Teenage Dream

November 4, 2014 & December 4, 2014

#80 - Drive/Ride in a Jeep

Instead of this being an either/or situation as originally planned, both parts ended up happening.  One of them was a complete coincidence but I'll take it.

Ride in a Jeep.....

My friend Lon and I met through our mutual friend, Jennifer.  One Tuesday Lon had a craving for street tacos and invited me to join him.  It being a Tuesday, I had class until 7:00 which ended up working out great because Lon had to work late.  We planned to meet in the parking lot of the USU extension where I had my class and head to Midvale for some delicious street tacos.  I got out of class and drove around the building to where Lon was parked....in his jeep.  Without knowing it he was going to help me complete an item on my adventure list.  We rode in his jeep to a taco cart in Midvale that I had heard great things about from some of my colleagues.  Because I was unprepared to spend time outside (didn't have a coat/jacket), I can also add "Eat Street Tacos in a Jeep" to my list of adventures.  Unfortunately there is no picture evidence of the jeep that I ate tacos and rode in because I didn't think about it at the time. Asking Lon for a picture of his jeep now would probably be a little weird so you will have to take my word for it.

Because a picture is worth 1,000 words and every post should have a picture, I am including a picture of the aftermath of my street taco adventure.  

This nice stream of hot sauce was decorating my shirt before I ever took a bite of the tacos.  Yep, I'm super graceful!

Drive a jeep.....

When I first posted about my adventure list, my bishop's wife, Sheryl, sent me a message offering their Jeep to help me complete #80 on my list.  Knowing I had this in, I didn't worry too much about completing this adventure.  That was back in August which would have been the perfect time to take the jeep for a drive.  We could have taken the top off and let our hair blow in the wind.  Unfortunately, I kept putting it off, the jeep spent some time in the shop and before I knew it December was here and I still hadn't gone for a drive.  Sheryl let me know that the jeep had made it back from the shop with a few days to spare before my adventure list deadline.  I made arrangements to go for a ride the day before my birthday.  Whitney and our friend Abby graciously agreed to come with me as I drove the jeep up the canyon and around town a little bit.  We decided then that there would have to be a repeat adventure during the coming summer so we could make the "wind in our hair" adventure happen too!

Lesson learned from this adventure?  My teenage dream of owning a jeep is still alive and kicking!  Maybe someday....

-Em

Whirlwind Beginning

November 1, 2014

#99 - Volunteer at a New Place

Out of all my adventures, this one had an outcome far different from what I had pictured when adding it to my list.  In my mind I would spend an afternoon or evening at a soup kitchen or the cannery or some other worthy endeavor helping people around me.  Those acts of service will probably still happen but the seed for this adventure item had been planted over a year ago.  My roommate Katie was thinking about becoming an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple back in April 2013.  She asked our bishop about the process and I just happened to be standing next to her when she did.  The bishop took us both to his office where he signed the necessary paperwork for BOTH of us.  I hadn't ever thought about working in the temple but was included anyway.  Receiving the paperwork got me thinking about the possibility and I actually filled in the necessary information.  Filling out the form was as far as I got in the process.

Fast forward a year and four months when I started to think about working in the temple again.  I still had the original form.  It was all filled out and in my church notebook but probably wouldn't be current enough.  My bishop gladly gave me a new updated form.  This form was different from the first one.  For this form all I had to do was fill in my basic information along with a few questions and then take it to the temple.  From there, the temple contacted my bishop and the stake president to get their approval for me to become an ordinance worker.  I waited for a long time to hear anything back.  Finally on October 28th, I got a call from the temple president's secretary to set up a meeting with me.  On Thursday, October 30th I walked into the Salt Lake Temple unsure of what to expect from my meeting with the temple president and that same night walked out of the temple as a set apart ordinance worker.  My first day was two days later on Saturday, November 1st.  After months of waiting, the actual process was quite a whirlwind adventure.

My hope was to be able to work in the temple on a week night but my teaching schedule didn't allow for that to happen.  The only options for me were the 3 shifts on Saturdays.  Not being a morning person, the early shift was out.  Still being single and wanting a chance at a "normal" social life, the evening shift was out.  This left the mid-day shift as my final option and eventual choice.  You will now find me in the temple every Saturday from 10:00-4:00.

