Brian and Makenzie's Wedding

A few months ago my family and I had the great privilege to travel down south to attend my cousin Brian's wedding down at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple down in South Jordan. And we almost didn't make it!

Originally I was going to travel to the early morning wedding that Saturday morning and Kristy and Logan were going to leave the night before with Lynn so they could attend a Girl's Night Out Party. But the weather was once again not cooperating with us. The snow came down fast and was piling up quickly and I thought it would be better to have a bad night's sleep than to have to travel through the snow in the canyon so early in the morning. So Lynn and her daughter Jessica came over and I drove them all down to Kristy's parents home. 

The drive was harrowing to say the least. The snow was coming in hard and fast and the roads were not clear at all. And it was worse driving through Logan Canyon. I could barely see the road from all the snow and to make matters worse our heater was not working. The stupid thing only blows out the front and you cannot turn it on to other places, like the windows, to help clear them up. So I could not see out my window either! I had a small space to see through and unfortunately for everyone else, I was forced to roll down the window to help clear the window up.

Logan: "It's cold in here!"
Me: "Well, you can either freeze or die."

It was horrible. We got up this huge hill and we saw this semi in the middle of the road and it didn't look like it was moving very fast. We realized that the semi was actually backing up down the hill. We decided to follow the car in front of us and pass it on the left but as we headed that way, the semi was backing right into us! And we could not get any traction and I couldn't move further away since I was so close to the median-blocks that I could touch them. Thankfully, we managed to swing around. We made it through the canyon and stopped at a gas station to clean the windows up and the thankfully the rest of the drive went normally. 

The next morning we awoke early and went to the beautiful Oquirrh Mountain Temple and it was a joy to see my aunts and uncles and cousins. The ceremony was awesome, both the groom and bride were stunning and the officiator had a fantastic sense of humor. After the wedding we hung around and chatted and went back to Kristy's home and got Logan and took him over to Renae's. Then we cruised down to Orem to meet the family again for lunch. We had a fun time killing ourselves with food and also with laughter. We then went back to Kristy's home to grab Logan and then head back down to the reception.

The reception was very nice. The food was good (I cannot believe I ate more food) and the company was great. My mom and sister came down for the reception and we all hung around the Anhder table. That is until it was time to decorate the car. And Logan was way excited to see and to participate. My cousin Kari asked Logan to come along and of course, I had to see what was going on. I only wish I had some lunch meat to stuff under the door handles. Logan was quite proud of himself that he showed everyone that he could.

Brian's sisters getting revenge.

We are so thankful that we were invited to the wedding and to hang out with my family. I appreciate my Uncle Mark and his neat family for allowing my family to attend. And a special thanks to Brian and his cool new wife Makenzie for inviting my wife and I to the wedding ceremony, that meant a lot to us. 

The drive home was a lot better than the drive down thankfully. It was worth it almost being squished by a semi in a blizzard!

The Breinholt Family Christmas Party 2011

Every year, the weekend before Christmas we gather at the Breinholt's for the annual Christmas party. Sadly, two of the families were unable to attend and their presence was missed. 

Logan and Kristy left the night before hitching a ride with Lynn and I left the morning of. I had a big choir practice that I needed to be at. Funny thing is even though I was running late and leaving from Logan, I still managed to beat most of the family to the party. And what was really strange is that the weather was perfect! In fact, driving through the canyon was the best part since it was so sunny and clear! That was definitely out of the ordinary.

Logan doing his best elephant impression.

Zade just lost his cookie.

The party was very nice with a ton of great food. After stuffing ourselves silly we went and played some Minute-To-Win-It games. We divided ourselves into four groups and played. The games were a lot of fun and it was nice to be in each other's company.

After the party. Kristy, Logan and I gave Steve a ride home since we were leaving for Logan. We were going to take off after but we decided to go and get some ice cream at this new Sub Zero place. It was some of the best ice cream I have ever had. It was Dr. Pepper flavored with bits of Twix and cherries in it. It was nice to spend a little time with Steve and his family. His little girls are just the sweetest. I wish I would have gotten some pictures while we were there. 

All in all I had a very nice time seeing my family. 

The End of the Season

Logan has his last game of football last Wednesday night.

And he played pretty well. He had four "tackles" and he tipped three balls in pass defense. He tried his hardest to intercept a ball but he just was not tall enough to snag a ball but he was able to deflect them. His team played really good at the end of the season, we figure that the game just finally clicked.

On offense Logan played Guard and he was the backup Center. I was pretty proud that he would take on kids bigger than he was. He was not afraid of taking to a kid. On defense Logan played Corner and he was real good at watching for a pass. He definitely liked playing defense better than offense.

