US Open

It has always been a dream of mine to find myself at the US Open, and last night it came true. We were there and we saw some amazing matchese. In particular, this one between James Blake and Donald Young (the up and coming American). The match went 5 sets and ended at about 12:45 am. But that is what is awesome about the US Open they just keep playing and the fans stay pretty dang roudy. It was an amazing match between two of the quickest guys I have ever seen. Blake ended up winning 6-4 in the 5th, but I am telling you what watch out for Donald Young. I think he is my new favorite player. Just a 19 year old pup. This was Julie's induction to the world of pro tennis (live) and judging by her yelling and getting into it as much as me...I think she liked it.

So knowing the Eyre mentality, soon enough me, Julie, Tal, Noah, and Dad found ourselfs on the front row on the baseline, which are the best seats in the house. It got a little late for the wealthy folk that had the tickets, so we took advantage. We were sitting right on top of the players and had a beauty view. The match got better and better as we sat there. This was highlighted not only by the match, but by Dad getting on the jumbo tron while he was dancing and doing peace signs between games (peace signs, I tell you the guy is a born politician).

Here is Donald Young, an awesome 19 year old from Chicago that wears hit hat a little bit to the side (just watch a rap music video if you don't know what I am talking about). He played incredibly. The whole crowd was behind him as he made his run.

Noah and Tal have pulled this off before, but for me and Julie it was a first (the Open). It was inspiring to watch these guys play, makes me wish I would have done more to go further in tennis. Not like I would have played in the US Open but maybe in college. We got home about 2am, now we are getting ready to head out there again with Dad for the day session today...then tonight Dad and I are going to Red Sox v. Yankees...Can you have a better sports day, I mean seriously. More pics to come.

THE POLICE

Yes, that is me and Sting. Tal got tickets to The Police concert at Jones Beach last Monday. He won them at an auction at a Unitus fundraiser. Unitus is an awesome nonprofit that does microfinance all over the world. The Police teamed up with them for this reunion tour and because of that they donated all access passes to the concerts to be auctioned off at Unitus fundraisers. So that would explain why I am standing right next to him in the picture. We got to go up on the stage for the sound check to meet him and the members of the band. Then he even let us sing with him for a couple of songs. There were some 30 something girls that were obsessed with him and kind of hogged the microphone, but nonetheless it was really cool.

Here we are singing "Message in a Bottle," after we finished Sting looked over at us and said "you know you were singing into a dead mic right?" That was pretty funny, but those girls wouldn't let us near the other mic.

So we had the backstage tour that included seeing all the backstage stuff including the tour busses and learning how the whole tour works. Quite a lot goes into these things. This was the 3rd to last show of the tour of about 200 shows.

We only had 2 tickets but we lucked out and got Noah in for the actual show so he was there to see it with us. It was awesome to be there with my bros to see a band that we have heard since we were kids. There are a few more pics below and a video or two. Thanks Tal!

A Quarter

I am not writing this to glorify my own birthday, but I am writing it to tell you how amazing Julie is. She knows that I love surprises and that I was probably hoping for some sort of surprise, and let's just say she surprised me...and I didn't even see it coming. Started out with her surprising me in the morning with my favorite waffles and strawberries, (she's found another way to my heart other than the Jazz). Then she headed off to work (or so she said). I worked that morning and then met up with Noah in the afternoon to go over some stuff for work and make sure we were on the same page on stuff.


So she calls me from work (which was a bit false as I later found out) to tell me that she needed me to meet her at home at 5:15 and to get my tennis shoes (what the heck?). So I headed home, open the door, get scared half to death by Julie with this in front of me.


In case you can't figure it out, that is a giant 25 spelled out with donuts and bagels on our table. Donuts and Bagels huh? So I told Julie about a time when Jonah and I were in NYC a couple years ago visiting Noah. We went to Dunkin Donuts at closing time and asked them if they would be throwing out any old donuts (supposedly they bake fresh daily, which turned out to be true). We were expecting a dozen or so. The guy preceded to fill up 3 garbage bags full of donuts and muffins. We looked at each other, slung the bags over our shoulder and headed home to show Aja and Kristi. They were surprised and grossed out at the same time. The next night Noah and I tried our luck at Krispy Kreme, and came away with 12 dozen boxed up beauties. We were pretty excited about our feat. So anyway, I guess Julie concocted up the plan to do the same, not to eat, but to make a creation. and she sure did. There were probably like 150 or so donuts and bagels making up this beauty held together by toothpicks. She had spread silver baloons and quarters ALL over the apartment (you know, silver, quarter, 25). Needless to say she surprised me. I think that would surprise me any day, a huge mass of donuts telling you how old you are.


here are some shots of the apt as well, for those of you who haven't seen. a nice little studio apt in manhattan.


just in case this is making you hungry here are a few close ups



She knows she surprised me pretty good, you can see it in her eyes...you can also see that she still has a few more up her sleeve.


So from there Noah and Kristi came and picked us up and we headed to a place in the Bronx called City Island. This beautiful little harbor style town on an island. We went to an awesome little seafood restaurant right on the harbor and had some great Lobster and fish. We were accompanied by the lovely Lyla (N and K's new baby girl) and had a great time, and saw an incredible sunset unfold.


Noah put on his best digs for the occasion.



Water and boats make sunsets that much more incredible. The NYC skyline is on the horizon right in the middle if you can see it.


