Oklahoma City Roudtrip

Jenn and I decided to head up to Oklahoma City for a quick road-trip. As I was driving and Jenn was investigating my Instagram App. on my phone and she decided to start the trip out in style with a picture of her feet. Beautiful babe!

The truth is, Oklahoma City does not have the much to see. But one of the places that we really wanted to go was to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Jenn and I remember hearing about it when we were kids.

The is a beautiful memorial to the victims across a lawn that sits where the building was. One chair for each of those that died in the bombing. 168. It was especially sad to see the smaller chairs that represented children that died that day.

This is the "Survivor Tree". It sits on the other side of the reflection pool, with the chairs on the other side.

After we finished up at the memorial we got down to business and headed to the near by outlets. It turned out to be a great trip. Next time we will venture a little further away to San Antonio. Then, when we feel really crazy, we plan on heading up to Eureka Springs in Arkansas. Its said to the the Switzerland of the Arkansas if you believe what 'they' say. But for those that have been, I'm sure you know how beautiful there.

Hot Air Balloon Festival and Pumpkin Patch

One of the greatest things about living here in Texas is being near Jenn's family. It seems like to we do something with them at least every week. She has a great family so we have a great time. Our latest two adventures were also classified: a great time. Plano, a town east of us 15 miles, host a balloon festival every year. Jenn suggested we go. We decided not to go into the festival but to follow the balloons around as they flew. We met up with her parents and nephew William.

We found a spot to park and then watched as they floated by. To our great surprise one of the balloons appeared behind us and decided to land right next to where we had parked.

We were able to get right up next to it and see it up close.

...and then we went and got ice cream.

Two weeks ago we also spent Family Home Evening at the Pumpkin Patch. Jennifer's sister Jaime and her husband Kevin were up from Houston, actually passing through. It was nice to be outside in the evening time. Usually that time of night we're relaxing after both getting home from work. I love being outside though. Especially as the weather improves.

Summer Highlights

This is a day at Grandparents house, Jennifer's parents. There are couple of Ipad games that they love to watch and play together. I guess 20 years ago, I probably did this around the TV, watching my friends play Mario Brothers.

I forced Jenn to make her happy "WOW" face for this picture after we had fixed our Washer. It had been making this terrible noise for a week. Jenn began to do some research on YOUTUBE and found a video that had a washer making the EXACT same noise! So she said, "We've got a bobbie-pin stuck in our water-pump." Interesting. So we starting taking our washer apart and low-and-behold....a bobbie-pin....IN the water pump. I guess I'm not the only person who needs to check their pockets from now on before putting my clothes in the wash. =)

This was some 4th of July art by one of our friends.

More like a low-light, we had to make an emergency trip to Austin after one of my teeth broke off. This is the before picture. My brother is a dentist down there and him and a colleague worked out in for about 6 hours. I was under the influence of Nitrous Oxide, so everything was just-fine. Thanks bro.

These are two pictures of The Sherrills and us on our trip to Six Flags in Texas. When Jenn and I arrived in Lewisville, she was assigned to visit teach Kelcy and I was assigned to home teach the family. After that, we became great friends and do lots of fun things together often. Our activity of choice is the board game "Ticket to Ride". It makes for a great time.

This is one of the rides we went on. "The Titan". It was my favorite. And it was quite the thrill!

Happy 32nd Birthday!

Jenn and I celebrated my 32nd birthday with some friends last night. Dinner and a movie. Real simple. Our friends, The Sherills, have a 4(?) year old that was up at 11:00 PM when we got home waiting for cake. So, we lit the candles and enjoyed our spoils. Today we are going to drag it out a little more and have a swim party at Jenn's parents house with some of our nieces and nephews. This summer in Texas hasn't been that bad so its been nice to be outside and in the pool. Hopefully it lasts...

4th of July Fireworks

We had a great 4th of July last week.  We spent it with Jennifers family after our ward breakfast.  We spent the day in and out of the pool with plenty of great food.  Later that night we went to a location where we were able to watch 9 DIFFERENT FIREWORK SHOWS off in the distance.  It was pretty cool.  But I told Jennifer, that instead of watching 9 different shows, I prefer to be up close and personal with just one.  This was how it was when I was a kid.  It made 4th of July very fun and very special.

BUT...with that being said...not even my childhood shows compared with the video below.  It was the San Diego firework show this last week.  Except...instead of a 30 minute show, the whole thing was done in a matter of seconds.

Check it out...



Now that's a firework show!

COLDPLAY!!!!!

So we went to the Coldplay Concert two weeks ago and it was awesome! Below are attached some pictures of the event. I included a picture of a neon wrist band that was handed out at the door upon arrival. We didn't know what it was, but it became very clear as seen in the video below all the photos. It turned out to be a blinking-wrist-band that was coordinated with the lights and the music of the show that was linked into a couple of the songs. It was amazing. Jennifer and I had a blast.