It was kind of bittersweet at the end of the game (which ended in a tie). I was happy that he was done since it was so frigid at his last two games but we were sad since he got along real good with his teammates and his coach really liked him. We told the coach that Logan was planning on playing Flag Football next year and he remarked "I would love to have a player like Logan on my team again."

What drove me nuts about this kid of mine is that he could act like an idiot (and I say this lovingly) between plays and horse around but when it came to game time he got all serious and took the game seriously. I am looking forward to football season next year already.

New York, New York

About a year or so after my return from my LDS mission to New York, I took a buddy of mine and we went back to New York City to spend some time in the Big City.

I made a few phone calls and I was able to find some accommodations in Queens with Pat and Christa. There was only two catches. We had to hit some clubs at night with Shirley and Christa and Joel and I unfortunately had to share a couch bed. But the less said about that, the better!

So Joel and I planned what we wanted to do and saved some money so we could go in the summer. My mom took Joel and I down to the airport (stopping first to grab some Stewart's sodas for the ride) and Kristy was to pick us up from the airport when we returned. Kristy and I were not married at the time, we were still dating and much to my surprise she met Joel and I at the airport before we took off. Right before I hopped the plane to New York, I stopped and turned back to Kristy and dropped to one knee and proposed.

Yes, this is how I proposed. Well, at least this is the official story we tell people. Kristy said "Yes" and I grabbed my bag and headed back down the terminal to catch my plane. I was excited to get back to the city and do some stuff that I couldn't as a missionary. I was also looking forward to seeing people I have not seen and spoken to for a long time. The plane lifted in the air and we were off.

We had a brief funny stopover in Dallas. Now I am not an avid flyer. I don't know how things go, I am not familiar with transferring and stuff like that. All I know is that we only had a brief window to get off our first plane and to grab our second flight. As Joel and I were speed walking to our second flight we came to the realization that we do not have our bags! So we ran back to the terminal baggage claim and waited and waited. But our bags did not show up! So we panicked and contacted the airport lost and found. And they were of absolute NO help. Little did we know that our bags are automatically sent to the new plane. Quit giggling folks. We had no clue how things went! So we ran back to our second flight and headed to New York.

We flew into LaGuardia airport in Queens and waited for Christa to come and pick us up. It was so good to see her. Christa and I really bonded when I served in the Jamaica area of Queens on my mission. We became fast friends and we always kept in touch when I served in other areas, in fact she probably knows more about my mission than anyone else. She was the first one to call me when I arrived home from my mission. So it was good to be around her again. We had a nice dinner with them that first night and it was a lot of fun to share my mission with my friend and to catch up.

The next few days were super busy. I do not remember how they all flowed together so here are some highlights of the trip.

• Most of the nights/early mornings were spent going to dance clubs. Now I am not a big dancer but I did want to experience some of the nightlife that New York has to offer. We stayed up way late, most nights mornings coming in around 4 or so. Usually we would grab some breakfast before going home to catch some sleep. We went to this four story dance house called Webster Hall and it was pretty amazing. Each floor had different music to it and it was packed. One of the floors which played a lot of metal had this one old grey-bearded gentleman wearing all leather on stilts dancing away. I had a good time but I think the club life is just not for me. One night is one thing, three nights in a row is another! The last night we were there I did have a girl come on to me which made everyone in our party laugh. I thought for sure that what I had felt was just incidental bumping. But when it happened again and again and I turned around to see the girl looking right at me, I knew there was more to this story!

Joel and I didn't have cool enough clothes to go so we had to borrow these very tight shirts to go. That is Shirley, Christa and me and Joel.

• Wednesdays are a great day to see a Broadway play. They have cheaper matinees on Wednesday and I wanted to see Rent. I ordered my ticket before I got to New York. Joel wanted to see something else so he went and saw Beauty and the Beast. I have to admit that it was fun to sit with a bunch of strangers and see a musical. The musical was fantastic, almost all of the original players were still there. So all of the voices I knew from the CD recording were live to see. It was great, there is nothing like seeing a Broadway play live and in person. It was well worth the money. 

• Joel got addicted to eating the nuts that vendors sell right on the street. He must have bought 3-4 of them on one Manhattan trip alone!
• Since we were poor we didn't eat out a lot at expensive places. We did eat at the restaurant right next to David Letterman's. We decided that we should eat out at a fancy known place at least once so we chose this spot. But boy was it expensive. We only ate (and could afford) the appetizers and they were not happy about it. As soon as we were done they asked us to leave. We thought about ordering one dish and sharing it but I am sure they would have physically thrown us out if we did.
• Since Joel and I are comic book geeks, we had to go see the offices of Marvel and DC. Marvel was a big disappointment aside from seeing Stan Lee's office. But DC really treated us well. They took us on an impromptu tour and let us take pictures. And of course we picked up some applications. And then we went to a few of the large comic shops and picked up some loot. 

