

A few days before Halloween, Mal and I went over to my home teacher's apt to carve pumpkins. We picked out the best pumpkin of whatever was left and thought of what to create. 

Of course I immediately chose a carving of a weenie dog that turned out great if i do say so myself. 

Man do I miss those boys. 

sundance haunted ski lift

Every year, Sundance puts on a haunted ski lift. 

They decorate the path from the beginning, 

to the end, and back to the beginning again.

At the normal stops you would get off while skiing or snowboarding, a few people dressed up and scared the bajeebies out of me. 

I don't like being scared. not one bit.  

i may or may not have hidden my face while going by and screamed anyway.

me, Mal, Olivia, Caitie 

accordion man

My friend Amber just turned the big three o. 

She invited a group of girls to 

Gloria's Little Italy for dinner. 

Man was it gooood. 

It's obviously an italian restaurant and an accordion man played for all the tables. 

boy was he a hoot. 

he played a disney song from every movie and a handful of others. he loved our table.

This past weekend, BYU had a home football game against Boise State. 

We dominated to say the least. 

I went with Mal and a few of her friends from freshman year, Nate and Cam. 

Afterwards we came back to our apartment to drink hot cocoa and watch Mean Girls. 

successful night. 

lately

Life lately has been equally busy as good. 

So much is going on but i'm loving 

every minute of it. 

Our neighbors below us just got a little kitten. it's the cutest little kitten i did ever see. 

his name is chandler. 

On Thursday we had a RS activity making caramel apples. They were delicious.

mawwaige

My roommate Emily had her 21st birthday last Sunday so Mal and I made her favorite: waffles. 

Later that day, her boyfriend, Mike, took her to a park so she could open all her gifts from him, his parents, and her parents. After she opened them all, he said he had one more gift...and PROPOSED! 

yay for marriage! 

They set the date for December 27 in the Los Angeles Temple.

beautiful ring huh? 

21 and i'm feeling young

Happy Birthday to me! 

Today has been a wonderful day...

I woke up to a lovely sign from my roommates

 Note that this is a picture of Zack Morris that says we should wear 90's clothes and not do drugs. 

 This is Macklemore. He would like to pop some tags with me. 

Then my wonderful best friend Emily made me this delicious breakfast that I ate in 2.9 seconds. 

After class, i got the best massage ever from a girl in my ward. seriously it was the highlight of my day.  

Then all my best girlfriends and I went to Station 22 for dinner...it was magnificent. Love all of them so much. 

21 will be a good year. 

autumn walk

It's sunday afternoon, and Mal and I go for a nice walk outside. 

The leaves on all the trees are changing and it was cloudy and crisp outside. 

We walked around a few streets for a while and saw a cute little cat that came right up to us to be pet. 

It was a lovely walk. 

waffle luv

So I've heard of this 

truck that goes around to different spots each night to serve waffles and crepes. Obviously we wanted some last night so we tracked it down and ended up at the Riverwoods. 

Waffle Luv has got to be the best waffles I've ever had. Traci and I split one with cream, bananas, and biscoff. Now I'm not quite sure what biscoff is, but it was delicious. We downed that thing in like 2 minutes. 

Totally worth it. 

(Liv & Emma)

imagine dragons

So my brother-in law worked for Vivint for the passed two summers. They always throw a huge end of the year party and this year was no different. They were holding a private concert for Imagine Dragons for all Vivinteers. I was lucky enough to be invited by him and my sister. 

So last Friday night, we drove up to Salt Lake to the Energy Solutions Arena and watched one of my favorite bands preform. 

And man they were good. 

They sang most of my favorite songs:

 Demons, It's Time, and of course, Radioactive. 

One of the best concerts 

I've been to for sure. 

baby BOY

Mo and Sarah are having a baby BOY! 

that is all :) 

mt. timpanogos

So a couple of work friends invited me to hike mt. timpanogos to see the sunrise friday night/saturday morning. I immediately said yes-not realizing what i just got myself into. 

We left the trailhead at about 2 am and got up to the top of the summit at 7 am. The first couple hours weren't bad. i was feeling pretty energized and motivated, plus the trail was fairly easy. Then we got to the hard part. For what it seemed like a couple miles, were just rocks and rocks as the trail. Every step was uncomfortable and i was just ready to get to the top. When i thought we got to the top, there was still more to go...the hardest part. We scaled the side of this mountain in the dark with strong winds and a sheer cliff. It seemed impossible at times. We finally got to the top and enjoyed the sunrise for a half hour, then made our way back. 

4 hours later we reached our cars, and i don't think i've ever been happier. 

That's right, 9 hours hiking. count them. 

Insane. 

Looking back, i'm glad i did it, but in the moment i hated it. 

But now i don't ever have to do it again. ever. 

thank goodness. 

roar on cougars!

I went to my first BYU football game as a student, and it was one to remember. 

Mallory and I met some friends at the stadium and found our seats. Not five minutes later did a ginormous black rain cloud come right over the stadium and start pouring and pouring. We got soaked in minutes.

There was thunder and lightning every few seconds and we knew the game would be postponed for sure. After contemplating waiting it out or going home to our warm, dry homes, we left and started our way home. 

Mind you we were not prepared for this freak hurricane so i was in a t-shirt, capris, and vans. Not ideal for this weather. We came across an intersection and found it to be completely flooded up to our shins! 

 After showering and putting on more appropriate clothes, we ventured back to the second half of the game to see BYU dominate Texas to shame. 

Go Cougars! 

school is coming

Summer is coming to a close, and it's a bittersweet feeling. 

