post

Real Salt Lake Cameo

When Kristie headed off to her baby shower, Jeremy and I headed up to a Real Salt Lake game with these:

How’d we get the all-access passes? Well, we got it in exchange for participating in a little halftime skit with Real’s mascot, Leo the Lion.

Here’s how it went down. At 10 minutes to halftime we left our complementary seats and headed down to the locker room of the stadium. There we met up with Leo, who gave us our props. To me, an old Leo suit, a dress, a bow and a purse. To Jeremy, a jersey of the opposing team (Philadelphia). In honor of Mother’s Day, I was to dress up as Leona (Leo’s mom), and get introduced at half field. So yeah, this is me:

There Leo would present me with flowers–which was Jeremy’s cue to jump out of the stands, run on the field and start acting like an obnoxious fan from the rival team (while the police chased him around). At that point I’d see Jeremy, run full-tilt at him, and deliver a crushing tackle (as any die-hard fan — and mascot-mom — would do) .

Then I was instructed to beat him with my purse till Leo caught up and dragged me off him.

The skit went according to plan and had some great play-by-play narration from the stadium announcer. I was told that the fans in attendance thought it was a riot.

Cross-dressing as a lioness was a bit weird for me (hold your jokes), but getting to lay a solid hit on Jer in front of the whole stadium was awesome.

Many thanks to Tyler at RealSoccerNation.com for the awesome photos, and Leo, who got us the best seats in the house.

post

Holi: Festival of Colors, Utah 2010

For years I’ve seen pictures, advertisements and promotions for this springtime event at the Krishna temple–and every year I’ve missed it for some lame reason or another. Well we finally made it. And, yes,  it was everything I was hoping it would be, in case you’re wondering.

If you want to learn more about the history and origin of Holi, read this cop-out Wikipedia entry. Otherwise, understand that it boils down to a friendly Woodstock-like atmosphere where it’s socially acceptable (in fact strongly encouraged) to toss brightly colored chalk at complete strangers. Especially after a climactic countdown that follows the burning of a witch effigy (and chanting “hare krishna” a million times).

We actually would have blown it again had it not been for Leah and Jonny, who kindly invited us the night before. Luckily for us, Jonny was a seasoned veteran, who not only knew the back roads to avoid the ridiculous traffic, but also knew where to buy chalk at a fraction of the price they charge at the event.

Within minutes of arriving my white shirt became a multi-colored canvas. We settled into the crowd, took pictures and participated in some “hare krishna” chanting along with the crowd, MC and band. I can tell you now I’ve never been so grateful for nose hair and eyelashes. For all the chalk that was thrown around, however, it was remarkably bearable. We ran into a bunch of old friends and enjoyed ourselves immensely…it’s easy to see why the event gets steadily bigger every year.


[before]

[after]

post

Dinner and a Show

Tonight we had dinner at the Pizza Pie Cafe Provo with a most excellent group of friends that we haven’t seen in quite some time. For the rest of the gang that couldn’t make it, here’s some choice updates:

  • Bobby and Kathryn were running a little late because Bobby was called in at the last second to assist with a C-section. I still have a hard time reconciling  the distinct personalities I think of as “dilophosaurus Bobby” and “doctor Bobby.”
  • Jeremy and Kedra brought their adorable newborn Rebecca for everyone to meet. She was as cute as a button, and probably weighed less than all the pizza I consumed that evening.
  • Theron is still working hard on some rad engineering projects and enjoying the new place he bought. Katy and Nate (who unfortunately couldn’t make it) are staying with him until they finish remodeling their new home.
  • Joe is starting a new booking company called Hungry Tiger Agency (with our boy Matty P), and will likely run the music biz in a few years.
  • Richie is taking some classes at UVU and is as wild as the guitar solo Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird.

It was so good to see everyone, and I’m kicking myself for forgetting to bring a camera.

After some good eats, a bunch of us headed over to Velour to catch the Imagine Dragons show. The energy was high and the band some great new tunes. Here’s a video montage of the trip they just posted (footage from the show begins about 40 seconds in)

post

Weekend In Eagle

On Thursday night we took off to Idaho to visit Kristie’s family. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend hangin’ out with the fam. It was a particularly big weekend for Cole, who was celebrating his 16th birthday, getting ordained, etc. He had actually planned his own surprise party for Saturday with a couple of friends, where he wanted to surprise all the people that had come to surprise him. But in a classic twist, his mom told his friends switch the date of the party to the evening before, so he was completely confused when he walked into a yelling room of friends on Friday night.

[Yes...that's Cole's head]

We also got to see Kenny, Mari, Grandma, Grandpa & others at the Tanners on Saturday night where we watched BYU stomp on Utah in a great men’s basketball game.

post

Massachusetts Trip

After the cruise we got to spend a week at home with the McConnons, and it was a blast. Some of the highlights include:

  • New Hampshire: We headed up to the cabin to spend a couple nights. It snowed a bunch so we got to play with snowmobiles, sled, and try to figure out how to get the cars back out from the long, treacherous driveway.
  • New Years: Cozy by the fire at the Ponderosa.
  • Spa: Mom gave me and Kristie a trip to the spa where we got pampered with massages, etc. It was a first time for me — so relaxing.
  • Date night in Boston: Kristie and I met up with some friends in Newton, and then went to grab dinner at Bertucci’s — a favorite local restaurant of ours.
  • Lunch with DD: Mom, Coleman, Kristie and I headed out to Sterling, MA to have lunch with my aunt DD at a wonderful little apple orchard cafe. We also met her fiancee Johnny,  and they’re a wonderful couple — totally in love.
  • Spending time with the fam: Even though we just barely had the cruise together, it was so much fun to hang out in our element.
  • Picking Coleman up at the ER: Coleman went skiing with his friends, and got clotheslined by a metal cable, which resulted in a pretty nasty cut above his eye. We all went to Emerson Hospital to pick him up and make fun of him. The receptionist complimented us on being a pretty “fun” family. I couldn’t disagree.

