Let's Just Take a Minute...

Right now, I need you all to imagine if The Jonas Brothers and opera had a baby. 

Imagining it? It's like a fairy tale, right? Something way too good to be true. 

I'm about to blow your mind here. 

You ready?

That baby exists.

And that baby's name is Il Volo. 
Just take a look.

(I wish I had taken this photo but alas...it's from the internet.)

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

My mum and I went on a little date tonight to see these charming fellows.
Best. Night. Of. My Life.

Not only were they the coolest people I've ever seen, but it was at the gorgeous Peabody Opera House.

And we had freaking awesome seats.

(Don't let this photo deceive you. We were actually really close. My phone just takes awful photos and refuses to zoom. It's like a rearview mirror- "objects in this picture are closer than they appear.")

THEY WERE SO CUTE.
Okay, sorry.  I just had to be a teenage girl for a moment. But I'm over it now.


So, in case you're terribly confused right now, Il Volo is this singing trio of teenagers from Italy. They dress like the Jonas Brothers. No joke, they wore skinny jeans and vests and everything. And they sing like Andrea Bocelli. Except better. AND THEY'RE LIKE SIXTEEN.
Their names are Piero, Gianluca, and Ignazio.
Are those not the best names ever?

My mom and I were kind of freaking out.

I'm going to Italy over Spring Break this year with my school. You can bet that I will be finding their addresses so that I can go propose.

Is it weird if a groom sings at his own wedding? 

Because I'm marrying them. But they'll have to sing during the ceremony, too. 

So, hey, Il Volo, if you ever need some fresh and spunky American soprano to tour with you- hit me up.

K, bye.

Gooooing to the Chapel...

As of last Friday, my brother has been married for two weeks.

I KNOW...Crazy. 

(The Bridal Party: Kristin, Kimmy, Bekah, KEZIA, AARON, Sammy, Me, Rachel

Seth, Gabe, Nate, Eli, John)

Anyways, it was absolutely the most wonderful wedding I've ever been to. 

I haven't been to many weddings. But I know this one was one of the best ever.

(The Bridal side of the Bridal Party- Kimmy, Rachel, Sammy, KEZIA, Bekah, Me, Kristin)

We ladies had a ball getting ready together beforehand.

(Kez. SO PRETTY.)

(The Groom side of the Bridal Party- Eli, Seth, John, Nate, Gabe, AARON)

The Groomsmen all had matching socks and bowties. And Aaron gave them all corn-cob pipes as a gift, so they really wanted to take this picture. Goofballs.

I'm pretty sure Kezia only agreed to marry Aaron so that she could have a super awesome Danish surname. Cause, it's not like he has any other redeeming qualities that a girl would wish for in a guy...like the fact that he 100% adores her, is as chivalrous as chivalrous can be, and has a pretty nice smile ;)

First there was a cake and punch reception at the church.

(Rachel, who was also a bridesmaid, made this cake. Including the silhouettes on top! Not only was it gorgeous, but it was absolutely delicious too. When my brother was little he always had a pink birthday cake because strawberry cake was his favorite and it only came in pink. He was always made fun of for it by his friends. So, naturally, his wedding cake had strawberry cream inside!)

 Aaron was getting annoyed by all the people clinking their glasses. 

"I'll kiss her on my own time, thanks!" 

Silly boy.

The actual reception was back on Kezia's family's farm. It was absolutely beautiful. There was a lot of singing  and dancing and laughter, and love. 

(As much of a fuss that he put up about the whole "clinking glass kiss" thing...I'm pretty sure he didn't mind kissing her.)

My dad made the first toast, welcoming Kez into the family and making it public that he hoped they would provide him with many Danish grandchildren soon.

We're a Danish family. In case you didn't pick that up.

Then there was a toast from Kez's dad, the best man, the maid of honor, and my brother's godfather. 

By the last one we had run out of champagne in our glasses...but we went through the motions anyhow.

Aaron always feels awkward when he's the center of attention. As displayed by his facial expression in this picture. How cute.

