BYU Traditions Ball 2011

Last night we went to the ball. It took a little bit of effort on my part to convince Andrew that he could neglect statistics for three hours in order to focus on me. Not that I'm high-maintenance but, seriously, how many hours has he neglected me in favour of statistics? A whole lotta hours, that's how many. I realize that he is slugging through school so that he can (one day) be a good provider for our family but, let's be honest, grad school is a real drag. 

He really is hard-working and high-achieving, though, and I really appreciate that. Rachel said to me one day, "My daddy sure is a long-worker because he works for so long! But that's okay because if he works lotsa time then we will get lotsa money."

And then I told her that we were paying lots of money to have him work lots of time. She was like, "What? That doesn't make sense!" But that's grad school for you. 

Anyway, we went to the ball and had a great time.

Rachel said I looked like Cinderella, and although I don't really agree with that (Cinderella dressed in black?) I will admit that I felt a lot more glamorous than I have in a long time, thanks to the help of Sarah and Jody and everyone else who was so excited for us to go. 

I ended up borrowing one of Sarah's formal dresses from a high school dance. 

It fit perfectly, which kind of surprised me because Sarah's a good six inches shorter than I am.

Jody is a girl in my ward/neighbourhood who volunteered to do my hair and makeup for me. She did a great job and it was so fun to visit with her and get to know her a little better. 

I never know how to pose for pictures. This is me saying just that:

Andrew looked great, too. He even did his hair. With gel. That's a huge deal for him.

We went to the ball three years ago and it was much bigger than we remembered it being—though that was the first ever Traditions Ball so it naturally would attract more and more people as it becomes more of an actual tradition, right? It seemed like there were a lot more people there and they had a few new things this year: photo booths and displays of old BYU paraphernalia. 

We went to a refresher dance class and then danced the night away. It was great! They had a live band again, of course, and when one of the saxophonists walked by we caught each other's eye with that "I know you from somewhere" look. Naturally I only placed him after he'd walked by; it was Daron Bradford with the Ray Smith Orchestra. His wife works with my mom.

The music was lovely, of course. 

We also got to watch Divine Comedy perform; they're BYU's premier comedy group and a lot of their skits make fun of BYU/Mormon culture and they're so funny. There's nothing better than laughing, except maybe laughing at yourself. It was Andrew's first time and he was crying with laughter. Sometimes he is funnier laughing than whatever it is he's laughing about. I told him about my first time watching Divine Comedy and he laughed about that, too. Maybe if you're good I'll tell you about it, too; watch for a blog post titled Worst Date Ever.

Time zoomed by, and before we knew it, the night was over. 

So the handsome prince took his beautiful princess home to their castle (because, contrary to what Rachel thinks, our home is our castle; the BYU Alumni Center is not) where they found two beautiful girls, fast asleep in their beds. 

And then they accidentally woke up one of those precious girls by turning off the bedroom lamp and spent the next half-hour coaxing her back to sleep.

But the evening was still perfect and we plan on living happily ever after.