Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Royal Wedding

So I know every other person in the blogosphere has already posted about the this but I couldn't resist.  Oh my  heck...the royal wedding was amazing.  Despite the fact that I'm generally wedding obsessed, I actually only caught on to the royal wedding buzz this week.  I don't know how I've managed to not realize what a massive deal this wedding was until now but somehow I did.  But I'm sure glad I finally caught on.  

And as I watched all the festivities I realized why all the women in the world were glued to their televisions on Friday morning...because it's every little girl's dream to be a princess.  Kate Middleton is living the dream and all of our romantic hearts just couldn't get enough.  

My mom and I didn't actually stay up all night to watch but we DVR'd the whole thing and spent about 5 hours watching it on Friday when we got up.  We were totally enamored.  I almost cried when Kate walked down the aisle and we got to see Harry and then William look back at her.  What a sweet moment.  And the look in the happy couples' eyes when she got to the altar was just so cute.  Kate and William are adorable.  Here are some of my favorite pics of the whole grand affair:

First sighting of Kate!  She didn't even look nervous!

Gorgeous.  

Stunning.  

Absolutely LOVE her dress!  And her veil!  And her tiara!

Arm in arm with her dad.  

And didn't Pippa look gorgeous too?!

These kids were THE cutest!

Yay!  They're married!

Carriage = AMAZING.  

And the first public kiss.  Precious.  
I basically loved everything about the wedding.  From the fab hats (I really think we need to bring that tradition to the U.S. by the way...anybody with me?) to the grand church, Kate's dress, the adorable bridesmaids and groomsmen, William's snazzy military uniform, and just all the pomp and circumstance in general.  The only thing I didn't love...Kate's bouquet.  Does anyone else think it should have been bigger?  

There are even more fabulous pictures on todayshow.com.  

Well I'm off to figure out how I'm going to earn some money so I can go visit London now.  I've wanted to go forever and now I want to go even more.  

Cheerio, darlings! 

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Graduation

 I finally did it!  I graduated last week from BYU with a BA in Communications: Broadcast Journalism.  With my mission thrown in the middle of it all, it's taken me 6 years to finish college and I couldn't be more happy.  BYU was the absolute perfect place for me and I had the most amazing experiences and made the most wonderful friends.  I almost started crying during my convocation.  Being done is so bittersweet.  I'm thrilled to not have to write any more papers or take any more tests but I will be very sad to leave it all behind.  But my future is very bright and I'm excited for everything that lies ahead of me!


Day One: Commencement
This is the part where everybody goes to the Marriott Center.  All the grads line up outside and then walk into the building in these massive lines.  I was super excited to be graduating with Skylar, Andrew, and Darin who are three of my good friends and the husbands/fiances of three of my best friends in the whole world.  We got to sit together in the Marriott Center and we even ended up the in the section our families were sitting in. We couldn't have planned it if we had tried!  We got to hear from Elder Richard G. Scott that day and he gave a wonderful talk with great advice about the future.  I loved getting to see all the grads in their caps and gowns.  I'm a sucker for traditions, especially ones with all the pomp and circumstance of graduation.  

Parents and grandparents.  

I have the best parents.  They have been so supportive throughout all my school!!  I couldn't have done it without them (and not only because they paid for everything)!

My mom and I.  

Aren't my grandparents adorable?!

I told you we all got to sit together!  It made all the waiting in line much more enjoyable.  

Andrew, Darin, Me, and Skylar.  

Molly, Brillante, Me, and Kaitlin.

Can we just talk about the amazing tights I wore?!  My mom gave me a hard time about them but I said, "The only thing that's going to show is my feet so I'm going to make a statement!"

Day Two: Convocation
 This is the part where you are with your particular college and you actually get to have your name called and walk across the stage.  For me this took place in the De Jong Concert Hall in the Harris Fine Arts Center.  We had some great speakers including Art Rascon (who is a BYU grad and award winning journalist who has covered huge stories all over the world) and my good friend Kylee Knoles!  It was so fun to be with the whole Communications Department and cheer each other on.  

Walking across the stage and everyone excited to be done!

The whole fam...the ones who were there at least.  

With the parentals.  

Love my mom to death.  

Three generations.  

Like I said, they are adorable.  

My sister Rachel and I.

Who's that handsome guy?

I had an awesome surprise!  Our good friends Linda and Aaron Orullion from out ward back in CA came to graduation!  They moved to UT awhile back and I hadn't seen them in forever!

Great professors!  Chad Curtis, Dale Cressman, and Robert Walz.

Day Three:  The Pictures We Forgot To Take On Days One and Two
We totally forgot to go take pictures with the iconic BYU signs at the entrance to campus.  So on our way out of town I threw my cap and gown on one more time and snapped these pictures.

BYU Weekly: Broadcast Journalism Program

Well, this is my final BYU Weekly story.  I have absolutely loved getting to work for BYU Weekly the last few months!  It was a wonderful opportunity to get real reporting experience.  Everything at BYU TV is so professional and well done and I'll be very sad to leave.  The whole BYU Weekly crew is a wonderful group of people who I have loved getting to know.  I also got to meet so many amazing people while putting together my stories.  My favorite part about being a reporter is the opportunity to meet lots of different people and tell their stories.  I've met so many people who are doing wonderful things with their lives and are going to make a big impact in the world.   