All around it was just an absolutely splendid day. One that I will file away in my memories under 'Wonderful of Wonderfuls'. 

I got this pretty spectacular sister out of it.

To add to the pretty spectacular one that I already had.

We love our brother. And we're glad he found another  person to love him, too :)

So, welcome to our crazy family, Kez. We're glad to have you.

Congratulations! It's a boy!

I'd like to introduce you all to my new little bundle of joy!

His name is Gustav.

Nunsie and I adopted him last night at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

We've planned a joint custody agreement. 

I get him this week, and then she gets him next week, starting on Monday.

We're thrilled to be able to share his beauty with the world. 

Welcome to the world,

Little Gus!

Happy Birthday, America!

Friend: Are you free tomorrow?
You: Of course I'm free! This is Amurrrika!


The Fourth of July is great. 

So is America. 

Yup.

And this kid.

She's my favorite.

And her brothers are pretty cool too.

Except this one kept squirting me with his water gun.

But he's my second favorite.

So it's okay.

I got him back.

BLKSADJASD. 

Kids. 

Are so cute.

There was waaayyy too much cute in my backyard tonight.

For Them, We Tell the Story...

You know when you first start thinking about your future and all the wonderful things you might be able to do when you're an adult? As soon as that happens you start coming up with all these ideas. Often times, it's depressing, because you realize you have so much time to wait until that can really happen. Because you're just a kid, and nothing cool happens until you're all grown up. 

I don't like waiting. 

At all.

My "adult" dreams are of founding and running my own theater company. Cause how awesome would that be? But I didn't want to wait.

So, I didn't.

Last August, I was in the car on some long road- trip with my family when I started thinking...why should I have to wait for my dreams to come true? Why can't I just go out and grab them? I called my friend, Jacqueline, asking if she was interested in pursuing them with me. She was. 

Thus, Broken Limbs Student Theater was born.

And, it's pretty cool. 

Jack Attack is kind of a big deal when it comes to the technical side of theater, so, naturally, she was perfect for the job. We pulled our talents together and were actually able to produce something to be proud of. We worked on it for a year. We auditioned a cast, bought the scripts, paid the royalties, booked a venue, put together some costumes, rented lights, built a set, etc. etc. And it turned out pretty darn awesome. 

We just had our first production, Celeste Raspanti's I Never Saw Another Butterfly, this past weekend. The cast was incredible. They all took their roles so seriously. 

The story was about a Jewish family and group of children living during the Holocaust in the Czech Republic. So, it was a pretty heavy story. The play told the story of Raja, a twelve year old girl who kept hope for the future even as all of her friends and family were being taken away from her. Every once in a while, it would hit us that this actually happened to thousands of children back then, and then we knew why we were doing it. We had to tell this story, for all those who didn't get the chance because their lives were stolen. It kind of put everything into perspective and made us realize how lucky we are to have the lives we have. 

Through many tears, hard work, and dedication, we were able to pull off a production to be proud of, and raise quite a bit of money for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say through all of this is- Stop sitting around waiting for your dreams to happen. Make them happen. Now.

Summer Lovin'

St. Louis is the best city during the summer. Oh, you think your city's better? Ha, nope. You're wrong. St. Louis wins. Hands down.

There's the Shakespeare Festival (This year was Othello) totally free and outside in the beautiful Forest Park on Art Hill, there's countless outdoor concerts year round, the zoo, the Muny, and thousands of other events that make you a better person if you go to them. Culture, people. It's a great thing. 

Kezia was in town for a few days, so we went to the zoo and swimming and to the Chinese Lantern festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. (Ha, told you St. Louis wins). It was absolutely incredible. Seriously, guys, go see this stuff. It's SO COOL.

Check it out.

Unfortunately, I only had my phone with me to take pictures, so excuse the crappy quality.

This dragon is made entirely out of porcelain dishes, how awesome is that?

Yup, told you St. Louis is great. I'm not biased or anything, though... ;)

Darling, Save the Last Dance for Me

Last Saturday was my school's Spring Formal. Which is essentially Prom, but way cooler. Cause we do English Country dancing. Yup. Like Jane Austen. I know, we're so hipster.

