Dos Dozen Donut Challenge

As the summer keeps moving along, the reality that school is about to start and friends are leaving Provo is slowly starting to creep into my thoughts.  I try to take advantage of every chance I get to do something memorable with my buddies, even when that something is a little ridiculous.  I don't remember what specific day this happened on, but Joseph, Kyle, and I found ourselves at Krispy Kreme because of some promotion they were doing.  If you bought a dozen donuts, the next dozen was only like 75 cents.  I wasn't planning on getting any (just mooching off of Joseph and Kyle's 4 dozen) but in line our conversation turned to us questioning how many hot glazed donuts we could eat in one sitting.  I mentioned that I thought I could easily eat one dozen without a problem.  Joseph upped the number to two dozen, and thus a new eating challenge was born!  

Each of us bought two dozen and prepared mentally for the task at hand.  Joseph appropriately but unknowingly wore his "Every Day is Game Day" shirt, and this challenge was an affirmation of that lifestyle.  At any point in time you have to be ready to perform.  The ironic thing about this, too, is that Joseph has a history of folding under the pressure during eating challenges.  When my roommates and I did the Sensuous Sandwich eating challenge (24 inch sub sandwich in 30 minutes) Joseph gave up after a few bites.  He gets so nervous that he makes himself sick.

Here we are about to start.  Joseph had already started to psyche himself out, and he was the one who set the bar for two dozen.  So we started and after one bite Joseph said, "Uh oh, this is bad".  Literally Kyle and I couldn't even take a bite of our donuts because we were laughing so hard.  I started to cry from laughter.  Joseph had eaten like three by the time I took my first bite.  Then Kyle and I ate a dozen and Joseph had only eaten two and a half more.  

In the end, I ate 12, Kyle ate 13, and Joseph ate 5.5

I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to eat hot donuts.  After about 8, I hit a mental wall.  They started to taste gross, and by the end they just seemed to taste like the oil they were fried in.  The good news was that I had a dozen donuts to take home for Cory and I to eat for breakfast the next morning.  And although I felt sick for the rest of the night, I am glad I now have that funny memory of Joseph and Kyle downing donuts at our local Krispy Kreme.

Pioneer Day 2013

Pioneer Day is something that is huge in Utah, and unrecognized everywhere else.  It is the day that Brigham Young and the first wagon company of Latter-day Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.  It is actually a holiday that people get work off for here in Utah, which meant that Cory had the whole day off.  Anna spent the day with us as well, and we started it out by watching the Days of 47 parade on TV.  The parade is in Salt Lake, so the comfort of our own couch was the perfect venue for watching.  After we went to the driving range to hit a few golf balls.  Let's just say that by the end they both had improved to the point that the ball was going into the air.  Baby steps!

Later that day we headed to the Orem Owlz game for a healthy dose of America's pastime.  As a promotion to try to beat some world record, they were handing out sunglasses with stickers on the lenses that looked like owl eyes I guess.  We rocked them for about 5 minutes.

They looked more legit if you tried to make an angry face.

After the game they shot off fireworks.  We didn't want to fight the crowds, so we actually left a little early and staked out a spot in the IHOP parking lot across the highway for some front row seats.  We laid a blanket down and started watching, but about halfway through the sprinklers came on and we panicked a little bit.  Everyone made it out alive though, and we didn't have to fight traffic heading home.  

Here is Anna enjoying a Wendy's frosty.  A big thanks to Brigham Young and the pioneers for getting Cory the day off of work!!!

Empanadas

Cory and I made some empanadas, and they were delicious!  We tried once when we were dating to make some, and they turned out TERRIBLY!!!  It scarred us so badly that it has taken us about two years to try again.  This go around though was a great success.  I ate empanadas on a regular basis in Argentina, and I had been craving some for a while.  These tasted just like I remembered, and it was fun to share with Cory what they are actually supposed to be like.  So hopefully her old impression has been replaced with something more positive.

Page is in the House!

So as I mentioned, my mom came down for a few days and brought me my grandpa's old golf clubs, but that wasn't her purpose in coming down.  My parents have been in their newly built house now for about eight months, and they are putting some finishing touches on their interior decor and furniture.  Hence, Mama Gilmore came down for some shopping!  She got to come to one of our softball games (Cory and I played co-ed softball again, and had some fun games and great plays, but we lost in the tournament).  She and I also went and caught a movie together just like old times.  One of the highlights, though, has to be our dinner at La Jolla Groves.  Anytime I have been to this place, it is amazing.  Their beef medallions in mango and ginger sauce is ridiculously delicious.  We all agreed we need to go back when Dad is here, too.

