A January Meeting in August

You know how there are people that run in similar friend circles as you, and you've heard all sorts of stories about how awesome they are, but you've never actually met them, and so you start to wonder if they're made up and photoshopped into pics on Facebook?

Or maybe that just happens to me.

Anyway, this was the case for me with a girl named January.

And I finally got to meet her now that both of us have moved back to the Salt Lake area, and she hosted a BBQ and movie night a few weekends back.

Popcorn of various flavors is a must for movie night

The food was delicious, the movie was entertaining, and the company was superb.

Thanks for hosting, January, and I'm glad to know that you're not a figment of my friends' imaginations!

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Never Too Old for Prom

My last prom was 14-ish years ago.

I had a great time that evening, I really did.
But I'd figured that would be my last prom (unless I chaperone future kids' proms).

Not so, Aaron. Not so.

My friend Melinda invited me to be her date for a prom-themed birthday in the Bay Area, and there is no way I could pass up such a fun opportunity.

So I took TRAX out to the SLC airport, and flew to Oakland.
Sidenote: It's super awesome that mass transit has reached the airport, but UTA needs to extend the weekend hours.

We had a tasty tapas-style lunch on the patio at a beautiful winery, and then practiced a prom pose for later that evening. What do you think? Don't worry, we had a couple other poses in mind for picture time.

After eating, it was time to start prepping for the big night.
So Melinda got her hair did.

She maybe didn't love how tight it was, so her roommate Sarah saved the day by taking out the 'do and replacing it with a loose, fun sort of ponytail.

Next was makeup, and I sat in a park and listened to some local bands while Melinda got this done:
Hubba hubba, am I right?! Yes, I was lucky to be on her arm all night.

We headed into the city, and the party was just getting going when we arrived.
In fact, we arrived just in time for Melinda to help the birthday girl with her grand entrance.

The ladies "brunch bunch", minus one member who was out of town

We did a whole lotta socializing and a whole lotta dancing, and apparently we also picked a great color to match each other as well as other couples at the party.

Our twin couple (he is also named Aaron, and they're rocking the teal too)

And no prom night would be quite fulfilled if we didn't do some prom posing.
Here are a couple classic poses. Which do you like more?
The trip was a short one, but we had so much fun celebrating and rockin' our fancy outfits.

I had to take a pic on the flight back to SLC

Who knows when I'll have another chance to wear a tuxedo and dance the night away, but I hope it's as entertaining as this prom-themed birthday. Thanks again for such a fun time, Melinda!

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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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The Watermelon Football Slashing of 2013

Last night I went to a pool party that my friend Afton hosted at her apartment complex.

Lots of cool people came, and we started playing watermelon football in the pool.
If you haven't played it ever, you need to try it next time you have the opportunity.

So fun.

If you've never played, here's an example I found on YouTube:

At one point, I was on the receiving end of a pass and was being covered by a girl named Ingrid.
She was out of position, and she went for grabbing my shoulders instead of playing the ball (an understandable move, and I'd have done the same thing).

Let's just say that she didn't get a firm grip on my shoulders, and her hands subsequently slipped down my back, with her fingernails leaving me some souvenirs to remember the game later.

She felt bad about her handiwork, but was a good sport for the pic

Yeah, I'm gonna be feeling those trophies for a few days until they heal up.

PS If you want to eat watermelon after the game, buy a second watermelon. The first will definitely explode in the heat of battle.

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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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Guys Improvise: Salad Bowl

This is a new series, and though the name is 'Guys Improvise', it isn't just for guys.

Think of it like how the Bible sometimes uses 'man' to refer to the whole human race.

Anyway, it's almost more for single people, or just people who aren't really prepared for every event that happens to come up in life. These will likely be pretty random, so bear with me.

For example, I was invited to a BBQ on Saturday night, and I was asked to bring Caesar salad.

I was ready to make my salad, and then realized I don't own a salad bowl or salad spoons/tongs.

So I pulled out the biggest pot I have, and I stirred it up with my spaghetti spoon-thing (which also worked perfectly as the serving spoon).

Voilà, a salad bowl!

Worked like a charm.

Ladies and gents, if you've got some clever improvised solution to a problem, I'd love to hear about it.

Send your improvising solutions to guysimprovise@gmail.com, including a description, pics, and your Twitter handle if you have one, and I'll give you a shout-out on both my new GuysImprovise Twitter handle and GuysImprovise tumblr page.

Yes, I apparently have too much time on my hands right now.

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Das Ist Mein Oktoberfest

It's harvest season.

No, I don't have any crops to harvest, but I do like that this time of year brings Oktoberfest fun.

Snowbird puts on great festivities, including bands, dancing, side acts, and all sorts of activities for kids.

I saw Megan up there, too. She works for Snowbird, which means she and her co-workers deserve the credit for putting together the entire well-organized festival. Don't you love knowing important people?

Great job, Megan!

Plus, I was happy to get up into the mountains, where the air is clean and crisp.

The final two days of Snowbird's Oktoberfest 2012 are Oct 6-7 (this weekend), so get up there!

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