the adventure of the par-tay!

So every year birthdays seem to get less and less exciting and start to freak me out more and more that I am a legitimate adult now. I guess being in law school, one should consider themselves an adult, but I still think of myself like I'm twelve years old. Although birthdays aren't as exciting anymore, they do really show you how much everyone around you really cares about you and loves you.

For my birthday this year Spencer, my family, and Spence's family all chipped in to get me a SUPER nice set of Callaway golf clubs! Spencer even relented to my wishes and got me a U of U golf towel. Even though chipping in for one big gift isn't as exciting for everyone, we are so appreciative of our families going in on it with Spence or else there is no way we could afford it!

We celebrated by birthday with my family on Sunday and my mom made "heaven on earth." It is just chicken and rice with a tarragon cream sauce, but oh my, is it heavenly! My cute grandparents came over to celebrate, and it meant so much to me because my sweet little Grandma has such a hard time getting around now and every movement of her's just looks so painful! She is one of the kindest people I have ever met and I'm so happy she is still around to make us laugh with her spunk! My mom also made strawberry shortcake which is most definitely a birthday favorite of mine.

On my actual birthday, I woke up to a delicious waffle breakfast from Spence. I then opened up the cutest pair of pink croquet toms and White Collar Season 3. Couldn't ask for anything better! Then the exciting part of my day came around...work, then cleaning the house. yay. By the time the house was clean, it was time to head over to Terra Mia for dinner with my cute friends. We all came back to my house for cake and ice cream, with delicious cake provided by Jessica. Thanks!

The birthday celebration CONTINUED on Saturday with a trip with the the Bevan's to Joe Morley's. This was my family's favorite place to go growing up and I was really excited to share the experience with my new family! It was delicious as always (if you go, chopped pork, ribs, onion chips and baked beans are the BEST!) and there was even live music. Dave filmed the singer, who was seriously amazing, like AMAZING,  so we decided he should get 20% of royalties if he gets famous off of YouTube. Too bad we didn;t catch his last name...not sure how that will work out haha. We ended the night with a game of reverse charades (my team won, and as you could imagine, this did not make Spencer happy because he was on the opposite team) and delicious Cold Stone cake (french vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, caramel, white chocolate mix ins and yellow cake...to die for!).

the adventure of the .... relief!

Well... Spence finally finished the DAT!! I could not be more proud of him! He worked so hard, studied so hard, and prayed so hard to do well! His score was exactly was we have been aiming for so we feel extremely blessed. It looks like the dream of dental school will actually become a reality. Now comes the time of applying...hopefully interviewing...and waiting. But now that the test is over, we both feel like summer can officially begin!

So I didn't want to buy the balloons before I knew what his score was because I knew if he wasn't happy with it- he would NOT want balloons and a Congratulations sign! So the second he called me and told me his score I had to run to Zurchers. Literally run ...because we only have one car at the moment. I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was crazy running up the street with balloons! But I got home right when he pulled into the driveway so it was perfect timing!

I seriously was freaking out when he was taking the test, pacing, praying, pacing, praying and I couldn't imagine what he was going through! So happy it all worked out! Congrats Spence!

the adventure of the ....catch up!

Ok... ok... I completely abandoned the blog. Oops, oh well, too bad for you. During finals/school I just didn't have the time...then I just got lazy, I mean does it really matter. But I decided I couldn't keep it abandoned forever so if anyone is curious as to what we have been up to lately here is breakdown that I tried to make as short possible. I don't blame ya if you don't get through it all...there was a lot that happened!

April...Spence and I both finished school for the year leaving only one more year left at BYU! Yahoo for only one more year in Utah Valley!! After living in Provo then Orem, I do have to say that Orem is about a million times better than living in student central Provo, BUT we are both pretty much ready to be out of Utah County and on to dental school...somewhere!

My little sister Julie also got engaged! I still can't really believe my little sis is going to be a married woman. Blows my mind but I couldn't be more excited for her. Scott is such a sweetheart and fits perfectly into our family. We are so excited to have him and I am excited to have another couple to do stuff with!

