Highlights of 2012 Part 2

July

California Trip with the Jackson's

We started out the month by going on one last trip with my brother in law Jake. We spent about 5 days in Southern California going from San Diego up to LA. We left right after church on Sunday July 1, and drove to San Diego to spend the night. Monday morning we woke up and head to Coronado Island, and spent the day body boarding, taking a naps, and searching for crabs and other sea creatures.

The next day we woke up and went to the San Diego temple. After doing a session there we drove up to New Port Beach temple, and all the boys went and did baptisms. That night we went and saw The Amazing Spider-man. Wednesday was the Fourth of July, and we spent the whole day at Knot's Berry Farm. I really like that place because its never crowded. Its not quite as magical as Disney Land or as thrilling as Six Flags but it's still a really fun place!

Jake Leaving on his Mission
This was a very bitter sweet experience. Its been sad not to have Jake around, but at the same time I know exactly how much fun he is having. My mission was one the greatest experiences of my life, and I know that Jake is experiencing that same joy. Since I've joined the Jackson clan I have loved getting to know him, and Jake is one fun kid. Everyone who knows him knows that he lights up the room where ever he goes. A lot of people would have been disappointed to have been going to Provo on their mission, but not Jake. His lively and outgoing personality works perfectly in Provo! The last few days before he left were full of sweet spiritual experiences and also fun memorable moments.



























The Dark Knight Marathon

On July 19 I woke up at 6 am and drove down to Tempe Market place to wait in line with my fellow Batman geeks for a marathon of the Dark Knight Trilogy, and the premiere for The Dark Knight Rises. Now everyone knows I love these movies so I'm not going to talk about how much I liked them, but I wanted it noted that this was such a fun and memorable day!

August

Went Running in 117 Degree Weather
This wasn't necessarily enjoyable, but I thought it was something worth highlighting that these are the temperatures we deal with in August. But I'm not really complaining, I actually really enjoy in the heat, and as long as I drink enough water, running in the heat is not too bad for me. I would rather do that then run in cold weather like did in the other day, when it was 30 degrees!

Relient K Concert
These guys were my favorite when I was in high school, and I saw them play a few times back in the day. I haven't really listened to them for a while, and so when my buddy told me they were coming to town we decided we needed to go for old time sake, and I was reminded why I love these guys. It was such a fun concert.

Olympics
Track and football are my two favorite sports, and most of the time I only get to watch football, except for the Olympics. I especially love the sprints, hurdles, and relays. Along with being able to watch track there are tons of other great sports to enjoy. What I love most though is watching the inspiring athletes and their stories, such as Oscar Pistorus, the man who ran the 400m with no legs!

Grand Canyon/Southern Utah/Vegas/Southern California Trip
This last August we took our first road trip my family for the first time since Taylor and I have been married. We all piled into a 12 passenger van for about five days and traveled all around northern Arizona and southern Utah for about 5 days! Our first stop was at the Grand Canyon. I have lived in AZ my whole life and I had never been there until then.

Taylor trying to catch her first fish!

We spent a few hours marveling it's beauty and then we were on the road again, but not for too long. We spent that afternoon fishing in a small pond just outside of Kanab UT, and going zip lining through the beautiful forest.





















The next day we went hiking through Bryce Canyon (which I think may be prettier than the Grand Canyon).

The next few days were spent exploring the small town of Tropic Utah, going River Rafting, eating delicious small town food, visiting old cemeteries of our deceased ancestors, signing at the top of our lungs to old 90's hits, and admiring the beauty of southern Utah. One of my favorite things we did was each night we would all gather in one hotel room and have a mini devotional. We would all take turns sharing and discussing spiritual thoughts with each other. It's something that I hope becomes a tradition for all future family trips!

This dog followed us all around Tropic!

While we were driving around Southern Utah we spotted a flash flood about to take place.

Taylor being a dare devil and trying to escape the wrath of the flood!

On the way back home to AZ my family dropped Taylor and I off in Kanab were we awaited to go on our next adventure with our best friends Taylor and Dani Johnson! The Johnson were driving down from Provo to meet us in Kanab and then we drove to Las Vegas with them. Before they picked us up though we had a night to spend in Kanab exploring the beautiful little town. We discover Houston's restaurant and it has now become a favorite for us!

We ran into one of my old companions on the strip one night. He
came all the way from New Zealand! 