Then after I thought the surprises were over, we headed back to Noah and Kristi's for the best cake I have ever tasted, adorned in querters, chocolate, and raspberries...(some more keys to my heart, well not so much quarters I am more like a benjamin type of guy, but definitely raspberries and chocolate). Serious you gotta ask Julie to make it for you sometime.



So, Julie definitely set the precedent. She surprised me. Period. Again and again, and I loved every minute of it. Julie is an amazing woman. Life is incredible when you have your best friend right there, thinking about you all the time. I love you Jules. This is just the first of many to come. Stay tuned for some crazy surprises in this marriage!

Wave Hill - The Kew Gardens of America

Last weekend Mr. London took us to Wave Hill. This absolutely beautiful British style estate and garden up above the Bronx overlooking the Hudson and the Palisades. The art of gardening is one of my favorite things about England...while we were there I felt like I was right back in England. In the middle of the estate is the house, a beauty built in the 1830's that has had some pretty amazing tenants...the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain. The place was gorgeous, and it had just rained which made the flowers even more beautiful to be photographed. Have a look.

metropolitan

this is one of the most photographic spots there is. there is a post below so read that too.

life in the city

 

This right here, is why I love this city. Look at that. This has been such a beautiful summer up until this point. Though there have been some ridiculously hot days...and some serious humidity...overall, it has been so beautiful. Last week, Julie and I did one of my favorite things, which is to spend time on the Brooklyn Bridge. This time though, to make it even better, we went over to Brooklyn to Grimaldi's and got this incredible pizza and took it with us on the bridge and ate some dinner there together right on the bridge. It was an absolutely beautiful evening.

 

When we got there, the sun was just setting, so we got to see the sunset with the skyline in front of it.

 

This little hole in the wall has some of the best pizza I have ever had.

 

Here we are dining on the bridge. I gotta say that is one of my favorite things about living here in New York. It is basically like, you want it, you got it. You want authentic Italian pizza on the Brooklyn Bridge, you got it. You want a little Shakespeare in Central Park you got it, you want a little BO wiff when you walk past someone on a hot day, you got it...and so on. We are having an incredible summer...work is going great for both of us. I am working with Noah and really enjoying it, and Julie is temping and finds herself in all sorts of offices from hedge funds to banks, to you name it.
We had a great trip up to Boston, but Saydi has the pics and I haven't got them yet. Mom and Dad were here last week, and now Josh is here. So we are definately keeping busy. I have been helping Noah remodel his bathroom over the last week or so and I must say it looks quite nice. And to put icing on the cake. Kristi had her baby girl this morning at like 7. We (me, Julie, Tal, and Josh) were all over for dinner last night, and all was perfectly fine. Noah has been guessing for weeks, that the baby would come on June 30. And he must be able to read the future or something, cause this morning I got a message that they were at the hospital and Kristi was about to have the baby. So, I am here with McKay while we wait for Kristi to rest a bit, then I get to take McKay to the hospital to meet his new little sister!
Life is good in New York.

marriage/new york/you have a fire/mugginess

this has to be one of my favorites from the wedding. how beautiful does julie look. i love seeing julie every day and thinking wow that is my wife. i can't believe how time flies. it seems like just a minute ago that i was sitting there taking this picture with my beautiful wife of a couple hours. now all the sudden it has been nearly a month and half and we are here sweltering in Microwave City aka New York City. it was 97 today with enough humidity to make your body wonder if you are at the center of the earth or something. the good news is...it will be 98 tomorrow.

but who am i to complain. i am here in my favorite place with my favorite person. it has been so incredible to experience all of this with julie. here in new york, on our own, walking into this whole marriage thing. we learn so much about each other each day, and things just keep getting better. i am loving her a little more every day. it is so crazy to go from being single, (being your own self, doing what you want, when you want) to being married where suddenly you aren't making decisions for yourself anymore, you are making decisions two. what an incredible transition it is. so fun in so many ways, so tough in a couple of ways, but mainly just an awesome ride and a part of our lives that julie and i will certainly never forget.

it is so amazing to always have someone to turn to for advice. or to turn to tell a story, or someone just to talk to. and to know that that person loves you as much as you love them. it is just something you can't really imagine until you are there in the moment. all of you married people who are reading this are probably like "man just wait for this or that, or you don't know what the heck you are talking about" but really, i am just telling you what i am experiencing.

it has been an awesome week, and couple of weeks now that we have been here. one of my mission companions and his wife were in town, had some fun with them catching up. mark, one of my best buddies from childhood was here with his dad as they were passing through on their way home from europe. we have had a lot of fun with noah an kristi, including a trip to Hershey PA for some good chocolate, a sweet 1.5 star hotel, getting into Hershey Park for free (a theme park there with some wicked awesome roller coasters, we asked like 30 people to let us in for free, finally someone gave in and let us in (tix were 60 bucks a pop) so we lucked out), and some awesome amish country and amish people. see the pics below.

