Mountain Biking - City Creek

Our first adventure into mountain biking.
We have returned a couple of times to City Creek. It is a good place for very calm rides. A lot of uphill (in my opinion) and nothing to technical/challenging on the lower half. 

Blue: Lower City Creek
Red: Bench Trail

Green: Death Valley

Here is a short video of the different trails, just a general overview of the parts that I didn't have to walk my bike up.

This map has helped us put official names and information together:

Muse

      Weeeell I finally got to go to a Muse concert. It has been actually a quite large item on my bucket list since I started listening to them a looong time ago.

We decided to take Tyler for his birthday, knowing that it would be a great concert and doesn't happen too often.  I can't even begin to describe how intense it was. 

At first it was pretty intense because we didn't have any idea where to go. We stood in a couple of lines for a while before we found out where the will call tickets were being given out. 

But the fact that Cage the Elephant was about an hour late mostly worked to our advantage. 

I had to use the bathroom. 

We HAD to buy shirts. 

Etc.

Needless to say...when Muse finally came on stage I was ready and reaaaally excited. 

 This is how it started. What we thought would be just an inverted pyramid hanging from the ceiling...

Turned out to be a hollow pyramid that the band appeared in...

(Sorry for the poor audio, but I hope you can tell how awesome they sounded. you could hear everythiiing.)

These are just a few shots that I managed to grab of different parts, here are a few more pictures of different parts:   

Riley's MUSE Flickr Set

Set List

           Intro: The 2nd Law: Isolated System

1. Supremacy
2. Supermassive Black Hole
3. Map of the Problematique
4. Panic Station
5. Hysteria
   (Star-Spangled Banner intro)
6. Knights of Cydonia
   (Ennio Morricone's Man with a Harmonica intro)
7. Monty Jam
8. Sunburn
9. Follow Me
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes
11. Liquid State
12. Madness
13. Plug In Baby
14. Time Is Running Out
15. Unnatural Selection
16. Uprising
    Encore:
17. The 2nd Law: Unsustainable
18. Starlight
19. Survival

2013 Vacation

Savanna and I were lucky enough to be able to go on a vacation to the Western Caribbean. We went to two ports on the Yucatan peninsula, in Progreso and a little island called Cozumel.

Progreso, Mexico

     We were scared for the weather because we booked our cruise during the hurricane season. Two days before we left there was a 50% chance of a hurricane or tropical storm or something like that developing around Cozumel. Luckily when we got there it wasn't too bad.

      Our first stop in Progreso turned out to be beautiful weather. Despite being just a little fishing town,  it has some amazing beaches (like the picture above). We got to go haggle with the locals, take a little tour around the town in the top of a double-decker bus.
                It felt pretty authentic just because we had to dodge power lines...

In Cozumel we had booked an excursion. Turns out we were the only ones that did it through the company.
So it was just us and the tour guide.
It wasn't the best weather, but because of the rain and wind we got to get a free excursion upgrade and see more of the island. It led us to some very beautiful places.  

We passed by some volunteers that were saving baby sea turtles.

Duuuuude, there were a lot of those little squirts :p

The volunteers said that when they flipped onto their backs they left them. That was so they wouldn't waste energy crawling around. They had about a 5 mile journey back to the safe parts of the oceans.

The Volunteers had marked all the nests along the beach. It was 100% covered.

   We got to stop at some shops that had nice views.
   

And this is where it gets REAAALLY cool. We went to a lighthouse. But this lighthouse was built where the Mayans used to have one of their own.

Ok now the coolness. The Mayans had also built this warning signal tower place. It was built so they could signal the people back on the mainland how many people they were sending over, how many people to send back, but the coolest part was....it would tell the weather. At the spring equinox the sun would line up directly between those little squares on top. And because of the way they had lined it up, when the wind was blowing in a storm it would change directions and blow in such a way that it would make a noise up in the top part of this tower like a conch shell.
There used to be more to that little round part, and each side facing a cardinal direction had four little holes.
Pretty sweet!

We also got to go SNORKELING!!!!!! It was pretty awesome. 

My favorite part. 

It started raining on us and for fear of a storm we didn't get to go for too long. But it was still great. I made a cute little video of it :)

April Fools'!!!!!!!!!

Funny phone pranks!

We found a website that will call people for you, they have some funny recordings.
Thanks for the good laugh all those that "participated."

They are all the "You hit my car" prank, unless otherwise listed.

#1

Grandpa Cornwall. 

He gets a little into it...

#2

Grandma Cliveen. 

She called the police after because she was so worried.