No more sunny days, afternoons by the pool, or my daily smoothies. 

But, here comes the fall. And I LOVE fall. 

Comfy sweaters, new school supplies, new apartment (with two new bff's as roommates...i'll come back to that), rainy days, football games...so many good things. 

So i'm moving out of the Enclave and into Summerlyn Apartments. 

And two of my friends are coming with.

Mallory and Emily.

I know Mallory through my friend Allison. She's awesome and social and beuatiful and awesome. 

Then there's Emily. We've been best friends  ever since Jerusalem. We became friends almost instantly and basically inseparable. 

I can't wait to live with them. 

Come on fall, i'm ready for ya. 

baby tackett

that's right folks, Sarah's pregnant nant! 

I'm just so excited I can't even contain it. 

Here's the story...

Sarah and Mo moved to 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Mo's new job. 

They sent us pictures of the empty apartment 

and since Sarah had a lot of free time, 

she spent most of it making their new home nice and pretty. 

So, on Tuesday, I get a text from her telling us she emailed updated photos of their apartment.

I mindlessly went on to my account and pulled up what seemed to be a video. 

Initial thoughts: Sarah has WAY too much time on her hands to do this. She needs a job. 

After a couple pictures of their apartment, one comes up of a poster that says 

"Baby Tackett, coming February 2014!" 

Then another of her pregnancy test, 

and another of her first sonogram! 

What a happy surprise! 

I'm going to be Auntie Amy! 

couldn't be more thrilled 

photo book

So I've started putting together a photo book of all my Jerusalem pictures, 

and it's made me realize a few things: 

1) It's going to be like a million pages because there are just too many good ones to be left out  

2) most of them consist of Emily and I, standing in front of something memorable, putting our hands on our hips and smiling 

3) I miss it more and more everyday. 

You'd think the more time that passes, the pain of having to leave that wonderful place would lessen. 

But no, it's grown ever since. I think about it constantly and looking at pictures makes me want to go back.  

Can't wait for everyone to see it!

peru

This past may, my family and i traveled down to peru for a little vacay. no biggie. 

we saw so much and experienced all we could. 

visiting ruins, 

wonders of the world, 

schools and villages...

we did it all

and then some.   

the infamous machu picchu 

 urubamba at the base of the andes mountains 

 puno 

 floating islands 

the whole gang

enjoy 

u s of a

july fourth is a pretty big deal here in provo. 
parades, block parties, all nighters. 
these people take it very serious. 

My new bestie from work, rachel, and i decided to celebrate america's independence by watching the parade and seeing center street in all its glory. 

then i finished the fourth by attending stadium of fire with miss emily maddox, her brother, matt, and her bf mike. 

cirque de solei, carly rae jepson (apparently my doppleganger) and kelly clarkson. not a bad night. not a bad night at all.

and yes, looking down towards the camera all sweaty and gross is the best angle for a picture in case you were wondering. 

good ol' rexy

in all my excitedness of transferring to byu provo, i didn't realize how much i'd miss little old rexburg, idaho. i grew to love the small school, the friends i've made, and yes, even the miles and miles of potato fields.

I've made some pretty great friends there and have had some good times in that small town i called home for two years. 

floating the river on july 4th. 

exploring the dam. 

seinfeld marathons 

and fry nights.

because i missed this place i hold so dear to my heart, i decided to make a little weekend road trip to visit all of those memories. 

 this girl

 none other than kimberly turley 

oh yeah, and we played with penguins. most exhilarating and terrifying experience of my life. 

Even though it's sad to say goodbye to that time in my life, i know so many more good things are ahead of me.  

intertube water polo

A few friends from Jerusalem started an intertube water polo team here at BYU and invited me to join. 

Of course I immediately accepted. 

And if you don't know what intertube water polo is, it's quite simply water polo played in intertubes. 

It may sound silly, but in fact, it's quite difficult. You can't ever really get vertical enough to shoot well and moving anywhere is out of the question. I mostly just sit in my tube, flailing my arms attempting to score a goal {which is a lot smaller than normal cages for some reason}.

It's an art, really. 

Many of my fellow players and opposing team members have fallen out of tubes during games. As hard as I laugh and think it's the funniest thing in the world, I can't help but feel bad because getting back in the tube whilst still in the water, may be the most difficult task ever to be accomplished. 

So kudos to those of you who have prevailed.

open mic night

So my two awesome friends from jayrew, Paul and Allison, are amazingly talented. Allison sings and Paul plays the guitar and sings. 

The other night, they performed at this open mic night. It was awesome! They played two great songs and everyone loved them. They were by far the best performers there. 

I felt so proud to be their friend. 

look how cool they are

dear sister lang

Ever since I can remember, my best friend has been my cousin, Cassidy Lang. 

Our play dates consisted of playing super smash brothers, kick the can, and made-up walkie-talkie games. 

Some of my best memories of my childhood are with her. 

 We stayed best friends when she went off to middle school and I stayed in elementary school. 

We continued our friendship through our high school years as the 'two mormons' on the swim and water polo team. 

We stayed in touch as we ventured off to different colleges and made other friends. 

We are still best friends, to this day, even as she is going on a mission. 

I will miss her dearly but know she's going to do great and the people of Honolulu, Hawaii will love her just like I do.   

 me, Cass, & Kyle   

jay rew crew

 Last night was our first official Jerusalem reunion. Man have I missed those people. No one truly understands how close we all got in those four months. We have this unique bond that separates us from all our other friends. The things we went through brought us together like family.