Hambelton Hijinx

Our good friends John and Carissa Hambelton came up from Eugene to visit us for the weekend. You may remember them from adventures such as this*. It was John's birthday, so we went to John's Incredible Pizza (fitting, right?) for food (the pizza is better than Izzy's but still, ugh, served buffet form) and games. Carissa was smart and got coupons so we could go on the rides and play certain games for free (for a limited time).

I have been to Chuck E. Cheese for many a nephew's birthday, so I can in all confidence say that John's Incredible Pizza is a better experience. It's cleaner, less chaotic, and there are themed dining rooms so not all of the kids are on top of each other and in my way (except for in the buffet line). We even witnessed an IncrediBear dance party. Serious cuteness.

This is a bit of what we did:

Carissa and I rode on the twirly ride and tried not to get motion sick

I made a new friend with a hot ride

The next day, Josh was dying to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. It's his favorite spot because it combines most of his favorite things: food, trivia, and college football. I think if there was a movie theater and a classic arcade he would have to move in. 

While we were there, I was holding baby Cooper and this happened:

He just sucked on my hand for five minutes. It was the weirdest sensation! And, of course, completely hilarious.

We've been terrible about blogging lately because school has started again and I've been about as busy as I've ever been. I'll be done applying for internship in about a month, which I've always known was coming up but seems especially sad/hard now that I'm going through it. I'm so lucky that I have such loving friends who take the time to visit!

*If you followed the link then you saw that we have previously been to Evergreen Air and Space Museum with the Hambeltons. On a sidenote: I now drive past there four times a week and sometimes I worry that I'll get into an accident because I am transfixed by the Spruce Goose every time. Even after seeing it up close, I am still amazed by its size.

Back in college...

A friend of mine from my days at the Eugene Institute of Religion finally got around to digitizing a video of a sketch we performed for a road show back in 2004. My group wanted to do something lame like a dating game sketch... and I was having none of that. So, I wrote a parody version to the song "Superhero" by Stephen Lynch using characters from The Book of Mormon. Needless to say, we blew away the competition and won the road show.

Emily and I didn't really know each other back then, but she was in the room and distinctly remembers thinking that this sketch was pretty, pretty good. I like to think that it was the first of many things that would eventually make her fall in love with me and marry me... three years later. :)

And, with that... I give you "(If I Could Be) A Book of Mormon Hero."

The ShepAlders Do Dallas (only by Dallas we mean Austin, Waco, and a little bit of San Antonio)

We spent some of July in Texas for the wedding and decided to spend some time with my sister and her family. First, we stopped off in Waco to see the Dr. Pepper Museum. In case you didn't hear, Diet Dr. Pepper is the unofficial soda of the ShepAlder family.

Things we saw:

The museum, in the original Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building

Apparently Dr. Pepper was created by Doc ALDERton. It's almost like Josh and I invented it! You're welcome.

How blessed the day when the Dr. Pepper and the lion shall lie down together without any ire!

Although we are not NASCAR fans, Josh could not resist this opportunity.

Equipment

Bottles

A ShepAlder would abide by these priorities-- God, Country, Family, and Dr. Pepper. A true ShepAlder would know that movies come after God (but before country) and Dr. Pepper only barely edges out the importance of being right at useless trivia.

While in Texas, we celebrated my 30th birthday (ugh! so old!) with a key lime cake (yum!) and a monster pinata. More pictures will be posted at a later date as soon as I can figure out where they've gone. It was a very duck-themed birthday and I was excited to receive a cowboy duck (seriously, a duck with a cowboy hat) in honor of Texas.

Josh and the pinata, only slightly less deadly than my niece Michaela with a stick

We were also able to go to our favorite theater, the Alamo Drafthouse. This is the theater where Josh and I have been able to attend BNAT for the past four years. The food is super yum. (We may or may not have seen four movies in five days and eaten meals every time).

We also celebrated our anniversary (number four, yo) by going to the San Antonio temple (#8 on the ShepAlder list of temples we've already visited-- we went there the first time we came to Texas). I love, love, love this temple. It has beautiful stained glass throughout, a gorgeous environmental mural in the ordinance room, and it's probably my #4 favorite (in order: Portland, Nauvoo, Manti, and San Antonio). The people in Texas are really lucky, because all of their temples are so unique and so beautiful. And Josh and I are really lucky because we are able to see them!

BTW, San Antonio is ridiculously hot, and we were totes sweaty.

That was more or less our trip. We also spent tons of time lazing around my sister's house, reading books, playing card games, and just generally enjoying our free time. I'm not sure whether it was earned or well-deserved, but it was definitely needed. 

Summer Weddings, Had Me a Blast!

