Hello all! I trust everyone had a fantastic Halloween. We did, anyway, On Thursday we went to our ward’s Halloween party dressed as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, as seen here:

Unfortunately, Dallin didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend on his costume…so he ended up looking more like a priest than a Cuban band leader from a 50s show. But what can you do? Hopefully my brilliant ensemble saved it.

Anyway, it was a great party! It was fun to see everyone dressed up, there was good food including…

a cotton candy machine! Woot! Of course Dallin had to try his hand at spinning his own cotton candy. The results were…less than perfect.

Yeah, he should practice more. But hey, it was still very sugary and turned our mouths purple, so the true purpose of the cotton candy was fulfilled. We also did pumpkin bowling…Dallin bowled a strike right away but I wasn’t so lucky.

I just couldn’t knock those bottles over! Oh well…I can still beat Dallin at real bowling.

After the party, we went over to my parents’ house to carve pumpkins! Our pumpkins were slightly lopsided since we waited till the last minute to buy them and so got the runts of the litter, but they still worked… we just had to stand them upside down, since they wouldn’t stand right side up. Hey, don’t dis our pumpkins!

Wouldn’t want anything to happen to our pumpkin in transit, especially since Dallin apparently gave birth to it…

The pumpkin carving stations. This is serious business.

The rest is all a little fuzzy, since I went to work carving my own pumpkin. I had to take a break to get some homework done, and by the time I finished Dallin had already finished and was fast asleep, so I didn’t get to take any pictures of him with his pumpkin, but here it is!

Groovy, no? And now for mine. Prepare to be amazed!

Mm hmm. No holding of applause is necessary; just let it all out. Oh yeah, my mom’s pumpkin was really good too:

Hers was actually Halloweeny, which gets her extra points, I guess. Did I mention the excellence of my pumpkin?

I’m so proud.

Anyway, that about does it for the pictures, which means I don’t have any actual pictures of Halloween night, which is sad because it was awesome! I had to work all day (grumble grumble) and then I met Dallin at my parents’ house. My mom’s side of the fam gets together every Halloween, so we got to see everyone. Cute costumes, great food (including homemade caramel apples- yum!), and good times. Jacob and Serenity came over, and it’s always great to hang out with them. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night, and consequently did not make it through “Night of the Living Dead,” but Dallin still pretended to be a zombie when we got home, probably just to make me feel included. So sweet.

So, that’s about it for our first Halloween as married people! It was a whole lot of fun. I’m still a little sickish, mostly exhibited by extreme tiredness. Hopefully it will go away soon…it’s really annoying to just want to sleep all the time.

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

Drum roll, if you please…

Yes, this is my second post two days in a row! I’m so proud. Unfortunately, the reason I even have time to do this is because I’m home sick today. No work, no school - just lazing around in my pjs trying to feel awake enough to do anything! I’ve got an annoying throaty stomachy heady thing, but mostly I’m just insanely tired! It’s the weirdest thing. Hopefully it’ll be gone in a few days (it’s already been here a few days), and hopefully I don’t pass it on to Dallin. The last thing he needs is to get sick!

Anyway, the real meaning of this post is to tell you all about this past weekend, when we hit up the AZ State Fair! We went on Saturday night, and even though my illness had really started to hit hard that morning, we were still able to have a great time. We had to go that weekend because it was the weekend of the Demolition Derby, which is Dallin’s favorite. Something about cars smashing into each other and breaking down and catching on fire must be enjoyable to boys. Hm. Ah what the heck I thought it was fun too!

Ready for the main event! (It was impossible to get a good picture, what with the lighting and all).

Our view from the grandstands.

These cars were literally stuck together. They would catch fire whenever they tried to pull them apart. A real crowd pleaser.

Dallin got some sweet video of the whole thing. Let me see if I can get this to work…mov02872

Well after that we made our way around the rest of the fair. We met up with Tiffiny and Caleb, which was swell. Super swell, in fact, because Tiffiny and I rode an elephant! Check one more off the “things to do before I die” list!

Seriously good times, right there.

TJ and Lisa won the junk food prize, with their enormous cheese fries. Congrats, guys!

Dallin also won a prize (and so did I, by extension) by winning a ripoff carnival game! We are now the proud owners of a huge, as-yet nameless frog that is taking up a ton of space in our family room! YES!

Oh yeah, people were jealous.

We finished off the trip in the best way possible, by playing Rock Bank on a stage in front of millions hundreds dozens about a dozen people. They loved our rendition of Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” (is that really the name of that song? Who cares? ROCK ON)

We had a great time! Best of all, we missed the fiasco that was the ASU Oregon game! I mean, GO DEVILS and all that, but I’m glad we missed that embarrassment.

Love the fair.

For those of you that have never spent more than five minutes with me or aren’t very perceptive, let me share something about myself with you: Disneyland is my second home. I mean, seriously. Love that place. We went to the Happiest Place last weekend with another couple in our ward, who appropriately described Disneyland as “Katie’s cocaine.” Sure, I’ll go with that. Let’s modify it a bit, Seriously So Blessed style: “Disneyland: like cocaine, but cheaper, legal, and not against the Plan.” Ok, so I don’t know about the cheaper part, but the rest really works, don’t you think?

Anyway, D-Land was all decked out for Halloween. Seriously, October is like one of the best times to go, in my professional opinion. It’s never incredibly crowded, the weather rocks, and the Halloween decorations are fun. All around Disney goodness. Anyway, here are some pictures from our fantastic trip! (btw, these pictures are made possible because of the miracle finding of my camera charger. Thank you, Sarah!)

After Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which really is very scary, you know.