Joel and Batman. And this was one of the actual costumes worn in the movie. DC had the coolest things to see.

• We also went to the top of the World Trade Centers. This is the second time I have been there and it still took my breath away. You really felt like you were at the top of the world there. You could see forever being up so high. And I warned Joel that the elevator took you up at an unbelievable pace. Seriously, in seconds you were up like fifty floors. 

You can see the tall shadows the WTC's leave.

• One evening Joel and I went out at about midnight or so it take Christa's dog out for a walk. As we were walking around the block we passed this guy in this dark hoodie. The dog about took his head off barking and growling at him. I yanked the dog back and walked past thinking about it. But then I got this funny feeling in my gut. I turned around and saw this guy coming back towards us. I grabbed Joel and we got back in the building and the dog went nuts again. I honestly think that this guy was coming back to mug us.
• I also had to stop at a sports shop to look for some Jets gear. I found an old shirt and a Keyshawn Johnson jersey so I snagged them both. 

• Christa allowed me to take her car and go visit people. So Joel and I spent Sunday going to see people. We first went to Rego Park and go to church there in my old branch. I recognized a few of the people and I was surprised when someone came in and sat beside me. The member had fallen away from the church and he had a bit of a falling out with me and my companion too. I didn't think I would see him again and in church no less. But it was great to see Auggie and catch up with him. After church we walked down to see John Libretto. I pressed the buzzer and told him that the missionaries were here and he told us to come up. He about died when he saw that it was me coming up. We had a great visit (and lunch of course) and then he gave us a ride down to Jamaica so I could see my old Richmond Hills branch. The Branch President recognized me in the audience and had me stand up. He said that I was a a missionary that would not give up on me and that is true. Kevin was very interested in joining the church but we could never get together although I called him at least every week or so. Now he is the Branch President of that branch. Afterwards we went into Brooklyn and saw Rose and then went to Jackson Heights and saw Ingrid, people I spent a lot of time with while on my mission. And it was great catching up with them. That evening Joel and I took the car and went to Staten Island and saw the Bowman's. They are a wonderful family that I absolutely loved. They treated us to one of Staten Island's famous pizza pies and we spent the evening with them. It made me miss my mission quite a bit. What I won't miss is the driving. It sure gets crazy there. 

Me, Linda and Steve with Tina and Jonathon Bowman

• I was going to show Joel some of the areas that I used to serve in. We stopped at a subway stop and we almost got out. But I have to admit that I didn't feel quite right, I didn't feel totally safe just walking in that area. So we stayed on the subway and headed into Manhattan. Funny how things can change when you are not protected as a missionary anymore. 
• Speaking of riding the subway, one of the funnest things that I like to do while in New York was taking the subway. I could spend hours just people watching. There are so many colorful characters that you will never get to see again anywhere that ride the trains. Joel had an experience that I don't think he will forget anytime soon. He was standing in the subway car when suddenly the car jerked a bit (which it does often) and Joel accidentally stepped on this guy's foot. The guy yelled at him and Joel said he was sorry but then it happened again and the Middle Eastern guy really let Joel have it. He was yelling at him to not stand so close to him and stuff like that. The look on Joel's face was priceless. Oh the joys of riding the subway. 
• Christa gave us a ride to the airport and it was sad to go. We only spent a few days in New York and barely was able to do what we wanted. There was just not enough time to do it all. But we had a fantastic time there. The plane ride home was something to remember as well. LaGuardia Airport has the shortest runway in the whole United States. During takeoff you would look down and see runway and then you would liftoff and suddenly you would see ocean! It was that quick and a bit nerve racking. But it was neat to see the city as you lift off from Queens. During the plane ride home we chatted and did some doodling. A stewardess noticed our artwork and asked if she could take them to the pilot so he could see them. She talked with us for quite a while on the plane ride home. It was on this plane trip that I first formed my ideas for my first novel, The Vessel.

Joel's cartoons

Mine

New York will always be a special place for me. It was a good experience while on my mission and it was a good experience going back with Joel. I wish I could go back again.

Girl's Camp: Freaking Magical! Part I

I had a fantastic time at Girl's Camp this year and I am so glad that I went. It was an honor and a privilege to spend this time with these special Young Women.

So much happened during those 3 days and I want to record all the funny and spiritual moments that I think I might have to devote a day per blog.

