Desktop Update

Since HP7.2 has come and gone (great movie btw) I decided to update my desktop background:

I thought about creating countdowns for each game... but I don't really have the time (or need) for that right now.  But in also exciting news, the apartment we will be moving into has internet and cable as part of the rent, so I'll have the ESPN channels I need to watch all the BYU games :-)

Also, I got this background from this page on the Cougar Board

Cruising

Not our boat.  but this is.

Serenity Bay on Disney's private island... notice how serene.

Queen's Staircase, an escape route from the Fort/Palace on Nassau (the capital of the Bahamas)

Goofy's Mini-Golf around the stern

Serious game of billiards

Sailing

Basketball

I was just standing there in the water and these guys came swimming up to me!

Swimming (snorkeling) with the fishes

and finally...
Disney World

and if that wasn't enough for you here's some more pictures and descriptions
Stephanie's blog
Photobook
Kacy's blog
Coleen's blog

Moosebutter

Every now and then I like to take a trip down good-music-memory lane, and today I came up with this song:
http://www.moosebutter.com/lyrics.php/harry-potter

and even better is the video:



22 days 'til the last movie :-D

Mutual Gift

This past weekend Stephanie and I celebrated our first anniversary!!  Our time was occupied with babysitting stephanie's cousin's kids, but we did go to Seven Peaks for the day.  One great thing we did was buy an anniversary gift for each other together.  Since getting our wonderful new camera for graduation we've been wanting to get some lens filters for it.

A month or so ago we went to a camera shop where we were presented with several very expensive filters.  Last week and I browsed around on the internet I found on amazon.com a whole set of filters for about the price of a single filter in the store.  We did a little investigation, shopped around the world wide web and placed our order.  The set we chose came not only with three standard filters, but also four macro lenses, somewhat of a bargain package.

Today I set out to test the filters to see just how effective the were and just to have fun in general:
The whole set (I also used the fluorescent light filter even though I shouldn't have, hence the purple-ish hue)

Polarizing Filter on, not polarizing

Polarizing filter, twisted 90 degrees (polarizing)

The fluorescent light filter again outside

The macro filter set (really just magnifying glasses, also useful for burning ants and leaves...)

Another example of the polarizing filter

 4x picture of my shorts

DK

Last November Nintendo released a retro-remake game for the Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, emulating the style and format of the original SNES game DK Country.  Sadly then (and now) I did not have the funds to purchase brand new wii games, but I did have in my possession a N64 and the interesting title of Donkey Kong 64.  Being curious about the DK franchise I decided that before I would allow myself to buy the new DK game, I would play through the old DK game.

Sadly DK 64 is one of the worst platform games ever created.  The controls are glitchy, the levels are expansive and the goals are obscure.  I never would have made it past the first hour of playing if I hadn't found a very thorough game guide online.  Of course I, being a perfectionist, could not settle for merely beating the final boss, I had to go through every level, collecting every banana medal, finding every banana fairy, and of course getting every last golden banana (not to mention the battle crowns, blueprints, and boss keys).  The guide I found was very useful in aiding my quest, but as you can see here, it still took me 46 HOURS!!  (that's right, all 101% - the 201st banana is a 'secret')

And happily for my birthday this week, I was rewarded with the next installment.  I now consider myself a DK enthusiast... for the most part.

60D

After all the cerimonial graduation garbage (putting on robes, walking in lines, shaking hands of people you don't actually know...) we had a proper family & friends all out party!!  

Murray Parents supplied delicious food, Cafe Rio-style burritos (on my recommendation) and ice cream, and then we played some fun games and the graduates got a few gifts.

It was at this moment that we received the title of this post:

 (that's me reading the card that came with it.  And if you can't see what Steph is holding behind the card....)

An amazing digital SLR camera, the Cannon 60D!

And as we played games we just had to test out our new toy:

We played the Bryan Murray trademarked BYU Taboo.

I like to make faces when Steph uses the camera..

Stephanie's Family

The next day we spent time around BYU with the above pictured family, and I took what is my favorite picture yet on our camera:

taken infront of the parabolic mirror in the ESC lobby

To see more of our new photography hobby go check out our pictures on facebook.

Graduation

April 22, 2011 aprox. 12:15 pm:

Stephanie and I graduated from Brigham Young University.  The weekend was filled with fun, family, and celebrations.  Both of our families were in town, a party was held for the graduates (including Erin), and we began the strange goodbyes to 'college life,' the only life we've know outside of home.

It really was an exciting weekend, but the full force of it didn't come until the next week when we slept in as long as we wanted, then did nothing all day except apply to jobs.  We now enter quite the strange unknown world of 'real life.'