#3

Grandma Ida

Cool, calm and collected. But still gullible.

#4

Pauline.

Why you callin' my boyfriend?

Matched up perfectly with the recording...

#5

Grandma Brown

Sassy G-ma

#6

Kyle.

He bikes to campus :)

#7

Tyler- Gay Telemarketer

Tyler knows how to handle telemarketers. Hang up.

#8

Andrae
Almost got her...

#9

Devin
Caught on...

#10

Nyk

Saw through it from the very beginning...that's unfortunate.

Easter egg art

We took Easter egging to a whole new level this year!

My Domo

My R2-D2

Savanna's Fire Egg

Tyler's dead man

My Pikachu

Alyssa's Mountain Dew

Dad's chick

Savanna's Pig

Pebble Creek/Contour

Here's the video I made of our epic trip to Pebble Creek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWYxwNrL9rU

The Lift

So a few things. The Skyline lift had been down for about a week before it got fixed which was the day we went up. So obviously the top half was super great. You can see in the video Tyler going down Outback, and it was so nice and powdery. Not perfect because we weren't the very first ones up there, but it still had that "untouched" feel to it. Sadly enough we were only able to enjoy it for half of the day, as soon as we came out after lunch, it had broken down.

Contour Roam

This was my first use of my Contour Roam. I was using the Goggle Mount on the outside of my helmet. As you can see in the video, it worked fairly well. I like the idea of it because then I didn't have to have a permanent mount stuck on my helmet, and because it was so easy to change between anybody wearing goggles. The leash was nice in case it fell of, even though that didn't seem very likely because it was so solid on there. The only downside that I have seen is mostly noticeable when Tyler wears it and it is a bit shakier on him. One thing that I did forget to do (and you probably saw this in the video) is use the laser alignment to level out the view. I have also thought about putting something over the microphone because while going down the hill it jut picks up the wind and is sort of annoying. 

Other than those few things, I was impressed with the camera, thought the mount was easy to use and I'm excited to use it in the future. 

Ice Skating

                  Savanna is an ice skater from way back when, so we went. She showed off her moves and even taught me to at least get around the rink.

         
                We brought ice skates from Savanna's attic, a pair that she used and a pair that (thankfully) fit me. We had gone around a few times when I had to sit down from the pain in my feet. I just couldn't get them to fit right. When I took the skate off, I realized that there was an insert in there... Once I took that baby out, it was so much better. With no pain we cruised around quite a few times.

Savanna's Bid for the "2016" Olympics

Pebble Creek Trip

March 2, 2013

Well, we got to slip in a few runs while the Skline lift was working, and here are a few shots of us. The lift broke right after we came out of lunch....so we were stuck on the Sunshine lift for the rest of the day.

It was super warm and super fun, we were tired at the end of the day, but super glad we had went together!!

P.S. videos will soon follow!

Me, going off a fun little cliff we found.

Tyler shreddin' it up.

Dad, cruisin' down the hill like a boss. 

Some Pictures!!

These are some funny pictures from our life!!!

We found this at Broulim's. Somebody decided to put googly eyes on the Chex lady. 

Savanna got 10 boxes of Fruit Rolls Ups for Christmas. These are the remains.

A Jesus fish formed on our cupboard when we spilled soup, IT'S A SIGN!

This is how our new stove greets me. lol

My Webcam

Anybody having issues with their HP laptop webcam?
I was... I tried everything!!! And as it's embedded it's a little difficult to deal with. But after trying everything I possibly could with the drivers and whatnot, I came across this video.

I never dropped my laptop or anything, but somehow that little doohickey came loose, and I had to just baaaarely push up on the little white part. It's on the bottom side...

Do the Harlem Shake

Oh boy....We just had to do it...

THE HARLEM SHAKE

Savanna and I have watched tons of these videos, so when Tyler, Alyssa and Morgann came up this weekend we decided there was no better time.

It was pretty simple. But fun. Good times.

Waxing!

Well, I finally got my snowboard fixed. I was advised by my wife and the dude at the Sled Shed to take it in because of the damage to the edge. I had somehow managed to make a beautiful smash on my toe edge (maybe I was going down backwards) but I didn't want it to get worse. Thankfully I have some stuff to fix the other nicks on the top, so hopefully it'll be all sealed up eventually.SO, after finally getting it back, I was able to continue on my waxing spree.
Pretty much this was my third time doing it.
      My first try on Savanna's snowboard turned out...ok. (it was my first try, what do you expect) Thankfully when I did her skiis they came out a TON better. Profesh if you will. So I decided it was time to see how beautiful I could get my board to look.

