The late conclusion of 2013

Alright, this post is picture heavy and really just here for completeness. It's time for me to turn this blog into a book so I want the end of the year to be included. The blog will continue.

We spent the first part of the Christmas break at my parent's house in Pleasant Grove, where we enjoyed snow (because we didn't have to drive) and lots of amazing food. The latter half of the break was spent in Kaysville, with a quick trip up to Logan to pick up a truck. We ended 2013 in PG again, with the customary New Year's Party that my parents have been throwing for several years now. Motown-themed this time... 

A picture is worth a thousand words, so this is already by far the longest post I have ever written, I will leave it at that.

 

Joseph and I sledding in the back yard.
I don't know why I feel a need to caption every picture, I feel like it is pretty obvious.

 

Kelsey thought it would be more fun to take artistic pictures instead of getting wet...

 

...But eventually she gave in and helped us (some very under-motivated siblings and myself) complete this igloo.

 

In the middle of the table lays the glorious foie gras (PETA's arch-nemesis haha). The meal included smoked salmon, a couple of specialty salads that I am too lazy to describe, curried shrimp, fine cheeses and several other awesome courses.

 

Here we are preparing truffles, it's been a family tradition at least since my mom was a little girl. There was quite the commotion about whether we should include the usual rum this year, and much to my mother's disappointment, it didn't end up happening. Traditions being violated all over the place...

 

I don't really know if this is an artistic shot or not (Kesley chose which photos to include) but here it is either way. A picture of presents haha.

 

These ones require a little explaining. For Christmas this year, we gave each side of the family a game of Citadels, with customized character cards including all the members of the family. It was a time-consuming but fun project for us over the past couple of months. 

 

Christmas on the Valentine side..

 

My awesome new t-shirt. Courtesy of Josh, who knows that there's nothing better than being Iron like a Lion in Zion.  Also, Castles of Burgundy, a favorite game of ours.

 

It apparently takes two engineers (and some accountants and other helpers) to build a basketball shooting system.

 

Ben got a rat at the white elephant exchange this year. It has been officially named Radagast and I hear he is growing more intelligent every day due to this elaborate maze.

 

Testing one of the kebab recipes with the in-laws. We actually got the seal of approval from both sides of the family over the break.

 

Behold, the truck! And the Fukui family, who helped me gut it and get it all ready to bring down to Provo.

 

The inside, after already an hour or two of gutting the shelves, carpet and wood from it.

 

That's me, learning to change a fuel water separator and getting a crash course in diesel operation over the
course of the day. PS: If you're good with diesel, shoot me an email or something. I can always use more smart friends.

 

Most of the decorating was taken care of without us this year but it was a great event as usual and we even convinced Kelsey's family (Valentine and Caldwell) to drive down. We'll see if they were truly converted next year haha. 

 

Just started getting things inside ready. Put the aluminum sheet flooring down shortly after New Years, time to get to work and get this thing on the road!

Remember, remember...

Oh it's that time again, my favorite holiday: Guy Fawkes Day. We prepared our Guy several weeks ahead of time with just about all the copies of the Wall Street Journal delivered to Wymount last month and a particularly sexy set of  one-piece pyjamas. Guy gained a significant amount of weight since last year's burning, but I guess that's what you get after a few years in the US...

Joe also decided to contribute to this year's festivities with a mini-Guy full of school spirit. Here it is. It's fun to have more family down here in Provo since the beginning of this semester.

And below a picture of the whole group, which is steadily growing from year to year. With enough effort, we may be able to make this a Provo tradition too and before you know it, hundreds of singles wards will be swarming up the canyon once a year for the traditional bonfire. This year's executioners: Lee Hosler, Tony and Lori Gervais, Andrew and Alana Birkinsha (I know the name change isn't quite official yet, but it's as good as done), Oceane and Amandine (+ roommate...), Joe and Josh, and us.

Below, the burning begins, it really was quite a success this year. And I managed to not burn my face off, which I always consider an accomplishment now.