one quick story, the other day, julie and i went out for our "sweet we made it throuhg the first month of marriage" dinner at this awesome thai place that julie found. anyway so the food was awesome, there was this greek guy and his girlfriend sitting next to us, probably in the 50s or so. and throughout dinner they asked a couple questions about nyc and the states as this was their first trip. so julie, got up to go the bathroom and while she was gone, the guy asked me if i knew any night clubs in the area where they could go have a drink. i tried my best to think of somewhere to send him (really had no idea what i was talking about (i gave up clubbing in 9th grade). anyway so he is in the middle of sentence in a thick accent and he says in the same tone "you have a fire," and i was like "what?" then again he says, "you have a fire" in a total monotone voice. just then i see something out of the corner of my eye. my napkin was on fire. i picked it up and tried to shake it out which just made the flame bigger. so i had a pretty nice fire going in the restaurant when this sweet asian dude comes running over and just like me, he picks up the napkin and shakes it, only to make the flame a little bigger. so then he grabs my big glass of water and starts dumping it all over the the table, and finally the fire went out. it was hilarious though, you kind of had to be there. but just imagine a monotone accented voice saying "you have a fire" then the confusion or a big fire on your table and then an asian guy dumping your water all over the table. that might make you chuckle a little. and oh ya, the cause was that i accidentally pushed the napkin over the candle where it was sitting.

so anyway life is awesome here in new york. it is hot and muggy, but that is all part of the experience. thank goodness for cold showers and refridgerators. not thank goodness for B.O. and the nasty smells that the heat does to garbage bags on the street. here is a pic or two of the hershey adventure, more pics to come when i load them on my computer. hope life is beauty in your neck of the woods.

The Call

If your speakers aren't already on, turn them on and restart this song. Or if you are reading this on Google Reader, go on to my blog and listen to it.
Music has a profound effect on me. It always has. It has the ability to seize my emotions and put me in a different realm. It brings sentiment to every experience. Every once in a while I hear a song. The second I hear it, I can just tell it is going to be a favorite for a long time. Straight to the heart. Last night, Julie and I, along with Noah and Kristi went to Prince Caspian. It was an awesome show full of symbolism and awesomeness and some pretty amazing cinematography. My favorite part though had to be at the very end when this song came on. The song you are hearing right now is by Regina Spektor and is called The Call. I can tell this song is always going to remind me of this stage in my life, here in New York as a newlywed, with my beautiful wife Julie, establishing ourselves as a couple. So now that I have listened to it a few times, I am eager to find the meaning to it. I'll be back when you call me, no need to say goodbye. It fit in well with the end of the movie, but I sure there is a deeper meaning. Let me know what you think. I hope you like this an much and me, Julie, Kristi and Noah do. Pretty sure this will be my song on the Eyrealm CD this year. Go see Caspian if you haven't seen it yet. The new Coldplay song right after it is really good too. Have a listen.

barbados, west indies

Well. To all of you looking for a place to go on your next vacation, I am here to make a plug for Barbados. Without a doubt one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been. It is one of those places where you can let the pictures do the talking. After clicking play, I bet 99% of you will be saying to yourself, "man, I have to go there."

Julie and I had the greatest time there, relaxing, soaking in being married, exploring, eating food (a lot of fish) that in the words of the great Linda Eyre was "to die for." I am telling you what, my mouth is watering just writing about it. Cajun
blackened. I have got to figure out how to make that stuff mmmmm boy. Ahi tuna, mahi mahi, swordfish, the whole works. The beaches, the water. I mean look at those blues. The people were amazing I would say 199 out of 200 of them are black as can be, and just about the nicest people you will ever meet. Barbados doesn't have maps to speak of, nor do most of the roads have names. So as you can imagine, we got lost more than a few times. Each time someone would either knock on the window of the car and ask how they could help, or catch up with us on the sidewalk and make sure that we knew where we were going.

We searched and walked and found a church there on Sunday and it was so cool to be there in the little church with about 30 others worshipping together. Those people are so strong in their faith, you can see it in your eyes. I must say it was a pretty big jump...going to church there last week, and today going to church in a beautiful new and very large church building on the upper east side of Manhattan.

Barbados as a whole is pretty small. 20 miles long and about 15 miles wide. So for three of the day we rented a little 3 foot wide and 4 foot long car and explored the whole island, getting lost a lot and finding all sorts of awesome stuff...hidden beaches, sea turtles, tropical lush landscapes, old beat up lighthouses, churches built in the 1600s...you name it. Julie even got stung by a jelly fish. That was awesome, the coolest part of that, was she came out of the ocean grimacing, and a couple of rastafarian guys were there are the beach, they waved us to come over, the guy got all the poison off Julie's arm, doused her with Vodka, and then some nice Barbadoan Rum. You could tell that was a prized possession to they guys, but they were totally willing to help. Other days we just hung out on the beauty beach 10 steps away from the terrace of our suite at the boutique hotel we stayed at (they were kind enough to give us the upgrade when I told them we were on our honeymoon). Can't beat hanging out in the sun, reading, talking, and imagining what our lives together are going to be like.

Now we are here in Manhattan ready for a great adventure this summer. We subleased a beauty little place on 75th and York, and we can tell already that it is going to be a good place to be this summer...our first place together. I think all of you can reflect back on your first place together in your marriage (if you aren't married, then maybe someday). Life is good in New York. Pics of the pad and good times in the City to come shortly. Enjoy these pics...and brace yourself for an urge to drop everything and go there.