Before

And my snowboard came out pretty fine too. A lot harder than skiis, bigger and a lot more wax to be dealing with, but it came out ok. I tried to fill in some of the gouges too, and it worked great, but the little glue sticks that you use sometimes burn black, and me not being highly skilled, got some of the black in the glue, which is now hard and under the wax. So if you see those little brown lines, its where I used to have scratches.

After

It did make a lot of difference though! So I can't complain. It gave me something to do, it was free labor, and now it's ready to go!

Pumpkin Carving!!!

            The greatest pumpkin art ever!!! So Savanna and I got this huge pumpkin from my parents garden, and after an epic 3.5 (ish) hours of carving, we finished. This masterpiece of pumpkin carving came from our imagination, with a little inspiration from my own multiple chins.

Finished 3D pumpkin

 
This is the finished product of our hard work!!!

With a candle inside! It was intense doing the shading and rounding!

And this is Morgann's giant pumpkin!!!!

Pumpkins 2012

               This year Savanna and I have decided to go all out on our pumpkin carving! She found this idea online and we decided to start off the year with this good warm-up carve. I'll later post a picture of it with a light because you can't understand the "shading" in the eyes too much without it. I'll keep posted with our ideas and outcomes!!!!

So I had two ideas for my pumpkin this year. This is the first one, sort of a warm-up you could say! (we got the pumpkin for free on campus)

But this is just the beginning of my idea, I have spent a long time preparing my outline for my final pumpkin...I'll probably end up using some sort of power tool. Booyah.

Anxiously Engaged

The Best Night

                   Ever!!!
       
         



    A story. To fancify your life. So after Savanna and I had been dating for about three months, we started talking about getting married. After finding the perfect ring, I set about finding the perfect spot to pop the question.
        Luckily my mom and sister Tosha jumped on board and helped me to find a ridiculously romantic backdrop for our evening. Savanna and I were living at home in between school semesters and we were only able to see each other every once in a while.
      After Tosha threw out the great idea of doing penny wishes at a fountain I decided it would be a great idea and we set out to find us a fountain.
      I don't know how many people in Pocatello know about this Simplot fountain. But it was really hard to find online, it was also the perfect location!

























After figuring out where I was going to propose, I started sifting through the ideas of how to do it.
Here's what I came up with.
Savanna and I went to the YSA activity at Lava to float the river, obviously upon returning we would want to shower. Sooo, I wrote her a letter, slid it under her door and I booked it to Pocatello. I directed her on the note to open a secret file on my laptop. This special file contained several documents, each unlocked by some remembrance from our time together. After she finished this homemade puzzle, she was given directions to the Simplot fountain.
      Of course she got lost.
I had arrived with Tyler in our car so that he could drive it home after she arrived. We were worried for a long time because one, she wasn't showing up, and there were people playing in the fountain. Thankfully it all worked out and she showed up about the same time the people got done breaking the law.
     So I craftily pulled out the ring box (it had two), and she thought I was going to just propose right there! But no. It was filled with pennies that each had a question on it, and as soon as we answered the question we got to make a wish with the penny. We walked around and around the fountain doing the questions, and I made it work out so that on the last question (her turn) we ended up right on the little platform in front of the fountain.

Anyway, it worked out. She said yes, and then we went and ate Oreos with milk at a nearby park!

Second Trip to the Icecaves

       

       So after an invigorating first trip to the Ice Caves, we decided to go again. Obviously we made sure to prepare a little better and actually bring water. And a 4x4 vehicle.
If anybody has any questions about the ice caves, the first answer is undoubtedly to take an off-road vehicle. Luckily the Suttons (Shaela, Brooke, and Taylor) brought their Jeep. And like teleporting wizards, we made it to the caves. No problem.

Advice! Just take one off-road vehicle, meet up with the other cars on the pullout after the third cattle guard.

Things do get a little squished in the cave, you've got the giant ice build up on the left that slowly gets closer to the wall. The good news is that you can get up on top of the ice shelf, 

like in this picture to the right. There are several parts where you can stand up, these parts are lined with beautiful ice crystals. Allowing for the occasional dance party/sliding around.

So this trip, I had my camera. These pictures will allow you a better view of the ice caves.

Did I mention the graffiti?

At the back of the main cave there is a giant wall of ice discouraging further passage. I say discouraging because...I personally would like to break through it to continue exploring. But either way, there is a cool slide that you can play on. There is a little trail of footprints carved into the ice that allows you to safely walk up. It's definitely a good ending to the adventure of the cave.