May... I started work...with 3 jobs and a flute student! Slightly crazy. But I enjoyed it all. I was an extern with Novell, the social media manager with Marketing Orange, and a Research Assistant for a BYU Law Professor.  Sadly I think my cooking suffered this month, and cleaning, and yard work...oh and laundry! But luckily my externship just ended so I will be able to get back to more of a normal life again!

Spence has been studying his little heart out for the DAT! I know he'd appreciate any good vibes and prayers sent his way this Saturday morning! He has been studying so hard and I know it will pay off. He will start applying to dental schools this coming Monday so things are starting to get exciting over here.


We decided since we weren't going on any trips this summer- we would get a season golf pass at East Bay Golf Course. We get up bright and early every Tuesday and Thursday to play a round of golf. Cute Spence got me super nice Callaway golf clubs as an early birthday present and I love them! However I don't think that I have every played a sport that is almost unbearably frustrating one minute, then completely fun and satisfying the next! There are days that we both are hitting great and then days when onlookers may think we have never picked up a club in our lives! Seriously though...I was so happy with my improvement one week and then for about a week I literally couldn't even hit the ball off the tee.I'm serious here. Sooo annoying. But I am hoping by the end of the summer, we both will have improved overall and be playing well consistently.

Yay for new clubs, and a SWEET golf towel!!

We also got a Pass of all Passes. So far we went mini golfing at Trafalga and to the Blaze game with my familia. Yep, pretty much everything with this pass has a hint of ghetto to it, but we're embracing it  whole-heartily and are going to have a blast at Seven Peaks, Blaze Games, Moto Cross, and Bees games this summer. We just hope they hurry up and post a new Real Game because Spence has never been to one!

                                 (And yes I got a sweet hole in one at Trafalga...booya!)

(Notice the glasses? Well they have almost become a permanent attachment to my face. I have never had such bad allergies in my life as I have had this year...thus the lovely glasses! Can't wait for the day I get Lasik!! But seriously, I don't think going through a box of tissues in a week is normal)

The highlight of the month was probably Liz and Ben's wedding. We spent several Saturday's getting their grandparent's yard in shape for a wedding and meticulously watched the weather for chances of rain. Of course the only chance of rain for the entire week was on her wedding day! We had worked so hard on the yard and were praying we didn't have to move inside. Thankfully, the rain came during the ceremony and by the time they came out of the temple, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Everything turned out beautiful and Liz looked absolutely gorgeous! We are so happy for Liz and Ben!

This month we also celebrated our first year anniversary. I cannot believe it has already been a year! I am so lucky to have married such an awesome man! I love how much fun we have together and how similar we are! While we obviously have our differences personality-wise, our interests are very similar so we seem to always want to be doing the same thing. We love the same restaurants, are obsessed with sushi, love golfing and doing stuff outside, and also both love to relax and get into new t.v. shows- which we become addicted to and end up watching the whole season or series...we even love the same shows so there is never any question about what we want to watch! I know we won't always agree on everything, but its really nice to be so similar so that life becomes easy-going and fun. For our anniversary we were going to do a little weekend adventure at Zermatt, eat at Ruth's Chris and then do the bobsled and alpine slide and the Olympic Park but with Spencer's DAT soon approaching we decided to go more low key by going to dinner and watching the Vow together and eating our cute cake! We are now saving our adventure for AFTER the DAT. So excited for it!

Memorial Day weekend was quite the whirlwind adventure. On Saturday we spent the entire day- 8 hours- working on our yard. Our yard has crazy weeds, our sprinklers were broken, and we just hadn't had the time to give it the spring clean-up it needed. However, we got all of the weeds out and bought 28, yes 28 bags of mulch. Let me tell ya...those bags are heavy. I am still sore from all the lifting and squatting from that weekend! But our yard looks amazing! We are so happy that it finally looks great and we can enjoy it now.

Saturday night I went up to Park City with all my girlfriends for Brittany's bacherolette party. It was such a fun night of food, hot tubbing, and games and the perfect relaxation after a hard day's work. Being married and living in Orem makes it hard to see my friends, so this was such a great time to have fun and catch up with all the girls.

