A nice ring to it

Well some of you who don't live in Utah have requested to see what Amanda's ring looks like.  Here it it.  I really like it, and so does she (thats why I picked it out).  I feel like I did a pretty good job.  She had no idea that I had even been looking at rings, so it was a complete surprise, which is what I wanted to happen.  There is the engagement band that has the main diamond on it (.78 Carat!) and a little accent diamond, then the wedding band is separate with another accent diamond.  They of course will sodder the bands together when we get married.  She can't stop looking at it, so I guess thats a good sign.

And she said Yes, I said wow, she said when, I said how about November 21st

Well, In case you haven't heard I am engaged to Amanda O'Brien (AKA love of my life).  We are both very excited!  I flew out to North Carolina on Wednesday the 19th and met her family.  They are great and made me feel right at home.  We went to the beach and to the Wright brother's flight museum.

Then Friday morning we drove up to Philladelphia, PA to meet her grandparents and extended family.  It was really fun. We stayed at her grandparents house and went to Valley Forge, watched half a NASCAR race and I got my first official Philly Cheese Steak (which was really good by the way, highly recommended).  Then saturday night I talked to her dad and got permission, then it was only a matter of time.  I had no idea where I was gonna do it, but I had a plan of how.

We stopped at Hershey, Pennsylvania on our drive back to salt lake for gas and food.  We drove around a little bit by the amusement park they have, and across the street there is a big Hershey Hotel and Gardens (comparable to thanksgiving point garden).  So I convinced Amanda that we could walk around and take a little break.  So we walked around and it was beautiful.  The sun was shining, the garden was great, and we even got to go into a butterfly Pavilion (anti-climactic).  

So at the end of the garden we stopped in the Italian Rose section and took a picture by a column with vines all over it.  Well I made the picture look bad so we would need to take another one.  So when I went to push the timer again I switched it to video instead (thanks alex for the idea) and we went from there.  I guess you'll have to see the video.  I look pretty awkward in it cause I knew it was being filmed and I was nervous, so just a warning........

It's kind of hard to hear, so you might need to turn up your volume.

And that is it.  She said yes, and we're going with it.  We are getting married in the Oquirrh mountain temple November 21st, 2009! Hope to see you at the reception.

Talking 'bout my girl

This summer has flown by.  It's been a great one, thats for sure.  I met the girl of my dreams and she has made the summer unforgettable.  We are so compatible, its almost scary.  We have so many of the same likes and dislikes.  Incase you haven't met her, her name is Amanda O'brien and she is from Franklinton, North Carolina.  She is in the BYU nursing program and graduates in April.  She currently works at the Utah State Mental Hospital in Provo as an LPN (licensed Practicing Nurse).  She left yesterday (the 12th) to drive with her sister back to NC.  I am going to miss her so much, but luckily I am flying out there the 19th to meet her family, then we are driving back.  I'm pretty nervous to meet her family (mostly her dad).  If you have any advice for me please let me know.  I am so grateful for her in my life and am excited for some new adventures.

Gird up your loins, Fresh courage take.........

http://www.deseretnews.com/video/1390/Utah-boy-goes-for-spin-to-avoid-church.html

Check out this video on Desert News.com. It is Hilarious. This little 7-year old boy up by Ogden decided he doesn't want to go to church on sunday, so he steals his dad's car. A man called the cops and reported him driving recklessly (which isn't bad considering he is 7) and running stop signs. So the police start chasing him and report he was going over 40mph at one time! He eventually stops at his house and books it for his garage. It's really funny to watch him. The news reports that he was grounded for 4 days. Luckily there wasn't any damage to his dad's car or anything else. But you gotta hand it to this little kid, he was a better driver than most 16-18 year old girls.

Bitter-Sweet moments

Matt left for the MTC on July 15th.  It was a bitter sweet moment cause I know he's supposed to go, but I don't really want him to.  We've become really close over the past year and a half, and I'm really going to miss him.  Last summer we worked together literally all day, every day.  We washed windows together, and both worked the same nights at Little America.  Then he lived with me in provo during the 2008-2009 school year.  He's become one of my best friends.  I'm excited for him though, don't get me wrong.  He's going to have some awesome experiences.  He's going to the Baltic mission (Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania- in between Finland and Russia).  He's speaking russian, so he's got his work cut out for him.  I'm excited to start getting his letters.

