Olympics

I really enjoy the Olympics. I think the summer ones are a little more fun, but they're both great. Since we're currently in the middle of the winter Olympics I'll ask this question.


What are your favorite events to watch?


I really enjoy short-track speed skating, ariel ski-jumping, and figure skating. My favorite moments so far this year are Evan Lysacek winning gold in men's figure skating, watching Apollo Anton Ohno in short-track speed skating, Shaun White tearing it up on the snowboard half-pipe, and even though I didn't watch it live, the USA men's hockey team beating Canada 5-3 (I did watch them beat Switzerland in the quarterfinals).

Jeff in Town / Another Mandate

Jeff came to visit this last weekend from Houston. It was a very happy reunion. We planned a little get together with the old roommates while he was here. Last Saturday we went to the BYU vs Air Force basketball game in the Marriott Center. I thought several times about bringing my camera. But when I was leaving, I completely forgot. So this picture is the only one we have, courtesy of Jeff Ward.

At this mandate (guy's night out) was Kevin, Bwood, Nathan, Jeff, me, and Michael T. Barney. BYU beat up on Air Force, 91-48. It was fun. Afterwards, we went back to my place (Christina was out with her cousin) and had some pizza from Papa Murphy's. It was great to get all the old roommates back together. Jeff hadn't seen Nathan or Kevin since the beginning of last summer when he left. We hope he comes out again sometime, real soon.

Not a single person has asked me about my scar

I think people are just trying to be polite. Since I've gotten back to Provo no one has asked me about the scar I got on my chin over winter break. Unfortunately, no one took a picture of it before the stitches went into place. I heard it was pretty gross (I never actually saw it before the stitches either). If you want to see it just a few days after you can look more closely at some of the Honeymoon pictures. Here's how it all went down.

Sunday, December 20, 2009, two days before my wedding, I was playing with my nephews. Christina and I were on the computer. My nephews kept coming back to me asking me to chase them. So I would and they would run away and squeal. One of my nephews was coming up the flight of stairs from the basement. I was hiding behind the wall waiting to jump out to scare and grab him. As I jumped out I hit my knee really hard on the wall. To see what has happened in previous incidences when I hit my knee really hard, check out my Facebook pictures. Well, remembering this right away, I decided I needed to sit down. I didn't choose the best place. I was feeling dizzy and went a few feet into the living room where about 5-7 other family members were. Feeling dizzy and my knee throbbing, I sat down on the piano bench (not the best idea because it has no back).

The rest is a blur. After sitting down on the piano bench the next thing I remember is fighting to try to stand up as the room was spinning around me. (I somehow ended up on the ground.) This is what I've been told happened . . . I tried standing up. For the moment that I was standing, I was right next to Christian, my brother-in-law, but he had no idea what I was doing, otherwise he would have grabbed me. Then I fell (I'm not sure when I blacked out), almost right on top of my sister-in-law, Karin, who was sitting down. I hit my chin on the wooden armrest of the couch.

Other than to show my really cute nephew, this is to show where I hit my chin. The big armrest that Keenan is resting his arm on. Karin was sitting where Ryan is.

This is the entire living room. I was sitting where my mom and Karin are.

After I realized that the room wasn't actually spinning, and that I should listen to everyone around me telling me to lay down, I did just that. Mikaela went to get Christina. She was so supportive. All I could think was I had ruined our wedding pictures, but she really didn't care about that. We were off to the Urgent Care center. The doctor stitched me up really well, six stitches total. Five days later on the honeymoon, Christina took the stitches out (she's very proud of that). 

Next time I hit my knee really hard I am laying on my back right away, no matter where I am. I don't care if I'm in the middle of the mall or at work. No more bloody noses or stitches.

Seeing all of these couples around me get engaged makes me really happy . . .

 . . . that I'm already married and don't have to go through that again.

