June, Juno, Jetplanes, Jalepeno

June was a whirlwind! I thought I'd throw our recent shenanigans into one big post. It's crazy how life flies by!

Most importantly: El's brother got married! It was totally awesome. Jetplanes factor in here because we flew to XXXXX for the wedding! It was a pretty good trip, but we definitely got tired of traveling by the end of it. It's always exciting to be on a plane, though; takeoffs, landings, and turbulence are my favorite. (I'm aware that that's kind of messed up.) The wedding was beautiful, and especially poignant coming on the heels of our first anniversary. I'm so glad we could be there for their special day and explore El's childhood hometown in XXXXX.

El-ahrairah and I went camping with our ward, where I got a total of 23 mosquito bites—most of which were through my pants. Apparently, mosquitos in our new state are especially aggressive. Awesome. On the plus side, I created the best smore of my life. You can't tell, but the chocolate is perfectly melted and the marshmallow is perfectly golden brown. And that's the truth.

For one of our dates, El-ahrairah and I tried a Mexican restaurant everyone's raving about. It seemed authentic and stuff, and the horchata was delicious. (We love us some horchata!) El got something that came with a fried jalepeno. (And thus the name for this post was born!) We also watched the movie Juno through VidAngel. El had never seen it before, and we've been talking about pregnancy a lot (that's not an announcement), so it was interesting to see how pregnancy might affect a teen, what some parts of adoption are like, etc. Good movie.

This month was just filled with a lot of happiness. We're starting to get adjusted to our new place, made some friends, and still had the chance to visit our old home and families. So I'll conclude with this lovely picture I took on our trip; scenes like this make me feel so peaceful. It's a great representation of how peaceful and joyful this month has been. Whether this was just the beginning of good times to come or the calm before the storm, we're looking forward to more adventures!

-Owlet

Our First Anniversary!

Hey people! Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, if you're upset about that, I'll give you double your money back. :) Here's what happened for our first anniversary:

We went to a bed and breakfast a couple hours away from where we live. I kind of wanted to "recreate" our honeymoon in some ways, like going to a relaxing little town on a lake and playing games and eating food. Yep, that's the best.

We went to a fancy restaurant and had our first legit cheeseboard. Sharp cheddar, white cheddar, bleu, brie, and smoked gouda, with apple & pear slices and grapes and crackers and honey. My favorite was the white cheddar, El's was smoked gouda.

 

Also from Pinterest.

To be honest, the B&B got old kind of fast and there wasn't much to do in town. We loved the zoo we found, though. 

Baby llama!

After we got home, we thawed out our frozen cake tier from our wedding! We did our best to keep it frozen as we did our cross-country road trip. The verdict? El-ahrairah said it tasted "surprisingly good." I thought it was a little on the dry side and the frosting was a little weird, but it was good enough for me to eat, like, three slices, so I'd say thumb's up. I heard chocolate freezes better than some other flavors, so I'm glad we went with that.

Tradition!

Anyway, it was a great anniversary, and I'm so glad to be married to this smart, kind, and goofy redhead!

-Owlet

Date: GetOut Games

Last month we finally got to try out Getout Games!  If you haven't heard of live escape rooms, Wikipedia defines it more clearly than I could: "Real-life room escape games are a type of physical adventure game in which people are locked in a room with other participants and have to use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles, find clues, and escape the room within a set time limit." Does that not sound AWESOME?!?! And happily, Getout Games lived up to its reputation.

Seriously, this concept is something that I would have totally daydreamed about but never thought actually existed. I've always loved puzzles and riddles, so when we heard about this we knew it would have to be a bucket-list item we would actually accomplish. And we made it a reality!

My former roommate and her husband, and El's brother and his fiancee, joined us, making a group of six. I can't describe the experience in too much detail—spoilers!!—but here was the backstory provided to us when we started:

Provo's underground mafia boss, Crazy Coz, has recently gone missing. Everyone in Provo knows he must be sitting on a nice sized pile of cash. The question is: where is he hiding it? 

You and your team will be need to search Coz's office. You'll have 60 minutes to locate his hidden safe, crack the code, steal his stash, and make it out in time.  Along the way, you'll encounter numerous locks, puzzles and activities that you'll need to complete before you can piece together the final combination. Be aware that there is another group that will be working just as hard to beat you to the money. You'll be racing the clock as well as this other team to successfully complete the heist.

