Red Rock Relay 2010 4:09 PM

So this is relay is turning into an annual event.  If you remember last year right after I got back from India, Team Gazelle shredded this course to get 3rd out of 60 teams.  This year Team Gazelle was going back to the relay not with determination to get 1st but with the determination to get the Team Spirit Award.  The team consisted of most of the same team members except we had a few replacements this year.

we showed up in the Black Sabbath again, (a huge mercedes 12 passenger van that the Roney’s let us borrow!!) and we started whooping and hollerin at the starting line. 

the Red Rock Relay is 180 miles of beautiful southern Utah scenery that takes place over two days and has enough energy to completely drain a team of 12 Gazelles.

We ended up finishing in 25 hours and 9 minutes, not in first place but in 5th place overall out of 200 teams.  the whole team did a really good job and I don’t think there was another team that was crazier then we were.  Mr. RedRock seemed to agree because Team Gazelle was the winner of the 2010 Team Spirit Award!!!!

the Greens at Waikoloa 3:09 PM

Tamanna and I spent our honeymoon on the big island of Hawaii.  We stayed in a friends house, so we had our own house, our own car, our own kayak, and our own snorkel equipment.  I don’t think we could have had a better getaway for our honeymoon.  We spent two weeks bummin the beaches, looking for turtles and dolphins, and eating exquisite food.  Thanks so much for making this happen.

Wedding Day 1:48 PM

Ok today is actually the 7th of November but there has been a lot going on lately in my life so I’m going to try to catch up.  On the 13th of August I got married to the love of my life, Tamanna Kalra.  It seriously was the best day of my life.  Tamanna and I decided that we had the best wedding day ever and there was not one thing that we would have changed.  We had our wedding in the Salt Lake Temple and our Reception at an indoor garden up in Sandy, Utah called Le Jardin (the Garden).  we had a great time and here are some epic pictures from the wedding day.

more pictures are available here:

Wedding	Reception

Cape Lookout 11:44 PM

So Jeffrey Costello gave me a perfect opportunity to road trip down to Portland.  He set a goal this summer to go from the Canadian border to the Mexico border on hike bike.  Check out his blog if you want.  But his dreams were crushed when out buddy Dave cut his hand open the night before the big day.   So after a week of helping Dave through surgery, Jeff was ready to start his trip solo down the coast.  And since he had no one to start his trip with I volunteered quickly to help him out since deep down in my heart I always wanted to do this tour with them.  So I drove him out to the coastal town of Netarts, Oregon from Seattle on a Friday night.  It was late when we got in so we just pulled into a park and set up camp.  In the morning we found out that the park we camped in was a public park that was on the outskirts of a neighborhood.  But it really was a great camping spot seriously 100 meters from the ocean.

In the morning we found a small little café called the Schooner where we at breakfast, it was a really cool place:

After some of the best breakfast I have ever had we decided to look at Jeff’s ride for the day and it looked like he had three major capes to battle.  I volunteered to take him to the top of the first cape, Cape Lookout which was the hill of them all and let him get a good start at the top of the hill.  So we drove there and he got packed and took off:

Little did I know I would find a trailhead there with one of the best 5 mile trails I have ever done:

It was such a cool trail and a beautiful day to do it.  At the point of the cape I was able to get past the cliff ropes and look down and see 10+ sea lions and other cool things:

It was a successful day!

Redmond 9:55 PM

Redmond, Washington is my new home for the summer.  It’s funny that the last couple of summers of my life have been very random.  Alaska, Benin, Alaska, Alaska, India, Europe, India again, and Washington.  I really feel like i couldn’t live a better life.  I’ve been richly blessed in my life and i can’t figure out why.  I’ve travelled to a lot of really cool places and i have met the most beautiful and smart girl you'll ever meet and now I’m sitting in a house in Redmond working for Microsoft.  I don’t think there is any room to complain about any bad things.  

Dates are getting more solidified for me and Tamanna and our wedding.  I'm gonna post this only so that people can see that we are getting married but the details are still in limbo.  Actually most of them are set just some of them could change.  Like the place for example in the last three weeks we have changed from Alaska, to Hong Kong, to California, to Utah.  Our present plans tell everyone that we are getting married on the 13th of August in SLC.  The reception will be the same day and then for a honeymoon!!!

