Suffolk University - Boston, MA

Well, there you have it - Lauren was accepted to Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. It is exactly what she was looking for. She wanted to go an art school, but she also wanted to the ability to study something other than art. The New England School of Art & Design is a part of Suffolk, so that works! She also really wanted to be in a city. Boston and San Francisco were her top choices. Boston it is! It really makes sense. We moved to the East Coast when Lauren was six years old. She really is a New Englander. We have always visited cities like Boston, and she is comfortable there. She just fits.

We were lucky enough to have a holiday immediately after she was accepted, Good Friday, so Lauren and I drove up to Boston on Thursday night. We stayed in the Marriott that is down the street from the University. Great rate! I checked for June when we have to go back for a two-day orientation, and the rate goes up to $400/night. Yikes. We won't be staying there! Anyway, it is in the Theater District, so that was cool. We ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen around the corner, and then walked down the street to the AMC theater to see Admission (with employee passes!). The theater was so neat - an old building with several floors. It reminded me of the huge theater Mike and I went to in London.

We slept in the next day (so nice!), and left the car at the hotel since we could walk to the school. Our tour was at 11am. I am so glad we went. It was great!

This is a map on Suffolk's website. Their campus really is the CITY.

And another map so you get an idea of where the buildings are.

Lauren will most like live in the residence hall across the street from Boston Common.

The University consists of several buildings. When you walk to a different building,

you are out in the city with everyone else. Very cool! It's so close to the Freedom Trail.

Our tour started with a residence hall. This was the entrance.

You have to slide your student id in order to get in, and there is a security guard.

(i got these photos off the internet)

The center of the building we went into:

And the main floor of the main hall for freshmen.

These are examples of rooms I got from the school's website.

There are several options for how many students in one room.

I counted six beds in this room! That would be fun.

The view from the top floor of the hall we visited.

Next stop was a classroom. Most classrooms max out at 30 seats. No lecture halls.

Not like BYU! Most of my experience at BYU was very impersonal because

it is so big. They have something like 34,000 students there. Suffolk has less than 10,000.

All of the classrooms have tables and chairs like this. No desks with the hard chair.

Lauren was most impressed with the chair. Haha. Anyway, they said most classes

are discussion based, and the teachers really get to know the students. That's nice.

We saw other parts I didn't take pictures of. It was all very cool.

Here is Lauren standing in front of the 150 Tremont St.
Residence Hall where most of the freshmen live. I got a
 shot looking both ways. See the blue and yellow flags?

There are two halls there. It would be a great place to live, directly across the street from Boston Common. We were so excited to see everything! So informative. We will go back with Mike in the middle of April for the Suffolk Showcase. That is for admitted students with more tours and information meetings. I am sure we will learn much much more then, but we had to go right away to get a feel for it. We weren't committing to the school without seeing it! And now that we've seen it, we know it's the place for Lauren. I know she is going to love it there.

Girls Rockin Weekend 2013 - Part 2

If you didn't see it yet, read the 1st part first. CLICK HERE.

On Saturday morning I think we all woke up in a panic. Girls Rockin Weekend was going by too quickly! Would it really be over the next day? Then we remembered that last year we started on Wednesday instead of Thursday. That is a must for next year.

Anyway, we started off the morning slowly and made our way over to Ocean Beach where we had facials at an Aveda Spa. It was heavenly. And I mean heavenly. It was so relaxing that I think we were all in a fog the rest of the day!

We knew we would be in the neighborhood, so we set it up in advance to have lunch at Hodad's with Carrie's good friend Leslie. It was fun to finally meet her after "liking" all of her comments on Facebook and Carrie's blog. My mom's cousin Penelope also lives right there. I wish we had time to see her too! But I think my family is going back this summer, so we will see her then. :)

ANYWAY ... Hodad's ... Such a cool place! The atmosphere was great, and the burgers were super yummy. Definitely gotta go back there.

After showering at the house, we headed back out to Old Town San Diego to walk around a bit. We enjoyed seeing the Victorian homes, although I did have to laugh. They looked like something fake you would see at Disneyland. We have real Victorian homes aplenty where I live.

I loved this tree - a Coral Tree.

Nice shot, Carrie!

