H&M

2012-02-08T06:40:00.001-08:00

Family Pictures

2012-01-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

Just as a side note... that's not supposed to be a serious face on my dad. Kind of looks like it when its small though. But that's his "yah sure" face. The one we see a lot!

What's going on.

2012-01-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick post to catch everyone up on what's been going on.

First of all... Matt graduated! That last semester was crazy for him. He was flying out almost every weekend to either interview for a job or to do a presentation for Bayer Healthcare.

But the semester ended well, though somewhat anticlimactically.

Since Matt graduated in the winter there was no walking ceremony so the only real confirmation we have that he completed all his classes was the diploma we got in the mail when we came home from Christmas break in Seattle.

After spending more time in the air than on the ground interviewing (well it feels like it anyway) Matt was given a few offeres and we were relieved all his hard work paid off (we were relieved again when we found out he wasn't going to fail any of his classes he neglected the entire time)

I didn't know half the difficulty was deciding which job to take. They were in completely different places, and seemed to lead to very different futures.

So long story short... we're going with Dow Chemical!!!

It sounds like a pretty sweet job even though Matt will travel a lot. I will let him explain it in another post because I think I get it until I hear him talk about it and then I realize I have no idea.

One thing also taking away from the excitement of Matt's graduation is that this job doesn't start until June. So we have half a year to..... do.... something...? Don't know what it is yet. Isn't a degree supposed to help with this sort of thing?

Anyways. For the first six months we'll be living in Midland, MI

I believe it is located approximately

here...

Midland is the home of Dow Chemical but since Matt will be over a territory we won't be living there.

After his 6 months of charm school we'll get placed in one of these beautiful cities:

Atlanta

Chicago

Philadelphia

Or we could end up in Houston...

a joke.

There are a couple cities that are also a possibility but they are pretty slim.

So until December-ish we won't know where we will end up. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been saying that LAST year since I thought we'd get a job and get placed right away.

I'm definitely not complaining though.

We're stoked.

2012-01-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

I dont know why it is getting to be so difficult to find time to blog. So here is a random post from the Disneyland trip last year. I've only had time to scan one small piece of film from the numerous rolls so here is that...

Dumbo Ride! This was our first ride on our first day at Disneyland. I used my split-frame camera for this.

New Orleans

2011-10-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after St Louis, we went to New Orleans. Also a very cool, very historic place to visit.

We were there for a 3-day weekend and although it looks overcast, we did not escape the Texas heat for this trip.

Here are some things we saw:

Old Cemetary. People have to be buried above ground because of the high water table.

There was a hugh mix of old and new tombs.

There were also a bunch of Voodoo tombs covered in X's and random "gifts" in exchange for some luck.

This is the steamboat Natchez. You can take a ride on it and listen to Jazz while eating dinner but like everything in New Orleans, it costs about $50. So we stuck with the live jazz in the streets. It is everywhere!

We visited the Bayou

Experienced some culture

And we ATE! We ate a lot.

We got to sample beignets from the famous Cafe Du Monde

We tried the original Mufaletto from the Central Grocer

And of course we tried some real Southern food

This was my favorite, gumbo and a garlic oyster po' boy from Liuzza's by the Track. We had some pretty amazing turtle soup and catfish from Mandina's

This beauty is called a shoe sole. Its heaven. But not even this shoe sole could wake up Matt by the end of our trip.

The last night we drove to Baton Rouge to check it out. The drive was pretty. The highways are crazy. They go over the water for miles and miles. Right through the swamp.

St. Louis

2011-10-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Okay. Rewind about 4 months or so and here is what we did on our day trip to St. Louis, MO

Even though it was summer the day started out wet and a little chilly. The Mississippi River had flooded and we were wishing we had brought coats.

We visited the arch first. These tiny circles are what you ride up in. They each fit five people snugly and it takes about 4 minutes to ride it to the top and 3 going down. Those minutes seem much longer when you are crammed in there with three Germans who seemed convinced we are going to fall to our death but speak very little English so they couldn't be consoled.

The view from the top:

After the arch we went to Union Station.

Then fast forward to the end of the day. It had finally warmed up (a little too warm, if you ask me) and we made it to our last stop: The City Museum

I really can't put this place in words. None of these pictures do it justice. But its basically this maze/playground for kids and adults. They have several different environments made out of recycled materials that you'd find anywhere from the school cafeteria to the side of the road. You can clime on everything and find secret passageways to other parts of the building.... I really cant make this sound cool, can I?

For example... this is one of the environments. You reach this point after climbing through a maze of caves. You can hear this creepy organ (its actually an organ from an old theater in New York) directing your path. Its slightly off tune and echoes through the space.

You can see where the old, historic building ends and the newer part continues. It still has the window-washing lift on it.

Then you start to make your way up these old air duct things up ten floors of more mazes and random things until you get to the top and slide down this ten-story spiral slide.

The roof has an amazing view and a bunch of crazy slides and many more things to climb on. Most of which make you feel like you are hanging off the edge of the building.

Looking off the roof you can see the outdoors part where you can climb on/over a couple airplanes and crawl through a wire tunnel a few stories above ground.

Ferris Wheel on the roof. Went a little faster than I remember Ferris Wheels going.

I think the Ferris Wheel had a better view than the arch!

Here's matt climbing on this thing. It's way taller than it looks, I swear.

We flew home that evening, exhausted. St Louis was the city that I was most surprised by. So much history and a ton of fun stuff to do. If you ever go there, check out City Museum!

Gotta Catch 'Em All

2011-09-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

That's right, it's job fair time again.

Never once in my career as a student did it ever occur to me to visit the job fair.