 So there was another group of six there, too, and they were put in another identical room. For the first twenty minutes we felt like we were flying through the puzzles, and then we got stuck for a while and I felt like I was nervously checking the clock like every two minutes. I really liked that everyone was able to contribute to the puzzles; I didn't feel like anyone dominated or wasn't able to help. Finally, we opened the safe—and could see and hear the other team through the back of the safe, opening their own safe! We rushed to exit the room, asking for our last "hint" (you can request up to four), and burst out of the door, gold in hand, not much more than three minutes before time was up and just about thirty seconds before the other team! That was exhilarating. (...I love winning.)

I was really proud of my team and just had a great time overall. Definitely something that gets your heart rate up. Highly recommended!

-Owlet

Date: Galilee Grill

We actually know the owner of Galilee Grill, Ehab—he's in our stake. We LOVE his food! I don't know where else you can even get authentic Middle Eastern food in Utah. This restaurant and Green Panda Cafe are our favorite lesser-known places to eat.

A few weeks ago, we got a lamb shawarma plate and a chicken shawarma plate (the plates come with a little salad and some hummus and a piece of pita bread). They were both delicious, and we especially liked the yogurt sauce on top. We also got a side of kibbeh, which El describes as being "like hush puppies made with falafel."

It was seriously awesome. The place is packed on Fridays, though. They're pretty new and have become popular in a super short time, so if you go you might want to check it out on a weeknight or for lunch.

-Owlet

Our Turn for the Tempernacle

The Provo City Center Temple open house did not disappoint. We loved the old-style designs on the walls and floors, and we really enjoyed how colorful everything was—in a lot of temples, everything is very white, and that's nice too, but it was cool to see all the stained glass and flowers and fabrics with such vibrant colors in this temple. It reminded me of the Salt Lake temple in that way.

It was also really nice to think back on our own sealing in the Boise temple. I liked what Elder Holland said in the introductory video, something along the lines of "Heaven, just wouldn't be heaven without my wife, and my children." Often in the midst of day-to-day tasks, I forget how crazy awesome it is to be married to El-ahrairah. Our marriage still seems so new. It's like a quote from one of the Percy Jackson books, The Mark of Athena:

As long as he'd known Annabeth, he still felt like he understood so little about her. Even after they'd been dating several months, their relationship had always felt new and delicate, like a glass sculpture. He was terrified of doing something wrong and breaking it.

I'm not worried that we'll "do something wrong and break it," but I'm not fully convinced that my subconscious knows that yes, this is for real! When something that life-changing happens, you have to pinch yourself and wonder if you're not going to wake up in the morning and realize it was a dream. I'm in awe sometimes when I remember that we actually made it this far, we're here, together, actually married!

So basically, temples are great. Sometimes they make me all mushy inside.

Also, using quotes from Elder Holland and Percy Jackson in the same post = win.

-Owlet

Favorite Quotes from Elder Owlet

Have you ever known someone to go on a mission and send back super deep thoughts in their emails that you wouldn't have expected? My little brother has always been a quiet kind of guy, so it's been really interesting to peek into his inner thoughts through his weekly emails during his mission in Bangkok, Thailand. Here are some of my favorite bits:

"Some say the only constant thing in life is change. This is most definitely true. A wonderful truth about this change that we will face in life is that we can always choose what kind of change will happen. We can decide how the changes that happen around and to us will change us."

"If we want to be better teachers, we need to teach, see what was good or bad, learn from it and go at it again."

"... he is always leading us, we just need to look a littler harder and we'll see it."

"We are the cutest, most awesome district ever!"

"There seems to be so much growth in the Lord's church at times that it reminds me of Helaman 3:25. 'So great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure.' I know the Lord can work miracles. No doubt about it."

"Most people only celebrate for New Years and not Christmas, but it was great spreading the Christmas cheer. I feel like everywhere we go, no matter the time or place, we can spread cheer because we have the message of great hope."

"Part of finding joy in the journey is creating your own."

"I have not much to say other than I love being a missionary, I love the Lord, I love Heavenly Father, I love you, and I love the Thai people."