The deed is done. This is by far the coolest picture we have of the night, courtesy of our family photographer: Kelsey.

Shortly after putting an end to the gunpowder plot, we put an end to our soccer season with a final good game. Here we are considering the philosophical implications of our latest loss...

Last, but definitely not least. It's time to go public with next year's great idea. Kelsey and I will be starting and running a food truck! Here it is below... We aren't actually selling comestible tools, we just haven't taken care of the paint job yet. We expect the help of many friends in the great enterprise it will be to get this thing running, but we have been planning for several months and recently entered the execution stage. We plan on officially launching as soon as the winter weather settles down a little. So probably early March.

Here's a picture of the inside. We haven't taken care of it all yet. If you feel like learning a thing or two about any of the following areas and want to get your hands dirty, feel free to let us know: plumbing, electrical work, construction, truck mechanics, food service, and cooking of course!

We'll be pulling the lift gate off soon, but here is a quick picture from the back. It's gonna be sweet. Consider this an official announcement, world! (ok, mostly just Provo) Here we come!

Finally Fall

The following two pictures are on the blog at Kelsey's request. Since we play soccer pretty much every week, it seemed odd that it hadn't made it onto the blog yet. The picture quality is terrible, but it's enough to prove that we play. One day when we are too weak and old to play we will look back on these blurry gems with bittersweet nostalgia...

On the plus side, I didn't have to manage the team this semester so it was a lot more stress free than it usually is. Next semester s Co-ed so hopefully we'll throw up a few pictures of Kelsey's mad skills.Also, I have no idea why Kelsey decided to take this picture. I promise that the rest of the game I was indeed going after the ball and not running away from it...

Behold, Park City! Kesley went on a little girl's trip/adventure there with two of my sisters and my mom a few weekends ago. They had a jolly old time, bought clothes they didn't need and even ate ice cream with their ID cards.

This is definitely noteworthy. We can't step outside on any of our traditional little afternoon or evening walks without Kelsey almost being brought to tears by the beauty of the mountains. I think if other people overheard our conversation they would think I was blind with how much detail Kelsey includes for me. All jokes aside, for the two weeks it does last around here, it is a pretty season.

Here is me, appreciating the finer things in life. That is chocolate cheesecake (again). I am French so I love cheese, but I am not crazy and I promise I wasn't actually eating the Brie with the cheesecake. I just got too excited to clear the table before desert. The cheesecake was part of my 1 year anniversary gifts from Kelsey.

 

Now for the main event: the ward halloween party.I'll have you know that I really don't like Halloween very much. My parents don't like it and while I'm told I loved it as a little kid once, the only recollection I have is of not being able to go outside on Halloween for most of my youth. It's not really a happy night in most places. Kelsey on the other hand loves Halloween and insisted that we dress up. I found this weird idea online and we thought we would give it a shot. It won't make sense until the last picture.

Can you tell who I am? Yeah neither can I. Hint: I am a copper-colored version of one of America's favorite presidents...

  

 Here's Kelsey. I think the hair makes hers a lot easier to guess. Hint: She is a silver-colored version of one of America's beloved presidents. 

And here is the denouement we're all waiting for. We decided to be coins for Halloween. Lincoln and Washington in case you don't have a penny and quarter handy right now.

Hopefully, that is about as much as I will have to humiliate myself this season, although to be honest I think Kelsey was more embarrassed than I was when it came time to gallivant around the ward party as a coin. I don't really understand why, seeing as she was worth 25 of me..

That's all of the recent happenings I think. Still on the Fall to-do list: visit a corn maze, make way more pumpkin cookies, talk about the mountains another fifty times, watch the Nightmare Before Christmas (a classic)... That ought to about cover it.

Who says Summer is over?

So last weekend we decided to hike Timp in the middle of the night. If it sounds masochistic, blame Provo culture, it's just one of those things everybody wants to do. We went with Oceane and Amandine. We got to the top hours before the sunrise and got so cold that we started heading down before it happened but it was a really nice hike and a good time.