Hence my current employment status.

For Matt, however this day does not approach without much preparation.

After weeks of neglected responsibility and late nights in the library this day is here.

Matt's doing the job fair. Interviewing, breakfasting, info-sessioning, and schmoozing his way to the top.

With an impressive resume and a well-tailored suit he's out to catch 'em all - Pokemon style.

(I know its lame but I seriously get the theme song stuck in my head whenever I think about it)

Cross your fingers we end up in the Northwest

Cause if you don't we're going to end up in Omaha

which, despite my recent hiatus from dairy, shouldn't be too bad

minus the fact that is isn't the Northwest.

But then again, it's much to early to tell. So keep those fingers crossed!

Austin, TX

2011-06-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the thing about Austin, Texas: It is rad
One thing that is really rad about Austin: The food trailers.

This one was called "3 Little Pigs"

This is what we ate:

Matt: Cracklin' Meatloaf wrapped in bacon with
cheese grits and collard greens

Hillary: Pulled Pork Sandwich with chipotle potato salad

So good. I recommend everyone wraps their meatloaf in bacon.

Something else about Austin: It is the "Live Music Capital of the World"

And although there was at least two bands playing on every block on 6th St all we could hear from the road was the sound of motorcycle engines revving.

It was the Riders of Texas Motorcycle Rally that same weekend.

It was insane. Bikes lined 6th st at least three deep on both sides.

There were so many people crammed on this one street and the noise was so loud it gave the place a ton of energy.

Our second day, we woke up "early" and headed toward Round Rock, Tx to get one of the famous "Round Rock Donuts" They do have normal sized donuts but we prefer the "largest donut in the world"

I thought for sure a donut this big couldn't be very good. I was wrong. It was very good.

So back in Austin we had to check out Stubb's BBQ.

We wanted to see a show there and low and behold Matt and Kim were playing

I can totally listen to their music long enough to say that I got to see a show at Stubb's

Only problem (and I totally should have known): tickets were sold out

so, alas, no show at Stubb's but we did have one other historic thing on our agenda that may require as much standing in line as all those 14-year olds who's parents bought out the Matt and Kim show.

But this will be worth it: Franklin Barbecue

On the top of everyones "To do in Austin" list and on the cover of "Edible Austin" magazine, we knew that if we were going to try some real Southern BBQ it had to be this.

So we waited.

Woke up early-ish the next day. Didn't eat breakfast. We just found the place, parked the car in the next city over and got in line.

We were in line at 10:50 AM behind a group of frat boys with a cooler full of beer

We knew what we were getting ourselves into.

As the sign says, they sell out every day. Its usually within 2 hours of opening.

Waiting in line isn't an option. So people just do what they can to make it less of a chore.

Their menu is pretty simple. It echos back to the days when they started serving food out of their trailer.

Aaron Franklin is passionate about barbecue.

He doesn't just cook the meat and walk off.

He is at the counter cutting it and serving it.

We've never really had barbecue like this so when it was our turn to order (which, by the way was about noon) we were still a little unsure of what or how much to get.

So Mr Franklin just put together a nice pile of food to sample.

Brisket (fatty mc fatterson, and lean so we can try both), pork ribs, and sausage

It was beautiful.

It was gone in a fraction of the time it took to get to the front of the line. But it was so worth it!

Dublin (Dr Pepper) Texas

2011-06-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

We stopped by Dublin Texas for their 120th anniversary

Got to see the original bottling plant!

And got to try the original Dr. P and a crazy Frosty Dr. P

It was amazing.

The shop was pretty crazy too

awww Texas

New Mexico

2011-06-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

The first stop on our road trip was Los Alamos, NM

and Bandelier National Park

We got to climb into little shelters built by the pueblo people.

It was so crazy to see the shell of a whole civilization

Inside a Kiva

We got tired of climbing ladders at the end of the day

On our way back to the car we ran into a deer... and as you can see by the enlargement,

he was very happy to see me.

To be honest, I was a little nervous to see him walk toward me!

We stayed the night in Santa Fe and explored the city that day but for some reason I don't have any pictures.

Then it was off to Portales, NM

The scenery was a lot of the same:

You can tell you are getting close to a city when the buildings start looking a bit newer...

We spent two nights in Portales and got to visit a bunch of people from Matt's mission

Its a pretty cool place.

Next stop was Lubbock, Tx

Visited some more people, ate at all the restaurants Matt has been missing for the past three years.

It was Texas Tech graduation so all the hotels were booked.

We got to stay in a shady motel called "Inn of the South Plains"

Prairie Dog Town, Lubbock, TX

Baby Races.

2011-06-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

The last hour of our crazy roadtrip (which we haven't posted about yet) felt like the longest.

It was incredibly muggy outside, I was tired of eating fast food, and we were both as dirty and run down as our poor car.

But as we were about to get on that last freeway towards civilization we ran across this:

We slowed down and saw this:

Then we parked right here and watched

It was the tiniest race I've ever seen.

Tiny drivers, tiny cars, tiny track

Even though it was dark it was still really warm and muggy and smelled like freshly cut grass. There were about 9 spectators on the bleachers, two of which were local firemen reading books, waiting for one of these babies to fly over the fence (which is made out of water barrels).

It was fun to watch. Made for a good last stop of the trip.

we went to a horse race

2011-06-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

So I am skipping a few things we haven't posted about yet...

but those will come eventually.

So. Here we are. Dallas. Well, Colleyville, actually.

Matt had a great time in Puerto Rico with the Bayer people

(he'll have to post those pictures sometime... when he isn't completely drained after work)

and he is having a great time in Dallas with Southwest so far.

