Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza 2010

Happy Halloween everyone! For those of you that don't remember, two years ago I posted pictures of the pumpkins X and I carved for Halloween. I really wanted to turn it into a yearly tradition, but last year we were so busy with the Murder Mystery Dinner that we just didn't have enough time to get any done. So I had to make up for it this year! I don't have any novels to tell of inspiration-invoking pumpkins this year, but I still had fun coming up with unique ideas to carve. Since X wasn't around this year, I still got her involved by having her help me come up with some of these ideas. Hover over each picture below with your mouse to see what the pumpkins look like when they are lit!

Red M&M

Yellow M&M

Hunchbart

Jelly Belly

Several people have told us about a free tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Northern California, so on our way back from our trip to San Francisco we just couldn't resist stopping to check it out. We're both pretty inquisitive in regards to how things are made (we love watching shows like "How it's made") so we figured this would be pretty awesome. We weren't let down!

Outside the Jelly Belly factory

X standing in front of the creepy Jelly Belly mascot

All of the pictures inside the Jelly Belly factory are made out of (you guessed it) jellybeans! Most of the pictures are made up of over 10,000 individual jellybeans!

A jellybean buffalo nickel

Three jellybean presidents

Two Jelly Bellies (after we ate all those jellybeans!)

We weren't allowed to take pictures on the actual manufacturing floor, but we were able to see the whole process. Unfortunately we went during the weekend so nothing was actually running, but it was still cool to see all the machinery and each stage of the jellybean. We also got to try out some of the new flavors they are working on, and also some of those horrible trick jellybeans (think earwax, dog food, and rotten egg). With all the free jellybeans that you wanted to try, who wouldn't love coming here? We would just recommend if you are interested in going that you go on a weekday so you can see everything in action!

Unpleasant Neighbors

Throughout the summer we worked pretty hard on our yard to try to keep it looking nice. We even cleared away the spider webs that we found, but we noticed that some of them kept showing up again a few days after we cleared them. We never saw any spiders out during the day, so one night we went out with the flashlight to see if we could spot any culprits. We found out that apparently the rocks used for our landscaping are a favorite vacation spot for black widows!

Think your spiders are bad?

After an extensive search of our front and back yard we found and killed 10 black widows. All of them were huge and terrible! We are hoping to find some way to keep them from showing up again next year. Let us know if you have any suggestions.

Cruise Lifestyle Challenge

Ever since we got back from our cruise in May, we have been DYING to go on another one! But we didn't feel like we could just freely spend the money - we felt like we had to EARN it. So we started brainstorming ides of how we could use another cruise as motivation to get something done. We ended up settling on losing weight - neither of us have felt motivated enough to really work hard at it since we got married! And as part of the deal, we decided to invite my family and X's mom and sister (none of which have been on a cruise before) to go with us, with the deal that we would cover the cost of the cruise if they also made a list of goals and got them accomplished in the next year. What better way to help inspire change, but also to let people feel like they owned the changes they were making to themselves?

I've always heard that if you write your goals down you are more likely to get them accomplished, and if you make them public you are even more likely to accomplish your goals! So here are my goals for the next year:

1. Lose 60 pounds by:
1. Exercising at least 2x a week for 30 minutes
2. Not eating any desserts, candies, or sweets (except for the rare "once in a lifetime" chance to try something new)
3. Walking to get the mail every day
4. Only eating one helping at meals
5. Not drinking any soda or sugary drinks
2. Read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday

And here are X's goals:

1. Lose 18 pounds by:
1. Exercising 4x a week for 30 minutes
2. Eating slowly and stopping when satisfied
2. Read the scriptures everyday for at least 10 minutes
3. Read the entire Old Testament by reading 2+ chapters each day
4. Pray every morning and evening

We start tomorrow and go until next October. Wish us luck!

A San Francisco Treat

X and I spent out last weekend together in San Francisco before she moved back to Logan to finish her last year of school. The bay area is only 4 hours away from our house, so it makes for a quick and easy weekend getaway!

On the way to San Francisco we stopped by Mountain View, CA to visit my friend Mike who got a job working with Google. We were able to visit him at work and he gave us a tour of the Google campus. We arrived around noon and Mike was kind enough to treat us to lunch (it was easy enough for him since all the food is free...)

This is a famous Google Chrome bike. They have these and other Google bikes available for anyone to ride around the Google Campus. X just couldn't resist!

After our brief stint in Mountain View, we headed north to San Francisco. We checked into our hotel and went out to explore the city. We ate at a fresh seafood restaurant for dinner and enjoyed walking around the city. The next morning our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf:

We accidentally jumped on the wrong trolley and ended up on the other side of town. It turned out to be a one-way ride, so we had to pay another full fare to get back to where we had parked!

