Dreams Come True

Tonight I was fortunate enough to attend The Nashville Tribute Band concert at Tuacahn Amphitheatre. Only in St. George can you go to an outdoor concert in the middle of November. It was freezing though. I had to wear 3 pairs of socks and it took me AND my roommate to get my shoes on. But, we were kept warm by the Spirit. For those of you who don't know, The Nashville Tribute Band is a group of country artists who sing LDS songs. They have three albums dedicated to Joseph Smith, the pioneers, and missionaries. I love country music and I love the gospel, so it was wonderful being able to enjoy the power of both.

 Ryan Tilby, Ron Saltmarsh, Bart Olson

I know Ryan and Bart from Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband. Ryan introduced me to Ron. He is the  head of the Media Music Studies at BYU. They all gave me some really great tips on how to start my music career. 

Matt Lopez, Brad Hull, Tim Gates (Due West)

I've met this boys a few times. They never fail to impress.

 Dan Truman

Dan is the piano player from Diamond Rio. 

Jason Deere

Jason is my music idol. Seriously. If I could have anyone's career, I would pick his. He has produced so many amazing artists and written some wonderful songs. He does this all in between attending his daughter's soccer tournaments all over the country.

Katherine Nelson

She has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. And she's super nice.

My bestest friend Lindsay Quilter. As I type this, she is looking up music programs for me. Isn't she just the sweetest!! 

All in all, it was an amazing night. I would highly recommend checking out the band at http://nashvilletributeband.com/ 

Chris Keller Is In The Building

So this past weekend, my roommate and I ventured to my favorite city of Las Vegas. We went to see our favorite singer/actor Tyler Hilton. He played Elvis in Walk The Line and Chris Keller in One Tree Hill (Our favorite TV show). 

Here's what we drove to Vegas. In style, baby.  

 On the way!! 

This is how us poor kids do Vegas. Poptarts for dinner!! 

We were the merch (merchandise) girls for Tyler Hilton. We sat at a table and sold CDs, t-shirts, and posters. Pretty sweet beans! 

This is what Caitlin Crook looks like when she realizes she is going to meet her hero Chris Keller. Attack of the nervous eye twitch.

This is Tyler's opening act, Dion Roy. He hung out with us for most of the show. Super nice guy! 

DREAM. COME. TRUE. I could go on for hours about how great this moment was. I've been a fan for at least 4 years. He plays my favorite character on my favorite TV show. His girlfriend is Megan Park. She is Grace on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She came out before the show and introduced herself. She is so cute and pretty. When we met Tyler he said, "Megan came back and said that you were cute and nice and I wanted to come meet you but I couldn't." So yeah, a TV/movie star thinks I'm pretty. Speaking of pretty, Tyler Hilton's eyes are gorgeous. I could write a whole book about them. He gave us really big hugs. Best night ever.

For selling merch, we got free CDs and they signed them. Apparently Lindsay and Caitlin are the two hardest names to spell. Poor Tyler. 

Our concert hangover, not a real hangover, but we were really tired. We drove all the way home after the concert. Didn't get back 'til 3 a.m. Crazy. But so worth it. 

My Awesome Friends

I'm just going to start this post out by announcing that I have just completed my first year of college and I'm back home in BC!! Yipee!!

Ok, onto more important things. You might not know, but the past few months I have been really struggling at getting along with my roommates. I started hanging out with the boys that lived downstairs. They took me in and are now my best friends. Here are a few pictures of what life is like in Apartment #14.

Erin, Frank, Parker, Kenny, me, Cody, and Daniel.

Daniel threw me a birthday party. Yes, my birthday is not until July, but we really wanted cake. It was definitely one of the best birthdays ever! Frank and I watched High School Musical and even sang along. It was wonderful!! The cake was really good too!

Every day the boys would play Call of Duty Black Ops. I never played, so I would just sit and watch and cheer them on. Kenny and I sat like this all the time.

Daniel became my big brother. He is so sweet. He bought me a pillow pet as a going away present! He's awesome!

The boys are so crazy. This was the last time I saw them :(

We pretty much had the same outfit on. Hollister jeans and blue button shirts. Kinda awkward.

Anyway, I love these boys! 'Nuff said!

