22,880 Steps

My legs hurt.

I did a lot of walking yesterday.

But before I tell you about that.  I have to tell you about my new obsession with tracking my movement.  About a month ago, it was time to upgrade my phone.  (It's a thing I do every two years.  That's how I roll.)  It just so happens that the time that my upgrade is available every 2 years happens to coincide with the time that Apple releases a new iPhone.  So naturally, I got the iPhone 6.  One of the fancy new features it has is Health Book which shows me handy dandy graphs of all sorts of things about my health.  It looks like this:

As you can see, I haven't taken very many steps today (Sunday).  It turns out that driving to church, walking around the building a little bit, driving home and walking around a little bit at home doesn't amount to lots of walking.  Luckily, I really needed an ice cream sandwich out of the basement freezer, so I have at least climbed one flight today.  But you can also see that yesterday was an epic day with 22,880 steps and 10.43 miles.

I didn't intend for it to be a record breaking day.  But here's the thing.  On Saturday mornings, I always watch a movie on the treadmill.  I crank up the incline so that it's like I'm hiking.  I'm trying to train for longer hikes so that I can do some more hardcore backpacking.  (I know my phone thinks I only climbed one flight yesterday, but the treadmill said I climbed a good 2000 feet or so.)

In October, my treadmill movies are always scary movies because I can DVR them all throughout the month, and consume them at my leisure.  I particularly love that I can get R rated movies that are edited.  Apparently I'm the only person on the planet who enjoys scary movies but doesn't particularly enjoy foul language, gore and explicit sex.

Yesterday's treadmill feature was A Nightmare on Elm Street.  I walked a good 5 miles while Freddy haunted the dreams of various children, but then I needed to watch some News because I've recently become obsessed with the status of the ebola virus in the United States.

I had to stop the treadmill to take a picture of this.  I was amused that it said, "Doctor Who survived ebola."  If anyone can survive ebola, it's a time lord.

So I watched the news for a bit, and ended up walking an additional 1.4 miles, bringing my total to 6.4 miles on the treadmill.  I thought my exercise was done for the day, but I was wrong.

That evening, we drove the truck to Pleasant Grove to pick up some things for my sister.  On the way back, the truck ran out of gas.  Apparently, the gas mileage has severely dropped recently.  Since the gas gauge doesn't work, I've always filled it up when it gets to 300 miles on the trip meter.  That has always worked for me.  I've gone as far as 320 miles without it being a problem.  The meter was at 293 miles and it was bone dry.  We were a little over a mile from the nearest gas station, so  I got to do some more exercise as  I walked my little self to the station, and walked back with a gallon of gas.

I know this happened before.  I've learned my lesson.  I will now fill it up when it hits 250 miles.  I could get the gas gauge fixed, but that seems like it might be taking things a little too far.

The good news is that we filled up the truck with gas, and everyone arrived home safely.  Robyn was slightly cranky that she had to wait in the truck for me to walk a few miles when it was clearly dinner time, but other than having to eat a late dinner we all survived.

But most importantly, my phone was super impressed with how many steps I took yesterday.  And isn't impressing our devices what life is about?

Sixth Anniversary Trip

Ever since I wrote about the top secret anniversary trip that Robyn was planning, I'm sure that you've been on the edge of your seat, yearning to know where we went.  Well, we've been home for 3 days now.  I hope you haven't been holding your breath.  If so, I apologize.

Are you ready for the big reveal?  She took me to (drumroll please) Idaho!  Okay, I know you're thinking that Idaho doesn't sound very exciting.  It's actually a trip we've talked about taking lots of times but we just haven't gotten around to it until now.  We went to both Idaho Falls and Rexburg.  We went to those two cities for a very specific purpose.  There are LDS Temples in both of those cities.  We enjoy visiting new temples and we've been to all the temples in Utah except for the newly completed Ogden Temple (we'll get there soon, just hold your horses) so we're continuing our ongoing temple tour with these two in Idaho.  That brings our total number of temples visited to 27!

What what!  Selfie with the temple!

We really enjoyed the Idaho Falls temple.  It's one of the older ones.  It was dedicated in the 1940s.  After going inside the temple we walked along the river.  We got a few really pretty shots of the temple from across the river.

I really liked this one.  Robyn took the picture and Google Auto Awesomed it to make it look extra cool.

Besides the temple, we really enjoyed how pretty the river itself was.  The Falls of Idaho Falls are not very tall but they are like half a mile wide.  Basically, the river is cut in half with a waterfall running down the middle of it for a long way.

Here's a panoramic shot of some of the falls.

Look how cute Robyn makes the falls look.