We loved the seals/sea lions at pier 39. It was pretty funny watching them fight and try to push each other off the end of the floating docks. It wasn't warm or sunny at all, and there were plenty of other floating docks to move to, but they all seemed to want to share the same one.

We couldn't find out what was wrong with the one on the left. He stayed frozen in that position the whole time we were there...

We also drove down Lombard street!

30-minutes later we decided it was one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences

Later that afternoon was the main event for us in San Francisco - I had surprised X with tickets to see Wicked for her birthday! She was pretty excited to spend the entire weekend with me, but I think she was more excited to see the show!

This wasn't the first time we'd seen the show - we won the raffle in New York for front-row seats back in 2008 - but this time we were a little further back and we enjoyed being able to see the entire show without it being right up in our faces. After the show we found out that Wicked was only playing in San Francisco for another week or two before ending its run, and that ticket prices had skyrocketed for all of the remaining shows - luckily I had purchased our tickets right before the announcement was made and didn't have to pay an arm and a leg! (just a leg)

After the show we drove out to the Golden Gate Bridge (our show was a matinee, so it was still light after we got out) and watched the sun set on the city from the bridge. A note for anyone who hasn't ever driven across the Golden-Gate Bridge - it is free to travel north across the bridge, but it is $6 to travel back the other way (cash only, of course). You've been warned!

We parked and started the long trek across the bridge. We only walked to the halfway point so that in the end we walked the "entire length" of the bridge.

As I thought about living alone for the next year...

After I found out that we had to pay $6 to get back across the bridge...

After the bridge we stopped by a nice BBQ place for dinner and then Ghirardelli Square for dessert.

This beef rib was as large as my forearm!

Apparently this is how chocolate is made

All in all we had a great time and look forward to our next trip together!

The Postcard

X and I wanted to come up with a really creative way to let people know that we had moved. While we were on our anniversary we came up with a really good idea to send people a postcard - but what to put on it? We passed on the cliche "posing in the front yard" idea, and decided to have some fun. This is what we came up with:

On the reverse it says: "We've moved! Life's a little different out here in Nevada, but you should still come out for a visit! You're welcome anytime, so give us a call or just stop by and we'll have a good old-fashioned boot stomp!"

Maybe I just have a thing for cross-dressing? We heard a lot of people enjoyed it, and that is what we were going for. If you didn't get one, all I can say is sorry we could only afford to send out a handful (they were pretty expensive) but you ended up seeing it here anyways. So no complaining!

Alone

Saying goodbye is always hard. Especially when it's to your best friend! Today my wife left to go back to school. I tried to spend as much time as possible with her this summer before she left (I didn't have much time for posting). She has two semesters left before she graduates with a Bachelor's degree in Public Health, and she's going back to Utah State University to finish it up. Most people think we're crazy (sometimes I even think we're crazy) but to those of you who want to know "why did we do it?" here's the rundown:

• She has a Presidential Scholarship at USU that covers all her tuition and fees
• She only has one year left at USU before she graduates
• UNR (University of Nevada - Reno) is the closest university to us here in Nevada that offers the same program that she is studying. It's an hour away and we only have one car
• UNR will only accept 1/2 of her credits that she has already earned - that turns into a whole extra year of school to make up those credits
• Since we just moved to Nevada and haven't established residency yet, she'd have to pay out-of-state tuition and it is EXPENSIVE!
• The actual cost difference per year between USU and UNR is $16,000

Most people typically think that we made this decision solely based on the money. But honestly, I would gladly pay anything it costs to keep her here. The main reason she is going back to Utah State is because she doesn't want to have to go to school for 2 more years; she just wants to be done!

So she's going back to school and I'm here all alone. It's not all bad though. It isn't like we aren't going to see each other for the next 9 months. We already have a good schedule setup for the Fall semester and we'll see each other almost every month! Here's a preview of what we've managed to plan:

September - Our friend Allison is getting married and I'm flying out to Utah for the wedding

October - I'm headed out the University of Utah and up to Utah State University for a work recruiting trip (my boss specifically chose me so that I could go see her)

November - We're going on a 2-week trip with her family to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt

December - She will spend Christmas break with me at home

We don't have something planned for every month during Spring semester yet, but hopefully I can go on another recruiting trip for work and she'll probably come home for spring break too.

If you are ever in the area please feel free to stop by. Or if you are bored call or text me. I've never been 100% alone before. I've always had a roommate or a companion or something, so it definitely will be an interesting time for me in my life. Wish me luck, and let's all keep our fingers crossed for her to get the grades she needs to graduate next spring to come back home!