Is anyone out there?

So I am just wondering who actually reads my blog (besides my mom and dad).  Not that it is a big deal, because I really enjoy doing it.  I am always hearing how important it is too keep a journal, and I am horrible at sitting down and taking the time to write one, so the blog is the next best thing.  So even if nobody else does read it, I will continue.  Anyways, if you are reading this leave a quick comment so I can see if anybody does read it.  Thanks.

Third Times A Charm

Well, we went to California AGAIN!  It was our 3rd time this year so far.  This time we went for Amanda's friend Julie's wedding.  They were married in the Redlands, CA temple on May 1st.  Here is a little synopsis of our journey to the land of fruits and nuts.

We rented a car (because neither of our cars are reliable enough) and drove to San Bernadino, CA on friday Apr 30th.  As a little side note, we stopped in Vegas for lunch at an Arby's and Amanda ordered popcorn chicken.  She bit into the first one and it was completely raw inside!  So we broke open the other ones and they were all uncooked!  So I took them up to the counter and the manger was bugged.  She returned them, then resold us a roast beef sandwich.  I was shocked.  It was horrible customer service.  I was thinking they would just swap it out, or maybe comp our meal or something, but no.

Anyways, we got to our hotel that night and got some subway and watched the Jazz play the nuggets (which they won).  The next morning we had to be out of our room by 11 am, and the wedding wasn't until 2:30.  So we found a movie theatre and watched The Backup Plan.  It was alright, there were some funny lines, but I probably wouldn't recommend it.  After the movie we went to a local pizza shop, ate lunch and changed in their bathrooms and headed to the temple.  After the wedding and the whole pictures thing, we had another few hours to kill, so we went back to the theatre and watched Clash of the Titans in 3D.  This movie I would recommend, it was pretty cool.  Then the reception was in a neighbor's front yard.  After the reception we drove to Aliso Viejo, CA where my cousin and his wife live.  We stayed with them the rest of the trip.

                                                (picture I took of the Redlands, CA temple)

(they had this wall set up with their pictures all over it, and an empty frame the guests could stand in fro a picture as they arrived.)

The next morning was sunday, so we found a church and went to just sacrament meeting, then drove down to Laguna beach, which was only about 10 minutes away.  It was beautiful.  We pulled up into a parking spot and the person who was there before us had left 3 hours left on the meter.  That saved us about 6 dollars!  We walked around the beach, got some lunch, etc.  It was amazingly beautiful.  We walked along the sand, looked at shells, saw an old muslim lady smoking out of a BONG, a really old lady in a bikini, etc.  We saw it all.

Later that night we had a BBQ with my cousins and their next door neighbors.  The next day was DISNEY LAND DAY!  It was fun.  Amanda had never been, so it was a whole new world for her (no pun intended).  It wasn't crowded at all, so the longest line we waited in was about 20 minutes for the Indiana Jones ride.  Did I mention we got in for Free?  Yeah, we did the "give a day get a day" program for free tickets.  We volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for a few hours and got free day passes to disney land (which are now going for $75 a day per person!).  We also got honorary volunteer pins to wear around.  It was a great day, about 80 degrees, and perfect.

On the way home that night our stupid GPS took us on a toll road, which we didn't have enough money for.  So we are sitting there at the gate 15 cents short of the toll debating what to do.  If you just go through they take a picture of your license plate and send you a ticket in the mail.  There were about 6 lanes we would have gone too, but happened to choose this specific one (it was all automated and there wasn't any attendant around).  I had the though to check the place where peoples extra change is returned and sure enough there was 2 $1 gold coins in there!  Coincidence?  I think not.  Heavenly Father was watching over us.  So we payed the toll and went on our way.  It was definitely a tender mercy.

The next morning we drove to San Clemente to stop of the Rainbow Sandals outlet, then made the 9 1/2 hour drive back to provo and got home around 10:30.  The drive went by really quick there and back.  It was a really fun trip, and a nice break right after school ended.

