March = Madness

In high school, I was always the friend who carried a camera everywhere. I have so many photos from those years - I wish I had a blog back then. At least I would have had somewhere to display those pictures, instead of just archiving them on my computer. Then I went through a spell where I hardly took any photos. These days, I am getting back to my old self, taking lots of photos and video. My intention is always to blog them. But then the days go by, and eventually those things are old news. And going back and blogging everything is too overwhelming and would take too much time. But it's the end of March, it's been almost a month since I last blogged, and I guess it's time for a quick update.

On March 4, my brother Garrett turned 22. Jonathan and I took him out to Tucanos to celebrate (and sat at the table right next to Jimmer Fredette, ha!), and then went back to his apartment for cake and ice cream. It's a lot of fun to have Garrett around, and to be able to celebrate birthdays and have dinner together. Happy Birthday, Garrett!

As it is March, and because my team was great and had the National Player of the Year in Jimmer Fredette, a majority of our free time has been devoted to March Madness. And when I say a majority, I mean a big majority! March = Madness. And not just because of BYU basketball. But mostly because of BYU basketball. What can I say, it's my one true obsession.

Poor Jonathan, when there were Saturday games or early weekday games, he didn't get much sleep. Here he is waiting in line with me for the last game of the regular season - Senior Day, vs. Wyoming. I love this picture. He is adorable (even when he is tired).

Garrett joined us at most of the games. While we were waiting in line, Jonathan tried to randomly set him up with girls, to no avail.

Jonathan and I love BYU Basketball, and we were very happy to win a share of the MWC regular season title with a monster win over Wyoming - much needed in the wake of the Brandon Davies situation...

It's not a championship without confetti...

We (mostly I) could not stand the idea of not being in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference Tournament, so Jonathan and I took off a couple days of school and work and headed down south to watch our favorite team play. (Special thanks to the Mumfords for letting us crash at their place for a few nights!) Most of our weekend was spent at this building:

Before the first game, vs. TCU, Jonathan asked me for my prediction. I wasn't exactly close for this game (except for the part where Jimmer scored 25+ points). But my prediction was much closer to what happened on Friday night, when Jimmer scored 52 points and we crushed New Mexico (finally!).

The man behind us didn't like it when we stood up and cheered... but too bad. We couldn't help it.

Remember that time Jimmer scored 52 points in a game? We do... we were there! As TJ Fredette says, it was "Amazing."

Although BYU ended up losing in the championship game to San Diego State, it was definitely worth the trip to see our favorite team play 3 games in 3 days, and to be there in person when Jimmer made history.

When we weren't at the Thomas & Mack, we explored Las Vegas.

We walked up and down the Strip, stopping to take a picture in front of the (fake) Eiffel Tower. I cannot wait to take a picture in front of the real Tour d'Eiffel in May!

Neither of us had been to a Hard Rock Cafe before, so we ate there for lunch.

On Saturday, before the championship game, we went to watch my cousin Zachary play (and his dad coach) his basketball game. The team played great! Here's Zachary scoring a basket:

Way to go Zach! And coach James!

After the BYU-SDSU game on Saturday, Jonathan and I headed over to our hotel room at The Venetian. We got all dressed up and went to dinner before we saw The Phantom of the Opera.

On the way home on Sunday, we stopped in St. George to say hello to both of my grandparents. It's always wonderful to see them! Overall, it was a fantastic and much-needed trip. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to win the whole thing.

The next weekend, BYU played its first two games of the NCAA tournament as a #3 seed in Denver. We had Garrett, Katie and Louis over to watch the games. After getting past Wofford, we watched perhaps the best game of the season, when BYU crushed Gonzaga (who was favored to beat us) with excellent team play. It's amazing how happy a win that sends your favorite team to the Sweet 16 can make you (and them)!

Sadly, BYU lost the Sweet 16 game to Florida. Just didn't play well. But it was a magical season, full of great memories. We can't wait to tell our kids that we saw Jimmer and Jackson play together at BYU. We were a part of BYU basketball history.

By the way, remember this photo from back in September? Yep, pretty sure it will be framed and hung on the wall of our future BYU sports room, along with the newspaper clippings and issues of Sports Illustrated that we collected this season. And when we have kids, there may be some exaggeration as to how close we were with the basketball team... haha.

And if you're wondering, yes, I am going through serious BYU basketball withdrawals. There is no cure... at least not for another 7 months.

On March 17, Jonathan celebrated the 4-year anniversary of our engagement!

We are definitely older, but we are happy as could be!

Apart from March Madness, we are busy as ever. Jonathan is still working very hard at his job, but he is learning a lot, getting great experience, and he just got a nice raise. I am very proud of him and grateful for the hard work he puts in!

School and work are pretty crazy - this semester is the busiest I have ever been. Only another week and a half and then finals! And then I will officially be a 3L.

In other news, I am the new Editor-in-Chief of the BYU Education and Law Journal. It's a great position, and education law is something I am passionate about, so I am very excited for this opportunity. I will also be keeping my position at the BYU General Counsel's Office for the summer. I love working there - I have learned a lot, gained great experience, and worked on some very interesting things. I am excited to work there full-time this summer! And I just found out I was elected as the secretary for the Family Law Society next year. I'm sure my 3L year will be very busy... but hopefully not as busy as this year!

NOW FOR THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

We are in the process of buying this house:

Just have to finish up our financing, get an inspection done, and hopefully close at the end of April. The goal is to be all moved in before we leave for France on May 4.

The house is in northwest Orem. It's perfect for us! We feel all grown up!

A contractor lived in the house previously, and was working on renovating it. That means most of the work inside is done (except for new carpet). The majority of our work will be in the yard. My favorite part of the house is the beautiful kitchen:

Sorry the photos are so small - I just pulled them off the property website. Once we do some more work to it and get moved in, we'll be sure to post pictures or a virtual tour. Or just come visit us this summer and see it in person!

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PS: Here's a bonus video for you. One of my young women needed help with her science project. Her assignment was to build a Rube Goldberg machine. I had no idea what that was until I looked it up on youtube. Her machine used a pulley to set off a mousetrap that released a marble. The marble rolled down two inclined planes and into a cup that released another marble in another cup that eventually hit a lever and popped a balloon. Jonathan and I helped her put it together.

Here is a video: