What a Year! A review of 2013

Facebook has a somewhat cool feature that gives you your top 20 events of the year. I was actually pretty excited to rediscover this feature because I thought it would be fun to reflect on our first full year together and see the highlights that we enjoyed, especially since we have a joint Facebook so it would be our family highlights. So here they are, for your enjoyment: our top 20 moments of 2013 according to Facebook, hopefully in no particular order. Actually, it's chronological, but I'm just glad these aren't ranked!

1. Facebook starts us off with Shantel and Brianne dressing identically in an attempt to trick their parents into mixing them up, and boy did it work! They had Jeff going, and Natalie about had a heart attack. And somehow in the process it all got blamed on me and Natalie still accuses me of lying to her. I promise, I didn't!

 2. One of our top moments of the year was my sister Natalie winning a mini-basketball signed by Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies, and Matt Carlino. Apparently Facebook wanted to rub it in as much as Nat did.

 3. The good news is, one of our top moments was me being funny. But how disgusting was that injury?! So horrible.

4. Another of our top moments was a random comment left on our wall by my best friend. Are we really that bad at social media?

 5. I'm choosing to believe that this top moment was actually our trip to Maryland, and not just the fact that we added a new photo.

 6. Shantel and I were able to play a lot of softball together this summer, but according to Facebook the actual highlights were when Shantel was able to watch me play softball. Or perhaps it was her subtly comparing me to the Sultan of Swat?

 7. Again, Facebook thinks I'm really funny! But my mom really is awesome.

 8. Because we don't add enough photos, it's a great moment when other people add photos of us, or in this case Shantel. Here are some pictures of Shantel at dinner and at the Temple to Temple 5k. Dinner is a daily occurrence, but getting out and running in a 5k with your sisters isn't, so I suppose that's a worthy one to add to the list!

 9. My television fame is quite well known, so it makes perfect sense that it would make the highlight list when Stacey, also of Studio C fame, sends me a picture of me in the Studio C writer's room.

 10. We got to wear BYU football uniforms and helmets. That was pretty cool!

 11. While Shantel and I were in Maryland, we got some family photos taken. Excluding our wedding, it was our first set of family photos since 2008, and also the first family photos Shantel and I had participated in. A monumental event to be sure!

 12. In fact, it was such a historic moment that Facebook included it twice.

 13. We were very relieved to see that all of the hard work we put into this year's Halloween costumes was appreciated. Okay, okay. Without exaggeration, it could not have possibly been any more last minute. Literally.

 14. I'm choosing to believe that the first time anyone has ever said I had a beard was the top moment, and not the fact that my wife accused me of cheering for the Red Sox.

 15. This one we both absolutely agree with. We celebrated our first anniversary in 2013!

 16. It was also the first time in a few years that Shantel's family took family pictures, and considering how much Facebook loved my family's pictures, it was no surprise to see these on the list as well.

 17. Not only was it a fun little trip to Park City and the first time either of us had ever gone to a skeleton competition, it was really cool to see my good from from England representing his country in an international competition!

 18. Keith was mad enough that I took this picture and put it on Facebook. Imagine how upset he'll be when he finds out it made our top 20.

 19. Glad to see that Facebook is a Rockies fan and was supporting me in my efforts to obtain this card. If anyone was wondering, it worked. I bought it for myself for Christmas.

 20. Well Facebook actually only gave us 19, in spite of it saying, clear as day, "A look at your 20 biggest moments on Facebook." Apparently we're so lame on Facebook that we only earned 19. And no, I'm not offended that it didn't include a single one of the posts from my sports blog even though it had room for one more and included three posts of only two sets of family photos.

**********

After reading through that list, you probably think we had a pretty lame year, but we didn't! I promise! We put together a list of our top 20 (don't worry, we're giving you the full 20, and even one honorable mention), according to us, and not some social media site that we clearly aren't very good at using. We had a really exciting year, so here they are, in chronological-ish order, because true chronological order just didn't flow as well.

It's us! Can't you tell?

1. I dyed my first Easter egg. Yep, you read that correctly. I had never dyed an Easter egg until I was 23 years old. But thankfully Shantel had, so she could show me the ropes! I made us, and I also made Troy Tulowitzki and Jackson Emery.

2. If you know me (which, if you're reading this blog, you probably know me quite well) you know that March is my Christmas. I LOVE college basketball, and the NCAA tournament is my favorite part of every year. I convinced Shantel to fill out a bracket, and we posted them on our wall. We actually filled out an NIT bracket this year as well since BYU didn't make the Big Dance. We also placed bets on each of the brackets, with the loser of one needing to plan a date we had never been on, and the loser of the other needing to give the winner a 10 minute massage. Naturally, with all my basketball expertise and knowledge of the college basketball landscape, I lost both of the competitions. In fact, Shantel did so well that she nearly accomplished something I have never managed to do in my entire life: it came down to the national title game, and she narrowly lost to my dad. On the one hand I was relieved that I didn't get shown up on that front, but on the other hand I would have been so proud! But 2014 is my year. I'm going to beat them both.

Woohoo! 

3. This highlight, were these in order of awesomeness, would certainly be at or near the top. Shantel finished up her degree in Recreation Management, and was even lucky enough to get that degree from BYU's Marriott School of Management. She now relentlessly rubs in the fact that I'm not done yet and that maybe one day I'll be as smart as her and have a college degree. Okay, so she doesn't actually do that, but I would if I was her. So congratulations, Shan!

4. Unfortunately, graduation also meant the end of her student job at BYU's Law School that she had held since her freshman year. She was sad to leave, but after a few weeks of searching she accepted a job at Prudential as an administrative assistant. She didn't love it, but she was grateful to have a job! One of her favorite things about that job was that HGTV was always on in there, so she got a lot of cool decorating ideas for our future homes. She also had a decent amount of down time that she could read and watch shows on her phone. So not what she envisioned coming out of college, but *SPOILER ALERT* she didn't stay there long! But we'll get to that later.

5. Shantel's new job was in American Fork, about 15 or 20 minutes away by car, so we decided we would no longer be able to get by without a car. And so, we went out and bought a new Toyota Corolla, with no interest, so that was nice. His name is CarGo. He's named after Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies, but we thought it was a very clever name. Ya know, because he's a Car. And he helps us Go.

Us at the White House

6. Just before Shan started her new job, and just before CarGo joined our family, we took our first vacation together. We went out to visit my family in Maryland, and got to tour around DC, Baltimore, and a few other really cool places. If you need a refresher on the events of that vacation, click here.

7. Around this time I started a new job with BYU Sports Camps as a camp planner. I realized that I had kind of reached my glass ceiling at security, and there were really no more resume building experiences I could have there. I was casually looking for a new job and just kind of stumbled into this opportunity. And it was a great opportunity! I had the opportunity to plan the camps for rugby, football, lacrosse, and diving, so I got to work closely with those coaching staffs and athletes and it was a lot of fun!

Sounds like Assistant Dean to me!

8. Not long after my new job, Shantel was contacted by one of her former coworkers at the Law School. She told Shan that she was leaving the Law School and that she should come back and take her spot. Long story short, she went back! She was very excited to return there as staff. She is now the Assistant to the Dean of Students, or as I like to call her, Assistant Dean. It is currently only a three-quarter position but we're hoping she gets made full-time very soon!

9. For those of you who know me, you know I love movies. For those of you know Shantel, you know she loves movies. For those of you who know both of us, you know we like to watch a lot of movies together. This past summer though we babysat my sister's movie collection while she was, shall we say, "between homes." Unfortunately pretty much the only movies that she has that we were interested in are movies that we already owned as well, however, she did own all eight seasons of Full House. It wasn't long before we were fully committed (not to mention challenged by Natalie) to watch every single episode before we had to return them. So we did it. And it was awesome. And it started a new routine with us. We're now watching several TV series together. We already have our shows that we follow. Suits, Psych, White Collar. We like USA shows. Clearly.

Now we're watching NCIS together. I watched the first four or five seasons before my mission, but we started at the beginning and recently got caught up! Don't judge us. And now in the early going of 2014 we are all caught up on BBC's Sherlock, and we're just getting started on Leverage and The Middle. I swear we're not lazy, we just love being entertained!

10. Right near the beginning of my fall semester, Shan and I made our first road trip together. We went to Colorado and visited some of my mission. It was a lot of fun! We stayed with the Olsons, probably my favorite family from my time there. Okay, not probably. They were definitely my favorite family. Shantel learned to love them pretty quick, too. Their three girls especially. We still quote them ("Nailed it!") and laugh about their ability to quote movies. Thanks for letting us stay with you guys! If you would like to refresh on that vacation click... Wait, never mind. I never got around to writing about that one. Oops! Here's a little more about it in highlight number 11:

11. The reason for our trip was a birthday surprise to me from Shantel. Surprise probably isn't the right word though because the following conversation happened a little before my birthday:

Shan: "How much am I allowed to spend on you for your birthday?"

Me: "Well, that depends."

Shan: "On what?"

Me: "Well if you're planning something like a trip to Colorado to see a Rockies game, you can spend whatever you want!"

Shantel's first Coors Field experience

She then got this stunned, "How did you know?" sort of look on her face. And that is how I found out what I was getting for my birthday. 

Her present was actually more than that. The week of my birthday was dubbed "Baseball Week," and it was awesome! We watched baseball movies, a Rockies game on TV, played catch, and went to an Orem Owlz game (they're the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim). Then she gave me tickets to our future Rockies game.

The game itself was fun. Well as fun as it could be with the Rockies losing. Todd Helton was sitting on 2,499 hits, so we were excited at the possibility of seeing him hit number 2,500! Of course he went 0-4, striking out three times and flying out to the warning track in center. Oh, well! We did get to see Corey Dickerson hit a MONSTER home run to right field. It was such a no-doubter that Jay Bruce didn't even bother to turn around and watch it, let alone run after it. So certainly a fun and worthwhile trip, no question!

2013 Carriage Cove Pirates

12. Facebook almost got it right. Facebook said the highlight was that Shantel got to watch me play softball, but really the highlight was that we got to play a lot of softball together! We were on two different teams together during the summer. The first was a BYU intramural team with some couples from our old ward. We were really, really bad. Like really bad. And we ended up having to forfeit our schedule before the regular season was even over because we couldn't get enough people to show up. But we also got to play on an Orem city league team with Shantel's sisters' apartment complex. That team wasn't horrible. I mean, we weren't great, and we had some, umm, interesting personalities on the team. But we did manage to come in second in the tournament in our division! Hopefully we get to play on many more softball teams together! Shantel hadn't really played before, but she was getting goooood!

13. This year was, in a way, defined by new (or new-ish) experiences. We went to a lot of events that neither of us had been to before, or maybe it was just the first or second time for one of us. And that's not even mentioning our vacations, which were obviously our first together. Here are some of the highlights:

The first was one that wasn't new at all for either of us. We went to A LOT of BYU games for a variety of sports. Of course that primarily consisted of football and basketball (because I have only missed one home football game and I have missed zero home basketball games during my time here at BYU), but there were a few games of baseball, women's basketball, and a few others.

BYU 0, Denver 9,074. Or something like that.

One of those was a BYU hockey game. I've been to some hockey games in the past, including one BYU game, but it was a new one for Shantel. And it was fun! Granted, BYU is awful, and they were playing a really good team in the University of Denver, so we got absolutely rocked, but it was still a blast! We got to sit front row, right behind the glass, and that worked out perfectly. Why? Because we got the best seats imaginable for the most viscous check I have ever seen. Literally right in front of us, as a Denver player went after a loose puck along the boards he got blindsided by a kid from BYU. Miraculously it didn't shatter the glass into our faces, but it sure busted up that Denver guy's shoulder. He immediately dropped his stick and skated for his bench with his arm hanging limp by his side as though something is his should had broken, or at the very least popped out. It was nuts!

