here's what i've been up to, as of late...

throwing a baby shower for my sis-in-law

(okay it was mostly casie & my mom, but i helped too!)

more on that, later. ;)

spending as much time as possible with my niece & nephew before they leave me.

sad face.

playing soccer with the fam. as you can tell, luke is much better at kicking the ball around than i am....

as well as STUDYING STUDYING STUDYING.
it is, with great pleasure, that i announce that i passed my MATH 1010 FINAL with the minimum required passing grade of 70%.
and good riddance, might i add.
one week until tom petty! and the summer adventures are beginning..

sad times:(

last weekend i got to see my studly nephew play "the genie" in his school play, ALADDIN! 

that happens to be my favorite disney movie, which i told matthew so, & he thought that was pretty cool.

he sang "never had a friend like me" & helped sing "a whole new world" with the entire cast. he was brilliant!

this week my sister-in-law, niece & nephew join my brother in katy, texas, to begin a new chapter of their lives. it sucks for me.

living 10 mins away from these cutie pies has meant lots of time to play with them & learn so much from them. matthew is one of the sweetest boys i know...he is always complimenting me, saying, "laur, your hair looks pretty like that," or "laur you are such an awesome aunt." it melts my heart! grace is such a sweetie too. she loves to say "thank you" & sing songs for me...it's the cutest ever when i ask where she's moving to, & she says happily, "tetsas!" i love her.

while i'm happy my brother found a job he loves, & that they get to start a new chapter in their lives, at the same time i am VERY VERY sad because i just don't know how well i will handle being over 24 hours away from these guys.

luckily we have luke's niece, kaylee...hopefully that will tie me over until i can afford a plane ride out to see them!

fun.

the highlight of our weekend was going to see fun. in concert! i bought luke tickets to this show for his bday a couple months ago, & we've been counting down the days ever since. it was a great day alltogether. first luke & i went to a meet & greet event in sandy, where the band played an acoustic set & signed our vinyl copy of their new album!!

after that we headed to the SLC to go on an awesome adventure. we found abbey road AND the civil wars - barton hallow albums on vinyl...great success!

then we wandered around the gateway before it was finally time to go watch fun.! we met up with our old friend chase & his fiance kaylee. it was a great time.

love these guys!

more on festival of colors.

for more info on the festival of colors, visit here!

hare krishna.

my boyfriend is a quarter of a century old today!

today my awesome (& somewhat chinese) boyfriend turns 25!!!!!

happy birthday old man!

no, but seriously. i love this boy more than anything in the world. he is my rock. he knows basically everything about me, right down to my quirky habits. & yet he still loves me! not only that but he treats me like a princess.  i am looking forward to being around for many more of his birthdays...unless he gets sick of me, which wouldn't surprise me ;)

happy birthday lucas! i love you.

a late recap of our weekend.

so sorry for my long absence on this blog. i've been so busy with finals, as well as celebrating luke's birthday. we basically got the party started friday...and haven't stopped since. we went out to celebrate his & amy's birthday (amy is his best friend), and we also went to the holi festival in spanish fork. this was my 5th year going, and probably my favorite. the crowd was HUGE...it just seems to get bigger & bigger every year. 
hare krishna!

overall it's been a wonderful few days dancing, singing, walking (a lot!), food, & of course singing "birthday" by the beatles.

this will be my last bit of fun before tom petty in april. time to buckle down & tackle my never-ending to-do list! oh finals week...you are my nemesis!

st patrick's is one of my fave holidays...it's cuz i'm a redhead.

 i gotta say st patty's was the best this year. ally, luke & i went to a party at my friend's house, where they had set up a photo booth full of st patty's stuff! there were mustaches, hats, balloons, huge glasses, etc.. it was so much fun!!! after the party we went to a reggae concert in downtown ogden...love me some reggae! & i also love my friendlies in ogden. moving here was an excellent choice, i must say!
hope your st patrick's was fabulous & fun-filled!

me, kristen & mikki!

love this one. love this holiday, too!

lately!

this week i:

-inherited this AWESOME vintage suitcase from my grandma norda (i tell you what, i'm realizing more & more how very stylish that lady was. i miss her.)

-MADE COFFEE FOR ROBERT DOWNEY JR!!! this requires a bit of background: he came through the drive-thru after spending the weekend skiing! he pulled up as i was making his drink (a caramel macchiato, aka the girliest drink we have. jeez.) i said, "HOLY COW IT'S IRON MAN!" i was shaking, head to toe. 

this is saying  a lot since i have made coffee for ty burrell, katherine heigl, liv tyler & morgan freeman & never felt all that "starstruck," though most of these celebrities i just saw in passing while working in park city.

anyways, after making a total fool of myself, i handed out his drink & asked why he was in utah. he told me how he spent yesterday skiing at powder mountain with friends & how he thinks utah is absolutely beautiful. i said, "well us utahns are glad to have you here, and i hope you had fun!" & then he slipped me a 50 dollar tip. WIN!