Other than that life is going well.  Jeff and Dave are meeting me in Seattle next week and I’m gonna do part of their Border to Border adventure with them for Memorial Weekend.  How could it get any better, biking, running, working, money and must i mention again my incredibly hot fiancé! haha

ok well this is just a small post today so enjoy the pictures

I'm Engaged 9:39 PM

alright well I've been holding off on this big news just to allow it to settle into my mind and into my life but I've always been really excited and so i just wanted to let all of you know that I'm engaged to the love of my life Tamanna Kalra.
Now I'm going to assume that everyone will want to know how I knelt down on one knee and asked her.  so the simple story is that after a wonderful week that we had been having we decided to enjoy our Saturday to the max and we went snowboarding up at The Canyons in Park City, UT.  We snowboarded all day long, and I'm not a very good snowboarder so I was getting frustrated trying to scoot along on all the flat parts.  Not to mention I had my friends boots on which were too small for me so I was paying the price of not clipping my toenails that day.  Towards the end of snowboarding I was not in the best of mood so I had mentally decided not to give her the ring but we did decide to go get some oreo milkshakes afterwards.  Now if any of you know me well enough oreo milkshakes are my favorite and I could not have asked for a better upper.  After I had finished my oreo milkshake I was in a great mood and I was ready to get engaged on that day.  We had already planned on going to the hot springs in Midway, UT so we had our swimming stuff in the back of the car.  We left Park City and drove to Midway and spent quite a long time soaking in the hot springs.  I don't know about you but hot water really is the best thing ever invented as an apres-ski event.  We talked a lot and met some big groups of people who seemed to share the same love for hot springs as we did.  we even started naming all of the hot springs we had been too.  When we left the hot springs we drove up above midway a little and relaxed in the car for a little bit.  It was in this moment that I decided to propose in this setting.  So I slowly tried to think of a plan of attack and nothing came to mind other than just asking her.  She then asked me if I could tell her a secret (this is something we do often just to share funny old experiences).  I really wanted to tell her about her ring being in my pocket but instead I played it off regularly and told her some story instead.  Later I told her that I had to get something out of the back of the car, so I got out of the car and opened the back of the car just to show her that I needed something but instead of returning to my side of the car, I walked over to her side of the car and opened her car door.  She was really confused and wasn't sure of what was going on until I knelt down on one knee and pulled out the ring box I had picked up earlier that day.  I then asked her for her hand in marriage and she said, "yes"!!!!!
We got engaged March 6th, 2010 and we plan on getting married in Anchorage, Alaska in August of 2010.  I'm super excited!!

Updated: Our official wedding date is the 19th of August, 2010!

Updated again: Our official OFFICIAL date is the 13th of August in SLC

St. Valentine's Getaway 11:04 PM

So this last weekend being valentine's day on Sunday and presidents day on Monday i was blessed with a four-day weekend. so what better thing to do was to leave Provo and head to Jackson. Bradley, Ty, and I took off friday morning after Bradley's class for a weekend in Jackson after convincing our loved ones that we could leave them for the two day prior to valentines day. Tamanna and Mallory had decided to meet us in Jackson on Sunday but until then we had another grand Mancation.
We spent all day on Saturday hiking the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort looking for the freshest lines around. The weather report reported 10 new inches overnight and over 2 feet in the last 72 hours. it was day bound for goodness. we seriously had fresh tracks all day long and we've got some good pictures to prove it. Ty's buddy Will Gardner took pictures all day but i dont have them yet do just have a little patience and you'll get them. at the end of the day i was so exhausted. we made a total of three amazing runs on Saturday and that just goes to show how much hiking and how long the runs were that we did. we started around 9a and ended around 4p. what a day of beautiful skiing.
On Sunday Ty left to go to New York for a toy/game fair while the girls joined us in Jackson. we spent the evening at bradley's nephew, Miles birthday party. he had a castle cake and cool presents and a full turkey and yams dinner. it was super fun we had wrapping paper fights and watched bedknobs and broomsticks (it's been forever since i had seen that movie). when we left we headed back home pulling behind us two snow machines for monday's expedition. we ended the night all cozied up on the couches watching the Winter Olympics.
Monday morning we woke up to blueberry waffles and then got all dressed up in our winter gear and headed to the trailhead of the Granite Hot Springs. The Granite Hot Springs were about 20-30 minutes off the road by snow machine so we had decided to take a trip out to them since i still had sore legs from hiking so much on saturday plus who doesnt like wild hot springs in the middle of the woods. the snowmachine trip was so much fun. the hot springs was built up pretty well with a full pool around them to satisfy all the tourists that came on dogsleds and snowmachine tours. we showed up and it was a little crowded but nothing was going to steer us away. it was seriously so much fun and i think everyone liked it.on the way back i let Tamanna drive the whole time and she did exceptionally well. we even got up to 60MPH on the snowmachine. well thats what the speedometer said. i dont know it if it was miles or kilometers. haha.
Now i hope this Jackson trip can count as a good valentines day present for Tamanna because it was quite the opportunity to relax and just enjoy being together. all in all it was a grand weekend and i loved it. but once again i find myself at school today loaded down with tons of work because i did no school work over the weekend. oh well better stop blogging.