We headed out early Tuesday morning. I left earlier to drop off Logan (who was quite sad that we were leaving) and then I headed back to our church to pick up the girls. The night before we loaded the trailer at the Ure's house with all of our stuff. I was glad since I didn't want to load the stuff that morning since it would take forever. We got to the church and loaded up the rest of our stuff and headed out to the Stake Center to meet all the other stakes and have a small devotional.

After the devotional we headed to the Maple Rise campgrounds and began to set up our camp. We parked on the farthest end of the parking lot and we had the farthest campground. And unfortunately we didn't have the greatest campground, it was quite bumpy and with little shade. But we were the largest ward with 18 girls.

Rossy and Michelle

Bharti, Whitney, Keirsta and Kayla

Kara, Rachael, Sarah and Jade

Sidney, Keisha, Emily D, Taeler, Emily S and Taylor

After we set up camp and ate some lunch, we had a presentation by CAPSA (Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency) about what kind of services they offer and what things they should look for. I always thought that CAPSA stood for Citizens Against Physical Sexual Abuse. I don't know where I got that idea from. They also had us put together these red beaded bracelets that they will give out to ladies who are victims of abuse so they can be reminded that they are daughters of God. The presentation was very good and I think it was something that these Young Women unfortunately need to know. During the presentation the lady running it asked the Young Women if they are in a relationship and I noticed that a few of our girls raised their hands. I took note of who raised their hands and I made it a point to speak to them afterwards. I think of these girls as little sisters and as a big brother, I wanted to know. And I am glad to find out that none of the younger girls were in a relationship, they were raising their hands because of family relationships. Whew! I really didn't know where those conversations could have gone. 

After the CAPSA presentation we headed back to camp to practice our skit. Thank goodness I was not part of the skit that was to take place later in the evening but I went back to help them out. Each ward (group) was in charge of doing some sort of skit to introduce them to the other wards. The girls had a cute skit planned about being true and not following the crowd. After practice we went and ate a dinner provided by the stake and it was so tasty. One thing that I have learned about Girl's Camp is that you will definitely eat good. 

Both Kristy and our Camp Director Shonda got major cases of the giggles.

After dinner we headed back up to camp and got our stuff for our skits and headed to the amphitheater. All of the skits were entertaining and each group of girls did fantastic. Apparently Kristy must have been real tired because she got a serious case of the giggles during the skits thanks to one of our girls, Jade. One of the groups of girls had a bunch of glow sticks which Jade absolutely loved. She went off on them for a couple of minutes and then got quiet and then suddenly blurted out "I love glowsticks. They are freaking magical!" I looked over at Kristy and replied, "That is the quote of the day." and she absolutely lost it. We couldn't stop laughing. Not only was that the quote of the day, it became the camp slogan. Everything that was awesome was now freaking magical. I must have used that saying thousands of times before I came home. 

Some of the night pictures didn't turn out all that well. This was the best of the bunch.

At the skits I ran into someone I definitely didn't think I would run into ever! I ran into Melissa, one of the girls Kristy and I coached basketball. She was in the 9th grade when we coached her back down in Riverton! I stopped and asked her what the heck was she doing here. She moved up to Logan after she got married (she also has some kids!) and was in the Young Women. It was so fun to see her again, she was one of our favorite girls we coached. But it was odd that she was all grown up and now one of us!

After the skits we headed back down and we all got ready for bed. I slept alright that night, it was plenty hot but it was nice to have the whole tent to myself. And I did hear some animals come through the camp (we were warned of raccoons) a few deer and a cat which we found later. 

Easter Gift Card Party

The other night my family and I went over to my sister's home for a late Easter party with my dad's family. We have been trying to get together since Easter but I got sick and then my sister had golf and suddenly it was already June.

My dad and I were especially excited for this get-together because we wanted to test out a new way of celebrating a holiday that includes gift-giving. Now I like gift giving because I like to find ways to serve other people. But with the family getting bigger and money getting tighter it can become a big stress and not something anyone would want to have during a holiday.

And then Kristy and I heard of this fun idea which I shared with my dad which should solve the stress and money woes but also keep the spirit and the fun of gift giving. We were going to give each other gift cards but in a different sort of way.

After a great BBQ and the games we had Root Beer Floats for dessert.

The rules are simple. Every member of every family is in charge of getting a $5 gift card from where ever they want. They could be grocery stores, Amazon, iTunes, places to eat, Walmart... ...you get the idea. After you purchase the gift card then you place them into an empty white envelope and seal them up. At the party you then put them all in a hat or bowl or where ever and then you play some sort of game to decide who gets to draw first.

