The 1st Leg of the Road Trip

After a fun last weekend down in Dallas, we embarked on the trip back to the state of Utah. Our first leg of the trip was to go from Dallas to Colorado Springs. This was approximately 12 hours. The trip was mostly uneventful, especially going through the barren part of Texas, but Erin and I still had a great time being together finally. Some of the highlights of the trip were finding a Taco Bell in the city of Amarillo and getting the long awaited Dairy Queen Blizzard for Erin after her fiasco with Dairy Queen in Provo.

The Taco Bell stop was exciting because I really wanted Taco Bell on my way down to Dallas, but couldn't find one in the city of Amarillo. With the crazy roads of Texas, once you see what you want it is too late. You have to make a U-turn to actually go back to where you want to go. Nevertheless, with Erin's keen eyesight, we were able to find it without having to do the U-turn experience.

The Dairy Queen visit for the blizzard took a little bit longer than expected, even though every town in Texas that has a stop light is guaranteed to have a Dairy Queen. We stopped at one but the chocolate ice cream was out, so we decided to go to the next little town. In the next town, we came to a realization that Dairy Queen doesn't serve chocolate ice cream anymore, just vanilla. If you want chocolate ice cream, then they give you vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce. We got the desired blizzard and enjoyed as we left Texas.

Nothing much happened in the state of New Mexico. The roads are being worked on, so maybe someday the whole ride will be two lane roads instead of a one lane road. I give it another 15 years. We made it safely to the Koffords, my uncle & aunt's house, in Colorado Springs just in time for dinner. After we talked with the Kofford's, we headed off to bed to prepare for our fun adventures with Erin's sister and my brother the next day in Denver. Stay tuned for tomorrow....

Iron Chef Glover #4

As a finale to Uncle Dave's Birthday, for Sunday dinner Ryan and I had our 4th Iron Chef Competition with Uncle Dave as the judge. We found out on Friday that our secret ingredient would be...COCONUT!

I've heard that coconut is one of those things that you either like or don't like. Luckily, both of us really like coconut. We also decided to somewhat level the playing field by both making main course dishes.

Ryan made Coconut Crusted Salmon...he even skinned the salmon himself. I would go into more detail about it, but it was a pretty straight forward dish.

I made Curry. I had forgotten how much I love curry. I used a recipe off allrecipes.com and made my own alterations. It was the Indian Chicken Curry II. From that recipe, I added 1/4 cup shredded coconut, 2 sweet potatoes (skinned and chopped), and 1 bell pepper. I also toasted some coconut to use as a garnish.

As sides to our coconut dinner (these were not included in the judging) I made coconut rice and some naan bread. I guess those complimented my dish more than Ryan's, but what can I say?

Uncle Dave had a tough time making the decision, but in the end, my cuisine reigned supreme. I am still in possession of the Iron Chef Glover hat and have improved my record to 3-1.

Sunday was our last night in Dallas. We ended the evening with ice cream and a game of Sequence on the Parente's homemade board...and finally, a picture that I do have in my possession:

Uncle Dave's Birthday

Saturday (April 19th) was Uncle Dave's birthday, so the day was dedicated to him. We went for a nice bikeride by the lake and up to the Gaylord Hotel (it's huge). Then went and played tennis doubles...the Parente's v. the Glover's. I think it was actually the most fun I've had playing tennis. It was my first time playing doubles and I found it way more relaxing and enjoyable. Well, we lost, but the birthday boy's team won so something good came out of our loss.

Sidenote: have i mentioned how much I love the weather? It was sunny the whole day so being outside felt great.

Aunt Cindy made Mexican Lasagna for dinner and Bonny Butter Cake as the birthday cake. We also had a choice of 6 different half gallons of Blue Bell ice cream...yeah it was a lot. Aunt Cindy bought 3 at the store, but Uncle Dave wanted the Moooo Tracks so he went to the store and was really excited that they had some in stock that time...only to find out as he was putting it in the freezer that in reality he got Moolicious...totally different. So Ryan and I went to get some. I jumped out of the car to run in and grab it on our way home, however right next to it was a Chocolate Brownie Overload. I LOVE chocolate...so I decided to get that plus Uncle Dave's flavor. Thus the 6 half gallons. We ended the night by Watching the Bee Movie followed by relaxing in the hot tub.

It was one of my favorite day's in Dallas. We loved spending time with the Parente's!

(picture to come...maybe)

Update Part 1 of Many

So we have been horrible bloggers lately. Our plan now is to blog daily with short updates until we are caught up...I know for me when people do the long updates I end up just scrolling through and looking at pictures.

I finished up with classes on the April 15th (yes, that is nearly a month ago). I had two take home finals and one interview. I managed to get one final done before heading down to Dallas on the 16th to visit/drive back with Ryan. I must say that I do love Dallas weather. It hands down beats Utah's snow in April AND May. Ryan's last day of his internship was that Friday, so while he worked I got to sleep-in, got for a nice run, and finish my last final ever...I lead a pretty good life.

After work (he got off around 10am) we went to Broadway pizza and got some garlic knots. These little things are amazing. I love bread and this stuff was great. It reminds me of monkey bread except instead of brown sugar and butter it is garlic an butter. We haven't expereimented with making them at home, but we will have to try it soon. Anyways, we took our garlic knots to go and went to a park where we at on the baseball field.