And for those of you that have asked and maybe haven't seen these yet, here is a link to our photographer's blog with some pics from the wedding. there are plenty to come, but I like the looks of these so far.

http://photosbyangie.blogspot.com/2008/05/eyre-wedding.html
http://photosbyangie.blogspot.com/2008/05/eyre-wedding-continued.html

we are here

notice that i said we. we are here. my dreams have been fulfilled. i am sitting in our studio apartment in manhattan. i am here with my beautiful wife julie. the windows are open, i can hear the city outside. it is late in the night, yet the city is still bustling. there is just something energizing about this place that i cannot describe. live just keeps getting better. we've been married nearly two weeks now...and each day seems to get a little better. i guess it is really setting in now as we are back from the honeymoon and we just moved all our stuff in...to live together. craziness. lovin it though. plenty of pics of the honeymoon in barbados and an update on life in the city of my dreams.

bricks

it's always amazing to me...what a camera can capture. look at the years on these bricks.

one month

 

one month from today, me and this pretty lady are getting married. holy crykee! this is crazy. i am so excited, yet at thte same time i am dumbfounded at the magnitude of what is going to take place. it is going to be awesome though, i am so excited for all the adventures julie and i will have in our lives together. like wedding planning for example. i am realizing there is a whole lot to it, and it is indeed overwhelming, but i still think that girls blow it out of the water when they say how crazy it is. things are coming together very very nicely and it seems as though we will be ready to pull off something incredible on may 2. we've got the engagement shots done, this is one of them. and my claim to fame is that i took them myself, thanks to a self timer and a tri-pod. not bad eh?

can i just say that julie is an amazing girl. she has so much determination and ability to do what is at hand. whether it be her grueling school and hospital schedule, or getting me excited about registering...she just does it. i am learning so much about her. i am learning that i have a lot yet to learn as well. it is crazy, all of sudden next month, someone will say so, and we will be married. after the honeymoon to vegas (in julie's dreams) we are headed to new york for the summer. i am going to work with noah for his company and julie is hopefully going to land a job with a tutoring company. we are way excited for the summer in the big city before returning to good old utahr for julie's last year of nursing school. from there who knows what the heck we will be doing, but i tell you right now it is going to be awesome.

i am excited for all of you to either meet julie or get to know her better, because that girl is quite a catch.
p.s. in case you didn't know. the picture that has always been on the top of my blog. well that has been there for a reason. that is taken (was taken years ago) from the exact spot where julie and i got engaged. bet ya didn't know that.

Costa Rica!

Costa Rica is a country unlike I have been to before. It is literally covered from shore to shore with rainforest, dense, dense, then all the sudden there is a beautiful beach. The people are wonderfully friendly, and unlike Mexico and some other Central American countries, it was very undeveloped. Very pristine and untouched. There are some touristed areas, but for the most part, it is very pristine and untouched.

 

Costa Rica has it going on. You want it you got it in that country. You want a waterfall, you got it. You want a monkey in the tree or a sloth, you got it. You want a ridiculously bad dirt road, you got it. You want a beautiful rainforest or beach, you got it. Jo and Aja were nice enough to take me along on their family vacation. We covered most of the country in the nine days we were there. From the northern part of the country way up in the raiforest, down to the southernmost peninsula.

 

We stayed in some awesome backpacker lodges...we stayed in an incredible eco-lodge...4 huts out in the middle of the jungle, made of bamboo and thatch, open air. About 20 yards from the beach. Me and Ana and Cam stayed down stairs, and Jo and Aja had the upstairs of the beauty little hut. The food there was incredible...especially considering there was no electricity there. Just a couple of solar panels to run the fridge. There were 10 or so others staying in other huts and on the beach. Ana was so fun to watch. She was automatically everyone's best friend. Every night she got everyone there and organized a game of Uno.

 

We headed across the the peninsula for an awesome boat ride out to an island about an hour off the coast where me and Jo went scuba diving. It was beauty. Different kind of coral and rock than I have ever seen before. And humungous schools of fish. And sharks! I will put a few pictures in the slide show, so have a looky.

 

From there we headed up north again to the rainforest where we went on some of the craziest zip lines you've ever seen. We're talking like 500 meters long about 200 feet off the ground. Ana and Cam even did it along with a guide. It was so fun. I will put a video on as well. I am getting married in like a month and a week. I am more excited about it every day. I tell you what, Julie is absolutely amazing and I realize more each day how lucky I was to land her. Love you all.

Something special in the greatest city on earth.

Something incredible happened on top of this building this last weekend.

Something incredible happened just up the street from this incredible bridge last weekend.

Here it is.

And here it is.

I had the most incredible weekend in New York. A weekend that I will never forget. Before I got too far, I want to give you two detailed versions of the weekend. If you have already read these, then skip down to the bottom for some more pics and words.

So here you have it.

So I want to tell you a story. I am in New York City right now. The story begins a couple of days ago in Salt Lake. I decided that I wanted to pull off a little surprise for Julie. So I told her we were going to go to St. George for the weekend. I told her that Noah and Kristi and McKay were coming in to go to St. George for the long weekend and that they wanted us to go along with them and Julie hadn’t met Kristi or McKay yet. So she was pretty excited about that. So I spent the next couple of days getting her excited about it but at the same time making sure that she was bringing slightly warmer clothes as we were going to go to an outdoor play and go on some early morning hikes and stuff (you’ll see why later).

So on Thursday night after she finished her weird girls only Valentines Day party, I picked her up. She was all packed up and ready to go. So we drove off up to Salt Lake to go to the airport. On the way up I called to make sure that Noah and Kristi’s flight was on time...and we talked about the trip to St. George. So we got to the airport, and went to the park and wait place where you can see on the screens the status of flights and when they are landing. While we were there I gave Julie a valentines card and a picture frame with one of my favorite pictures I have taken of New York.