Once the Johnson's picked us up we drove straight to Vegas. We stayed in Planet Hollywood hotel, which was right on the strip. We decided that Vegas is fun, but we don't really need to go back any time soon. We spent about 2 and half days there, mostly just eating, swimming, and hanging out. We went to the Vegas temple while we were there, and went and saw the Dark Knight Rises again. (Taylor J. and I had to see it together because our friendship pretty much started when we found out we both loved Batman, and we had been speculating about this movie for about 2 years, haha) After Vegas we drove to LA with the Johnson's and spent a day at Six Flags, and another day at the beach!

One of the perks of staying at Planet Hollywood was the all you can

eat buffet! And as you can tell we took advantage of it! 

Our Batman themed day at six flags!

September

I Decided I Needed to Become a Sun Devil

When it came to where I was going to get my education I was all over the place the last few years. I went from wanting to go to BYU, to ASU, and then BYU again, then back to ASU. Then I began looking into University of Phoenix, their flexible schedule seemed so ideal for my busy schedule, but something just didn't feel right. Back in August we were about ready to pack our bags and move up to BYU Idaho, but something still didn't feel right. Finally, in September of 2012, things seemed to be a little more clear that I needed to stay here, go to ASU, and get my degree in Communications (not business like I had been planning), and stay in AZ were I could keep my calling with the deacons, my job, and stay around my wonderful family. I was going into a different major than I had planned, but this path felt right more than another path I had been considering. So I followed the promptings and I registered to ASU (which I discovered isn't very hard), and so far I've only been at ASU for 4 weeks and I can already tell that this was the right decision.






Favorite Movie Series Posts
During the month of September I had a lot of fun writing about my favorite movie series, and I probably got a little carried away with it, but oh well! Here is the order down below:

12 Spider-man 
11 Toy Story
10 X-men
9 Rocky
8 Pirates of the Caribbean
7 The Avengers
6 Harry Potter
5 Back to the Future
4 Indiana Jones
3 Lord of the Rings
2 Batman
1 Star Wars

College Football Began
My my favorite sport to watch is college football! I love watching the NFL as well, but there is just something about college that makes it so much more fun to watch. When I was a kid I would spend hours watching any game, it didn't even matter who was playing. My favorite teams are ASU, and then BYU, but I can still watch almost any game and enjoy it. September is usually kind of a boring month because its right after summer, and before the holidays so college football always adds a little excitement to my life.

Spinatos
On September 22 my brother Matt and his wife Natalie introduced us to one of the best pizza restaurants ever! Seriously, this place is the best! Not only do they have great pizza but they have the best Calzone I've ever had!

October

General Conference
This should be called spiritual boost weekend! One of my favorite times of the year is being able to listen to these wonderful messages! You can read some of my thoughts from this conference here.


Annual Shrimp Eating Contest
Every year around October Red Lobster has a promotion for all you can eat shrimp. Since high school my buddy Ashton Sanders and I always make sure we go and pig out on some delicious shrimp. Sometimes we make it a contest who can eat the most, and sometimes we come to our senses and realize we don't want to be sick for a week. Every year there are different people who come, but its tradition that I hope we continue as long as Red Lobster will keep letting us eat all their shrimp!

Parks n Rec
This became one of my new favorite shows. I've always liked it, but through out the month of October I think I watched ever single episode on Netflix. I had to make sure I acknowledged how much fun I had watching this show!

More Star Wars

On October 30 George Lucas sign his baby, Lucasfilm away to Disney. As a huge Star Wars fan since the day I was born, I am actually really excited about this. The problem with the prequels was that George Lucas was a great storyteller but not a great film director, or screen writer. Now with Star Wars in new hands (JJ Abrams) I am very optimistic that a good director and writing staff should be able to do great things with it. Disney has a done a good job so far with Marvel and Pixar so I feel that Star Wars is in good hands. This was an exiting time around the Olsen clan! Check out some of my speculations.

Halloween

Halloween is always either really fun, or it can be really lame, and this year it was really fun. We had fun going to haunted houses, going to Halloween parties, and of course dressing up! Since it was kind of a Batman year for us we decided to dress up as Catwoman and Harvey Dent Two-Face!

On Halloween I went to work dressed as District Attorney Harvey Dent.......

.......And came home as Two-Face!!!

November

Light Saber Capture the Flag
Sounds just like it sounds, capture the flag but instead of getting getting tagged and going to jail you can fight for your life with a lightsaber! Its the best version of capture the flag I have ever played! When I was in high school we did this with my cousins once, and we decided we need to start carrying on the tradition!

