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.

Can Ye Feel So Now?

I had a powerful experience in the scriptures this past week.  Robyn and I had gone to the temple to do initiatories.  For those unfamiliar with the temple, there are some ordinances that you can go do together with your spouse, and some that are more solitary in nature.   This particular ordinance happens to be one that you are not together with your spouse.

As always seems to be the case, I finished before Robyn did and so I had about 30 minutes to myself inside the temple.  There are about a billion copies of the scriptures all over, so I decided to sit down and read from The Book of Mormon.

Of course, during normal study I already know where I am at in the book, but since this study was more extracurricular, I had the dilemma of where I should read.  I thought for a moment, and decided I would open up to Alma 5.  I've always thought that Alma's sermon here was particularly powerful.

The entire chapter is filled with questions.  I think the questions are great for helping anyone to take a personal inventory of their own life.  As a missionary, I frequently shared verse 14.  I always thought it was a good verse for asking yourself  if you've truly embraced the teachings of Christ, "[H]ave ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?"

I think those are the most poignant questions in the entire chapter, but this time I decided to let Alma interview me all the way through.  I encourage anyone to do this.  To really do it thoroughly, it could take a good chunk of time, but I think it's worth it.  Some of the questions are pretty easy.  When he asks whether you are a murderer, you'll probably be able to answer fairly quickly that you're not.

But when he asks if you've been stripped of pride or stripped of envy those may be more difficult questions, at least they were for me.  I don't think of myself as particularly prideful or envious, but am I completely stripped of those traits?  Well, you can probably guess the answer, but I'll just say that there was some serious introspection there.

But as I read on, I came to a verse that I've read a billion times before, but it struck me in a new way this time.  In verse 26 there is a follow up question to my favorite question from verse 14.  It asks, "[I]f ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"

Can ye feel so now?

I remember working with people as a missionary who had, for one reason or another, fallen away from the church.  These were people who had served missions and had once been very strong.  At the time I wondered how they could have felt as I did and yet they fell away?  But then, as I truly pondered this question, I realized that there had been moments in my life when I would have to answer "no".

It was an eye opening experience for me.  I've been over this chapter many times before, but this time it just struck me differently.  I would encourage everyone to do a little interview with my good friend Alma.  He's got some great questions.  Have you experienced a change in your heart?   Do you feel the redeeming love of Christ?  Do you feel so now?