TEXAS RANGERS BASEBALL

We were able to make it out to another Texas Rangers Baseball game this year. Jennifer really enjoys going as much, if not more than, I do...so this is good. We stocked up on goodies and it was a great time. The weather was pleasant, which is about all you can ask for in May in Texas

We were up high with our tickets but the view was just fine.

Our seats gave us a great view of the Jumbo-Tron. Does anyone else like the "Kiss-Cam" as much as I do??? They really don't do it as much as baseball games as they do basketball, but they still sneak it in.

We also had a visit from our good friend Sam Ward who was back in town for a couple of days after volunteering in India, teaching Math and Science. He also volunteered among a Leper community. While he was there, he sent out a dreary email, making us aware that he had strange rashes and lesions appearing on his arms and legs. It was quite disturbing. It was until Jennifer pointed out to me that the email was sent on APRIL FIRST, a.k.a APRIL FOOLS DAY....that I was able to be a little less worried. AS the picture shows, no leprosy but he did come back a little emaciated and bearded.

Parental visitors from California

My parents came in from California this weekend. They made a VERY quick trip and we were very glad that they came. They arrived Saturday afternoon. That night we had dinner at a great restaurant called 7 Salsas. It quickly became a favorite of my parents after only one visit. Yes, its that good. After a short visit to my office we headed back to Jennifer and I's apartment for cake and ice cream for my mother. It was her 63rd birthday on Saturday. She is awesome. She said she'd even like to turn it into a tradition and come each year at her birthday. Dad said she could come alone next year if she was serious. =) ...not a big traveler, that dad of mine. Sunday they joined us for church. I was ordained to the office of High Priest and my father was able to perform the ordinance. It was a great blessing to not only have him their to do it, but to have Jennifer's dad their too to stand in. My dad didn't have this chance to receive his ordination from his father, and for that reason too, I am glad he was here. These moments give life real meaning. It was a great day and a great weekend.

Nephews

Jennifer took one look, for a half-a-second, at the picture in the last post and agreed. Gross. So I figured I'd change up the picture now.

These are Jennifer's older sister's two sons. William and Weston. Two different personalities but both very good kids and loveable. William is very active and VERY, VERY smart. He's the chief negotiator of the house. Every time I babysit, its "Five more minutes of this" or "Ten more minutes of that, if I'm good." I love it. Weston, is not conversating(yes, its a word, I made it up) yet like his older brother. He finds great peace and enjoyment in two things: 1) sucking his thumb and 2) being held. And he is VERY hold-able and cuddle-able. Him and I, we make a great team when we're together. His parents have banned thumb sucking, when they hold him. And I totally respect that. But.... when I hold him, he seems so quiet and at peace with himself and the world, that I can't say I pop-it-out of his mouth, when I hold him.

We love being around family.

DMAzing Race!

This last weekend Jennifer was in charge of date night. And boy did she do AWESOME! She had it planned from Monday and all week I couldn't get a thing out of her about it. Friday evening I got home and she already had dinner packed. We got on the train and headed towards Dallas. We took it ALLLLL the way into down town and she still wouldn't tell me what was up.

Right off the train we started with a pre-activity dinner. Burritos! Delicious! and then we headed out on foot.

Destination??? The Dallas Musuem of Art. The Art district down town was hosting a carnival/open-house type activity. Lots of families with kids were there. There was a movie playing later that evening, but most of all just alot of things to walk around and look at.

Jenn's happy pose.

The coolest part of the night was an activity called "The DMAzing Race". Set up similar to the Amazing Race but set up inside the DMA...hence, DMAzing Race. Basically we walked, not ran, around the museum, using the clues provided to find different pieces of art and takes pictures with them.


Jenn pointing out some of the features on the lady in the picture.


Us reenacting a picture. How'd we do??


Here, I was looking over a shoulder of a lady, also in the race, taking a photo of the pieces of art. She got their first, but I was quite opportunistic. Good job, Jon.
In the elevator. We thought we were stuck. Jenn almost called the security guard. We decided that pushing all of the rest of the others buttons simultaneously to see what would happen was a better option. We survived.
This was our last clue that we needed to find. And we found it below the museum. After we took our photo, we hurried back to the start line to claim our prize for first place....only to find...that we'd taken 5th place. =( But actually, it was a GREAT TIME.

Jenn did SUCH a great job planning the evening and it was alot of fun. After we finished at the museum, we got back on the train and made our way home. Taking the train was quite a treat. We rarely do it. But we shall do it again...I hope.

Very Puzzling

Its a small picture but its got great value. For Christmas Jennifer received a puzzle in her stocking. We laid it out and picked at it for a couple of days after Christmas. But then sometime last week, the process kinda took-fire and we finished it pretty fast. It was advertised as 1000 piece puzzle. Turned out it had 1028 pieces. So deceiving.

Jennifer's Visiting Teachers came over and they asked her what we like to do. One of her answers was "Do puzzles." So, its official. We're very puzzling people now.

Join us!