We played Apples to Apples for our game. Jill won the first round so she got to choose a gift card. She opened it and it was a $5 gift card to Twilzberry (a frozen yogurt joint). Then Jace won and he chose a gift card (to Hastings) and then we kept playing until all the gift cards were chosen. But, if you won a round and you had already won a round, you could steal a gift card that was already opened or you could keep your current one. I really liked Jill's giftcard and I managed to snag it but then Pauline won her first (she was the last one to win) and she grabbed mine so I had to take the last unopened giftcard (which coincedently was the one she brought) which was a $5 giftcard to McDonald's. I cannot complain, I am sure I can find something there.

It was a lot of fun to play these games for the giftcards and we plan on getting together again for dinner and then telling everyone what we bought with our giftcards.It was so successful that we plan on doing it again this Christmas. The only difference is that the young kids will be excluded and this will only be for adults. And the game might change as well, we might go for our usual poker tournament.

Matt the Actor

After I came home from my LDS Mission back in 1995 (wow! that really dates me) I was unsure of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. I wanted to go back to school and I was thinking of either Sociology or Broadcast Journalism but I was unsure if school was right for me at the time. I had a steady job working for MotorCargo but I wanted to do more in life than just working for a paycheck.
I saw an ad in the paper from the Eastman Agency that was looking for models and actors. So I thought what the heck and decided to go down for an interview. I met an agent names Jenny and we talked about modeling and acting. The company was more into modeling and it wanted to branch out into acting and I was one of the first applicants to come in for acting. The more that we spoke the more that we both thought I should give this a good try. So I signed up to take some acting classes.

The acting classes were taught by actor Bruce Ackerman and we met once a week for about two months. The classes were fantastic. There were about ten of us that took the class and we really got along and bonded. Bruce taught us a lot about acting for the camera and how to get over being nervous and how to really get the best emotion out of all of us. Then it was up to us to reenact a favorite scene from a movie. And the one I chose was "one of the more interesting and gutsiest" actors to follow. I chose the opening scene to Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell. Bruce advised me that this would be a hard act to follow (not sure if he meant the pun) and said that this would be a make or break it type of audition. But I did it anyway.

We were to practice and then audition if front of everyone and then he would critique it. I have to admit that it was a little nerve wracking to perform in front of him and my peers. I do recall that I volunteered to go first so I could get it out of the way. I was glad for it to be done with and he said that I did very well especially considering the source material. He said that my facial expressions were some of the best he has seen. The next project was to partner up with a few other classmates and pick another scene to act out at a recital to finish the training.

But first we had the awesome opportunity to go down to Salt Lake a few times and work with an agent that worked for LDS Productions. These were audition workshops and they really taught me a lot. We did this four times during the course and they were the best part. Our instructor would first introduce us to the audition world and then we dove right in. He would hand us a partial script and tell us who our character was and what he wanted and then we would practice for about fifteen minutes and then head in for a live audition. The first two times we went they were singular auditions, so you were really on your own. The third week was acting together in pairs. He would pair us up together and hand us a script and told us to work it out how we thought it should go.

I remember one audition in particular. I was paired up with Alina and we were a married couple. The script came from Field of Dreams. The more we practiced it the better we felt we got but it seemed like the audition was still missing something. So Alina came up with this idea that if we were married, we should act like we were married and be more affectionate physically. We didn't know if this was frowned upon in the audition process but we didn't have anything to lose. So we went ahead and threw ourselves in these roles. It was an amazing experience. We were these characters and it got to the point that we forgot our lines and just ad libbed the rest of the scene. But it worked because we were in sync with each other. Our instructor stopped us before we got to the end and he was speechless. He said that was the best audition he has seen so far and if we were auditioning for real, he would have hired us right on the spot! It didn't matter that we forgot the lines. It was more important to capture the feeling than the words. He then asked everyone that was watching if they noticed that we were making up our lines. And none of them said they did because they were absorbed in the scene. He then said "There is no such thing as overacting when it is real."

We continued with these workshops and classes and finally it was time to graduate. We put on a show at a fraternity hall at Utah State and we invited our friends and family. I teamed up with Alina again and also Trudy and we chose the Miracle Max scene from the Princess Bride. We also met up together and practiced and practiced for this recital. And we knocked it out of the park! We had such a good time throughout the evening and we were told that ours was the best.

My handwritten script of the Princess Bride

The next week we took pictures for our portfolio and then it was time to begin auditions. Unfortunately the Eastman Agency was not properly equipped for handling acting as it was for modeling and they packed their bags from Logan and moved back down to Salt Lake. I didn't get to audition anywhere like I wanted too but the class and experience was still worth it.