Even if we don't get to fly as much as we thought, there is tons to do in the "Metroplex"

example: go to a horse race

That's matt watching the tractor pull the starting gate around the track

Behind those huge banks of windows are rows of seats where "fancier" people

can avoid the heat while watching the race and losing money

This indicated the race horses were approaching the track...

Never seen one of those played before

I'd die if I had to wear that coat in this heat!

Dumping Gatorade on the winning horse...

except its not Gatorade and that horse totally lost.

from rain to rain-ier

2011-05-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

So roadtrip #3 (roadtrip #2 was our Disneyland trip and all my pictures are on film so maybe by next spring I'll have those scanned) was good. Short but good. We got to spend time with family and be with our mothers on Mothers Day. We also got to skip the first good weather back at home while just missing the sunny day in Washington. So we went from the rain - to the rain - then back to the rain. Hopefully living in Dallas this summer will make up for all this cold spring weather.

So, naturally I only took pictures the first hour of our trip so here is what happened in that first hour.....

Emily Jane, LuLu the monkey, and I had a very legit tea party...

Here are a million pictures of that...

Then Emily put on an outfit to match mine...

see.... twins...

Matt and Emily jumped really high

and then emily got us both sick

..... rude

now matt is in new york.... hopefully he doesn't get the whole world sick.

i'm going to bed.

Basketball

2011-04-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today went like this:

8:00 am - Internet Marketing Final

12:01 pm - Jamba Juice Coupon redemption with Hillary (don't get the apples 'n greens fruit/veggie one)

1:00 pm - Consumer Behavior Final

4:00 pm - Turkey Burgers made by yours truly

4:36 pm - Bike ride to school to shoot hoops

4:59 pm - Hillary dominates it (see video)

5:27 pm - Bike ride around Springville

5:40 pm - Walk to Grocery Store to get rootbeer float stuff & redeem free redbox code

5:50 pm - Look at cars we can't buy (including Chevy HHR, Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Chrysler Town & Country)

6:00 pm - Make Nachos

6:08 pm - Realize neither of us are hungry for nachos.

6:30 pm - Watch Rebecca Black's Friday Cover by some girl, it was ooookay.

6:40 pm - Watch some youtube videos of nephew Blake

7:10 pm - Blog about day

Next up...Despicable Me - it'll be the first time we've seen it!

Guess who just turned.....

2011-03-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

That's right! Blake turned one!

This weekend we got to take a road trip to Manteca to get together with the Stephensons as well as (almost) all of the Erdmanns to celebrate our numero uno nephew turning the big numero uno!

He is so fun to watch. I think, here he is making fun of the Olsen-Twin smirk

... and this one's the "i'm-not-trying-to-be-charming-but-i'm-totally-charming"

Happy New Year

2011-01-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

Please note the dress Melissa is wearing.

Notice how finely tailored it is.

I made it. From scratch.

It bustles in the back.

It took FOREVER!

jump from halloween to christmas

2010-12-06T23:03:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was really nice. We had an early dinner with the Erdmanns and a late one with the Gadds and Twetens. We woke up early for Matt's first "Black Friday" experience. I still don't know if it was a good or bad experience. Definitely saved some money though!

a few weeks ago I got together with some of my friends and we made crafts together... Its funny because they were all paper related except one... poor college students?

It was fun. It was even better because we saw harry potter earlier that day!

So here are some pictures of stuff we made on craft day... and all our decorations this year....

oh and that nativity i made last year...

i couldn't find a place for it so it is on our chalkboard table

the shepherds and the wise men are my favorite

so i'm putting pictures of them up...

halloween pt 2

2010-11-18T21:09:00.000-08:00

more halloween pictures

these are the pumpkins we carved at rachel and jordan's pumpkin carving party

they are little girl and mad scientist skeletons

a few days later was claire and andy's pumpkin carving party

this is from that

(it's a forest fire)

this is the back of it

(haunted forest fire)

These are the frankenstein caramel apples i made

This is my new hair

except it hardly even looks like this anymore

it has grown a lot already

and the light parts are a much darker red

but i thought i would share these

mostly to let rachel (she cut my hair) know that i finally found these pictures.

This is matt in our messy room

It's getting pretty cold outside

and the grocery store across the street is starting to sell mello yello

This picture was taken around 5 am

more from the summer

2010-11-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

okay... so i know this is the same picture but it wont delete!

scans from the beach trip

2010-11-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

halloween intro

2010-11-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

jolley's ranch

2010-10-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

we have been dying to go camping and we finally got our chance this weekend

the weather has been in the high 80's but the trees are turning red

so this was the perfect time to camp

we camped up hobble creek canyon at a place called "jolley's ranch"

it was SO pretty and secluded

plus its like five miles from our house and springville residents get a killer discount!

we went with our friends alyssa and kekoa.

claire and andy were there too, but only for the pitch black parts of the day so i have no pictures... (no flash on my camera)

here is lulu helping matt set up the tent

straight up boyscout

it was nice to have the river sound while we were falling asleep

the vincent's tent

making breakfast

trying to make breakfast again

what lulu ate for dinner

matt trying to get conference on the radio

we had a good time. i had a good time taking pictures of lulu

she is so funny!

fall update

2010-09-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

although the weather hasn't been feeling much like fall,

the leaves have been changing so we are getting ready!!

rachel and jordan took us fishing for the first time!

the mountains are barely starting to change!

the best part is that they are right in our backyard

getting the pole ready takes some little fingers

jordan was our teacher

pretty much man and woman vs wild right here...

