Get your date on. Utah edition.

Hi.

I'm Ali. I don't know if you remember me.

I've been a bit distracted the past couple months... by this:

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the boy - not the chicken.
   That's right, kids. We met, we dated, we fell in LOVE. Cool, huh? And you wanna know the very best part? We are getting married. On January 2, 2014 I will marry my best friend in the Draper Utah Temple. And we will live happily ever after.
   So, Jared and I dated up and down the Wasatch Front. And guys, we had to get creative. Neither of us are fans of just watching movies all the time, so we found lots of other things to do instead.

And now I present....
41 ways to date in Northern Utah. A compilation.

1. Pick out gross (as in ugly) clothes for each other at the DI, then go out to eat or bowling or to a movie. Just go somewhere public.
2. Driving range. Like, at a golf course.
3. Batting cages
4. Go Kart racing
5. West Layton Bird Refuge
6. Bear River Bird Refuge (my FAVORITE place in Utah)
7. Dinosaur Park & window shopping at Rainbow Gardens (both are just off 12th street in Ogden)
8.  Pepperidge farm factory (Logan)
9.  Gosners (buy their cookies and cream milk and drink it for me) (Logan)
10. Snow Horse Art Gallery (Layton - in the same building as the Davis Conference Center)
11. Go to a Bee's game. Seats on the grass are like, $3. (SLC)
12. Clark Planterium (SLC), movie in the dome theater
13. Look for shows at local bars - we saw Ryan Hamilton at Wise Guys once (SLC)
14. Baby animal days (Logan or Kaysville - in the fall)
15. Visit grandparents - help with yardwork
16. Hike Ensign Peak- don't worry, it's a short one. (SLC) Or the Wind Caves in Logan.
17. Rock Climbing - indoor or outdoor. I love the Rock Haus in Logan, or Weber Rocks in Ogden. You can rent all the equipment you need at either of those places.
18. Take a trip up to Park City - window shop, ride the zip line or the alpine slide, walk through their Olimpic Park Museum.
19. Go to an arcade. We went to one in Salt Lake, but there are several in Northern Utah.
20. We went on a ghost tour of SLC once (in May!), so look around for that kind of thing.
21. Go to a park. Play on the play ground or play Frisbee. Or fly a kite.Or have a picnic. Or look at the clouds. Or play croquet. Or play soccer.
22. Go to a Real Salt Lake game (Sandy)
23. If you ever get the urge to go to Idaho or Wyoming (we spent our summer up there)

• Bear World is cool. 
• Jackson Hole - there's an alpine slide there, too. And a shoot out each night at 6?
• Yellowstone
• Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. 
• Camp Loll (obviously had to throw that in there)

24. Shows/Concerts and Sporting events at different colleges (cheap/free if you are both students)

25. Check out Kilby Court, In the Venue, The Complex, or other concert halls for bands that are coming to Utah (SLC)

26. Utah State Fair (during the fall)

27. Shoot the Tube! It's so fun! Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Hzl_KCX2k. We even did it at night, and it was a blast.

28. Go star gazing in Mantua. 

29. Play games with your family. (Jared and I did this almost every Sunday)

30. Hogle Zoo (SLC)

31. Drive around Antelope Island - Hike Frary Peak!

32. Crash wedding receptions

33. Spend a weekend in St. George! Go hiking in Zion.

34. Black Island Farms (Syracuse? West Layton?)

35. Trampoline park (they are all over the place now)

36. Ice Skating

37. 25th Street Gallery Stroll (Ogden)

38. Go tandem bike riding - you can rent them from Utah State University (Aggie Blue Bikes)

39. Go to The Leonardo! It's way cool! (SLC)
40. Go curling at the Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City - might be a winter only thing? (one of my all time favorite dates!)
41. Desert Star Dinner Theater (Murry) or Pickleville Playhouse (same thing as Desert Star, but in Garden City)
42. Drive through Logan Canyon and around Bear Lake.
43. The Pumpkin Walk in Logan is super cool. (seasonal... obviously.)
44. Drive into Idaho and buy the $1 scratch off lottery tickets (must be 19 years or older. Or 18. I don't remember).
45. Rent a canoe, kayaks, or paddle boards from Utah State University and head up to 1st or 2nd dam. You can also rent them from Weber State and drive up the Canyon to Pine View
46. Rent gear from Weber State and hit the slopes!

**Also, here is an extra lil' tip for you: GET GROUPON. Plug in your city, and it will tell you what is going on & give you good deals. Groupon is our best friend (but pay attention the the expiration dates).

Alright. There you go. Enjoy. Date your heart out. Bye.

Listy-ness

Okay, I just found this. And I think it's funny. It's probably from March or April.

