A nice surprise

Yesterday, Jon came home from church after finishing all of his calling responsibilities and handed me this!
I cannot tell you how excited I am to go to a session of General Conference! The last time I had the opportunity to go was the April 2004 Saturday morning session. Every time I've asked for tickets since I've always gotten the "We ran out last month" response. I've just never had any luck! That goes for both Utah wards and my Stake back home.

Jon is the financial clerk for our ward and when a Bishopric member was handing him tithing slips the tickets were accidentally in the stack. Jon thought it was a little odd and handed it back to him. The Bishopric member then looked at Jon and said, "Would you like them?". Honestly, who would turn that opportunity down!! It was a very nice surprise :-)

That's one thing on our list of "things to do before we leave Utah" down! So, try and spot us on Saturday morning. Or... better yet... just pretend you saw us :-)

One Night in India

Crystal and I want to make sure to take full advantage of our last year here in Provo. We want to attend and see as many unique activities and places here in Provo as we can before we head to Texas.

Sometimes this isn't always so fun, like at the Latin-American festival in downtown Provo a month or so ago. I'm not a fan of mayonnaise corn on the cob or lucha libre so there wasn't too much else to catch my attention and we soon went home.

A couple weeks ago, however, was the India Fest in Spanish Fork. Loving Indian food and knowing there's a temple there we can tour during the festivities, we happily went.

Crystal looking over Spanish Fork....
"Edge of Town!"

Lots of people apparently had the same idea we had

The temple from a rather less-crowded angle


I just thought this was a cool picture. I'm on the 2nd floor of the temple


The temple grounds had a llama farm!
I'm really not sure the connection in the religion to llamas though...


A little too close for comfort....

Tiiiny little cows
"Zebuuuuuuuuuu...." I mean "Cebuuuuuuuu"

Using Crystal's height as a reference point:
She's 4'11" and the Zebu only came up to about her hip when fully grown


Anyone who knows us knows we won't let an Indian experience go by without trying some of the food! You didn't get to pick what you got, they just gave you some food to try and hoped for the best I guess.

Look's good, eh?!? Okay not so much. BUT! The red stuff was good, like a veggie tomato sauce. The green stuff....not so much. It was full of tofu and I'm definitely not a tofu man (true Texans eat beef). The purple thing was amazing - it tasted like a blueberry muffin. And the bread you see in the picture - it's not like normal naan or roti bread. It was hard/stiff like a cracker and tasted just like the old Bugles crackers (remember those?)

By going to Spanish Fork we were able to experience part of India for a night. We had a great time and look forward to trying to go to the festival of colors there later this school year.

Real quick

So, I heard about a half marathon that is going to be on Halloween in Provo! They encourage you to wear a costume (that you can run in of course). Okay, so I realize that this shouldn't be my motivation to do it... but I can't lie... wearing one of Beth's tutus during the race would be pretty fun :-) Anyways... So here is my dilemma.

On Saturday, November 7th I have already signed up to run the Snow Canyon Half in St. George. This Halloween Half marathon is the Saturday before that. Only a week in between both of them.

Do you think I should do it? Vote in the poll to the right. Let's see if peer pressure will sway my decision :-)

I promise I will try to keep all my running craziness to my other blog.

Oh and PS: Click Halloween Half if you want to do the race

13.1 miles down!

I did it! It definitely wasn't easy, but very rewarding as I crossed the balloon covered finish line :-)

blury finish shot

I ran the Spanish Fork, UT half marathon. The weather wasn't the best. When we got to the race site, it was raining pretty good and it was super cold! I had to change what shirt I was wearing and I'm glad that I did! I had goosebumps for the whole race. It warmed up, but I was still freezing and then the intermittent rain didn't help.

The first half of the course had more hills than I expected. I knew there was at least one hill, but there were about 5. They weren't horrible and hills are expected, but it wasn't fun for 7 miles! Anyways, the course was very pretty. There were mountains to one side and then we were running through a lot of farm land. It was beautiful.

back shot... Hey, I wasn't taking the pictures...

Jon was there cheering me on :-) I heart when he's there. It makes the last 1-2 miles of a race better. He met me at the finish and we quickly ran over to get some watermelon and water.

Afterwards, there was a raffle..and... I won something!! Hehe...


I would really like to do another half. I think I might do one in November in St. George, UT (Snow Canyon Half). As for a marathon... it's definitely in my future, but I'm not ready for it at the moment and I'm not afraid to admit it. It'll take a lot more training. If I stay on top of things, I will probably do the Salt Lake City marathon in April 2010 and if that goes okay/doesn't happen I am looking at a marathon in Houston in January 2011. Bring it on :-)

The week of firsts

1. Jon started school on Monday, August 31st. It was his last first day of school. He even get's to park in graduate parking now! I'd have a picture of the parking pass (that was my original plan for this post) however, BYU isn't giving out stickers anymore. It's all done by license plates now.


2. I'm running my first half marathon on Saturday, September 5th... TOMORROW!! How scared am I? You have no idea! It'll be okay though. I know that I'm ready, I just hate the anticipation of it before it starts. Bring it on!

3. We accepted our first real job :-) So, it is for sure- we are moving to Houston in the next year. We are so grateful and blessed to have this opportunity. After praying about it and after attending the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, we know this is what we need to be doing and Houston is where we need to be. Jon and I have been attending Deloitte functions on campus this week and Jon has been having a great time selling what he does and trying to recruit other MISM/ISYS majors from BYU to apply to Deloitte. The best part is getting free stuff whenever we go to these things. What can I say? We've been branded :-)