Here's a shot of the temple with the falls.

After enjoying a beautiful temple and some beautiful nature, we went out to dinner and also explored the city a little bit.

Every city needs a giant skateboard.

Have you hugged a moose today?

I made Robyn cuddle with the snake.  She assured me this in no way changes her dislike for snakes/

After Idaho Falls on Friday, we made our way up to Rexburg on Saturday.  The first thing we did there was visit another temple.

This temple was beautiful as well.  It looks almost exactly like the Brigham City Temple.

After the temple we explored a bit of Rexburg.  I think my favorite thing in Rexburg was when we went to a picnic in the park.  We had delicious sandwiches, but more importantly I got to be amused by all of the college students and their various antics.  The most fascinating was the girls who were having a photoshoot of them laying on top of each other among the fall leaves.  It was very precious.

The last and most important thing I need to tell you is that our hotel room was an error code.

Error 404: hotel room not found.

If you don't understand the 404 joke, you're not nerdy enough.

It was a great trip.  It was pretty chill.  We enjoyed beautiful buildings and beautiful nature.  We had plenty of time to enjoy each other's company.  It was like a 2 day long date.  We even had some time to read a book.  Robyn did a great job planning it.  I need to put her in charge of more events.

Haunting a Circus

Since time immemorial, October has been a time when I try (and fail) to scare myself by taking a date to a haunted house.  The date is important, because when I fail to get scared, I can still be amused by the funny things my date does when she's frightened.

When I got married, that tradition had to end.  Robyn is too terrified of haunted houses.  She did attempt to go with me once, but she nearly passed out from fear and it has been clear since then that she will never be my date for a haunted house.  Back in 2011, I came up with the brilliant idea to ask my little sister on a haunted date.  Since then, it has been an annual event, and it has been fantastic.

This year we returned to the place where it all began.  We took our haunted date to the Haunted Circus, where we had it in 2011.  This year it was a double date.  Zack and Dann came along with us, so I informed them that they were on a date.  There was a bit of a debate about which one was the woman, and the jury is still out on that.

Here is some of the preciousness that ensued while we were trying to frighten ourselves.

Is it possible to go on a date without taking a selfie?

This animatronic clown was kind enough to pose with us.

The four of us posing in the front.  We told those girls they could photobomb us if they wanted.  Who wouldn't want to be in a picture with us?

We even got a picture where there was actually light.  

I would say this year's haunted date was a success.  The highlights were when Zack was frightened by Gorliath, when Dann said really awkward things to the guy who wouldn't let him through and I realized that that level of awkwardness was more frightening than any other horrors they could put in front of me, and  of course when we asked the moss creature if we could have a hug and he hugged each of us.

Where will we haunt next year?

Dinner with Spencer and My Love

I mentioned earlier that Robyn is taking me on a mystery trip for our anniversary.

However, the anniversary trip didn't actually take place on our anniversary.  It works out much better to take the trip when Robyn has the day off.

That meant that I was in charge of planning a date on our actual anniversary.  We switch off who plans dates every week, but usually it's something simple like a movie at home or going for a hike.   For our anniversary, I took the liberty of taking us to something slightly fancier.

I googled "romantic restaurants in Utah" and one of the top hits was Spencer's For Steak and Chops in SLC.  It was definitely more expensive than our normal date, but the deliciousness was off the charts, and we had a great experience.

Of course, it was a surprise for Robyn where we were going.  She suspected we'd be spending the evening in downtown Salt Lake, mostly because that's where all the fancy restaurants are.  I tried to throw her off by saying stuff like, "for all you know we're going to Idaho." as I was driving north on I-15.  She let me know that if we were driving all the way to Idaho, she would be cranky because she was hungry.

We got to Spencer's and they seated us right away.  We definitely did not track calories at this meal, and we ordered a lot of food.

The most important part of the night was making sure to take a selfie.

The second most important part of the night was all of the cheesiness.

I made Robyn pose with her cheese.

 I'm not gonna lie.  We indulged with this meal.  We ordered like 5 courses, and all of it was fantastic.  (And most of it we took home because we couldn't eat it all.)  I had filet mignon and all sorts of goodness.  But I think my favorite thing of the night was the macaroni and cheese.

I ordered macaroni and cheese as a side.  It was the fanciest mac and cheese the world has ever seen. 

The macaroni had candied bacon in it.  CANDIED BACON!  I told Robyn we could totally come back there and just order that and I'd be happy.  Did I mention candied bacon?


At the end of the meal they gave us free dessert because it was our anniversary.

This was some of the best cheesecake I've ever had.

This chocolate cake was more like a truffle.  It was good, but the chocolate was a little dark for my taste.