With that, I told her there was one more surprise. That surprise being that Noah and Kristi unfortunately weren’t going to be able to come to Salt Lake because Noah had to be at church on Sunday. But they were using free tickets from Kristi’s brother that had to be use this weekend…so Noah somehow switched the names on the tickets and bam! We were on our way to New York City. Julie just kind of looked at me like I was crazy for a while, and then she was like “no we aren’t going to New York, what is going on?” So I pulled out the boarding passes and showed them to her. For the next 30 minutes or so she was kind of just in a daze, trying to figure out what was going on. She said, “Well why are we waiting here.” I told her I was building the suspense. So we drove over to the parking area, Julie switched a few things in and out of her bag; we jumped on the shuttle bus and went to the terminal.

After a bit of a delay we got on the red-eye flight for Newark and we were off. We lucked out in that the flight was pretty empty, so we both had our own rows and were able to get a bit of sleep. It was beautiful flying into the city…the sun was just rising and every piece of glass on every building was a beautiful orange. Man I love New York City. I was so excited to be here with Julie.

So we jumped on a train and headed to Manhattan to Noah and Kristi’s place. I don’t know what it is, but every time I come to this city, something about it just gets me. I love this place. And this time it was a little more special cause I was with Julie. So we headed to Noah’s place, got there, ate a little breakfast, and then took a nap for an hour or so. Julie and I then took off, walked over to Fifth Avenue, got on a bus and headed down into the city. We got off on 42nd street and walked over to Eighth Ave. so Julie could experience a real New York dog at Gray’s Papaya. She had been to New York once before when she was 16, but it was fun to see her look around with a mix of excitement and confusion at this huge city and the rather interesting people that inhabit it.

So after some good dogs, we walked over to and through Times Square, went into the Marriott there and up the gigantic elevators (I needed to test her fear of heights and this was a good place to do it). She was pretty scared and wouldn’t let me touch her on the elevator, but she made it ok. (The elevators are all glass, so you can walk to the edge and see down 50 stories). So then it just got better and better.

From there we headed over, checked out what was on Broadway, and then went to Grand Central Station to meet with Noah and Kristi. Noah had been nice enough to help me line up an interview for a potential internship with a travel company out here this summer. So Noah and I left Julie with McKay and Kristi and we headed over to meet this guy while they walked around a bit.

After about an hour we met back up. At the interview, Kevin (the guy Noah knew) asked that I bring Julie by to meet her as well. I told him that we were dating and that I had brought her out for the weekend so he was interested in meeting her as well. So we left Noah and Kristi and walked over to the building where I had just been with Noah.

So we walked past the New York Public Library, past some sweet break dancing street performers, and over to the building. We went in and up to the 52nd floor. I am telling you this building was awesome. So then we had to go up a few flights of stairs up to where the office was. This is where Julie totally fell for it and I was so happy about it. After walking up like 7 flights of stairs she was like “why can’t we just go on the elevator?” which was a good question…I just told her the elevator couldn’t access his floor. So after like 7 flights Julie looks at me and says “I am going to need to take a little break before we meet this guy,” as she was a bit winded, huffing and puffing her way up the stairs. So we got to the 59h floor, and Julie says, “ weird, it looks like an attic up here,” I just told her how cool this guy’s office was because of that. So we went trough the door, through another door, through a closet and then Julie was like “Eli, where are we? What are we doing?” I was just like, “he has an office in a weird place.” Then finally I stopped Julie and told her where we were.

Way back when we first started dating, Julie and I were looking at some pictures of New York and I showed her a picture of a specific building, and I told here that I had always wanted to get to the top of the building…but I hadn’t yet found a way on top of it.

So I told Julie, “Do you remember that building I was telling you about? Well this is it, and Noah found a way up on top of it, and he just showed me.” She looked really confused, so I just grabber her, and brought her along. Up a bunch of ladders, through some little doorways, through some closets and electrical rooms, up some stairs and out side this door. All of the sudden we were outside. 60 floors up, this is where Julie got even more confused, and a little scared. She had just told me how terrified she was of heights…so I was a little nervous to bring her up here, but she handled to perfectly. So we went up another ladder. Suddenly you could see where we were. Above the city, surrounded by buildings, skyscrapers and all. Julie was like “Wow, what the heck am I doing up here, Eli! Where are we? What is going on?" I think by this point she realized that the guys office wasn’t up here (I hope she realized that!) So around a corner and up one more rickety old ladder to the top of the building. On top of it all! 360-degree view of New York City. A couple of blocks down was the Empire State Building with downtown behind it, to the other side, the Chrysler Building and the East River, on the other side uptown was central park and a sea of skyscrapers, and to the other side the Hudson River, Times Square and some other monster buildings. Julie was kind of just frozen up there, totally scared to move. I tried to hold her arm and help her, but she was just like “don’t touch me right now.” Finally she got her courage up and moved around a bit. Holy Cow I love that place up there. It is like you are in a different realm on top of the world. So high up that you can’t get cell phone service. So I took a little bit of time to explain the city to Julie, talked about where things were, and we just enjoyed our time up there. Then I realized I had one more surprise.

So I went over underneath one of the drainpipes and pulled out a bottle. A bottle that had a note inside of it. I grabbed it and handed it to Julie. Again, a confused look on her face. I had her sit down so she would stop wigging out because of how high we were. So she pulled out the note and began to read it. This note was something that I had left up there about a year ago. It was a letter addressed to the girl of my dreams, that I had written with the intentions of one day surprising a girl and bringing her up there. So she read it. Meanwhile I was sitting there amazed that I just pulled this off, and also a bit nervous about what I was about to do. The note implied that she was the girl for me, and there was a special reason why I brought her up there.

