the wedding.

2 weeks ago, we made the trip to Northern California for my lovely cousin Christina's wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding held at a winery and vineyard in Suisun Valley.

I was pleasantly surprised at how everything went down with out a single hitch.

Cousins! She was a gorgeous bride!

If I were to complain about one thing about this wedding it would be that I forgot my black bra so I was sporting the white bra straps all night. I was so classy.

Kirk and I at the dinner. We literally ate in the middle of the vineyard and the entire wedding was catered by the Buckhorn. It was absolutely DELICIOUS.

They hired a live band to play for the rest of the reception. They were seriously awesome and everything they sang just made everyone want to dance. They even let my cousins do a duet of Justin Bieber Kirk didn't know that us Parkinson's could break it down on the dance floor. EVERY SINGLE PERSON was dancing. This is what made the wedding so fun and epic. I honestly have never had such a fabulous time at a wedding. And I wasn't even drinking. Haha!

I love this picture that my uncle secretly snapped. Christina's husband, Simon, was a singer for Disney and played Zach Efron in the High School Musical parades at Disney. He sang "Brown-Eyed Girl" for Christina and of course, it's like my anthem.... so Kirk and I danced our butts off.

(I kind of wish my legs were as tan as my arms and face. They are always the last to get sun.)

I would say if weddings had perfect outcomes, then this wedding was perfection.

Congratulations to Christina and Simon!

the story of brazil.

Hi.

I am going to preface this post by telling everyone who reads my blog (all 24 of you) that this story may be a little too much information if you catch my drift.

But the thing is, I don't really care. If I see you in real-life I will probably tell you all about this so why don't we save the face-to-face conversation and just spill my guts out on this here blog.

I mean, I am pretty much an open book anyway.

Moving on.

My cousin and I decided that we were brave enough to endure a waxing of the southern hemisphere... the wayyy southern hemisphere.

Why you may ask?

Well you see, I have no reason to get one other than the fact that I HATE shaving and that I was curious about the results. Everyone I know who has had one said they are painful but well worth it.

I remember one of my best friends Karlisa telling me years ago that it was the worst pain she has ever experienced.

I am crazy. I already know it.

Curiosity has gotten the best of me.

We had been planning for a couple months to go together but our schedules did not allow us to do it together and so I decided I was sick of waiting and made the appointment all by my lonesome.

So I went.

I was so nervous I was shaking... not necessarily because of the pain but for the awkwardness that inevitably would follow.

The girl told me to lay down and drape this sorry excuse for a wash cloth over myself and she will be back momentarily.

I stood in the room for a few minutes trying to decide if I really wanted to do this. I had a mental battle with myself for a good minute and weighed the pros and cons:

Eventually, I convinced myself to stay and laid on the table waiting for the girl to walk in.

She got right to business leaving no time for me to get comfortable with the idea of having some stranger see my goods.

The first rip was just as I expected. Slightly painful but nothing I couldn't handle.

I thought to myself, "I can TOTALLY do this! I can totally handle this pain."

Let me just say that there was one point where I thought to myself, "What the heck did I get myself into... I want to leave now."

But I couldn't. Because the wax was already there. And there was no way I could get out of it except to endure the pain of the rip.

I am now relearning how to walk... and a little uncomfortable.

Verdict?

It's worth it. But, not recommended for the weak of heart or low-pain tolerant.

the story of the shake weight.

Things have not been going as planned when I first purchased the Shake Weight.

I had high hopes for my arms at that point.

But, what I didn't realize is that I didn't have high hopes for my laziness.

Let me explain: I don't really feel like I have time to use the Shake Weight for 6 minutes a day.

I mean seriously, who has 6 minutes to spare? Certainly not me.

I need to sleep in until 11 and I need to go to bed at 2 am to make sure I have the most productive day I could possibly have.

That being said, I went shopping with the sister on Monday and tried on numerous things and stuff and quite honestly, shopping never puts me in the greatest mood because I realize how much I need to work out and stop eating all the good and evil treats and Rocky Mountain.

It really is so very hard though guys.

For example, yesterday I worked at noon until 4 at my first job and then straight from there I went to Rocky Mountain. I didn't eat lunch or breakfast so by the time I got to the treat store, I was starrrrving and decided that I should probably gorge myself on Oreo crumbs, ice cream and fudge. The evening was followed by my self-loathing and quite the stomach ache.

You see, I normally don't eat sugar. Not because of some high and mighty healthy reason. No no, people, self control is not my strong point. Clearly.

