We went to Europe?

So we went to Europe in mid June this summer! YAY! It was fun of course. Yep, me, Dallan and his parents went off to London where we met up with Sydney( Dallan's sister) who was doing study abroad there. Lets take a recap of what happened whilst we were there: (I'll do my best to remember anyways)

DAY 1:

Left for New York City with Dallan, and lets just say we will NEVER fly into JFK airport ever again if we can avoid it. Besides waiting for an hour to taxi, we then had to wait another hour for our bags. So we spent the evening and most of the next day in New York walking around the city, ate at Olive Garden while it rained, and then went to central park! We then got to spend another 2 hrs waiting to take off that evening for London. I wish I could say I slept like a baby on the plane at least, but that wasn't the case. Even with taking 2 unisoms, I could not get comfortable enough to sleep! I hate plan seats!

DAY 2:  We Arrive
So we get to London and get on our trains to Paddington Station and then from there we somehow manage to cram into the little taxi's that they have with all of our luggage! I love their little taxis! I mean, not comfortable by any means, but they are somehow cute. I felt very Harry Pottery.

Anyways, having not slept all night and being up for 31 hrs tends to take its toll. Somehow we managed to have enough energy to go to this Peter Pan play in Kensington Gardens (where the story originated) which was pretty cool. So we hit the hay early that night, around 8 I think, I was exhausted and my allergies which I never usually have flared up so bad I couldn't even concentrate on anything but how itchy and sneezy I was!

DAY 3: Site Seeing!
The next day we made it out fairly early and got on one of those tour bus things, gay I know, but actually quite an efficient way of getting around to all the sites you want to see, I would recommend it. Anyways, we headed off first to Buckingham Palace where we watched the changing of the guard, or tried to, but it was so crazy busy I couldn't really see anything. The best part of this experience was this crazy lady behind me who seemed to think I was a leaning post that she could grab onto to push herself so SHE could see! What the heck? do I even know you, I am not really comfortable with strange women grabbing my shoulders. So after failed attempts at getting her to stop using me as a pushing post, we left.

Next we ventured to Big Ben and Parliament! and while we were there we toured inside of Westminster Abbey, not to be confused with West- minIster Abbey, hahaha. I knew what it was but I did say it wrong once and got caught! (just by syd though) Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures inside of the Abbey, but it was quite cool, lots of history.

Next was my favorite non-historical part of the trip! Very non-historical- we went to the Tranformers 2 Premiere in London in Leicester Square. Yeah we got to see all the stars as the arrived to the Premier and we surprising close as they came around to sign autographs! Syd almost got Megan Fox's. All I can remember is some kid screaming "take off your clothes" to Megan Fox, and then of course all the girls were crazy about Shia, who is just as cute in real life :) love you Dallan.

Anyways, we then moved on and went over the London Tower Bridge and to the Tower of London.

DAY 4: Just the 3 of us...

Well Dallan's mom wasn't feeling too well this day, so the 3 of us set off on a tour led by our guide Sydney. First off to lunch at the Hard Rock in London. Apparently we Americans pronounce the Thames River "funny" 'cause they say "thymes" or something. Also went to the Disney store and some crazy store just packed with people that it was so annoying I only made it out with one $4 shirt!
Anyways, we toured around shopping areas and stuff and made our way BACK to Buckingham Palace now that it wasn't so crazy packed with people. Then we were off to find Abbey Road , ya know, like as in the Beatles? Then off to the London Eye. Course by the time we got off our "tube" stop i was starving and not the happiest camper, so we made an amazing McDonald's stop! Love McD's!!! Turns out its kinda expensive to ride on a ferris wheel... and I'm just not that into ferris wheels. But hey, we saw it and it was large.

Day 5: Off to Paris!