Courageous

Jennifer and I are always looking for clean forms of entertainment. ie: movies, tv shows, documentaries, and so forth. Its hard to come by sometimes. So we feel it our responsibility to share and tell people about GREAT stuff when we do find it. Courageous is a faith based movie about five families that have to rely on their christian faith to make it through the trials of life. And...its REALLY good! Jennifer doesn't mind cheesie movies, she actually loves them, but I am a little more reserved. Meaning, I'd rather watch nothing that watching some that is corny. But, this is neither. Its made by the same company that made Soul Surfer.

The best part is that it doesnt have to be qualified or justified. There is not "that one scene" or "that one swear word". Nothing. Its great.

We HIGHLY recommend it to all. So pick it up at the red box and enjoy.

We moved! Again!

Jen and I have been living in Denton for the last 6 months of our lives(lifes -I know that wrong, but since I was a kid I always wanted to spell it that way). Great town. Good ward. Great apartment. Its also only about 8 minutes from my office. However...its sometimes more than an HOUR commute for Jennifer to and from work everyday. Its not always that bad...but when its bad, its bad.

After about a month of posting on craigslist and asking our apartment manager for a sublease option, he came through for us and found someone to take over our lease. So last week, we borrowed a monster 30-foot Uhual from a friend and starting moving. It took us all week, packing and moving at night, but we did it.

We moved to a town a couples miles south called Lewisville. We ended up on the 3rd floor. Its quiet up there and it has a nice view. Most importantly, Jennifer now only has a short 24 minute drive to work. Mine's not that bad either: 17 minutes on average. Not bad.

No Christmas card from us this year, but we wanted to wish all of our family and friends and unknown strangers stocking our website, a Merry Christmas. This is my favorite holiday of the year and it has come super fast this year. We've been trying to watch as many Christmas movies as possible and me, drink as much egg-nog as I can stomach.

But, does anyone know what Jennifers favorite holiday is??? I never would have guessed. ???

Happy Birthday to My Dad!

Today my dad turns 65. He and my mother live in Turlock California, where I grew up. My favorite thing about my dad is that he has lead the way in setting an example in almost every vital category of what a spiritual, goal-driven life can be.

For his birthday we put together a booklet of stories and memories that people shared of him from his past. We gathered from all of his siblings, and us, his children, and extended family, and old friends. The stories were amazing. Some made me laugh. Some made me cry. All of them made me admire him more.

I strive to live a life similar to his: helping others, preparing for the future, and loving his wife and kids.

Besides his family and his testimony, his prized possession is his backyard fruit orchard. It is home to over 90 different fruit trees; apples, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, nectarines, pluots, oranges, figs, grapes, and much more. It is an amazing piece of heaven during the summer and a peaceful re-treat in the winter.

I have a great dad.

I love my dad.

Softball Champions!

When we first moved to Denton, among all the other actually-important things to worry about, ie: getting an apartment, getting the business started, buying ice-cream and finding Jennifer a job that she liked, I really wanted to find a soft-ball team to play on. Well, through some good fortune, my brother-in-law pointed me to just the right guys for a summer league.

Then in the Fall, Jennifer and I decided we wanted to play in a co-ed league together. So, we took some guys from my mens league team and added some girls, and Wall-LA we had a great team. We actually ended up going un-defeated and won the tournament handily. We crushed most of the teams we played...but boy did-we-have-FUN! Jennifer played first most of the year and I played alot of short-stop. She was great at first and I was pretty good at short too. We look forward to playing with this team again.

Tennis and Boating

Jennifer and I had a great weekend, last weekend. By the time we usually get to Friday night we are pretty pooped. Ready to rest. But this last Friday night, Jennifer decided that she wanted to go play tennis. So we went out to the local rec-center in town to play some tennis. We ended up renting a ball-machine at the courts we were playing at, and absolutely loved it. Here is some video of Jennifer taking some swings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjTB5OQ591s

Then on Saturday night, some friends of ours invited us out onto their boat. We brought a nice KFC picnic along with us. It was a great night on the water. Jennifer didn't want to get in but I was happy to. I was a little nervous, only because I had a show on Fresh Water "Monstors" on The History Channel. I am already afraid of sharks, so that video didn't help me get in the water. But once I did, it turned out to be pretty fun. Here is a link of my adventures behind the boat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQispeKlaa4

Have any of you ever been wakesurfing? Thats what I was doing behind the boat. Its pretty fun. The more weight in the boat, the bigger the wave. It might be the only and last time we go out on a boat this summer/fall, but it sure was fun.

Bubbles at the Ball Park

Jenn LOVES big league chew. She doesn't tell me about how much she LOVES many things as much as she tells me she loves me when I buy her big league chew. Here she is blowing a beauty...


We worked on a couple of different bubbles. This was one of the best ones Jenn took of me blowing.









This last one was the biggest one I could pull off. Jenn said it was drawing stares from near-by fans. It might be the biggest bubble I've ever blown...