One of the many battle wounds!

Sick B-Day

Two days before my birthday I went to California Pizza Kitchen and immediately after eating there I felt sick to my stomach. I ended up being sick for the next day and half and so I spent most of my birthday on the couch watching old James Bond movies. By the end of the day I felt like I could finally eat and the only thing that sounded good was steak! So I got some steak with my family, and then came home and opened a few presents. Even though I felt sick for most of it, it ended up being a nice relaxing day!

Turkey Bowl/Thanksgiving
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is playing football. It seems like its just about the only time of year I can play anymore. Thanksgiving morning I woke up early for some football, and then ran home to get ready to go to two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was with the Jackson's and the Udall's. We did things a little different and drove out to the dessert. We got there and ate a delicious meal and then we had run riding Rhinos around the dessert for a few hours.

After that we packed up and drove to my mom's house for another scrumptious meal. Over there we watched some old family videos and ended the night by going and seeing Lincoln. The movie was really good, but by the time it was over (about midnight) we were exhausted and ready for bed!

Made a Movie
One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up with my buddies Hudson,  Zack, and Caleb was to make movies. It had been almost 3 years since all of us were together so we decided for our reunion we were going to make a movie again. Our movies were usually just reflections of our personalities and all the goofy things we did as kids, and this one was know different, but we had a lot of fun making it! One day we would love to try and make a legit movie, but we will see.


Facial Hair

I decided to start no shave November the last week of November, and about 3 weeks later I had a pretty descent beard coming in. It was the longest I had ever gone without shaving. I enjoyed doing it but I could never really get use to the itchiness of it, so I shaved it into a mustache. Which I enjoyed it, but Taylor didn't so much, so it only last a few days:(

December

Christmas Parties

Christmas time really is the most wonderful time of the year, and one of the fun things about Christmas is all the different parties and get togethers. This year we were able to attend quite a few. The first one was my work party. We spent the night eating food, playing a few games, and of course the traditional white elephant gift exchange. The next was our ward Christmas party, which was a Hawaiian themed party, complete with Santa Clause, and a talent show.

A few days later we took Taylor's cousin CJ to the Love Your Friend Christmas Party. Love Your friend is a non-profit organization that my friend Brigham Nicoll started. Every month they get together and have activities for those with physical and intellectual disabilities. More info here. We had fun dressing up as Christmas Tree's and other fun games.

Another night we had some friends over and made gingerbread houses.

Last year we started a tradition of providing Christmas for a family less fortunate than us, and we decided to turn the night into a party with friends. On the 22nd we got to together with some friends, and played games, had a white elephant, ate yummy food, and had everyone bring something for this family. After playing games for a little while we gathered up all the presents and delivered them to family. We had such a fun time singing Christmas songs to them, and seeing their faces light up. We hope to continue this tradition for as long as we can.

Playing signs before delivering the presents

The next night on the 23rd we gathered at Taylor's parents house for the extended Halstead Christmas party. This was with all of my mother in law's side of the family.

Christmas Festivities
Christmas Eve and Christmas day were very hectic and busy, but also very fun. Christmas Eve we had dinner had brother Matt's house with my cousins the Denton's, the Jackson's, and my sister Marianne's in-laws family the Nicoll's. It was so fun to have so many people around. Every year since I can remember my family has had a pinata on Christmas Eve, and this year was no different. I hope that no matter how old we get we continue this tradition.

Another Christmas Eve tradition is to go to the Mesa Temple Lights! 

Christmas Eve night we sleep over at Matt's house along with my mom, and the rest of my siblings. We stayed up playing games, and didn't get much sleep. When it comes to Christmas my family is all about tradition and every year we wake up at 6:30 am on the dot, even when we are all adults. It's a little crazy but its fun, and it work out well because we had one crazy day ahead of. Once we were all awake we went through our stockings and open presents together. By about 9 Taylor and I were on our way to our next stop. We got to her parents house and the first thing we did was talk to her brother Jake, who was calling from his mission. It was so fun to hear his adventures and stories in Provo! After that we had opened presents with the Jacksons.

At around noon we drove out to North Scottsdale for my father in law's family Christmas party.

Jackson family white elephant girt exchange!

