This Year in Review

As we come towards the close of this great year (tells you how it's taken me to write this thing), it's time to see what I've done over the past few months. Here's a spoiler, it's a pretty good one.

At Woodward Park... I think we just heard the guys won.

They knew exactly what my proper title is.

For those unaware, I'm currently in my second and last season as an assistant coach for the Embry-Riddle cross-country team. One of the great perks is leaving the high desert of Prescott, AZ and heading out to San Jose, Santa Clarita (hello, home), and a surprise visit to Kansas. I've really enjoyed coaching as it keeps me in shape, uplifts my social life while still being able to spend way too much in the library, and helps me watch others I coach progress. This year's men's team along with two of our freshman girls progressed so well that we headed to nationals, due to the guys winning our conference in just our second year being around and the girls rocking some pretty awesome places. We headed out to Kansas so that we could compete in Nationals, and you best believe that we got out hands on some pretty kicking mini vans to haul us all around in. While in Kansas, there was a visit to a "baked" cookie/brownie store that didn't live up to expectations, I fell to the beggings of an athlete to drive him to Game Stop so his girlfriend didn't have to buy the newest Pokemon Gameboy for him, oh, and a Nationals race that had the intensity of a Mt. SAC race, the deceiving difficulty of a crossword puzzle, and the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning. It was a great time for me because, lesbehonest, I'll never get to go again. Fun time! But as soon as I got back, it was time for the most American holiday there is.

Right after the guys finished their race

Thanksgiving was a total highlight this year. For those unaware, my brother Matt with his wife, Christa and two kids Alexis and Brooklyn live out in Austin, Texas. I've visited a couple of times before (once for Christmas and another to bring down the hammer in the family as the dominant athlete) and have always had a great time. Matt pulled the brotherly card and flew into El Paso so I didn't have to drive all 16 hours by myself. After getting to Texas, we had a solid 60-mile bike ride where I learned how much I have to improve before our next competition - The St. George Half Ironman (all are invited to come and watch me go through several hours of pain.) We recovered over egg nog and HEB's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (really, it's the favorite!) I'm convinced there's no better way to recover. Thanksgiving day came and Matt surprised us all with a Turducken (that's right, a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey with cornbread stuffing filling any open spaces.) While carving it up, we should have been chanting, "USA, USA, USA!" If anybody is ever looking for a good time, head out to Austin and live with their family for a few days - you'll get your fill of fun.

By this time in the school semester, I pretty much haven't been to school for the past 2 weeks and I feel really good about now having to do anything and the motivation to do something about that feeling just isn't coming. Good thing I did well in the beginning of the semester so that I didn't feel the pressure from finals.

As soon as my last final ended (really, like my car was packed and everything) I headed up to Provo for some time with some awesome peeps and another classy Christmas party. For those who aren't cultured in this aspect, it's pretty much a whole bunch of college students being our classy selves and almost getting there. Unless your name is Vladi Falk, then you've been classy the entire time. I'll confess that I hadn't been there for two years, but I try to justify my presence by claiming that I attended the first. This year, everybody showed up. Really, it was tough to find a place to breath sometimes. But positive note is that we all had fun and that the banoffee pie was a huge hit (even Vladi gave up his "no sugar" diet to partake.) While living it up in Provo, my sleeping habits completely changed from going to going to bed around 9:30 and getting up at 5:00 to going to having to make myself fall asleep around 2:00 and finally waking up around 11:00. It was a glorious change!

After Utah, a trip to California was in order to make sure that I got some quality holiday weather. And as if 65 and sunny wasn't enough, I was spoiled with a trip to Costa Rica's 85 and sunny weather for about 5 days. Here are the highlights: Car rental was made in San Jose (CA) so we had to find a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who rented us a car with the engine light on and no gas. My grandfather (83) joined us on all activities. All participants caught a sailfish when we went deep sea fishing (I might have got a little queasy and tossed up breakfast, but was completely fine after that.) Fed some monkeys as they climbed all over us -  I want one. Slept out on the bench due to noise being made by the other occupants of the bedroom. Partook of some street food and still have no side effects (would have been worth it, though) and found the best apple strudels Costa Rica has to offer. My mom kept on having this constant desire to watch Mean Girls (she's still in the dark.) Went zip lining over the most dense patch of green I'm convinced actually exists. Did a Segway tour around Quepos and Las Damas. I had my doubts about how much fun it was going to be, but it turned out to be a lot of fun (my dad hit a coconut while flying down the beach and flew off - he's okay.) Spent about 5 hours searching for the local LDS Church only to give up about 50 yards away from having found it. We now know for next time. Fell in love with plantains, arroz con pollo, and all things Costa Rica!

