The Dark Knight

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this movie yet! I had it marked in my calendar months in advance, and went to the first showing the day it came out! I have seen it twice now and am seriously considering a third time go around just because I loved it so much! Heath Ledger did an amazing job of playing a psychopath... he was very disturbing, funny, personable, insane and likable. I also enjoyed Maggie Gyllenhaal as the new Rachel, she was much better than Katie Holmes. And lets not forget Christian Bale who is one hunky dude! This movie is intense, suspenseful, and clever. I felt engaged throughout the entire film! The Dark Knight explores many different issues such as the love of money, terrorism, chaos vs. control, and a belief that there is inherent goodness in all people both as a collective group and as individuals and that it is within them to choose to do the right thing. I hope you all love it as much as I do, and if you don't, I think we can still be friends.

Airplane Ride

On my flight home from Texas I was fortunate enough to sit next to some very fun, very chatty women. They were on their way to a girls weekend in Colorado. They belong to a life long group of friends known as the Mothers Club. They have been through thick and thin together and were eager to tell me many mother's club stories. We also talked about religion, they belong to the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. We were able to share our favorite Bible stories with one another and talk about our beliefs and values. I feel like I really know these women now and hope that they had a great time in Colorado, watching movies, visiting, drinking wine, and enjoying nature. We started off as strangers on a journey and ended as good friends... they even hugged me when I got off the plane and wished me luck in my endeavors as a student!


Carol, me, and Sherri from the Mother's club

Demolitin Derby!

Who doesn't love old cars crashing into each other at high speeds, flying dirt, and open flames?! The Demolition Derby put on by the good people of Spanish Fork did not disappoint! We piled into the car (Andy, Tom, Carrie, Lucy, Tucker, Anders) and had ourselves a good old fashioned white trash adventure!

Driving to the event...

Taking dangerous pictures while driving...

The kids seemed excited to be there...

The arena for the much anticipated event...



Some fun crashes early on...

300 was my favorite car and the one I was hoping would win!


The yellow car with the hat on top was the only driver from Provo. I was glad someone was representing!

This car somehow managed to crash on top of the barriers, thus suspending him in mid air and eliminating him from the competition.

Lucy thought it was a little loud at times...

Towards the end of the night all the kids were freezing so we tried squishing together to create some body heat...

Anders was ready to go home and go to bed...

Carrie has some good shots and videos posted on her blog. You can check those out if you want to see some of the live action! It was a lot of fun and Carrie and I are planning on entering the powder puff competition next year in order to fund out trip to Australia and New Zealand. The winner gets 3,000.00 big ones! Pretty sure we've got what it takes to compete! Thanks to everyone who made this night a whole lot of fun!

A Post For Hilary

I was fortunate enough to spend a wonderful, dare I say... DELIGHTFUL week with the Gibbs in Houston! We were able to clean out the closet, see some great movies, do lots of shopping, and of course eat WONDERFUL food! It was a fabulous getaway and just what I needed at that time. Thank you Gibbs women for being the best hosts and the greatest friends!


This was quite good despite the main guys bad wig job. I give it two thumbs up and recommend it to most... there are some very clever lines in there about British people and their quirky ways! It left me with a great desire to be a wine taster!

Very cute and fun. If you like well cut men with chiseled abs, there are plenty of good shots for you in this film. If you love Greece, then you will love the last few scenes! And if you love silly girls and their personal problems then I think that you will love this movie!

Delicious Korean food, we ordered too much, but somehow finished it all... funny how that works!



My last lunch in Houston was at the Hobbit Cafe. What you can't see is that the sign says welcome to Middle Earth. This was probably the most fun place we ate at. I loved it for its wonderful Tolkien parafanalia inside, I loved it for the earth mother feel of all the employees and the decor, and I loved it for the delicious food, particularly the wonderful peach smoothie that tasted like heaven in a jar! This is me and Alison being hobbits, you can tell because our arms are shorter and our hands are doing hobbit like actions...




This is us just hanging out... so much fun!

The cute ones...

The serious one...

The silly one....

The super cute one...

Ummm... I'm running out of ideas...

The squishy Alison face, fun one...

This is the gecko that found his way into the bathroom. Alison found him in the morning and didn't know what to do so she locked the doors and turned out the lights so that he would feel comfortable and as if nothing were amiss. A few hours later we decided to capture and release him back into the wild forests of Kingwood Texas.

We chased him around with a cup and finally caught him, he was fast moving...

We slid a bed bath and beyond coupon underneath to support his weight and ensure the safe travel of Rocky... (That's what we named him because he seems like a fighter...)

Then we released him into the plants on the back porch and left the cup there as a covering to protect him from the tropical storm that was in full force that day.

So long little Rocky, may you fair well in the wild!

Thank you for the fun memories and the delightful time in Texas! I hope to see you all again real soon!

Arizona

I drove home with Maren and Gavin to spend three days in Arizona, seeing friends and catching up on some more movie watching. I spent the first night at Maren's house. The next day we drove to Arizona for lunch with Grandmother and I spent the afternoon hanging out with my friend from the mission. On Thursday I hung out with Joy and John, we made homemade pasta and the following night we made homemade tortillas. There is always good food involved when spending time with Joy because she's such an amazing cook! We had an evening trip to the temple because that's one of my favorite things to do in Mesa. It was a lot of fun seeing them and being with grandmother. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here's what I've got.


It had been a while since I had seen this one so Joy and I put it on and had a great time laughing at all the classic quotes and scenes.

On Wednesday nights, Grandmother and all of her sisters that live nearby and Chip and Sandy, get together to watch so you think you can dance. Rey was taking notes and writing down the phone numbers so she would be able to cast in her vote, while the others were commenting on the dancers style and techniques. This was a very entertaining evening.

I saw this one with Michael Hale and was sort of disappointed. I thought it would be a lot more intense and a lot more sci-fi. Instead it was more gruesome. There were some really funny parts, or maybe I just thought they were funny... so I'm not recommending it nor am I saying I thought it was crap... you get to decide if you want to see it or not.

I saw this one with Joy. It was Entertaining and fun...

Lunch at Tia Rosas... so yummy!

At the movie theater...

Our trip to the temple, that is my leg in case the white skin didn't tip you off, then Joy and John.

Thanks to everyone in Arizona that made this trip so great and wonderful!

A Nod To The Family Reunion

I realize that it's all been done before, so this is really more of a tribute to Yellowstone and not so much explaining what we did... so just enjoy the photos and feel free to comment...

A resting Buffalo, he was so hot right then, so much so that he stopped traffic with his ridiculously good looks!

Is it just me or does anyone else see a resemblance to Yosemite Sam?



What a handsome family...

Sexy!

So pretty!

What's sexier than one white leg? TWO white legs bedecked with keens and chacos!

Old Faithful... it was worth the wait!

Pictures by Anders... I think they're quite good!




More Pictures by Anders

A beautiful waterfall on the backroad

Tour Bus

View from the car on the drive back to the cabin... not too shabby eh?

Thanks to all who made the family reunion so wonderful. The only thing that could have taken it from a 10 to an 11 would have been a William and Jamie... I sure did miss you guys!