My all time favorite thing to do right now is to think about things I hate. Okay, maybe not my all time favorite, but it's up there. And so I give you my current...

 Top 10 things I hate:

1. SLOTHS.

2. Spiders.

3. Earth worms.

4. Snow

5. Being hungry 

6. Trying on pants

7. Running

8. Chapped lips
9. Shaving my legs
10. Not wearing a watch

Guys. I seriously hate Sloths.

Guess what else I love to do. Organize things. Like my bedroom. And the Barton Reading and Spelling program materials in my classroom. I just finished a beautiful filing cabinet chalk full of beautiful blue Barton stuff. Some times, I just sit there and stare at it, and I don't even care about anything else.

Ooh, I feel another list coming on!

Top 6 things I should be doing right now
1. Cleaning my room
2. Laundry
3. Taking a shower
4. Not eating an entire bag of goldfish
5. Planning my primary lesson
6. Looking for some chapstick

My mom and I tried to make cookie bowls tonight. We could definitely submit it to that "Pinterest Fail" page. And possibly win first place... if they ever have contests.

And even though this is from several months ago, most of those things on both of those lists still apply. Except the watch one. I don't really wear watches very often any more. They give me a bad tan line...

Okay. bye.

If you're going to eat a brownie, eat it cold

And if your going to eat a frozen burrito, make sure you heat it up all the way.
Sometimes I sing to my dog, okay? It happens.
Fine, when I'm home alone I sing pretty much everything.
And I sometimes dance, too.
Yeah, all this snow was cool... at first. Now it just kind of sucks.
That is also how I feel about my orange glasses.
And several TV shows.
And black olives.
But not crunchy peanut butter!
Kids, listen up: crunchy peanut butter IS better.
And now teenage girls: If you're driving in bad weather, and your breaks aren't working... DOWN SHIFT.
It really works.
As does hairspray if you are trying to remove permanent marker from plastic.
Sometimes, I really just wish I was Zooey Deschanel, like... really bad.
It's like, how weird is The Bachelor, right? <3 it.
And garden salsa sunchips are pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to the world.
This just happened:
Mom: Will you please walk Zoe?
Brother: Mom! I just ran 2 miles on the tredmill!
Mom: Son...
Brother: Okay fine, 1.5 miles, you caught me.
I love my family.
Idk why I left their names undisclosed.
And the green smarties ARE the best. Despite all you naysayers who claim they all taste the same.
Girls cry SO much. Like, holy cow.
Anyone else out there love the taste of NyQuil? No? Just me?
This post has taken me longer than any other to write. jsyk.
Now off to bed I go!

I love you all.

Maybe?

Hey, it's only January, and this is crazy, but I love summer, so be June, maybe?

Thanks.

I can't stop watching How I Met Your Mother. I've watched every episode at least 3 times in the past 2 months (wow, that's embarrassing).

In honor of MLK, I give you my dream. Except, like, a literal dream... about Martin Luther King Jr. I took a 4 hour nap today, and I do my best dreaming while I'm napping. So, I was going to a missionary farewell, and a whole bunch of my friends showed up at my house because they need directions to the farewell (the dream could have ended right there and been pretty funny). My friends were all waiting in the drive way for me to get ready (which was taking me forever - I had a lot of cute shoes to choose between). While I was getting ready, my dad made all of my friends come inside so he could lecture them about MLK. When I was finally ready, I went into the living room where my dad was lecturing, and cheered him on while wearing my MLK t-shirt and an emerald green skirt with blue and white stripey shoes. It was cool.

Also, I should probably delete my budgeting post because I suck at budgeting. Like, I truly suck at it.
And one of my second graders told me I was his Valentine today. Adorable. And that is why I love my job.

This is quite possibly the only time I will ever say anything about politics, so pay attention. Nah, just kidding, you don't have to pay attention. You can actually skip this if you want (that's what I would do if I was reading someone's blog and they started talking about politics). Okay, enough of that. So, I work with 2nd graders at an elementary school, and the other day we were learning about Martin Luther King Jr. For the activity, the students were instructed to write down their dreams for the future - just like MLK did in his I Have a Dream speech. While they were doing this, one little girl in my class came up to me, and asked me how to spell Obama. On her paper, one of her dreams was "No Obama". It blew my mind. She's 7 years old, she doesn't know anything about politics, or Obama. I couldn't believe it. It was like her mom was standing in the room telling her what to dream about for the future. It was crazy. And it is my firm belief that you should respect the President of the United States no matter who he is or what party he is affiliated with. That is the only political view I have.

And I got a twitter @ali_hancey. Just in case you are interested. And I promise I'll never talk about politics.

Adios amigos.