So she stood up, a bit teary eyed, told me that she loved me, and I said the same. We embraced for a minute, and then slowly I knelt down on one knee, making sure not to knock either of us over, and looked up at Julie. Again the wicked surprised look came on here face. She said something I don’t really remember what, but some along the lines of oh my gosh. I looked up at her and asked her if she would marry me. She just looked at me again. I pulled out a ring…put it on her finger and asked her again, as she failed to answer the first time, I think she was a bit shocked, and then she looked back at me and said yes. What a magical moment. I will never forget how beautiful it was up there, the sun was just setting, the most incredible city there below us, and the most incredible girl right there in front of me.

So we let it sink in for minute, took some pictures just as a wicked wind started to pick up. We got some great shots though, and then headed down to warmer grounds. It was about this time that I came out and told her the truth. Everything up to this point had kind of been a lie. I had the tickets for New York all along, Noah and Kristi were never coming to Utah, I didn’t actually have an interview (Noah and I had gone up to the top of the building to scout it out and make sure everything was good). I had been up on this building many times, but the truth being that is where I have always wanted to get engaged.

Julie is about the most inquisitive girl around, and she was getting very anxious to figure out about when we’d be getting engaged, you know all that girl stuff. I had been fighting it off for a long time; I finally decided it was time to go for it. So with the help of Noah and Tal, we came up with this great “plan/scam” and tricked Julie like you cannot believe. She was like a deer in the headlights. It couldn’t have been any better. I love the fact that for one day she was so dang gullible.

We went back downstairs where Noah and Kristi were waiting with a camera. They had been following us around getting secret pictures and videos as well as taking a picture of us on top of the building. We are just little dots but you can see us. So they congratulated us, I thanked them for all their help. They totally tricked Julie as well, and led her on a bunch of stuff. Haha.

We took off from there down to the meat packing district to an awesome Italian Restaurant that Tal had got us reservations at. This beauty restaurant right there in the thick of Manhattan. So over the course of dinner I explained all of my deceptions to her, we talked about how excited we were, and had some wicked awesome food... some of the best steak I’ve had. Definitely want to go back.

After dinner I had one last surprise and that was the Blue Man Group. I had hoped for Les Mis cause Julie loves it, but it isn’t playing here right now. So we went and had an awesome time, both of us just in awe the whole time now that we were engaged. It still hasn’t really sunk it. I can’t believe it, but I couldn’t be more excited.

So there you have it, that master works or trickery, deception and love by Eli Eyre, written on this 17th day of February 2008 and pulled off on the 15th day of February.

