Friday, June 26, 2009

The Price Is Right here we come!!!

We are leaving for California tomorrow morning!! Yay!!

We are going as a large group to the Price Is Right and in preparation we made alot of tie-dye t-shirts for our group!! It was alot of fun and I have had blue hands for the past couple of days! We are super excited to go :)



Evening with Nature

Tuesday night my two little sisters stayed with us here in Provo. For dinner, we planned a little picnic/BBQ up in the canyons.

We found a nice little spot, and began our little adventure. From experience, I should have known that neither Brandon or I are good at starting fires. After quite some time, some frustration, and a box and a half of matches, we finally got a small fire going.

We roasted some delicious hot dogs and made some yummy smores :)


Afterwards, we stopped by Bridal Veil Falls and played in the water. It was a fun little excursion!

SuMmEr Is HeRe!!!

My first week of summer has been great!!
Last Thursday I finished my last final at 7 pm and then we took off for a short little vacation with Brandon's family at Cherry Hills. Basically it was a glorified camping trip with the RV, a swimming pool, nice-ish bathrooms, miniature golf, etc. It was SO nice to just be lazy and not worry about school or work.

Here are some of the highlights.
(We didn't get many pictures but here are a few)

*Sleeping in our nice, basically new tent.

* Eating yummy food :)

* Playing mini golf

* Playing games- skipbo, cards, phase 10, and night games (our phase 10 game lasted 3 hours and I won)

* Swimming

* Playing with glow in the dark sticks.












and best of all...

* spending time with family

It was a wonderful 3 day trip!

So, we packed up and left Saturday morning.

That night we went to Brandon's 5 year high school reunion! Wow he's old!! It was at a park near by, but unfortunately it was cold and rainy, so we only stayed about an hour. We had yummy food, Brandon got to catch up with old friends, and I won two jars of candy for being a good guestimator :)

After an exciting day we headed back to Provo.

Sunday after church, we went back up to Salt Lake to my parents house, for Father's Day. We had a nice picnic inside because it was cold and spent time together as a family.

Whew, what a weekend!!!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Hooray!

So, I am officially (hopefully) done with English classes!!! The best news I've had this year, well at least this week. Just wanted everyone to know, so that if you choose you can celebrate with me. Go out and party!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

PB & Europe Sandwich

Have you ever wanted something so much that you would do just about anything to get it? And I'm not talking about important things like graduating from college or marrying the girl of your dreams. I'm talking about wanting something ridiculous and insignificant (in the big picture): an exclusive CD from your favorite band, tickets to a sold out show, an out of print book from the 80's, etc. etc.

Well, I at least know I'm not unique by having these cravings (see Tickle-Me-Elmo for more details). Luckily for me, they are usually rare and easy to satisfy. But I almost met my match twice-in the past week!

Craving #1: Last Saturday, Christy and I were in Salt Lake and spontaneously decided that we wanted to play Ticket to Ride: Europe and that we were going to buy it with some of my graduation money (Fortunately, most of our impulse purchases aren't $40 or we'd be out of "graduation money" fast). First stop, Cottonwood Mall. Every mall has a game store right? Well, it helps if the mall exists and right now, Cottonwood doesn't. Oops. Toys 'R' Us? Nope. Gateway Mall? No luck. But we still had our spot of last resort: Valley Fair Mall.

By the time we were on the way to Valley Fair Mall, we were pretty determined. This was no mild craving. Christy's face fell right when we entered Game Den and realized Ticket to Ride: Europe wasn't among the many other Ticket to Ride games that were prominently displayed. I almost burst out laughing with the absurdity of our situation. But lucky for us, a little more searching revealed that they had one copy of the game in a less-conspicuous spot. Craving solved.

Craving #2: What weirdo craves bizarre-flavored M&M's. "Strawberried Peanut Butter"? Well, that weirdo would be yours truly. I'm not quite sure why, but I had to try them. So last night when I searched every aisle at Smith's in vain (although they had an abundant supply before this craving hit), I became resolved. Somebody had to have them in stock and I had to get them.

And out of the 4 stores I went to, I got the only bag. There was literally only one bag left at Shopko. It was mine! Craving solved. And for the record, they were well worth the effort. Mmmm.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Oh to be a kid again...

"Back when I was a boy" just rings with images of an old man recounting stories of his childhood without color TV, cell phones and iPods: "Everything was better back in the (fill in your decade)". But now that I've reached the ripe old age of 23, I find myself looking back with fondness on my childhood of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the original Nintendo (NES), neighborhood laser tag games, and sleep-overs. There's just something magical about childhood.

But why grow up? Sure it's cool to have the freedom to drive, set your own bedtime, and have a steady income...but why not have some of the joys of youth with the freedoms of "old age"? Now I realize that this philosophy has limits (nobody wants a 40-year old living in their basement vegging on anime and World of Warcraft), but with a little responsibility you can have the best of both worlds.

As unique as I may be, Christy and I have a lot in common. And so, on Friday night we decided that we were going to sleep out at Christy's parents' house - on the trampoline (and I want to say it was initially Christy's idea that I ran with...just for the record). And we did.

I was amazed at how comfortable sleeping on a trampoline can be. I always remembered the tossing, turning, and sliding into the middle (why I even wanted to sleep out is a mystery really), but I slept perfectly...until 4:30 A.M.

I became conscious when Christy rustled me awake because the sprinklers had turned on. I was pretty groggy and so I decided we were just going to burrow down under the huge pile of blankets and sleeping bags and wait out the "storm". Smart idea...yeah right. Not only could we not fall back asleep with the water hitting our protection every 10 seconds, but it wasn't long before the water started making it through. Even if our barrier had held up, I was dumb enough to leave my pillows unprotected.

Finally, Christy had the common sense to go inside. We used our 10 second gap wisely to dash to the back deck, only to find that someone had locked the sliding door that we had left open just in case. Brilliant! And to make matters worse, we had no key to the house and our car keys and phones were inside. Christy sat resignedly on a chair and looked like she might go to sleep, so I tried to formulate some plans. I managed to cap the sprinkler with a water bottle I found, but the bedding was toast by that point. I grabbed the only partially dry piece to warm my feet and resigned myself to sleeping on the deck.

Fortunately, Christy took pity on my situation (with a few of my convincing groans I'm sure) and came up with a real plan. A few taps on a front window brought us safety and warmth. And thus ended our youthful adventure - being rescued by a true adult.

We should have learned my lesson, but we haven't. We shall meet again trampoline - without your sprinkler friend! And our youthfulness will conquer!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Pixar is on the Up and Up

I have always been a huge fan of Pixar movies. For the 3 years before Star Wars Episode 1 came out, I declared Toy Story to be my favorite movie and prided myself on being able to recite nearly the entire movie from memory.

And the hits just kept coming (with the exception of A Bug's Life). I had learned to trust Pixar's genius instinctively - despite how terrible their previews look. Until Wall-E. I actually enjoyed Wall-E and will probably buy it someday, but it just wasn't Pixar's blow-your-mind quality.

And so with a hesitant excitement, Christy and I went to the drive-in to see Up this past weekend. And I can say with confidence that Pixar has still got it. Who else could make a funny, adventurous, moving story about a balloon salesman and an imitation boy scout?

It was so good that I was tempted to drudge through Disney's Earth just so I could watch part of Up again (fortunately better judgment won out).

What more can I say? Fork out the big bucks and go watch Up! It's worth it.

And now I just have to count down the days until Pixar launches Toy Story 3 in June 2010 and Cars 2 in June 2011. Yeehaw!