Happy "Not a Teenager Anymore" Day!

It's true... as of February 20th of this year, Alyse Bennett is no longer a teenager! (But let's all be honest, my dad has been telling everyone that I'm 20 for the last year to avoid awkward situations when people find out he has a teenage daughter who got married). Anyways Chad did a good job of making my birthday so much fun! Birthdays weren't quite as big of a deal in his family growing up as they were in mine, so I'm proud of him making it such a great day for me.

Growing up, when it was your birthday, the day was all about you. It was the day that you got to sit in the front seat of the car ALL DAY, you got to get a box of "junk cereal" that was all your own (Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc.), you got to pick what the family ate for dinner or where we went out for dinner, and in elementary school Mom or Dad would bring in donuts to your class at school! Pretty much awesome.

Chad used his charm and good lucks and was able to get us 4 tickets to a Grizzlies hockey game in Salt Lake for the two of us, Jacie, and Shane. It was quite the experience. The only hockey games I've ever been to before are those of the BYU hockey team, so I was in for a culture shock. Not only was the hockey game faster and more intense, but people watching during the game was almost as entertaining! There is a unique group of people in this world who love hockey games, and they were for the most part quite colorful characters. Never before in my whole life have I seen so many Harley Davidson memorabilia in one location!

Probably one of the most entertaining aspects of the evening was the group of people sitting behind us who had brought their two 4-year olds to the game. These two little boys were dressed in snow boots, mini leather jackets and sweats. Some comments from the night:

• "Hey, you better stop that [flinging around his plastic sound makers] or else that man sitting in front of you [Chad] is going to turn around and beat you up."

• "No, you may not have any beer!"

• "Who's woman is that? [referring to Jacie, sitting with Shane's arm around her]...", his response, "mine!"

Hanging out before the game started.

Shane and Jacie, I know it must seem like they're our only friends because of how many pictures you see of them on our blog, but I promise you we do have other friends. Okay, who are we kidding? They're our only friends.

Mom, Dad, and Shane!

My best friend and the love of my life... what would I do without him?

During the game, the announced that we could use our tickets from the game to get free drinks from Sonic. Since we are poor college students and suckers for anything containing the word "free" in it, of course we had to stop by sonic on our way home and load up on route 44 strawberry lime-aids. Little did I know that these are, in fact, one of Chad's favorite memories from childhood and he's been obsessed ever since.
It was a fantastic birthday: I got to hang out with my friends, attend my very first semi-professional hockey game, we ate cafe rio on the way home, I got a sweet backpack for my birthday to replace the one I've used since middle school, I experienced a route 44 strawberry limeaid from Sonic for the first time, and I got a sweet chocolate cake (absolutely amazing) from my other mom Penny Johnson. Could life get better? Nope.

Kenzie Shae turns 1!!!

My favorite little niece, Kenzie Shae, turned one year old this September! Kaitlin, Courtney, Johnny, Luke, and Mommy Bennett seized the opportunity and roadtripped it back up to Provo for the occasion! It was quite the party, and Kenzie impressed us all with her new walking skills, sign language, and then stuffing large amounts of cake and frosting in her face. It was pretty great. It was fun to spend another weekend with the Bennetts, even if it was a little bit shorter now that school has started and everyone had to be home by Monday.

Extreme cake eating:



I got to hang out with Luke during Kenzie's birthday party, and after a little bit of crying, he just kind of passed out for an hour or so. The kid was totally asleep and adorable...


Still sleeping... But this time, with a party hat on!
Unfortunatley, Chad had to work during the birthday party, but he was still able to hang out with Luke doing what they both do best: sleeping!

Vegas Weekend

Happy Birthday Kaitlin! Kaitlin's birthday was July 19th, so we celebrated part of her birthday in the hospital so Courtney, John, and the baby could be a part of the celebration! We took pizza, drinks, and a "Nothing Bundt Cake" up to Courtney's room and ate away.

Seeing as we were eating birthday cake in the hospital, we couldn't light any candles, but Johnny and Kaitlin had fun pretending to blow out the candles.

Kaitlin was very excited about her new jumper cables that Chad and i got her for her birthday!
This was the license plate of a random car we parked next to at the hospital... turns out there is another "Chady" out there!

After visiting at the hospital, we all jumped in our suits and went swimming for the afternoon in the pool at Courtney and John's complex. With it being approximately 106 degrees outside, the pool felt great!

This is Kenzie after her mommy took her pigtails out. Gotta love the hair.

Johnny got some good height on this one.
As if Chad and I didn't know how white we were already, this picture makes it very clear next to the very tan Kaitlin and Danny. Chicken Fight!!!
They're pretty thug.
After a long day of errands, hospital visiting, swimming, and seeing Dark Knight, everyone was pretty exhausted:

On Sunday, Johnny convinced Chad that they should have a silly string battle... I'm not sure Johnny knew what he was getting in to. Notice the expression on Chad's face as he is pelting Johnny with silly string. I think he got a little to involved.

Picnic on the front lawn with Grandma!

Another one of Chad's suggestions for activities for the weekend included a "marshmallow eating contest".... They both look like they are going to explode. Almost immediately following this picture, Johnny threw up all the marshmallows he had in him. What are we going to do with you two?
Right before we got back in the car to drive back to Utah, we made a quick stop at the Brown's house to say hello to Kory. Chad gave him a huge bag of ties (some of the ugliest ties I've ever seen) that he wore on his mission so that Kory will be sufficiently stocked when he leaves for Chile on August 13th. Way to go Kory!
It was a quick trip to Vegas... almost exactly 2 days since the time we left Utah to the time we returned, but we had a blast. Even though it was way more hot that I'm used to in Vegas (and I'm not the kind of person to deal well with extreme heat), I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. People always say that you never love and appreciate your family so much as when you can't be around them all the time anymore. Turns out... it's true!

Happy last week of JUNE!

I'm going to rewind to the last week of June because it was a great week for the Bennett family. First of all, June 26th was Chad's birthday... he turned 22! In honor of it being HIS birthday, Chad decided we were going to Tucanos for dinner. Neither of us has ever been there, but it was DELICIOUS. Chad loved all the meat, and made me try every different kind although I would have been content with eating just the grilled pineapple all night. I was so sick for the next 24 hours from the meat overload, but it was so good I couldn't help it.


I made Chad a spice cake for his birthday and even got to use one of my new cake plates! (hooray for wedding presents) He got caught on camera swiping a bit of the maple frosting before he blew the candles out.
Among the birthday gifts, Chad got new bike shorts (from me) and a bike jersey (from my Dad). He loved the shorts... no more monkey butt.

The second big, exciting event: I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE BYU NURSING PROGRAM! I found out on Saturday via email that I had been accepted and then received my information packet the following tuesday or wednesday. I still can't believe I got accepted the first time (there is a legendary 25% acceptance rate) but I can't wait to start classes in the fall!

This was my face after I opened the packet and found that it is approximately 40 pages long! Apparently there is a lot to do to prepare to start classes in the fall.