sensei jordan

rachel saw fish down here so we are going for it

still cant figure this thing out... it was the cheap kind so it kept getting stuck

time out for mountain pictures

the sun here is red. so when sunset hits everything looks orange. i have seen some of the pretties sunsets and sunrises here

WARNING!

for those of you who frequent food photography blogs,

please exit your browser immediately...

these are not for the professionally trained eye

(but it tasted really good)

rachel came over and made us dinner one day last week

jordan was recording a beatboxer and rachel had all this food to cook

so after we did some interesting yoga at the hare krishna

we cooked some lemon rosemarry salmon

veggies

and an artichoke that was about to go bad

it was amazing

i made this cheese ball for our friend, dave's birthday

once again. disregard the photography. just look at how good it must taste

here is the party

here is the prawn cheese spread... sweden's vegemite

its like salty fish paste

there was some formal dress basketball

orange juice money from the law brothers

happy birthday davy

okay, this next part is about the studio we have been building

it is done

kind of

ta daaaaa!

still have a lot of work and ironing to do

so this is the space. i didnt take any pictures of the lights but they are super cheesy

and that is all you really need to know

we tested it out with some very professional, one softbox photographs

aren't we a handsome couple!

"take a picture hillary, take a picture!"

2010-09-20T20:50:00.001-07:00

It's not THAT close to halloween but this should get you in spirit.

the springville erdmann 1964 rambler classic station wagon

2010-09-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

random beach pictures

2010-08-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

last week we went with the thompsons to the oregon coast. we camped and motorhome-d it in cannon beach

we devised a plan to get matt onto the beach with his hurt foot

notice emily walking away in the background

she's trying not to cry. she thinks she can't go to the beach because matt is using her mode of transportation. they both fit in it though.

making dallin into a sphinx

these make me laugh every time

tilt-o-whirl best-ride-ever

matt doesnt like this picture

got junk on my new shoes already

super exciting...

nate kept doing flips in the sand until his eyelids were full of it

matt and a tide racing

mom and nate racing

matt and dal racing

i don't really know what is going on here...

haystack rock

our bike gang

talking to australia with a low power radio

burried alive

running to the cave for shelter from the cold wind

and to asphyxiate ourselves after building a fire

walking down to hug point

what you do when all the marshmallows get stuck together in the bag

playing beach soccer at night

2010-08-10T18:54:00.001-07:00

Week 4

2010-07-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep up but things are getting busier as our internships near the end!

This is a view from our friend Steve's apartment building. He and Lucy were visiting so we met up with em on a friday night.

Getting pizza with Lucy & Steve. Gotham Pizza (soo good!)

I think that sign looks like a hamburger. Hillary thinks it looks like a frog.

Last minute we decided to go with Erin to Maryland. This is what we saw. Washington DC temple.

There were a lot of amazing sculptures at the visitors center.

Then we went to the Washington DC Zoo, the Smithsonian Zoo I think.

After that we ate at this little mexican cuisine where they messed up all our orders.

Washington Monument

I made hillary get in this picture with me.

White House.

Baltimore Inner Harbor! It was on the way back to NJ so we stopped for lunch.

This picture is for Dallin, we didn't go into the museum because it wasn't free, but I thought this was cool.

Baltimore Inner Harbor again.

Eating Chicago style pizza. Mmmm.

The cruise ship we didn't go on.

Next stop, Philadelphia!

Liberty Bell with the interns.

Place where the Declaration of Independence was written.

Hillary in an alley in Philly.

Where the flag was made.

Benjamin Franklin grave.

The philly cheese steak place across the street from the original philly cheese steak place.

Jaycee and Aaron eating at Pat's (The original philly cheese steak place).

Pat's.

Week five has just come to a close. Hopefully I'll get those up soon. By the way, these are just from my (matt's camera). Hillary has some stuff too!

more pictures of weeks 2 and 3

2010-07-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

sorry if these photos look super contrasty and gross.
i've noticed they look way different on everyone's computer
i'm not, like, IN TO that kind of thing...
its just, matt's laptop is getting old
so i can't really tell what things look like...
okay. end disclaimer.

this was from the concert on gov's island
this is natalie and jordan and chris's nose and mustache.

hemo interns

hemo intern. my sunglasses

the show.
we were all so relieved when the sun went down

i bet this one is going to look super lame on another computer
but this aint no photo blog.
so deal.

portugal, the man

week 3, random pictures
i haven't shot much digital stuff...
this is all i got

Week 3 Matt Cam...

2010-07-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

I think I'm getting used to being here because I'm not taking as many pictures as I used to. But here are some from week 3.

I made a friend on my train ride to Harrisburg PA (see picture). I guess you could call this my first business trip. I went there to do a ride along with a KogenateFS Rep(the drug bayer manufactures to treat hemophilia A). It was awesome. First time on an amtrak too!

Just a picture of a train that passed by.

On Saturday we spent the day in Manhattan. Even though the McDonalds in NY doesn't have a real dollar menu, it's still cheaper than most everywhere else. Snack size oreo mcflurry!

Grand Central Station.

The inside of Grand Central Station.

On the Subway with Hil.

Union Squre has lots of neat stuff going on all the time. This guy was putting on a breakdance/contortionist show. He's about to jump over 6(?) girls.

And there he goes...

Watching the World Cup at the Hotel. Well, I just watched, Hillary multi-tasked like she usually is doing.