We also went to several baseball games throughout the summer, aside from the aforementioned Rockies game and BYU games. As Pass of All Passes holders, we have season tickets to the Orem Owlz. Shantel humored me and allowed us to go to a few games during the summer, including back-to-back nights when the Grand Junction Rockies were in town. We showed up to those games in our Rockies gear and rooted against the home town team in favor of the Single-A affiliate of my Colorado Rockies. We were graciously acknowledged by the Rockies left fielder, and we ticked off a lot of Owlz fans. But it was awesome. And we cheered for the Owlz against everyone else!

Shantel and I with an international star!

During the summer we also went to the Draper Days Rodeo, which is something of a tradition for Shantel's family. It was only my second rodeo (the first coming the year before when Shan and I were dating), and we had fun. I'm actually way out of my element at a rodeo. Not many other people showed up in gym shorts, tee shirts, and tennis shoes, but I had Shantel with me so I survived!

Another of the cool experiences, as Facebook alluded to above, that we had in 2013 was the chance to go to Park City to watch my good friend Tom compete in skeleton. He's on Great Britain's national team, so it was really cool to go and see him compete and spend a little time with him. Shantel and I had never been to a skeleton event, so it was fun to experience something brand new to both of us!

Hopefully 2014 is filled with these kind of events, because we definitely enjoy them!

14. We started off the year in a married student ward, the same ward we joined when we were married. After a while, however, we started to feel like it wasn't for us. For one, it felt like a glorified singles ward, and we were trying to be all grown up. But more than that it just didn't feel quite right for us. And so we switched over to the family ward, and it has been awesome. There were equally great people in both wards, but we immediately felt at home in the family ward. So, moral of the story, follow the Spirit. The married student ward is perfect for some, but God helped us realize that the family ward was perfect for us. 

15. One of the really big highlights was my internship with BYU Athletic Marketing. It has been awesome. I get to go to all the games, be on the sidelines, court, field, etc. There are still times where I'm sitting on the press row or team bench in the Marriott Center and I just look up in awe of where I am. Freshman Tim never could have imagined. Heck, Junior Tim wouldn't have dreamt this up either. It's been amazing. 

Me and my sideline pass at the Homecoming game.

And it's especially awesome because they really like me. They give me a lot of experience and responsibility, and they've come to rely on me for a few things, especially a new fan loyalty rewards program that I was tasked with implementing and overseeing. 

It's been really cool to be a part of something I have always loved and been a fan of, and it has been great to reach out to BYU fans in the community and around the world. 

And if anyone knows of any jobs in athletic marketing, sports in general, or even just marketing, please let me know! I'm going to need a job when I graduate in June.  

16. If you need to review Friday the 13th, the mice, and our new bed frame, please click here.

17. Moving to the new ward also meant a new calling for me. I was called to be the Scouting Committee Chairman for the ward. I realized very quickly that I didn't have a clue about scouting anymore. I earned my Eagle Scout over eight years ago and haven't done anything with scouting since. My first task was to recharter all the scouting units for the ward, and that was a monster of a project. In fact, just earlier this week I was informed that I wasn't quite done. Bummer. But overall it is nice to be involved, especially in something as great and important as the Boy Scouts. That being said, the Boy Scouts of America is one of the least efficient organizations in the country. But that's okay. I still believe in it!

See! An old man!

And a little side note, Shan just got a new calling as the first counselor in the Young Women's organization. But her calling came in 2014, so that's why it didn't get it's own section. Maybe next year!