So we take the Eurostar to Paris and that evening are off to visit the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Turns out the Eiffel Tower really is BIG! Like the Statue of LIberty is disappointingly small, but this really is as grand as you think it is! We stopped by a little cafe near the tower to have dinner which was yummy. I was going to order in French because I had been practicing and learning some French to be prepared, but then everyone else starting just talking in english, so I felt dumb ordering in French :(



DAY 6: Lots to see!
Well, this morning as I recall didn't exactly start great. After waiting a good hour to finally leave the hotel, we went back to the tower so we could go to the top. Unfortunately, by the time we did actually get there, the line was 3 hrs long which meant we just lost 3 hours of our day! So we had to hurry to check out first, Notre Dame. We ate some lunch after at this little cafe and I got this AWESOME baguette sandwich which I would fly back to Paris for.

Next was off to the Louvre which was so cool on the outside! not that the inside isn't cool, but I just like the architecture. Of course we then saw the Mona Lisa among many other famous and sometimes interesting paintings and sculptures. That place is HUGE! I mean you could spend a whole day there if you are into that sort of thing.

Next was my pick for visiting, the Chateau de Versailles! Just the Palace ya know and gardens. Apparently we missed by one night this cool fireworks show they do in the gardens in the summer evenings. But we did get to hear the music playing as they tested it while we were there so that made it fun! Felt like I should have been in a big dress.

DAY 7: Back to Jolly Ol' London

Well it was back to London. We were going to go to Rome, but it was just too expensive and would take like 9hrs to get there, so whatever, another time perhaps. We had to of course stop by Kings Cross and go to Platform 9 and 3/4! Then Syd wanted to take us to Portobello Road which I only had heard of in the classic Disney film Bed knobs and Broomsticks. Turns out not as cool as you might think. It was just one big,huge,long farmers market along this road. SOOOO much stuff for sales. We kept walking and walking, finally hitting the food area and then I was done with it.

For lunch we went back to Kensington Gardens and ate at the Orangery. I was daring and got something no one expected me to eat, and it was great! Loved it actually. some shredded beef thing with bread.

That evening Dal says he's going out to get a drink, an hour later I begin to panic. Where is he? it doesn't take but 5 minutes to go get a drink across the street. did he get mugged? stabbed? is he laying dead somewhere in a dark alley and now I have no way to reach him since we can't use our phones? I finally got dressed and set out on a search. My first thought was that he was in his parent's room, only I didn't know which room they were in. Luckily I ran into his mom just outside my door, asked if she had seen Dallan, and she told me he was in their room. WEH! what a relief.

DAY 8: Cheerio!
Welp, that concluded our trip to london. We flew out the next day, stayed in Connecticut with Dallan's aunt that night, and flew out the next day back for home! What a trip! Long, lots of flying, but once in a lifetime!

VEGAS BABY!

So Dal and I went to Vegas this weekend, decided to get away and Dallan was gonna go to a conference down there. Well to start things off we got to our hotel, it was around 90 degrees outside and we walked into our room to be hit with a heat wave! we were in studio, which is a smaller room and our air conditioner wasn't on for some reason, so we turned on the air and took the opportunity to go down to the pool and spas. We returned to our room about and hour later to find that our room was still hot! It was actually 2 degrees warmer than when we left. Needless to say we called for maintenance. Took them about an hour or more to get to our room, not fun... and when they got there they said that our air conditioner was frozen and that they would have to turn on the heater to melt it so it would work. They left and I said NO WAY! so I called the front desk, and we got upgraded to a 2 bedroom! YES! that was nice, WAY bigger, not that we needed the space but it's always nice to have :)

The next day was the day of the conference. We went o the MGM to catch a shuttle, which never came after waiting for 35 minutes, and so we caught the monorail to the LV convention Center; I think thats the one in Rainbow Six! anyways, we walked it and wow, tech geek nerdathon! Yeah, not so much what Dallan was thinking it was... totally boring to me anyways and what I

expected. So that was a bust. The next day I laid out by the pool, so nice... then we went down to Caesars for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, yum. We then saw that there was a Serendipity

outside of Caesars so we partook. Had to try a frozen hot chocolate, and I have to say, not as good as I imagined, a little too dark chocolatey for me. But the really cool thing is that while we were eating said frozen cocoa, this helicopter flew over us and it totally had like Rainbow Six guys hanging out the sides with their guns! I thought it was cool...