From Julie

So here is my side of the story. This is the story of innocence and possessing extreme gullibility. It all started last Tuesday night I was in Salt Lake doing a preassessment of the patient I will have the next day. So as you know Eli came to see me that night and mentioned that Noah, Kristi and McKay were going to come to Utah this weekend and we should all head down to St. George for President's day. I thought it was a great idea since Kristi was the last one of the family I had yet to meet and it was a great way to get away from the crazy Provo weather. So on Thursday I packed my bag (with a winter coat because we were seeing an outdoor play as well as some other warmer clothing since we were going to do a few things outside). I went to my roommate's V- day love party and at 8pm Eli came to pick me up. I thought it was sort of weird that Eli wanted me to come with him to the airport since we were just coming back down to Provo to head to St. George, but he apparently had to go his previous Romney office in Provo that day anyways and claimed he wanted me to drive back with him to keep him company. So trick #1 I fell for.
We headed to the airport at about 8:30. On the way Eli called the airline to see if the flight was on time. It was a little late so we stopped to get Eli some dinner and then made it to the airport at about 9:30. Noah and Kristi still hadn't called us to so we went to the "park and wait." While waiting he gave me this Valentine 's Day card and a picture of New York city. I was excited about that, but I thought it was slightly random. Then about five minutes later Eli asks me if I am ready for the real surprise and then proceeds to tell me that Noah called him earlier that morning saying they couldn't come to Salt Lake because everyone in the bishopric was going to be out of town and he had to stay. Kristi's brother works for Continental and so these standby tickets had to be used this weekend and we were going to New York! I didn't really believe him until he pulled out the tickets with our names on them. Needless to say that was a big surprise! We parked and waited in the airport for a while until our plane left at 12:45am. Luckily the plane was pretty empty and so we each got a row of seats to ourselves to sleep the whole way. Now at this point I wasn't really sure what was going on. Eli had made it pretty clear that this was a last minute trip and we were just going to go do some random stuff. I thought it was a possibility that he would want to propose in New York city, but since we had only decided for sure last week I didn't think he would have a ring and I knew he wouldn't propose until he had the ring. So these were my thoughts as I drifted to sleep on the plane.
We arrived in New York at about 7:00 am and took numerous trains and buses to get to Noah and Kristi's apartment at about 9:00. It was great to finally meet Kristi and McKay and just chat for a bit. During this time Noah said that the guy in his ward who works for the travel company wanted to talk to Eli for a couple minutes while we were here so we decided to take a nap for a bit and then I would go with Kristi and Noah and Eli would go meet this guy Kevin for a possible internship this summer. Also during this time Noah mentioned how sad he was they couldn't come to Utah etc. So needless to say Noah and Kristi were playing along really well. So we napped, got ready after a night of sleeping in the plane, and Eli and I went to walk around Time's square, rode the Marriot elevator, and ate at Grey's Papaya for lunch.
We meet Noah, Kristi, and McKay at Grand central station around 3:00pm. They guys headed out and Kristi and I went to H&M and a couple stores which was great. I had to buy some flats (shoes) since I didn't realize that we were coming to New York and my wardrobe was slightly off for a lot of walking. About an hour later we meet up the Noah and Eli on Madison Avenue. Kristi was great when I talked to Eli on the phone and really wanted to know how the interview went. Eli said the interview went great and how it would probably be a made up position for the summer since he doesn't really have interns. Noah and E came up with some great stuff because I was totally believing everything at the time. Eli said the guy really wanted to meet me and we would go back to see him real fast. So Eli and I left and headed towards the Public Library. Noah and Kristi had to back to their apartment since it was getting "too cold for McKay" (according to Eli). So we walked into this office building on fifth avenue. They took our pictures and we headed to the 52nd floor. We passed the company's office building I thought were going to and headed up this old stair well. Eli said something about this guy Kevin's office being away from everyone else and so we climbed 5 flights of stairs. Now at this time I was wondering why this guy was such a weirdo with his office being so far away from the main company's office, but I was trying not to ask too many questions because I was already winded walking the stairs so fast that I wanted to be able to talk normal when we got up there. I even made Eli stop at the top of the stairs so I could catch my breath for a second.
So he opened the door and all of a sudden we weren't anywhere near offices. He then took me through some rooms and a couple flights of stairs and we were on a roof. At this point I asked him what the heck was going on. He reminded me that he was trying to get on the roof of one of these buildings (he had told me that while ago) and Noah had just figured out how to get on to it and Eli now wanted to see it himself. So as dumb as it may sound I actually fell for that I was sort of focused on how high we were and not really thinking about anything else. For those of you who don't know I am a little afraid of heights and it even made me nervous to ride those elevators in the Marriot a few hours before. Now that I was outside on top of a 60 story foot building climbing rickety old stairs my mind was completely occupied. So we climbed some stairs and then went to climb some more. Thinking back to that last set of stairs makes my stomach drop because it was totally wobbly.
So we were on top of these huge air conditioner units looking out to the city surrounding us on all four sides. The view was indescribable. On one side is the Empire state building, another side is the Chrysler building and basically everything else in New York. So the first 10 minutes we just looked around. I was looking sort of cautiously, but was still totally amazed by the site. So I really didn't know what was coming because he Eli was as excited from the view as I was because he said he had never been up there before. But he told me he had one more surprise for me. He reached down and pulled out a pharmacy bottle with a note inside and admitted that he had been to this building before and put this letter up here last year. The letter was to his future wife and so I sat down and read it. Needless to say I started to get a little emotional and after I finished it I stood up to hug him and after a second he got down and asked me to marry him. I will never forget that nervous smile on Eli's face. I am so surprised looking back now that he wasn't more nervous, but he certainly got me with that smile. I got so caught up in the moment that I just kissed him and forgot to say yes and so he had to say "uh I think you forgot to answer." So I said yes and he gave me the ring and told me how the band was temporary and how the jeweler didn't have the real one ready yet. So it was such a huge surprise. My fear of heights really played to Eli's advantage because I was totally consumed that I really didn't even think about getting engaged and I didn't think he had the ring so I wasn't sure it was going to happen.
It was just incredible to be up there, I don't think could ever quite be described. I was half crying because of joy and because of the very strong wind that had picked up. Right after Eli told me to look at the Empire State building and said that the picture he had given me the night before was taken from that exact stop. I definitely started to cry and we just kind of stood there a second to let it all sink in.
Then Eli, the picture guy, came alive (as well as the wind) and we took a bunch of pictures. By the end I was completely frozen because the wind was so strong. I was huddling between each shot to keep warm. It was totally worth it though because we came out with some great photos.
We came back down stairs and Noah and Kristi were waiting for us. They started to tell me about all the lies they had been telling me. Thanks to Tal, Eli and I went to this awesome Italian restaurant in the meat packing district where we had some great food and Eli told me all about the web of lies he had strung. Then we went to be ushers at Blue man group where we got to see the show for free from the 5th row.
Well the night was nothing like I could possibly imagine. I had always wanted everything to be a surprise, but I had no idea that I would get such a unbelievable surprise while being able to see the most amazing view on earth. I can't tell you all how excited I am for the future and how lucky I am that Eli and I went to Jerusalem at the same time. Life is unpredictable and just amazing.
I love you all and can't tell you how of difference each of you have made in my life. Thank you especially to our parents who raised us to get on this path where we would find each other.

How beauty is that?

San Diego Lighthouse

Well, we went and contrary to my nervous feelings about "meeting the parents" it was awesome. Julie's family is really cool...really down to earth, easy to talk to, and they know how to show someone a good time in San Diego. We were there for four days and every day beheld a couple of excursions out to see what San Diego has to offer. Julie's parents and older sister Christy and her family are the only ones still around in San Diego...so I still haven't met all of Julie's family, but little by little I am getting there. It was such a relief not to have to worry about Mitt for a couple days, and just have a great old time. We spent a lot of time with Julie's family, had a great date out on the town together one night, and enjoyed the warm weather. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but thanks to Julie's prayers it turned out to be gorgeous, a little rain, but for the most part in was nice and sunny and in the upper 60's. How bout that picture above? I don't know what happened to the camera, but the lighting was way off, but I actually really like the way it turned out.

