BYU Blue

First of all, happy birthday Talia!  Given the time change between Utah and Illinois, our sweet gal turns seventeen in just about ten minutes.  I know I say it all the time, but time flies!  She's been our Speedy Gonzalez from the start.  

Since I'm two and a half months behind on the blog, it's going to be a little bit before I'm caught up to Talia's birthday.  In the meantime, let me share some photos of another beautiful gal who likewise grew too fast: our very own Brooklyn McCall.

The day before Brooklyn went off to college, we treated her to a couple meals out.  You might look at it as bribery so she'd come to come back to SLC and visit us.  Here we are at Cucina for lunch.

And here we are dining at Sawadee for dinner.  It's always delcious!

The next morning it was time to pack up the mini-van and head south to Provo.  Brooklyn did an amazing job planning everything that she would need to decorate and organize her dorm room.  It reminded me of when she was tiny and planned the ultimate Harry Potter Party in exquisite detail.  For Brooklyn, the planning is as fun as the actual event.  

My eyes get weepy just looking at these photos.  Here's Jason giving Brooklyn one last hug before sending his baby girl off to college.

Taller than her mom. Everyone is smiling in these photos, but I think we look a little pensive too.  Definitely bittersweet.

Fast forward an hour, and here we are checking Brooklyn into her new dorm at Helaman Halls.  First stop, the Cannon Center to get a room key.  After many months on a waiting list, Brooklyn was super fortunate to get one of the last spots.

Talia took the day off of school to help Brooklyn move in.  Can't separate these peas in a pod!

Making beds.  As you can tell, these two don't have a lot of practice making their own bed at home.  (Wink, wink.)  Also, you should have seen us trying to figure out how to loft the bed.  Jason, your engineering skills were missed, but in the end we gals sorted it out.  It's a good thing I gifted Brooklyn a tool set.  It reminded me of when Papa Kay gave me his crescent wrench as a parting gift when they dropped me off for my very first semester at BYU, also at Helaman Halls (Stover.)

Talia tries on Brooklyn's closet for size.

Look at her awesome dorm space, especially with the gorgeous quilt that NomiAnn made!

Sistuhz.

I love it when Talia gets in her goofy moods, even when she leans heavily on the side of annoying.

So Brooklyn's dorm is very unique.  In fact, her suite is one-of-a-kind in all of BYU campus housing.  There are five girls in one room sharing a shower, toilet, and double vanity.

The johns in David John aren't much to brag about.

So here's Brooklyn's bed as seen from one of the two entrances.  There's a bed to the left (hidden), the one sticking out, another one hidden to the right behind, Brooklyn's bed, and one more off to the far left (hidden).  All of the girls get a desk, a wardrobe, a cork board, and a great chance to bond.  Brooklyn is the only girl in her room from Utah.  The others are from Texas (2), Arizona, and Connecticut.

After getting Brooklyn's room set up, we headed to The Slab for dinner.  YUM!!!

Next, she took us to this super quirky ice cream shop called Brookers were the employees dress up in Revolutionary War garb.  We ordered Abigail Adams' Salted Crack Cookie Advice.  Sweet!

Bidding Brooklyn farewell was hard, but eased slightly knowing that I would see her in a couple days for New Student Orientation.

The last time Brooklyn was in the Memorial Room, she was this big.  Looking back, she wasn't the only baby.

Life goes full circle!  Brooklyn and I were both born at Utah Valley Hospital.  I'm feeling an odd affinity to the sea turtles that migrate thousands of miles back to the place where they were born to breed.

We also passed through the J. Reuben Clark Law School and thought of Papa Kay walking the same halls two generations before.   Our family may live in Salt Lake, but our Blue Cougar Blood runs strong.

You are the Y.  Brooklyn's one of those freshman dots!  It was inspiring to watch the Y take shape and think of all the hopes and dreams wrapped within.

Class of 2023, you've got it made!

Spoiler alert: Brooklyn is having the BEST time at college.  She loves her professors, dorm, ward, friends--all of it.  As a double major in Computer Science with an emphasis in Bioinformatics and English Teaching, she has a fun variety of classes and enjoys them all.  She's playing Ultimate Frisbee for Chi (BYU's Women's Team), serving in her ward Relief Society Presidency, working as a research assistant transcribing texts from Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, not-dating a boy named Henry, and basically living her best life.

Buttermilk, we love you!