Pranks

The guys from M28 (my old roommates) were a tight bunch. One thing that we really liked to do was pull pranks. This includes doing it to each other. Some of the simpler ones were stealing someone's towel while they were showering, putting chairs in the hallway in front of their door during the night, or putting a rubber band on the kitchen sprayer to give them a surprise when they go to turn on the faucet. We had a lot of laughs with these. Even if Jeff and Bwood didn't find it as funny when we took their towels. We also had much bigger ones aimed at other people/apartments that I won't disclose here. Many of them are still unknown. Some failed.

Pranks are pretty much done with when you're married. I'm sure Christina wouldn't be too happy with me if I planned out some ways to prank her. Pretty much all that I can get away with is sneaking up on her and scaring her. (Which works pretty effectively.) I wouldn't want to really do anything else though. Anyway, here are some pictures in memory of some pranks. Who knows, maybe Nathan and I will pull off another great one before I head off to California.

I love how excited Kevin looks.

Jeff walked right into it in the morning. He put it back up for me, but I saw it and avoided the disaster.

Christina even walked passed us while we were pulling this off (over a year before we started dating). At first she thought we were being nice cause we were shoveling the walk. But a lot of people didn't notice where we were putting it.

I have to admit Jim got me a few seconds later.

Honeymoon—Adventures in Vegas, Part 2

The adventures in Vegas continue . . .
(check out Part 1 if you haven't already)

We made a stop at the giant M&Ms Factory. To my dismay they don't actually make M&Ms there, they only sell overpriced ones, along with a lot of memorabilia.

(Not an actual factory)

We still had a lot of fun there!

We took a minute to wait for the famous Bellagio fountain show. Even though it wasn't completely dark yet, it was still cool.

On Sunday we decided to stick to the nature side of things and avoid the Strip altogether. After church, we packed up a picnic and went to the Hoover Dam. Usually it's only a half hour away, but traffic was horrendous. It took over an hour, but it was still a lot of fun.

This is where we got married.

(Note: This is not the actual place we were married)


The last night we were there we went for a gondola ride at the Venetian. It was a fun ride. The gondola driver sang for us and was really nice. Afterwards we watched Phantom of the Opera. The theatre was created just for the show and it was amazing! I highly recommend it.

Honeymoon—Adventures in Vegas, Part 1

Christina and I decided to have our honeymoon in Vegas. Ya know, the normal place for a young, Mormon couple to go. We were hoping it would be warm. Although it was warmer (and less wet) than Washington, it was still pretty chilly—in the 50's. So the only swimming we did at the resort was in the hot tub. We stayed a few miles off the strip in the WorldMark Resort. It was nice that we didn't have to pass by the strip anytime we wanted to go somewhere.

The first full day we were there we went over to Circus Circus. We had a fun time playing the carnival games they had. I won Christina a flower and she won me a Nemo-esque fish.

We liked wearing the t-shirts my brother-in-law, Keenan, made for us (we have them on in the first picture too). The back of mine says Groom and the back of Christina's says Bride. When we did wear them in public we had several people congratulate us.

On Christmas night we went and saw The Lion King. The story is the same as the movie, including many of the same exact lines (and the same songs). The most amazing thing to me were the costumes and sets and how they portrayed some of the animals and scenery. I really liked the wildesbeest stampede scene. We both thought it was really good.

The next day we traveled along the strip for awhile. Our first stop was at the Sahara where we went on one of my favorite roller coasters, Speed - The Ride. At the very beginning it shoots you out and up to 70 mph in a matter of seconds. Then you go through some twists and turns, a corkscrew, a loop, and then you go straight up into the air. After a second or two, it shoots you back through the whole thing again, this time backwards. Christina was screaming the whole time, but she liked it. Unfortunately, the flash didn't go off on the picture they took of us, otherwise I probably would have gotten it.

These next pictures were taken in this giant toy store inside the mall in Ceasar's Palace. This giant game of Blokus is for Nathan and Courtney, and anyone else that likes that game. It was a bit pricey at about $150.

Then there was the giant Trojan horse.

Here we are at the Bellagio with a cool polar bear behind us.

Much more to come very soon . . .