Summer Lovin'

Prepare yourself for a long one!

I'd like to think that every Summer should be cherished with upmost respect and be completely taken advantage of. For starters, this year's Fourth of July weekend was an absolute blast! Taking place in Powell, Wyoming at the Hopkin residence, there was definitely one long (like, really long) road trip from Prescott to Powell and back (always worth the trip for friends) which completion can probably be completely attributed to Monster energy drinks. But what took place in between those two trips just might never happen again. This tight-knit group of friends, which I love to bits, had so much fun! An entire day was dedicated to roaming around Yellowstone National Park (first visit).

Melissa Gunner discovered a buffalo carcass

Aside from loads of buffalo (they really were all over the place), we encountered a couple elk, some hot springs that smelt like a village had been decomposing for the last century, Old Faithful that put on one intense show for us, and a bear that made an appearance one our way out of the park. While driving through Yellowstone I decided that if we somehow had to survive out there, I would last no more than 3 days - mainly due to blood lost from mosquitos.

I can tell you're starting to really enjoy these t-shirts of ours

In preparation for a legendary weekend, we had these t-shirts airbrushed like they were straight out from the '80s. I love the t-shirts, but for some reason wearing by my lonesome on campus at Embry-Riddle isn't quite as cool. While walking around at Yellowstone, we spotted some other people who had matching t-shirts (there was a moment when a parent pointed us out to their kid to try and justify their matching "Jones Family Reunion 2014"), but it just wasn't the same.

During this entire time, the Hopkin Family never stopped coming up with loads of good food. Really, they went to the point of getting Grandma involved to make sheets of cinnamon rolls for us on the 4th of July. Right!? This doesn't include the dutch oven dinner of joy or homemade pizzas. Really, for those of you who want to go to Wyoming to see Yellowstone, I highly suggest making a pit stop at the Hopkin Chateau. If you're lucky, they'll take you out to the middle of nowhere to light off one great firework show - make sure it's the 4th of July.

Getting friends together and having a blast is one thing, but family reunions at San Clemente is a whole different animal of fun. For those unaware, Mum's side of the family has been going to San Clemente during the first week of August, staying at the same hotel and running
the same routine, for a whole lot longer than I have been around and then some. This year, aside from additional grandchildren, was no different. Early mornings are either non-existent or loaded with some type of physical play. It used to be tennis, but many cousin views have recently turned to the ocean which really makes the most sense because we're at the beach. This year, brother Matt and I did about a 1.8 mile swim out in the ocean. I'll be honest, it's pretty freaky out there when you can't really see more than 5 feet, there's loads of ocean, and shark week is less than a month away. Rather than death by hungry man-eating sharks, we were followed curiously by a couple seals. Anybody who has fears about getting attacked by sharks should know that if seals are willing to be out in the ocean where you are, then you should be too.

Matt & I had a not-so-awkward moment

Anyways, back to family. We usually head down to the beach around 10:30 where at some point in the week we make a pyramid (picture time!), body surf, and throw a frisbee around. At some point there's a common acknowledgement of the whitest person there - me. I swear, if we had an award I would claim the right as the whitest cousin for at least 15 years running. With so much to do, there's point in leaving before 6:00. After a dinner provided by one of families, several games of Risk, Monopoly, and Mormon Bridge are played at high levels of intensity. Because just dinner is never enough, these games are split by trips to Pedro's Tacos where the best tacos of my life exist (Edward Houstman will be happy to testify to their legitimacy.) 

This year we had an additional special event. My niece Alexis was baptized at the Hall home with loads of family and family friends coming to show support. It was also a good time to score another family picture.

During this time, I went through something that will never - ever - happen again. I decided, in all my limited wisdom and knowledge, to take 15 summer credits. Talk about shooting your social life in the foot! I really think it was my own personal punishment for not getting an internship which created the incentive to never let it happen again! But it did allow me to stay close to campus where I trained with a couple of the cross-country athletes. This was big for me because it triggered a love for Prescott that I never thought would come. It came from 6:30 AM trips up to the mountains where we would run these trails (some steep enough to make somebody cry) through pine trees, around lakes, and among deer. It hasn't been enough to make me want to stay, but I'm happy to admit that Prescott really isn't all that bad after all.

On one final, and grand, note, this last week's Labor Day triathlon must be discussed. For about 6 months, brothers Matt the swimmer, Doug the ex-BYU cross-country & track runner, and I have been trash talking about an Olympic Distance Triathlon we would compete in out in Austin, Texas. In due course, we all acquired triathlon bikes through amazing deals (thank you KSL, eBay, and Craigslist), trained as much as we could, changed our diets, rearranged our schedules to get in more sleep and exercise, and got is pretty good shape. Really, who ever thought that brotherly competition could produce such healthy habits? We ended up getting so confident in fitness that we started making bets based on placement amongst the three of us. First place would get to choose the next triathlon, second would sport a Mary Kay bumper sticker until our next meeting as triathletes, and third would have to re-create A-Rod's infamous picture album.

Well, the day of reckoning came and we all arrived in Austin (hello, humidity) with the goal of breaking 2 hours and 30 minutes. The parental unit and Matt's family decided to come to cheer us on - thank you! Being a bit younger, I was placed in a different starting division just a few minutes before them. The 1500 meter swim went really well - I only zig-zagged a bit rather than going from one side of the river to the other. The water was so warm that they didn't even allow us to have wet suits. We had an interesting transition due to Austin's current construction going on so we had a good 300 meter run from the river to the transition area. The 40K biking part was loads of fun. The city actually closed off a couple major roads in downtown Austin for the event. Due to how the course was set up, we saw each other several times as we passed each other going different directions on the course. Running was a bit of a different story. I hadn't ran in about a month from an achilles injury and decided to sport some new road racing flats without socks (putting on socks seemed to take up too much time) for a 10K run. Yeah, big mistake. After the race I looked at my white shoes to see a couple of large red spots in several areas. But it was all worth it! For those of you curious, here are my time results. I finished second in my age group, fourth overall, and first in family. Doug came in second with Matt finishing it up for us. I really need to mention that had Matt done it by himself and showed us his time we would have been impressed with that in itself. It was loads of fun and we're excited for St. George's half Ironman. May 2nd. Feel free to join or cheer us on!
 

Winds of Change

I know what's going through your mind right now, The Scorpions did a phenomenal job, right! Well, perhaps we'll talk about how awesome classic rock is another day, but that would deserve a post for itself. No, I actually just want to talk about wind for a moment. Out here in Prescott, we've been having really winds days for the past couple of weeks. We've gotten to the point where wind advisories are coming out warning the people of Yavapai County about how intense they're going to be. Now, for those unaware, I've been training for a triathlons (next stop is in Austin, TX for a bit now, and wind and biking just don't make a fun mix. I've had this goal for the past few weeks of attempting this Saturday ride where I get up at 5:30 to avoid the minds and try to maintain a 20 mph average over 60 miles. It's been tough, and just last week I thought I had it. With about 10 miles left Mother Nature thought otherwise. All of a sudden, these insane gusts of a headwind started just destroying me. I finally accepted full defeat this last weekend as I got a flat at my turn around point (30 miles away from home with now spare tubes!) and had to endure the walk of shame.

Now, I really need to share how I got into this position (you know, being in Prescott over an entire summer.) I had these really high hopes of having an internship, and the last phone interview started-off by this kind lady informing me that the internship had been put on hold that very morning and would probably be cancelled. So, with a glass 1/4 full, I decided to load up on summer classes, do a consulting project, and train with the cross-country team. It's been great! I've been introduced to loads of trails around Prescott that wind up (seriously, it's only been up -  both ways!) mountains covered in pine trees and I've finally started to begin enjoying Prescott. I know I've complained about this retirement center of a town for the past few years, but after this trail running I've really grown to enjoy it; not too shabby.