On Monday, we had Sue's Amazing Belgian Waffles and headed out to the Tracy Aviary. I hadn't been there in years and we all loved it. There have been some new updates to the park and it turned out to be a fun outing. We then went down to City Creek so my dad could finally see it. I think that it may be a good thing I don't live in Salt Lake right now, because everytime I go to City Creek I am literally in heaven. There is something about the atmosphere, the stores, even the smell that I just LOVE! Can't wait for the day that we aren't students anymore and don't feel guilty going shopping!

We ended the weekend with a day at the Wright's pool and watched Ben and Liz open their presents. The day started off a little chilly, but thankfully they keep their pool 90 degrees and the sun decided to come out! I even got a little sunburn which secretly made me happy (shhh I know its not good for me!)

Oh and I just had to add this little gem below. So Liz threw up on a McDonald's burger when she was a little kid and has never had one since! We decided she HAD to have one before she got married and finally decided Smashburger was the best place to go for her first experience. We have literally been talking about this for MONTHS! And you will never believe what happens...Liz's burger was honestly the WORST burger I have ever tasted from them....completely DRY with the sauce forgotten. We all thought she was just fakin' it saying how gross it was but then we tried it and agreed! She ended up getting a new one but I'm pretty sure that experience just made her even more against burgers!

The adventure of the Mossy Mountain

So this past month has been a busy one for me and Mary.  Much of the fun has come from being with our families.  In the midst of all the wonderful school and tests that have depressed me over the past few weeks, Mary has been living the good life with a nice spring break.  She even decided that she needed to get out of Orem for the break.  Ok, she did have a lot of work to do in Salt Lake for her internship, but nevertheless, I was home alone for three days studying my guts out for an impossibly hard organic chemistry test.  It was a lonely few days, but we both had lots to do so it didn't seem like too long away from each other.

Anyway, Valentine's day was right after my last post so I never got to recap on it.  No it wasn't a cliche filled day with rose petals and a candlelit dinner like so many do. Instead, it was a four o' clock dinner at Macaroni Grill because I didn't think it was going to be crazy on a Tuesday night.  Obviously, I was wrong.  Yep, so me being the very unromantic gentleman, had Mary call to get a reservation that afternoon and all they had was 9:00 pm or 4:45 and so she decided to hang up and ask me if we wanted to do that.  Well we had a movie at 7:30, so we agreed that it was better than nothing to eat at 4:45.  She called back in the matter of seconds and they said that the 4:45 had just been taken and the only time they had now was 4:15.  We were both like, what the heck! So it ended up that we were sitting in an empty restaurant eating a so-called dinner.  It didn't really make sense to me why we had to eat at 4:15  when there were ten people in the restaurant.  It was my first time eating there, and Mary told me how much she loved the bread. She definitely does love the bread, because the whole loaf was gone in a matter of seconds. It was really good, despite the fact that I have never had dinner so early before.


After eating our linner,  we went to see the movie This Means War.  I'm not going to lie, I think I wanted to see it more than Mary.  I saw the commercial that had Reese Witherspoon with a paintball gun and just accidentally drilling the guy she was with right in the sweet spot just made me split a gut.  If you don't know this, the movie is about two secret agents fighting over Reese Witherspoon and using all their spy stuff to ruin the other person's chances of getting her.  Neither of us were disappointed because we were laughing hysterically. It might have been all that lemonade we had drank at Macaroni Grill or just the fact that everyone else was laughing, but when that paintball scene happened, they= commercial didn't even show the best part.  When a spy meets paintball/trying to win a girl over there's mayhem.  The guy had a paintball grenade that blew up in a room full of kids and he pulled off some twelve-year-old kid off a tower.  He single handedly took out all the kids, and then Reese Witherspoon took the spy out with a single shot to his man stuff.  Obviously even the best of spies have a weak spot, or just all men.  Once I got married I didn't realize how easy it is for my wife to take me out if she wants too.

