The Dark Knight

So the other day I went to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, with Jessie and Trevor. It has quickly found its way toward the top of my all time favorites list. I don't know why, but I have always liked batman, and I think that this movie is by far the best Batman movie yet produced. The actors all do an excellent job with their characters, and I felt that Heath Ledger's Joker was absolutley legendary. Go see this movie!!

Remember when...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

The Grotto

Well today, we decided we needed to have a little adventure. After much deliberation we decided that hiking to the grotto was just enough adventure for all of us. The grotto is a waterfall in a grotto which cascades into a small pool. We had all been there before, but our last trip there was not without excitment, as my Uncle led us down the wrong trail, and a little ways out of our way. In order to prevent such events from repeating themselves, we took great care in planning our journey looking online for directions. We finally felt that we had things under control and departed. After driving about five miles into Payson Canyon, Grandma swore up, down, and sideways that we had gone too far. My mother and I both protested that we had not yet reached the trailhead hence the reason that we had not seen the sign pronouncing the beginning of the trailhead. For the next couple of miles, Grandma was certain that we were headed the wrong direction and wasn't afraid to let us know. Finally, we rounded a corner and there was a big sign that read The Grotto with an arrow pointing to the trailhead, meanwhile Grandma is still complaining that we have gone to far, and questions why we are parking. Grandma did not want to make the hike with us, so decided to stay in the car.

After piling out of the mini-van, we were well on our way. The trail began with a treacherous slope leading straight into the sky, as I stood at the bottom pondering why I was doing this, the adventurer in me took over, and I was off. Okay, so really there was a short little hill, but it is much more exciting this way. After traveling long distances over crumbling brides, and unsure footpaths, we finally arrived at our destination, The Grotto.

I must say that it was a fun adventure, and the hike of about a quarter mile wasn't too bad (at least now that it is over) The waterfall looked very nice, and it was fun to be able to spend time with the family. Jessica, Jayce, and Trevor decided that they were not through with their wanderings, and decided to climb to the top of the waterfall. I know that from some of these pictures, it is not apparent that they are at the top, but I guarantee that they really were.

After we returned to the car, we drove up the canyon, and stopped for a picnic. It was a lot of fun, and it felt cool, but there were a lot of annoying bugs that I just didn't like.

Oh yeah!

The other day, Trevor was playing a game on his computer, and Jayce and Jessica were watching him, to my shock and amazement, when trevor won, the computer went "Oh, Yeah!" Even more to my surprise was when all three people echoed it. Needless to say, I spent quite a while trying to catch the "Oh, yeah" and Trevors happy dance; unfortunately this is the best I could do.

You may have to turn up the volume for full effect.

Jayce vs. Sammy

Yesterday, Jayce and Jessica went out for a walk and Jessie inadvertantly stepped on Sammy, a garter snake, who was basking in the sunlight. Jayce was ecstatic and ran willy-nilly to find the snake catcher (looks kind of like a garbage picker-upper). Jayce then preceded to catch Sammy. Unfortunately when Jessie took the snake catcher to hold Sammy, he slithered away. So this morning, Jayce was determined to find Sammy once more. We were all a little shocked when Jayce ran in yelling he's back, he's back. This time I was prepared to document the experience though. Jessica, Trevor, Jayce, and I all went outside to "catch" Sammy. However, when we got there, Sammy was quickly returning to his hole under a slab of cement:( Jayce would never say die, and returned multiple times to the scene of Sammy's disappearance. On the third try, we walked outside, and Sammy was curled up outside his hole, content and basking. Jayce lunged with the snake catcher, startling Sammy into retreat, and as Sammy was about to slip from our grasp once more, Jayce made a last ditch effort and with another thrust of the snake catcher came away with the prize. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... Sammy!!

Brotherhood...