We went to a couple pretty special weddings this summer, including Josh's baby sister Olivia's in June.

 (From L to R): Josh's step-mom, Josh's dad, Josh's sister Samantha, Josh's sister Chelsea, Josh, Olivia, Olivia's husband Mike, Josh's mom, and Josh's step-dad

They were sealed in the Columbia River temple (in TriCities, WA) and we got to see Josh's aunt Olivia and uncle Jerry King. We're pretty big fans of theirs. We love hearing their stories about traveling and they are nice enough to let us stay with them when we're driving through Utah.

Olivia and Mike then had a garden reception in Hermiston in the backyard of a friend.

Josh is pretty serious about his role as the Big Brother to three sisters. Olivia is the last to get married.

They had these cute cards for reception guests to fill out with little bits of advice to the married couple. We, of course, wrote about the importance of attending the temple, seeing movies during the day, and laughing often.

Then Josh and his siblings decorated Mike and Olivia's car. 

 The second big wedding we went to this summer was the sealing of our friend Caroline in Dallas, Texas. You may remember when we visited Dallas previously, but this time we got to see the basement.

It was very hot and awfully windy

We know Caroline from the Eugene Institute. She was in the RS presidency before I was and was good friends with Josh's previous girlfriend. She lives in Shreveport, LA now, but Dallas is the closest temple.

Isn't she cute? Caroline has a distinct sense of style.

They then had their reception in Shreveport, LA, which is on the Red River and is the birthplace of my niece Michaela. 

The waterfront is home to several riverboat casinos

Their reception started off with a wedding parade through town.

They even had a band walking along with us and playing hits such as "When the Saints Go Marching In."

It was pretty hot and everyone was pretty sweaty, but how often do you get to participate in a parade through Shreveport?

They even had a police officer to stop traffic.

Their reception was adorable. They had hot dog and Popsicle vendors, this cute painting (done by the groom):

and this map so that attendees could sign on their hometowns:

Mr. and Mrs. Eckel:

The ShepAlders and the Eckels:

Summer weddings are so much fun!

Buddy Holly was Buried Here

In addition to visiting the temple in Lubbock, we did some sight-seeing.

First, we went to the Buddy Holly Museum.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The exhibit area was small, but, of course, Buddy Holly died when he was 22(!) In fact, his professional career lasted only 18 months.

Across the street, and in the scorching 108-degree weather, is a statue of Buddy Holly.

Then we drove across town to find Buddy Holly's grave:

It's surprisingly modest and just on the side of the cemetery road.

But a hundred or so feet away is this huge angel. We thought at first that his grave might be near there (but it wasn't).

Something you may not know is that Buddy Holly's last name is actually spelled "Holley," but was written incorrectly on his recording contract and he was too scared to correct it. Therefore, he became Buddy "Holly."

We didn't get to spend very much time in Lubbock (less than 24 hours) because the next morning we hit the road headed for Dallas and our dear friend Caroline's wedding.

Temple #44: Lubbock, Texas

Josh and I take special pleasure in finally crossing certain temples off our list. Recently, we made a special visit to Lubbock, Texas to see the temple there and to cross Texas off the list of states that have temple we haven't visited.

The Lubbock temple was dedicated in 2002 and it is the 109th operating temple. 

It's a medium-sized temple, similar to Columbia River, with 2 ordinance rooms and 2 sealing rooms. There is a lot of stained glass in degrees of glory motif:

The stone is white and grey, quarried in China, like Snowflake:

The temple workers were nice, but not super chatty. I guess I thought they would be because it's Texas. The Telestial room has a geographic landscape mural, which means a lot of flat, flat, flat land. But the Terrestrial room was one of the most beautiful I've seen; the ceiling is curved like the inside of a barrel, and is painted to look like the sky. Then there is a gold pattern painted over that (like gold-rimmed squares). The Celestial room has huge stained-glass windows on each side and a huge chandelier with either feathers or leaves framing it (this pattern is continued throughout the room). Then the ceiling has stars (I'm pretty sure some of them were Texas stars) carved from wood.

It was pretty hot in Lubbock, but it was beautiful.

Next up will probably be Vancouver, BC in a few weeks. It's been open for over a year and we haven't been there yet!

Doppelganger

I have a brother-in-law named Kaly.

He's a pretty distinctive-looking guy. Josh and I can always pick him out of a crowd at Autzen.

When we were in Vegas, we saw a guy who looks just like him. Almost. It resulted in this picture:

Yes, I posed on purpose just to get a picture of this guy. Josh and I are no strangers to the stealth picture-taking.

Side-by-side:

This is the kind of stuff Josh and I do on vacation. Totes.