My weekend

This weekend has been nice chance to catch up on some relax time and hang out with some friends. On friday Dave and i bought a big plant. It was such a nice plant until it started to drip water all over our futon and put a little plant stain on our wall. So we're going to have to take it back and look for a plant that is a little more apartment friendly and doesn't pee all over the place.

On saturday night we went with a friend Bryan, and some of other friends up to the hot pots in Spanish Fork Canyon. It was funny cause I haven't been there since i was in scouts, and Bryan hadn't been there in like 2 years so he couldn't remember quite how to get there, so we wasted like an hour just looking for it. I finally found it though, after talking to like 3 different cars passing by.

The hike is about a 2 mile hike. There were quite a few people up there that seemed to be college age. Either UVU or BYU folk. It was a good time, and now i wanna go back up again during the day so i get better pics.

I also went up to Stewart Falls earlier on Saturday afternoon with a couple of friends. I didn't take any pics since i already have a bunch from up there. I guess the best part about the hike was being able to see all of the leaves on all the trees up there. Fall colors have already dominated most of the trees up there and it is always beautiful.

It's kinda weird, but the fall is my favorite time of the year. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the smell in the air... every year, around this time of year i randomly get these memories of when i was on my mission serving in Logrono, Spain. I was there in the fall of 2001 and i can totally remember walking around the boardwalk that goes along the river, and i remember how beautiful it was to see things there especially with the leaves all over. So maybe it's a certain smell that brings it all back to me. It's just a great feeling in the air that always brings back good memories.

My Condo in north Orem

This past week I moved out of my brother's house in Provo and in with my best friend Dave and his little brother Jake. We found a nice condo in north Orem.

We started moving on monday. We decided that the place could use a little bit of paint in the front room, so we asked the owners if we could paint it. Dave and I wanted a nice looking front room, so we offered to paint it ourselves if the owners paid for the supplies.. They agreed and they picked out the color, so we spent monday evening painting.

Tuesday we started the move. I borrowed a truck and trailer from work, and got all of my stuff, Dave's and Jake's in one load. It was a massive load. The truck and trailer together were longer than a bus. We stayed up late and stayed our first night in the condo.

Wednesday we finished up arranging things, and getting things set up, but that wasn't enough. We also spent most of Thursday doing the same thing.

Dave and I have been planning on moving for over a month, and have been getting furniture and things like that ready for our place. We had gone to Ikea, Shopko, Target, Walmart, Biglots, Smiths... So just about everywhere to find all of the things we needed to turn our condo into the glorified apartment that it is and feel cozy. Some things we have previously owned from living in other apartments so that was nice.

Saturday night we had our house warming party and had a bunch of friends show up. They ate all of our pizza, and rootbeer floats. Now there is no excuse for our friends not to come visit us since they now know where we live.

It's 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a washer and dryer in one of them. I got the master bedroom by paying a little extra.. It's quite roomy with its own bathroom, balcony, and walk-in closet.

It's a good thing school hasn't been too hectic yet, other wise i would be swamped with homework. I'm finally back to the normal routine of things and working when I can and going to school. I will be finishing up my communications degree this December. I'm really excited to be done with school... hopefully forever!

I already miss not seeing my two little nieces Averie and Kaylie. It's great that they won't be able to steal my chapstick and money anymore, or hide my stuff, but i will miss being able to see them almost everyday and getting to play with them.

Boys II Men Concert at the Scera Amphitheater in Orem

Thursday night the 28th marked the return of the once Jive, motown, cooleyhigh harmony group from Philadelphia, Boyz II Men. For those who don't know much about this group they have sold over 60 million records worldwide and have earned 4 grammy awards. This was my 3rd time seeing them perform live. The last time i saw them perform was when i was in high school. Dave and I went and had seats on the floor 4th row from the stage. Matt and his wife were two rows in front of us.

The best word to describe the night is awesome. We all had a blast. The sold out crowd gave Boys II Men an overwhelming welcome. I could tell that the group was excited to see so many fanatic people so excited to see them, and i could tell they weren't faking. The even busted out their own cameras to take pics of them with the crowd in the background.

The concert was extremely loud and probably left me with some ear damage, but i'll survive. They are only a group of 3. The 4th retired in 2003 after Scoliosis kept him from doing on stage performances. So they were missing the Bass, but still kept the harmonies going strong.

They sang songs from all of their cd's, most of the well-known songs, plus they busted out quite a few Motown classics and had sweet dance moves for each song. It was great to be up front. I have a ton of pictures and video clips that i took and put some of them up onto my facebook page. The videos are the best, but they take too long to upload, so i'll just put a few photos up here.

I have a feeling that Boys I Men will be coming back to Orem someday soon.

Sunrise on top of mt. Timpanogas, 11,700 ft.