Yeah Spain.

week 1 by hillary (kind of a repeat)

2010-07-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

so here are some photos from week 1 that were on my camera

it takes me way longer to put up any pictures.

i accidently deleted bridge and i can't get it back.

so i can't preview any of my photos.

our room...

ps. our room really isn't this bright. this was a long exposure.

we have this one window and a lot of "mood" lighting

which basically means when the curtain is closed you can't see a thing.

i have to pull out my cell phone to find clothes in my dresser.

my 1st day of work. matt's 4th day.

the church in upstate NY we stopped at...

when me and matt die. this is how our headstones are going to be...

the only picture i got before the bees got defensive.

creepy statue (beehive is under her armpit on the other side) after i got stung i had to come around on the other side to get any photos...

i have more photos of weeks 2 and 3 coming soon

Week 2!

2010-07-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so these are the pics from my (matt's) camera this weekend. I think these are in sequential order for the most part...so here we go...

Friday, July 2nd we went to Hoboken NJ for some Indian Food. It got dark faster than we thought so we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked to, but we saw some cool buildings. After dinner we saw Toy Story 3.

Continental breakfast every day.... sometimes you got to mix it up a bit...

Sunday July 4th, on the boardwalk at Coney Island. Wall ball.

This place looks cool but it was so smelly. Too many people with b.o.

Stopped at the famous Nathan's for some hotdogs. Very crowded...

Jaycee and Aaron's before picture of eating el hot dog...

And the after picture....

This building just looked cool, it's on the boardwalk

Did I mention there were TONS of people?

Driving to Brooklyn to park the car and explore more of New York

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, after walking on the boardwalk we found a spot on the beach and swam in the Atlantic! It felt sooo good! I think we got some pictures with Hillary's camera. This is us driving after spending time at the beach.

Jaycee the farm boy felt a little more at home upon seeing this here cow

We're big fans of 30 rock so we had to come check out the Rockefeller center

And here's the Apple store

This place was so crazy. It's open 24/7 and there are a million employees and customers. We called Lisa and Rustin on an iPhone 4 and did the video chat for a bit. It was pretty neato.

Not far from the apple store is Central Park. It was amazing. It made home alone 2 seem so real

I told Hillary if we had lived in New York, my proposal might have been a bit more romantic...

When the night came, we headed down to the hudson river on the Manhattan side to see the Macy fireworks. It was kinda fun to rough it with all the other peeps.

And there you have it. We did some other things like on Saturday we went to Governors Island and watched a free show. Portugal the Man played and two other bands. That was a ton of fun and we got some sweet pictures from that. I'm sure they'll make it up here soon.

Time for sleep.

i miss this kinda

2010-07-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Week 1

2010-06-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hillary and I made it to New Jersey and our first week has been awesome!

6/19/10

Saying bye to the Utah mountains

My flight from Minneapolis to Newark was better than first class, I had 3 seats to myself.

This picture is for dad, I think that's Pocono Raceway

My first sights of New York! It really does exist.

6/20/10

One of the other interns just graduated from Kings College in Manhattan and has an apartment in Brooklyn, so Sunday we went into town. It took almost 2 hours to get into NY.

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge (I think). I thought it looked like it was sponsored by Verizon in this pic.

Leaving New York and heading back to New Jersey.

This is me on the start of my 2nd day at work (6/22/10).

Hillary's first day at her internship with Bob Carey (6/23/10)

I forgot to mention this, but on our first day the office at Bayer had a big breakfast for everyone and they welcomed us with balloons, cubicles, and lucky bamboo plants.

This is Aaron, he's the one that just graduated from Kings College in NY. He's got severe hemophilia too.

6/25/10

This is Jaycee. He's from Jackson Ohio. He's a "Farm Boy" and this was his first experience in the subway (it was mine too!) ps: he's got severe hemophilia as well.

Empire State Building. Kings College is located in here, so Aaron showed us around some.

Disclaimer: Hillary did NOT take this picture. Some random person did for us. We wanted the Empire State Building in the background...this is how it turned out.

Times Square

New York has pianos randomly placed around the city for people to play. This was just some tourist visiting and as she played a huge crowd gathered around her.

Aaron & Jaycee

We waited here and then met up with Hillary. She had been with Bob taking pictures at Coney Island. Crazy place to meet someone eh? There's tons of people!

Me seeing a subway for the first time. I felt like I'd see the Ninja Turtles around.

This is the view as we were taking the Saten Island Ferry...toward the left of the buildings is where the Twin Towers used to be.

I made Aaron take this picture of Hillary and I even though she didn't want to. :-P

Watching us leave NY from the ferry

I think it's almost 1 am when we took this picture on the subway

6/26/10

Today we drove around New York. We went to Bear Mountain, crossed Bear Mountain Bridge and just explored.

On the other side of that statue was a bee's nest....Hillary was trying to take a picture of it and a bee came out and actually stung her chin. We went on got some Benedryl at Drug World after that.

By this point we were starving so we ate at this place called "Whistling Willie's" that was recommended to us by the lady at Drug World. She said "It's the best burger you'll ever eat, you won't need to eat for a week." or something like that. It was super good. the menu was right "12 oz of pure delight"

These are just the pictures from my camera. Hillary has taken a bunch too. We'll try to keep this updated weekly. We're having an AMAZING time. We both love the work we're doing with the internships. I'm glad we've got 6 weeks left, wish we had more!

Quote of the day...