Incase some of you haven't heard, they do the MTC drop off a little different now.  When I went in there was like an hour meeting and you watched sappy Mormon ads, the MTC president spoke to you, and there was the dreaded two doors.  The missionary went out one, and the family went out the other.  Your emotions really got ramped up.  But the way they do it now is you drive up to the curb inside the MTC, where there are some missionaries there waiting to help with the bags.  You have about 3 minutes to say good bye and off he goes with one of the other missionaries.  You watch him walk away.  It's a little emotional (but I didn't cry or anything like that), but I like this way better than the other way. Its like a band-aid.  Just rip it off and get over it.  Good Luck Matt, I love ya. 

The Big Race

On Saturday, July 11th Amanda and I went to a stock-car race in Ephraim.  It was really fun!  Its a dirt track called "Wild Bills Raceway."  It only cost $7 and lasted for 3 hours.  They had a bunch of different races like tough trucks, stock cars, modifieds, trucks, etc.  The tough trucks was one of the coolest because they were going off 6 ft jumps and ramming each other.  The wind picked up and blew all the dirt towards the grand stands, so there were some pretty miserable people for about 20 minutes.

My favorite race of the night was the last race.  They took all the stock cars (which was about 15) and had them all on the track at the same time.  They had to do 20 laps.  It was awesome because the drivers were so aggressive.  they would run each other off the coarse, or into the cement wall (as seen in picture above).  The drivers would come around the last corner and they would be cruising.  The track was dirt so they would have a hard time keeping control of the car, and sometimes would hit the wall.

One cool thing that happened was in the last race a car started on fire twice!  The first time the driver had no idea cause it was under the hood, shooting out the wheel wells.  So everybody was screaming, and eventually the flag guy ran over and had him get out of the car.  But the fire extinguisher they had didn't work.  So eventually the water truck got over and put it out.  So they towed him to the pits.  Then somebody else went off the track, so they stopped the race, and he was back from the pits before they started.  They did a few more laps and his car started on fire again!  This time he got out a little quicker, dove into another car, grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out himself.  It was an exciting race.

This video is fun.  It shows how fast the cars were whizzing by the grand stands. (A white flag means they have one more lap in the race.)

It's been a while

So it has been a long time since I have updated this blog.  Lets see, where to begin.............

Well on June 28th my little brother Matt had his farewell.  It was really good.  I can't believe he is going on a mission already!  I'm gonna miss him a lot.  Luckily he hasn't left yet, so I've been able to hang out with him a little more.  We had a time share at Snowbird the week of the 4th, so that was fun.  I didn't get to go up too much, but I had a lot of fun when I did.  

Yesterday we all went up Millcreek Canyon for a Bbq.  We roasted hot dogs, starbursts, and smores.  Then Amanda, the boys and I played in the river.  It was really cold, so cold in fact my 3 year old nephew Isaac started crying until his feet got numb.  Then he was fine.  After the canyon we went back to my house and Isaac developed quite the crush on Amanda.  He was kissing her as much as he possibly could, and she was a good sport about it.  But he was trying to be subtle about it.  He would wrestle with both of us on the lovesac and tell her to kiss his forehead.  Then it moved to the eye, then the cheek, then the chin, then finally the lips.  Well I guess he liked that one the most cause that is what he tried for the rest of the night.  It was pretty funny.  Things started to obviously get awkward for Amanda fast, so I told him he couldn't kiss my girlfriend and that he had to find his own.  He told me to throw him on Amanda (she was laying on the lovesac). I told he I wouldn't cause he would just try to kiss her more.  He assured me that he wouldn't and said "just throw me on her so I land on her mouth." Ha ha, needless to say their dad came down to put them in bed just in the nick of time.  You gotta love Nephews.