Diamond Rio Concert

Yeehaw!!

Anna and I...wearing our boots!

That's the only word I can think of to describe our night last night.

Anna is back in Provo for the school year and We had to take advantage of one last summer hoorah!

Our summers in Texas were spent country swing dancing and going to outdoor country music concerts. Austin is the live music capital of the world, So we always took advantage of the many opportunities before us.

I heard about a Diamond Rio concert on the radio and couldn't believe they were going to be in Orem Utah. What are the chances!?!?

Our view

It was an outdoor concert and we sat on a blanket up on a hill overlooking the stage and audience. It was a gorgeous summer night and really take me back to our summers in Texas, but a little less rowdy!!

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Brigham City Temple Open House

Last weekend, with Cory's mom in town, we took the opportunity to drive two hours north to Brigham City to attend the temple open house.  It was a good time.  Temples are sacred places to Latter-Day Saints and only worthy members have the blessing of entering, but seeing as it was just built and has yet to be dedicated, the Church opens it up to the public for all to see.  We made it to Brigham City and lucked out with a parking spot only a block away.

Me, Cory, Buzz, and Anna.  Anna's roommate Emily took the picture for us.

It was a bit sunny out when we first got there, but we headed over and were soon waiting in line in an underground parking garage.  Let's just say, it was HOT down there.  Hot, loud, and stuffy.  We watched a short video about the history of temples and of Brigham City, and then they had us moving on to the actual walk-through of the temple.  

As we were about to enter, they put little slipper things on your shoes to try to minimize the temple getting dirty before the dedication.  You get used to walking in them almost instantly, but it brought back memories of when I was a small child and my parents took my sister and I to the San Diego open house.  I must have been having a hard day because mostly I just remember that I was furious that I had to wear the little slippers over my shoes and threw a fit.  My only other memories of the day are of my dad carrying me through the entire temple because I refused to walk.  I almost demanded that Cory piggy-back me the whole time, but I gained my composure and started the walk-through.

The temple was obviously beautiful.  It was a great experience to walk in and out of all the rooms and enjoy the calm spirit that already existed throughout the building. (Well, almost calm, if you don't count the little family in front of us whose son was not very well behaved.  If there was something he probably shouldn't have touched, he touched it.  He also had an overwhelming need to run around every room he was in and sit in all the chairs and on all the couches along the way, but I digress.)  The artwork was beautiful and a lot of it depicted the terrain surrounding Brigham City.  

I really like the idea of an open house.  I think that people who aren't very familiar with the Church have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about temples and see for themselves what's inside during these events.  Cory and I agreed that even as members who have entered the temple, the experience was a great one just to gain an even greater sense of appreciation for the importance of these sacred places.  At the end of the tour they had some cookies and a cool mosaic thing of the temple made from some tiles local members made.

 

All in all it was a great trip.  It was considerably cooler when we got out, and we started the long drive home.  By the way, Cory bought this little blazer for work, and she has worn it a few times now and always gets compliments on it.  Great purchase!  She looks great!

Everything in this picture is awesome.  The scene was so poetically beautiful that I couldn't help but...(see below)

 

"We both think we're really funny"

Sean and I spoke in church on Sunday, and all in all it was super successful.

They called us on Thursday evening, and Sean and I both whined and complained much more than necessary about them calling on such late notice.  We are kind of high maintenance.  But let's be honest, neither of us wrote our talk until Saturday, or at least one of us waited til Saturday and the other waited until Sunday morning.

The talks were wonderful, spiritual, thoughtful and everything else you would expect.  Well, at least Sean's was and mine was ya know...good, too!  Knowing myself and also knowing Sean we both were planning what jokes we could say, how to get the crowd laughing to earn their attention and what to say to introduce ourselves.  It's like this new thing you get to do when you get married, you get to introduce yourselves as husband and wife and tell the story of how you met and all that other super mushy and fun stuff.

I handed the introduction over to Sean, because I knew he would do an awesome job, and I have learned to accept that he is funnier than me.