-Owlet

All Your Dates are Belong to Us

(Originally written for Valentine's Day)

On this the third Valentine's Day Owlet and I get to spend together, I thought it would be fitting to recall all the dates we've had. I'll only describe some in detail, but you'll still want to make yourself a nice cup of cocoa and get comfortable—there are a lot. In fact, I did some math this week to find out exactly how many dates we've been on. Now, not all of these are exact numbers, but they're good enough for me. I figure we went on 8 dates before we started being "a couple." Since then until now (111 weeks), we've had at least a date every week—and actually, I bet we had 2 dates in the same week about 20 times. So when you add all that up (8 + 111 + 20), the date we're going on this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day turns out to be Date #139. Which is only to be expected, since 39 is Owlet's favorite number.

So here they are, (some of) our 139 dates, the road map of our relationship, the pit stops of our passion, and the landmarks of our love:

Age 18 (my age, to be exact)

Ballet recital and Wii: Our first date, doubling with friends. Went to my sister’s recital. Then we went to my house to play Wii. I started to let her win until I realized she was destroying me.

Prom: Massive all-day event. With a large group of friends, had an illegal costumed scavenger hunt in the mall, created a fancy dinner in a rich friend’s backyard, and enjoyed dancing and the chocolate fountain at the school dance. Though I tended to not enjoy this last part of most dance dates as much, I had fun doing all of those things with Owlet.

Age 21

Ballet recital: My first date after my mission, and our second time at my sister’s ballet recital. Much to my surprise, Owlet wasn’t taken by this time. I, however, was apparently plenty awkward.

Frisbee golf: After she got back from her study abroad in Ecuador. I’m sure I was not any less awkward.

Freshman party: As a volunteer for Freshman Orientation, Owlet got to go to this and bring one guest. We’d hung out at Institute over the summer, so she picked me.

MOA Cafe: She had just cut her hair short, and I had just decided that I officially really liked her. Unfortunately, I apparently failed to compliment her on her new look. More unfortunately, that was when she decided she didn’t really want to date me.

Age 22

Slab Pizza and Museum of People & Cultures: Dinner was really awkward until I finally asked if she wanted to date me more seriously and she replied that she just wanted to be friends. Surprisingly, I was relieved, since I knew there was nothing more for me to worry about or do, and we continued to the museum activity and had lots of pure, low-pressure, friendly fun. Unbeknownst to me, the maturity of my reaction was worryingly impressive to Owlet, and she started to think twice about her decision.

New Years Dance & Boise Potato Drop: Knowing Owlet had started her mission papers, I tried to be a fully supportive friend. But her extra friendliness, and hearing her tell someone else that she wasn’t sure about going on a mission, gave me renewed hope. Finally, walking back from Idaho’s so-pathetic-it’s-funny version of the New York Ball Drop, she pulled the old “My hands are cold—would you mind holding them?” and I took the bait, more confused but also happier than I’d been in a while.

Devotional: Back at BYU and less than a week later, we attended a BYU devotional together and pulled off a very smooth DTR (“Define the relationship”). It went something like this: “So… do you want to… date me?” “...yeah…” “Do... you want to hold hands?” “Mm-hmm.”

Writing the relationship contract: The next day, we met and wrote up the rules of engagement—or rather, dating. Things like go on a date every week, don’t do dodgy things, and help each other get homework done. I also brought a single baby carrot in a plastic bag. Owlet noticed this and thought to herself, “Well, I’m sure all couples have weird quirks they have to get used to while dating.” Then she realized I wasn’t quite that weird when I took her outside to build a snowman.

The Incredibles: Our first official date as girlfriend and boyfriend. Watched a movie in the anti-snuggle chairs of a library viewing room.

Sidewalk art: We drew everything from Rithmatist battles to inspirational quotes on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, Owlet's roommates saw me tracing an outline of Owlet's body and thought she was dead.

Chinese New Year: With the BYU Chinese club. Owlet wore her stunning Taiwanese dress.

Silent film: We dressed up in black and white and watched the 1925 classic The Freshman, accompanied by a live organist.

Laser tag & pizza buffet: Our first Valentine’s Day. Had a fun, low-stress laser tag battle, ate dinner, and then had the perfect first kiss on the doorstep.