Friday night we went out with the Parente's (Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy) to Pancho's (a Mexican buffet). Yummy! I love Mexican food. After dinner we played a rousing game of Boggle. I totally cleaned up. Ryan and I recommend that everyone buy it. It is a great for just two player or for a crowd...well, everyone has to see the letters, so I would say a max of like 8 players. We didn't have it, but the Parente's mail us one for my graduation (thanks so much, we love it!).

...more to come....tomorrow....

Bad News, Better News, & Best News

Since we haven't blogged for awhile, the theme for this post will be bad news, better news, and best news of events that have happened in our life. Here we go!!!!

Bad News

Erin and I were placed on a team for the Glover Running Competition. (Side note: I actually got a chip so I'm able to be an active participant now). Going into Saturday morning, we were winning the competition of 1st to 75 miles with only 10 miles left to run. Our plan was for each of us to run 5 miles before noon on Saturday in our specific time zones. The second place team (my Dad and Fred (Cory)) were 20 miles behind from winning. To our dismay, they both ran 10 miles each Saturday morning (mind you earlier b/c of the east coast) and won the competition by 48 minutes.

We want to congratulate the winners on a great push at the end. We are a little sad that we were so close from the victory;however, it has been fun to get more involved with working out. Erin led the team by running 45 miles in a two week span and I participated by doing 27 miles during this same time period.

FYI - you don't need to have a Ipod Nano to do these running competitions anymore. They just came out with a wrist band and chip for those people that want to participate but don't want to listen to music while running. We are hoping for more competitors to add this summer b/c of this.

Good News

On to the good news of the past little while. On Wednesday evening (April 2nd), I got a phone call from my dad who happened to find a descent price on Final Four tickets in San Antonio. Since we are college basketball fanatics, my dad got the tickets and flew to Dallas where we drove down together and spent Saturday and Monday celebrating the end of college basketball. It was a blast!!!! San Antonio is a perfect spot for this venue with the Riverwalk near by the Alamodome. There were tons of people walking around full of college spirit, specifically for the schools they were cheering for.

During the two days, we saw some many famous college celebrities, 4 college coaches (Jim Boehim, Tom Izzo, Bruce Weber, Bruce Pearl), 6 college athletes (Michael Beasley, D.J. Augustin, Chris Lofton, Roy Hibbert, D.J. White, & Eric Gordon) and many college basketball analysts (Dick Vitale, Bobby Knight, Jay Bilas, Patrick Ewing, Doug Gottlieb, etc.) The games were amazing as well. Saturday's games were blowouts;however, the Kansas vs. UNC game was really fun to watch. We were in the Kansas section and the atmosphere was incredible. (Side note: I had Kansas winning it all for our family bracket and my dad had UNC winning it all, so I was very pleased to see the outcome for this game and the whole entire tournament).

The championship game was even better. With such a close game, it could have gone to either team; however, my dad and I just wanted something close to watch and we got it. An OT finish with Kansas prevailing was incredible!!! The stadium and atmosphere was quite the experience. It was fun to see all the games and then stay to watch the cutting of the nets and participate in "One Shining Moment" with all the fans watching. I'm really grateful that my dad and I had a chance to do this together. As I told my dad, it was something I've always wished for growing up and to have it become a reality was a dream come true.

Best News

While Erin and I have been apart for the past four months, Erin has been getting excited about graduating but we have both wondered what that would entail afterwards.

Well, last week Erin was able to get an offer to work with a company she has been interviewing with since January. She has been interviewing with many companies but this one was the one she really wanted. The company is Omniture and is located in Orem, UT. It will be a great start for her career as she works in the financial service vertical of the company assisting with web analytics. It is close to home as well so the commute won't have to be all the way to SLC.

Well, in conclusion, we are really excited for all these good changes that are happening in our lives and the blessing we have so abundantly received. We will finally be back together starting next Saturday and can't wait. It has been quite the learning opportunity for both of us being apart, but are ready to move on with a new phase of life.

(One more side note: sorry no pictures but the one's I have are on my camera and I don't have my cord to take the off yet. Once, I get my cord I will put some up)

Mango Madness

With March Madness underway, we enjoyed the opportunity to watch numerous games together while Erin was in town along with our 3rd competition prior to her leaving. We want to thank everyone for some input on the idea for the secret ingredient. For Easter we had the competition and after narrowing down the selection to five we selected out of a bowl the magnificent choice of MANGO!!!



Our mango dishes ended up being a mango salsa (Erin) and mango pie (Ryan). While both turned out delicious, the complete difference in type of food made the judging more complex. Our decision of a tie left the judging to Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy who got back from Chicago on a Monday. So, the ultimate verdict was.......

MANGO SALSA

Erin has now taken the lead with two wins in a row. Still keeping the infamous "IronChef Glover" chef hat. We will have our fourth competition the last time Erin comes down to drive with me back to Utah. Due to Uncle Dave's b-day that weekend, he will be designating the secret ingredient and be the only judge. Stay tune....

Erin = Running Champion!

I would just like to take a minute to gloat about recent victories. I completed two nikeplus running challenges this last Saturday. One against the Ryan's immediate family (most miles in 29 days) and one against my older brother Bren (most miles in 8 days). I must say I completely destroyed my competition. It may have helped that I spent a week in Dallas and had great weather for all but one day here. I'm up to about 140 miles since January! For all those wondering, I don't really have any type of passion for running, but I LOVE competition....and I'm trying to get in shape to ride the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) bike ride that will take place in July. My dad and I are both signed up to ride the 206 miles in one day!