Good Job, Joseph!

Although we stayed in Provo for the Christmas holiday, Cory and I took a little journey to Kansas City on the 28th through the 30th for Joseph and Abbey's wedding.  It was a great weekend!  We flew in on Friday afternoon, and got a quick tour of the neighborhood Joseph grew up in, which was entertaining.  Then we were taken to the Lineback house, which is where we would be staying.  The Lineback family are friends of Joseph's family and they graciously offered their home for us to stay.  They were on vacation in Aspen so we were there by ourselves, but there were no house parties on the agenda.  We did however, go out to one of the highest rated Kansas City BBQ joints: Oklahoma Joe's!  Yeah, I know the name doesn't make sense.  It was some good grub, though.

Cory really liked it! 

                         

  

After dinner, the guys all headed out for Joseph's bachelor party.  Now, seeing as none of us had ever been to Kansas City, Joseph kind of had to plan his own party, but it worked out.  We decided on Dave and Buster's for some arcade action.  When we actually got there, this is what I saw towering over Dave and Buster's.

I don't even know what that place was, but it looked AWESOME!!!  We should have been going there.  Anyway, I had never been to Dave and Buster's, and it was really fun.  Brett and I humiliated ourselves on the basketball shooting game, but it was all good.  Brett redeemed himself on all things military and flying.

The best part of the night was when Joseph hit the jackpot for tickets on the Slam-A-Winner.  We used them to get some fake mustaches to wear the next day in some of the pictures taken.  Here is Joseph in his arena of victory.

The next morning we headed to the Kansas City Temple and witnessed the sealing of Joseph and Abbey for time and all eternity.  It was a great experience, and afterwards we prepped ourselves to brave the bitter cold outside for the pictures.  As the pictures show, we wore yellow bow-ties, and I must say that we looked snazzy. 

Another great take-away from this trip was that Cory figured out how to work the rapid-shot feature on our camera.  It takes like 6 pictures a second or something like that.  While waiting in the cold for the happy couple to emerge, it was almost vital to survival to dance so as to keep warm.  Here is a depiction of such survival techniques as documented by Cory's rapid shot skills.

They finally came out and they were excited!!!

And so were we!!!

Here is a little teaser of what our fake mustaches were like.  Not only did it make all of us look classy, it also did a very effective job of keeping our upper lips warm.  I have to say, that patch of hair on my face gave me a confidence I didn't know existed.

We took lots of pictures, and the photographer was super efficient with how much time we had to spend out in the cold. 

After the pictures there was a tasty luncheon, and then we headed back to the Lineback house for a short time before the reception.  

Here is the happy couple enjoying their first dance.  But there might have been someone even happier...

IT WAS ME WHEN I FOUND OUT THEY HAD ROCK CANDY AT EVERY TABLE!!!!  But there may have been someone even happier...

IT WAS ME EVERY TIME THIS SMOKIN' BABE WAS NEXT TO ME!!!  I don't want to steal Joseph and Abbey's thunder, but we just may be the happiest couple.

'Tis the Season

Here are some fun videos from our Christmas day activities.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

It's almost Christmas!
The Gilmore home is just buzzing with Christmas cheer!  We are so excited for Christmas day, and can't wait to see what is waiting for us under our little tree.

For Christmas Eve we decided to go out for a little experience.  Sean was feeling something indian, he loves curry.  Curry, curry, curry, he loves it.  We tried a little place on Center Street in Provo called India Palace, and we loved it!

Sean got the Lamb Curry, and I got the Chicken Tikka Masala.  We chowed down and filled up!

Super crazy mural at India Palace.  It seemed to be glowing!

After a delicious dinner, we headed home to get ready for Santa!  We picked up a red box for a Christmas eve movie, and decided to cuddle up in the living room so we could try and catch Santa.

We put out our cookies and milk, and are just waiting in wonder of how he will get in since we don't actually have a chimney!!

                      

Brett and Kyle came over Saturday night to help decorate our sugar cookies.  Merry almost Christmas!!!

Temple Square Trip

Me in front of the Assembly Hall, Sean with a Shepherd from the super life like nativity by the Visitor's Center, and me and Sean cozied up in front of the Temple.

Sean and I took a little trip up to Salt Lake to see the Temple Square lights and get in the spirit of  Christmas!

We headed up a little late and it wasn't til we were about half way up that we realized we might be too late too see the lights!  We were in a frenzy trying to look up the Temple Square hours and after much searching found out that the lights went out at 10:30pm.  We were safe to make it up and see the lights and even had time to grab a little dinner before.

Sean and I went to Red Iguana for dinner.  After being turned on to Red Iguana by Mike, Sean's dad, we always have to eat there when we are in Salt Lake.  It was killer as always, a Chimichanga for Sean and Carne Asada tacos for me.  Chips and salsa were great as always, and we were full before the food even came.  Sean also loves their Horchata, and claims it is the best he's ever had.  I have to admit it was super delicious, but I don't think I have ever had it anywhere else.