Eat Poop You Cat: This has been my family’s version of Telestrations before Telestrations was cool. My roommate was with us on his first date with his future wife. And my other roommate was with us on a date with himself.

Swing dance: With my roommates, we doubled the attendance of the BYU Swing Club.

First Friday & Doctor Who: The first of many “First Fridays,” or special exhibits at the BYU Museum of Art, complete with refreshments.

Corpus Christi: A BYU Renaissance Festival.

Chinese Acrobats: Seriously impressive.

Manti Temple Pageant: Except for Owlet feeling horribly sick, this was lots of fun.

Capitol Reef: With Owlet's ward, we camped in one of Utah’s beautiful national parks.

4th of July in Rigby: Owlet's roommate’s family was extremely kind in hosting us for a couple days, several delicious meals, and some surprisingly good fireworks for a town of 4,000 people.

Camping in Sun Valley: We went to Sun Valley with my family and had lots of fun playing games, cooking with the Dutch Oven, swimming in lukewarm springs, and watching world-class ice skating performers. Apparently seeing me with my family helped Owlet believe my family and I weren’t total miscreants.

Age 23

BYUopoly: You can borrow it from the info desk in the Wilk. I ended up with nothing but Deseret Towers.

Library date: Read children’s books to each other.

Proposal: Having picked up a few things I thought were hints from Owlet, I decided I’d better propose. So I spent weeks memorizing a song called “Oh Darling” in ASL in preparation. I also knew that Owlet was sad that her brother (a missionary in Thailand) and sister (a missionary in New York) would likely not be able to a potential wedding. So I tried to involve them into our date that night. I took her to a Thai restaurant for dinner and got New York cheesecake for dessert. And then I took her to the King Henry fireplace to try to make s’mores. Then I signed and sang the song to her, getting on my knees and changing the last few words to, “[Owlet], will you marry me?” I meant to surprise her, and I did. A little too much, actually. But it all turned out alright, and we became officially engaged.

Candlelit spaghetti dinner: Our second Valentine’s Day. We ate my homemade version of Owlet's favorite dinner. With flowers and peachee, of course.

Jazz game: We met some of Owlet's aunts, uncles, and cousins in Salt Lake, ate at Red Iguana, and watched a Jazz game.

Provo Beach Resort: We played mini-croquet with some roommates and dates. At least as fun as mini-golf.

Owlet's birthday scavenger hunt: There are few things Owlet loves more than a good scavenger hunt, so I started preparing this one months early. We spent the whole Saturday obtaining all 22 clues (her new age) by picking up flowers, ordering pizza, flipping through books at the library, calling family members and friends, talking to the cashier at South End Market, cracking codes, solving a special game of 2048, driving to the Provo temple, going to our old apartments, and scouring campus. The final clue lead us to eat dinner at Olive Garden, where I gave her a laminated picture book about Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase getting married and celebrating their honeymoon where, coincidentally, we would spend ours!

Wedding Day: Thanks to thousands of hours of hard work by many family and friends, the best day of my life. Our eternal sealing in the temple was special beyond description. We got some photos Owlet liked, had a wonderful luncheon, and enjoyed a fun reception. We even waltzed for our first dance! Owlet wore my grandma’s Audrey Hepburn-esque dress, and countless friends came to support us and give us free stuff. By the end of the night, Owlet was even half-joking that without anything going wrong, we wouldn’t have any fun stories to tell—right before our car wouldn’t start. But that provided just enough story material without causing any more trouble than necessary, thanks to my parents’ help.

Honeymoon: Combined with the wedding, the longest and loveliest date of my life. We spent almost a week in a tourist town on a pristine lake. We had a wonderfully relaxing time walking around town, eating out, and driving around the lake. We rode on a lake cruise ship and took a carriage ride to a secret garden and a campfire dinner with cowboys. We got a free upgrade to our hotel room and free pottery to paint. Fortunately, unlike Percy and Annabeth, we didn’t have any monsters to fight, just a wonderful first week of marriage to enjoy.

Family Reunion: I got to meet almost all the in-laws! We had lots of fun playing games, riding the river, swimming, zip-lining, and seeing the ancestral farm.

Pioneer day in Salt Lake City: Staying at my generous aunt’s house, we shopped at the mall, hiked Ensign Peak, explored the park festivities, and watched the fireworks.