2010-06-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

"Who said this wasn't portable?!" -Hillary Erdmann

It makes sense, the printer IS smaller than the computer. Why bring the computer to the office when you can bring the printer to your computer? I just thought it was funny. I love you Hillary! :)

2010-06-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

i forgot to post these pictures from the laundromat

they are pictures of jordan and jordan

i really need to start eating healthier

at the laundromat

2010-06-14T10:51:00.001-07:00

powell part two

2010-06-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

first of all i have to say that it is 1:00 in the morning and i am eating a sandwich

that i wouldn't even have considered eating if it wasn't so late and if i hadn't had the insane craving for a hotdog

before we went to the lake it was memorial day...

and later we went to a house warming party for the law brothers

i think this is where my hotdog craving came from

also something i wouldn't eat if it wasn't so late

some of the boys played this game that had something to do with basketball

and gymnastics... and injuring yourself...

it was good to see old friends we haven't seen in a while

lots of people brought cameras

and guitars

and facial hair

okay here are pictures from lake powell

gps on my phone lasted about 3/4 of the way there and then it wouldn't turn on until we got back home....

windows down made matt's shirt turn into a balloon

remember how every girl had a crush on brandon boyd?

aaaaw yeahh....

REAL dino tracks????

or real tourist trap???

it worked...

this is where you need to trust me...

the lake was SO beautiful and quiet

and the moon was shining on the lake and the stars and the waves... and and ...

oh it was just so pretty!

of course you cannot tell from this picture

the end

actually the end is how bad matt's back is peeling right now....

V-Tunes

2010-06-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Our friends Jordan & Rachel Clark invited us to go see their friends bands play at what we thought was a polygamist music festival in Big Water, UT. The festival's real name was V-tunes. We drove down Saturday, watched tons of bands play and then finally Jordan's friends bands played, Joshua James and Cory Mon. It was killer. We braved the super hot desert sun, sat on gravel, and danced the night away. Here are some pictures of the adventure.

Rachel and Hillary.

Rachel's debut with the penny trick (look in the rear-view mirror)

The Clark & Erdmann Crew

Jordan

We stopped at this sweet cave that turned out to be a big tourist trap. Therefore this picture is all we I have to show. See anything peculiar in it?

And we eventually made it, v-tunes' second year, many more to come for sure!

Rachel and Jordan deemed this as most comfortable spot available (it really was, gravel is no good)

This picture is kinda crappy but that's Joshua James playing up there

So V-tunes got this house boat company to donate a house boat for the event. Since Jordan is friends with the main bands that played, they let all of us sleep that night on the boat. It was amazing! The weather was perfect, and we slept on that top deck and stared at the stars to we fell asleep. The next day we played in the water.

I think this fulfilled one of Hillary's dreams, to slide off the top deck of a house boat into a lake

I think this is Hillary illustrating how white I was by taking a picture of her shadow on my back

Eventually we had to head back home.

The sun really wore us out, except for Hillary. :-P

We stopped at this place in Kanab, UT to take some band pics of Jordan. His band is called Shady Chapel. Hillary got some sweet ones! But this is just to show kinda what the scenery looked like.

And then we made it home. Jordan let me drive some of the way and I think I fell in love with his car. It's a 2006 Subaru Forester. I felt like I coulda drove across the USA in that thing. So fun to drive. Time to start saving some money! :-P

Thanks Jordan and Rachel for inviting us!! We had a blast. You guys are the best.

PS: Happy Birthday Jordan!

WAIT! I almost forgot to put some videos on here!

Jordan owning the house boat slide.

Me trying to do the slide with the noodles but it wasn't as cool as it looks.

Cory Mon

movin'

2010-06-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

even though i'm very excited to go to new york

i think i'm going to miss our house. it smells like nectarines

this summer is starting to turn out as i had hoped

i'm a little bummed we have to miss all the festivities

but maybe next summer...

i also found this picture of brittna j. and matthew from a while back

just reminds me of being in rexburg

i'm glad we all escaped in one piece

Matt is a slow blogger.

2010-05-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. Matt here. I wanted to upload this video because I think it's cool. It's almost been a month since Hillary's birthday but I'm slow. Sorry! Enjoy.

PS: Today we've been married 1 year! Happy Anniversary to us. I love you Hillary Dawn!

happy birthday matt!!!

2010-05-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

matt turned 23 on saturday so we threw him a surprise party

while he was out skating (and destroying his ankle) kekoa and alyssa (and lulu) came over to help get things ready

here is lulu playing with the zombie doll

rachel and jordan came later and helped finish the pinata

(it was supposed to be a hipster pinata but it ended up being some scary ballerina clown)

alyssa made some amaaazing homemade guacamole and i made some veggie soup or stew or chili i suppose. there was pretty much no liquid in it at all...

what's hot this summer

pinata time

unfortunately i didn't know it took so much work to make a pinata so i had to improvise at the last minute which resulted in a quick kill

we waited a couple of swings before we told matt the pinata had fallen to the ground

rachel and lulu!

after the pinata a random game of stickball arose

at one point in the game jordan hit a line drive into matt which may result in us having to adopt our children. it was something straight out of "america's funniest home videos"

here is kekoa and dave laughing about it

yup. fun day.

after stickball we went into the basement and matt, jordan, rachel, and me had ourselves a jam. mostly matt and jordan though. my toes kept going numb

we finally got to try out the art city trolly restaurant. it was amazing! thanks to the clarks for buying us dinner! you the best.

I want one

2010-05-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

There is one for sale in Rexburg for like 600 bucks or best offer. It's so tempting!!

ps: in case you couldn't tell, matt made this post. :-P

2010-05-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

this post is for emily. she is an avid reader of our blog. so i'm letting her make her own post while i'm here visiting.

this is what emily has to say: i miss matt. i love my brother. he is my brother. that is why i love him. okay i want to put some pictures up now.

2010-05-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hangin' with the Balls.

2010-04-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of "vacation" in between semesters. So, we spent it with Grandma & Grandpa Erdmann and Renty, and Joshua, Jacob, and Jared Ball. Honestly, most of our time was spent with Jared because he is only 4 and was at home with Gma and Gpa and Renty (his 10 month old sister). Here are some videos of our adventures.