On President's Day, my dad decided to treat us to a day of skiing up at Brighton.  It was a beautiful day.  New snow and sunshine to boot!  It was so much fun and Mary even got her cheese fries.  My sister Liz was rocking her full body pink suit and pure white shapka.  I can't believe how many funny looks she got.  It was hilarious...she even got in a picture or two with some boys trying to sneak a camera shot of her.  Dinner the day before was also a blast.  We had a great family night with the Bevan side and couldn't believe it when my Grandpa told me about joining the Navy for getting through dental school.  It was really ironic.  He said that I should definitely join the Navy and not the Air Force even though my other grandpa would say otherwise.  My Grandpa Bevan served in the Navy and Grandpa Wright served in the Air Force. Tough decision, but it will mainly depend on the spots available.  We had fun watching our little cousins, Tate and Luke, try to wrestle each other to the ground even though one of them can barely walk.  It was too funny to watch.


After all that, the coolest thing still hadn't happened yet until last night and that's why I decided to give it a whirl and write it down. My sister-in-law, Julie,  became an official rock star with her band's release of their first CD.  Her band is called Brady Parks and the IndiAnns.  They are on iTunes and I hope whoever reads this will check them out. The CD is called Mossy Mountain.  It is amazing!  Julie plays the violin and pretty much makes the band.  It's a great CD and well worth the money. They need all the support they can get! Anyway, it was a fun night because we had dinner with Mary's family and the Youngs (family friends) over at our place before the concert and Sue cooked us up an amazing BBQ salad that makes my mouth water thinking about.  John and I had some time to play some halo with the Young boys and it was a blast.  Later that night, we all drove down to the Muse Music Cafe in Provo to listen the Julie's band rock their whole new album and celebrate its release.  It was so good! Finally got to meet Julie's boyfriend, Scott, as well.  He graduated my same year but from Skyline and he's super chill.  Hopefully Mary and I gave a good enough impression that we'll be able to hang out with them sometime.


Well the last thing to write about was our carnival we had for our primary this morning.  All I can say is that I have quite the amazing wife.  I mean she set up this whole carnival booth called a cakewalk.  It is probably quite sad that I had never heard of one until this morning.  It was supposed to be about family so we made these pictures and put them around on the ground and then played music while they walked around in a circle till the music stopped.  Then they picked up their picture and it had different things that were either good for a family (i.e. FHE, scripture study) or bad for the family (i.e. fighting)  and had them race to put them in the right pile.  What makes Mary so amazing is that the music was barely audible from all the noise in the gym so she made up the music herself as she went.  I, on the other hand, was starting to get super impatient because we had to explain this game to eight different groups of kids of all ages.  Some got the game and others didn't. Surprisingly, the younger kids had a better handle on the game than the older kids.  But what I learned about Mary that day is how awesome of a mom she is going to be.  I respect her so much for her patience with each group and the amount of effort she put into the game to make it work even when the music didn't really work.  I wasn't very happy to be with so many rowdy kids, but my wife made it seem so easy.  I love her for that! It's still a ways away for us, but I know my kids are gonna be in good hands.  I'm not worried at all for her...it's me who's gotta work on it. As usual...

The adventure of the Spencer

        Well I (Spencer), finally decided to dive into the whole blogging experience with a renewed attempt to both increase my writing ability, which has not see any daylight since my life has been consumed by chemistry, biology, and physiology classes, and to hopefully allow some of my fellow peeps and peepettes to see a side of me that they have never seen before. By that I mean to make a stamp on the Internet world that never is seen on Facebook, Twitter, or any of that crap that is consumed by many.   I, on the other hand, previously consumed things that were more worth my time such as video games and video games.  Yeah that's about it, exciting right?  With a recent pact with my inner soul to give up a few of my internal cravings for a controller and some Modern Warfare, I've decided to entreat our blog with a place that I can freely write what is currently on my mind for all of you to read.  I wouldn't say that my writings will entertain you or even bring you closer to what I think about each day, but rather I have always loved to write and haven't found a place to put them.

