Thanksgiving in AZ!

So last week on Wednesday at 6:30 pm Andrew, Kelsey, Ashley, and I all jumped in our Civic and started making our way down to AZ for Thanksgiving. After driving ALL night we arrived in Mesa at 5:30 am and dropped Andrew and Kelsey off at my sister Jen's where my family was having Thanksgiving. Ashley and I then continued our way down to Tucson, where her family was gathered for the festivities.

We arrived around 8 am, just enough time for me to change my clothes, hop in the car with Scott and Greg and head off to their annual Turkey Bowl Football game. I am going to blame my under par performance on lack of sleep, but deep down inside I think it was due to being out of shape and getting old (which is depressing). I was however surprised to find out that I am not that bad of a punter!

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Ashley's family (which was pushing 60 people and held at a church, and apparently and small gathering). We had a blast hanging out with all off Ashley's immediate and extended family. Except for when Greg (brother-in-law) turned us all into slaves and forced us to assist him in his move. Just kidding, I can't complain, I spent the majority of the morning searching for my wedding ring which I knew I left securely in the grass at the football field (for safe keeping).

On Saturday we drove back up to Mesa and celebrated my nephew's Braden's birthday party. We got to hang out with my family for the rest of the day and then headed back to freezing cold Utah Sunday morning. It is now 17 degrees outside and I hate my life. However, the semester is almost over. Just two weeks left! Wish me luck on finals!

Ashley's New Job!!!

So I have slacked off the past week and forgot to write a blog entry. However, we have had some good news since the last post. Ashley took a job at a Dentist office in Payson, which is about 20 minutes away. Normally I would not allow Ashley to work for the spawn of Satan, however due to the current job market I decided to concede. (I really don't think Dentist are so bad, but the hygienist who clean your teeth are!) She really likes her new job and the staff though. They all seem really nice. She works the front desk, and loves the Dentist and staff.

School has been going great. I am getting used to BYU and am working hard to finish up this semester over the next couple of weeks. We are exited to be heading down to Tuscon for Thanksgiving this year. We get to see a lot of family, but the 12 hour drive we have to make through the middle of the night is going to stink! Well I hope all is well if all of our friends and family! Leave a comment it would be great to hear from you.

Park City! Family! and Braden!

My parents, Jen, Nate, and Braden, all decided to come to Park City for Halloween! Surprisingly Park City is a pretty happening Halloween destination. They close down the main strip and all the stores pass candy out to the kids trick-or-treating. They also have a dog costume parade, with very creative costumes.

Unfortunately, I have limited picture up-loading capabilities right now so I will just post this one of the cabin we are staying at thanks to Abercrombie & Kent.

The house is so big, it comes with its own elevator. And you better believe I have used the stairs less than a handful of times.

I will try and get the rest of the pictures up next week.

Ryan is a champion; BYU Football is not...

So this weekend ESPN choose Provo to host their weekly ESPN College Game Day TV & radio show. It was pretty exciting as it brought a lot more national attention. Unfortunately BYU's defense forgot to show up the first quarter giving up 21 points and all that good publicity turned into bad.

The good news is the BCS trophy goes along with the TV & radio show! They had a section of our local grocery store set up where you could take a picture with the trophy. So I did. Ashley for some reason did not want to join my picture.

I also was enrolled to win an all expense paid trip to the championship game. I think my chances are pretty good at winning, so those of you who would want to be one of the three can start sending me gifts now.

This week we actually had pretty close seats at the football game. To bad BYU had to loose. We had an adventure getting to the staduim though. As soon as we left a crazy rain cloud blew in and it was raining, windy, and we got soaked (we usually walk to the stadium). It was raining and blowing so hard, that I had to keep my hood over 75% of my face and head down, which caused me to run right into a sign. The little kid behind me started laughing really loud at me. It was embarrasing. Once we got there, Ashley had to go back home to change shoes as her's were soaked. Luckily it was just that one cloud so the rest of the night was dry.