Certainly not the expected outcome for this adventure item but it's already blessing my life more than I could have ever anticipated.

-Em

Card Sharks

October 31, 2014

#92 - Learn How to Play Poker

As mentioned in my previous post, Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  I don't enjoy dressing up (mainly figuring out what to wear) and big parties aren't my thing.  This year I celebrated Halloween by checking off one of my adventures.  Susie was house-sitting for her aunt and uncle up in Bountiful and invited us to go hang out at the house with her and our friend Richard.  We got there a little later than anticipated but it worked because we didn't have to deal with any trick-or-treaters and there was still candy left over.  Rich offered to teach us how to play Texas Hold Em using the leftover candy.  Lucky for me we weren't using real money because I had to get a couple loans from the candy bucket when my "money" ran out.

Pretty sure there isn't a gambling addiction in my future but it was still fun to learn a new game!

-Em

Haunted Adventure

October 29, 2014

#49 - Haunted Corn Maze

As I created this adventure list, I tried to take into account the holidays or events that would occur during the four month period.  Of course October means Halloween.  Now I'm not a big fan of this holiday but decided Halloween needed to be represented on the list so I decided going to a haunted house or corn maze would be a relatively pain free way to accomplish it.  The biggest problem with adventures like this is you have a limited window of opportunity and then it's basically impossible to complete.  October 31st was fast approaching and with it the end of haunted houses or corn mazes. Whitney, Susie, Chelsy and I decided to get make this into a group date opportunity.  We each found a guy to join us (all but one of them being friends from our ward) for a haunted corn maze.  

Zach, Whitney, Emily, Cameron, Kyle, Chelsy, Susie, and Rich

Everyone met up at Whitney's house where we had chili and cornbread for dinner before heading out to the maze.  The group made it's way to the Crazy Corn Maze in South Jordan.  This maze gave us the option to just go through the corn maze or to add in the haunted trail.  Being adventurous souls we decided to do both the maze and the haunted trail.  I didn't think the haunted trail was that scary.  My favorite part was listening to other people (who shall remain nameless) scream when the people would jump out at them.  I spent most of the time laughing because of these wonderful people's reactions.  During the haunted trail, there were various spots where we had to walk through these black inflatable walls.  As you walked, they would close in behind you and caused slight claustrophobic feelings as you tried to push your way through.  Many jokes were made about what this feeling could have been compared to from our lives like being born.  Part of the trail required us to use 3-D glasses as we wandered through rooms with crazy pictures or props.

Once we made it through the haunted trail, it was time for the regular corn maze.  They gave us a Halloween quiz that was suppose to help us navigate through the maze.  On the quiz there were a number of questions corresponding to numbered posts that were placed throughout the maze.  At each post we were suppose to answer the true/false question to help us know if we should go left or right from that point.  In theory it should have worked but when we came across post #5 before we ever saw 1-4 that was the first indicator we shouldn't rely too heavily on the quiz.  We came across the posts out of order and even visited some of them multiple times.  There were a few posts that we never found but we were still able to make it out of the maze.  

At the end of the maze, we had a short little photo shoot...

Don't we look amazing!  Even though Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, the great weather and an entertaining group helped make this the best haunted corn maze I went to this year!  ;)

-Em

I Believe That We Will Win

October 25, 2014

#37 - Watch a Football Game

Logan is one of my happy places!  Getting to go back to Cache Valley for a USU football game brought back a lot of great memories.  Whitney, Susie and I headed north on a beautiful fall day. Sadly the canyon was no longer full of changing leaves for us to enjoy.  Taking advantage of being in Logan, we made stops at Gossners for some squeaky cheese and the bookstore for game day shirts. We made our stops before heading to the stadium.  Whitney has an old roommate who invited us to tailgate with them before the football game.  Never ones to pass up free hamburgers and chips, we gladly accepted the invitation.

