Sundance Film Festival + More:

Hello!!

It's been over a month since I posted on here - something I swore would never happen because an online journal is sort of completely worthless if nothing is ever posted... but moving on:

2nd semester of med school is hard! Why didn't anyone tell me med school is hard? ;) 

So studying is consuming my life, but thankfully I am LOVING what I am learning about, my classmates are pretty much my favorite people, and JP keeps me sane by forcing me to leave my studying cave and do fun things. 

Speaking of those fun things, we went to the Sundance film festival!

It's our sixth year attending (crazy!) and I think it was the best year yet. 

We saw three movies -- Digging for Fire, I Am Michael, and Z for Zachariah and they were all so different that I don't even know which one is my favorite. 

The best part about seeing movies at Sundance is that the actors and director are right there and watch the movie with you, then they get up on stage after and talk about the movie and answer any questions the audience has! 

^^^ Dinner in Park City at Vinto after a movie!

^^^ Hi Nick Miller!

 ^^^ James Franco on the left talking into the mic!

So that was really fun. 

See previous Sundance film festival adventures here, here, here, and here!

Then, last weekend, JP decided that we really needed a weekend away and so at 5:00 PM on Friday evening we decided to road trip to St. George!

We jumped in the car with our friends Eric and Kimmi and had the best weekend eating delicious food, laying in the sun, hot tubbing, and playing tennis!

And then last but not least - Valentines Day!

We had a pretty low key valentines this year - it started the night before valentines with our annual heart-shaped pizza group date (thanks to everyone who came!) which I will be posting about soon because I just realized that I didn't upload my pictures off my camera yet haha. 

But here is a picture of what I wore! Very festive.

Then the morning of valentines we went to yoga, played some tennis, and got Vietnamese food that night! And also watched half of Titanic.  It was basically perfect, and I loved every minute of it. 

Day Date: Sundance Film Festival

JP and I have a lovely tradition of attending the Sundance Film Festival every year we've been together (that's 5 years now FYI, crazy!).

And not "lets-go-see-how-many-celebs-we-can-spot" attend, 

(although I would be up for that as well, JP will have none of it haha) 

no, we actually go to the films! And we honestly look forward to it all year. We've been to lots of movies at the festival and have watched them premier right along side the actors, producers, and director. 

There is something pretty incredible about witnessing someone's artistic vision come to life with them right in the same room.

Of course, attending films at the Sundance Film Festival is always risky -- you might not always get into a showing, which is so disappointing, and none of the films are rated so you're always taking a chance when it comes to the scale of appropriateness haha.

But we love it. We love movies -- well-made, thought-provoking movies that widen or even change your perspective. So the Sundance Film Festival is sort of right up our alley haha. 

This year we headed up on the first day and were really looking forward to seeing "Camp X-Ray" but unfortunately due to some traffic re-routing and other unforeseen issues we missed the deadline by 1 minute! 1! 

Just a heads up - They are freakishly strict when it comes to the film scheduling, whoa.

Anyways, we decided to not let the day be a total loss and took advantage of the beautiful weather by walking around Park City and having brunch at our favorite bagel shop up there. 

Not a bad way to spend a morning! And we're going back up later this week! Anyone seen or heard of one that's a must-see? I have a list but it can always be added to :)

See previous (blogged) years at Sundance:

2011,  2012,  2013

Life Starts All Over Again...

... when it gets crisp in the fall."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

This weekend, JP and I took advantage of these beautiful mountains that surround us and went on a drive up the canyon! 

It was a dream: we put "Old Man Radio" on Pandora (best. station. ever), rolled the windows down, and brought a little pseudo-picnic to eat as we drove! (peanut butter + honey for me, roast beef +sausage for him)

Love love LOVE this place we live in!

:)

^^^ stolen from JP's instagram

:)

A Sundance Wedding

My good friend Maggie got married this past week and her reception was up at Sundance Resort! 

It is really beautiful this time of year -- the snow has finally melted and everything is green!

It was a fabulous wedding too - the bride and groom looked SO HAPPY (which is something that really makes or breaks a wedding experience, don't you think? I always feel so bad when the bride looks stressed out...) and the food was really amazing (BLT sliders!).

Sundance Film Festival 2013

This year's film festival is over but JP and I managed to escape from our homework and see a few movies up at Sundance Resort and Eccles Theatre in Park City during this past week! 

I just love the film festival (read about previous years here & here), and this year was awesome because instead of doing wait-list tickets, we signed up ages ago and got on the "tickets for locals" list and voila! We were able to get tickets to see almost any movie we wanted!

We ended up seeing "Fill The Void" which was completely subtitled and a incredibly interesting story about Hasidic Jews in Tel-Aviv, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck was about two Texan outlaws and the complex path their relationship takes when one gets sent to prison - this one was so good! The director was really inspired by old Texas folksongs and you can really see that motif through out the film. The last movie we saw was the Grand Jury Prize Winner for drama and this one was a lot of fun because since the awards ceremony was right before the showing of the film, so we didn't know which film had won until right before we arrived! It ended up being "Fruitvale" which was such an eye opening movie about the uncalled-for shooting of Oscar Grant in an Oakland BART station on New Year's Day back in 2009. It was an amazing film!

Definitely a successful Sundance Film Festival experience (I can't believe it's our fourth year in a row!), we're already quite excited for next year haha. 

 My sister & I managed to sneak down and meet the director after! And even though I turn into the most awkward person in the world around "celebrities," he was so nice to us and such a neat guy! 

The Sundance Fair

 This past weekend Sundance Resort had their annual craft fair/farmers market, and so my madre, my cousin Lucy, and I decided to drive up and have a look around! 

It ended up being super fun -there was an inordinate amount of large dogs (which I loved), some deliciously organic food, and a random booth that had real-life OWLS, which was awesome,  along with booths of all sorts of interesting artsy crafty things. 

And I had the opportunity to get in touch with my inner 5 year old and decorate a Halloween cookie, so it was win-win all around!