First Time Skiing

I have always hated snow...always. I just really don't like being cold, and even though snowball fights and building snowmen are supposed to be fun, I ALWAYS end up getting snow down my shirt, or my pants, or in my shoes and socks and I HATE that. Peter on the other hand really enjoys the snow and has been wanting me to ski basically since we met. He thought that I would transform into a snow lover once I learned to ski. I have been avoiding this for our entire marriage until a couple of weeks ago when Peter's dad took us on a ski trip.

I was really nervous about skiing and NOT excited about it at all. I thought I would be freezing the entire time and I knew I would be falling all over the place unavoidably getting snow down my shirt, pants, and into my shoes and socks. I was dreading it. Peter, Peter's dad, and Erika (Peter's sisters) were all very upbeat and positive about the idea of me skiing. They all wanted me to have a great time and encouraged me the entire day. They were so awesome and really helped make the experience a good one.

The first thing I did was sign up for a beginner's lesson. I really felt like I would be so lost in this lesson, but honestly it was not that hard. It definitely lived up to its title: beginner. We didn't even really learn to turn. We mastered putting on the skis, standing up, how to fall, and stopping, which are all very important things to learn, of course. But I was feeling pretty bored by the end and pretty excited to learn some more. After my lesson I met back up with Peter and his family and we decided to hit some of the easier slopes. I was feeling a little cocky about my skills (stupid, I know) and the first thing I did when we got off the ski lift was fly down the mountain out of control and eat it. Yes, I did get snow down my shirt, pants, and into my socks and shoes. I decided to slow down a bit and take a few more lessons from Peter and his family. The rest of the day went like this: I took it slow and easy and made good progress, I started to feel a little better about my skills and decided to take it a little faster and riskier, I flew down the mountain, out of control, and ate it (usually taking other skiers down with me).

All-in-all it was a REALLY fun day. I wasn't cold at all (it was actually really hot), I didn't hate the snow, and I actually really enjoyed skiing. I have some pretty awesome bruises and I could barely get out of bed the next morning, but I am really looking forward to the next time I get to ski. Thank you Kerns for being patient, sharing your skills with me, and helping me enjoy Utah a little more. =D

YEAH! We're ready!!

This illustrates Peter's skill level...and my skill level. Haha.

I did this...a lot...

This bruise is on my upper thigh...it looked SO much worse in real life. Ouch. HaHa.

Item #20

I have never been much of a vandal.  I've always seen acts of vandalism in a somewhat romantic light, as if they were rights of passage or little acts of public art, but I do not have a vast portfolio of which to boast.  Even when I joined the notorious gang The Wellingtons freshman year, our acts of vandalism were of a mostly benign and whimsical nature.

So imagine my surprise when Kortney suggested that we toilet paper somebody's house.  She was living in TN and I was in UT and when we would email back and forth, we would add an item to a growing list of things that we were going to do once we were reunited in Provo.  She added #20 TP Somebody's House 


Once she had moved back, we started chipping away at the list.  We would have done more of the list if more of the items had been "make out" and "watch TV" but we did do about half of them before leaving Provo and as of today we have done about 2/3rds.  Anyway, one day after we had been married about a month and a half, we got ambitious and decided to start tackling the list again.  After checking off a simpler item, we turned our attention to #20.

"Who has a house?"

"My brother and sister-in-law do, but they live in Eagle Mountain, and there's only like one little tree in their front yard...it would be lame"

"Your parents have a house..."

"That's not happening"

Then we had a stroke of genius.  Two of Kortney's former roommates had moved into a house on 9th East.  It was loaded with trees in the backyard, and best of all, they would never suspect us because of one essential fact.  Married couple do not go toilet papering.

We stayed up until about 2:30am and we headed out, dressed in black, adrenaline pumping, to live out the adolescent troublemaking we had missed out on.  We parked across the street, carried our ammunition with us, and set to work.  I believe we had 48 rolls of toilet paper with us.  If you aren't familiar with toilet papering, rest assured that it is enough to do a good job.

