Thank You, Veterans

Thanks to the men and women of our U.S. military, past and present, for their sacrifices on our behalf.

May the families of those who have perished by blessed, and may our active duty all return home safely.

May we all strive for peace at home and abroad so fewer and maybe eventually none have to put their lives on the line.

Happy Veterans Day, all.

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A "Once Upon a Dream" Halloween

There's a lot of build-up to Halloween night.

You know, haunted houses and pumpkin carving and such.

But the real Halloween holiday season payoff is the big night and getting to wear costumes.

Heidi and I wanted to do a couples costume.
We struggled to decide on what we'd be, until we landed on the idea of Prince Phillip and Briar Rose.

This is what we were shooting for:

With the help of some pieces from HCT rentals, and my amazing mother making my tunic and hat, I'd say Heidi and I rocked our costumes. And I gotta admit it feels cool carrying a sword around all night.

Conclusive proof that Heidi is a princess in disguise

My sister Megan joined us, appropriately/coincidentally dressed as a blue fairy, and we had a fun night visiting several friend parties.

Yes, that's a ghost horse photobomb

Heidi and her SLAC friends in great costumes

Hmm, what to be next year... It'll be hard to top this one.

What were you? Did you do a couples or group costume?

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Happy Halloween from George and Lenny Pumpkin

Happy Halloween, friends!

Today is the big day for all the ghouls and goblins and witches and warlocks out there.

It's also showtime for all the jack o'lanterns so painstakingly carved in the last couple weeks.

Heidi and I carved some pumpkins a few weeks ago, and we were happy with how they turned out.

Gotta start with good-shaped pumpkins.

As a (mostly) black cat, Amelie wanted in on the Halloween festivities.

Since mine turned out kinda goofy, and Heidi's was more serious/legit, we named them George and Lenny after the characters from Of Mice and Men. 

But instead of tending the rabbits, they want to suck their blood. Makes sense, right?

The finished product, our George and Lenny look-alikes.

The masterminds with our carved creations.

I've never looked better, I know.

Carving pumpkins was lots of fun, and then Heidi put the cherry on top of our Halloween-festivities sundae by cooking up the seeds and bringing them to work for my coworkers and me. Delicious!

I think this had brown sugar, chipotle chili powder, and cumin.

Note: sadly, our jack o'lanterns didn't last until Halloween. Although decomposing gore certainly fits the Halloween theme, I imagine the smell wasn't quite worth it. Next time we'll carve them closer to the big day!

If you're gonna carve jack o'lanterns still, please be careful and don't pull a Dr. Steve Brule:

HT: Heidi's tumblr

Have a safe and happy Halloween, everybody!
Can't wait to see the costume pics on your Facebook and Instagram pages today and tomorrow!

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Haunted Houses: For the Fun of Getting the Crap Scared Out of You

I don't like being scared. I don't like horror movies. I just don't like that stuff.

But at Halloween, I can like the right kind of scary, and haunted houses have a certain appeal.

Granted, I'm still freaked out the whole time, but at least I'm holding a really cute girl close to me the whole time while being terrorized. And it's only one month of the year, so I can man up.

Heidi and I went to the Nightmare on 13th haunted house earlier this month, and it was great.

Intense, clever, surprising, and just the right amount of scary.

There were three sections to the building, each with different scare tactics, designs, and creatures.

1) Dark Harvest: an evil farm where the plants have grown into monsters and kill all they can find. Better than I'd expected, with great sets and unexpected use of textures of things hanging and even the floors. 

2) 13 Levels of Fear: a walkthrough of 13 popular fears, from heights to clowns to hell to the number 13. Another that I underestimated. The heights room was especially cool; we want to know how they did it!

3) Mutant: a parasitic goop is loose, and it's mutating the people in a facility. The military is trying to contain it, but you've got to get through without getting infected or killed. Pretty good, but I liked the other two sections more.

I don't know if Heidi was protecting me more, or if I was protecting her. Probably a lot of both.