This was a common occurrence the entire day.

Jared said he didn't/couldn't walk the entire way...so he ran.

Jared wanted to be pushed but we were tired of pushing him so we stopped. His brothers, Joshua and Jacob were swinging on big kid swings and were going really high. Jared wanted to go high too.

2010-04-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

a few pictures from my final show are up on my photo blog
look at them here
or here

2010-04-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

another long post about the trip

2010-04-12T15:27:00.001-07:00

so before disneyland the family stopped by our place and we played around for the weekend.

nate got a bloody nose

the boys got together and jammed

ems watched

here they are recording a weezer song

dallin recorded it

emily in the car, wearing my hat

dallin looks old in this picture

sunday we drove to vegas.

here we are getting settled into the condo

it looks like we had been here forever but this picture was taken like five mins after we got there

here is valley fire

and ellisha in a rock

matt n dal

mel and rach in the cabbins

so five mins after we get to the cabbins i look over to the side of the hill and i see paul and nat climbin to the top... ridiculous

you probably have to make this big to see them

matt saw them and he started bookin it up there too

next, dallin ran up there too

find dallin

an inspirational nate picture

pictures from inside the rock

matt and mom fit in this tiny hole in the rock

Disneyland trip

2010-04-11T22:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from our impulse trip to Disneyland.

Tradition has it that the Peter Pan ride is always first. Here's Linda and Paul, this picture is so awkward we had to put it up.

This year Emily was finally tall enough to go on just about every ride...including the fast ones like thunder mountain.

If you couldn't tell that shadow is Emily, and everyone is looking back to see her reaction as the ride is about to start.

Check out these videos of the ride...they aren't that good but you can see Emily's different reactions, and everyone else's reactions as they watch her. At the end of the ride she stated, very firmly, "We are not doing that again"

Here's a random video of us on the teacups. Emily asked me to go on them with her, I was stoked. When I asked her if she wanted to spin really fast or just kind of fast she said, "um...just kind of fast."

Emily was a great driver. See for yourself.

This one is super shaky...but it's because Emily kept hitting the track.

If Emily looks worried it's because we just got off Thunder Mountain and now we're about to get on Splash Mountain.

This is us in the process of going down the big drop.

So Tower of Terror got it's name for a good reason. We felt terrorized after all the screamers on the ride. (See video)

Last year when we did this ride Hillary won, but this year I came out victorious. But Hillary did get 50% accuracy and mine was only 23% Guess that means I'm just super fast! I'm pretty sure everyone else beat both of us though...what was Paul's score? haha.

Paul was reunited with his people.

This picture is for Emily. I spotted Cinderella across the water.

If you can't tell, we were going for animals. Guess what each person is.

This was the slowest ride we went on all day.

I think Dallin and I win the award for best smile.

This is surprisingly scary.

This was the last ride we did at California Adventure before it closed. We were pretty tired by then and kept joking about getting left on this ride...and then we almost did. The guy in charge of letting us out of our cage was on the phone and almost missed us. Luckily, another worker, working the other side heard us laughing and got us out.

Approximately 10:00 pm, we've been at Disneyland now for 15 hours, finally getting to go on Space Mountain...

Dallin still showing no sign of being tired.

And there you have it. After this we concluded our day with a nap on Pirates of the Caribbean as we waited for Indiana Jones to open back up. We got on the Indiana Jones ride at 11:52, then headed toward the shops. By the time we ended up with everyone back at the van it was about 12:45 am, then Jory drove us all back to Las Vegas. Thanks for driving Jory! We could NOT stay awake.

I like thursdays.

2010-03-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today's been a nice day. I really like thursdays because both of our schedules are less busy this day. It's usually a catching up day, whether it's doing lots of homework, cleaning up the house, or catching an afternoon nap. Today we both did a little of each.

This evening we had some free time so I thought it'd be a good chance to do our taxes. Hillary and I went to the living room to do this and not long after this was the result. :-P

Isn't she cute?! I like her.

Good news, finally some appointments at BYU opened up for free help filing taxes so we didn't actually end up doing them tonight. our appointment is next thursday at 2 o clock. Yes!

While hillary's been catching up on sleep i've just been trying to figure out my graduation plan. I filled out a request to take some classes this spring prior to being admitted into the business management program. I hope they grant my wish. If things work out, it looks like I could graduate after the fall semester 2011. Of course, this is assuming I get accepted to the program for this fall...keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways, time to wrap things up and call it a day. the end.

in the market for a sewing machine

2010-03-18T16:06:00.001-07:00

okay so here it is. i like to sew. turns out i have enough patients to sew and it is almost as relaxing as yoga. almost.

so, as a graduation present to myself, i've decided to buy a sewing machine.

the problem is this: i've read so many reviews that they are all starting to contradict each other.

the only one without any negative remarks is bernina but there's an extra zero on the end of that price that i'm not ready to pay.

does anyone know a good machine that isn't too expensive?

or a good brand that i can find used and know it isn't about to die?

also... here is a picture for rachel cause the one on her blog was really dark

this may have something to do with my bfa.... which goes up april first

be prepared

i also want everyone to know that i went on a walk today and was only wearing shorts and a t shirt! its already begun to get windy and stormy but for the record, it was THAT warm today.

2010-03-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

Who said we were busy?

2010-03-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, we have been pretty busy, but not too busy to pass up our "saturday." because we knew this weekend was so busy, well, busy for hillary, we decided to have our saturday on thursday. After my (matt) classes were over hillary and i went back to springville and our saturday began. we ended up riding our bikes all around springville. we originally wanted to ride our bikes to provo but there isn't really a safe way to do that...so we headed torward wal-mart on the newly paved 4th south.

