Organized Living

We love our cozy little apartment in the Enclave Village. It is a singles place with 4 married apartments. It has a pool and a hot tub and underground parking. We really like the space we have-- we've decorated it and organized it to the max to fit all our stuff in! Hayley went to town on organizing the fridge and cupboards yesterday, and they look so good! So, here are some pictures of our place:

Thanksgiving Part 2 and a New Piano!

We flew in to SLC on Friday evening and were picked up by Malcolm and Melanie who were in town for thanksgiving. We went straight to Happy Sumo for some yummy food. We ate a TON of sushi! I am a proud VIP member at the Happy Sumo, so we get good deals, which makes it easy for us to eat more than we should. We made a quick stop after sushi so I could do my business while the Greaves went and saw the Temple Square Lights.

On Saturday, we all hung out and had a nice Skyline lunch. Yum! We hosted Malcolm, Melanie, Chelsea, Clayton, Kalle and Roxi. Yes, I did feed some Skyline to her. She liked it! (Of course!) It was one of the better batches of Skyline I've made.

We are also excited to announce that we have a piano in our apartment! Malcolm and Melanie drove up Hayley's Clavinova from Hemet this past week when they were here for Thanksgiving. We have LOVED it so far-- its good to have around, especially when we have a few minutes and want something other than school and cleaning to do for a bit. We'll try not to drive the neighbors crazy!

Trip to Portland for Turkey Day

Hayley and I got to go to Portland for Thanksgiving! We lucked out because Dani's mother in law had a companion pass on Delta that she was trying to give away. We both got up there on a direct flight from SLC, so that was great. We don't have Friday classes, and only were going to miss 1 class on Monday of Thanksgiving week, so we got up there early. On Friday, Hay and I had some exams to take. We finished those, and then I had a soccer game at 6:15. We won (I had one heck of a game!), and then we hit the road to the airport. We flew out at 9:20 and made it to Portland.

On Saturday, we hung out with the twin twins for most of the day. In the afternoon, we went with JJ, Jacob, and Claire to the Columbia River Gorge. It was beautiful! It was a bit rainy, but we had our raincoats and were ready to go. Jacob and Claire had their cameras and were sure to document each angle of the places we went. Unfortunately, I could not get their pictures to post here. I'll let you imagine. We visited several waterfalls, including Multnomah falls, Bridal Veil falls, and Latourell falls. Here are some pics:

Multnomah:

 From the bridge:

Latourell Falls:

 We found a nice log, so we kinda owned it:

Bridal Veil Falls:

For more on our trip to the Gorge, see JJ and Dani's blog HERE

Saturday night, JJ, Dani, Hay, and I went out for some dessert. We went to Salt and Straw-- Hipster Ice Cream in Portland. It was interesting-- they had some very unique flavors including Stuffing, Salty Caramel (super salty), Minced Meat, Pear and Caramelized Ginger Sorbet, Strawberry balsamic with Cracked Black Pepper. Some of them were delicious, some were so-so. Hay and I got Cinnamon Snickerdoodle and the Pear Sorbet. The waffle cones were a MUST- they were so good!

Sunday was a normal day, if you consider being on a church pew with twin twins normal. Church was fun, and they were sure to promote the Turkey Bowl. I had an interesting lesson in Priesthood on what I call 'Husbanding.' I like husbanding for now-- we'll wait a bit to learn 'Fathering.'

On Monday, we went to a sushi track with JJ for lunch. We then went back to his office for another installment of the Jensen Brothers' Pingpong Duel. I'm sad to report that JJ won 2-1. 

On Tuesday, Nana and Papa came! We liked having them with us. I was a touch 'gamed-out' by the older twins, so it was good that they had some new competition with Nana and Papa there. We went out to a DELICIOUS Peruvian restaurant. We had empanadas, scallops, seared tuna, salad, and other good dishes. YUM! Afterwards, we went to Papa Hyden's dessert restaurant. They have a 2 page menu! I got a hazelnut meringue cake and Hay got a 'baked alaska'-- ice creams, meringue, fudge, and cake. Here are some pics:

On Wednesday, we went out the the OMSI museum with the whole fam. It was really cool! We played around and found some cool things to keep us busy. One of the exhibits they had was the Grossology section. It taught us why we burp, fart, and sneeze, amongst other things. Turns out I am healthy for doing all of the above! It was good for me to validate my insecurities about those things. We had a good time, and the twin twins had a blast. See JJ and Dani's blog for more on their adventure there.

 On Thanksgiving day, JJ and I woke up early for a good Turkey Bowl game on a non-rainy day (the first since we'd been there!). JJ and I represented well-- we were on the same team. He had 2 interceptions and some nice defensive plays. I had a kickoff returned for a touchdown and 5 receiving touchdowns. Some of them were pretty legit catches in the endzone. It was a highlight reel day for both of us out there!

The food was absolutely delicious. I won't mention the turkey since we decided that was the least important part of the meal. We had yummy rolls, super sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, pomegranate grape red salad, stuffing, and I'm sure I'm missing some things. It was delicious!! And the baby twins were asleep the whole time! They missed out!

