A typical Saturday

Saturday morning I heard my phone go off at 9:06.
Oh my gosh.
The text message read "ding dong".
I had, naturally, fallen asleep on the couch.
in my clothes.
and boy was here to make breakfast before he went back to Wisconsin.
Too late to even scramble. I rushed to my door in...
would you know it?
My nineties outfit from the party the night before-
I wasn't even in normal clothes!
Shoot.
Thank heavens for sweet souls who let you go change while they make breakfast.
And seriously, best breakfast ever.









I thought it was a great way to kick off finals week ;)

When you get makeout mints, you know it can't be a half bad birthday...

And now, to extend my birthday for like... as long as possible...

Today I will post my birthday dinner pictures. 

Literally, birthday dinner was so wonderful. 

The company, the gifts.... the steak. 

My roommates all drove up to Park City to meet my family and I. 

We ate, we laughed, we sang an obnoxiously loud birthday song.

I opened presents, of course. And naturally, they were all wonderful.

Jess got me a necklace I have since hardly taken off.

Brooke got me a scarf that works perfectly as a headband.

My parents got me earrings that match my birthstone ring.

And Zane got me gloves.....and some makeout mints.

As would be natural to receive from your 17 year old brother.

Seeing that I was sitting next to a boy, I may have accidentally blushed a lot.

So there you have it.

An ode to my family, 

great food, 

horrible lighting for pictures, 

taking a million pictures anyways,

being inappropriately loud in nice restaurants,

and extending birthdays for weeks on end.

Love You Always,

Taylor Ann

the amount of food we eat together...

Did I ever tell you about Jess' fabulous birthday lunch?
We chose La Jolla Groves...
which has become one of our very favorites. 

Our meals and appetizer were all absolutely fabulous,

as was the conversation. 

Then came time to give her my ghetto-wrapped gift.

Let me tell you a story. 

Do you remember when my mom cleaned out her closet this summer?

Well, Jess apparently doesn't stalk my blog good enough, because she forgot. 

...and was subsequently in slight shock when she found out mom gave me that purse.

Apparently she had wanted it for forever, and there may have been a slight pouty-face involved.

She jokingly stated that if I were a good sister I would give it to her. 

I, being so wonderful and kind,

said heck no. 

Little did she know.....

I had ebayed her a birthday surprise! 

The beauty of technology :)

Also, I love her. 

That's the real point of this blog post. 

....just like the 934752364 other jess-loving posts I have on here.

Hope you've had a wonderful day.

Love Always,
Taylor Ann

Well, I obviously haven't been around for the past....week?

I've been in Provo for a week. a full week.
but have I had time enough to do anything more than unpack a meager fraction of my things?
no.

Explanation:

I got here and went on a leadership training retreat.

 and rode the alpine slide in Park City.
it apparently is impossible to rip those puppies off the track.
so, naturally, I tried.
great fun, great fun.

 and we might have driven a little too fast on dirt roads.

Theeeeennnnn...... I went to camp!
Foundations of Leadership is a camp I went to as an incoming freshman at BYU.
I thought it was great, and decided to do it again last year.
and again this year.
I got to help freshman catch the BYU lovebug [[doesn't take a ton of convincing]]
all the while living on cafeteria food :)

and now I'm back in Provo for real, and my schedule is starting to normalize.
aka. I'm back to cupcakes&soda dates with jess.
lovin it.

I'll try and stay around :)

oh yeah, that too...

So maybe you go to New York for the food too..
There are more restaurants than you could ever possibly try.

Every street has it's own new set of palatable choices.

and everyone you meet has a new favorite that you just have to try if at all possible

We got in our fair share of food while we were there.

From bakeries and corner bagel shops to pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge to frozen hot chocolate.

We experienced as much as our little [maybe no longer so little] stomachs would allow.

And I just realized everything except the crepe [which is pictured surrounded by sweets] is a dessert.

don't judge.