18. November 17 was our first anniversary! We did it! We made it through the first year! And Shantel still loves me!

Our anniversary was on a Sunday this year, so that severely limited what we could do, but we still made the most of it! A couple nights early we went bowling. Simple, but fun! 

Then on Sunday we had our traditional meal that we have on the 17th of each month. French bread pizza topped with pepperoni, olives, and pineapple. And our traditional drink of Martinelli's sparkling cider. It's the best. Then we also had year old wedding cake that we had frozen. Because apparently that's a thing. 

We also, of course, exchanged gifts. Shantel got me some Rockies slippers, some glasses (with lenses that don't actually do anything. Very thoughtful actually, because for some weird reason I've always wanted glasses), and a newspaper that recapped our year. Put that all together and Shan turned me into an old man reading the paper wth his slippers and glasses. Pretty funny!

Oh, Christmas tree...

I gave Shantel a Christmas tree because...

19. Our anniversary is on the 17th and Shantel's birthday is on the 25th and Shantel LOVES Christmas, so I decided to turn that nine day stretch into Christmas kickoff week. It was an especially meaningful gift because Shantel knows that I don't believe in starting Chistmas until at least December, if not until after my dad's birthday on the 16th. 

Every day I gave her a different Christmas themed gift, kind of like the 12 days of Christmas, only 9 days, and in November, and without any singing. But anyway, that week was fun. It was fun to surprise her with something new every day, and it was fun to help build her excitement for Christmas, as if she even needed any help with that!

20. Speaking of Christmas, of course Shantel's favorite holiday gets its own highlight. We spent the couple days leading up to Christmas with Shantel's family. We played games, played basketball, watched a bunch of movies, and tried to stay up late as if we're still young enough to pull that off. Aging happens quick once you're married!

Shantel's mom gave us all really nice sweats for our pajamas, and we received a lot of very nice and very thoughtful gifts, ranging from clothes to movies to games, and a lot of things in between. 

Jaren's gift on the left, Brianne's on the right.

But perhaps the real highlight was how we wrapped the gifts that we gave to Brianne and Jaren. We were giving Brianne a tennis racket and tennis balls and had no idea how to wrap them. But I came home from my internship one day to discover that Shantel had come up with a solution. She had made a wrapping paper snow man. It was awesome.

So then we decided to turn Jaren's gift - a BYU basketball themed array of presents including a basketball, shirt, hat, beanie, and tickets - into a reindeer. The hat was the head, the beanie the tail, and the ball was the body. Everything else filled in. Our biggest fear is that we've set the bar too high for future gifts, so we apologize if it isn't that awesome for any of your gifts in the future. 

Family, fun, and amazing wrapping jobs. A very merry Christmas it was!

And now, as a bonus, since Facebook robbed you of one...

They're not tampons.

Honorable Mention: I had the first nose bleed of my entire life. Serious! I had never had one until last year. And Shantel didn't give it to me, I promise. It was actually during a soccer game. I was the goalie, and it was the first round of the playoffs. I came out for a ball and the other team's forward tried to spin off our defender, and when he did his elbow swung around, right into my nose. Play stopped for a few minutes, Shantel rushed onto the field to patch me up, and the intramural people handed me things to stick up my nose. I completed the game and got the shutout victory!

Shantel also got a bloody nose this year, though it was not her first. It came during softball season. We were at a practice, and she was taking grounders at second base. The field we were on was not well taken care of, and one of the grounders was coming to her low and with some pace on it. Now Shantel was naturally very good at moving her feet and getting in front of ground balls, but it didn't work out in her favor this time. It hit something in the ground and spiked up into her face hard. I have never seen that much blood in my life.

So there you have it. Two bloody noses, a ton of events, new experiences, and a more fun that you could even imagine! 2013 was a good year, and I'll bet that 2014 will be even better. Although, the one Friday the 13th of 2014 will occur days before I'm supposed to graduate... Excuse my while I go and buy a rabbits foot. I'll probably even search for a four leaf clover while I'm out.