My frind Christy had a crazy idea to do some night hiking up to Mt. Timpanogas. We have made it a thing to do the 14 mile round trip hike at least once a year with our friends. Christy invited friends from her work and we all met up at the base of the mountain at 2:45am. There were a total of 14 people that began the hike.

After a third of a mile i could start to tell which ones would be falling back, and probably never make it all the way up. It's a tough hike and i don't think that anyone had an idea just what was instore for them. Well it turns out that Dave, Christy and I were the only ones in the group of 14 to make it all the way to the top. We pushed ourselves and couldn't afford spending too much time waiting for others.

We got to the saddle just in time to take some sweet pics of the city lights with a mix of moonlight and light coming from the sun on the other side of the horizon wanting to make its way up. The sky was looked twilight and was the coolest thing to see everything in that light. And the full moon made a good natural flashlight for us.

We got to the top shack about 10 minutes before the sunrise, so we made it just in time.

Along the hike up a mountain goat jumped out about 5 feet in front of me and ran down the mountain joining up with about 10 other mountain goats hanging out in a pack. It startled me, but i think it scared Dave an Christy more than it did me, and they were behind me. It was pretty funny.

All together we saw mountain goats, gophers, squirels, a snake, deer, and wild turkeys on our hike.

The hike down isnt friendly on the knees, so im still in a little bit of pain.. we made i back to the parking lot at 10am.

Work trip to Vernal Utah

This past week i went to Vernal to work.. We were suppose to be done and home by thursday night, but there was some rain that slowed us down a little bit, and not having enough help slowed us down.

So my first night in Vernal my boss forgot to get us a hotel room, so we ended up going to Walmart and bought sleeping bags and pillows and slept outside at the school that we were working on. While at Walmart i took advantage of the sink and took a bath in it. I was able to clean up somewhat before going back to sleep in the parking lot.

I tried sleeping on the grass, but the sprinklers kept coming on, and the sidewalk was getting wet too, so i ended up sleeping in the parking lot.

My dirtiest day at work.. when i operate the street sweeper i get dirty.. i took some pics so i could show you just how dirty i got.. it sucked, because i got tons of dirt in my eyes. My eyes are sensitive. Im just glad that the week is over with and i can sleep in my own bed tonight.

Wakeboarding and birthdays

This past friday was my two best friends Dave and Mike's birthday. Dave 27 and Mike 29, So Mike was cool enough to take us and Brandon out to Utah lake to do some wakeboarding. It was fun to be out with the guys and be able to hang out.. it was like good ol times.

Afterwards we went to Tucanos to get some Brazilian grub. There we ate with other good friends like Matty cakes and Creyton. So it was such a good day to be able to be with friends again that i dont hang out with much anymore. Im so glad that even after not seeing them for months that we can still be great friends and have no worries of drama. I just wish they would invite me over more often to do things.

White water rafting on the Snake River

I have been wanting to return to Jackson Wyoming since i was 14 when i was first introduced to the snake river as a boy scout.

As a boy scout i spent 3 days on the river traveling over 50 miles.

Last summer i tried to get some friends together to go, but things always kept coming up last minute and the trip never happened.. But not this year. I, along with Malory and Christy organized a weekend get away to Jackson to get down the river. 4 guys and 4 girls... perfect combo. I got my buddy from UVU Jake and his buddy Scott to come and they were way fun to hang out with. We drove up together, and the girls all drove up together in a truck.


We camped out on Friday night and had to get up at 7am to make it to the rafting place on time. All together it was a 21 miles trip down the snake river near the Gran Tetons. The first 13 miles were just scenic floating where we just chilled and looked at the surrounding beauty and an occasional beaver, or bald eagle.

After that and lunch we jumped on a bus that shuttled us down to spot to do white water rafting. that was 8 miles and about an hour long. I got to paddle on the front left side. We had 16 people in our raft. It was fun to get wet every time we hit the big rapids that were like big waves. Lunch counter, and Big Kahuna were great along with the rest.

After the rafting we went into Jackson and walked around town and did some souvenir shopping and got some pizza. I ran into Gav from "So you think you can dance" on the street and said hi to him for a sec. He just got voted off a couple weeks ago, and i noticed him because he was on the news just the night before i went on the trip. So that was random.

We later made it back to our camp site and gathered around the fire and had a good time keeping warm and roasting hot dogs and marshmellows. The girls had their own tent, and the boys had their own tent.. and there was a bathroom nearby with running water, so it wasn't too bad.

Then early sunday morning we were sadly on our way back down to Provo. We (the boys) went the scenic route near Bear Lake, and through the Logan Canyon. It was way beautiful.


Overall the trip was a blast and wouldn't have changed anything.. No drama existed among the guys.. just a little with the girls since they sort of seemed to keep ditching us, but it wasn't too bad. Now i can't wait to make another trip somewhere exciting.