So later that day we went to the Bodies exhibit, WEIRD! Like interesting, but weird... lots of pee-pees! haha. and then we went to a Cirque show, Believe with Criss Angel... and it sucked big time! so weird and just not cool. Like whoever wrote it was a person with ADHD on crack... the cirque parts were cool even though they didn't make ANY sense, and Criss was just unimpressive... didn't do anything cool or like he does on his shows, mostly cheap magician tricks. LAME.

So yesterday, the day we left, we decided to get some breakfast. Saw a Dunkin donughts and HAD to go in to get a french crueller! and of course they were out. So we drove all the way out to this other one, which had them, only the were kinda getting stale... oh well. So we played

some slots at the New York New York and were on on way.... so that is the story of our trip, it was good even with the sucky show and everything...

What's new pussycat?

Well, Dallan and I went to Colorado a few weeks ago just to visit and take a little time away from Provo...it gets old ya know. Anyways, our trip was fun, Sjanna( my sister, pronounced sha-nuh haha) and I went boarding up at Copper mountain and I gave her a little lesson and she did really good! I on the other hand didn't have the best day ever... Lets just say my face and the snow didn't get along so well... haha, k it wasn't that bad and not really my fault but, I did scrape my chin really well on the snow. Anyways, here's a pic of me and sjanna, wearing beanies made by me! Yep, i make hats and beanies now for a living... jk, for fun but I should make it a living somehow. If anyone's interested, I do sell them!

So working at Sundance isn't exactly going well anymore, the job is still great but business is slow... so It's time for me to start looking for a new job which I hate doing :( So while we were in CO, Sjanna and Jared took us out to eat at Ruth Chris's steak house, and it was very very good! Sjanna also made me start playing RAINBOW SIX and I am now a little addicted. In fact I stayed up late playing online last week and I could not sleep afterwards! I just kept dreaming about rainbow six and shooting people, but it was like i was just playing the game, so annoying! worst nights sleep ever.

Anyways, now we're back in Provo, DAllan is hoping to get a job with Microsoft in the gaming sounds design industry... hopefully it works out! hmm... well i apologize for not being the best blogger, I guess I'm just not meant to be one... so we'll let ya know how the job hunt goes

Sooooooo.... well I started my job as a snowboard instructor at Sundance in December, and I have to say, its been one of the most enjoyable jobs I've had. I mean seriously, who doesn't want to get paid to snowboard 3 or 4 days a week? I've been working on my 180s off jumps lately and am hoping to pull a 360 sometime here before the season end, cuz then I'll officially be a good snowboarder. WEll as Dallan said, we went to good old Disney world for christmas. It was warm and crowded of course, but still a good time. We ate breakfast at the 1900 Park Fare character dining restaurant and say Alice, Snow White, Tigger, Pooh, an the Mad Hatter, and since it was close to our anniversary (1 year) we got a free special anniversary cake from Disney. 

I later returned back to Florida in mid January to go to a special Disney fairy and princess audition. I wasn't too sure if I should go or not, and I'm not gonna lie,  I had major second thoughts, but in the end decided to go anyways... needless to say I, along with 526 other girls, did not receive a call back. yep, only less than 30 girls out of 556 were chosen, and I have to say that some were not pretty at all... strange how that works. oh well.

So since my rather embarrassing embarkment to the audition, its been back to snowboarding, the only thing that keeps me sane here in Utah winters. When I'm not working, going to movies seems to be the thing to do at our house... We recently saw the movie Taken with Liam Neisen, and I must say it was quite good and I enjoyed it. I recommend seeing it you haven't already. We also have seen the Uninvited which for its genre or movie was also pretty good. I don't know that I would see it again anytime soon, maybe in a few years? It's kinda one of those 6th sense type films that once you know the ending, the next time around wouldn't be as good. I am very excited for the next Transformers movie which recently released a preview, I even dreamt (dremt??? i dont know) about it last night! yep, me and dal were in some big city and the big transformers (even bigger in my dream) were destroying the city and we had to get out... oh yeah. haha. 