The day was amazing!  It was as if Mother Nature knew how much Whitney and I love Logan and decided to give us the perfect fall Cache Valley day as a welcome back gift.  Our seats were general admission but it didn't even matter.  The Aggies played a great game and ended up winning. 

My brother Ryan has two sets of season tickets for Aggie football games.  His oldest two boys take turns attending the games with him.  I played a fun game of "Where's Ryan" and spotted him with my nephew Carter.  Can you find him in the picture below?

Carter and Ryan were nice enough to help me eat my nachos when I made my way over to them during halftime.  These two know all the tricks to make a football game more enjoyable.  Ryan had a nice seat with a back and Carter had a blanket to sit on instead of just the hard cement.  They had so much to teach me!

It was a quick trip to Logan but it brought back great college memories and made new memories all at the same time!

-Em

Go Fish.....ing

October 24, 2014

#64 - Go Fishing

I cheated!  There the truth is out and I am not ashamed.  My master plan was to get some cute guy to take me fishing this summer and help me check this adventure off my list.  Turned out to be a master plan that failed miserably.  Then I was faced with the problem of completing this adventure without a friend to take me fishing.  Thankfully my sister saved the day and I ended up going fishing with 3 really cute guys instead of just one.

Becky called and asked if I would like to join her and the boys for their school's Halloween carnival this year.  I attended the carnival with them last year and had a blast so I figured it was worth the drive to Brigham City on a Friday night.  I skipped the dressing up part because I was lazy and Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays.

When I got to Brigham City, I had an adorable Spiderman, Power Ranger, and Knight waiting for me. We jumped in the car and were off for an adventure.  The carnival wasn't very well executed this year but they did have the fishing booth.  I felt incredible silly giving the lady my ticket and taking the "fishing pole" from a little kid.  They threw my line over the board and I quickly felt a tug on my line. I must be really good at this fishing stuff because I made my catch within seconds and it didn't even put up a fight when I reeled it in.

Shortly after making my big catch, we decided to make a run for it.  The boys still had some tickets left but we were ready to go.  Lucky for us Becky had students running around and we were able to pawn the rest of our tickets off on a couple of them. 

Maybe someday I will make it on an actual fishing adventure but until then this will have to be enough.  Plus, my airplane wasn't nearly as messy to take care of when we got home.

-Em

Pumpkin Guts

October 20 & 26, 2014

#47 - Carve a Pumpkin

Carving pumpkins when you have very little artistic ability is tough.  I prefer to carve a pumpkin when I can tape a picture from a book onto the pumpkin and carve around it.  The trouble with relying on this method is when the book isn't available.  Our ward hosted a POD activity (FHE with 2 other wards) where we carved pumpkins along with a contest for the best design.  I had no book to help me through this one.

With a little planning ahead I might have been able to produce a semi-decent pumpkin. Unfortunately there was no thought of what to carve until the pumpkin was in front me.  I decided to keep things simple and just carve the word "BOO".  A friend pulled up a picture on a cell phone for me to copy.  Off I went creating my masterpiece!  I completed my work of art and proudly showed it to the people at my table.  They asked me why I had carved 1300 into my pumpkin.  All I have to say is carving the letter B is hard!  It was no real surprise when my pitiful 1300 pumpkin didn't win one of the coveted prize ribbons.  I definitely deserved an A for effort.

Pumpkin carving round #2 wasn't quite so stressful.  We had a family Halloween party at my brother Ryan's house in Logan.  Along with dinner and some fun Halloween themed games, my nephews got to carve pumpkins.  They have come a long way in the past year.  At last years party, the adults ended up being the ones doing all the carving because they had chosen difficult pictures from the book.  This year my nephews skipped over the book pictures and decided to create their own masterpieces.  I was okay with this because I got to spend more time supervising while they did the actual carving portion.  My only real job was to help clean out the pumpkin guts so the nephews could get to the fun part of the activity.

He was so proud of his tail!!

Cutest guys around

Lesson learned....I will not be quitting my day job to become a pumpkin carving professional or really for any job that requires artistic ability.

-Em

I fell in LOVE with......