On To Bigger And Better Things

Amanda graduated from BYU on April 23rd, 2010.  She is really excited to get a break from school, because she has been going straight for the past 4 years (not to mention high school).  She graduated from the college of nursing, which is one of the best programs in utah.  Her family flew out on wednesday evening and thursday was the big commencement for all the graduates in the Marriot Center.

There were about 6,100 graduates from the entire university, and they took up a good portion of the marriot center.  Elder Christoffersen spoke, and I got to lead him and the graduates into the marriot center (see post below).  Right after that was done we went outside and took pictures, then I had to run to my very last class of the semester.

                           (from L to R: Me, Amanda, Annie & Fiance Ryan, Rebecca, Mike)
The next day was the actual graduation where she walked.  It was for all the nursing program.  There were about 65 nurses graduating, and around 40 walked from December.  It was exciting to watch her.

After the graduation ceremony we took more pictures in the Spencer W. Kimball Tower, then went to Training Table.  Unfortunately it was raining that day, otherwise we would have gone and taken more pictures around campus.  Friday night we had a BBQ then watched Blind Side.  Saturday was a relaxing day.  The girls had a wedding shower for Amanda's sister Annie in our back yard.  While that was going on I went and hung out with Joseph, my little brother (I volunteer with Big Brother/Big Sisters of Utah) during the shower.  Later that afternoon we grilled burgers, then went to the distribution center, then took them on a tour of provo.  The girls took about half hour to look at dresses, then we all drove up to Bridal Veil Falls

Then we stopped off at the trail head to Y Mountain to show Mike and Rebecca the view of utah county.

It was a fun weekend.  We drove them to the airport saturday night for a red-eye flight back to North Carolina.  We'll see them all again this june when Annie and Ryan get married.

Practically famous

So for the BYU graduation I was in the color guard that led all the seniors on their march from the Abraham Smoot Building into the Marriot center.  It was neat because we were walking right in front of all the dignitaries, namely Elder Christoffersen and Elder Samuelson (BYU president).  The deseret news was there taking all sorts of pictures, and KSL was there filming everything.  It was neat to be a part of Amanda's graduation.  So in all the pictures we have after the graduation ceremony (for the whole school, 6,100 graduates) I am in my Air Force Uniform.  I will post some pictures of the graduation a little later, but here are some pictures I got off Deseretnews.com

that is me in the Air Force Uniform with Elder Christoffersen right behind me.  I was carrying a rifle.

Another picture of an Army cadet and I leading the dignitaries and the seniors across the bridge to the marriot center.

Up to speed

Once again it has taken me a while to update this blog.  I've just been so busy.  Here is a brief update for half of March and April.

We went to San Clemente, CA for my cousin Alex's wedding.  We drove to Vegas on Thursday, then the rest of the way to CA of Friday.  That evening there was a wedding rehearsal and a dinner.  It was fun to see all the family.  The next day we went to the beach and played in the waves with my nephews, build sand castles, etc.  Then the wedding was that afternoon.  I was an usher and got to walk my aunt down the aisle (the grooms mom).  The wedding was in a stake parking lot overlooking the ocean.  It was a beautiful view.  Then the reception later that night.  The next day we drove back home.  So it was a quick trip, but fun.

I found out I am going to Field training this summer at Maxwell AFB for the Air Force ROTC.  It was really competitive this year.  Last year they had to cut about 200 guys from the program, this year they had to cut 900!  They only allow so many people to go to field training each summer, because when you get a slot to go to field training it saves a spot for you to become an Air Force officer when you graduate.  They can only allow so many new officers a year.  I recently found out that I am going from June 20th to July 16th.  It will not be fun to leave Amanda for a month, but it is exciting that I got the slot.  Only 74% of the cadets from BYU got in, with a 70% average.

We had our semi annual dining out for the ROTC.  We dress up in our service dress and have a formal dinner.  It is really fun.

