Halloween, Lasagna Throwdown, Camping

Alrighty, so I finally am getting my halloween pictures up. I am actually very surprised with how many people did not know who or what I was. Take a guess....

I'm not really blue guys, I was just standing in some really bad light when this picture was taken =)

Notice the tail in the picture above

....I'm Papa Smurf! The blue paint was actually blue hair dye in a can. I went through 2 cans. It made my skin so dry and pretty cracky. I was also turning everything that I touched blue! Good times. People actually told me that my costume was their favorite at the party, that it was the most original!

Just a group of our friends/ roommates.

Roommate Mark and friend Al.

Today we had a lasagna throwdown. It was a lot of fun. There were 3 competing in it, me, a friend from the ward Mark, and my roommates Mark and Tyler were together making one.

Here we are serving the crowd/judges.

This was right before we served the food. We were each standing by our creations. We are holding the golden spatula, what we were competing for.

Mark and Tyler, wishing they will win it. (These are the 2 that I am going on the cruise with. Oh, did I mention that I am going on a cruise over thanksgiving!!! One last hurrah before I graduate)

Mark, cutting the lasagnas.

Me, your WINNER, holding the prized golden spatula!!! It was a close race. We were judged out of 5 points for originality, 5 points for looks, and 15 for taste.

My other roommate Tyler and I went camping friday night. It was pretty dang cold, but if you know what you are doing it isn't to bad I guess. It was snowing when we woke up. You can kind of see the snow in the pictures. It was a lot of fun but we might sound a little lame because we went to bed at 7pm and then woke up at 5am.

Trip to Lynny's

This past weekend I headed down to Utah. I had originally planned on going on my first hunting trip which I had been planning for MONTHS but since I had just started getting over the swine flu, everyone thought that I shouldn't go...so I regretfully didn't go. (It turns out that the guy I was going to go with said it was a lame trip, no deer and the wind was blowing 40 mph the whole time) So I guess it was better that I didn't go.

Anyways, TJ called earlier in the week and said that I could come down to Utah to go to the BYU game with him since Julia had to work. I looked to be a great game so I decided to go. (Turns out, not such a great game...)

I then realized that Lyndsay had just moved there so I gave her a call and ended up see her and her family for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I made the trip!!!

Jared, Me, and Madison

Jared and me. Madison was laying on the floor for some reason...

Julia, Baby Steveo (inside Julia of course =), Madison, TJ, Jared, Me, Lynny.

Swine Flu, Pictures, and Piranhas

Alrighty, so I have survived the swine flu!! It knocked me out for quite some time. I didn't eat for 4 days so I am still trying to get my strength back and I think that is one of the worst parts of the whole thing. Another horrible part of it was getting tested for the flu. If you ever have the choice, DON'T GET TESTED... they take these long Q-tips and shove them up both nostrils and it feels like they go 6 inches past your eye balls. It was a horrible experience....

But I know I am a wimp .

Anyways, these are some pictures that I found on my camera.

Story time with Lynny.

I think Dad took these when we were at the zoo.

These are some videos that I'm guessing Kelly took. Very talented!! =)

This is a video of our Piranhas. We had some other ones that got really big (the size of your palm) but they died over the break between semesters. Here they are eating. This isn't the best video. I have a better one but of course it is to big to upload to my blog so this will have to do.

Ok, so it has been a while since I have done one of these.

I went camping with some of my buddies the other day. It was fun.

Just a pretty picture from the drive to our camping spot.

Before that a bunch of my friends and I had a 'White Trash' party. My old roommate and his wife live in a trailer so we thought it fitting. Sorry if that is offensive to anyone....

Here we are attempting to eat pickled pigs feet. It didn't go over to well on my part =}

Yesterday Laren Pike and I Went on a VERY long trip to Yellowstone and the Teton National Parks. We did a little fishing in Yellowstone (I caught some kind of little sucker fish about 3 inches long... first fish all year!!) On the way back to the car Laren spotted this elk head. It was HUGE!!! I really wish it wasn't illegal to take this out of the park but unfortunately it is. It would have looked really cool hanging on our living room wall! Oh well.

Just a pretty picture from the Teton Park.

Ebony Opening Her Present!

Alrighty, so I thought I would try this again today and for some reason it worked in about 7 minutes instead of the 2 1/2 hours.  Who knows...

