Farewell, Jenessa.

On Sunday we woke up in Park City and hustled up to Ogden to hear our friend Jenessa speak in Sacrament Meeting before heading to the Tacoma Washington mission.  It was a great talk and afterward we headed to her house for a great backyard luncheon.  I promise we actually took a picture with Jenessa in it, but not on our camera.  However, I do love this picture of Cory and me in the Baird's backyard.  We know Sister Baird is going to do a great job in Tacoma, and thanks to her mom for providing us with pre-stamped post cards!  We will be sure to write.

One Year Down...

Well, we made it.  On Saturday, Cory and I celebrated one year of marriage.  It flew by!  Seriously though, how did that happen?  It is one of those things where I feel like I have been with her for so long, but also our time together has been so quick.  Time flies when you're in love!  For our anniversary, we treated ourselves to a weekend in Park City.  It was great.  On Saturday we started the drive and stopped for lunch in Heber at the Dairy Keen.  Yeah...it is called Dairy Keen.  Very original.  Anyway, their signature burger is the Train Burger, which has a slice of ham on it.  That's what I got and it was good.  Before Cory graduated and did her internship at Jamestown, the residents would sometimes drive to Dairy Keen and get shakes, and then would rave about them.  I thought they were like most shakes I have had in my life, but it was a fun lunch anyway.

In Park City we stayed at the Newpark resort and hotel.  It was awesome!  First, it was cheaper than where we stayed in Salt Lake on our wedding night, and it was bigger.  We loved it.  It was basically like a little suite, complete with fireplace, and private hot tub on the balcony.

I was just going to take a picture of the hallway, when Cory, ever alert, sensed the camera on her and smiled.  She is always ready for a photo op.  

While in Park City we headed to the Tanger Outlets to do some shopping.  I got some new shoes and a hat, while Cory and I both got some perfume and cologne.  It was a pretty successful outing.  Here is Cory in front of the hotel when we were done shopping.

Our balcony had a great view of the mountains and we could even see the Olympic park.  The Newpark Hotel is part of the "resort", which basically consists of a pretty sizable shopping district which you can see looking out from our balcony.  I was just ready for the hot tub.

The hot tub actually sounded cooler than it actually was.  Overall, we spent about 20 minutes in it.  It was way too hot.  No matter how much we turned the setting down, it stayed at about 105 degrees, which wasn't necessary to us, but it was still a fun idea.

For dinner we headed down to Historic Main Street in Downtown Park City and ate at The Eating Establishment, which was delicious.  The street was almost deserted, but we didn't mind, the more alone time the better.

I am glad we picked The Eating Establishment because they didn't skimp on the portion sizes.  When I ordered onion rings, I didn't know they were going to give me more of that than of my actual entree.  We didn't file a complaint.

After dinner we walked up and down the street looking at the shops, though most were closed.  Those old historic fogies shut down early, but we did find a little ice cream place open to get dessert.

The Java Cow!  Who wouldn't want to get ice cream from a place with a life-size plastic cow in the middle of it?  

After that we headed back to the hotel for some romance...but we will keep it G rated.

Anna's Birthday Bonanza!

Right before our anniversary weekend, we went to Anna's 22nd birthday party.  Her birthday is actually on May 3rd, but she had a joint party with her roommates Dallas and Shelby who also have birthdays in late April/early May.  It was a fun night, and Cory made this awesome mini cupcakes, which were a huge hit.

Shelby's family has an awesome house in Provo with a great view of the valley.  They set up badminton, horseshoes, and croquet, had tons of burgers, shish-kebabs (meat and fruit varieties), chips, and drinks.  It was just a really relaxed atmosphere, which are my kind of party.  Here I am honing my badminton skills.  

Here is the birthday girl.  Go get it diva.  

Here is Anna with...one of her friends.  I don't know who she is, but Cory snapped this photo while they were posing for a real photo with the other girl's camera so it was funny.  Good job, Cory!

They also had a photo booth area where you could dress up and take pictures.  We didn't really utilize it like we could have, but I did find a fake mustache, and we found out that an increase in facial hair can either make you look mysterious and debonair, or hideously ugly and repulsive.  You be the judge of which picture goes with which description.

  

The sunset was pretty awesome that evening though, and provided the perfect backdrop for pictures.

Cory and I both agreed that our role at that party was to be there for Anna as family representation, find a place to sit and camp there for the night while people-watching, and taking pictures.  We nailed it.  Cory did an awesome job of capturing some classic and candid moments.  Here are the girls blowing out the candles.

 These are just some shots of the CRAZY action at the party.

More partying...

Here are their respective piñatas that each successfully destroyed.  Anna's is the unicorn.

If those pictures aren't enough for you, here is a video of Anna's conquest over the unicorn.

French Bakery

A while ago Cory told me about this little French bakery she had found and I have wanted to go there with her, so one day we were in the area and decided to stop, and I am glad we did.  It was delicious.  Their desserts were amazing, and their quiche was tasty, too.   I don't know what my thing was called, but Cory got an eclair.  Regardless, both were good.  The owner is from France, and Cory says that usually he only speaks French, but the day we went he was in English mode, though he had a thick accent.  When Cory asked why he wasn't speaking French he said he was too tired.  Quoi? Cela n'a pas de sens. Donnez-moi un petit macaron!

Hibachi Night

As the semester closed down we decided to celebrate some of our friends impending graduations with dinner at Sakura Hibachi Grill.  It was awesome.  I haven't been to one of these places in years and I was excited to test my own skills on the grill.  I didn't have much to work with, but it was fun to pretend.