I suppose that about wraps up my update... I'm looking forward to moving out of Utah hopefully in teh near future, to where you might ask? well that remains a mystery. ADIOS!

Been awhile..

Well, it seems lately whenever I get on the computer I am compelled to look for jobs.. I am at this point not being picky. My freelance audio is doing ok, but it really is going in a direction that I would like to get away from (live sound) and just isn't providing us with the type of income that I would like to earn for my wife and I. That being said I really enjoyed this past year having it be the additional umph to the income the radio was giving me. (or visa versa) The way I see my skill set I could do well in anything sound design, quite honestly doing sound design for video games sounds like a complete blast, umm advertising, like the production side of an ad firm. Really anything at the Entry level I think I would be good at.. The one thing I know that I wouldn't be good at is being a surgeon. My hands shake a bit and I hear that can be a problem.. If anyone reading this knows of a jobby job.. I am to the point where my pride has left me.. (I hate this.. I like my pride.)
Don't worry though, even though I am amongst the millions looking for a job I still have a great life. I am amazed every day by the blessings that come my way. And I think something really good is just around the corner. How could it not right?? Everything else in my life is in order.. I have a great wife, a four legged kid, and a host of blessings..

With all this time on my hands I have made some valuable observations and would like to share them with you.

1.) People who pull there cell phones out during a movie should be hung on a pole and shot. I have been to a few movies lately and it is just like this convenient tool has made people dumb at movies.. It is inconsiderate. I mean you wouldn't take a flash light to the theatre with you and shine it in the eyes of the person behind you would you?? Now days the screens on the cell phones are just that... Flash lights.. keep them in your pocket.. if "silent" mode leaves you wondering who just texted you, turn the cell phone off.. please..
2.) When at said movie and guy in front is using phone consistently it is still not cool to throw a Pepsi bottle at guy with phone..
(Yeah... In the past month I have seen this happen..)
3.) When at said movie and guy in front is using phone consistently it is still not cool to yell obscenities at him.. (Yup.. seen this too..)
4.) If you are that guy, and your phone rings.. you better not answer it.. (seen this twice in the past month.)
5.) You may have a mature 10 year old.. but when it comes down to it.. unsupervised they are still just that.. a ten year old.. a movie theatre, mall, Wal-Mart, or other places turn into a jungle gym when they are unsupervised..
6.) These 10 year olds do not automatically have ADD.. They are just unsupervised 10 year olds..
7.) Not my job to supervise said 10 year old.
8.) Not really Global Warming when the Climatologists are saying we are in the Coldest year on record, and that we are more likely heading toward another Ice Age..
9.) I wish my grandpa were alive.. I really would like to hear him full of the "Obama-mania"..
10.) George W. Bush really didn't screw up the nation.. After 9-11 his mission as President became make this country feel safe again.. If he hadn't done that McCain would be president, because national safety would be an issue, and McCain was more prepared to deal with that than Obama.
11.) I think Obama will be an ok president, I didn't vote for him, but I support him.. I don't think he will be the miracle man that over half the nation thinks he'll be.
12.) My Dog has a good life.. Poop, Sleep, Eat, Sleep and repeat.. THATS THE KIND OF JOB I NEED TO FIND!!!
13.) I seemed to gain the Freshman 15 during the Freshman year of my marriage... hmmm.. gonna work on that..
14.) I think 26 is the year when you officially start getting old.. It is when joints start to hurt.. When all-nighters are a little harder to do.. It is the age that you really start fighting weight.. It is the age when your dog really becomes your best friend.. (3 and a half times doggy years and no more puppy problems.. we just chill.)
15.) I need a patio, rocking chair, and a diet pepsi to use because these observations really make me feel old..



Anyways... Life ultimately is good here.. Dana and I are happy.. We went to Florida over Christmas to visit her mom.. It was fun.. and 80 degrees.. I'll let her tell you about it.. I need to go beck to the job hunt..
I hope all is well with all of you my friends..
I'll write soon
~ D