I told some great jokes to break the ice about how Sean and I are so different, but one thing we have in common is that "we both think we are really funny."  Also said something about letting him introduce us so he could have some good material for jokes, and that when we teach Sunday school I told him he can't be funny because in Sunday School I wanted to be the funny one and he could be the looks.  Then something else about being sorry for not noticing him at the Stake ice skating activity...that was mostly to set him up for some awesome jokes he had prepped.  All in all I got tons of laughs and it really helped to ease my nerves and feel confident before I gave my talk.

Then it was Sean's turn and he said some joke about ice skating like Apolo Anton Ohno to try and impress me, and then told the story about when I fell asleep on the couch and told him I loved him in his sleep.  He said it was his way of knowing that he was in control of the relationship, I confessed my love first.  That story is always good, it will never get old and the people love it!!

My mom and Anna were there and I think that helped me to not be as nervous as well.

Now we can check that off the list of things to do and not worry about it for at least another 2 years.

Ok, so it's Sean here, and I would just like to clarify that although I put my talk down on paper Sunday morning, I was actually writing it in my head from the moment we were given the assignment...and Cory and I are equally funny.  My success is her success.  Anyway, I am just adding a few blurbs about the rest of the day we had that Sunday.  We went home and Cory and Buzz (Cory's mom) started cooking a delicious dinner, and I snapped some pictures.

Here is Cory in her pineapple apron we got her on our honeymoon in Hawaii.

Golden Days

Last night Cory and I had the opportunity to head to Salt Lake to see "Golden Days: A Celebration of Life", or as we like to call it, President Thomas S. Monson's 85th birthday party.  It was a really awesome time!  A bunch of his favorite Broadway hits were performed by the choir and special guest artists.  Steve Young, and some CBS lady shared MC duties. My favorite performance was "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, and Cory really loved "Tomorrow" from Annie.  After "Bring Him Home" the crowd gave a standing ovation, and then it seemed like every performance after that also got a standing ovation.  I didn't think "76 Trombones" deserved a standing ovation, but when you see President Monson stand to applaud, you almost feel obligated to follow suit, so we did.  After the show we were just wondering where the cake and ice cream were, but in the end we settled for Applebee's.  Our friend, Joseph Naylor, actually was there with us and sat with us in the balcony even though his ticket was for the main floor.  True friendship!

After the show!

Jordan River Temple

We are still pressing forward.  The time commitment is continuing to increase, but it has been so fun to see so  many temples over the last few months.  Our latest stop was the Jordan River Temple, which I see almost every night from the third floor of my work.  It was so neat to finally get to see the inside!!

Sometimes it's frustrating taking pictures when there are only 2 people.  It was pretty late and Sean and I were the only people outside the temple, so there was no one to ask to take a picture for us.  So here is a picture of Sean outside the Jordan River Temple...

So romantic...?

After a wonderful time at the temple and checking another temple off our list, we were STARVING!!  I had just worked an Indian wedding and was craving some curry and basmati rice!  We asked Siri to tell us where the best and closest Indian restaurant was, and she guided us here...

Sean, after tasting India...he thought it was delicious!

We had a delightful time, and couldn't believe how yummy the food was and that we had leftovers!  Also, Sean learned what naan is, and discovered that he loves cheese naan!  Then Sean showed me on facebook  all of his Indian friends that he made while living in Lufkin, Texas and playing on his high school Tennis team. There were like 4 of them, and it was ridiculous!

Enjoying the spread of delicious Indian goodness!

Bee's Game

After multiple attempts Sean and I finally made it out to a Bee's game.  Summer and JD invited us to come on a Monday night and they had deals on the tickets for $5 and a free hot dog.  We picked up our tickets, got home from work and headed out.  It was a perfect night for a baseball game, and I loved getting to spend some time seeing Summer and her pregnant little belly.  

Sean and I wasted no time joining in the baseball game festivities and bought a funnel cake to start the night off!  I can't remember the last time I had a funnel cake, and it really hit the spot, those things are necessary to enjoy a good summer night baseball game.

Lovin' that Funnel Cake!

Summer and JD had gotten free tickets from JD's dad, and they were great seats.  We were right behind home plate and got to see all the action up close.  We didn't come close to catching any fouls balls, but our hearts would race as fouls balls would fly into the net right in front of our seats.  It was fun to catch up with Summer and JD and hear all about their pregnancy stories.  Sounds like it has been great so far and I am so excited for them to have that little baby.  They still haven't chosen a name, and although I will keep my top picks to myself, I secretly really want to suggest the name that they end up picking.

