22nd birthiversary!!

'twas my birthday on april 26th!

hooray!

i turned 22!

here are some delightful highlights from my birthday...

brett bought me this really "PRETTY" perfume. it is SO lovely! i've been wanting it forever! i love him so much!

my birthday landed on a monday so of course not being able to celebrate on the actual day we celebrated on the saturday before. we went to red lobster cuz i LOVE seafood and haven't been in years. but the nearest one was in pocatello, which is about an hour away. the food was really good and i got a berry mango daiquiri, virgin of course! daiquiris is my ultimate fave drink right now and hey, its my birthday. brett's stomach can't seem to make up its mind whether it likes seafood or not. and on my birthday his stomach decided it doesn't like it at all. poor brett.

after dinner we went and saw the movie date night with tina fey and steve carrell. i thought it was way fun, but as my friend rachel would say, there was a little bit of poop in the brownies...

on sunday our great friends steve and gwen brought me flowers! it was SO sweet of them. they're so darling. and on monday my girl ailinh brought me a huge margarita cup filled with boxes of candy. i've also gotten the final seasons of i love lucy from my bestie charlene and a box of goodies from my parents. they got me more peeps! yummmm. and thanks to brett's parents for getting me a gift card to a restaurant! eating is what i do best. i have such amazing friends and family and i'm so grateful for them. and i'm so blessed to have lived 22 years of a good life and hope i have many more to come! also i'm EXTREMELY grateful for my sweet husband who takes care of me so good esp when its mah birfday. thanks honey!

alyssa is goin back to school

wait, i thought she already graduated?

yeshhhh. i'm actually considered a "student" while i'm here and i also needed health insurance. i deferred winter semester and since you can only defer once at school i have decided to take a class. and it could be ANY class i wanted. so i have chosen art104 exploring photography. i've always wanted to learn more about photography and how to take better pics. i don't really plan on becoming professional or anything but i want to take really nice pictures of my future kids. also this class teaches about how to become a better consumer of camera products, which i desperately need. i have no clue as to what the good stuff is. i've been to one class so far and i'm super excited. i think this'll be a great semester. haha it does feel weird being back on campus walkin around. shoo, i thought i was done with all this. but you know what the apostles say,

"DON'T STOP LEARNING!"

p.s. pca has started up again this semester and i'm so pumped. we already have about 5 gigs coming up. summer is the most eventful for us. bam!

what happens in vegas II

the continuation of brett and alyssa's grand vegas adventure.....

during our stay in vegas we wanted to go attend a session in the Las Vegas Temple. going to the Temple helped us to see a much PRETTIER side of vegas. the temple was SOOOO beautiful.

after going to the temple we went to the famous filipino restaurant that everyone (my parents and my aunt) told me about.

the food was bangin!!!

on our last day we went to mandalay bay and saw the shark reef aquarium...

this aquarium tunnel was way cool, sharks and all kinds of fishies swam above you! oooo

they had a sting ray "petting area" that grossed me out, they felt so slimy and i was scared they were gonna bite my fingers off, but the workers assured me they were perfectly harmless. freaky.

after the aquarium we decided to spend our last moments in vegas SHOPPING!! window shopping that is. we went to caesar's palace and WHOAAAAA. holy expensive!!! they had the uppity uppest stores ever. just some stores i dream of being able to shop when brett's makin the big bucks.

but there was one store i've been DYING to go to. and that was christian louboutin at the palazzo. its been my dream to even try on those famous red soles.

and it was heavenly. and one day, i shall have them, just one day.

seriously, one of the greatest vacations brett and i have ever taken. especially having our friends steve and gwen with us. i don't think i've ever laughed as hard as i did with them. i sure hope we get to go again!!

the end.

i swear.

what happens in vegas....

gets put on the blog.........

going to vegas was one of the most exciting things we've ever done. we never thought we would get to do so much i have to write about our adventures in 2 separate posts. so here we go!!

we left on our trip on saturday with our besties steve and gwen. the trip takes about 10hrs from rexburg to vegas so we took a pit stop at my grandma's in spanish fork and loaded ourselves up on filipino food.

this is our hotel on fremont street, a few blocks from the actual strip. we found it to be a little ghetto but hey, we paid $39 for the room, so we couldn't complain too much.

the pool though, was really sweet

they had this shark and fish tank in the middle of the pool and you see that tube thing in the middle? that's the slide! going through it knowing there are sharks a few inches away freaked me out.

we spent a few night walking the strip and it was eccentric. it felt like daytime and there were just SOOOO many people out there! what i didn't like were the the gross people handing horribly inappropriate flyers and and the INTENSE cigarette smells. but nonetheless, the lights were amazing.

okay, so we REALLY wanted to see some kind of show while in vegas but tickets were through the roof! the concierge people at the hotel roped us into going on this 2-3hr "tour" of some new hotel so we could get tickets for a cirque du soleil show half off. we agreed and ended up getting tortured about timeshares for 6 HOURS! 2-3 hours my butt. no one told us it was a promo to buy timeshares. that had to be one of the most annoying things EVER. we are freakin college kids, as if we're gonna buy one. i got really snarky at the end of the torture, esp. after politely telling them no, we shall not be buying one. they pretty much held our tix hostage till they were done annoying us. we were thinking the show better be freakin worth it!

and it sure was.

we got to see mystere by cirque du soleil and it was AMAZING. so worth the torture.

uhhh yeah we just tried on some cirque garb before the show

seriously next time we go to vegas we plan on just spending money on a lot of shows, esp cirque du soleil. its SO worth the full price too.

next day we went to hoover dam! here's some dam pictures

we took a tour and got to go through the dam and through the power plant inside too. pretty cool.

well i think i'll end it here for now and let you soak all that in.

to be continued.....

peepin

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

psych, i meant HAPPY EASTER!

seriously? i. hate. snow.

again, you just have to expect snow at complete random times till july.
brett and i had a quiet Easter this year, we just got to snuggle in bed watching general conference. on saturday i had to work but it was way fun. the girls who worked in the morning hid 80 eggs all over the store. armed with my bunny ears and a pink basket i found about 25ish. the egg hunt kept me happy and content throughout my whole shift.

rachel and i were wascally wabbits

after work i rushed home to go to ailinh's apt for some egg dyeing madness. she had some of the girls over whose husbands went to the Priesthood conference. ailinh found some awesome and really creative ideas online so we tested some of 'em.

(photos stolen courtesy of ailinh)

my absolute fav idea was using rubber cement glue. thats how i got this sweet effect on my blue egg.

and then this was the ole crayon and dye, which never ceases to amaze me.
ohhh the sweet childhood memories and fun that i miss. thats why i need a few kids so i can enjoy it all over again! through them of course.
we bought some strawberries and found one with a tumor/middle finger stickin out of it. we're scared to eat it.

ok i've realized that i started my own tradition every Easter. and brett refuses to participate. i pretty much binge on peeps. i love their bright colors, the soft feel of the marshmallows, and the sugary taste to my mouth. this Easter i've eaten about 3 packages. brett is SO disgusted with peeps as is everybody i've asked if they liked peeps...more for me i guess! so yeah i eat as much as i can till i get sick of them, i end up not wanting anymore till next Easter rolls around.

a sick tradition i know.