Post-Thanksgiving, we all hung around and planned out Black Friday pick ups. The girls headed out to the outlets and had some good success. JJ and I went to Target for our first black friday experience. We waited in a relatively long line outside the store and then made it in, where I had to wait another hour or so to make my purchase-- an iPad for Hayley for Christmas (shh! Don't tell her!) ((She knows I got it-- we decided to buy it together)). It was fun being there for black friday.

On Friday, we made a trip to Costco and Target to finish up our black friday shopping, and then, after Claire lost her second tooth of the week, Hayley and I headed to the airport to end our trip. It was a blast and we had so much fun!

We loved hanging out with these babies and laughing at all the crazy things they do. Here are some of our favorite pics:

They were good little travelers:

 They loved getting into their old rockers. Liam was a good little texter from his posted-up position.

Hay liked dressing Kate up in this hat. Got to get ready for Hilton Head!

Intramural Update (again)

Quick update:

Flag football, Ultimate, and Kickball are all done. Sad day.

Soccer, however, is a different story. We went into the tournament ranked #1 overall! Wow! We won our first game but lost our second. It was so close-- I could have played a bit better. The other team was full of floppers as both Hayley and I told the refs several times. Oh well. We dropped down to the loser's bracket and have won two games in a row. The most recent game was my personal best game in a long long time. I had several sick diving saves and 1v1 saves. It felt good to have a good game. On the field next to us, a kid broke his leg and the bone pierced the skin and was sticking out. Ouch. Hayley came to the game a bit late and saw the ambulances and such and her first thought was 'Taylor No! We have a flight to Portland tonight!' Fortunately, it wasn't me. I'll keep you all posted on my intramurals!

Happy Sumo

One of our favorite places is Happy Sumo. They have SUCH good sushi, and we get super good deals because we signed up for their 'VIP' club. Basically, we get half off of most of the rolls, which means we get to go to town whenever we get there. Chelsea and Kalle gave us a $50 gift card, so we invited Chelsea and Clayton to go with us. We ended up getting $96 of sushi for $52. It was awesome! We got lots of yummy rolls, including: Venus, Vegas, Jezabelle, Bacon, Nigiri, Edamame, and some other good stuff.

BYU Basketball Home Opener

Another season has started here at BYU! Hay and I love BYU basketball-- we go to most of the home games and watch a majority of the away games as well. We have a strong liking for basketball because that is where we met- camping out for basketball games 2 years ago during the big Jimmer year.

We got there 2 hours early because there was a 'big announcement' for the student section. Turns out they have named it the ROC-- roar of cougar. I kinda like it. It needs to develop into the name-- I feel like any name for something like a student section sounds tacky until the students grow into it. We did well last night-- balloons, cardboard cutouts, and free t-shirts were all there.

We're excited for this season-- we are hoping to see a better year than last year, but we'll see. We have a ton of young talent, so it'll be interesting.

Provo Beach Resort

Yesterday, I went with BYUMA to Provo Beach Resort. We had to go to an hour intro to Qualtrics which had catered pizza and a cool intro/building tour. After that, we headed on over to the resort. We started on the high ropes course, and then found our way to the Flow Rider-- indoor surfing! Surprisingly, I'm not too bad for an inland-er. Pics to come...

Election Day

It was a rough election day. We went to our friend James's house where he had soda, donuts, and other treats for us to help us ease the pain. Our excitement faded and faded until it broke. It was a sad night. Good thing we had tasty bevs and tasty treats!

Murder Mystery Party!

This week we went to a murder mystery party at Colton and Camille's. It was so fun! I was Mr. Rojas and Hay was Mrs. Buttercup. We had to go in costume and act our part. I was a shy horse jockey and Hay was my mother who was overly protective of me. Colt and Camille had fun mocktails and had fancy foods for us. We had a blast-- and the kicker is that no one was the murderer! The guy committed suicide! We're all off the hook!

Happy Birthday, Hayley!

For Hayley's birthday, we escaped up to Park City for a night. We left after I got out of work and drove on up. We made our first stop at Main Street. We walked up and down looking for something to eat. We found the place pretty empty because it is offseason, and it was a Tuesday night. Lots of restaurants were doing half-off specials, including some yummy-looking sushi places. As we continued, we found a place that advertised $9.99 all you can eat Pad Thai. We had been talking about wanting that, so it was perfect. What was even more perfect is that it was in a bar attached to a Thai restaurant. A perfect setting to celebrate Hayley's 21st birthday! The Pad Thai honestly was the best I'd ever had, and I managed to get a plate and a half down before throwing in the towel. Hayley got through about 3/4ths of hers. We were so full. We had thought about getting Pad Thai, then taking advantage of the half-off sushi deal after, but we were way too full!

After dinner, we went to the Tanger Outlets. We found some good stuff. Hayley was on a shopping spree-- she had gotten money from Nan and from me to spend on some new clothes. I've been feeling self-conscious that I have more clothes in our closet than she does. We found some good stuff, then headed off to our hotel at the Canyons. It was really nice and had an enormous pillow-top king bed. We  had a little balcony that looked at the mountain and it was just perfect.

The next morning, after watching the news on a real TV (we never do that!), we headed back to the outlets. We both found some good stuff and returned home happy. It was the perfect mid-week getaway!