What We Did This Weekend: The Bryce Experience

With Brookie's little brother spending the past week with us, we had a pretty full week, not to mention a fun weekend.

We wanted to treat him to the full Kansas City experience, so with brought home some Jack Stack Barbecue last Monday for dinner. He loved it, of course.

Wednesday we took him to the Royals game. Since they blew a four-run lead in the last three innings, he was truly able to experience the true meaning of being a Royals fan. During the game we made it to Kauffman Stadium's "Outfield Experience" where he got his first taste of Sheridan's. He liked it so much that we went for more frozen custard Thursday night too.

Friday night we took him out with us to experience my favorite pizza, Waldo Pizza.

Saturday held a trio of new experiences: the Farmers Market (the one downtown, not the weak one in Lee's Summit), The College Basketball Experience, and a lesson in Southern culture later that night.

Our trip to the Farmers Market was one of our more successful visits. We tasted some cucumber salsa, got the recipe, and bought the necessary ingredients to make more at home. We also purchased a pie from an Amish vendor, and some bread and peaches from some farmers.

After the Farmers Market, we decided to give the College Basketball Experience a try. I think we chose a good time to go. With it not being college basketball season, we hardly ever had to wait in line. We paid the cover charge, and went inside to shoot free-throws, call highlights at the mini ESPN-U anchor desk, shoot three-pointers, and throw down some monster dunks of our own. There were so many fun things to do. On one of the billboards outside it warned that, "this is not a museum - you may sweat." We did.

Saturday night we got to experience some great Southern food when we went to a friend's house for a birthday party. One of my favorite dishes was the grits with shrimp and sausage. So good and so much fun.

And that's what we did this weekend. But now we're in Nauvoo with Brookie's family, so I'm lucky to have found an unsecured wi-fi connection to get this posted. An updated menu and C.O.W. will have to wait until we're back to the non-camping comforts of home.

P.S. - Brookie would like to add here that we hate camping.

Dating 101 Follow-up

Turns out that posting our entire presentation would have been much too difficult. So below are three videos: The first is an excerpt from our presentation. The second and third videos were used throughout the presentation, thanks to the wealth of dating instruction they contain. Enjoy!

What We Did this Weekend: Harry Potter and Dating 101

Apparently, Brookie and I are experts in dating. A few weeks ago we were invited to give a presentation on "creative dating" at our Stake Youth Conference. Saturday was the big day. We were scheduled for three sessions, and were told to expect about 50 kids in each (which turned out to be more like 20-30). But before we get to our swell presentation, I'll tell you about a date of our own that we had on Friday night.

Like many people, we wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie last week. After a little coordination with some friends, we decided to go to the theater on Friday night. Brookie and I toyed with the idea of going to the midnight showing Tuesday night, but ultimately thought it was a little too late on a "school night" to be spending that much time anywhere but asleep in our bed. I guess that's a pretty good indication that we're getting old.*

*Even though we're too old to do that kind of thing anymore, I really think we have to when the last Harry Potter movie is released. When we went with friends on Friday night at a normal hour, we still saw a good movie, and we still had a great time, but we may have missed out on a great show. I'm speaking of all of the people that dress up in their Harry Potter-themed costumes for the first showing, and stand in line with all of their other costumed friends.

So Friday night ended up being a little tighter squeeze for us than we had hoped. We thought we'd have time to go to dinner and then meet up with our friends at the theater, but two factors led us to settle for a drive-thru meal and some impromptu tailgating at the AMC in Independence: traffic and a lack of quick restaurants in that general vicinity.

After quitting time, we ran to the gym, showered, and headed out the door. We figured we would get something to eat close to the theater, and made fairly good time most of the way. But a recent accident backed up traffic in front of the Independence Center shopping mall, limiting our dining choices. We decided on Chili's, but saw a few parties waiting outside and so, knowing we didn't have time to wait for a table, we drove across the street to Chick-fil-a. I've talked before about how much we like their food, but for the third consecutive visit, we've been very impressed with their quality of service.

We took our food from the drive-thru and crossed the street again, where we found a secluded parking spot in front of the movie theater, threw open the back hatch and sat with our legs dangling over the back bumper as we ate our Chick-fil-a for dinner. And this time, a bonus: I found out they offer a diet lemonade that is pretty good.

After dinner, we had an hour before our showtime, so we headed up to the theater. The rest of our group joined us a little later, and we all went in to what we expected to be a big line. Instead, we were able to go right in and sit where ever we wanted to sit. By the time the movie started the theater had filled up, but I was surprised at how few people were there early.

The movie was pretty good. The Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite, but I hear that there was quite a bit left out (or changed) of the book. The good news is that now we can read book six. We read (okay, listened to) books one through five last summer, but didn't want to read ahead of the movies. We know too many people who are disappointed with the movies because they've read the books. We'd rather love the movies and then get the rest of the story from the books.

Now, back to the Dating presentation. We left the movies Friday night and when we got home, we finished putting together our presentation for Saturday morning. We finally finished our preparations and climbed in bed at about 2:30am. It was the third night last week that we stayed up late working on this project.