Anyways. It's super fun. It was Paris themed. So everything was decorated super cute, and the food was fabulously French and delicious.

The tornado sirens started going off during dinner. And there was golf-ball sized hail. So, that was super exciting! And we all survived...which was even more exciting.

I brought my friend, Emily, with me. Because she's really cool. And I thought everyone at my school needed to know her. We got to the dance about 45 minutes early...not entirely sure why, but it just happened that way. So, we decided to kill some time by going to McDonalds and getting a shake. (Bad idea, by the way. The strawberry shakes taste like dying babies. No, I've never tried a dying baby. Stop taking everything so literally.) When we pulled up to the drive-thru window, the following conversation took place:

Drive-thru man: What are you two ladies all dressed up for?

Me: We're headed to prom.

Drive-thru man: OHMYGOSH. CONGRATULATIONS!

Me: Umm...thank you?

Drive-thru man: Here's your change. And, again, ladies- Congratulations. Have a GREAT time.

We were so confused. But, I mean...he was nice?

So, then we sat in my car watching Miranda Sings videos on Emilys iPhone, and got stalked by these creepy demon-possessed birds. And then we got to Formal at the right time.

And we did the little Tony-Maria dance from West Side Story about forty times. Perfectly, step by step. Everyone was pretty jealous...obviously.

What's a school dance without stereotypical posing?

And this is the entire girl portion of my class. And I love them all dearly. And I love this picture. Because it pretty much sums us all up perfectly.

So, yup. I'm pretty sure you're all caught up on my life now. As if you really care.

Well, I'm off to memorize Canto XXIII of Dante's Inferno for my Humanities class. DEATH! Literally....cause it's the Inferno. Get it? Haha. WHY AM I SO FUNNY?!

The Midnight Hour is Close At Hand

I've realized that this post may completely ruin my chances of ever having friends in the future. Because...it's incredibly weird. At least Nunsie will have the same problem. So we can live together in our weird solitary world. Or maybe we can start a cult with other weird people who have lost all their friends due to their obsession with floor-length velvet skirts and awkawrdly delicious food. That'd be exciting. We can all listen to Marina & the Diamonds while drinking Japanese soda together, and Nunsie will provide us with Rosemary cupcakes with goat cheese frosting. Yum.

I need to stop writing about this before I convince myself it's a good idea.

Because, in all seriousness, if I could live off of Nunsie's cupcakes and Peace Tea for the rest of my life...I'd be okay with that.

Enough of that. Here's some pictures. Enjoy. Or be freaked out. Preferably enjoy, but I won't blame you if you freak out. K, thanks.

It was dark. And Nunsie had brought over some animal antlers, an animal skull, and a candle. And a mango. Of course. So, yup, you guessed it. Photo shoot.

I have the bust of Shakespeare sitting on the piano in my house. So, we kinda had to take this shot. No judgements. And please pardon that awful glare.

Downton Abbey, anyone? I'm a bit in love with it, myself.

Sybil and Branson are cute. And don't even get me started on Mr. Bates and Anna.

Okay, I'm done. For now.

FIERCE AND LOVE,

Tyra.

Hahaha...totally joking.

Spring is Here in Shoes of Green

I'm sitting here in my sibling's 11th floor apartment looking over Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago. Yes, I'm back :) Told you I love coming here. My dad and I rode the train up here yesterday. Today, we spent the day with my brother's fiancee, Kezia. We went down to Navy Pier and walked around and took a ride on the ferris wheel. Which, if I'm being honest, was absolutely terrifying. I hate heights, haha.

Tonight, my dad and sister are taking my brother out for his 21st birthday while Kez and I go to the original Gino's for some Chicago-style pizza. Yum!

On Sunday night, my friend Jackie and I went on a hike in Castlewood State Park. She had a photography project to work on, and you know I love to take pictures there. Here were some of my shots.

I've always thought grafitti was kinda cool.

Have you had any Spring Break adventures?