My new set of circumstances has also allowed to me to work on my relationship with swimming. We've had our differences like not being able to breathe under water, chlorinated itchy skin, and then entire fact that without upper-body strength I've been left to die on several occasions.

With all of this biking, running, and swimming in place, I can finally share with you my greatest achievement of my entire life. Now, I'm not trying to look cool here, but with trying to train for triathlons, I've found myself working out twice a day for the past couple of weeks. It's been great for one solid reason: I get to drink chocolate milk right after a workout! Yes, it really is the highlight of my day and my inspiration to work hard. So, put the math together for me. I drink 2 cups of chocolate milk right when I get home. I workout twice a day for six days of the week. Yeah! I go through a gallon and a half of chocolate milk a week! It's been quite the journey as well, but I have found the best chocolate milk that the tri-city area has to offer. No joke, it's the Fry's (Smith's, Ralph's) generic brand stuff. It doesn't beat the BYU creamery, but it does it's job!

Trophies, Lasers, & Breakfast Corndogs

It's been a few week, maybe a month, since a good post and I feel like I have much to share. There's much to be shared, and so much to come. A bit of background on a solid event, I have a phenomenal accounting professor who's daughter has some interest in BYU. As my blood runs blue (saying I'm a cougar isn't the image I'm going for here), I threw out the offer to accompany her along the way and provide some slight humor; not good humor, but it works. Needless to say, she got a full dose of BYU. On our tour, we learned the story behind the "Y" one the side of the mountain. Moral behind it: It seems that laziness does pay off. After visiting a couple professors and checking out the dorms, the real fun began.

We started making our way towards the Wilk when we spotted some LARPing going on. This was rather interesting to me as this is a big move from having their sword-play off campus to now having it be a main feature to future students touring the campus. To be honest, it wasn't all quite fair. From the photos, you'll see one dude with one quality handmade shield. He decided that some girl half his size would be a rather worthy opponent. About halfway through their duel, she realized how courageous this stripling knight was an found out that if she just charged him, he'd kind of cower away and she'd be able to hack away at him. After that, some samurai come on the scene and really just tore it up from there.

Having had our fair share of entertainment, we made an offering to the heathan gods of college food and partook of some Slabb Pizza! Thank you Kirk for making a glorious appearance. I really should have spent more time here while at BYU. For those of you who now choose to nibble on a slice or two, don't get the ordinary cheese or pepperoni toppings. This place was meant for reaching out into the food world and throwing your taste buds on a roller coaster ride that will bring them back amped for another round.

For the rest of the evening before we took-off toward the nickelcade! Like everybody should, we started with some laser-tag!! Most definitely the funniest game I've ever played; I almost died laughing. Ryhop pretty much ran around the entire time as Ed & I tried to find him. In the end, after years and years of playing, I finally finished on top. This might seem like a rather adolescent achievement to everybody else out there, but I've been fighting for this spot since I've been 7. In other words, thank you to everybody who played and let me win. Our group will go down in the books for our accuracy. Having had our fill, we took our nickels and put some good use to them.

Ed & Nat scored jackpot on some magical wheel of fortune game; only took them 50 tries!

At this time, I need to take a step back and take a moment to share a real life-changing experience I had during this trip. In order to get a real taste of BYU, a breakfast trip was made to the Cannon Center. We rummaged some decent food and addicting chocolate milk (I left with 3 gallons from the BYU Creamery and it was gone within two and a half weeks. I'd like to say I shared it all, but c'mon, it's the Creamery's chocolate milk we're talking about here!). All of a sudden, I venture out to the far corner of the cafeteria and find these odd looking corn dogs. For those unaware, corn dogs hold a very special place in my heart. It could be the crispy outside accompanied with a fluffy center, the meat in the center that you're not sure what it's made of, or the bright childhood memories. Whatever it is, the corn dog is phenomenal. They had these for breakfast, and I was stoked! I took one bite into one, and I'm sure everybody within a mile radius could hear my taste buds singing. A blueberry pancake coating one tasty sausage. Why has nobody told me about this? I nearly cried I was so happy!



Back to the story. We're now post-nickelcade and it's high time we start back to Prescott. But first! Somebody let out the knowledge that tonight was the first night snow cones were back. Seriously needed to hit that up as we had not really eaten since corn dog euphoria that very morn.