All ready for the new Toy Story ride, which completely ROCKS. love it.

Let us all notice whose hands are the only ones in the air in this picture. Such a good ride!

here’s your sign.

Indiana Jones! I finally saw the hidden Mickey ears! BAH!

At the entrance- a great example of the Halloween decor!

Well before I get too carried away and post all our pictures…I’m gonna say that’s a good stopping point. You should at least get the idea that it was a fantastic trip! The rest of the pics are on Facebook if you really want to see. Until next time, Disneyland.

Well I thought that the idea to list out these “ideas for a fun date” was such a good one that I’d make an entire site dedicated to it.

Being a web designer, it really isn’t hard for me to throw a web site together, and ideasforafundate.com was availalbe so I snatched it up. After a quick wordpress install, the date ideas are now posted there for all to see.

I don’t plan really on maintaining the site. It’s kinda an experiment to see if people will use it. Google shows that 250 people every day search for “ideas for a fun date” so we’ll see if I can help any of those people. If it goes anywhere, I’ll let you know.

But for now, check it out if you’re looking for a fun date idea. You can sort them by using the tag cloud to dates that are cheap, short, day time, night time, romantic, better suited for groups and any other classification you can think of. Bookmark it, too (or add it to your RSS reader) because as Katie and I think of new things, I’m sure they’ll get posted there.

Dallin

Many of those who know me know that I very much enjoy creative date ideas. Back when I was single, I used many of the following techniques to woo potential girlfriends. Now that I’m married, I still enjoy just about every one of these activities as an opportunity to strengthen my relationship with my wife.

I guess this marks a new chapter in our blog. I’ll go ahead and list the ideas that I’ve accumulated over the years here, but stay tuned because as Katie and I actually do the date ideas, we’ll take pictures and document the whole thing for you to see just how it turned out.

Simple

  Play Frisbee
  Go Ice Blocking
  Fly a kite
  Go bowling
  Play air hockey or other arcade games
  Play ping pong, pool or other games at a local community center or institute
  Play guitar hero or other video games
  Play croquet
  Play frisbee golf
  Play laser tag (Me and Katie's first date!)
  Go to a concert
  Play with legos, erector sets or k'nex
  Play board games
  Go for a bike ride
  Go roller blading/skating
  Go to a skate park or roller rink
  Go ice skating
  Go to a sports event
  Go to a roller derby
  Watch a little-known sport event (lacrosse, cricket, hockey in some places..)
  Visit a nearby landmark (Grand Canyon)
  Watch or play with fireworks
  Play a computer game
  Play a card game
  Watch the DVDs of your favorite show (like 24!)
  Make home made ice cream
  Go to the local science center
  Visit a planetarium
  Watch a movie outside with a projector and a sheet
  Carve a pumpkin
  Go to a comedy club
  Watch some belly dancers
  Go to an opera or symphony
  Watch a spring training baseball game
  Go to a racetrack (horse race, drag race, etc.)
  Go to a car show
  Go to an air show

Romantic

  Go to the drive in
  Go to the airport and watch the planes
  Watch the stars with a telescope
  Go on a picnic or picnic in the woods
  Visit the Christmas lights at a zoo
  Rent a paddle boat on a small pond
  Take a horseback ride

Adventurous

  Go camping, if not overnight then at least to a bonfire
  Visit a nearby, quaint little town like Sedona, AZ
  Raft or tube down a river
  Go boating
  Go cliff jumping
  Sneak in to a ritzy hotel to go swimming in their pool
  Go Paintballing
  Build a fort or tree house (best over multiple dates)
  Play on a rope swing (preferably in to water)
  Build and shoot a potato gun (more fun for the guy than the girl)
  Go hiking
  Go across the border in to another state/country (Mexico!)
  Go to the sand dunes
  Ride in a hot air balloon
  Play with a remote control airplane (or go watch others who do)
  Build and fly a model rocket
  Go toiletpapering 

Religious

  Do a service project (like the canary)
  Walk around a beautiful building (like the LDS temple)
  Help the local missionaries
  Go to the local rest home and visit

We would love to feature your story if you try any of these! Enjoy!

Dallin

hello hello!

so we had some friends over for dinner and fhe last night, and they asked us what we had done for some of our date nights. the more i got to thinking about it, the more i thought that this would be a great thing to blog about! it’s not always easy to find something to do when you’re a newlywed. i mean, it’s a friday night (or…tuesday, as the case may be) in chandler, az, and you’re a newlywed who doesn’t want to spend a ton of money. i think the majority of our nights, we end up just “hanging out,” playing a game or watching a movie or working on separate stuff. that’s all fine and well, but it’s great to go out (or stay in) and do things, with time that is specially set apart for your spouse. dallin and i love hearing new ideas of things to do, so i think i’m going to start adding posts about date activities dallin and i do and enjoy.

the first is what we did tonight, and it rocked-pun intended. we’ve currently got my parents playstation 2 on loan, so we played guitar hero!

oh, he’s a rocker, make no mistake

we had a ton of fun, playing our favorite songs, trying out levels that were way to hard for our skill level (as impressive as that may be), and getting just a teensy bit competetive

dallin blamed his losing on his arm being sore…riiiiight.

i, however, just shrugged it off (i mean, it didn’t happen very often…)

so basically, we had a grand old time! it was a great way to hang out and have fun together, without going out and spending money. if you don’t have the system and/or the game…i bet you know someone who does! borrow it and ask them to come play with you! then you’ve got a real party on your hands!

if guitar hero isn’t your thing (like, really isn’t your thing), any video game or computer game will do. just play!

-rock on-

-katie