Provo Center Street: After engaging in some petty quarrel, I decided we needed an impromptu date exploring the restaurants and shoppes of Provo Center Street. Our hard feelings disappeared somewhere between getting lost and eating sushi.

BYU Spectacular: On Owlet's bucketlist. Saw and heard some amazing dancers and musicians; I even liked most of David Archuleta’s songs.

Age 24

El's Harry Potter birthday: As part of a Choose Your Own Adventure Owlet made me, we had a Harry Potter themed birthday party replete with caramel cupcakes, robed friends, and Harry Potter games. Best birthday yet!

The Lights at Temple Square: With our friends, brother, and significant others, we feasted our eyes on the best Christmas lights in Salt Lake City.

IKEA: As Owlet had never gone before, we spent a couple hours oohing and aahing over all the furniture that we’ll certainly have in our future home. The Swedish meatballs were great, too. And we even bought a nightstand, which Owlet put together all by herself!

Dungeons & Dragons: Thanks to my roommate, we got to play a game I’d only ever seen on T.V.

Secret Hitler: We had Owlet's former roommate and her husband over for dinner, and they brought a funner and more sophisticated version of Mafia. Of course Owlet was the Fascist both times.

Y Ball: We got a free catered dinner before hitting the dancefloor with friends at this dance for engaged or married couples.

The Bridge: Probably the most hipster thing I’ve ever done. This was a “genre-bending stage production” based on the story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” complete with a jazz band, interpretive dancing, and displayed excerpts of the story.

3rd Valentine’s Day: Our official 139th date, this will consist of eating at Pizza Pie Cafe (just like 2 years ago), going to the theater (probably to watch The Martian), and lots of romantic faces and stuff. Plus Owlet made me promise her I’d watch a chick flick on Valentine’s Day, so on the actual day we’ll probably watch The Vow or something. Maybe she’ll agree to Date Night.

In addition to those described above, we’ve also been to/seen/eaten at/attended the following as dates:

Wedding receptions of: close friends, former love interests, roommates, and companions.

Temple trips: To Provo, Boise, SLC, and Provo City Center.

Movies: Interstellar, Gravity, Inside Out, Star Wars 7, She’s the Man, The Syrian Bride, The Wind Rises, Pushing Daisies, Matilda, Warm Bodies, all the Indiana Jones originals, Les Miserables, The Muppet Movie, Sherlock, The Emperor's New Groove, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Scrooge, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Fiddler on the Roof, The Great Mouse Detective, Cinderella, Doctor Who, Serenity, The Last Airbender, Charly, The Lego Movie, and more.

Restaurants: Los Hermanos, Galilee Grill, Green Panda Cafe, Yamato’s, Bombay House, Burger Supreme, JDawgs, JCW’s, Blaze Pizza, Creamery on 9th, Olive Garden, Pantruca’s, Little Caesar’s, Malawi’s Pizza, University Mall soft pretzels, MOA Cafe, Slab Pizza, Emanuel’s, Costa Vida, Panda Express, Cup Bop, Food Truck Roundup, Chick-Fil-A, Mountain West Burrito, Legends Grille, Zupa’s, Cafe Rio, P. F. Chang’s, Thai Ruby, Cranky Chuckie’s, The Chocolate, Tucano’s, 180 Tacos, and Owlet's award-winning hot wings.

Other events: Living Legends, Humor U, Divine Comedy, Laugh Out Loud, BYU football game, BYU gymnastics competition, all of BYU’s museums, Pioneer Day at the Provo Rec Center, outdoor movies, Thanksgiving Point Botanical Gardens, frisbee, DI shopping, bowling, picnics, snow tubing, penny golf, Welsh choir performance, cooking curry, magic shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender night at the Wall, making our wedding registry wishlist, driving up the canyon in the fall, playing Tanks, and many others.

In Conclusion:

Owlet, I’m so grateful I’ve done each of these things, but I’m so much more grateful that I’ve done them specifically with you. You’ve made each date, and each day, more enjoyable. I can’t wait until our 1,000,039th date. I can’t even wait until our 140th. I don’t know what we’ll do, but it’ll be fun with you. It always is.

Wo ai ni,

El-ahrairah