Probably my favorite part about the night, and about my life, is that Cory can get excited and have fun in most situations.  She loves these kinds of places, and definitely led us all in cheering during the real cooking.  The real chef put on a bit of a better show than I did, but he was actually pretty tame compared to what Cory has seen in the past.  He did do the classic volcano though.

We had eight people there are when all the meat was sitting there cooking I was getting a little anxious.  I was expecting him to flip the shrimp into the air for us to catch in our mouths but he never did.  Oh well.

Here is what the finished product looked like.

Congratulations to all who are graduating, and we recommend going to a Japanese Steakhouse in your area to celebrate.

Good job, Joseph...seriously?

Peanut Butter Toast Crunch

Can I just say that I don't find it original to just add peanut butter or chocolate to something?  It just doesn't seem that amazing to me, but I don't want to be biased for my next cereal review of Peanut Butter Toast Crunch.  Obviously this is an alteration of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which I love, so I had high hopes.  However, I thought the peanut butter flavoring was a little too strong.  It needed to be balanced with something else, like how Reese's cereal has the peanut butter and chocolate puffs to compliment each other. It wasn't a bad cereal, but I didn't look forward to eating it either, which means I have to give this overall experience a C+.

YUM!!!

Cory, ever the crafty one, created this little addition in our home to go over the kitchen sink.  Now it doesn't matter what I cook, because there will be some subliminal advertising to trick Cory into thinking it is yummy! Haha just kidding...I don't cook.

Cory's Birthday Bash!

Happy Birthday to Cory!  We celebrated Cory's 24th over the span of a few days due to work/school schedules, and the U.S. Postal Service, but it was awesome nonetheless.  She got some great cards and gifts from family and friends.  Here are some pictures of the birthday girl!  It might look like she has a little hat on, but it is actually just our Christmas mistletoe still hanging up behind her.  We find any excuse to keep kissing.

Here she is with a Tinkerbell shirt from my sister and her family for our trip to Disneyland next month!

Here she is with all her gifts from one phase of mail.  She looks like a happy girl to me!

A lot of her gifts happened to be gift cards or money, so we took a Saturday and hit up all the stores she wanted to go to and she picked up a lot of nice things to update her wardrobe.  We ate at the Cheesecake factory that night to top things off.  While were browsing around in H&M, something somewhat alarming happened to us.  Rather abruptly one of the cashiers started shouting over all the noise in the store that the credit card machines had crashed, that it was a nationwide problem, and that they could only accept cash until further notice.  To my surprise, there was almost no reaction from anyone.  Some people left the lines, but most people just kept browsing.  Are we the only ones that almost never carry cash anymore?  Plus, a nationwide problem doesn't alarm anyone else?  I guess I have seen too many action thriller movies, because I immediately thought that she meant it was some kind of technological terrorist takeover, and we would soon be reduced to bartering with tangible goods.  Naturally, my first thought was how much we could carry when the rioting and looting broke out.  Luckily, everyone else's imagination didn't escalate quite like mine did.  Just the H&M stores in the nation couldn't take cards anymore because their server went down.  Crisis averted.  Here is Cory in just a taste of what she purchased with all her B-day money.

Hot mama...

Kellogg's Krave

More cereal reviews.  This time it was Kellogg's Krave which are basically little wheaty nuggets filled with chocolate.  When we got them I thought I would like them, because a good friend already had told me that he loved them.  Long story short: I hated them.  I am usually the type of guy that likes my cereal to soften a little in the milk, but Krave took it too far.  Within four seconds of milk contact, the cereal had the consistency of Cheerios that had been left in milk for three weeks.  TOO soggy.  They also left a film on the roof of my mouth that was unpleasant.  There are other cereals you can eat if you want a chocolate fix...any other.  Overall experience: D-

Gilmore General Conference Brunch!!!

General Conference weekend is always full of uplifting messages and being with people you love!  This weekend was no different.  We started Saturday morning off with Sean's Buenos Aires West Mission Reunion. It is always fun for Sean to catch up with his mission buddies and see the Bentons, his Mission president and his wife.
I worked a Bridal Fair almost all day Saturday, and by the time I got home Sean was in Priesthood Session. But, even though I missed it Sean took great notes for me and definitely had tons to share!

Sean and I love to have friends over and entertain and cook, well I love the cooking part!  Sunday we decided to have friends over and I made a big brunch for everyone between sessions.  It was a good time and the Stuffed French Toast was a hit!

The Spread!

After stuffing our guts we were all almost in food comas, right in time for the afternoon session!  But we made it through, well most of us did.

Sean snuggling up with his little buddies.  He is a master at staying awake, he made it through all 5 sessions without a single blink!

Conference weekend also found me crafting and rearranging some stuff on our bookshelf.  I have had the hardest time with that thing, and every time I look at it I knew it wasn't quite right.  But, I think I have it how I want it now.  Always fun for me to spend some time creating and making our home a little homier!

New burlap canvas painted with a G, and rearranged bookshelf!  Loving it!

We are so grateful for this Gospel and the blessing of Conference!  What a fabulous weekend!

We plan on reviewing and studying the words we heard this weekend from living prophets, 

link here to read as well!

Sean Grew a Mustache

Sean sent me this pic while I was at work, him at the MTC with a mustache.  One of the missionaries he is teaching got some fake mustaches from his parents and Sean can't resist a good fake mustache!  After a quick picture Sean had to bear the bad news that fake mustache wearing is not appropriate for servants of the Lord!

This reminds me of other times Sean has worn fake mustaches...

Man, he's good lookin'!!!

chalkboard quote

Having fun with chalk!