I caught this on film while waiting for our food, a special little treat for our faithful blog readers.
Sean, singing, in Spanish...so dreamy!!

The only regret I have about this video, is that I was so zoomed in (couldn't figure out how to zoom out) that you can't see Sean using his fork as a guitar and strumming along as he sings.

Tons of Lights!

As Promised...

Cory's Christmas Sock Wreath!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Something that I did not know about Cory before we got married, or a least something I didn't appreciate like I should have, is just how crafty she really is.  She can make crafts and homemade projects with the best of them.  What I love most about that quality in her is that she isn't in your face about it either.  She has a quiet confidence when it comes to her ideas, and they always turn out great.  I usually can't visualize what she is thinking, which sometimes comes across as skepticism, but in the end I am always enlightened.

Case Study #1

The Stockings Hung on the Bookcase With Care

In my family almost immediately after Thanksgiving we start putting up Christmas stuff.  So this year after Thanksgiving we started talking about what we wanted to do in terms of a tree, and everything else.  The topic of stockings came up, and Cory mentioned that she wanted to make our stockings.  She started to explain to me that we needed to go to DI and buy old sweaters that she would cut up and sew together so that when we had kids she could make more that looked the same.  I obviously supported her, but in my mind I was thinking, "Um...there is this thing called division of labor...people have done all of that for us and put it on a shelf at Walmart."  The joke was on me!  We went to DI and we got some old sweaters, and the next thing I know we have some legitimate authentic looking stockings hanging up on our bookcase.  I love them, and we share our initials with Santa Claus.

Case Study #2

On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

Cory surprised me with an early present this year, or should I say twelve of them?  She continued her crafty ways in the shadows, unbeknownst to me, and hung twelve decorated cards for me as a countdown for Christmas.  Each day I get to flip over another card and a sweet note, or it tells me what we are going to do that day together.  So far I have claimed things like back rubs, a drive around town looking at Christmas lights, and tonight is an ice-skating excursion to Temple Square.  

There are a few other case studies, but I don't have pictures of them yet.  She made a Christmas sock wreath, and we also have a red chalkboard countdown to Christmas.  Anyway, we also scored a $20 tree at Walmart, and I think it is a pretty good size for only $20.  It has been up since the week after Thanksgiving, but we were waiting for all of our ornaments to finally post a picture.

And here are some of our ornaments up close so that our parents can see that our childhoods are still represented on this new tree.

                  

Buzz also surprised us with a Nativity scene that is super nice.  We weren't quite sure where the giant angel went in the scene, but everything turned out perfectly.

So marriage is all about starting a new life together, and adopting one another's traditions, or creating new ones.  I don't think I have ever really tasted eggnog.  I think my dad likes it, but the point is that there was never a heavy eggnog presence in my house around the holidays.  Cory's house was the opposite.  Eggnog was flowing freely after Thanksgiving for her.  So I have tried some eggnog this year.  It tastes good, but for some reason I don't like it.  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  For some reason I expect it to be salty and...egg...y, but it isn't.   And even though I know it isn't, I still expect it, and thus don't want to drink it, despite what picture evidence may show.  I think this should have been our Christmas card picture...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Card Teaser

Keep a look out for a little Christmas cheer...hopefully by Christmas!

Reason #1,345,791 that Sean is Perfect

Sean is obviously the love of my life.
But, what I don't think I say enough, is just how easy Sean is to live with...because he is perfect!!

Without fail, like clockwork, and with a perfect exactness, Sean provides me with a quiet service.

Since being married I have never gone into our bathroom and run out of toilet paper, not even once.

Every time I think I've run out and I pull off the last 3 squares from the roll, I turn around, and there sits a brand new roll on the toilet tank.  It's always there, he never forgets, and I really don't think he ever will.

Sean says it's because he is paranoid about running out, but I know it's really because he loves me!!

Finals Week

So finals week ended today, and I have to say I am pretty relieved.  I took some challenging classes this semester, and am looking forward to a three week Christmas vacation.

I usually don't gloat about my grades, (mainly because I don't ever have anything impressive to gloat about) but I will say that I exceeded my own expectations this semester.  I can only attribute it to being married.  I had six finals, and got A's on four of them.  The other two....? No, but seriously...4 out of 6?  That is fantastic!

So two of mine were scheduled to be taken in class.  I never like scheduled finals.  It is always way too crammed in the lecture hall, and everyone is taking the same test, making it hard not to feel like the professor thinks you are cheating even if your eyes haven't left your paper.