But it was a fun night at the haunted house, and I didn't have a heart attack, so I'm happy.

I'm obviously very good at protecting my date.

All smiles having survived the scares for this year.

If you're considering going to a haunted house in the last couple days of October, or even this weekend, Nightmare on 13th is a good one. And here's a coupon to save a few bucks.

What do you think of haunted houses? Are you a fan of them?

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S.O.F.T. Unites Fireworks, Family, and Friends

A couple weekends ago, my cousin Bryce hosted an amazing night to end the Utah fireworks season.

And because any great party needs a great name, and this was the third year, his was called:

Sidewalk of Fire Three

or S.O.F.T. for short.

The family that lights things on fire together, stays together

We are patriots, so the main event had to start with an epic national anthem performance.

You're seeing it right. Those are gloves with sparklers attached to the fingers.

And then we set off a whole lotta fireworks.

Some went high in the air.
Some stayed low to the ground.
And some fell over and shot all over the neighborhood, into yards and bouncing off cars.
(The rest of these pictures are courtesy of Xan's Eye Photography. She's great, check her out)

But the spectators enjoyed the excitement of watching these bombs bursting in air and all around them.
Fearing for your life just adds to the experience, right?

After the big show, everyone was able to get involved by playing with sparklers.

Many thanks to Bryce and his housemates for a fun night and the opportunity to semi-safely act out our primal urge to blow stuff up in honor of our great country!

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This Year's 4th of July Fun

As always, it was another action-packed celebration of our country's independence.

I'm not going to bore you with all the details; I'll just give short snippets and let pics do most of my talking.

Nana Bett's 4th of July Birthday
The Cravens came over to my parents' house, and we had a BBQ and birthday celebration for my grandma. Love getting together with the cousins, and it's so much fun with even more little kids around.

Ready to blow out her birthday candles

The whole gang

This is more representative of how we usually act

Stadium of Fire
In the evening, I went down to Provo with friends for the concert and fireworks. Carly Rae Jepsen was underwhelming and Kelly Clarkson was passable. Cirque du Soleil and the fireworks were the real winners of the show. Oh, and shakes at the Malt Shoppe after was a great call, too.

Skydivers brought Old Glory into the stadium

Clever and innovative tube dancing

Our enthusiastic group, ready for the action to begin

The bombs bursting in air

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God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops and Their Families

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

This day always makes me so grateful for all the blessings in my life that I didn't have to sacrifice for.
The freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America still don't come free.

Men and women serving in the military give so much, and they deserve our recognition and appreciation. And the families of those military personnel are sacrificing greatly, too.

Some don't come home, as they are called on to give the greatest sacrifice: their lives.
Tears are shed on their behalf. They will never be forgotten by those who knew them.

Thankfully, many families and friends are able to shed tears of joy for those who do return home.

That's why I loved this segment that has recently aired on ESPN a couple times:

It makes me teary-eyed every time I watch soldiers reunited with their families.

God bless this great land and those who serve to protect its freedoms.
I hope you're all able to return home safely to your families very soon!

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Happy Papas Day!

And I'm not talking about Spanish potatoes.

Today has been fun to see all the pictures friends are posting of their dads on Instagram and Facebook.

Looks like we appreciate all that our dads have done for us, and that makes me happy.

My dad has been teaching my brothers and sister and I all kinds of lessons ever since we were born, and without him we certainly wouldn't be who we are today.

Supporting me since day one

Master of the grill

Thanks so much for everything, dad. Love you so much!

And Happy Father's Day to all the papas out there!

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Happy Mother's Day, Mamas!

There are a lot of amazing mothers in my life.

Some are current and some are future moms, but they're all women I'm proud to know and they're such great examples to me of how to love and care for those around them.

And because they've all showed me how to be joyful and have a sense of humor, here's a treat honoring mothers by Kid President:

Again, to all the current (and future) moms, I hope you have a very happy Mother's Day!

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