post

Surprise visit

So about a week before the cruise Kristie and I decided to modify our itinerary. Instead of heading back to SLC after the cruise, we thought it would be fun to head back to Massachusetts for an extra week of vacation. We knew mom would be really excited about this idea, but I only discussed it with dad, and we decided to keep it a secret. Coleman was flying back to Utah with us, and had really wanted to go home too, so we switched his itinerary to match ours without him knowing.

So when we got off the cruise ship, we all headed to the Orlando airport. Coleman, Kristie and I went to one terminal, and mom, dad and Andrew headed to another. I had wanted to see how far we could get Coleman before he realized the final destination, but he ended up figuring it out at baggage check-in. The guy said, “so your final destination is Boston?” and Coleman nodded, then looked really confused, and said “wait…no.” Before too much protesting we caught his attention and shouted “surprise! Merry Christmas!” It was pretty funny to watch his confusion give way to excitement.

So we boarded a Jetblue flight to Logan Airport in Boston, while mom and dad flew Southwest into Manchester, NH. Dad made up some excuse about having to drive over and pick up a package for work at Logan, and mom (somewhat annoyed)  said “fine.” When they drove past us along the curbside pickup, we saw mom in the passenger side window and began waving. Her face was priceless, she looked like she just woke up in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I was just glad she managed to wait till dad stopped the car before she launched herself out of it. I think she was trying to figure out what state we were all in at the moment.

Anyways, at the last second I pulled out my camera and switched it on to video…here was the latter part of her reaction:

post

Lights at Temple Square

This evening we traveled up to SLC with Leah and Jonny to see the lights at Temple Square, and catch a portion of the ‘The Wondrous Gift of Christmas’ concert presented by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. It was beautiful…highlighted by exceptional performances from Grammy-award winning singer Natalie Cole, and Pulitzer prize winning author Frank McCullough (one of my all-time favorite nonfiction writers)

post

BYU 26, Utah 23

Andrew George, breaking a Ute “tackle” to win in overtime. Glorious bragging rights for a full year. Loving it.

tackling

(P.S. – Hey Max, you sound like me last year)

post

BYU vs. Oklahoma

On Saturday BYU upset the #3 team in the nation at the brand-new Cowboys stadium in Dallas. I was beside myself. We watched the game at Leah and Jonny’s with some friends…my only regret is that we didn’t make it out to join the 2k fans that met the team at the airport when they arrived home at 2am. I think this picture conveys some of the post-game celebratory excitement we were feeling:

While downtown Provo was close to peaceful rioting, we spent the evening swimming in Leah and Jonny’s pool. Not a bad way to cap off the night…thanks guys!

post

VEGAS for Harry and Sarah

This weekend we had an action packed trip to Vegas to celebrate Harry and Sarah’s wedding reception. We took two cars on the way down, between Richie, Theron, Kedra, Jeremy, Kristie and me. Jeremy and his family were cool enough to let us crash at their place for the weekend.

When we arrived in Vegas we went straight dinner as planned (where we got to meet up with Tyler and Katie). Then we took off and headed to the Sahara to go to a show. At the last minute Mac and Julie decided to come, which allowed us all to celebrate a bit of his birthday together. Jeremy was able to score the tickets for free, so we were treated to “The Magic & Tigers of Rick Thomas.”

It was awesome, and brought to mind flashbacks of Gob in Arrested Development. (If only he could have used “The Final Countdown” as his theme song too)

After the show ended we got word that Dan’s band, the Imagine Dragons, were headlining a show at Vegas’ “First Friday” outdoor festival. We had just enough time to make it, so we jumped in the cars and headed over.

The show was best I’ve seen them perform so far–they’ve been in Vegas doing it full-time this summer, so their sound is on point. There was tons of energy, and it was pretty awesome to dance to the music in the shadow of the Stratosphere.

The next morning we got up and lounged around the pool, played some water basketball and put together a killer BBQ. Relaxation station.

Around 6 o’clock we rolled out to the Reynolds residence for the outdoor reception. Everything was decorated beautifully, and the food and live jazz trio fit perfectly.

Harry and Sarah are one of those couples that you can tell are perfect for each other within 5 minutes of getting to know them. Tonight they seemed as fun, beautiful and vivacious as they’ve ever been.  It was such a blast to celebrate with them, their families and friends.

After the reception we headed over to the Little Chapel of Flowers, the wedding chapel owned by Jeremy’s dad. We took a moment to snap a photo of our mock-renewal-of-vows. If we ever do that for real, I think Vegas might just be the place…

One of the perks of owning a wedding chapel in Vegas is that you get access to limos whenever the need arises. So Jeremy graciously loaded us up and took us over to the strip to check out a few attractions we had on our list.

Richie always has to look like a rock star and show us up. I’m sick of it.

All in all it was an awesome trip. Thankfully there are a handful of unwed Reynolds’ left…so with any luck we’ll get to do it again.