We were a little nervous, but we think everything went well. I'm working on uploading a copy of the slideshow we used and making it available for all to see, but still trying to determine the best way of doing so. Spliced within the slideshow are about 15 minutes of classic Coronet Instructional Films from the 1950s about What to do on a Date and Dating Dos and Don'ts. Since we were able to find those awesome clips online, we went with the whole retro theme for the slideshow and the clip art and fonts we used.

In our presentation, we tried to help the youth by suggesting some fun, cheap (or free) ideas for great dates. Hopefully something got through. You never really know with teens. They just kind of stare at you the whole time. At least Brookie and I had a good time. We think we're pretty funny. And we loved how the instructional videos came off. However, there was one comment made that stung a little, when a girl premised her idea with the phrase, "People our age..." I was like, "ouch." People your age? You're not "people" yet. You're still just kids, right? Nothing makes me feel old and uncool like spending a few hours with teenagers.

For now, that's what we did this weekend. I'll update if I'm able to get up the slideshow later today or some time this week.

Go to the board!

What We Did on Our Summer Trip

Our Summer Trip by the Numbers
10 days
8 baseball games
4 barbecues
2 slabs of pork spare ribs
50 glow-in-the-dark bracelets
59 pictures of our adorable niece
2 trips to IKEA
2 meals at Cafe Zupas
5 nights at the Sheraton Hotel
1 one baby blessing
19 meetings
4 conference presentations given
3 bags checked to Salt Lake City
4 bags checked to Kansas City



We had a great time on our trip to Salt Lake City. We left on Thursday, July 2, and returned late Saturday night, July 11. There were quite a few things we wanted to do but didn't have time to do them. But we had fun hanging out with family (mostly at barbecues and baseball games). I really did intend on writing a post last week besides the teaser that I put up, but time flew by while we were out of town.

One of the things we had a chance to do on our trip was to drive down to Provo for the annual Freedom Festival and Parade. We got up really early that morning in order to be there in time to see the hot air balloons go up at Provo High School. It's something we always enjoyed doing when we lived in Utah, and we made it a definite priority when we knew we would be in town for the Fourth of July. On our way to see the balloons we found a spot to watch the parade and left our chairs there. By the time we made it back for the parade, our chairs were completely surrounded. It always surprises me just how many people attend that parade. But we love it. It's just good, clean, patriotic fun. And it definitely get you in the mood for fireworks.

The night of the Fourth was spent at my brother and sister's home, where we had our third family barbecue in as many nights (the fourth "barbecue" was the following night at grandma's house with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and a handful of great-grandkids). My brother taught us to play a game called wa-shoes, a lawn game similar to horse shoes where you try to get 3.25" washers in a hole. As much fun as that was, the highlight of the night was even more amazing than the fireworks we watched from their front lawn: My brother's sister-in-law brought her roommate to the party, and before I knew what was going on, Brookie was hugging her like she was her long-lost best friend. It turns out that's exactly who she was. They were so excited to see each other, and now we're Facebook friends (not to mention BFFs with my brother's sister-in-law).

The entire week that followed the holiday weekend was full of meetings for me and shopping and other fun stuff for Brookie. She had a great time doing things she doesn't normally get to do during the day. I had a rough time trying to find the balance between falling off the wagon and being able to taste a little of everything served at the daily buffet lunches they fed us at my conference. My employer, Western Governors University, holds bi-annual conferences where everyone flies in to Salt Lake for a week of meetings and training. Although most of the agenda is aimed at mentors, I was still able to glean some good information from the presentations I heard. I also had a chance to help with the presentation of four workshops on a topic I'm very familiar with because I've been working entirely on that particular project for a solid eight months.

Our evenings last week were full of baseball games. Monday we watched my baby brother play ball for his Legion team. Tuesday we had tickets to a Salt Lake Bees game at "Spring Mobile Ballpark." Wednesday was another Legion game. Thursday was a slow pitch softball game with starring a pair of my brothers. And Friday, at the conclusion of the WGU conference, we drove to Tooele for one last Legion game (then quickly drove back after Tooele stomped them).

By Saturday we were nearly ready to get home. Our photography-inclined brother agreed to take some pictures of us so that we could update our adoption profile pics, since, you know, we've lost a few pounds in the past six months. We managed to stop into 7-11 for a free Slurpee (do they do that every July 11th?), and grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-a. We had to keep our lunch a little light though, because we'd already had a huge breakfast at the Original pancake house with my parents, brothers, their S.O.s (significant others), and my grandma. Brookie and I split a meal, ate twice as much as we normally would for breakfast, and we only ate half of the omelette.

Anyhow, we flew home Saturday night, picked up our car which had been detailed while we were away, and drove home from the airport. And the best part is, there was no flooded basement greet us, and we found everything just as we left it – including the humidity.

And that's what we did on our Summer Trip. Check out my Facebook album for some pictures: Click here.

Hopefully I'll have time to update the board with a new COW and our menu tomorrow.


Go to the board!

Weekend Sneak Peak

We left home Thursday morning for our trip to Salt Lake City. Mixing business and pleasure is about the only way we can afford to travel. Here's a little "travel log" to wet your appetite for the regularly scheduled post. But, we've taken a ton of pictures and video, and we're keeping busy trying to go to everyone's barbecue, so I can't promise it will be out on time. I'm hoping to get one posted later this evening. Depends on when we get back from Grandma's.