In an effort to strenghten the bonds of brotherhood, my brother-in-law (Trevor), Jayce, and I have all decided to forgo shaving during our vacation to Utah. Basically on Saturday, I was too lazy to shave, so I said that I had decided not to shave for the rest of the trip. Well yesterday at lunch, Jayce asked me if I still planned not to shave so in jest I said yes, and invited Trevor to join with me. It went straight down the hill from there. You see Trevor can actually grow facial hair, and will look cool after not shaving for a week. Unfortunately I am not as facially folically blessed as he. Meaning I can't grow hair on my face, rather it just grows under my chin and fills in my sideburns leaving some rather interesting patches of hair in random places on my head. Jayce, well Jayce has it easy seeing as how he hasn't shaved a day in his life, it shouldn't be too hard for him to refrain during this trip. The brotherhood attempted to have the father figure join in on this sabbatical from shaving; however he, sporting the same problem as me, politely declined to acquiesce to our request. I have yet to determine whether or not pictures will be added to this blog, after the week is up. I guess it depends how ridiculous I truly look.

Firework Extravaganza

Every year that we come to Utah during July our family has a tradition of lighting fireworks. This is normally one of the highlights of our summer trips to Utah. It is something that my dad enjoys doing, and in turn he got all of his kids hooked on lighting fireworks. I remember when I was younger and used to beg to get a turn to light the fireworks, and now I am more than happy to let Jayce and my cousins Spencer and Jacob light them while I just watch. I enjoy the experience and wanting others to be able to enjoy it too, I recorded some of the fireworks, unfortunately watching a video just isn't the same as seeing them in real life, but at this point in time it is what I have to offer.

This firework was called the T-Rex and was one of our final and biggest fireworks, it actually lasted about a minute and a half, but I couldn't get the long video to post, so this is just a portion of it. It is always interesting to try and figure out how fireworks get their names. They range from King Kong, and Laser Dragon down to Butterfly in Flower. I always enjoy hearing the comments of people around in relation to the fireworks as well, sometimes it is easy to agree that one is lame, while other times their could be one that you like that other people disparage.

Here are some pictures of random fireworks throughout the evening.

St. George

So we recently started our vacation by traveling to St. George, Utah. We left on Friday, and drove for a while. Jayce and I got to watch Walker on DVD while we traveled. This really helped us to pass the time. It was fun, because we had headphones on and got to spout randomness from the show, while our parents got to try to understand what was happening to lead us to say the things that we said. When we arrived in St. George we were hungry, but we had to go check in to the motel and meet, my Grandma and Aunt Kathy. We then hurried over to IHOP and had a delightful dinner. Then we returned to our hotel.

Later we left our hotel at 7:00 to attend a play that started at 8:30. We had no idea how long it would take to get to the venue, it took about 15 minutes. We then got to wait forever to be seated. This was kind of nice because it gave me the opportunity to talk to my girlfriend. Unfortunately the cell phone reception up against the mountain was a bit shoddy, and communication was not as simple as it should have been. We saw the Sound of Music, and it was entertaining. I don't know that I loved the entire cast, Captain Von Trapp was not quite as good as he should have been; however, overall it was a good show. After the show was over, Jessica, Trevor, Jayce, and I decided we were all still hungry so we went on a midnight Taco Bell run. Quite fun, quite fun.

The next day, I woke up and went with my mother to the DELUXE continental breakfast at the hotel. I had a DELUXE bagel, and some DELUXE Orange Juice. Then we had to decide what we wanted to do for the remainder of the day. Momma, Grandma, and Aunt Kathy decided that they wanted to go shopping. So they left, and when Jessica woke up she felt slighted. Then I got to talk with Christy while she walked to work. The men, then decided that we wanted to go to In N Out for lunch; unfortunately Jessica was stuck with the men, and did not want to go to In N Out. She wanted to go with the women to Café Rio. So the women met us at In N Out and took Jessica with them. After lunch, the men went to the St. George temple because I like to photograph temples, and had not taken pictures of that temple yet.

After taking pictures of the temple, the men went to the movies to see Hancock. It was a letdown. Apart from all the swearing, pretty much all the funny parts were shown in the preview, so it really wasn't worth paying money to go see.

After the movie we went back to the hotel, and chilled for a while. Pretty much just watching tv. Then we went to eat dinner at Sconecutter. After that we went to go see Les Misérables. I really enjoyed this play. I like the music a lot, and enjoyed all the actors/actresses. Unfortunately I don't know the music very well, so when I try to sing it I get like three words out and have to start over.

Sunday, we woke up and went to sacrament meeting, and then on to Payson, and Grandma's house. Goodbye St. George.