Ryhop and I scored three delicious flavors which, to be honest, I really can't remember.

Back to school. I joined this PBL club (FBLA for kids in college) in the hopes it would boost some chances in some future job. As it's a nationwide club, they have these state competitions between members of the club (NUA, ASU, UofA) and end up sending the person who finishes first in each of their 50 some-odd events to nationals out in Memphis in the middle of Summer. I decided to enter into 3 events: Management Principles, Statistics, and Computer Applications (Excel, PPT, & Word). During the award ceremony, the announcer calls the top three. I ended up not even placing for management, but had to beat an Oriental for Stats (has that ever even happened before?)  and rock out one poweful powerpoint to take first in both of those. There's no way I'll be found in Memphis in the middle of Summer. Instead, you can find me training for my next triathlon which will be out in Austin, Texas. Those who would like to join me while training should feel free to join.

The First of Many

About eight days ago, I headed out with two other classmates to SLO for my first triathlon in about 7 years. The last one I did was a Sprint Tri in hopes of three-peating my victory status. I ended up in the Emergency Room and Jason took the responsibility any other Hall would- won it. Having learned my lesson all so many years ago, I felt that not falling while on a bike would be the better option- smart, right! On another note, I decided to turn up the distance a bit and do an Olympic length instead of sprint. For those unawares, Olympic distance is a 1500 meter swim followed by a nice 40 km (24.8 miles) bike and topped off with a 10 km (6.2 miles) jog.

Having set that stage, whatever my intentions were about dominating the field once again were completely demolished. I get there, and it's a mecca of college kids from UCSD and UCLA to Stanford and Cal. Everybody was part of some campus club that had a coach, regular practices, and set cheers before the horn went off. Needless to say, they were way out of my league. Nevertheless, I squirmed into my wet-suit, donned my cap and goggles, and began my epic journey into the water. First off, that water was so cold! My feet didn't get feeling back until halfway through the run. But we start out and bodies are everywhere; it had been a while since I had felt up that way. I started off well, but at the turn of the first buouy things went down hill really quickly. The combo of really choppy water and a lake that had a clearness level of nothing left me nauseous and dizzy. It took me a while to get my bearing back, and by that time the girls who started 10 minutes after me started passing me; embarrassment was definitely felt.

But out of the water I came and off to the bike portion. This could seriously have been my favorite part. A little side note here, though. So, about three-quarters of the people here have these really nice triathlon bikes made of carbon-fiber with helmets which serisouly makes them look like a mild form of Darth Vader. Don't get me wrong, I've got some sweet wheels; they just took it up a notch or two. Probably one of the greatest feeling I had was knowing that even though they had a gear, I was still passing them as I pumped it out on the bike.

The run was a whole different story. Having tried to run for the majority of my life and helping coach a bit, I thought I could handle the run. That run was awful! From the bike my calves were blown and by the time I started running, the guy who won had just finished. But after my feet finally got their feeling back, I got into my stride and somehow made it through the finish line. I might have never been so happy to finally finish something as when I crossed that line. All that seriously left me when I found out there was no chocolate milk to partake of as part of my after-party ritual. For those who care, the finishing time was 2:41:55.6. I'll get better, I promise.

So back on the road to Prescott we went, stopping by the Hall's residence for some hot water and a generous meal; sustanence had never felt so good! The day after, my body felt like a bulldozer had rolled over me- twice. Mentally, I'm still recovering but should be back at it another one in a few months.

Spring Break, Part 2

The last week spent crashing on a couch in The Treehouse could have just been a serious top five - no, three!- greatest memories since I have moved to Prescott. Let's get the first major victoryout of the way. I came back with two and a half gallons of chocolate milk from the BYU Creamery. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get into what actually went down.

Friends Were Met and Made

I won't deny it, living back at The Treehouse was a most definite plus. Come Tuesday, I told everybody I was going to head out the next day. Ed (who, thanks to Nat, doesn't live there anymore) threw out the hospitable proposal that I simply just stay for the rest of the week. It wasn't a hard choice. I'm pretty sure we celebrated and then carried on eating some delicious chocolate trifle! We'd like to all thank Ed for stepping up to the plate and making sure I stayed to complete my week of happiness.