       'Nuff said about that.  Mary currently is sitting in her usual position on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her a dozen or so times and a laptop that has a dual setup of Facebook/work.   Nine times out of ten, I am sitting right next to her watching an episode of pretty much anything.  Many of you probably know that Mary and I are a little bit on the TV junkie side of the couch, but who can blame you when there are so many awesome shows to watch.  Currently I decided to pick up where I left off on the 24 series because before my mission I only got through season four.  Since the beginning of my binge of 24, I have come to realize how much I hate President Logan.  I mean talk about the worst President ever.  (spoiler!) Why did they have to kill of President Palmer and keep Logan around.  Honestly, if the all-state guy ran for President right now, I'd vote for him.  After going cold turkey with video games, who wouldn't replace Modern Warfare with 24. Talk about replacing fire with fire.

       I guess I won't talk about the dozens of shows that I am absolutely loving this season, but instead I'll turn my attention to more real events that our going on in our overly exciting time of our lives.  On the note of Valentines day, we decided to take advantage of our gift cards. Free dinner and movie, thank you very much!  Of course I have a little surprise for Mary, but it's nothing too special.  I think this Valentines day was pretty memorable just because of what Mary just barely did only thirty minutes ago.  Mary had just gotten home from an interview for the Education Law Journal board for next year.  I was in study trying to find some stuff for school and an electrician was in our kitchen fixing a couple outlets.  Well. she didn't know that he was in there and I hear her walk into the kitchen and say to who she thought was ME, "Happy Valentines Day!" in her typical goofy voice. I can only imagine her shock when she realized she just said that to a complete stranger!  I walk out in the hall and she is almost falling over laughing as she tries to explain how the electrician had looked at her like she was a crazy person when she had said that to him.  I had to go over and say sorry about my crazy wife to him so he wouldn't feel as awkward anymore.

        Many of you probably know about the fun project going on in our basement.  Total destruction. Anyway, part of this project involves putting some new electrical in our kitchen, hence the electrician tonight.  Anyway for the past hour and a half, our power has gone on and off in our living room and finally the whole house went dark.  Some not so very nice words flew out of the electricians mouth as I heard a nice pop go off as it went dark.  About five minutes later, light finally came back on and a few more choice words erupted from the kitchen.  Man do I love construction!  I think a lot of it had to do with the already faulty electrical that is all over this house.  I love my plaster walls and moldy pipes!

       With so many great things to talk about in exciting lives, I have to stop typing eventually and get back to more important things like homework with a mix of Alcatraz.  I love that show.  Anyway, many of you probably know that I am trying to get into dental school and recently learned about the Navy/Army scholarship program that allows you to to go to dental school with all expenses paid.  The drawback is that you have to serve in the Army/Navy for the amount of years that you are in dental school.  If anyone who actually reads this knows someone who has done this let me know what they thought of their experience it would be nice to know.

     That's all I have to add in the first adventure of the Spencer...signing off.

the adventure of the new year!

What can I say about 2011...

Well just that it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!! I finished my first year of law school, married the love of my life, cruised around Mexico, San Francisco (twice!), and So Cal. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better year.

Spence and I finished our tough finals and ended the year in Salt Lake, spending much needed time with our families.

Just a few highlights from the holidays...

CPK and the light's with our friends the Hogans

BYU and Utah's Bowl wins!! Both nail-biters!

Golfing on Jan 2nd. Never thought that day would come in Utah!

Dance off with the cousins for mi madre's B-day

Liz (my sister-in-law) got engaged to cute Ben Zanger

The Bevan epidemic! (7 out of 9 terribly sick, not really a highlight but definitely memorable)

Sleeping in as late as we wanted. (With 8:00 class that was one of our best Christmas gifts!)

Delicious holiday food... Brie, homemade rolls, gumbo, homemade chicken cordon bleu Lindt truffles, homemade caramels, Martinellis

An abundance of thoughtful and wonderful gifts! Much gratitude to our awesome families

MI4 and Sherlock with the fam

My new pillow creations thanks to the fabulous skills of Sue

Now onto 2012!

The Bevan's are doing Biggest Loser until May (so we all look smashing at Liz's wedding) and the winner gets some sweet prize money. We really REALLY want to win! Spence and I looking forward to finding new, healthy recipes and and running and "Just Dancing" together in the mornings.

Also, Spence begins his DAT prep course this month and I start an externship with Judge Nuffer in SLC.

Let the adventures continue!