It's because I don't really crave it, I don't buy it, and I don't have it laying around my house on my normal day-to-day living.

However, if it's there for the taking, then I will surely eat it.

My point is simply this:

I have a wedding to go to in less than 2 weeks.

I will do the Shake Weight challenge.

6 minutes a day until I go to this blessed event.
I will document my progress.

Are you excited?

ok blogger.

Dear Blogger,

You are making me annoyed.

I think this is partly my fault but mostly yours.

You are too difficult to navigate through,

Making it way too much work to change anything on my page.

I don't like the way my blog looks anymore.

It surely is a disgrace.

So, I am starting a NEW blog.

Yes, I will still be using blogger... unless I can get my boyfriend to help me use wordpress. Which I also am not a fan of.

I'm stupid, ok?

Anyway,

You can consider this our first official fight blogger. And quite possibly the end of our relationship.

Take it personally.

Alix

so many new things!

Ok ok... I just get a little over excited about things that I have discovered that turn out to be AMAZING.

First things first,

My job.

Remember, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory?

I HEART it.

I get to eat whatever I may please.

And I get to make things.

Hello, can you say: WIN-WIN?

Downside (there's always one), it may not be helping me on my journey to lose 4 lbs. No but really, it's more like 15. But, everyone says that once you work there for a bit, you get used to all the delicious treats and don't really feel the need to eat it every second you're there. Still waiting for that moment. But, I have faith that it will come.

Nextly, I got my hair cut. Yeah, big news right? Well, it is when you go to Shep. Yeah, I'm totally advocating him here on this blog. I really enjoyed is extremely pricey hair cut and now we are besties. At least in the hair category. He introduced me to this stuff that is magnificent for my curly locks of frizzy proportions. I am always looking for new products that work better than the ones before.

It's called Bumble and bumble curl conscious creme. It's a-mazing and it makes it so I don't feel like I have tons of products in my hair. And it makes my hair look natural and not crunchy. I can't stand it when my hair is crunchy. I love it.

Fourthly, I got a new phone. So many new things! I am so happy about this new thing because my old iPhone was a piece of you-know-what. It was so slow, froze all the time... and best part is, we sold it on ebay for $50 less than the price of my new phone! WOO HOO!

Now I can play words with friends, look at my pinterest, and use instagram (I seriously am addicted to instagram) whenever I please.

Lastly, school. So it's not so much a new thing as it is a thing. I thought I was going to take all these crazy classes this summer to help catch up for fall but lo and behold, I have decided to take one online class and one 2nd block ethics class. It shouldn't be too stressful. I just have too many plans/obligations this summer that it's just too hard to smash a ton of classes together.

I seriously can't wait until I am established and don't have to travel every 2 seconds to see family and friends. It's such a downer. I wish I could just walk across the street and be with my peeps.

ANYWAY...

Those are the newest and greatest things happening in my life!

Cheers.

P.S. My cousin's cat had kittens... and they are adorable.

the story of the crepe.

It's quite the experience when you realize that what you thought you thoroughly enjoyed is, in fact, something you detest.

A strange experience indeed.

I enjoy most foods that involve

mustard,

mayonnaise,

lemons,

cheese,

goat cheese,

tangy things.

Thus, the reason why I have an inappropriate relationship with deviled eggs.

(Which, by the way, I just discovered the reason WHY they are called deviled eggs... those suckers are a moment on the lips but forever on the hips if you know what I mean.)

Anyway, when Kirk and I were in Vegas a while ago, we went to the Bellagio and had a feast of crepes.

I was starving and so very excited to eat my savory chicken, basil and provolone crepe.

Then, I took the first bite and fought back the urge to gag.

Eggy mess.

DIS-GUSTING.

I didn't know how much I do not enjoy eggs in a crepe manner.

I thought I liked eggs. In every way they could be prepared:

scrambled,

deviled,

hard-boiled,

salad,

benedict.

But alas, only when eggs are boiled and served with mayo do I fully enjoy the flavor they bring to my pallet. And the reason being that they incorporate some sort of mayonnaise-y goodness. Did you know mayo contains a lemony flavor? Reason number 2 why mayo rocks my socks.

it's a very bitter-sweet thang.

Bonjour readers.

Today was my very FIRST day working at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and I am proud to announce that I only ate 6 pieces of chocolate and 1 apple pie caramel apple.

Are you proud too?