We spent about 35 minutes in the backyard of the house, launching toilet paper rolls through the trees and having a grand old time.  No wonder this was so popular I though to myself, this is a blast.  I proved myself very adept at it and lamented that if only I had started earlier in life, I might have had a chance to go pro.  Alas, it was too late now (there would be almost no way to hit the magic 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell   holds as the necessary time for expertise.)

I took on the tall trees and Kortney took on decorating the ground level objects like the car in the driveway and the posts of the porch overhang, and once we were done, we were very pleased with our work.

We drove home through the empty streets of Provo, seeing as it was four in the morning and we headed up to our apartment.  Once inside we prepared for bed and I realized I did not have my phone with me.  I had a bad habit of leaving it in the car and I was pretty sure it was there.  Kortney was less sure and wanted to go back to the scene of the crime and make sure we hadn't left such an incriminating piece of evidence.  I assured her that it was impossible.

About 70 minutes Nicola and Jamie woke up and looked out the window.  Needless to say, they were shocked.  They began to mentally line up all the boys who might have been responsible.  They stepped outside to assess the damage, mentally calculate how long it would take to undo what was done.  And right at that moment...

BOO BEEP BOO DEE  BOO BOO DEEEEP BOO DEE

My phone's alarm went off!  There it was nestled in a soft little bed of TP.  It took them all of half a minute to figure out who the culprits were.

Two hours later we awoke to a text on Kortney's phone that said "When are you guys gonna come over here and clean this up?"  After feigning ignorance for a few texts, they revealed their hand and told us they would be holding my phone hostage until we cleaned the whole yard up.

When we went back to the site of the crime, we realized that we might have done too good of a job.  It was like the reverse of the parable of the young man who marries the daughter of a wealthy merchant who wishes to start his son-in-law's budding career as a contractor off to a great start and commissions a huge, beautiful house.  The young man soon the old man does not care about the cost and quickly starts to cut corners, use sub-par materials, and hire underqualified workers so that he can pocket the change.  When the house is done, the father-in-law announces that it is to be the newlywed's home.  He then has to live with the drafty creaky house for the rest of his life as a reminder of his dishonesty.

We on the other hand, would have had the greatest home on the planet if we had been building a house instead of vandalizing one.

We spent the next two hours or so returning that yard to its former glory.

Believe it or not, this was our last time TPing.  

Goals for 2011

As I cleaned up the apartment on Conference weekend I came across the goals Kortney and I set for the year. I had been trying to find them to remember what goals we had set for ourselves and so I was very happy to find them. We decided for 2011 that we would set 11 goals. We found that we are well on our way to some and were happy to remember and rededicate ourselves to the rest.

1. Visit six capitols.

This is a bite-size chunk of our overall goal to visit all 50 state capitols eventually. We visited six last year (Jefferson City, MO; Springfield, IL; Topeka, KS; Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; and Frankfort, KY) and figured that that was a pretty solid pace. So far this year we have been to two.

Boise, Idaho and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Thanks to the Moyers in Boise and the Thomas' in CO who helped make those trips possible!

2. End the year with absolutely no debt.

One of those grown-up goals. With Kortney's good job and the possibility I have of getting paid work after my externship with Franchise Foundry, this shouldn't be a problem.

3. Watch a season of 24 in 24 hours.

This is something I have always wanted to do. And with all the seasons of 24 coming to Netflix instant play, it is more possible than ever. At the beginning of the year there were only two seasons of 24 I hadn't seen. Season 6 and Season 7. Kortney had never seen an episode. We figured we could leisurely watch Season 6 together and then set a day when we would watch Season 7 in real time. The idea is that we would start the season at the same time the day starts (8am for season 7) and then end at the same time. Pausing during commercial breaks to let time catch up and starting again once the real time matched the time on the 24 clock. We have only two episodes left of season 6 so we only have 24:Redemption left to watch before our 24 day is upon us.

