Highlights of 2014 Part 1

If I had one word to describe 2014, it would probably be change. Taylor and I both went through a lot of changes this past year. None of them were necessarily drastic changes, but we had a lot of little ones. 2014 wasn't as hard of a year as 2013 was, but there were still a lot difficulties that we encountered (such as health problems, financial struggles, family dramas, deep personnel battles, death, and a few others), but we also had a lot to celebrate and a lot to remember. All of the difficulties we experienced was well worth it, and I would go through it again for the moments of joy and happiness that were also felt during this last year.

So this post is to highlight just some of the many things that I hope to remember about 2014. It mostly highlights all the good, and some of the hard stuff.


January 

The New Year began with our traditional Olsen family hike: 

From there I started my final semester of my undergrad, trained for a half marathon (yikes), and watched one the best football games of my life (the NFC championship game)! Sure there were some bad calls and my team (the 49ers) lost but it was still one of the most entertaining games I’ve watched.

Some other highlights of January were: 

Disneyland!

Wow, my bald stop real shows in the picture, maybe I should just start shaving my head now??

One of the best times to go to Disneyland is in January! This time our good friends Justin and Anna Wagner joined us. We spent two days going through both California Adventure and Disneyland. Our favorite rides were Tower of Terror (well maybe more like Taylor’s favorite, we went on it like 10 times!), Star Tours (at least that was mine), Toy Story Mania, and Pirates of the Caribbean. And of course I had about 8 churros! It was so fun to spend time at Disneyland but we also enjoyed talking and making memories with our friends. 

Yeah were those people who take pictures of pictures

Hodgycakes Wedding

One the greatest human beings on the planet (Justin Hodkinson) finally got married in Bountiful, so we drove up through the snow to be there! Justin and Ana were engaged for two years, while they waited for visa so she could move from Australia. They deserved this wedding more than anyone! 

We also had a pretty sweet rental car for a good part of the month! 

February

This month included a lot of homework, a lot of running, some archery lessons, and some really awesome movies (Lone Survivor, 12 Years a Slave, and the Lego Movie) 

My training for my half marathon really started in amp up with some long runs. I was really nervous about these. I’ve always enjoyed exercising but running long distance was never really my thing. But I made it through and I actually started to find myself enjoying them! 

With starting my last semester I also took one of my favorite classes which was Deductive Logic and Leadership/Management Techniques (CON 294). In this class we talked about stuff like control and influence, natural laws, decision making, risk, leadership, and much more. It was probably the most beneficial class I took in my undergrad. I highly recommend it to any one who not only needs an easy elective class, but also wants to learn some super interesting stuff and a break from your normal college classes. 

My other classes this semester were Communication and Work Relationships, Communication Training/Development (this was actually a really fun class), Geography of Australia and Oceania, and Global Change. This last semester was pretty much about filling in my required electives so it ended up being a really fun semester. 

March

March was one of our more eventful months of the year. The first day of the month started out with the Phoenix Half Marathon. Man it was a killer! After training for 2 months (probably should of prepared longer) I thought I would be more prepared. After crossing the finish line I felt very accomplished, but I also remember thinking “Well I can cross that off my bucket list, don’t need to that again”. But now I found myself wanting to run again! I think I’m crazy. 

For spring break my whole family flew out to Kansas City for my brother Myke’s wedding. Kansas City is awesome! They have some seriously amazing food and there so much history there. While we were there we went and visited some of the LDS church historical sites. My favorite was Liberty jail. While a lot of terrible things happened there, there were also some amazing spiritual experiences that happened as well. They got married on a Friday and it was a very joyous day. 

My new nephew Mile's baptism! 

Liberty Jail 

Taylor and I volunteered to drive my sister in law Sara’s stuff to AZ and on the way home we learn some terrible news about Taylor’s cousin CJ. We found out that he had drowned in the canal behind his house. I wrote in more detail about this experience here.   

April

April was probably one the busiest months of the year for me. Along with having 15 credits of homework to work on I was also doing a ton of job interviewing since I would be graduating the month after. While I was stressed about job hunting, part of me actually enjoyed it. I liked meeting new people, learning about what there businesses do, and most of all this process really helped me learn a little bit more about myself. It was also fun being able to travel to a few different places. My favorite was traveling to San Francisco for a job interview at Apple. While I didn’t get the job I was able to at stay an amazing hotel, tour down town San Francisco, eat some amazing Fish n Chips, and go learn more about Apple’s business model and amazing recruiting process. 

Also in April, I got released from my church calling in the young mens. That was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. While those 12-13 old kids were rambunctious and wild at times, I also learn a lot from them and develop great relationships with them. 

On the 22nd Taylor and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary! We went and stayed at the Claredon Hotel in Phoenix. Attached to the hotel is one of our favorite Mexican restaurants Gallo Blanco! We spent the next day swimming, shopping, and we experienced our first movie at the IPIC theater in Scottsdale. 

At the end of the month my brother Myke had his wedding reception in AZ, which meant all my cousins coming down to hang out for the weekend. And when my cousins come in town that means a lot of Mario Party, Carl's Jr, water park chaos, and ridiculously awful dance moves. 

Oh can’t forget that in April we also got the amazing Captain America: The Winter Solider movie!