While the Eastman Agency didn't land me any jobs, my class instructor did. Bruce called me twice and got me two acting gigs. They were both voice over work for some local businesses for the radio. It was a lot of fun to get into the studio and perform. Bruce thought I was the most talented of the bunch (and I am not just saying that because I can) and said that I had a lot of versatility. But that was the last professional work I did. Like I said, I don't regret it at all. In fact, this class helped me land a spot in the musical Chess.

I still would like to get into acting. There is just something neat about nailing a scene and selling it to an audience. I guess acting around the house for Kristy and Logan will do for now.

Friday Flashback: At the Anhder House

This must have been taken at the same time as these ones that I blogged about earlier. I still get a kick out of finding these old slides.

This must be the Girl's Table.

Brad.

And this must be the Boy's Table. You know, the cooler one?

Jeremy and I look a little guilty. Like we were caught doing something mischevious.

And the girls found it funny that we were in trouble!

Mark and Susie with Emily.

In Memoriam: Walt

Last Saturday morning I was shocked and saddened to hear that one of our great neighbors has passed away. I thought he would be one of those older fellows that would be around forever. I didn't know Walt Kirshman all that well. I have been in the same ward as he for the last 8 years but I don't think that we have ever had a one-on-one conversation. But I have been in meetings and have been in Sunday School with him and he was just one of those unique (quirky... which I can say since his family said the same thing) men that I looked up to.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to his funeral. His grand-daughter Ellena goes to our ward and she is in the Young Women so Kristy knows her well. Kristy wanted to go to support Ellena and I wanted to go to support both Kristy and Ellena. It was said during the funeral that no one like to go funerals but I want to disclaim that. I like funerals for the fact that it is a celebration of that life and a time to reflect on the gospel and to find joy. I didn't know Walt all that much going in but coming out I felt like I knew him well.
The funeral was a great experience and I am so glad that I went. It was neat to sit next to other neighbors/ward members. It was great to hear all the funny experiences his family had and it was great to feel the Spirit. There were times that I felt myself on the verge of tears and that surprised me. Like I said, I didn't know Walt all that much. Sure I will miss his comments in Sunday School and I will greatly miss his testimony but it was not like we were close. But the musical numbers, especially the stirring rendition of Come, Come Ye Saints really hit home for me (it being one of my favorite hymns). Then Ellena got up and gave a beautiful poem she had written soon after he passed away. It was hard for me to keep my composure, you know I have to be a man and like not cry.


I don't regret going at all. It made me reflect on what my funeral would be like. His oldest son was the last speaker and he said that Walt did have one request for his funeral. When they wheel his casket out he wanted the song "When the Saints Go Marching In" to be played. As soon as his family got out and the rest of us guests left we could hear the song and we all smiled.

But then we got out and we saw that there was a live band playing it as they lifted his casket into the car. And I have to admit it, I lost it. I don't know why that hit me the way it did, but it certainly did. Kristy and I spoke to Ellena briefly and I found it hard to speak to her because I was overcome. And when Kristy and I found some of the Young Women in the parking lot, I really started to lose it. I have to admit that I felt a bit embarrassed. It was not that I was so sad, it felt like my heart was so full. Aside from my family, these are the people I want to be with. I don't know what it is about the Young Women here. Maybe it is because I have come to a realization that I may not have a daughter to call my own but I absolutely adore and care for these wonderful girls.

The last thing that I heard Walt say will stick with me forever. We were sitting in Sunday School and a comment was made of the picture of Christ that says " I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." I have always liked this picture. Walt stuck up his hand and said that that picture had it wrong. If we lean on Christ, he said he would make our burdens light, therefore it would make it easy. It was things like this that he shared that made me appreciate him. He was such a funny guy and one never to hide his emotions. Maybe it was a good thing that I lost it at his funeral, it is fitting to say the least.

I am so thankful that I have gospel in my life. It puts the fun in funeral. I am not being flippant, this is the truth. I don't need to mourn since I know I will see them again. We are only going to be apart for a short while. One of the grand kids (a 5-year old) said he dreamt he saw Grandpa running back to heaven with Grandma. I can totally see that with Walt. I imagine that is what it will be like when I cross over to the otherside. I will be running to see people I have not seen in ages.

Kelli and Hunter's Wedding

I have had so much stuff going on lately, forgive me for not blogging the past few days. Yesterday I had the great privilege of attending my cousin Kelli's wedding down at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

My family and I awoke very early in the morning to get down there in time for the ceremony. We were on the road at about 7:30 in the morning. The roads were very wet and it snowed/rained/snowed the whole trip down but the roads were relatively bare and traffic was at a minimum. We made it to Renae's house with plenty of time to get to the Temple. Renae and Gregg were kind enough to have Logan come over and play with their kids while Kristy and I were at the wedding.

