2012 has been good to me. I was inspired by Facebook's Year in Review to create a Year in Review of my own. I've been blessed to see, do, and experience some awesome things in the past 12 months. Because there are so many things to list from this year I've tried to just include some of the highlights. Thanks to friends and family, new and old this year has been one of the best. Here's to an even better 2013!
Places I've Traveled
New York City with Ty & Bryant
South Africa with Ty & Bryant
Things I Experienced for the First Time
Hot Springs Hike with Ty
Brazilian Festival with Jordon & Josh
REAL Salt Lake Soccer
Yoga
ODT Thriller
Laser Hair Removal
Flowrider
New Mattress
Cycling Shoes
Rosca de Reyes / Wise Men Day
Concerts I Attended
Fun. with Taylor (and Joel & Julene)
Band of Horses with Ty
Kelly Clarkson & Matt Nathanson
with Ty, Bryant, & Erik
Guster & Submarines
with Robbie
Kristin Chenowith
with Ty, Bryant, Braden, & Erik
Fun Things I Did Before but Did Again in 2012
Mount Timpanogos Summit Hike
with Matt, Bryant, Darin, Ty, John, Ty, & Tyler
Manti Pageant
with Kyle (and Ty, Bryant, Tennille, & Emily)
So December isn't over but I'm recapping it anyway! ;)
I like to keep busy in case you haven't noticed. But December felt pretty crazy with all the events I had scheduled. Here are just a few of the big events that I was a part of. Included are a few upcoming events as well.
Festival of Trees
This was my first time going to the festival since I was in grade school I think. The place was huge and I didn't get to see everything before they were closing up for the evening. But my buddy, Braden, and I got to see plenty.
The Forgotten Carols
I attended Michael McClean's The Forgotten Carols almost 20 years ago for the first time. I had forgotten the story but remembered much of the music since my parents had given us all a CD from the production. I went with my friends Braden, Ty, and Bryant. To be honest, again, I was really surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Sure it was a bit cheesy but the messages were still touching.
Utah Symphony
Thanks to my friend, Ty, I actually got a little high culture in too. The symphony has a series where Broadway stars come and perform with them. This was their holiday version. I had seen them once before up at Deer Valley (which is a pretty awesome setting.) This time the Broadway stars were tenor, Doug LaBrecque, who was in Phanton of the Opera and mezzo soprano, LaKisha Jones, who was in Oprah's The Color Purple and a former contestant on American Idol. It was fun evening other than the vertigo I had worrying about falling from or dropping things from the 3rd balcony! :) Afterwards Ty, Braden, and myself joined Ty's parents who also attended for a hug sundae at Leatherby's.
Borup Family Christmas Party
The family Christmas party is always a good time. We were able to get almost the whole family together. We were just missing my sister in Arizona and her husband and then three great-grand-daughters. We had delicious food as always. I made two appetizers shown below.
Cheesy Artichoke Dip
Cranberry Salas w/ Cream Cheese
We did our usual nativity. This year I was not Buddy the Elf or Big Hairy Baby Jesus. I was the shepherd bringing the gift of Diet Coke. At least we had a really cute baby Jesus!
No Borup family Christmas party would be complete without a white elephant gift exchange. This year I scored a sweet Stimu-roll foot massager that someone apparently picked up at Deseret Industries for only $5! You can see my excitement. This year I brought Miss Jennie (Suzie's friend) with her Angry Birds hat, a camouflage Snuggie, and some glow bracelets. Someone scored big time!
Miss Jennie
And the obligatory family group photo...
Company Holiday Party
It's become a tradition at my company that we celebrate the holidays at Ruth's Chris Steak House. At least its been a tradition since they've opened a restaurant in Utah. It hasn't happened yet but it's time for it this weekend. This year I'm taking my friend Andrea. Hope she's ready for a big yummy steak!
My company is always super generous at Christmastime. This year they gave me an Sonos Play 3 and bridge. It's a wireless media player. I haven't got hooked up yet but I'm excited to do that! Thanks guys!
Kristin Chenoweth Concert
This New Year's Eve will begin with some entertainment from one of my favorites, Kristin Chenoweth. She generally best known for playing Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. But I've also loved her on the TV shows Pushing Daisies and GCB which are both off the air now. I'm sure it will be amazing!
Last year when I set and accomplished a goal of running 400 miles that year, I had no plans to meet that or even up the ante for 2012. During the year at some point I realized that I would pass 400 miles. It was then that I decided that I would indeed go beyond last years accomplishment by running a total of 500 miles. Well today (Christmas Eve Day) I wrapped up my goal. Last year I waited until New Years Eve to find that the gym had closed at 2 pm and I was going to have to run outside if I was going to reach that goal. This year I have almost a whole week of buffer that I no longer need. Needless to say it feels good!
I'm not going to make any promises about next year yet but with training for and running a marathon and three Ragnar relays, I'm pretty sure that I will surpass this years mileage. One day I hope to switch to some road biking but for now I seem to occupy all my extra time running. I guess it could be worse. No?
On a side note...
After running I thought it would be nice to sit in the sauna for a bit. About when I went in a lady was leaving. Other than that I had the place to myself. I had my music playing and sat there relaxing for quite a while when I decided that I had had enough. As I walked out of the sauna I noticed there was no one in the pool or the hot tub. And as I looked further out into the gym it looked like the lights were off. I went to the locker room and toweled off a bit. Upon walking out into the main gym I was surprised to see it was empty. Oops! The gym had closed at 2 pm (again) and it was 2:15 pm. If they made an announcement I didn't hear it because of my music. There were just two people cleaning and then another guy at the front door that was able to let me out. I wonder how long I could have stayed there before someone would have found me. This was almost my Christmas Eve spent at Gold's! :)
It's been about 2 years now since I went to my first spinning class. This last year I have thought more about getting some cycling shoes to use in spin class. It just seemed like the next logical step. I'd like to get into road biking and I could borrow my brothers bike but his shoes wouldn't work for me. So having my own pair would allow me to try out some bike rather than just buying one without knowing what I like.
A week ago while out to dinner with my family, we ran into my cousin and his wife. They are serious triathletes! And I found out that he is co-owner of SBR Sports in Orem. He said they had some good deals on cycling shoes and that he could hook me up. :) Apparently that was the push I needed. This past Saturday I went in and picked me up these beauts. Merry Christmas to me! Tomorrow I hope to take them out on a spin for reals.
My niece, Bri, thought I should have posted some photos of my long hair. Thanks to my mom posting lots of photos on Facebook I found these two. These are both from my twenties. And honestly these are some of photos where I look best with long hair.
FYI, I can long in as my mother into Facebook. So I have removed any of the really hideous photos. ;)
I have this theory that I've shared with some of my friends and family but today I am thinking that I need to spread the word even further. What triggered this you might ask? Well I was looking at a fashion blog and seeing all these models with long hair. Most of them looked great but I'm worried that it makes the general population think that its cool and they can pull it off. They can't!
You see when I was in my teenage years (okay and maybe into my 20s) I had the illusion that if I grew my hair out that I would look cool. So after several attempts and months of my hair looking super awkward in the hopes that one day it was going to be awesome, I realized that it was never going to happen and I would cut it all off again. Each time I would think that this was the time that it would look good. I was naive. Was it ever going to look good long? Never ever!
Why you ask? (And here is where my theory comes in.) Because any man that looks good with long hair has to be rediculously good looking to begin with. Which leads to the second part of my theory. Any man who looks good with long hair is going to look much better with short hair. You might not agree but I'm going to give you examples:
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