One-Quarter of a Century Old

You would think that after getting married, owning a home, and preparing for parenthood you would finally grow up some. And, you would think that being one-quarter of a century old, twenty-five years, would mean more than lower car insurance for my wonderful husband.

Well, this as adult as birthdays will ever get for him, twenty-five is the year of daddy status.

Brett got an early birthday present this year. His iPod died over a year ago, and he has been uncool ever since. In January, I decided that I would find away to get him one for his birthday. I had figured that stashing away twenty-five dollars a week would eventually add up to an iPod. So, I often stashed wads of money in my wallet to keep him from noticing that the tip envelope looked a bit low. 

While we were venturing to Utah a few weeks ago, this lack of iPod-age really took a toll on my poor husband. On the way there he used his laptop for an iPod, his dad's phone for an iPod, Brooke's iPod for an iPod. I had decided that the trip home would be much more comfortable and enjoyable for him if I gave him his gift a bit early. I had just about enough money stashed in my wallet to buy the iPod. So our traveling team drove to the only Apple Store in Utah. I put all of the iPod money in an envelope marked "Happy Early Birthday" and took Brett to the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake, blindfolded, which he did not like, and handed him the envelope. After I took off the blindfold he didn't quite understand why he had a lots of small bills in an overstuffed envelope at the mall. Eventually he realized he was standing in front of the Apple Store, and the world finally made sense again. After an added birthday contribution from his parents, Brett finally felt cool again with his iTouch and has been playing some game called "Crazy/Angry Birds" ever since.

Last Friday, March 18th, we officially celebrated Brett's twenty-fifth birthday. We had family and our closest friends over, Riley who we teach in primary and his super cool younger brothers. I made a cake that was supposed to look fantastic, but being pregnant and tried led to frustration, which led to a kind of cool cake which I didn't take pictures of. But it was cut into the number twenty-five. We had a fun night though. I grilled for the second time in my life and we played some Wii with the boys.

Best twenty-fifth party I had ever been to.

Anyways. Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband who was seen a quarter century.

The Title is Utah, it is As Much Spotlight As I Am Willing to Give

I love it when I have my mind made up about a thing, anything for that matter. I can be a very indecisive and confused person from time to time. But, when you are sure about a thing, you feel like you have made a step toward becoming more of a defined person.

My new opinion, actually just a confirmed opinion.

Ready.

Arizona is the best state in the USA.

When I was little I set one life goal that I was actually serious about. I promise, I have had more than one goal in life, but don't be disappointed when I tell you. When I was about eight I decided that I wanted to visit all fifty states. So far I have been to fifteen of them. Each one has something exciting to offer, but my most recent to visit to Utah for the fourth time is what I would like to briefly talk about.

This past weekend Brett and I, and his family, all took a drive, through Las Vegas, to Provo to visit some family and watch Andy, our brother in law, perform on the trumpet at BYU. Andy is fantastic. He plays in the US Army band, works at Arlington Cemetery, tours the world... He is very talented, a super dad, makes fantastic lemonade, and is just really nice. It was my first time seeing him play, aside from mini Christmas programs in Sheri's living room, so that was cool. That was the main reason for our trip to Utah. We also got to see his kids and Krista, which is always fantastic. They have a new baby girl we got to see and we got to watch Clark wear the Jordan's we bought for him forever ago. And... we got to laugh with Casey. 

That was the good part of the trip, not the good part of Utah.

I will give my two sentences on the bad part of the trip and that is it. The car ride was horribly uncomfortable. It was also stinky. 

Now. Arizona is the best state in the USA, Utah doesn't come anywhere close to being the best. 

Hello people, I don't know why you live in Utah! Three out of my four visits to Utah have been wet, cold, and snowing! According to my calculations, Utah is miserable seventy five percent of the time. It looks dirty, everyone's car is trashed and their license plate is bent halfway up. Last I heard you still can't get caffeinated soda on campus. The freeways are about as nice as the ones in Los Angeles and there is only one Apple Store in the entire state. Which by the way, is difficult to get assistance at when you want to make a purchase. I had to raise my hand, to get an associate from across the store, but he was very nice.

Utah residences, I hope I haven't entirely offended you. There are some wonderful things about Utah, but for the sake of this post, I can't go into those details cause it would contradict my current opinions. Please just know that you guys are still good people, you just need to relocate to maybe Arizona.

So, Arizona is simply fantastic and the best, but I already knew that and so did you.