 Now, for those unacquainted with him, Kirk Katseanes is not just a dear friend that pulls strings for me all the time. We have a delicious tradition of attending Kneaders Bakerywhenever we get together. We talk about life, girls (or lack thereof), our time in the mission together, and our future (again, or lack thereof). But really, we mostly just talk about girls. This last time we enjoyed going over the book series A Song of Fire and Ice.

Some people I also met, but would rather not have. There was an evening where I seriously spent way too much time (about 15 minutes) around the greatest tools I ever seen. Really, if Home Depot ever needs a new mascot, I know a lovely apartment where a shelf of them are. I'm sure they'll grow into something acceptable to society some day, but not anytime soon. Until then, I wish them the best of luck.

Family Most Definitely Happened   

My Grandmother "Grandi" lives up in the good ol' SLC. I surprised my Mum with having still been up in Utah. She asked me what hip kids were doing these days and before I could muster a word about how cool blogs are, my Mum went off on "selfie"ing and how some girl on the flight she just took was doing it the entire time. Grandi couldn't grasp the concept of it, so we thought a personal 3 generation selfie would do the trick. She rather enjoyed it.

Other High Notes     

Several years ago, I took a wild (really, there's no other way to describe it) trip to California with several companions. Mauri Wood happened to be one of them; I'd thought to give her a heads up to see how she was. She's teaching some 1st Graders who seriously have their work cut out for them. Genetics, Advanced Mathematics, and Modern English are just a few to mention. Good luck to her!

A game of pick-up football was played with a kicker for the football team. After a solid hit to Ed's knee and whole load of luck, Ryhop and I came out victors in the end. Power to us.

Something spiritually nice I found:

Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made.

Spring Break, Part 1

So I never really got the point of Spring Break, and I continue to struggle to. You study hard for an entire half of a semester only to completely forget all of it during a week of complete bliss. Don't get me wrong, it has it perks, and it's only just begun!

I started off out outside of Flagstaff where I picked up a hitchhiker who needed a ride for a good half hour through the Navajo Reservation. Over our conversation, I learned there's no alcohol allowed on The Res, the penalty of even being buzzed would get you a trip to jail. As he headed off East to Tuba City, I continued North. Traveling in a 65 MPH area, I got pulled over going 81 and even through a tender story as to why I would even go so fast he still gave me a ticket, but only for going 75.

The scenery was rather nice though...

Upon my arrival, there was a grand reunion with my younger-- not little brother --Jason, the Hopkin bros (Ryan and Blake), Vladi Falk, and Ed Houstman! Needless to say, we quickly got down to Laser Assault for an epic night of pure joy. During one round, some girl saw our comradery and asked if we really were just a group of college guys out for a night of laser tag. After answering to the affirmative, we hailed us with how awesome we are. I started off a little rusty, only medalling in Bronze, but after our second match there was little question as to how much we dominated. Meet the team! Of course there were a few side distractions we found, but nothing we couldn't tame. After our vicorty, shakes at the Malt Shop called us and we answerd.

The next morning, we watched Blake rock his soccer match with two guys down and headed over to the BYU South Field to cheer on the BYU Rugby Team rock ranked number 1 St. Mary's in a solid victory.

By that point we were hungry for some action of our own, so off to the RB for some crazy wiffleball (trust me, I thought the same thing, but it was an incredible load of fun) followed by some 3V3 football.

Knowing that I wouldn't be here more than a few days, I had to choose my choice of food quite carefully. Thank you Slab Pizza for screwing up part of our order and thus feeding our tenacious hunger pains that were sticking like duct tape, we really needed it. We then headed to a celebration for Kate Hansen where she took pics in front of an American flag- we'll wait another 4 years to see her rock it again.

Come the next morning, Kirk Katz and I partied up to the State of Utah Coroner's Office where he works. For the next time I play the game where I tell two truths and one lie about me, I'm competely saying that I assisted in performing an autopsy on a guy shot in the chest.

A closing thought for the day. I read this aricle the other day that really stuck-out to me. It doesn't matter what your religious views are, it's some sound stuff... Enjoy here!