My hope is that I don't gain 50+ pounds working there but then again, I really can't remember being so happy at work... So I feel as though it's ok if I do.

What does healthy diet really mean anyway?

NO but really guys, I will probably become the biggest fatty ever if I keep it up.

'Tis why I call it a bitter-sweet thang.

Tastes so delicious.

But as my uncle would say,

"You might as well glue that chocolate to your butt."

Classy.

Whatever. Some say you get sick of seeing, serving and tasting all the candies and delicious apples of wonderment, that you start to LOOSE weight. I'm going to wait for that day to come very patiently and enjoy gorging myself in all the flavors God as blessed us with.

Moving forward.

I want to go shopping SO very bad.

Every morning when I get dressed, I look in my closet with sadness and woe and wonder where all my cute clothes went. And then I remember I don't work at a mall anymore where clothing is so easily attainable and where I can see styles-a-plenty and copy them. Yeah, we all do it.

Now I feel like a frumtastic chocolatier.

You know when you feel like you have worn every single thing you own at least a thousand times and you need something new to make you feel sparkly and fresh?

That's how I feel.

So I will probably do something to rectify this wardrobe related issue.

Shop on.

Also, I found this picture of Jessica Biel

And may I just say that

a: J. Biel is a stunna. Meaning stunning.

B: How come SHE can do the middle part without looking like someone's butler? (aka, me.)

c: I love her hair. The color. The cut. And I am going to try to replicate it. Who's with me?

Oh and I got the shake-weight. I just had to try it. And believe it or not, it does make me feel like I did 50 pushups in 6 minutes.

she beat me to the punch.

My beautiful sister graduated from COLLEGE!

WHAT the crazy!

I still got the whole born first thing going on, so that's great.

But it was an accomplishment to celebrate to say the least!

It started on Thursday with a commencement ceremony and Elder Richard G. Scott from the quorum of the twelve came to speak!

There were about 8,000 graduates this year and the Marriot Center was filled to the brim. My mom and I found a golden seat right above Ani who was quite easy to spot since I decorated her cap and all.

Don't mind my glorious state of beauty... it was a delirious night.

Sadly, we had to leave a bit early because I had my last class of the semester to go to and my mom kept complaining that the ceremony was boring. (I think we were bugging our neighbors...) So we hopped out of there and beat the traffic.

But guys, Friday is when the REAL fun happened.

That day started at 5:30 AM for miss Ani and 6:30 for everyone else. It was a killer morning and we were about 10 minutes late but we found another GOLDEN seat right in the front and had a great view of all the students shaking hands with the Dean and getting their diplomas. (Is that what college grads get? Diplomas? Clearly, I'm not graduating yet.)

There were a billion names. I swear. Which doesn't all add up since there were SUPPOSEDLY like a thousand graduates there... But I feel like there were more names than the program said. And I believe there was a guy with the middle name of "Stupendorf." I am not kidding. True story.

We then headed to the bell tower to have a mini photo shoot with both families.

I feel like I have to put a disclaimer before showing these photos because I was running on about 4 hours of sleep and for some reason was quite pale. Also, my outfit was really cute in real life... but for some reason didn't quite look as awesome in the photos. Obviously this was not MY day, but seriously.

The Mama Llama came to visit! Splendid!

My dad's side half siblings! Sarah B., David J. and my twin, Victoria!

The proud parents. We may or may not have given Ani a joint graduation gift and said on the card, "We are so proud of you!"

The POPS.

Moving forward.

We then went to Malawi's at the Riverwoods... a seriously fabulous pizza place, with my dad's family and Kirk and Jason. We ordered 9 pizzas plus 2 dessert pizzas. It was delicious! We stayed there for like 4 hours laughing, chatting, goofing off and being awesome.

We had so much fun that my throat hurt from talking so much.

We said our goodbyes and then it was back home for a little R&R before Ani's graduation dinner at La Jolla Groves with my Mama, Rachel, Travis and of course, Jason and Kirk.

Jason decided he wanted to go play tennis with a couple of friends before dinner and lost track of time and showed up wearing his tennis clothes... which included a pair of MY old basketball shorts from high school that may or may not have been about 4 inches above his knees and were also light blue and a teal sweat jacket... Quite the ensemble. I about died when he walked in like that and I REALLY wish I would have taken a picture of such a magical moment. Sometimes, we don't know what that kid is thinking. He will never live that down.

After dinner we FINALLY finally came home and relaxed. I feel like I'm still recuperating from all the hustle and bustle of yesterdays festivities and I should be focusing on planning my lesson for tomorrow.