Wednesday morning I had a scheduled final at 7:00 AM.  Another reason scheduled finals are lame...that is not the ideal time for me to prove my knowledge of anything, let alone Organic Chemistry.  So I walk in and find a seat between two girls and the tests are distributed.  I picked a great seat that morning, because some really funny things started happening around me.

I realized that I had sat down between two girls on complete opposite ends of the Chemistry spectrum.  We were all given some scratch paper with our test, and as the test got under way, with each question, the girl on my left furiously scribbled things down, as if all of that extra work on the scratch paper was necessary.  She was filling up the front and back of all three sheets of paper she had.  Halfway through the test I had filled up maybe half a sheet.  Was I missing something?  I was getting answers to everything without copious amounts of extra work, but I felt like doing some long division on my scratch paper just so she wouldn't glance over and judge me for my lack of effort.  She was a super-student.

Now the girl on my right.  I wish I was making this up.  Literally this poor girl got her test, flipped through the pages, set the test back down on her desk, and waited.  She waited about and hour and forty five minutes.  She didn't write anything.  She didn't look at any of the test again.  She just sat there, and then went to turn it in when a respectable amount of people had already turned their tests in.  I felt so bad.  What kind of low could she have hit that she literally didn't even attempt to answer ANYTHING?  Was all hope lost?  IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?  And what is worse is that she had to sit for almost two hours to avoid the embarrassment of turning it in before the people who actually took the test.  Not a super-student.

So I was sitting in between these two extremes.  Another thing that stressed me out is that out of sheer curiosity of these two girls and their test taking habits, or lack thereof, I kept glancing at their papers, but never actually looking at their answers.  The girl on my right didn't have any, anyway.  The stress came from my professor, every two minutes, shouting out to everyone, "EYES ON YOUR OWN PAPER!"  I don't think he was ever talking to me, because he was always looking somewhere else when he was saying it, but it still was nerve-racking.  At one point he even started shouting, "Excuse me, young man in the hat!  Yes you!  Please turn your hat backwards, I can't see your eyes!"

This post has become much longer than I anticipated, but all of these things made me laugh in my head, and they are all true.  Last story.  When I am about a fourth of the way through the test, I look up and notice a boy heading to the front with his test.  I thought maybe he had to go to the bathroom, but no.  He was done, and he was turning in his test.  We had only been going about 40 minutes.  The next person to turn their test in was after like an hour and a half.  As in fifty minutes after that first guy.  We all know that the guy who turned his test in first is either a chemistry prodigy, or he completely bombed that test.  There is no middle ground.  There is no way that he is just an average student that got done really quick.  Maybe he was like the girl on my right that didn't answer anything, but didn't feel it was worth his time to sit and wait for others to finish.  Then again, maybe he was a freaky genius that knew every answer without having to use any scratch paper.

I learned in that two hours that I am probably right in the middle of all those extremes.  I have no problem with that.

Turkey Day!

So Thanksgiving break found Cory and I staying in Provo for the holiday.  My parents came into town as well, and Brett and Kyle Anderson joined us for our turkey dinner.  It was a total success.  Cory nailed her first official Thanksgiving dinner.  I was more than impressed at how organized and prepared she was.  She had an exact schedule printed out for us to follow, so that everything was made on time, and nothing was forgotten.  She even made appetizers before the actual dinner.  Some spinach and artichoke dip, sliced apples with caramel dip, and chocolate covered pretzels. 

So the only thing we didn't plan out very well was actually documenting through pictures the events of the day.  We have no pictures of the whole group, or the full spectrum of food we made, but these will have to do.  Here are the sweet potatoes, green beans, and cream corn.  It was delicious.

Here I am carving the bird.  First time...only cut myself four times.  Told everyone that it was just cranberry sauce on the meat...

And here is the last of the pictures from the day, when the turkey was fresh out of the oven.  Cory did pretty much everything, but I will say anyway that we are the perfect team.  It definitely felt like a rite of passage cooking our own dinner and hosting family and friends.  And on my honor I promise my parents, and Brett and Kyle were there, despite visual evidence.

What Happens in Vegas...

...lasts forever.

Over the weekend Cory, Buzz, and I headed to Vegas to attend Justin and Kasidy's wedding.  We headed down Saturday morning and made it in plenty of time for their 3:00 sealing in the Las Vegas temple, which is beautiful by the way.  It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.  The sealing was awesome, and it made me think a lot about mine and Cory's.  There are a lot of amazing blessings promised to us.  Their reception had a picture timeline of their relationship and gave a shout-out to Cory as the one who introduced them, clearly establishing her as the most important and influential person in their lives...or something like that.

After the sealing as we waited for the happy couple to emerge we got to catch up with some good friends we haven't seen in a while.  Kylie is actually living in Vegas, and Steph is in San Francisco, and both are working real jobs...living in real life...