My final story is very close to home...it's about our wonderful, award winning broadcast journalism program!  It starts at about 5:21.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Festival of Colors

This year I finally went to the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors.  This is a huge tradition among Provo-ites.  The day after the festival Facebook erupts with photos of BYU students covered in colored powder.  

The Festival of Colors is an Indian holiday also known as "Holi".  I'm not really sure what the significance or purpose of the holiday is, but basically thousands of people head to the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork and throw brightly colored powder at each other.  Sounds weird, but it's a total blast.  And I guess the Utah Festival of Colors is the biggest one in North America!  Who knew?!  

Cute Kylee Knoles did a story about the festival on BYU Weekly that you should definitely check out.  I went with Molly, Brillante, and Darin and wanted to share some of our colorful photos.

Before the madness really began...

I like how you can see us get more and more colorful. 

Molly in attack mode. 


We look like a beautiful rainbow...maybe even a double rainbow.  

The happy couple...I'll definitely be showing these to their kids.  
I got some color on my teeth...it was kind of gross.


Darin loving life...I guess Molly and Brillante took a picture like this one a couple of years ago so we had to do it again.  

We're all kind of hoping the baby comes out rainbow colored now. 

Now the question is, how do I get all of this stuff off...

BYU Weekly: Voice of Africa

I had so much fun with this story!  It's the first one in the show.  I got to see Voice of Africa perform back when I did a story on the Economic Self Reliance Conference.  They are a really neat group of current and former BYU and UVU students who perform African song and dance all over Utah.  I was able to go to one of their rehearsals and get to know the performers a little bit better.  And I might have even joined in with the dancing...

BYU Weekly: Conference Tweeting

This is BYU Weekly from a couple of weeks ago.  My story about tweeting during conference starts at about 18:11. I had a lot of fun putting together this story.  Jacqueline Du Plessis, who'll you'll recognize from my story about the Students for Social Entrepreneurship emailed me about this neat story idea the Monday after LDS General Conference.  Apparently, using Twitter and other social media during conference has become a huge trend.  The church even streamed conference within Facebook this year.  Anyway, Jacqueline enjoyed doing it so much this year and was so passionate about it that I couldn't resist putting together a story about this fun trend!  Enjoy!

Eleven News at Noon: Final Broadcasts

I'm so late in getting these up, like I am with everything, but here are my last two Eleven News at Noon broadcasts.  My final broadcast was very bittersweet and I'll be very sad to leave the newsroom.  I cannot even begin to tell you how many hours I've spent in that room writing and editing stories.  I know I had quite a dramatic post a few days ago about not having a ton of close friends in the program, but you know what, I really did enjoy my time there.  And despite what I said, I have made some wonderful friends there who I'm sure I'll keep in touch with for years to come.  The professors were also great and pushed me to do my best each and every day.  And for my past semester of anchoring I had some absolutely fantastic producers and reporters.  I don't think we had one major technical difficulty the whole semester...which means I have plenty of video to choose from for my resume!  As an anchor I can't take a bit of credit for the wonderful show that our team puts on.  I just show up and read what they give me.  The Tuesday team was great and always on top of things.

So thank you  everyone in the BYU Department of Broadcast Journalism!  You're the best!

Tuesday Team

March 29th:
d

April 5th:
 Embedding is disabled for some reason so you'll have to watch it here

Monday, April 25, 2011

Makin' Me Smile

I've got a ton of stuff I need to post right now (seeing as I haven't posted in like a week and graduation was last Thursday and Friday) but I first, couldn't resist posting some things that are just putting a smile on my face right now:

1.  Does anyone remember this song from a couple of year ago?  I was just reminded of how much I loved this music video.  I just think it is so clever.  And her clothes are adorable.  And so is her accent.  I love how English people say the word, "can't".  



2. Mindy Gledhill's Music.  Totally Tessa posted an adorable prom video set to Gledhill's song "I Do Adore."  I loved the song so I looked her up on i-tunes and I'm totally hooked.  I might be super late getting on this train but be sure to check her out if you're like me and haven't heard her music yet.



3. This post over at Busy Bee Lauren.  Bones lovers of the world unite!

4. Easter Sweet Tarts in the shape of chicks, ducks, and bunnies.  They taste even better than regular Sweet Tarts, and that's saying something because I LOVE me some Sweet Tarts.  


5. Jackie O's Wedding Dress.  Seriously to die for.  I'm drooling just looking at these pictures.  


6. My $2.00 tax return.  


7. The Asian Sesame Chicken Salad I'm about to go buy from Panera Bread since my parents are at the Angel game and I have the house all to myself :)


8. This new online mag for women called "The Violet".  I found it on Love and Photographs and I'm already loving it.  

9.  This printable on Thirty Handmade Days.  So, so true.  


10. These pictures of Erik and I that I just found on my computer.  




11.  The fact that I'm going to be in sunny southern California for 2 weeks with nothing to do but relax and get a tan!!  Yay!!