 It was a fabulous evening.  The food was fabulous, and the company was even better.  I love going on dates with her!

I'm looking forward to our little trip we have coming up.  It will be like a 3 day long date.  I can't wait!

Six Years of Bliss

As of today, Robyn and I have been married six years.

Six years doesn't actually sound like that long of a time period.  I'm 33 years old.  I've only been married for about 18% of my life.  Yet, in some ways, I can't even remember what life was like before I was married.

It's been a fun adventure so far.  We've had many great experiences together, and I look forward to many more.  We've packed quite a bit into 6 years.  I thought I'd chronicle just a few of the highs and lows of our brief six years of marriage.

We've had our face printed on candy.
We've been to Hawaii twice.
We've struggled through infertility.
We've begun the adoption process.
We've been on two cruises.
We became Scuba certified.
We backpacked into the Grand Canyon.
We bought a house.
We became landlords.
We've kissed approximately 1 billion times.
We've fist bumped approximately 47 times.
We've lived under 2 United States Presidents.
We've acquired 7.8 nieces and nephews (one is due in December.  I figure he's 80% cooked.)
We've had 3 surgeries between us.
We've been to Europe.
We've lost 120 pounds between us.
We've bought 2 cars. (I only wrote about one of them, so that's all that is linked.)
We've traveled to 18 states and 8 countries together.  (That includes our home state of Utah in our home country of the United States.)
We've celebrated 6 versions of every Holiday.  (But most importantly, Pi Day.)
I've fallen to my death at least twice.
We've taken approximately 12 billion selfies.  (I make no guarantees about the accuracy of my approximations.)


This was just a list that I was able to come up with in a brief time period of ten minutes or so.  We've had so many adventures, that I could never list them all.  But the biggest adventure of all, is coming home every day to the love of my life.  She always surprises me with her wit and her fun personality.  She brings me joy just by being in my presence.  I look forward to many more exciting years.  Happy Anniversary my love!

P.S.  Here is the most recent of our 12 billion selfies.

It's extra precious because my parents are in the background.

Cedar City Groupies

My little brother, Justin, has a very devoted fan base.

For a long time, he was in shows at the Hale or the Scera, both located in Orem.  Then he started taking his show on the road.  He started school at SUU in Cedar City, but he was living in Montana for the summer, and was in some shows at a playhouse there.  Naturally we drove to Montana to see his performances in August.  Now that he's back in school at SUU, we drove down to Cedar City to see him in A Midsummer Night's Dream this past weekend.  (He played Snug, and his lion costume was epic.)

It wasn't a very long trip.  We drove down Saturday afternoon, went out to dinner with Justin and my parents, followed by the play, and then drove home Sunday morning.

It's unfortunate that I didn't get any pictures of Justin, since we were down there to see him.  They don't allow photography during the play, and I suppose we just didn't think about taking pictures during dinner.  (It's really unfortunate that I don't have a picture of him as a lion.  Perhaps if enough people comment that they would like to see one, we can convince him to provide.)

But, I did get some precious pictures of the rest of us.  We had to drop Justin off early so that he could go get in costume before the play.  That meant that we had a good hour to kill on SUU campus.  Naturally, we got some truly precious pictures.

It may be a bridge to nowhere, but we still make it look precious.

There was a statue of Shakespeare sitting on a bunch.  How could I not cuddle him and look at him longingly?

My Mom didn't want to be outdone, so she had to cuddle as well.  What she doesn't know is that she was still outdone, because she forgot to look at him longingly.

SUU even has a little waterfall in the middle of campus.  (But it doesn't always have my parents at the top of the waterfall.  This was a special and rare sighting.)

I'm sure you'll see more pictures of Cedar City in the future.  Justin's kind of a big deal in the acting world, and his groupies aren't getting any less devoted.

Unregulated October

You guys!  It's here!  It has begun!  The most important time of the year!

I know those of you that live in Hawaii are not familiar with this concept, but here in Utah we have these crazy things called seasons.  During certain portions of the year, it's so cold that you have to pay lots of money to keep your house warm.  During other portions of the year, it's so hot that you have to pay lots of money to keep your house cool.  But then there's this magical time in between, where you can turn off the AC, turn off the heater, and not pay billions of dollars for comfort.

That time is here.  This year we've set a goal to have our temperature unregulated for the entire month of October.  Lest you misunderstand, we're both aware that it will be uncomfortable at times.  I have already complained that it's too hot.  Robyn has already complained that it's too cold.

But both of us will be happy when the utility bills arrive.

So come join me.  Jump right in to unregulated October.  We have the cheapest utilities around.