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.

The East Coast at Christmastime

Well, here comes the ultimate in blogging. Mobile Blogging. It doesn't get much more amazing. Except for the fact that the camera on my phone isn't the greatest, but I couldn't find my memory card for the camera I have been borrowing from Jo and Aja so this was the next best thing. I kind of just popped my phone out and took a picture whenever I saw something interesting. So here it is.

Hail to Fenway. It was awesome to drive past the home of the champs as we were on our way out from the airport to see Charity at Wellesley. You gotta love Fenway.
Lake Waban on the Wellesley Campus. It kind of sounds like someone tried to name it Lake Robin, but they couldn't say their Rs. It was so beautiful. it was freezing cold, but I tell you what that is an incredible campus. The lake was just freezing over, but the ice was really clear so you could see down in. I also discovered a really cool sound that Dad, Char and Mom can attest to. If you throw a rock, like you are trying to skip it on the ice, it makes the coolest echoing noise. So next time you are near a newly frozen pond or lake, please give it a shot. This is right where Charity opened her mission call so it was really cool to be there with her.
The Temple! What a beauty. Last time I was there this temple didn't yet have a spire and Angel Moroni on it as it took the campaign a while to get approval on it. What a beautiful place. It was so awesome to be there with Charity as she went through for the first time. That was a special opportunity...that I will not soon forget. What an awesome girl Char is and what an incredible missionary she is going to be. It was great to be there with Mom, Dad, Saydi, Jeff, Jo, and Aja as well. We had the whole session to ourselves. Which was special as well. We went into Belmont and had some beauty Indian Food, then Char and I ventured off into the city for some freezing good times. Holy Cow it was cold there, my eyeballs hurt it was so cold. We walked around through Boston, saw the Christmas lights, enjoyed the season and then capped it off with a trip to a sweet Jazz club. It was great to be in the city with Charity and have her show me all around.
Boom. Then the next day it was on to the city I love the most. New York and Christmas. Wow. It was awesome. We went to the temple there with Noah, Kristi, Mom, Dad, Tal, Sarah, Charity and I and yet another amazing experience. You guys really are incredible examples, it was so cool to be there with you. That night we went to an awesome Sushi restaurant right by Noah's place then ventured off into the city. A walk down 5th Avenue to see all the Christmas decorations and to have a look at the beautiful tree there at Rockafeller Center.
Saks 5th Ave. Right across from Rockefeller there is this awesome display these snowflakes all over the building light up according to the beat as Carol of the Bells plays. That is one of my favorite Christmas things I have seen. The music is nice and loud and there are thousands of people there enjoying the Christmas spirit.

From there we headed down to Bryant Park for a potential ice skating experience, but we got there just as they were closing. Gotta love that feeling, we tried every way to get out there and get some skates, including Noah pretending like he was ice skating in his shoes to sneak over and get us some skates. That didn't work either. Nonetheless it was beauty. Check out the tree there and the Empire State lit up blue for Hanukkah in the background.

I can't get this to format so I have to write about these others down here. The next night (Sunday) Me, Tal, Sarah, Jo, and Aja ventured down to St. Patrick's (big cathedral) on 5th, which was beautiful, we then went up to Columbia and caught the end of the Columbia Orchestra's concert which was awesome. We then went over to Sarah's and had some hot cocoa (Sarah is awesome by the way, for those of you who haven't met her). Then we parted ways. I slept for an hour and a half then left for the airport at 2 am as my flight was at 5 and the subways were running local. This last picture was right as we were flying into Salt Lake, it was really cool, totally sunny and beauty where we were with the mountaintops, but then we flew down into the clouds and snow below. It looked really cool.

Oh, and the pennies. Supposedly one hundred million pennies there on spread across the block there near Rockefeller Center. All gathered by kids all over the place for Charity. It is supposedly a million dollars worth for Charity. Pretty cool sight I must admit. Gotta love the random stuff you see in NYC.

Life is good. Things are crazy with Mitt. It is crunch time. I gotta say I love the Holidays! Julie and I are going to the MoTab Christmas Concert tonight with the King Singers. I am headed down to St. George this weekend to do some call days down there, and then we are going to Mexico next week. I can't wait. I am not going to see Julie for a couple weeks which I am pretty sure is going to be rough. I will see what I can do though. Merry Christmas to all.

Bethlehem

In all the commotion and excitement of Christmas, I've been trying to think a lot about this place. Bethlehem.

Bethlehem. These are the fields in which the shephards saw the star.

2000 years later the terrain is still very similar.

What a place. What an oppotunity to actually go there this year.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

You all know how much I love Christmas.

I can't tell you how excited I was to wake up on Saturday to a fresh blanket of snow. Then is just kept going all day and provided for an absolutely beautiful winter wonderland capped off by a beauty trip to Temple Square and to get a tree. I just love this time of year. People change, there is just a different feeling in the air, everyone listens to the same great music, and most important, we get to go back 2000 years to that night in Bethlehem. That has taken on a whole new light for me this year as I have had the chance to actually go to Bethlehem in the last year. Wow. What an experience that was and I am excited to have many chances to reflect back on that this season. Temple square is as beautful as ever, I love walking around down there at Christmas.