After our dinner we walked the Riverwoods a bit and came across our favorite French cookie cake treat kiosk, "le petit Macaron".  I have joked about this place to Cory since we were in the early stages of dating.  Of course we had to buy some to try.

So actually, I am not the hugest fan, but they are still fun to pick out and taste test.

The rest of our time was spent visiting and playing games at home.  Cory joined in on one of our long standing family traditions, which is playing Rummy for vast periods of time.  I like when Cory plays, because for some reason I was doing really well.  Keep up the good work Cory, and a big thanks to Mom for coming down and entertaining us for a little while!

Grandpa's Legacy

I think Cory is probably surprised at how passionate I have become about golf in a very short period of time.  I am a little surprised myself, but I have been going more and more this summer with friends.  I knew my mom would be coming down to visit, so I asked her to bring down my Grandpa's old golf clubs that he left me to see if they would be an upgrade from the clubs I was using at the time.  It was a definite upgrade.  It was funny, though, to see his old bag that was pretty much falling apart.  He could have easily gotten a new one, but I'm sure he figured there was no need as long as his old bag got the job done.  I found some old sun screen and a price list for Los Angeles golf courses from 1984.  FYI:  It was like $4 to play 9 holes with a cart back then.  

So I unloaded everything after Cory went to sleep and carefully decided what I wanted to keep from both sets of clubs.  It was fun, and I really wanted to go play, but it was like midnight.  

The next day I headed to Deseret Industries to look for a cheap bag and ended up finding a pretty nice one for $5.  Here is the finished product.  

I am ready to get out there and see if any of my Grandpa's skill is still trapped in those clubs.  We all know I need it.

Chickens and Sequoias

I am mostly writing this post to look back on as proof that our life has plenty in it to spice it up.  We may not be traveling the world, but every once in a while something happens during the day that breaks up the monotony of both of us working all day.  This month, it was chickens.  We walked out one day to see a flock of chickens wandering around our courtyard.  How random is that?  Whose are they?  How did they get here?  Would we get in trouble for eating one?  All of these questions went unanswered over the course of two or three days.  We woke up one morning to the sound of clucking outside of our window.  That is when Cory called animal control, and the chickens haven't been seen since.  I kind of miss them now.

If there is anything weirder than chickens in your courtyard, it is stupid people that park their Toyota Sequoia in the entrance to our parking garage, thus blocking exit to anyone who is trying to go to work.  Seriously though, who does this?  I walked out there and called management, waited for 20 minutes, and then watched as some lady came out apologizing over and over again that her car was too tall to fit into the garage, so she didn't think to back out and park anywhere on the street.  I was standing there in my white shirt and tie, with my white MTC badge on, and I think she thought I was some sort of parking official.  I capitalized and told her she needed to move her car immediately, and that she needed to park on the street in the future unless she had a parking permit for our facility.  

It still baffles me she left the car parked there for 20 minutes.  I can maybe see someone thinking it would be alright for 1-2 minutes.  Anyway, thank-YOU Toyota Sequoia lady for keeping our lives exciting!

A Lot of Hot Air

Fourth of July was fun this year because we got to do things over multiple days.  On Friday we woke up early to see the hot air balloons take off at the Provo High softball fields.  It was pretty cool.  I was surprised how many balloons were actually there, and it was cool to see all the different designs.

Jake was there with us, but he was taking the picture.  Some girl said she took a picture of the five of us, but she must not have pushed the button hard enough, because there wasn't any picture when she gave us the camera back.  At that point it was too awkward to ask her to take another one, so we settled for this.

Some of the balloons were actually different shapes as well, like this Smokey the Bear one.  There was also a pig shaped one with legs and everything.  Anyway, they all took off and everyone was sticking around and so we did as well.

So I guess they were supposed to circle back and play hot air balloon games, like dropping beanbags from their balloons and trying to land it on targets in the field, and jousting smaller balloons out of the air or something.  It sounded like it might be entertaining.  Alas, after an hour or so of waiting, they didn't look like they were anywhere close to being back, so we bailed.  I got my Smokey the Bear free frisbee and we hit the road!  It was fun to see all the balloons take off though.