We then hopped on the road and made our way to the Temple. The night before I used MapQuest to get directions but instead of printing out pages of useless directions, I copied down just the main turnoffs and points thinking that once we saw the large Temple we could find our way there. Well, it was real cloudy and we couldn't pinpoint where the Temple was and time was running out (we had to be there about a half an hour before). Just when we were about to hit the "panic" button, the Mount Timpanogos Temple popped into view.

What a gorgeous Temple! It was much larger than I thought it would be (I am used to the Logan Temple) and the closer you got the more impressive it became. We entered the Temple and we were greeted by my cousins Kyle and Brian (Kelli's brothers). Soon after my Uncle Kurt and his family arrived. Then we all went to one of the many Sealing Rooms and waited for Kelli and her soon-to-be husband Hunter. The Sealing Room was just so peaceful and beautiful. The reverence and silence was so thought-provoking and it made you reflect and think about life and what comes next. It reminded me of my own wedding, even though I hardly remember it. We waited for a few minutes and other guests came in. And then in walked my Aunt Julie and Uncle Jerry. I have not seen them in years and it was wonderful to see them smiling and in the Temple. As I looked around the room and looked at everyone, I felt this deep appreciation for my family and the support they give me. Soon my Uncle Mark and Aunt Barbara came in (Kelli's parents) and then shortly after that Kelli and Hunter came in. She looked unbelievable, so pretty and she was glowing. I may be biased here but I think I have the best looking cousins in any family.

The Sealing Ceremony was something you just have to see. Words cannot describe the feeling you feel there as you watch a couple be sealed for time and all eternity. For those that don't know, in the Latter Day Saint religion we believe that when you get married and if you are worthy to be married in the Temple, you can be married (sealed) together forever.

After the wedding it was great to catch up with family and chat. We waited outside (close to the Temple doors since it was cold outside) and finally the new couple came out and they looked so happy. They had a photographer to take some pictures. I felt bad for them since it was a little drizzly and cold but I remember the feeling of just being married. Kristy and I were married in the cold, cold winter and it was foggy. But it didn't matter to us since we were still on Cloud Nine.

I got all of my cousins in one shot. But minus the new guy.

Kelli had these bright green (it matched his tie) flipflops that you couldn't see because of the dress.

The Anhder Family. Brian and his wife Kari, Barbara, Mark, Kelli and Hunter, Kyle and Brian who was paying attention to someone else.

After taking pictures we were invited to attend a luncheon at Golden Corral down in Orem. There we ate a ton of food (mmm... liver*) and a ton of dessert and chatted it up with my family. I am so thankful for my aunts and uncles. It was great to sit with them and talk about family, life and pretty much everything in between (sorry Aunt Julie... I am just not a Stones guy). After killing ourselves with food, Kristy and I left to go back to Salt Lake and pick up Logan.

We visited with Renae and Gregg and the kids for a little bit and then we dropped in on Kristy's parents. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because we had to leave already to make it to the reception. We were making good time that is until we tried to find the Bella Vista Reception Center. Funny thing is that both of Kristy's parents were there the night before at a reception. Good thing too since they told us what to look for because MapQuest sent us somewhere else. I am surprised that we actually found the place and if we weren't looking for an office building (like Kristy's mom said) we may not have found it at all. But we did! We went in and were greeted by Julie and Jerry so we sat with them and ate a ton of donuts and food. And get this, they had a lime drink. Right up my alley!

I didn't know a soul there outside of Mark and his family, Julie and Jerry.

But that changed when I met Jerry's older brother and his wife along with some other friends. I am horrible with names, I cannot remember Jerry's brother and wife's name but I remember Dave and Sue. (I think I got that right) It was fun meeting new "family". It was also nice to see my other cousin Wes too. Unfortunately I didn't get much of a chance to chat with him.

Aunt Julie was teaching Logan tricks here.

And there is the happy new couple!

Finally, it was time for us to go. We packed up our stuff and Mark made sure we got some extra donuts and we headed back to Logan. The drive was long but fortunately the weather was great. The roads were barely wet and the canyon was absolutely clear. I am so glad that I took the time to go down to the wedding and reception. I am seriously blessed with a great family. I appreciate Mark and his family for letting my family take part of the festivities and I appreciate Julie and Jerry for letting us hang out with them. Some day we will visit them in Colorado. And a special thanks to Kelli for inviting Kristy and I to the Sealing Ceremony at the Temple. We had a fantastic time and it means a lot.