 The very next day, we went fishing at Strawberry, still trying to improve this years fishing record since it has been far from phenomenal. Despite my fabulous casting skills, it was almost as uneventful as ever. However, Kelsey caught her first fish! I was almost as excited as she was since I was pretty sure she was going to stop coming with me if something didn't happen soon.

 

 

On Friday, we were able to go to the BYU game and spend some time with the family there. The game wasn't fantastic but that shouldn't be news to anyone. At least we won and spent some good time with some good peeps. 

 

 Next, Wasatch Reptile Expo! Yesterday we drove to the state fairgrounds with Tony and Lori to go look at a ton of crazy reptiles. It's kind of like a zoo, except with only the cool animals haha! And you can hold pretty much all of them if you want. I was proud of myself for not buying anything. Maybe next year...

With Priesthood session being broadcast now, we may not have to suit up and miss out on ladies' night twice a year. Even so, I have always felt a little ripped off and decided to make up for it this year.  While Kelsey went with my family to the Conference Center for the Relief Society General meeting I went with a few friends on a cat-fishing expedition. It took a little patience but was significantly more successful than anticipated. We took home a couple of six pound fish and had a few other break off after a good fight.

 

Finally, and most importantly, today is our one year anniversary! We celebrated with way too much crab for two people (makes you feel rich when you're on a student budget) and just having a nice quiet day just the two of us. I got Kelsey a French triple combination (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price) because she has been making some great strides with her learning and I think it's a good time to start reading together. She got me a full Godiva chocolate cheesecake from Cheesecake factory, because I never shut up about cheesecake and because we didn't get enough of our own wedding cake. Besides, I am pretty sure it's a tradition to eat it one year later right? I think that's what I am going to do right now. Peace. 

The End of Summer

Alright, it took a while to get around to this post with school kicking in and what not, but here we are. The High Uintas. This is a picture heavy post so I will just let them do most of the talking.

We went up the right side of Henry's Fork. This is most of us right before Grass Lake.

Here are the two coolest people on the trip.

This picture is here to showcase the two most avid fishermen of the group as well as the moose in the background. While many are still lauding praises at the GoPro, I am growing annoyed at its ability to make everything seem so far away. I promise that moose was significantly closer than it looks. By the way, we actually ran into 8 mooses (meese?) during the trip. They seem fairly used to people and didn't give us any trouble.

 

Here's Earl and I. He was the king of the lake... As well as the only fish we caught. Even though it was only one fish, the anarchy we created in the lake by kidnapping and massacring its sovereign will be felt for years to come.

 

Another random shot of myself, I think these really demystify the photographer's identity.

Despite an almost revolution over where to hang the tarps to deal with the rain, I'd say the Valentine clan was pretty happy with this set-up. This was the second night, after a less-successful hammock attempt of the first night.

Self-portrait of Kelsey. And Josh in the background. And my head if you look very closely... and probably a moose if you look extra hard.

It rained right before we got to our campsite so starting the fire took some work but once it was going it didn't stop for the full three days basically.

And here are the hammocks, everyone is still happy in this picture because they haven't actually had to sleep in them yet...

Full group shot, always a tricky picture to get.

Josh showcasing the sweetest Christmas gift since the first Christmas. Served its purpose very well too.

Sadly hiking out, all wishing we could have stayed an extra week or month...

That was the last great adventure of this summer for us. But we did get to witness Layne and Jami's great adventure just a few weeks later. Layne participated in the Wasatch 100 Endurance Race and while we had some technical difficulties and were scared we might miss him, we were able to catch up with him at Lamb's Canyon for a little while and see him off to yet another stretch of insanity. Go Layne!

I'd say that's a pretty good smile for having 50 miles behind it. I wouldn't have guessed.

And finally, Tony and Lori got back from their summer out east and we got to go up to Third Springs on Saturday to do a little shooting and show our wives where we had virtually every stupid idea together, including but not limited to, burning my face off.

That's all. I have started school, all two classes worth. Can't wait to be done. Also, we have some mad business ideas brewing... too soon to reveal them though, stay posted.