We walked around Old Town and looked in all of the little stores. I am still sad Chesney didn't buy this hat. She said her friend could make her one. I sure hope she does, because it is perfect for her! I have to say, we just love Chesney. Her down home Tennessee charm has us laughing all day. Such a happy, funny person with her drippy-drippy and sippy-sippy. LOL! I love my weekends with these girls. When you find a group of kindred spirits like this, you have to hang on tight! 

We were all fading quickly in the evening, and had a hard time figuring out

what to do for dinner. We were going to eat in the Gaslamp District, but we

didn't really feel like walking around. So, we drove around (for quite some time)

until we finally located the Gaslamp sign (with Carrie's genius idea to Google it).

Since we watched Safe Haven the night before, we all wanted to watch Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Is that what it's called? I was the only one who hadn't seen it before. We found a Blockbuster that had it, and then picked up some pizza at Mountain Mike's. Oh, yeah! I remember  now, we had dinner at Oggi's that first night. Is that what it was called? So good! Anyway, we didn't  last through the whole movie and went to bed early again. Too funny!

On our very last day, we went to Balboa Park first. So cool.

I had no idea this place even existed. Gotta bring the fam here.

We fell in love with these dancing/walking women.

A bit more entertaining was coming across this man/woman on a photo shoot. :)

I think this is my favorite shot of all of us.

For lunch we drove out to Coronado Island, another place I didn't know exists!

We had some awesome Mexican food, and then rented a 4-seater bike. So much fun.

Carrie will NOT be driving again. She's crazy! haha. We only went out 

for 20 minutes. The guy said it was 10 mins and didn't charge us. Nice!

By the way, we were thrilled that it was finally sunny.

This is where we parked to walk over to the beach. I could live here.

Carrie will be my next door neighbor. Her house is on the left.

We thought it would be nice to have a picture at the beach, so Carrie was 

playing with her camera to get the lighting right. We played along. :)

I think the weird lady that took our picture used Chesney's camera, and
Chesney's SD card is corrupt or something. She lost all of her pictures! SO sad.

Even more sad is that we all went home after that. We seriously needed another day. Oh, well. There's always next year. We did talk about going to New York City next year. That would be awesome! We would see Wicked for sure. I'm already planning it ...

I took the red eye home so I could spend the day. It was not ideal, but I have no regrets. And my Rockin' CD kept me awake driving home at 6am. I have really been enjoying the Bruno Mars songs on it. I also really like the quirky Can't Stop the Pop song. So funny. And Mika.

It was another fun Girls Rockin Weekend! Over too soon!

Girls Rockin Weekend 2013 - Part 1

For our annual girls weekend, we decided to go to San Diego this year. I've been home a whole week, and I am finally blogging about it! I was waiting for some pictures from the other girls, but I can't wait any longer. Some of these pictures are mine, but most are Carrie's. Thanks, Carrie!

We all flew into San Diego mid morning on Thursday. There was a wicked snow storm coming into my area, but it held off long enough for me to get out of there. Thank goodness!

We went to La Jolla Cove first and had lunch there.

It was a cold and cloudy day, but it was still beautiful. 

I think we could have watched the seals all day.

By 4pm we were finally able to get into the house.

We loved it!

This is the little family room. Cozy.

The stained glass window was cool.

I got the big bed. Lucky me! 

(it was actually not that great)

Carrie had the surfboard room with the futon (but ended up sleeping on the couch)

Chesney and Jennifer took the room with the two twin beds.

It was perfect! And we got such a good deal. Way better than a hotel.

We had originally planned on going to the temple that evening, but we were all too tired. We went to bed at 9pm! We went to the temple on Friday morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed.

It was awesome. If you ever go there, be sure to go up to the top floor 

to see the atrium. You can see the angel Moroni from there. And the

brides room was like a little princess room. What a gorgeous temple!

It was raining here and there, and the sun was coming out here and there.

We went to Old Town San Diego next and had lunch at a mexican restaurant.

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.

I loved these purple flowers everywhere.

We look so silly. It was fun though! I want to bring my family back there.

I think we got pedicures next. Always fun.

Whose toes are whose? hahaha

That night we took a tour of the Whaley House which they say is haunted.

I think all of us enjoyed the tour and learning about the family that lived there. Some very tragic stories though!

We went to see Safe Haven that night and ate lots of popcorn. It was a good movie! Did we eat dinner? I can't remember. I do remember a late night McDonald's run. haha.

Stay tuned for the other half . . .