2015 BYU Traditions Ball

For the last two years, the BYU Traditions Ball has been held on dates that we were out of town visiting family and friends. So this year, even though it was the worst day in April (April 3, 2 days before Easter Sunday) that they could have picked, we decided to go anyway, even though we knew it would be really stressful trying to get there.

My previous post gave you the back story for the start of our evening: me driving myself and two kids back from Ogden and hitting rush hour/Easter/Conference Weekend/Mission Reunion traffic. It took me probably 2 hours to make a 1 hour drive, and the drive was bookended by Rachel's screams from the backseat. Brian called and pushed back our babysitter arrival time several times. I knew the drive would be bad, but I had no idea how bad. By the time I got home, I was fuming. I had had it with Rachel screaming, I had had it with traffic, and I was panicked about the time. I still needed to hem my jacket for my dress (that I had started sewing the night before.) I hurriedly finished hemming my jacket, and then I headed to my room to take a LONG shower. By this point, I had decided that I needed to get a grip, calm down, and then just make the best of our shortened evening with Brian. Hence the long shower. I locked the kids out, and when I was calm, I got out of the shower, got dressed, did my hair, and started trying to put myself together with safety pins (the woes of putting on a dress with only one strap when you have a strict 2 sleeves policy). But, with a little help from Brian, and the arrival of our babysitter, we headed to BYU,

 stopping at Burgers' Supreme for a fast dinner (drive through--you make compromises when you're running late). We got our tickets--or rather VIP pins-- and headed to our favorite BYU event. This year, they combined with the College of Fine Arts to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Harris Fine Arts Center. What that meant for us is lots of free concerts included in our dance admission. We ate our dinner while watching the Theater Ballet Company, and then the Ballroom Dance Company. We lamented missing so many other amazing shows, but we made the most of the time we had left.

 This year, they held the ball in the Wilk instead of the Hinckley Center. I missed being in the beautiful building that was my office for my last year at BYU, but we still had a blast dancing to the music of Synthesis. It's so fun to dance to a live band!

  

 And I had the best looking date there---I'm so lucky!

They did a photo booth again this year, going along with the 50th HFAC celebration. I miss the library at the Hinckley Center. I think this background is ugly, but Brian and I almost make it look good. 

We were sad to leave; we had such a great time. Here's hoping that next year's Traditions Ball doesn't fall on such a stressful day!