Riverdance/ Jali/ Ebony

Alrighty! So after about a 8-10 year wait, my dream of seeing Riverdance came true.  Dad and I headed up to South Bend Wednesday morning to see the matinée.  It started about 5 minutes late which had me uneasy in my seat =}  But as soon as it started I knew I got my money's worth!  It was so cool.  It gave me chills.  I was surprised a little bit with how many vocal and instrumental numbers that they had.  I would have liked to see more of the dancing but I was still happy.  I was very sad when it finally came to an end...

 

So TJ asked me to take some pictures of my dog to put up so he could see her.  He also asked for a video but I didn't get one, sorry...  Also, again, I'm sure Brynn would love to see Jali!!  And perhaps the other little guys.

 

The picture below is very rare.  One night mom actually invited the dog to get on her bed so Jali took advantage of it and found a nice little spot on Dad's side of the bed.  

When I was home I bought a "present" for TJ and Julia's new Rabbit.  (It was a harness which she really doesn't like but..)  But I thought it would be fun to wrap it for her and see if she would tear it open.  So I came up with this great idea to cover it with carrots so she could eat them off to "open it".  Below is a video of her doing that.  Well, if it actually loads.  Its been trying to load for over an hour now... is that normal...

Ok, so it has now been over 2 1/2 hours and it still didn't load.  What's the deal??

Sorry

So, I'm not sure why the pictures all went in a line going down.  I had them clumped up when I was making it so I'm not sure why they got all stringed out...

I'm also no sure if you can blow up the pictures.  I don't know how to adjust for that.

Cali '09

Alrighty, so it has been awhile since I last posted something so we'll see if I can remember how to do this.

Last weekend I flew down to Southern California with one of my friends to go golfing and visit some families that we knew from our mission.  This was our second annual winter golfing trip.  Next year is going to be in Hawaii!!

When we were there we played 3 1/2 rounds of golf, went to Disneyland, did a little star gazing, and went to the beach.  Before we left the weather said it was suppose to be rainy the whole weekend... =(  Never-the-less we were determined to do all of the activities that we had planned and have fun doing it.  And sure enough, it was pretty rainy.  The good thing was that every time that we went to do one of our 'activities' the rain would stop!  Friday we started the day waking up to a little rain but when we left to go golfing it stopped.  As soon as we were done golfing and got in our rental car (a PT Cruiser, Convertible) it started pouring.  That night we headed over to D-Land and it was pouring the whole way there.  As soon as we entered the gates to the park it started trickling off and with in 10 minutes the rain had stopped.  Some blue skies even come through!  It was great!  However, since it was raining so hard before we got there all of the princesses went in side and didn't come back out after the rain stopped.  This was my second trip to D-Land and both times I missed the princesses and all the characters for that matter.  Oh well.

The rain did get us a little when we were in Hollywood putting our hands in the actors handprints (I know, very touristy...) It also rained a little when we were at the beach but that even cleared up into a very beautiful day with sunny skies!  We were so lucky.

One bad thing did happen monday morning.  We went out and got in our rental car and the battery had died so we couldn't get it to start.  As soon as we pulled out of the rental car place some battery light came on and a low tire light also came on.  I think it is a scam because when we were telling them about it when we checked it back in they were going to charge us for it but luckily I had a AAA membership card so they came out and fixed it for us.

It was also REALLY good to see some of the families that we got to know pretty well when we were there on our missions!  That probably made me the happiest!

Alright, here are some pictures:

Me and Kevin (Forbis)

Can you see my ball on the bridge?  That was the kind of day I was having...

I thought the little ones might like this picture.  Its Mater and Lightning Mcqueen!

This is the family that took us to Disney Land, the Zendejas.  Forbis and I taught the three of them (mom and 2 daughters) and then they were baptized after I was transfered.  They are so much fun!

Jeff, my old roommate came up from San Diego and met me at D-Land.

This is the Emerson family.  We taught Kevin (Brother Emerson) when we were together.  Forbis and I went to their sealing a couple years ago.  One of the greatest experiences ever!!  They are such an awesome family!

This is Brother and Sister Leavitt.  I served in their ward for six months.  We stayed there a couple nights.

At the beach!  We went to Santa Monica Pier 

I made a little sand castle just to say that I did  =)

Bay Watch!!!

We ate at the Bubba Gump Shrip Co. for lunch.  Its a restaurant inspired by Forest Gump.  It was fun but the food really wasn't all that good.