Despite it being so sunny, it was very cold. (See hillary wiping her nose below)

We're laughing in the picture below because we set the camera timer to take our picture and right as the picture takes this old man rides by on the other side of the ledge that our camera is on and says "hello!" We felt kinda dorky, especially because tons of cars were zooming by at 50 miles an hour at the same time. This was the result.

Hillary was smart and brought a scarf. I think this picture is sweet.

So we made it to the Wal-Mart area and then we saw it, Ihop. We both knew right then what we were having for dinner. We went in and were seriously the only people there.
We got a spinach mushroom omelet and strawberry banana pancakes. It was delightful.

Then we rode home. Wait, we did go to Wal-Mart for some things but then realized he had to get home before the sun was gone...so we left. On our way home we found what I'm pretty sure is a Burger King double cheeseburger. Whoever bought this should have went to Ihop I suppose.

busy busy

2010-03-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

Judging by the dishes in our sink, i think its safe to say we haven't been home much in the past two weeks...

that also means we've gotten a lot done!

for matt, that means he's staying on top of his homework and killing all his tests

for me, that means i only have ONE more photoshoot (well 1 1/2) left for my BFA project (going up april 1st)

this is all thanks to rachel clark for helping me busta move these past two weeks

this weekend we began filming for "Gerald"

it's my friends' capstone project (for film....)

since they are BFF they are doing it together jeremy is the director and chris is the producer

and since i can't show you pictures from my BFA project (i don't know why... just no one will let me) i will show you some from theirs. film majors are so much more down to earth than photography ones...

here is a picture of jeremy

here is a picture of chris (and a bleeding "tucker")

this is the camera they film with (yeah, its a red)

this is what we do when everyone else is setting up

(the rex lee run was today and these guys were cheering them on)

some are runners... some are watchers

and finally, here is gerald

played by naimat moosavi

if you dont recognize the man and the puppet above that is because you haven't watched the tim and eric awesome show, great job on cartoon network that's david liebe hart and chip the black boy) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ZaBEaDMNA watch that for a sample...

this last one is my favorite

one last post for today... i swear

2010-03-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

i just found a whole bunch of pictures from the glenhood

it was a good time.

we have a lot of good twin pictures from that era

this first one of dallin is from when the family stopped by for a few hours on their way to disneyland. we are eating some amazing indian food.

dallin looks like he's blind

and what does his shirt say??

academy award night at keith's

melissa is announcing a winner

(during the commercial break for the actual oscars)

section 8 housing never looked so good

red carpet shots

(i made that dress... kinda)

band photos ... kool-aid mustaches

band photo #2 from when i had yellow hair...

mel had a weird way of picking up guys

a pug show at velour

aaaaand

2010-03-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

and here are some pictures from park city, UT

sliding practice a couple days before vancouver.

just wanting to let you know, that should be ME in that bobsled, Mel and Erika too.

What happened, guys? I could be in the best shape of my life this year and on my first real trip to Canada!

blackmail etc.

2010-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

So i was looking for some photo i had taken a LONG time ago (well it feels like a long time ago) and i ran across a bunch of very blackmail-y pictures i had put on my photobucket back when my password was "donniedarko" and my username was a loudermilk lyric. (it took me FOREVER to remember that info!)

identities will not be disclosed to avoid embarrassment

and i will begin with this cute picture of nate and dal

presh

will someone tell me who this baby is?

for the life of me i cant tell who it is.

we must be related because that is definitely grandpa who is holding him/her

...really cant tell though. dang!

also who is this baby. looks more like a thompson but hasnt really developed any defining features besides the pointy ear... blue jumpsuit makes me lean towards boy...

blackmail for an especially teasy member of my family

first snowboarding experience, 12 years old

how i am fortunate enough not to posses any pictures of myself from this trip, i may never know

mel

2010-01-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

here are some pictures of melissa from a while ago...

i came across them today while i was waiting for a batch to run it's course and they cracked me up

these last ones are from when she thought she was going to be photoshopped as if she was skiing down a mountain....

growing up, this was the face i think i saw the most from her....

maybe i still do...

ceramics etc.

2010-01-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

i made these things in ceramics class

these are my wobbly buildings for flour, sugar, etc

360 view of my "twin" cylindars

uhm. close ups of the circus one....

matt and I got to visit a polynesian ward today because our friend, sili is leaving on a mission this wednesday. all the speakers were wearing leis and at the end sili gave matt and me each our own!!!! i was stoked!!! mine smells amazing!!!

ps. can you tell how sunny it was today!? it's been like this all week. i'm so ready for summer

It was an experiment

2010-01-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Today we made brownies.

I call it Vader Cake.

new semester new haircut

2010-01-09T12:11:00.001-08:00

i also forgot to mention this.. matt got his once-a-semester haircut and shaved his face so he is missing a lot of hair right now. another once-a-semester thing we did yesterday was go to krispy kreme and order a dozen donuts which are nearly gone now. but now we are so sick of krispy kreme we wont want them until next semester

we also made the most AMAZING alfredo sauce. its this intense recipe that my dad got from some chef. i was so nervous i was going to ruin it. only four ingredients but like twelve steps to the recipe. it was delicious.

we were feeling sick so we watched transformers 2 which didn't make anything better.

if either of us have a hear attack in the next couple of years, you know what it's from

(transformers 2 + alfredo sauce of death)

i cut his bangs really short without noticing that the hairs are so small its hard to get them to move anywhere... oh well, i'm an amateur.

ps. matt and i have the same stupid hairline that goes up really high on both sides. our kids will hate us