After a few hours with the Jackson's we drove to Queen Creek to spend some time with my nieces who were in town from Utah. Then to end the night we drove back to Mesa to spend Christmas evening with my Dad. By the end of the day we were totally exhausted, but we had an extremely fun day with lots of new memories!












Ticket to Ride

One of Taylor's favorite presents for Christmas was the game Ticket to Ride (Europe Version). We played this game about everyday for about a week!

And there you have it, the highlights of 2012! So far 2013 has been a great year so far (it's crazy we are already down one month of the year!) and I'm looking forward to many more memories!

Highlights From 2012 Part 1

I know this is a little late, considering January is almost over, but I want to make sure I highlighted some of the great things that happened in my life this past year. 2012 was a great year full of numerous ups and downs, and lots of life lessons. Along with the learning and trying moments, we (Taylor and I) were blessed with so many incredible things, and great memories to accompany them. I wanted to make sure that I am able to remember some of these wonderful memories. So here are our highlights of 2012!

January

Moved
We started out the year by moving into the amazing, and coveted guest house of my dear cousins, the Denton's  Its a two bedroom, one bath guest house with a nice open kitchen and family room. We have loved living here the past year. Its been fun to be part of a great neighborhood and ward!

49ers Amazing Playoff Win
I didn't really start liking football until I was about 10 years old, but once I did I became obsessed with it! Since I wanted to be a receiver in the NFL, like Jerry Rice, the 49ers then became my favorite team! Once I became a true 49ers fan I had only watched them play in the play offs twice, and both times they were defeated:( So when the 49ers made it back to the play-offs for the first time in 10 years I was so excited to watch my team once again in the playoffs. And what a game it was! They were down 32-29 with 9 seconds left when Alex Smith threw a 14 yard pass to Vernon Davis to win the game! Even though they ended up losing in overtime to the Giants the next week, this was still one heck of a game that I will never forget! Now I can't wait for this year's Super Bowl! Hopefully it will be a highlight of 2013!

Check out the highlights from one of the greatest games ever played! 

Disneyland Trip

The happiest place on Earth with my favorite person, makes for one my favorite highlights of the year! If you want to try and find a time to go to Disneyland when its not crowded I would recommend January. The longest we had to wait in line was 22 minutes! (Yes we timed it) Along with that I got to ride on the new and improved Star Tours for the first time, and then go on Splash Mountain 4 times in a row!

February

Scouts
In early February I got called to be the second counselor in young men's presidency in our ward. What that means is that I was would be working on scouting and other activities with 12 and 13 old scout. So since February every Wednesday night and Sunday I am hanging out with this guys trying to teach them important life lessons, but I feel like they have been teaching more than anything I have taught them! Let's just say that this calling hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be, but it has been very rewarding! I have learned so much from these boys, and I'm so grateful that I've been able to work with them. There have been a lot of hard times, but even more good times. I look forward to another year of merit badges, camp outs, and great spiritual growth from these boys.

If you count them, you will notice there are 15 of those little rascals! 

Trevor's Wedding

In mid February I traveled up with my family to snowy Utah to see my cousin Trevor's wedding. Trevor and I are only a few months apart and we have been best friends pretty much since birth. It was great to be able to be a part of his wedding, and spend time with family.

March

Jake's Mission Call
"Elder Jackson you are hear by called to serve in the Utah Provo mission". Yeah right was my first thought when I heard Taylor's little brother Jake say that's were he was going on his mission. But after finding out that this was really where he was serving, I couldn't be more excited for him. Having served a mission myself, I was so excited for him, and all the joy he was about to experience from being a missionary.

Looks like we are all looking at different camera's. I'm so grateful to be apart of this family! 

New York City Trip

Before going to New York, I used to always wonder what's so cool about New York. But after spending 8 days there I have fallen in love with that place. (Not like I how I love Mesa, or Brisbane, but still pretty close) We had so much fun touring the city, eating delicious food, watching Broadway plays, and hanging out with her gracious and fun cousins. We were so blessed that her cousins, who are currently living there for school, let us stay with them. Not only did we have a fun time, but we also learned a lot from each other. (We spent about 8 days straight with each other so of course our patience would be tested lol) Taylor learned that I'm not the best navigator in the world, and I learned how much she loves gluten free baked goods!

These are my favorite pictures of my beautiful and elegant wife!

Got stung by my first scorpion! 