When hunger finally struck around the 5th inning, Sean and I headed to the concessions to get our free hot dog.  The first line we got in was for these huge "All-Star Dogs," we were in line for about 10 seconds before realizing that the huge hot dogs coming out of that place were probably not the free ones.  We course corrected and got the hot dogs that were free with our tickets.  Still good, but definitely not as massive and extravagant as the "All-Star Dogs!"

Enjoying the game, and our dogs!

The game was pretty uneventful, and to be honest downright sorry at some points.  But when the Bee's were tied at the bottom of the 11th inning they really brought it "home" if you know what  I mean.  The game ended with a super spectacular walk off home-run.  Which, thanks to Sean, I now know what that means.  After hearing  him say it a few times when the game was ending, and figuring it was something good, I finally asked him what it meant as we were walking out of the park.  It's amazing how many things you hear your whole life and you never actually know what they mean.

Celebrating after the walk off home-run!

I never thought I would be able to sit through an entire baseball game.  Ever since watching Sean play softball and joining that co-ed team with Sean I find it much more interesting and entertaining.  Best part of the whole night, the seventh inning stretch...take me out to the ball game!

Intense baseball watching, Sean is a pro.

Mucous Cyst!!!

Spoiler Alert:  The picture at the bottom of the post is graphic in nature, and shows my stitched up lip.  I was hesitant to do this post, but Cory told me that our children would be particularly interested in posts like this....we also learned from Google while writing this post that "mucus" is actually spelled "mucous" when used as an adjective, which neither of us knew.  The things you learn while blogging...

So about a month and a half ago, on a day like any other, I found myself eating lunch and had the misfortune of biting my lip.  It hurt, but I continued chewing and the pain subsided.  I knew it was going to be a long day when, not two minutes later, I bit down on literally the exact part of my lip I had bitten earlier.  Not only that, but the second time I really connected.  The pain started to sear, my eyes started to mist, and my appetite went on a quick vacation.  My emotional state went from that of a docile cow grazing in the pasture to that of a frustrated bull elephant raging through the savanna.  Cory says that is an "over-the-top" explanation, but she doesn't understand.  

Anyway, so it hurt, but I didn't think anything of it until about a week later, when a little sore had formed.  I thought, "wow, I really did a number on my lip".  A week after that, the sore had turned into a small lump.  I though, "wow, it isn't really going away."  A week after that it had grown to about the size of a marble and was fairly firm.  I thought, "wow, this is actually impeding my speech now." and "wow, when I smile I look like a freak."

After reconciling that I would be the first recorded case of cancer caused by the biting of a lip, Cory finally suggested that I just go see the doctor.  I made an appointment with Dr. Gibb and when I saw him he diagnosed it as a mucous cyst, caused by "severe trauma" to my lip.  Pride swelled within me as I realized that my jaws had the power to cause "severe trauma".  He said it was benign, and although I didn't really think there was a chance that it was cancer, it was good to hear all the same that it wasn't.  The hard lump was actually a sack that had formed in the salivary glands in the lining of my lip that had filled with a thick saliva.  He numbed my lip and then reached into his bag of medieval torture devices, only to pull out some strange metal clamp that he used to isolate that part of my lip.  He then went to town "scraping" out the cyst wall.  A few stitches later I was sent home and this was the final product:

Golfing 2.0

So I posted before about Joseph and I playing a round of golf for his BYU golfing class, and it just so happens he had to go three times.  So here are some pictures of us those two other times.  We even convinced Brett to accompany us the third time, and he had a successful first round with us this summer.  I improved my score each time I went, and I would keep going all the time, but even at this low level course, it has an effect on your wallet to be a consistent golfer.  Tennis courts are free...

Always rocking my grandpa's hat.  It definitely helped his score.

Like I said before, we went for the third time, and Brett came with us.

We called him "Straight-Legs Anderson"

Overall it was a great experience.  It is a relaxing game, while still giving you that competitive fix.  I see why so many retired athletes play.