The place was rammed with people from all over the world. I heard about 5 different languages as I walked around. Tourists and locals, LDS and non-LDS everyone there together enjoying the beauty of Temple Square. I walked past one group of tourists who were just dumbfounded by the lights. They kept saying, "it just looks like daylight under this tree" in total amazement. Props to the guys who put up all those lights, cause after putting lights on one tree I am ready for a nice long break.

So being there with Julie made it that much better. I think she is a littel shocked at how excited I am about Christmas, but that is just who I am. So we had a nice walk around and then went up and met Mom and Dad at the Christmas tree lot and found a beauty. Shopping for trees with Dad is pretty funny, it was cold out so every tree we looked at, he would just say "that is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, let's buy it" You all know how awesome Dad is in those situations. So we bought one on impulse but it turns out to be quite a beauty.

I don't think i've been so busy in my life before. I get up, go to work for ridiculous hours (anything for Mitt right?) hang out with Julie for a while or come home and think for 20 minutes, go to bed and get up and do it again the next day. Crykee. I am excited for Jan. 3 (the Iowa Caucus) when we'll find out whether or not all of this was worth it. I should be greatful though, I got a job and it is a pretty incredible experience minus having to work through people that are wicked slow cause they have so much else on their plates. Oh well though. That's just life. I am really excited to go back East this weekend. To go through the temple with Char and to see the greatest city on earth at Christmastime. Oh baby.

The Waiting Game

The Waiting Game. I think that is the theme of my life right now in regard to work. I have never spent so much time waiting and trying to get things set up in my life and gotten paid for it. Everything is just behind schedule with these call centers and by the time we really get things rolling it will be finals week and then the students will all be gone for the holidays...then the primaries take place. Oh well. At least I am getting paid for it. So, I had an interesting experience last night. I had been at the office here in the Provo and it was about 5:30, at 6 some BYU Romney enthusiasts were coming to meet me at the office. So I thought I would go and grab something to eat. To my chagrin, I accidentally locked the keys in the office.

So I thought to myself, "what would McGyver do in a situation like this?" Would he call a locksmith, no way. So I thought beyond that. I remembered that one of the windows was open (unlocked) and I also remembered that there was a ladder around back of this little hole in the wall we call the office (great location right next to campus trumped out a nice office). The windows were about 15 feet off the ground on the second floor.


So I found this ladder. Yet it still was about 5 feet plus below the window. I figured since I had been on scaffolding so much lately it wouldn't be a problem. Luckily for me Julie was there to hold the ladder and balance it at the bottom, so I didn't fall off...and well, if that would have happened I wouldn't be writing this sounding so victorious. So I got up there...ended up having to rip the screen off (literally, there was some nice old wood that broke fairly easily) (I know McGyver wouldn't have done that, but let's face it, I am still at amateur McGyver level...maybe one day) smacked the window a couple times and boom I was in there. mission accomplished. I tried the window on the left first, and it was locked. Anyway, pretty cool story huh? Julie happened to have her camera so she documented the whole thing.

So I thought I would let you all rememer how Mcgyver like your little brother/big brother/son/friend/whatever is. The moral of the story...never call a locksmith. There is ALWAYS a way in.

Humility

Here's something I read by CS Lewis today in his book called "The Joyful Christian"

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

Interesting huh? Straight to the point.

Lately

Lately my life has consisted of a couple things: Climbing on scaffolding risking my life to make the BCRANC look like an Isand Oasis, Working on the Romney Campaign, and Julie. As you can see, progress is being made in each of the categories. My life is about as unpredictable, and predictable as it can get at this point. It has been a lot of fun to be with my best buddies Tom and Parley working on putting this bark grass on the ceiling. We usually start at about 8pm and go til after midnight. We've worked about 6 nights so far and are rapidly approaching the finish line...maybe one more night. I am excited for you all to see it, cause it really does add even more uniqueness to mom and dad's new house. Which is going to be awesome.

It has been awesome being close to mom and dad and helping out in any way that I can. I am learning a great deal about patience in watching how they deal with all the retards in the construction business. Little by little the house is coming together and will be quite the masterpiece. We're going to have to cram to get it done by Thanksgiving but, if there is anyone that can accomplish something when they set their mind to it, it is mom and Rickey.

So on Friday night me and Julie went with mom and dad to the EMI (enterprise mentors international) fund raiser at the Marriott. For those who don't know, they are a charity organization that does microlending all over the world. It was really cool to be there and learn more about that kind of stuff. There are so many awesome was to help people all over the world, and this is one of the best I think as you don't just give them the help, you give them the ability to help themselves and establish themselves. We had a great time though with mom and dad and Lenna and her girls. It's always fun to have Julie around to meet new people.

So the thing you might be wondering the most, is how thing are going with Julie. They are going great. I am really excited about our relationship and how things are going. I am liking her more and more. She has so many awesome qualities... that I keep learning about her as we spend time together and as you might imagine that makes me like her even more. So I oficially started with the campaign about a week ago, but this week there wasn't a whole lot going on as we were waiting for the legal work on the offices to be finalized. But I got paid for doing things like finding a copy machine and a shredder for the offices, it was awesome. This week it should really pick up as the legal stuff is done and now we got to find a way to fill the office with volunteers all the time. So that should be interesting. I will be in Provo a lot, which is a painful realization, but at the same time the office is real close to where Julie lives, so I will be seeing her more. So...life is good. I am getting wicked excited about the upcoming holidays and being able to see you guys. I love you all. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.