Birthday, Bowling, & Bugs!!

On Friday we celebrated Andrew's 22 birthday at my Aunt Kathy's house. Kathy bought filet mignon's, which I cooked like a champ! They were sooooo goood. Ashley made twiced-baked potatoes, and texas sheet caked with mint chip ice cream. It was a good day.

This morning, Ashley and I went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, it was very pretty with the fall colors. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Kneader's.

Right when we walked in the door, Kelsey texted me, saying how bored she was at work and to come down and bowl with her. So Ashley and I went and bowled two games. I had the high score of 140, which is pretty bad. Although Kelsey is really good at bowling.

When we got back from bowling we found fifty billion bugs around our complex. We have seen them around lately but they were in full force today, enjoying the nice weather. I guess they come out in the Spring and Fall, but die out once it gets cold. It is pretty funny to watch Ashley try and get in our place. She is not a big fan of bugs and they fly onto her and she freaks out like a wierdo.

We watched the BYU football game with our neighboor's. They were nice and accepted my own invitation for us to come watch the game with them since we don't have cable. BYU didn't have a great game but they came out on top.

We had a fun weekend! School is going great. We miss everyone and leave a comment to let us know how you're doing.

Poll Answer's

The past couple of weeks I have been posting polls and many of you have been voting. So I thought I would go over some of the answers .

Last week's poll on what is taking me the longest to get used to in Utah, the answer is C. I get shocked ALL the time here and it drives me crazy.

Most of the time it is directly after exciting our car, and as soon as I touch the door to close it, BAM!! I get shocked. I have started to use my tennis shoes to close the door now just to avoid it. Apparently the dry air has something to do with it. Andrew says that he would get shocked a lot too when he drove Kelsey's Honda Civic, but now he drives the MDX he doesn't get it as much. So I've decided to sell our Honda Civic for a yellow Land Rover Defender 90.

Ok the week before's question was What was your favorite movie, that I saw, from the Summer. Based on the answers then I would have to say mine was Star Trek. We just saw it again at the dollar theatre and it was even better than the first time. However, just in the last week I saw X-Men Wolverine and Harry Potter 72 and both were also really good!

Three weeks ago I asked what my emphasis should be in (if I can get into the dumb Business school). So I have been taking this lecture series class where each Friday, a BYU Alum comes to speak to us about their profession. And each profession relates to an empashis I can choose. So far we have heard Sales & Marketing, Real Estate, Corporate Finance, and Supply Chain. And believe it or not the only things I am interested in so far are the two things I just left!!! Sales & Marketing and Real Estate!!! I still have Wealth Management, Management Consulting, HR, Accounting, Risk Management & Insurance, and Information Systems left to be covered in this lecture series so I am still not sure yet.

Snow?!?! In September??

So we have been living in Utah for 35 days now. We have been enjoying our time here so far spending a lot of our free time driving up the canyon, attending BYU sporting events, and spending a $1 to see a movie! (they have an awesome $1 theatre here)


However, this week the weather took a turn for the worse. On Tuesday evening a rain storm blew in and it rained hard all night. We woke up the next morning and found SNOW, yes SNOW covering the mountains!! For those of you not familiar with Provo, the mountains are less than 20 minutes away and easily seen from any direction. Since that day it has continued to be cold all week.
(I find the cartoon funny, seeing that sub-prime mortgage's lead to me returning back to school...which is located in the snow...I don't know why I feel the need to explain this but yet I continue to type)


I think it is going to be a long winter for us seeing that we are complaining about weather in the high 40's. I think the only thing that will get me through the winter is if I buy a season pass to one of the local ski resorts so at least I can be snowboarding. However they are expensive so if any of you want to be the first to donate to the Ryan snowboarding fund I can let you know our new address.



Other than the freezing cold weather we are doing pretty good. Ashley is working hard looking for a job, and I am working hard at school. I have my first set of tests that I have to take on Monday and Tuesday so cross your fingers that I do well!