It was a fun weekend with family.  I had to work, but the gang headed to deer creek reservoir on Saturday for a picnic and to get in the water for a bit.  Later that night, we headed to play some mini-golf, which Cory and I have been doing more and more recently.  

A big thanks to Buzz for coming down to visit, and to Jake for not being a weirdo and making all of us uncomfortable!

Stadium of Fire

To end our 4th of July festivities, Cory and I accompanied our good friends, Elder and Emma Sabey, to the Stadium of Fire show at Lavell Edwards Stadium.  Kelly Clarkson was the headlining act, and Carly Rae Jepson opened up for her.  Grammy award winner Patti Austin was the MC for the night.  It was a pretty cool show that all started with...

Note to self:  I need to have better self awareness while recording videos.  It was loud in the stadium so I am raising my voice, and the sound is going directly into the camera's microphone.  How embarrassing.  Anyway, the show started with some Cirque du Soleil that was pretty impressive.  We enjoyed being with Tyler and Emma too because Tyler was very vocal about how he felt during the show.  He kept making dramatic comments about how great the show was that kept us laughing.  At one point he calmly said, "This transcends humanity..."  I don't know why but I couldn't stop laughing.  He was kind of right though.  Cirque du Soleil transcends humanity.  

Next on the program was Carly Rae Jepson, famous for her song, "Call Me Maybe".  I don't want to discriminate, but she is Canadian...singing at a 4th of July concert...badly.  She started her routine with, "I'm a Canadian girl, but I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!"  I think she was expecting people to react or something, but nobody did anything.  No cheers, no clapping, no noise.  It was sort of comical.  Also she struggled to command the crowd.  Carly Rae forgot to bring it to Stadium of Fire.  She must have left it in Canada.  She sang 4 or 5 songs, and everybody only knew one.  Poor girl.  

After that the show started to pick up as we saw a video presentation about the Wounded Warrior project.  It was cool, and Patti Austin brought the house down singing, "Lean on Me".  She achieved Diva status in my heart because of that performance.  It was powerful.  It even got everyone to start swaying their cell phones above their heads.

After Patti, Kelly Clarkson finally came out and I have to admit that it was a pretty sweet performance.  I learned a couple of things: 1) Kelly Clarkson has way more hit songs than I realized.  She sang about 12 songs, and I didn't know she sang 8 of them, but I knew them all.  2)  Mormons have zero shame when it comes to taking their small children to anything and everything they attend.  I was flabbergasted (yes, that word was the only one that could properly convey my feeling) at how many INFANTS I saw at this thing.  If you are under the age of 1 you have no business being at a Kelly Clarkson concert.  3)  There are little girls that weren't even born when some of Kelly's songs came out, and yet they still know every word. 

  

The night ended with some awesome fireworks.  It was a really fun experience that I'm glad we got to do at least once in our time here in Provo.

God Bless America!

Happy Birthday, America!

237 years old and still rockin it!  4th of July, 2013 was awesome for us and full of fun memories.  Buzz came down for the weekend and on the Fourth we woke up bright and early for the parade on University.  Of course we all had to wear patriotic colors, and here is a picture of Cory and me ready to start walking to our parade watching destination.

Just like last year, we staked out a spot at Brett and Kyle's house.  They live on University Avenue, so it is prime parade watching territory.  Kyle and his roommates stayed out on the lawn overnight to claim spots, so we were grateful for such an influential friendship.

Who doesn't love a good tank going down the road?  The parade was fun to watch, especially with so many of our friends there.  Joseph and Abbey were also there watching, and Anna also joined us with her new flame, Jake.  There were plenty of floats, bands, and military vehicles with veterans to see go by, but none as patriotic as this little girl Buzz caught with a picture.

She needs to be on some sort of poster!  While watching the parade, Buzz and Cory were snacking on some patriotic waffles that I didn't feel like eating that day, but now looking at the picture makes me hungry for waffles.

Here is the whole gang!

After the parade, we headed back to our apartment for some lunch and a nap.  I had to work in the afternoon, but Cory and I headed to the Stadium of Fire at night and it was a blast.  Overall, it was a successful Independence Day.