Congratulations Ani! What a stupendous accomplishment!

next stop: vegas please.

Yup. Kirk and I went to Vegas again. It's the fourth time we have been in our relationship and I believe the number will multiply as time goes on.

We seriously love it there.

It's just far away enough from Utah so we actually feel like we are on a vacation but, close enough so we can drive there in about 5.5 hours. It's worth it.

We pretty much hung out and walked the strip. (As per usual.)

The weather wasn't as warm as one would have hoped (ahem, me) so no pool time was allotted.

We did a little shopping, a little relaxing and some casino hopping.

I personally do not really find any gambling to be entertaining but Kirk finds it fascinating.

He always gives himself a little budget to squander (which generally happens, but he doesn't care.) It's fun to watch money disappear?

He gave me $5 to put on the roulette table. I wasn't allowed to have the $5 unless I put it on the table. But, as luck would have it, I won like 7 times in a row. What can I say? I'm a natural.

Whatever. It's totally the devil luring me in.

Anyway, we had a grand old time in sin city.

(My favorite hotel, the Cosmopolitan. Inside their chandelier lounge. Divine.)

But, may I point out that this time, I was definitely carded every time I was at any sort of slot machine, table or even in a restaurant that had a bar...

um, do I look like I'm not of age??

After about the 5th time of asking for my I.D. I became a little annoyed and finally asked, "Do I look like I'm 12?"

And the lady said, "It's the hair."

What? MY HAIR?

I suppose that's a compliment. Most babies do have soft, shiny, luminescent hair.

The next gentleman who asked to see my I.D. looked at it and seemed surprised that I am the age that my license says.

Seriously, what's going on here. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. So, pretty much I look like I'm a child and I don't belong in the ages 21 to 25 bracket.

I remember when I was 18 and just moved to Rexburg, my roommates and I would ask guys (mostly the ones that we were totally crushing on) how old they thought we were and they would respond with, "Oh you guys look like you're 20 or 21."

OH! OH! And then when I went back to work at Color Me Mine about 3 months ago, one of the employees asked how old I was and I said, "23."

To which she quickly responded, "Oh my gosh. You totally don't even look like you're 23. You look like you're 20. MAYBE 21. I would have NEVER guessed you were 23."

Excuse me little lady, but what exactly does 23 look like? An old hag? I mean really.

If I were a bit older and confused for 20 or 21 rather than 30, then yes, compliment me away. The younger the better. Keep it coming.

But I think I'm still young enough to where I am slightly offended by the ages people assume I am.

Any explanations?

i definitely need a trainer or something.

So, I'm starting to get this butt to the gym a little more often than I have been in the past 8 months. I'm supposed to be ready for summertime or something? I have a mostly LOVE/slight hate for summer because it's a wonderful time of the year where you lay out and be lazy and feel the sun on your skin... but then there's the whole bearing skin thing which I have ALWAYS had issues with.

I don't like to wear swimsuits and any pictures with me in one should and will be burned.

Anyway, I am trying to put more effort into my physical fitness. But it's hard and I have learned that I have like .078% self-control. What. The. Heck. I can't eat that whole pizza? Or that entire bag of chips? Lame. If I can't eat that, then whats the point in being healthy... or living for that matter. Shoot.

I totally buy healthy food but when I'm hungry, I don't want that. I want Cafe Rio and J Dogs hot dogs and Wendy's french fries. Apparently those aren't healthy. Whatever.

Here's my problem:

I'm a night time eater. My hunger sets in at the end of the day and that's when I want to relax and eat an entire Thanksgiving dinner. What? Don't act like you haven't wanted to do that either. There's nothing more comforting than going to bed feeling well fed.

Going to bed hungry? Not so fun. I seriously put all my focus on the fact that I'm STARVING and my stomach is howling at the moon. And I like CRUNCHY things. The crunchier the better. Like, I want to almost crack my teeth. Ya. I'm all sorts of crazy.

Tell me, what healthy things are that crunchy? NOT many my friends. Not many.

I guess I'm just complaining because losing 15 pounds is way harder than I thought it would be.

And it's mostly on my mind because I just came home from work about an hour ago and ate a delicious plate of homemade nachos.

I'm soooo bad. SOOO bad.

There's this show that was on MTV called "I Used To Be Fat." Think they should make one for me called, "I'm On the Road to Becoming Fat," or rather, "I'm 'gon be a fatty."

People. Motivate me.