Growing up in AZ one of my favorite things to do was to go scorpion hunting around the house. On a good night we could catch up to about 20-30 of those little critters. All those years of sharing a house with those scorpions I never once got stung. Then one night this past March I was sitting on my bed doing homework when I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I stood up to check and see what it was and I started feeling this sharp pain in different parts of my back. Then I felt the little legs crawling up my back and that's when I freaked out! I ran into the other room, thinking Taylor was done with her piano lessons for the day, and I ripped off my shirt hoping to shake it off. Once I had my shirt off I thought there may be more so I started taking off my belt, when Taylor yelled "What are you doing!?". I didn't realize her piano student was still there and I was about ready to strip down it front of them! The actual sting didn't hurt too bad, but my back was a little numb for a few hours. Besides that I didn't have any other side effects, and now it has turned into a fun story!


Tay's B-day
Taylor's birthday was a fun day spent eating all her favorite foods (which are some of mine) watching Hunger Games, and hanging out with family! It was pretty low key, but we both had a lot fun with each other. (And we were also still recovering from our New York trip!)

April

Started Blogging
I wrote my first post on April 8th! You can check it out here.

Crazy Diet 
Last April I was probably the most fit I have every been in my life! I didn't eat gluten  diary, sugar  and many other things for the whole month. Along with that I exercised a lot more consistently than I usually do. My second blog post was all about this diet. I kept the diet up for a few weeks after the 30 dyas, slowly adding in the foods I had stopped eating. Unfortunately I haven't been as strong as I would like (sometimes food is just too good), but I'm working on it!

Here is a little sample of what we ate for that month. Brown Rice pasta (with sauce without sugar) was one of the staples of this diet! I didn't realize how hard it is to find pasta sauce without sugar in it. Man, I need to start eating like this again:/

Green shakes were also one of my favorites! 

1st Anniversary 
On the 22nd Taylor and I celebrated our first Anniversary! Since we were both in school, and had finals coming up, and as well as just taking a trip to New York (and I also had a surprise cabin trip for when we finished with the semester the next month) we decided to just go out to eat and catch a movie together. We both love going to movies, and we both loving eating, so it was fun, easy going night. We went to Outback (and yes we both stayed within the no gluten, dairy diet) and then I gave in and we saw The Lucky One.

May

May was one of my favorite months of this past year. With The Avengers coming out, me finishing school for the semester, a late anniversary cabin trip, visits from good friends, and Taylor's life changing surgery, we experienced great blessings, and great memories! I actually did a post all about it back in May, which you can read here.

June

Marianne's Wedding

My little sister's wedding was a day I thought I would never see, not because she couldn't find a guy to marry or anything, but because she is my little sister!!! She's not supposed to grow up! But she did, and she couldn't have picked a better guy for our family. He's got the essentials for a great brother in law (you know he likes Star Wars and all that stuff). The weekend was spent hanging out with family, and all the other fun festivities of weddings! Even though I was sick with a cold, it was still a great time! Another reason it was so fun was because of the dancing! Anyone who has been to an Olsen wedding knows that when it comes to dancing we know how to get down! We may not be the most graceful, but we do know how to have fun, and make complete fools of ourselves in the process.

Here we are the night before the wedding singing the traditional wedding song, Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond. My Grandpa usually sheds a tear when he hears us sing this song. 

Comic Book Nerd
I've always loved comic book heroes but I have never really gotten too into reading the actually comics, until this last summer. One of the goals of the Avengers movie was to get people to be interested in the comics, and it sure got me. I had a lot of fun reading some really cool stories this summer, and talking to other comic book nerds at the local comic book store.

These are a few of the books I read. 

Lake Powell Trip
Having lived in AZ my whole life I had never been to Lake Powell until this past summer. We went up there with Taylor's family, and her cousins the Udall's. We spent about three days boating, exploring the lake, watching movies, playing games, and just hanging out on the house boat. As I've grown older I've come to realize that sometimes its fun just to sit around and chat with people. This was especially fun because I got to know Taylor's cousins a lot better. Another one of my favorite things was exploring all the crevices of the lake. One day I would love to take jet skis through there!

Here is most of the gang!

Taylor's cousin CJ, partying it up on the tube!

All of the "kids"

Me and the Jackson Boys

Last day of MCC and Math 
In order to transfer to ASU, I needed one more math credit, and I was able to take it in one month over the summer! It was a weird feeling to go to MCC one last time, but it was a great feeling at the same time!



This is the end of the of the first half of the year, the rest is soon to come!