Quality over Quantity

BYU-Idaho isn't exactly your typical college.

And I definitely didn't have the "typical" college experience.

Example 1: There's no sports here. Only intramurals. LAME. So basically there's absolutely no school spirit.

Example 2: People are just straight up crazy here. Walking through the Gardens today, I came across the knights of the round table. Literally. They were all speaking in Olde English accents. I had to sneak a picture.

Freaky.

Example 3: I got married after my second semester of school. Not that this is a bad thing, but I didn't get to form a lot of close girl friendships that I had imagined in coming to college. But, there is 6 lovely ladies that I just love and I'm so grateful for our friendships. And most of their names all start with A's!

Anyways, I kinda feel like I'm in middle school where you make lists of your BFF's but I honestly feel like we don't tell the people we care and love what we feel enough in life! So...Ashley S., Alyssa W., Alex W., and Ally M., Amanda W., and Monica A., thanks for making my college experience so fun!

We might not get to hang out as much as we would like, but you girls are sooo sooo great and I love you!

I'll take quality over quantity any day :)

I got to have lunch with Alyssa and Ashley (and her adorable baby, Ledger) today! Alyssa teaches Zumba in Canada, and Ash and I taught her our favorite Zumba routine in the parking lot. I'm sure we looked ridiculous.

Maybe WE are the weird ones?

LOVE yall!

Logan, UT Trip!

A few weekends ago, we made the 2.5 hour drive down to Logan, Utah to visit Cree. Well. The main reason was to see Matt's favorite college football team, the Colorado Buffs, play against the Utah State Aggies. Matt was pretty stoked, we booked the hotel (that had a bombdotcom breakfast...eggs, sausage, bagels, yogurt, waffles, juice....yes pleassee! I actually called the hotel to make sure they had a waffle maker before I booked it. I'm serious about my breakfast.) for the weekend, and we were on our way.

As we spent time in the lobby, we saw lots of people with Colorado Rams attire on. Turns out the Buffs weren't playing.

Thanks, Cree. =)

The game was fun nonetheless. It was Utah State's homecoming weekend so the game was PACKED! It went into 2 overtimes, which meant the game was over 4 hours long. AND we stood in the student section. The Aggies lost sadly, but it was fun to pretend to have school spirit for a weekend! We will def be back soon, Logan!

The lovebirds at the volleyball game.

All of us still smiling after the heartbreaking loss.

LOVE the fist pump at the bottom of this picture.

So emo right now.

Mikey and Cree's Engagement Film

Matt (the videographer in the family) shot this video for Mikey and Cree. They're getting married December 17th this year!

We wanted their film to tell their story. Mikey and Cree wrote letters back and forth for two years while Mikey was on his mission. They both love to read, so we incorporated their letters and books into their video. I love the way it turned out!

Blog Header

By the looks of our new blog header, it might seem like we are a little full of ourselves.

We aint. :)

That is a real shirt I found online (minus the picture of us on it).

It's hilarious and awesome.

Sincerely not cocky,

Matt+Rachel

My birthday, Bar J, an engagement, and a wedding

On 9/9/11 I turned 22! Matt made the day extra special with pretty sweet gifts! This year I received: Jordan basketball shoes, a tennis racket, and some PROOF sunglasses (they're sunglasses made of wood!) Check out the ones I got here!

It was literally 80 degrees in our house hence the pant leg.

We went with the Taylor Gang to Chili's for my bday.

This is the one and only reason why I choose Chili's every year. The chocolate molten lava cake. My fav dessert on earth!

Mikey bought me a gift card to DownEast!

We also went out to eat to our favorite steak place, Stockman's with the Ash's.

Most peeps blog really cute pictures of themselves. Not us.

Every summer, the Taylor/Briggs family heads up to Jackson Hole, WY to go to the Bar J. It's a dinner and show place. They feed you a great steak dinner and then they have a singing/comedy show after.

Out of the kindness of his heart, Grandpa Briggs pays for ALL of us to go each year.

Speaking of Gpa Briggs...he was re-married this summer! This is pure proof that love is ageless! They both lost their spouses a few years ago and said they'd never re-marry...until they met eachother. It was only the 2nd "for time" marriage they've had in the Rexburg Temple.

And these two lovers got engaged this summer, too! Who would've thought Mikey would get married in the same year as his Grandpa?!

Texas Summer Trip

Over the summer we visited my Texas family. We ALWAYS have the best time in Houston, and I HATE leaving.

We were excited about seeing this goober.

My lovely friend, Hollie and her hub, Matt with their new baby girl, Gracie.

This dog is my mom's favorite child now.

My cousins, Nikki and Lisa, gave birth within 3 weeks of each other. Meet baby Sophia on the left and Lily on the right! Love these girls!

BFFs since birth! <3

My mom's two children...

Meet Miss Beasly.

This is my mom's doll from when she was a child. It's freaky.

Matt and I were sleeping in my parent's room because Granny was using my room. When Matt awoke in the morning, this scary doll was staring at him. In his drowsiness, he thought it was my mom looking at him. It took him about 10 seconds to unfreak himself out and realize it was only this cute little thing. So the next day, we were all talking at the table. I snuck away and grabbed Miss B from my mom's room. I placed her face right next to Matt, and he about died. That doll scared the crap out of him...again.

Priceless.

This is his Miss Beasly impression.

We had a DELISH mexican dinner with Dave's side of the family. Even though Dave is my "step" dad, these lovely people have always been SO loving and giving to me and my mom. I could not ask for a better family. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Later on in the trip, we headed to the beach to stay in this haunted 100 year old mansion. It was legit haunted. We spent most of our time chillin in the pool.

Needless to say, nighttime was scary time. NO one wanted to be left by themselves. I'm just so glad there were over 10 of us staying there or else it would've been a LOT scarier.

We discovered Julee's inner Beiber!

This was definitely not as good as I remembered as a kids :(

Dave and baby Lil.

Prince Arnie.

Somehow a lot of arm wrestling matches broke out? Oh P.S...John F. Kennedy had a presidential meeting right where those two are arm wrestling. Pretty cool!

This match was a tie. They stayed in this position for about 3 minutes! Very impressive, Mom!

The room Matt and I stayed in.