4. Visit a National Park

The only National Park I've ever been to is Yellowstone. I've lived in Utah for over a decade and haven't been to Zion's, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, OR Bryce's. I wanted to set the goal at three national parks so that we could really take a chunk out of that horrid underappreciation of Utah's natural beauty, but Kortney talked me down to one. We may see Hot Springs, AR, in May (America's first national Park), or Yellowstone this summer, or one of Utah's. Either way, this one is a must.

5. Start our State Scrapbook and finish at least three states.

Kortney comes from a long line of accomplished scrapbookers and has wanted to chronicle our adventures in that medium. We decided a fun way to tell our story would be to have a section for each state and so instead of seeing what we have done in chronological order, we would instead have a Chapter for each time we have been through a state, full of pictures, mementos, souvenirs, etc. But, it won't happen if we don't get started, so this year, we begin. So far we have been to 16 states, so, we've got work to do.

6. Read the Book of Mormon

Though we both have read this book of scripture, we have never read it together. That's on the docket for this year. So far, we are in Mosiah.

7. Go hanggliding

This is something we have talked about doing since we were dating and have never done. We were going to go as a graduation present to me last April but the weather didn't permit. The point of the mountain is world reknown for its wind conditions and we would be remiss not to take advantage of this while we live so close.

8. Run in some kind of a race

We originally registered for the Red Rock Relay last year but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Humor U. This year, we would like to complete some kind of a race and see how that goes.

9. Improve Sundays

With our busy schedules it is easy to let certain important but non-urgent things slip between the cracks and this is most often the case with spiritual things. We figured we could start the process of improving ourselves by improving our use of Sundays as days of spiritual growth. This was a goal we had forgotten about until we found the list....so...we'll let you know how that goes from here.

10. Watch all the movies in the Disney Animated Canon.

There are 50. From Snow White to Tangled. We have a trip planned at the end of the year to go to DisneyWorld and we hope to finish this by then. The last one we watched was Sleeping Beauty (15) and the next will be 101 Dalmatians (16)

11.Throw an awesome President's Day Party.

Done and Done! See the post about it for pictures and a beautiful poem describing the event.

The Tallest Monument in America--The Arch

After nearly a month and a half of living in St. Louis, Kortney and I finally managed to get around to doing that extremely iconic St. Louis-y must, we rode to the top of the Arch. It was awesome, and I mean awesome.

This was a special Saturday for me because Kortney actually drove out to Illinois to pick me up once I was done selling and so not only did I not have to wait around to be picked up by my manager, or wait for everyone else to be picked up too, but I also didn't have to wait an hour to drive home before getting to see my wonderful wife. Definitely the hardest part about selling is the ridiculous hours that we have to spend apart. We've definitely gotten better at making the most of our time together, but that doesn't make the time apart any easier. Today, it was less, and that was good.

So from Alton, IL, where I had spent the morning and early afternoon, we drove along the Mississippi, cutting through Granite City on our way to downtown St. Louis. As we crossed the bridge over to Missouri, the rain was just pouring down on us. It got so out of control that we decided to pull over and wait for it to cool down, I can handle driving in snow (I've spent every winter of my driving life in either Utah or Quebec) but driving in this rain is unreal! There were times when it would be coming down so hard that even with the windshield wipers going at full steam, the rain created an immediate, impenetrable curtain of water that made driving an unsettling experience, and that's not even mentioning the standing water.

We chilled at the side of the road for a while and were rewarded by not only arriving at our destination in safety, but also by this amazing rainbow. It seemed very artistic for God to give us this view right before we rode to the top of the Gateway Arch.

So we finally got into the parking garage and we braved the weather, which at this point had picked up again, and ran to the north base of the arch and underground into the Museum of Westward Expansion. It's a full service museum on the expansion of America into its Western frontier covering the years 1800 to 1900, suffice it to say, there is a lot of information. There are also two videos that they show and of course, the tram ride to the top of the Arch. At places like these, I am always all about having the complete experience, so we bought tickets to both movies and the tram, and just like that, the rest of our day was booked.

