Sunday, March 28, 2010

I'm Engaged

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

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

St. Valentine's Getaway

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.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Christmas Break

Ok so i know i have not written on my blog forever. I'm sure i have lost some followers for sure but I'm still here and I'm still having a crazy adventure for my life. The reason i have not had much time is my school work and other life planning activities that I've been thinking about. I would like post a little adventure I had though during Christmas break.

For Christmas break my girlfriend, Tamanna Kalra, and I went up to Alaska and spent two weeks with my parents. We were both able to get tickets and fly up together to Alaska. Tamanna had never been to Alaska and i figured that she’d have a blast if she came home with me. So we took off after finals to what became some of the best two weeks ever.

We had a lot of different adventures: we were able to go up the south fork of Eagle River and go play in the snow and take a nice hike. Tamanna likened the scenery to a swiss mountain village.

We also played outside a lot in the snow just sledding around the neighborhood and enjoying ourselves. I honestly felt like a kid again being able to dress up in all my snow gear and walk outside to play all night long on the sledding hill and making rooms and hallways next to the house.

Christmas day was a very fun day we were able to just relax and sleep in and then wake up to some very good presents. I received two bike jerseys one from Tamanna and one from my parents. I also got some other bike gear and other things. Tamanna got some nice presents too from my parents and her mom and dad. It was a fun day to just spend in the green house sharing presents and stories. Later ton Christmas day Tamanna was able to talk to her family and see how they spent their Christmas day. They spent it riding elephants and sitting at a resort beach all day. What a Christmas. I would have never imagined a Christmas like that but it sounded really fun.

We also were able to make the annual ski trip for Christmas down to Alyeska. The snow was not new snow and the weather was actually very warm, maybe even too warm for December but we were able to visit the condo and enjoy a night there and wake up to the stomping of the neighbors ski boots. Tamanna and I rode most of the day, and really enjoyed it. Well at least I hope Tamanna enjoyed it. She learned how to snowboard when she came to Utah 4 years ago. We went all over the mountain and had a very fun day. I bought her some new Scott goggles for Christmas and she wore them but wasn’t very impressed with their perspective. But she did look good in them!

The week after Christmas we spent a lot of days around the house. My mother and I taught Tamanna how to knit and I started knitting a scarf but I did not like it. We also visited Jitters, a local loved coffee shop. And we were also lucky enough to find a matt hopper playing a show at a café in the south side of town. We had a super fun Christmas break and there were a lot of memories made for sure.

For new years we were actually headed to the airport at the turn of the year so we didn’t celebrate too much because out flight left around 1 am on the 1st of January, 2010. Since Christmas break we have both been super busy with school and have had small time for playing except for on the weekends. So I know I’m a little late but since this is my holiday post I will wish everyone a very late Merry Christmas but more importantly a happy new year to everyone.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Bradley and Mallory's Wedding


Congratulations.

This wedding was seriously so fun. James, Gabe, Dave and I were able to get stand by tickets to go to Seattle and be there for the wedding and reception. It was so much fun. When we got there mallory's dad gave us there old jeep cherokee which didnt have any power steering and also no headlights so that eliminated any night driving. Thats when we started our 3-day adventure in seattle and boy was it fun. we did Pike Place, Iva's clam chowder, REI, Bellevue, wedding preparation, H&M, and so much more. It was a blast and i want to thank the Cooneys for such a good weekend and for their wonderful car that put up with us.
A week later we went to Jackson which was way fun and stayed at the Roney's so that we could go to the Jackson reception. it was way fun and we celebrated Halloween up there also at the Roney's by carving pumpkins and having a fabulous four person dance party. i loved it. we danced for almost 2 hours in a home theatre it was way fun.
October has been good to me. I can honestly say i don't regret any day or choice in October!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Red Rock Relay

ok so it's been a long while since i have written. school just really swept me off my feet and i've bee going non-stop since. but i want to blog about the Red Rock Relay because it was amazing and everyone should know. so last month me and 11 other friends ran the Red Rock Relay which is a 181 mile running relay race. We were sponsored by The American Red Cross and we ended up coming in third overall. our team was not a bunch of runners we were just out there to ahve fun and compete but once we realized how well we wanted to win we put our minds and bodies to the test and ran our best. we were super satisfied to get third place and we're totally excited for next year when we can come back and stomp the competition. here are some shots from the 24-hour extravaganza:



Monday, August 31, 2009

Luberon adventures

My France trip was topped off by a week-long trip to the Luberon. the Luberon is located in the south of France about 40 minutes east of Avignon and an hour north of Marseille. This area is also known as Provence and is covered with small little mountain towns speckeled with castles and cool old buildings. my parents had found a villa located next to the town of Lourmarin and it was amazing:we spent the first couple of days just relaxixng at the pool and enjoying being of vacation. i think while we were there it stayed between 90-100 all week. it was a very penetrating sun but the pool was the perfect relief to have on hand. we decided that this would be a fun week to just go off and do small day adventures in all directions. so we did.
the owner of the house let us use two of thier bikes for the week so one morning i woke up and my dad had packed the two bikes in the our little Renault hatchback and wanted to go do a little touring. we drove up to Gordes and started our day. there was a market for mom and bikes for the boys!:it was small little mountain town it seemed but had some beautiful sights. we biked around the city for awhile and then on to the next town Cabieres d'Avignon. it was a fun day and just good to get back out onto bicycles. i seriously missed biking over this summer. that night i looked at a map of the area and it appeared that their were bike trails all over the Luberon, connecting most all of the little towns. i now knew that my parents had gotten the right place for me for the week!
the next day we took a road trip to Marseille but more important to the coast, to a small little town called Cassis. it was pretty much the beginning of the french riviera. it sounded good to my dad to go swimming in the mediterranean so we set out for our full day journey. we drove right through marseille nothing really adventurous to see there and found our way to Cassis and les Calanques:Cassis was a cool little coastal town and was crammed full of people there enjoying thier holidays. the roads were seriously like up and down these cliffs and it was pretty hard to find a beach. we had found one rock beach but it required pay and there was no parking even around the small little beach. so we drove out to a place called Prequ'Ile which was really cool. there were no beaches just big rocks and cliffs. people were mostly sun tanning on the rocks but there were some teenagers who were out there doing cliff jumping and that was the funnest thing to watch these people of all-ages do these cliffs just like they had been doing them since they were all 9 years of age. it was a super fun day on the rocks/cliffs of les Calanques.
we did some more adventures throughout the week another one of my favorite was a 20k bike tour that my dad and i did starting at a beautiful mountain town called ????? we started there and biked through 4 towns and it was a blast:i know that that was not my last trip to the Luberon. there were too many bike trails to call it quits there. i would love to go back and do some big 100k+ tours with road bikes with camping along the way. now that i know its possible i want to do it! there was a lot more that we did within that one week but these are the big highlights if you ask me. it was seriously a nice break between working in India and classes which start tomorrow for me. im not excited to get back to school but all summers have to end sometime.
Goodbye Summer.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Biking Versailles

I enjoyed Versailles very much. Nikki Styler recommended Versailles to me but i thought she meant the big palace at Versailles:well i went to the palace and it was seriously so packed full of people that it was crowded in every room. and to make it worse the set up of the palace was that you entered in one door and then you walked in a line all through the palace and there were no exits until the very end. well i didnt last long and i just left mom and nicola and walked as fast as a i could to get out of the palace. i then tried to find dad who had planned from the very beginning to go rent a bike and bike around the gardens. well i found him but he was too far off to catch his attention so i rented my own bike and set off on a great journey:i later found my dad and we went off once again and biked through all of the gardens again. it was a blast:
i love biking and biking in Versailles was a very good thing!