The 46th Annual ACM Awards

I can finally cross something off my bucket list: attend the ACM Awards. This is something I have wanted to do since I was 9 years old. However, in the past few years, I have realized that the ACMs are really stupid. So, instead of attending the actual awards show, I went to some free concerts. The ACMs are held in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.

We were just walking around the MGM looking for some celebrities and we stumbled upon this gorgeous man. His name is Chuck Wicks. You may remember him from Dancing With the Stars a few seasons back. He was dating Julianne Hough. He was super nice and even sang for us!

Thompson Square. These two are the cutest married couple ever! They have the number one country song in America right now, Are You Gonnna Kiss Me Or Not? It's one of my favorites!

This is not the real Bret Michaels, but I am a huge fan so I had to get this picture! For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the lead singer of Poison.

Steel Magnolia. They were wonderful as well.

Mr. Ronnie Dunn (Brooks & Dunn for those of you who don't know your country music). This was his first concert as a solo artist. He sang the old stuff, and some new stuff.

Me and my friend Maloree with Ronnie in the background. His brother stood right in front of us for a few minutes. That was really cool. I even saw one of the guys from Due West!!

It was a wonderful night! A total dream come true!!

MLK Weekend!

I'm now back in St. George. It's nice weather down here, but I miss Momma Crook and all the boys. So, since I've been a little homesick, my roommates Haylie and Darcee and I partied this weekend!! On Friday night, we had a movie party in my room. I don't have a roommate so we pushed the beds together and bought lots and lots of junk food!

Lots of junk food!!

Sugar coma!

One of our friends had his farewell on Sunday in Las Vegas. We decided to make it a vacation and headed down Saturday afternoon then spent the night.

Haylie and Darcee had never been to Vegas. It was fun to be their tour guide.

We got our picture with Captain Jack Sparrow! He was amazing!

On Monday, we took a little hike. I've lived in St. George for four months and still hadn't been on a single hike. We went to a place called The Narrows. This is me in the middle of it. This was kind of an opening. The crack is only about 10 inches wide. Super tight fit!

Well, the weather is great down here! So, if you need to get away from the snow, come on down! I've got an extra bed! ;)

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CROOKS!!

This year for Christmas, my family did something a little different. My mom decided to have the missionaries over for Christmas Eve dinner. What started out as two missionaries quickly turned into ten. We had a night full of story telling, games, great food, ping pong tournaments, air soft wars, wrestling matches, and lots of laughs. It was really fun getting to spend time with the boys just relaxing.

Elder Shimboshi and Elder Flake are the missionaries over our stake. They are great guys!

Even after he told us that he only wanted to decorate one, Elder Flake sat down for about half an hour and frosted these. He's pretty good if you ask me!

Elder Conover, Elder Quirante, and Elder Dill refer to themselves as The Three Wisemen since they are in a tri-companionship. The rest of us refer to them as The Three Stooges. They are over the south end of Brigham. Elder Conover thought he was pretty funny here.

Elder Smith, Elder Leon, Elder Davis, Elder Chidester, and Elder McRae. Quite an odd bunch of boys but we still love 'em!

Alec got just what he wanted for Christmas: a big brother!! Elder Chidester spent Christmas day at our house. He made us some pie. Although it doesn't look the greatest, it tasted great!!

Elder Chidester and Elder Figueroa with us right before we took them back to Malad. It was a great Christmas Day.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT:

• Conover told us a story about how he grew up in an orphanage and got an orange for Christmas one year. (This was a joke.)
• Leon told stories about: Conover growing up in a dump with 4 pet rats: John, Barry, and Steve (Yes, there were only 3), finding a dead man, and how he thought his turkey was a boy when it was really a girl.
• Leon stuck his tongue in a mouse trap. (On purpose.)
• Davis played us some songs on his new ukulele.
• Chidester and Smith had a huge wrestling match as a result of the air soft war.
• Smith showed us a video of his Pappy telling the Christmas story from back in Tennessee.

We had a great Christmas and we hope you did too!!! Happy New Year!

Peach Days!!!

I got to go home for Peach Days! It was SO great seeing my family and friends! It was hard coming back to St. George!

My best friend Charlee and I were trying to get the missionaries in this picture. It didn't quite work. :( I got to see Elder Davis (the one I have a crush on)! I haven't seen him since June! It was great!!

I ran into my adopted little brother Andy and one of my best friends Matt!!

Tayla, Alec, Charlee, and I about to head on the Zipper!! It was fantastic!!!