#108 - Be A DJ For An Evening
Okay, I admit, this is a pretty silly thing to put on a bucket list. After all, how many people want to play music and have people dance to it. That's right, at least one...this guy. Recently, my sister-in-law, lexie got married to her missionary who she waited for. They asked me to DJ their wedding. Originally, I thought this would be a total disaster and wouldn't be very easy. Everyone has been to a wedding when the music just didn't motivate you to show off your inner Kevin Bacon or John Travolta and the guy behind the mic seems to think he is the funniest person alive. I have been to many and I did not want that to end up being me. In preparation to be the anti-"that guy" I did a ton of research on music to get down to and ways to get people involved. I remember when Danielle and I got married we loved our DJ's and their biggest thing they did for the wedding was to keep people involved, that when things died down they had a "group participation" dance. I threw some stuff together and all in all I think it turned out really well. After the wedding was over I had several people come up and ask for me to come to their upcoming events and I thanked them for their compliments but reluctantly informed them this was a one time thing. It was a ton of fun to get a party jumping and I couldn't have had a great time without my worker bee Danielle. She worked the crowd as I played the music and if there was any success at all, it is all due to her. It was a great night and I had a lot of fun crossing this one off the list.
#112 - Learn How To Snowboard
There are few action sports that I don't obsess over and dream that one day I could do what I see people in the X games do. Snowboarding is one sport that I have always wanted to try. Ever since Shawn White made his way on to the scene and made snowboarding the cool thing to do I have always wanted to try it. Every year for our guys weekend we head up to Utah to ski and that's a blast. Definitely makes me wish I lived somewhere near snow. Alas, being in Las Vegas we don't see a lot of the white stuff. Danielle and I decided last year that we were going to be brave and both try to learn how to snowboard in Brianhead. We have very generous in-law friends who own a condo there and they very very nice to offer us a bottom low rate to stay the weekend. We had a blast. Snowboarding it definitely not for the faint of heart or soft of bottom though. Upon arriving we assessed that before we got overwhelmed with going off of jumps or doing double blacks that we would first take on the daunting task of simply getting on the ski lift.
With skis that is a 0% big deal because you hop on and you go, skis attached and everything. Snowboarding, not so much. We learned that one foot stays in the binding of the board and the other hangs free (causing much tribulation in tripping repeatedly). Eventually we tackled that monster and made our way to the tip top of the bunny hill. We were among the elite and experienced 5-10 year olds learning for the first time themselves. Our first run down we learned that this was going to be ridiculously hard and that we needed to learn how to laugh at ourselves in order to get through the day. Our 2nd and 3rd run got smoother and smoother as we went. All day we got farther every time we tried. At the end of the long mess with our wrists practically broken and our tail bones bruised beyond belief we mustered up enough strength to take on a green run for our last run of the day. For those who are not familiar with the skiing vernacular, a black is the most difficult color of a run and represents "advanced" skiing. The color blue is for those who are more "intermediate" and the color green represents "beginner" or "for pansies" as I like to call it. It was sad that a green was what I was going to finish the day on but to be honest I don't think I would have been able to handle much more than the bunny hill anyway. We slowly progressed down the mountain managing only to get in a few tiffs with each other and eventually we made it out alive. At the end of the run/day we were both exhausted but were so happy that we had conquered a new thing that we had never learned before. I look forward to being able to go back someday and learn how to get better at snowboarding. By checking this item off my bucket list I learned that I can accomplish anything I put my mind and bruised up body too. Glad I got to do this with my best bud.
#121- Visit a Mayan Ruin
Having a great family is a blessing that I was privileged to receive in this life. When Danielle and I were first married my parents took the whole family on a vacation to Cancun. To say it was a blast would be one of the greatest underexagerations of my life. We spent a week at an all inclusive resort. Yup, one of those places where everything is free if you have the right color piece of plastic wrapped around your wrist. We did so much while we were there. We learned how to wind surf, rode atv's, went parasailing, went snorkeling, played poolside waterpolo, saw Michael Jackson in concert; it was nuts. One of the coolest things that we did while we were there that I have always wanted to do is visit a Mayan ruin. For those of you who haven't heard of this famous ancient civilization, they are the people who's calendar ends in 2012. As reference, go and watch the movie '2012' to better appreciate the levity of the Mayans impact on society. In Cancun we left on an excursion early in the morning to go and see Chitchen Itza. It is a really famous ruin that had all kinds of fun stuff to see. Now, I'm not technically inclined on the phrazing of each individual ruin but in lamen terms there was a huge ancient soccer field, a place where the mayans would star gaze and perform spiritual rituals and even a place where a certain tour guide said that it is
believed that Christ appeared to the people in 3rd Nephi. Needless to say there was no shortage of pictures or fun things to do. It was amazing to see how well preserved the ruins were. It is also definitely a place that I recommend everyone go and check out. I am very grateful that I was able to check this off my list with all of the people who I love. I am very grateful for my parents' generosity to take Danielle and I along and to plan yet another epic Davis vacation.
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