The first movie was about Lewis and Clark's Pacific Expedition. It was on their super screen and it was really amazing. I find their story so inspiring. The number of times that they were serendipitously saved is amazing. The movie was modern and very high quality. I am of the mind that Lewis and Clark definitely earned their place in US History and deserve to be considered heroes. Early on in our time in St. Louis we went to St. Charles which was their departure point for the journey. There was a reenactment society there that were in full Lewis and Clark garb and one of them talked to us at length about his experience as part of the 200 year commemoration where they reenacted their famous voyage. Since then, I have really appreciated what it is that they went through and did.

The second movie was about the actual making of the Arch. It was called A Monument to the Dream. The Dream being the dream of Westward Expansion and establishing a waterway that would cut through the continent. The Monument being the Arch. This movie was very fascinating. It showed some incredible footage of the building of the Arch. It was under construction for about 5 years and they simultaneously built both legs and then connected them at the top. That means that for years there were just these two huge columns of steel growing out of the ground over the Mississippi. It was so cool to see. The day that they put the last piece into the arch was seriously inspiring. The Arch is a feat. Looking at it is impressive, but seeing the engineering genius it took to get it actually built, one triangular piece at a time was even more inspiring. I think seeing the making of it made the experience of riding the tram to the top that much cooler. That said, it was really cool.

You can ride to the top from either leg of the arch in a train of eight cars that are shaped and colored like eggs. They periodically rotate as you travel up the leg so that you are always upright.

The Arch is awesome. A St. Louis MUST-see. You get an amazing view of the city to the west a bird's-eye view of the Mississippi River to the east. The pictures weren't that great since it was at night, but the view was amazing. Take our word for it.

Adventures in St. Louis

This summer Peter and I decided to adventure across the country and try something completely new; Summer Sales. Needless to say, it's not the most glamorous job in the world. When we first decided to sign on with a company called Linx Satallite, they told us we would be selling in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I don't know much about Iowa, but it was all the same to me, at the time. Luckily, there was a Sales Rep who had family in Iowa and he really wanted to sell there. So, we were then told that we would be stationed in St. Louis, MO. Like I said, at the time I really didn't care where we went, I just wanted to make money. =D Now that we are here, I am SO grateful that we ended up in St. Louis. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Iowa, it's just that I have already fallen in love with this fun and exciting city. There are so many interesting things to do and see here. Peter is compiling a list of all the things we want to visit before the summer is over, and let me tell you, it is pretty impressive. Even if Summer Sales turns out to be the worst job ever, at least we are in a fun, new place where we can have some great memories and take some awesome pictures!

10 Things you (Probably) didn't know about St. Louis
I found this in the 2010 Official Visitors Guide to St. Louis, I thought it was pretty interesting. =D

#1 - St. Louis City is limited to only 61 square miles - it cannot physically grow any larger because of a mandate in the city's charter which was established in 1876.

#2 - The custom of placing chocolates on hotel pillows began when actor Cary Grant stayed at The Mayfair and used chocolates to woo a woman friend from her room to his.

#3 - There were four foods popularized at the 1904 World's Fair - the hot dog, the hamburger, iced tea and the ice cream cone.

#4 - The popular soda 7-Up was invented here and Dr. Pepper was first introduced at the 1904 World's Fair.

#5 - St. Louis offers more free attractions than any city outside of Washington D.C., including the Saint Louis Zoo, Missouri History Museum,. Grant's Farm, Saint Louis Art Museum, Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours, Citygarden, Saint Louis Science Center, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Museum of Westward Expansion, Old Courthouse, National Great Rivers Museum, and the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site.

#6 - The world's first skyscraper - Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building - is located at the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets.

#7 - St. Louis was the first American City to host the Olympic Games (1904).

#8 - Juniors clothing was created in St. Louis in the mid-1930s when a merchandising manager at a local department store persuaded students at Washington University's School of Dress Design to create dresses that would appeal to women in their teens and twenties.

#9 - Planter's Punch and Tom Collins cocktails were Invented at a St. Louis hotel called the Planter's House.

#10 -Susan Blow started the first U.S. kindergarten in St. Louis in 1873.

As you can see St. Louis is a pretty bombin' city and we are SO excited to take advantage of all the various adventures it has to offer us!