I have purposely only chosen pictures to post that show me from the ankle and up, because after 5 hours in the car I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to pack my dress shoes.  I had to wear my Nike's all day with my suit.  It wasn't that bad, (Cory was really bothered that my shoes were black and my belt was brown) and I didn't have a problem with it, but I just really didn't want anyone to think that I did it on purpose, so I tended to go out of my way to explain to people what had happened.  

Buzz did a REALLY great job at quickly snapping this photo even though the professional photographer was pretty adamant that there was no time for personal pictures because the sun was setting and their window of opportunity with the lighting was closing quickly.  No one tells The Old Buzzard when and where she is or isn't allowed to capture precious memories...

There are those Nike's...anyway, the reception was really nice, wasn't too long-wasn't too short.  The food was delicious.  I was eating like a king!  I may have eaten more than my fair share of pulled pork sandwiches.  The cake was...well...huge.  They will have plenty left over to live off of for the next few months.  The base of it is really where the volume was concentrated.  

A really fun part of their reception was that they had a photo booth set up to take pictures in, and everyone's pictures went into a scrapbook type deal for them to keep.  They also send a copy to your email account, which I greatly appreciated.

Here was our final product.  It is now hanging on a bulletin board in our apartment.   

So overall it was a fun trip, that mostly centered around Justin and Kasidy (appropriately).  However, we did end up with some time after the reception to grab a quick bite to eat.  My old roommate Joseph served his mission in Vegas and when I asked him if he could only eat one meal in Vegas where would he recommend, he didn't hesitate in saying "Raising Cane's".  We had never been, so we checked it out.  The whole place is dedicated to chicken fingers.  It was pretty good.

Vital Signs

Anna had her dance ensemble performance tonight.  It was called "Vital Signs".  I am not going to pretend to understand exactly what all of the dances meant, seeing how this was only my second time ever witnessing a contemporary dance performance (the first was another one of Anna's performances in March) but I like to think that I got something out of it.  For example, there was one to the music of the Pink Panther that I was laughing through the whole time.  I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to be laughing, and Cory elbowed me a few times, but afterwards Anna told me that it was supposed to be funny.  I am slated to be a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance pretty soon.  Anyway, Anna nailed it!  She demonstrated strength and power, moving slowly, crisply, and deliberately. While in motion she showed amazing grace, strength, and flexibility. She even choreographed one of her performances, and may I say that it was flawlessly performed with passion and emotion, as she and a fellow dancer portrayed a couple moving from tenderness and passion to anger and hostility, failing to reconcile before the end of the piece.  Moving.

Anyway, here is a picture of us after the show.

And if any of you have doubts about Anna's talent, or the review I wrote above, feast your eyes on this!  Eat your hearts out America!

What amazing lines! (I actually don't know if there are any lines in this picture, or if they are amazing, but that seems to be a common/appropriate compliment to give to a dancer)  Great job, Anna!

Needs vs. Wants

This is a record of a conversation that took place between Cory and me. It illustrates well our ever changing and evolving perceptions of life.

Cory: *muffled noise that I wasn't paying attention to*...look at these!

She then showed me a picture on her phone of a black shoe.

Me: Yeah, nice, you want those.

Cory: No, I NEED them!

Me: Oh...you need those?

Cory: Yeah I need a close toe black pump before winter.

Me: oh...ok

Pumpkin Carving

I am not a huge Halloween fan.  So to help Sean and I get in the Halloween spirit, since we had bought a pumpkin in hopes of carving it, we decided to organize a little Halloween gathering.

One thing I really love about Sean is how good of a friend he is and how important his friends are to him.  He likes to find excuses to spend time with his friends and this was another good reason to get together.

We planned a pumpkin carving date and invited our friends to bring a pumpkin to carve and just hang out.
Sean and I brought hot chocolate and donuts and everyone brought their own pumpkin and carving tools.

To be honest, I have never actually carved a pumpkin from beginning to end.  I always became uninterested when it came to pulling out all the nasty goop inside.  I also seemed to never know what to carve, I definitely don't have a creative bone in my body.

Sean and I definitely got a slow start, and even though our pumpkin was all cleaned out we had no clue what to carve.  it seemed everyone else had brought little sketches to trace, or had a very clear idea of what they wanted.  We were stumped, and were going no where.

Sean looking a little scared!

The finished product was so cute, and a true team effort!  Happy Mickey Halloween!

Turned out so great, lovin it!

Now all the candids that Sean took.  You guys can thank him for these later I am sure!

Excited to start carving

Kathryn and Mat carving carefully, and Nick watching Bachelorette episodes on his phone, I think.

Very strategic carving.  These two really put in some work on this pumpkin.

Planning very carefully (it ended up with ears, way fun!)

All the finished pumpkins!  So fun and super creative!

It all turned out so cute!

...and this guys is pretty cute too!

Thanks to everyone who made it a fun night, it was so fun to see everyone.

Happy Halloween!