Scott's Birthday - and other events

Since we have a lot of pictures to get through, I will do my best to keep the narration in line with the pictures. Here we go:

I started growing out my beard for the upcoming Moustache Party in Salt Lake. We were headed down there anyway for my sister Amanda's graduation from college.

When we arrived in Salt Lake we had no sooner unloaded our car then we were off to the U of U to watch my sister's cap-and-gown processional. My mom got to hand her the diploma because of her "Board of Regents" status. Corbin did not care for the ceremony and spent most of it in the hall with Mitzi. The next morning Mitzi stayed home with the baby and I went to hear the U of U's first and only Nobel Laureate faculty member give the commencement address. He received the prestigious award last year for his research in Medicine and Physiology. What did he talk about in his address? Global warming. I about flipped, although I quelled my frustration by venting to Amanda's boyfriend about the spike in mercury related mental retardation and birth defects that is sure to result a few years down the line from improperly disposed of fluorescent light bulbs, now that Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb has been outlawed because it is "bad for the environment." The temple picture? Oh yeah. I didn't take any pictures of the graduation, but I did take pictures from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we went for post-commencement brunch.

The night of the Moustache Party I had to take one final picture of my beard before I shaved it away. This is actually only a little over two weeks of growth. It looks like I'm getting burlier the older I get.

My moustache idea came to me while I was lying in bed two nights before we drove down to Salt Lake. I decided to do an inverse moustache on my neck. Initially I had thought to put my glasses on upside-down around my neck, but due to complications I decided to simply draw an upside-down face on my neck. As for the events of the party, my moustache held 46 pennies in the weight lifting contest, and I placed in the top 4 in the tug-of-war competition.

And, of course, we had to put a moustache on the baby.

On Saturday we drove down to visit our friends Piper and Ryan in Provo. We went to Cafe Rio for the first time in a year (which is significant only because when we lived in Provo we went there at least every other weekend). It was super fun, although I did discover some monumentally depressing news: My "dealer" of edited movies - the one that had managed to escape the furor and wrath of the CleanFlicks lawsuit - had gone out of business! This didn't just mean that I won't be able to pick up the few movies that I had on my shopping list. It means I won't be able to pick up any new edited movies ever in the future! I died a little inside as we stared at the marquee that declared: "January 12 - Last day - 90% off inventory." On the upside, we also got to visit our other friends, Jarom and Melissa, who just had their baby boy 4 weeks ago. He was still five weeks premature, but that's a lot better than was expected seeing as Melissa's contractions started at 28 weeks or so. It was fun to see the size difference between their baby and our sweet Corbin. Here are some pictures:

On Sunday we drove back to Boise and made it home just in time for me to teach my Sunday School lesson. After church, Mitzi's local siblings came over to have a BBQ on our back patio with our sweet grill. It was lots of fun and we even got everyone to play a few rounds of catch phrase. My favorite clue of the night was Alex's "get your biscuits in a row." It was a beautiful day and I ate my fill of homemade chili-cheese dogs.

After the party was over, we heard a knock on our door. Our friends, the Porters, had come over to visit. Jessaca was sick so Todd had taken the kids out for a ride in their red wagon so she could rest. We put Corbin in with them and played around outside, trying to soak up the last of the fabulous weather.

Last but not least, on Saturday night we honored my new birthday tradition: Cannonball. We were missing a few people, but still had a good enough turnout to have a fierce game. I tried to capture the action in a few videos. The first one is a bit nausea-inducing as I filmed the game whilst playing in it. It's also a lot longer than the other two for those of you reading with time constraints. I love this game, and recommend it to any of you trying to plan a fun group activity that requires little more than a Pilate's ball and the eye of the tiger.