The Top 9 Things We Miss About Provo

Peter and I have had a blast here in St. Louis. We have definitely made the most of it and have done almost everything there is to do here (everything free at least :). We have had such a great time going on dates and spending quality time together and we wouldn't trade that for the world. The opportunity to leave Provo, leave all the obligations of school, friends, and family, just to be able to focus on us, has been such a good start to our wonderful marriage. But everything must, at some point, come to an end. We leave St. Louis and head back to Provo in less than one week, and honestly, we are really excited about it. I have caught myself day dreaming about all the things I miss about Provo and I have caught Peter doing the same at times. So, we have come up with this list:

The top 9 things we miss about Provo:
(In no particular order)

#1 - The Mountains

St. Louis is definitely beautiful in it's own way, but there is nothing here that can even compare to the mountains in Provo. Peter and I miss hiking. Don't let the picture fool you though, I do not miss snow at all.

#2 - Yo Zone

We are so YoZone deprived!

# 3 - Our Amazing Friends

We have a few fellow salesman buddies here, but other than that there is absolutely no one our age. We miss our wonderful friends so much!

#4 - The RB

(This one is for Kortney) The Richards Building at BYU is where I have spent the last 4 semesters of my life. I have a full time job here in St. Louis (I have to be available basically 24 hours a day), so I wasn't able to take any dance classes at all this summer. I miss dancing SO much! I am so excited to dance again! =D

#5 - Lack of Humidity

The humidity is disgusting here. I grew up in Tennessee, so you would think I would be use to it. Lets just say, Provo has spoiled me rotten. Peter is not use to it at all. He would work 8 hour days knocking door out in the heat and humidity, he never complained, but I felt so bad for him and I know it was torture. We are so excited to get back to Provo so we can actually do things outside again.

#6 - Humor U

(This is mostly for Peter) Peter was the President of Humor U, BYU's stand-up comedy troop, back in Provo and intends to reclaim that title once we get back. Seriously, it has been killing him being away from Humor U. He is so excited to perform again. And I am so excited to watch him perform!

#7 - Cousin Dinners

Peter's cousins are amazing! About once a month Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rob invite all the cousins over to their house for cousin dinner. And let me tell you, Aunt Cindy is one of the most amazing cooks on the planet. We catch up, laugh, play games, and just have a great time. It seriously is a blast and we have missed it SO much while we have been away. (Congrats to Heidi and Chad who just got married August 7! We are so sad we missed it. We love you!)

#8 - Family

Having Pete's family close to us in Utah has been so wonderful. It is nice to be able to get together on a regular basis and stay close to his family. Also, having my brother Tyler right there in Provo with me has been great! My younger brother Travis will be at BYU this fall as well. I love having family close by. They are wonderful and we miss them so much.

#9 - Our Boardgames

I know this is really lame, but whatever. Peter and I decided we didn't have room in the car on the trip to St. Louis to bring many boardgames. So, we only chose three games to bring with us this summer. In the meantime we have ordered one more while we have been out here because we got kind of sick of the three we brought. Back in Provo we have 25-30 different boardgames. We are excited to get back to them. =D

*WE LEAVE ST. LOUIS IN 4 DAYS AND WE CAN'T WAIT!!! =D*

The Disney Canon

When Kortney and I were long distance last summer, we made a list of things we were gonna do when we were back together. Some things were cute, like learn a new recipe together, some things were spiritual, like go to Conference together, and some things were adventurous, like climbing a mountain peak. Two items were a little ambitious. The first was to road trip to Mt. Rushmore (this was my suggestion), the second was go to Disneyworld (her suggestion). Well, we did about 20 of the 30 things on our list before leaving Provo for the summer. On our way out to St. Louis for the summer we made a 10 hour detour and went to see Mt. Rushmore. It was AMAZING. And now, as our summer draws to a close and we head back to Provo we are putting together our plans for making the second item, Disneyworld, a reality.

Our tentative plan right now is to go out in May, once the school year is over, and spend a couple days in Orlando doing all four of Disney's parks and both of the Universal parks. We are planning on going with Ali and Brent, our Tenessee couple friends who get done with classes the second week in May. Ali is a Disney expert as that is the regular family vacation for her. She will be our guide.

My only Disney experience is with Euro Disney which my family went to right before we moved back to the States. I was too short to go on any of the good rides and my inability to go on the Indiana Jones ride (my hero at the time) is what I most remember from that trip. It was very disappointing to me at that time. So I don't really know what to expect.

Kortney and I have season passes to Six Flags this summer and she was explaining to me not to base my expectations around an amusement park like that. Disneyworld is a theme park. The rides are not there to be thrill rides, they aren't roller coasters, etc. The whole Disney experience lies in seeing the Princesses and visiting the different lands and its all an excersice in nostalgia. Apparently.

Well, I suggested that in order to get the most out of our money we needed to go through a crash course in Disney. We looked up the list of all the Disney animated classics and there are currently 50, Princess and the Frog being the latest. We made a spreadsheet, looked up which are available on Netflix (all but 7) and decided that we would do it. We would watch the whole canon in chronological order.

This was today. We also hopped on YouTube and discovered that most Disney movies uploaded on there in 10 minute increments. We decided to get a jump on our goal and watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. Her voice is rather shrilly I must say, but I laughed at the gags more in this movie than I've laughed in most comedies for a long time. It was great. If you haven't seen an old Disney movie in a while, I recommend going back and reliving those old memories. These movies really are timeless. Next up...Pinocchio!