Amanda is graduating this week.  I am so proud of her!  she has done really well in the BYU nursing program, and has worked hard.  The senior commencement is on thursday, and as a member of the Air Force color guard I am leading all the seniors into the Marriot center.  Then there is the graduation ceremony on friday for the nursing program.  Her family is coming into town wednesday night, so it will be fun to see all them.

The other night a bunch of the girls from the nursing program all met up provo canyon and I built a bon fire for them to burn their BYU student scrubs.  It was fun to hear them swap stories.

California trip # 1

Well, Here we go.  Last week we went to Southern California for the Southern California Invitation Drill Meet (SCIDM) with the Air force ROTC.  It was a blast.  Amanda came with us, which made it much better.  We drove one of those grey hound busses with the T.V.'s to Vegas the first day.  We stopped at Nellis Air Force Base in vegas and saw the thunder birds (Air force equivalent of the blue angels).  We got to meet their crew, but not the pilots themselves.  But they put on a little show for us.  They did all their pre-flight stuff which is a show in and of itself, then they took off in diamond formation and went straight into a loop over the runway.  It was awesome.  Then they did a fly over.  Unfortunately thats all we got to see because they went and practiced somewhere over the desert.

This picture is Amanda and I standing out on the flight line in from of the thunder bird jets.  

They fly F-16's.

This is a picture of them taking off.  There are about 9 planes in all, but only 6 planes fly and do all the stunts at one time.  The others do publicity stuff like going to air shows early and fly the mayor around, etc.  The man standing there is one of the enlisted crew members.

In the Thunder Bird hangar there is a huge American flag.  So being in the color guard, we decided it would make a cool picture to get the member of the BYU AFROTC color guard in front of it.  I have become pretty close to mainly the guys on the front row.  We spent a lot of time together practicing for this trip.

After we saw the Thunder Birds we went to what is affectionately known as "the petting zoo."  It is there on the Base.  It is a museum compiled of a bunch of confiscated russian military equipment they acquired during the cold war.  It was pretty cool.  They had Planes, helicopters, guns, tanks, missiles, etc.  Above is a pic of me sitting in the cockpit of a Mig-29.

Amanda got the itch to blow something up with a grenade launcher, and who wouldn't?  I mean, look at that thing.  It was pretty heavy, and she had a bit of trouble getting it up on her shoulder, but she managed.

This is Amanda and I sitting in the cockpit of one of the russian helicopters.  I can't remember the name of it, but it was one that could land on water or land.  It would float like a boat, and could shoot torpedos.  

This is us sitting on top of the helicopter we were just sitting in.

Part of the festivities of SCIDM is the inspection.  The drill team gets inspected by Marine drill sergeants.  It was pretty funny to watch.  These Marines would scream at the top of their lungs at the cadets to get them flustered, etc.  This is a picture of my friend Josh getting yelled at.

Here is the color guard at the Anaheim Angels stadium parking lot (that is where the competition took place).  Those of us in blue were the ones who competed.  That particular uniform is called Service Dress.  The camo is Called Battle Dress Uniform.  But we recently got new camo (you can see me wearing it in the pictures above) called Air Battle Uniforms (ABU's).

Here is a picture of me getting ready to go compete.  I thought we did a really good job.  Probably the best we have ever done.  Unfortunately we didn't win though.  BYU got 2nd place overall, right behind the Air Force Academy.  It was a really fun trip.

Top 10 reasons why I'm excited for March

I am really excited for this coming month. Here are some reasons why, to name a few:
1) Winter is nearly over
2) School is nearly over
3) I am going to California TWICE in the same month! Once with the ROTC, and once for my cousins wedding.
4) After this week I no longer have to get up at 5:30 AM every week day
5) Flash Forward starts back up with season 2
6) We are getting a big tax refund
7) I finally have some money to go flying again, and the weather is great for it (most days)
8) I will have been married for 4 wonderful months
9) Elder Neuenschwander is coming to speak to the ROTC on the 24th
10) March Madness