Saturday Night is Alright for Hugs

I had a pretty good Saturday. It went better than I figured too, I have to admit that I was feeling a little anti-social and was not in the mood to go out in public. All I wanted to do was just hide out at my home.

I woke up early Saturday morning to play some racquetball, which is quickly becoming my new obsession. I don't think I sleep well the night before I defend my title. I wake up a ton of times during the night and sometimes I dream about it. Saturdays are fun to play since we usually have another fellow that plays with us so we then can play some vicious games of Cutthroat. I must really like to play since it overrode my feelings of being anti-social. We all played well, we each won a game.

I came home and went to Macey's (the local grocery store) and got some donuts and treats for General Conference. For those that don't know what General Conference is, it is a time when our Prophet and other Church leaders speak to us. These talks (they are like sermons) are filled with wonderful messages that are uplifting. We as a family eagerly listened while devouring our donuts. After the first session I went upstairs and showered and dressed.

The second session was just as good as the first one. But I had to leave about halfway through it since I was meeting some other men from our ward. A group of us decided to go down to Salt Lake City and attend the Priesthood Session. The Priesthood Session of General Conference is for all the men to attend. We met at the church here and a small group of us traveled down to Salt Lake. I was on the fence with this. I did want to go but I was just not in the mood. But I went anyway, it was better to go with a bunch of guys that I knew instead of going to the church by myself later that evening.

And I am so glad I went.

The trip down was fun with just a bunch of guys chatting and we made real good time. We arrived in Salt Lake an hour and a half before the meeting started. We thought we might have time to grab some chow but we ended up barely making it. It took us forever to find a parking spot! We drove around the Conference Center and we just couldn't find anything. We stopped at a stop sign when a young man came to our window and asked us if we were looking for a place to park. We said we were and he handed us a ticket to a private parking center just a half block away from Temple Square.

One of the things that I love to do is people watch and I was lucky enough to have my friend Kyle come along because he is the exact same way. We watched and talked about the tons of people that were at Temple Square. We all got out of the van (there was five of us, me, Jay, Kyle, Brian and Walt) and we walked to the Conference Center. Now we didn't have tickets to the Priesthood Session, we were just hoping to get some standby tickets. When we crossed the road over to Temple Square, Jay said we could either cut through Temple Square or walk around the protesters! Both Kyle and I excitedly said we would go through the protesters.

While we were driving around looking for a parking space we noticed a peculiar set of protesters. They held up signs with "Free Hugs" scrawled across them. We couldn't figure out who these people were and what they were up to. But we were about to find out why. As we got closer, Jay asked if we were going to get some hugs. But they weren't just going to give out hugs, they were also giving out high fives as well. We didn't have a problem with that.

I didn't know that this Free Hug thing was a normal event. This picture was taken last year at General Conference.

I just had to see what they were protesting. So I walked over and got a hug from a young lady. Before I hugged her I told her that I would hug her only if she told me why she was giving out free hugs. I was very surprised by her answer. Her and her family wanted to show us (those that are Latter Day Saints) that they supported us and that we shouldn't have to subject ourselves through all the hate and anger that the protesters were showing. They were not members of the Church but they loved living among us. That totally took us back. Most of the people that walked by ignored them and I felt bad that they were there to support us. I am so glad that I took the time to stop and visit with them. I thanked each one of them for their efforts. There was a mom with her four kids doing this.

We walked in and saw a huge line of men waiting for standby tickets. Seriously, this line was long! We found Alan (another member of our ward that we were supposed to meet up with) and we walked past the old Tabernacle when a lady pulled us aside to tell us a secret. She was one of the volunteer workers there and she told us that there was no way that this line would be able to get in. Which means we weren't going to be able to get in either since we were not even in line. She said we could watch the broadcast there at the old tabernacle or we could go to the Joseph Smith Theatre and watch it in comfortable seats and on a huge HD screen. We took her advice and went to the theatre and we were barely able to get seats.

The Priesthood Session began and it was amazing. It was fun to watch Conference on such a huge screen (it being bigger than my house!) and it was great to be with a packed house full of the Priesthood. The messages were fantastic and I was so glad that I went.

Afterwards we got back into our van and headed home. We stopped at Bountiful and grabbed some food at Carl's Jr. and then drove through the rain and snow back to Logan. I got back at about 10:30 or so. The car ride home was a lot of fun. I know Jay and Kyle since I serve with them in the Elders Quorum Presidency but I didn't know Alan, Walt and Brian all that well. It was great chatting with them and getting to know them better. This was a great activity and it definitely bonded us since we have a ton of inside jokes that no one but us will get.