Happy Birthday Michelle

Today was my little sister's Birthday. Way to go Michelle. She may just be a 22 year old but with her being the only married kid in the family she sure seems to be all grown up. It was fun spending part of the afternoon with her and my brother Bradley. Having family around will never get old... especially after living on an island for almost 7 years. PS If you ever get a chance to eat at Goumandise The Bakery, in Salt Lake City... I recommend getting an Almond Horn. Just do it.

View From The Kitchen

I like being able to walk through the door of my house and hear rock n roll music being played. This is what you get when you have three friends, from three different bands start randomly jamming in the dining room. Regal Beast, Jacket Weather, and Shark Speed. You take all of them together and come up with a totally new band called Beast Speed Weather.

El Ten Eleven

Saw these guys live and it blew my mind. They loop everything and build each song live before your eyes and ears. Nothing is pre recorded. Not even the drum beats. It was incredible. Get into these guys.

Leaves Joke

I raked all the leaves in the front yard the other day. It took me 3 hours but in the end I decided to pile them up in the middle of the walkway and create a barrier that made it a little more difficult to pass. I actually enjoyed raking. I've missed yardwork.

Ted & Maggie Davis Wedding

Its a pretty sweet thing when two good friends decide to tie the knot. In the case of Ted and Maggie, their wedding couldn't have brought a better group of people from all over the country. It was a killer weekend not only because of the occasion but because of the quality of people that gathered for it. Ted and I were roommates in Hawaii while going to school, I got to know Maggie and her roommates during one of my last semesters out there and when the two of them started dating it was great seeing two great people start something special. The first pic is of Maki and Cheka (flew in from Hawaii) and their kid along with Ian (flew in from Florida) and Matt (flew in from New York) along with Christina and myself as we all met up at the City Creek Center. Second picture is of the guy get together bachelor party thing. I won't name everyone but it was fun meeting up at my house and walking around downtown Salt Lake on our way to dinner. The third picture is of all the roommates together minus Cory Simons. We all lived in the Goathouse together on the point in Laie. There were some good times back then. I'll never live in a house with a better view of the beach. I miss those days. Fourth picture is of the lovely couple with all our friends from Hawaii gathered around. I wish I had it in better quality but with iPhone and low lighting its the best we got. Last but not least we have a picture of Evan Fa doing what he does best... laugh and joke. He found a the stuffed animal dog pretty amusing. This was one of the best weekends I can remember. I still can't believe how many people came from all over to make it so good. Friends are so good.

Antelope Island

Took a day trip to Antelope Island on The Great Salt Lake. It was memorable. I probably got a bit too close to that buffalo in the last picture. He was cool with it. Everything was under control.

Music In The Mountains

Last week a friend of a friend invited people up to his cabin for a little music in an event called Music in the Mountains. There were about 5 or 6 people/bands invited to play a couple songs each. It was a great setting. You had to walk a ways up to the cabin, it was snowing, and once you got inside it was cozy and crowded. My buddy Denny is in a band called St. Boheme and they played a great set. Here is a picture of their performance and a video of one of the songs they played that was produced previous to the show. I got a clip on my phone of them performing but I thought this video would do a better job representing what was heard. It was a great evening. Here is a link for St. Boheme.

It Snowed

I live in an attic. It snowed. Here is how it looked with the view out my windows.

Leftover Pictures From This Month

Some sunset pictures, a window view, and some new boots.

Halloween

In honor of the holiday, a group of us got together at Willi and Emily's place to carve pumpkins. Here is the evidence and the outcome. Since I've been back from Canada we've been watching horror flicks in the attic on the projector.

My roommates started the tradition before I moved in and we've kept it going and its been fun.

Lord Huron

I hurried through Montana and Idaho so I could see Lord Huron at Kilby Court in Salt Lake. I made it with about 10 minutes to spare. I didn't get to see the opening bands but oh well, I got what I wanted. I've been following this band for a couple years now (they were one of my first posts in November of 2010) and haven't seen them so it was good to get that done. I met up with a few friends at the show and had a great time. Even got to hang out with the band afterwards while eating a burrito at Alberto's. It was a damn good night.

Salt Lake City Sunset

Spend an evening on a tall building in downtown and got to see this while looking west.

July 24th- Pioneer Day

This may be a bit late but I don't care, I'm going to still put these pictures up. Utah does this thing where they celebrate when the Pioneers came into the Salt Lake Valley back in 1847. To sum it up in basic terms: If you live in Utah during the month of July, you get to celebrate two 4th of Julys. Its pretty cool. I'm way into it. Since I got way into fireworks for the 4th, you better bet your bottom dollar I got way into them for the 24th too. So much so.... that I ended up getting busted by the cops for riding my bike downtown while shooting off roman candles. I don't feel bad about it either. I was being relatively safe. Was it a bit awkward being a grown man and having to explain myself to a bike cop plus a few more who showed up in a patrol car and tell them I'm sorry?... Yeah. A bit. But it was worth it. If you can be in the interesting and enjoyable state of Utah for Pioneer Day, do it. You will be pleased.

The bottom picture is of our group on bikes riding around downtown Salt Lake on the parade rout the night before. People over here camp out and get real serious about their position during the parade. Fanatical even. I just get fanatical about the use of fireworks.

Camping in the Uintas

A few weeks ago I had the chance to go camping in the Uinta Mountains with some friends. I had never been so I jumped at the opportunity. We were planning on camping at Mirror Lake but ended up just heading down the road a couple miles to Butterfly Lake. The group was great. I mostly went with friends I knew but there happened to be some people I got to know for the first time there. Overall it was a great little trip. I plan on heading back there soon. It's nice that there are such majestic mountains only an hour or so away from Salt Lake. While on the drive there my buddy Bob coined the term, "easy vista". We used it throughout the remainder of the trip. I liked it so much I just keep using it. Whenever you see a spectacular view or "vista" and it happens to be "easy" on the eyes... go ahead and use it. It's perfect.

My 4th of July

We went to a reservoir to cool off. We went to Paula's house for dinner. We decided to have our own fireworks show after Sugarhouse Park had theirs. Ours was better because we had illegal fireworks from a neighboring state. I've never lit off more mortars in my life. I felt like a kid again. The 4th was one to remember.

More of Zion & Bryce Canyon

Here are some more pictures of the trip I took to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park. We were able to watch the solar eclipse while we were at Bryce. It was pretty neat. I'm glad I was in a zone that allowed for us to see the "ring of fire". Don't worry, I broke out my phone and played the Johnny Cash sond during the phenomenon. Cheezy?... yeah. But who cares. An annular solar eclipse is so rare you can do weird stuff like that. It was a killer trip. Can't wait to explore Bryce some more. It was my first time out there.

Zion National Park

Took a quick trip with a great littl crew down to Zion National park. Chris, Madison, and Kyle were a good group to go with. We hiked Angels Landing after camping just outside of the park on some BLM land. You can't beat free. I even got to break out my Poler Tent. It was a pretty good weekend. Also, we made it down to Bryce Canyon to watch the eclipse. I'll make another post with some of those pics soon.