October 17-19, 2014

Boise!  I fell in love with Boise and more particularly, Boise in the fall.  For our Fall Break adventure Whitney, Susie, and I decided to spend some time visiting Whitney's family in Boise, Idaho.  We began the five hour drive after Susie got off work on Thursday evening.  There was a pit stop for dinner at the Arby's in Elwood and then we were on our way.

Due to a late arrival Thursday night, our Friday morning didn't start quite as early as we had planned. But we were on vacation so there is nothing wrong with being a little lazy and adjust the schedule of things.  Once we got up and moving for the day we headed to a session at the Boise Temple.

One cookie + 3 fortunes = Lucky Me

After the temple and a quick wardrobe change, we ate some yummy Mongolian BBQ and headed to Camel's Back Park for a little hike/stroll.  This is when Boise really showed off how amazing it is in the fall.  The area around the park is residential with lots of trees.  All of these trees were in varying shades of fall colors...yellow, orange, and one beautiful dark red.  We spent a far amount of time taking pictures along the way.  Many a jump picture was taken due to some technical difficulties with a scarf.

#7 - Farmers' Market

Saturday morning we spent wandering around the Farmers Market in downtown Boise.  I sampled delicious guacamole, added a spoon ring to my collection, enjoyed delicious african food (can't remember what it's called), and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

#45 - Ride a Bike

One of my favorite parts of the entire trip happened when we rented cruiser bikes and spent a couple hours seeing Boise.  McU rentals hooked us up with some great bikes for the afternoon...mine was green.  Off we went to ride along the Boise River Greenbelt bike paths.  In our adventures, we crossed over the river a few times, rode past the zoo, had a photo shoot while riding, laughed, and had a fabulous afternoon exploring beautiful Boise.

#43 - Play at a Park

During the bike adventures we rode past a couple parks.  I convinced Whitney and Susie to stop for a bit so that I could play in the park.  Confession: My "playing" in the park consisted of me having my picture taken while sitting at the bottom of a slide I didn't go down.  Since this felt like cheating, we found a spot on the grass to play a few rounds of Heads Up! before leaving the park and continuing the adventure.

#74 - Create a Pinterest Craft

This adventure item was a surprise addition to our trip.  Whitney's mom, Gina, hosts a Witches' Night every year at their house.  Our visit coincided with this year's party and ended up being a lot of fun. We all dressed up like witches for the occasion.  Our costumes were made more authentic with the $4 brooms we purchased at Target the night before.  There was a perfect field in their neighborhood that we were able to use for some prime picture taking.  As part of the party, Gina had planned to make some Halloween crafts that she had found on Pinterest.  The craft was making silhouettes of Halloween related items (bat, witch, crow, etc), mounting them on cute scrapbook paper, and framing them.  I chose to make a bat silhouette and put it on fun paper that looked like an old newspaper. 

#115 - Play the Bagpipes

It's a little hard to believe that I forgot to include "Play the Bagpipes" on my original list when I created it back in August.  Clearly that was an error on my part because who doesn't play the bagpipes on a regular basis.  :)  Thanks to Whitney's little brother, Samuel, I completed this adventure and then added it to the adventure list.  Samuel is a legit bagpiper who wins international competitions each summer.  He was kind enough to play a few songs for us and then graciously taught me how to play (after I assured him I didn't have Ebola, that is).  Man is it hard work!!  The breath control they need to play is incredible.  Samuel assured me that I didn't do too badly because I was able to make it squeak.  Pretty sure that was him just trying to make me feel good about my meager attempt at playing the bagpipes.  Lucky for you my entire bagpiping performance was recorded so you too can be awed by my pure beginner's talent....

Fall Break went way too quickly but we made the most of our time in beautiful Boise.  We were able to finish the roadtrip with the best surprise ever.....a Primary program.  It just happened to be the Primary program sacrament meeting in the ward we attended.  The Sunbeams that sat on the front row (we were on the second row) were my favorite part.  The whole thing was like herding cats trying to get them all up to the stand for each of the musical numbers and then back down to their seats.

YSA wards really need to look into borrowing a Primary or something so we too can enjoy the awesomeness that is the Primary program sacrament meeting!

-Em

This is what happens when you give Samuel your phone to take pictures :)