Day 22

Day 21

For the last 2 years Halloween (or the celebration of it in Utah) has fallen on a Saturday. In those same 2 years the University Of Utah has played football games on the same night. So, we turn on the game, order some pizza, and pass out candy. We also get some great visitors! It was just funny that pretty much the exact same scenario happened in 2009 AND in 2010. We got a great visit from Shara's brother and his wife and their baby girl both years, and we took pictures last year in my game day shirt, and this year in my game day shirt.

The Utes won their games both years, although this year was pretty frustrating.
2009: Utah v. Wyoming 22-10
2010: Utah @ Air Force 28-23

Day 20 (Part 2)

After our baby shower, and after everyone went home, and Shara was pooped out for the night and went to bed, our friends in our neighborhood were still carving pumpkins. They told me to still come over, even though my wife was asleep and I hadn't yet purchased a pumpkin to carve for myself. After they were done, I wanted to make sure I was still in the annual pumpkin carving picture, so we improvised... Their pumpkins turned out awesome this year! And we had good times playing Mario Kart until 2:30am with a Del Taco run thrown in between. It felt like High School al over again!

Day 20

We were SO grateful to have another shower thrown for us this weekend, and I was amazed all over again at the generosity of the people in our lives. After being married for 5 years, we really have absolutely NOTHING to be prepared for a child. And so all the gifts we are receiving are such great things, and all so unique and useful, and things we love. I'm also amazed at how much University of Utah items our boy will have. It's definitely more than Shara and I combined! He is for sure hooked up. Thank you so much to everyone, we love you!

Day 19

(Today you get two, because I'm feeling ambitious, and I haven't played around with a lot of photos in Photoshop.)

I purchased this guitar after getting a bonus check in 2002, and got a great deal on it from Guitar Center. I've had my eye on other acoustic guitars since then for purchases FAR into the future, but this one has been great and provided countless memories during the past several years. I also think this guitar is partly responsible for convincing Shara to marry me as well.

Day 18

My current bathroom reading material.

(I'll be highlighting the book on top at a later date, but it's the quintessential bathroom literature entitled What Is Your Poo Telling You?)

Day 17

Needless to say, the last 3 days have been eventful, and somewhat adventuresome. We had the LAX Adventure Sunday. Monday was the journey home, and getting right back to work, only to find out my care wouldn't accelerate, and will need a new IDPM Distribution box. I knew I needed new brakes, so this just added to it. The part will be in by Wednesday morning. Luckily we got my car to a point where I could drive it, with hopes that the problem won't happen again until we can replace it.

Today Shara called me as she was leaving home for her Volleyball game and said that her rear right tire was completely flat. So, I came home, switched her cars, and changed her tire. We knew her car needed brakes and were planning on a set of new tires. Turns out we for sure need at least 2 tires, most likely 4.

And driving home tonight, my left headlight went out.

I've said a few dirty words in my head over the last 3 days.

Grand total of repairs/items needed for both of our cars:
2-4 SUV tires, 2 brake jobs, an IDPM Distribution box, 1 oil change for the Jeep, and a missing headlight. I don't even want to know what the total price on all of this will be. Tomorrow is a fresh start right?

Day 16

This picture isn't the most creative, nor is it the best quality. But it was the best picture I took all day Monday. As you can see Shara and I were the last standby passengers to make our flight to SLC out of LAX, and this picture was taken as I was handing my seat request ticket to receive my boarding pass. We may have cheered in the airport a little. Just a little.

Day 15

Sunday after our trip to Disneyland, we tried to fly home standby through Delta Airlines at LAX. Long story short, the flights we waited for were oversold, and over booked, and they ended up asking passengers to volunteer to leave a flight in exchange for a voucher for a free flight. Good for them. Bad for us.

All in all, we ended up being bumped from 5 flights Sunday, and spending a total of 11 hours at LAX, before finally giving up, and realizing our chances of flying standby were better on a 6:15a Monday morning flight (which we made thankfully, being the last 2 to make it on the flight).

This photo was taken in a hallway to the Delta terminal in LAX after we decided to give up for the day and get a hotel room close to the airport for a few hours of sleep before trying it all over again. I think Shara said it best when she said, "I've never been defeated by an airport, until now."

Day 14

Disneyland Day 2. You may casually walk right over this spot and never knew it even existed, but this Golden Spike right under the inside entrance to Sleeping Beauty's Castle is considered to be the geographical center point of Disneyland prior to the expansion of California Adventure. I've been there many times, and saw it for the first time this last trip.

Here is some more info on it (still trying to research the validity, but it seems legitimate):

The Legend: A marker beneath Sleeping Beauty's Castle shows the exact center of Disneyland.

Behind the Legend: The marker really does show the park's center, but it was not always beneath the castle. When Disneyland was first being laid out, a team of surveyors under the guidance of Walt Disney located the park's original center using a gigantic piece of string. The original center is at the middle of the large compass south of the castle. Over the years, as the park was added to, the exact geographical center has moved many times. But it was only after the construction of Mickey's Toontown that Disneyland executives decided the park had expanded enough to warrant a new marker. Using the ultra-high-resolution camera on one of Disney's "communications" satellites, a detailed survey of the park's new borders was made, and the new center calculated -- this time taking into account such technicalities as the non-Euclidian nature of surface geometry when measuring angles on the curved surface of the Earth. In a midnight ceremony shrouded in secrecy, the current marker was placed on the newly calculated spot.