-made homemade mac & cheese, again. & this time it was even more delicious than the last, & i didn't burn the house down! i love my crock pot.

-played the piano & realized how badly i miss it.

-got behind in math.....again.

so overall it was a good week, with a little bit of bad mixed in there. overall i'm a happy girl, missing my papa & sister in france, missing my brother in texas, & getting excited for my new baby nephew PRESTON JAMES to make an appearance in a month & a half!

march is my favorite month.

WHY MARCH IS MY FAVORITE MONTH

(or at least a close second to july):

1. mustache march!!!

for those who know me well, facial hair is kind of my favorite.
as you can see above, where i painted one on myself.

when i lived in SLC we even gave our house a mustache for the festive occasion!!!
let the creeper staches grow boys...luke, that means you too.

2. FESTIVAL OF COLORS!

this will be my 4th year of going to the hare krishna temple to celebrate spring. my dad always likes to give me a hard time about it, but seriously, celebrating spring by throwing chalk at each other? & seeing the beautiful krishna temple? pretty sure there is nothing better!

3. LUKE TURNS 25!!

us at the festival of colors last year.

luke becomes an old man this month, hitting the ripe old age of 25.

what an old fart! but really, i'm excited. last year i took him to see of montreal for his birthday, but this year the concert we're going to is on the 31st of this month! another reason i love march:

4. WE ARE SEEING FUN. IN CONCERT!

i absolutely love this band...the lead singer is originally from the format, but hey, fun. is good too. give them a listen! luke & i are going to meet & greet in sandy before their concert in SLC. we're gonna try to get them to sign our vinyl!

so there you have it. march is the best month ever... and also, SPRING BREAK! jeez, i just keep comin' up with reasons as i go... i love march!

my mother.

happy mother's day to my hero!

she is the greatest lady on this planet. she works so hard for her family, and is always putting other people before herself! my mom is such a blast..she loves roller coasters and sky diving as much as i do! we're both adrenaline junkies. this photo was taken almost exactly a year ago, at the styx/foreigner/kansas concert. i owe her for my love of awesome classic rock! 

love you mama bear. happy mother's day!

signs of spring.

despite what seems to have been a neverending winter...

i have noticed a couple signs of spring cropping up in my backyard.

it made me happy :]

spring is coming...slowly but surely..

utah is perdy.

the sunsets these past couple of weeks have been phenomenal!

i can't wait for summer sunsets...my very favorite of all.

the royal wedding.

at first i was very anti royal wedding..

i don't think much of rich people walking around dressed funny. but my dad is obsessed with it, and made my sisters and i sit down and watch the wedding with him.

about halfway through, he said, "we need hats to match all the pompous english people!" so we fished out my grandma norda's old hats, and suddenly found that we fit in quite well.

here we are drinking tea with our pinkies out, and looking pompous.

it was a very interesting day at my parent's house.

schoooool's out for summer.

ah it is so nice not being in school.
finals week was this past week...and thank heavens for being a COMM major because all i had were papers. only 2 tests! so this past week was a breeze. i am so excited to have a few months off! this weekend was grand. i went on a little mini hike, and it made me SO excited for hiking season. even in a little rain i am always down for an outdoor adventure.


 it made me reminisce about past epic hikes i went on.. love.

hiking crimson trail in logan [in the rain!!]
...one of the most beautiful hikes ever.

lake tahoe. so gorgeous.

sand hollow.

not much of a hike..more of lots of fun jumping from rock to rock!

outside smithfield canyon.

EASTER.

this was one of my favorite easter holidays. we started on saturday by decorating eggs [of course] with my sisters, niece and nephew.

sis-in-law vanessa, nephew matthew, sister casie, sister kylie, sister rachel, me, and kylie's best friend camryn. 

my little sister put it together and went ALL out.. my nephew and little sisters loved it! we had the cutest easter eggs ever, i'm pretty sure.

my sisters.

our awesome eggs!

 even though i had to work easter sunday, all the regulars from my work [beautiful people!] brought us cookies and treats or came to hang out with us for easter morning. i absolutely love the regulars at my work!
after work i stopped by my grandpa's house to see him. when i got home we had dinner and did the traditional "easter egg hunt".

my niece was the most fun to watch... she would get so excited every time she found an egg. esp when she figured out there were starbursts inside them!

hope everyone had a lovely holiday!