Here we are a lighthouse out on Point Loma, that overlooks the bay and San Diego. This is Julie's parents and sister and nieces if you didn't put that together. This weekend was great for my ego and my height deprivation issues cause I was a good 4 inches taller than anyone else there. Below are some highlights of the trip...bullet style.
- Flying in, smelling the rain, feeling the humidity, you know that feeling after you've been in dry weather for a while.
- Getting acquainted with Julie's parents, talking to her Dad about politics and sailing. Talking to her mom about her and her quirks
-Driving out to Point Loma, a beautiful point, complete with a lighthouse and a beauty view of the bay and the skyline.
-Going to Del Mar to see tide pools in the wind and rain, which provided for beautiful lighting, and only lasted a bit...seeing the crazy kite surfers out in the freezing water.
-Julie's dad cooked us some tasty steaks, complete with the sweet onion relish that he is pretty adamant about
-Playing tennis with Julie for the first time...and to my total relief, she is pretty dang good. Some raw talent that could really become something.
- Going to La Jolla, seeing the San Diego temple for the first time...how beautiful is that place?- Eating Fish Tacos in La Jolla
- The beach in La Jolla, hundreds of seals up on the beach there warming up in the sun.
-Watching the sunset on the beach with Julie, can't beat that
- Riding on a boat out to Coronado Island, eating dinner out there on the shores of the bay, looking across at the skyline of the city.
-Julie knows that I love big cities, so she took me into the downtown happening area and we walked around on a busy Friday night.
- We went into old town San Diego, the Mormon Battalion monument saw what it used to be like
-Getting to know Julie's sister and husband, and to my dismay, playing games which actually was pretty fun cause we didn't play "Settlers of Waste Your Time" or "Settlers of Catan"
-Enjoying the sun...getting to know Julie better...having fun

That was an awesome trip. It made me realize I would love to live on the beach someday. One more week of Mitt. And then it is on to life.

Enjoy the slide show below.

Jazzed Up

Well, Julie found the key to my heart. The Jazz. She totally surprised me for Christmas and got me and her tickets to see the Jazz and the Suns play. It doesn't get much better than that. She was so thoughtful, even thoughtful enough to talk with Dad and some of my friends to find out which game I would like the best. How sweet she is. On top of that, the Jazz walloped the Suns and there was a sweet bald guy behind us in this picture that I just noticed.

Last week it snowed a bunch during church and after trying to drive the big white sled up the hill for about 20 minutes, we resorted to walking up the hill. The big white sled I am referring to is the Mercedes. Rear wheel drive cars are the best thing that ever happened to the winter...especially when you are the driver. Julie came up and had a chance to meet Noah and we had a grand old time together. She has now met the whole family...which got me to thinking and we bought plane tickets to go down to San Diego next week to meet Julie's family. Well her parents and one sister and her family that live there. I am really excited to see what they are like, a little nervous at the same time. I guess I am just worried that her Dad might be like our Dad when it comes to meeting someone new. Man o man Dave, you got it bad.

Sitting by the fire after being out in a snowstorm. You gotta love that, and the fact that Julie is holding a camera for some reason.

You might be wondering what on earth I am doing here. This is my little celebration before putting all the papers into the shredder. We made over 6000 calls for Mitt from Provo last Monday. So when you get a pile of papers that big, your first impression (at least mine was) to throw them in the air...and the fact that I got a picture of it was even better. I don't know why this is underlined. Life is good in Utahr. The Jazz are back to their winning ways, I work about 65-70 hours a week and rake in the dough (I figure about $8 per hour), and it is almost Feb. 5. If you don't know what that means you'll have to call me. Love you all.

A Mexican Christmas

We went, we saw, and we ate some sweet food (and as you might imagine, there was some really sweet and some that you looked at like "what the heck is that!?!").

Favorite Mexican Moments:

- Being with Josh, Tal, and Char...representing the singlehood of Eyrealm...along with good old mom and dad.

- Tal carrying his backpack with us everywhere cause he was worried the maids at the hotel would steal his Ipod touch.

- the people, the culture, their smiles or kindness.

-the kids in the villages, spending time with them

-the game of basketball we played on the newly painted court in the park we assisted students with their service project of cleaning up the park

-the river ride we went on on Christmas in a gorge with 3000 foot cliffs on either side. The sides covered in jungle complete with monkeys, crocodiles, and iguanas.

-jumping in that river.

-the tacos al pastor we had at "mustache" restaurant. mmm boy.

-San Cristobal, the beautiful Spanish Colonial town way up in the hills of Mexico

-Seeing the ancient ruins of Teotuachan (not sure how to spell that one)

-Wearing shorts on Christmas. Giving the gift of service.

-Getting to know the others on the trip

-Making sweet pictures with sparklers and time lapse

-Christmas Eve party at the Stake Center with members in Puebla.

-More firecrackers than you have ever heard in your life on Christmas Eve

-Choholo, the village where we stripped, sanitized, repainted, and turned into what will be a clinic for the village

-Walking through the paths of the village, seeing how happy the people were, in contrast to the fact that they had next to nothing.

-The picture of Tal and the Rooster

-Great talks with my siblings and parents.

-Huevos Rancheros

-being attacked by people decked out in native clothing trying to sell us stuff.

-seeing and listening to mom and dad speak englispanish complete with the hand motions. You know exactly what I mean. Just close your eyes and imagine it and I guarantee you will laugh.

Those are just a few of the highlights. It was an absolutely amazing trip. Thanks to Mom and Dad for making it happen, and allowing us to be a part of it.