But I, being poor, have only my dreams...

Merry Little Christmas

2012-01-05T11:56:00.001-08:00

Although we were really enjoying all the amazing holiday decor and cheer in NY, we were so excited to head to Arizona to spend Christmas with our families! Not to mention, it was a great feeling to leave behind our coats, scarves, beanies, and boots to enjoy the great weather in AZ. We had a wonderful time and loved catching up with our family and close friends. Bryan spent the 2 weeks working and on the golf course (I think more of his time was spent on the golf course than at work, if I remember correctly), and I enjoyed being lazy. 3 cheers for home cooked meals that I didn't have to prepare, running errands with my girls, Costa Vida (one of my biggest cravings), getting my first prenatal massage (heaven!), loading up on cute baby stuff from my shower, and just staying up late chatting with people I love. I wasn't a great photographer, but here a few pics I took.

The Perk girls out at Tempe Marketplace.

The whole Hall clan!

ASU pj's for the whole family!

Our Christmas musical performed at the White Family party.

Sweet little Hayden giving Uncle Bryan some Christmas loves.

Is this really MY baby shower???

2012-01-03T11:27:00.001-08:00

I can't tell you how many baby showers I've been to the last 3 years where I sat and WISHED so hard that I would be next. As many of you know, getting this little guy in my belly was not an easy task for us and we've been waiting for our turn for a long time! I'll spare you all the crazy details, and those of you who care already know what a journey it has been for us. Of course I was always so excited for everyone who was having babies, I just wondered if I would ever be joining them. Well, alas it is our turn, and the timing is perfect for us (just shows you that someone else knows better than I do)! I fought back tears all night as I watched so many dear family members and close friends throw gifts my way and hug me and tell me how excited they were for me. My family and friends have been huge life savers and I am extremely grateful for all the love they show me.

My sister, Alysha, is the absolute bomb. Such a darling girl with a fun personality. Now, living across the country from her, I miss her terribly. My other wonderful sister, Sarah wasn't able to be at my shower and we missed her! I put Alysha on camera duty for the night and came away with tons of cute pics, only making my job more difficult when deciding which ones go on the blog... love you sis.

All the lovely ladies who helped throw me a shower came up with a "camping" theme...they know me too well. It was so rad.

Love my Gma White.

Mom made a very cute diaper cake for me.

Hall girls (minus Sarah) with Gma White.

Beautiful quilt from Gma Blackhurst! Love love love!

Stocking up on the Jordan sweat suits! My little guy got so spoiled and he is going to be one stylin' dude!

I still love how baby's nickname, Pete, has stuck for so long. Poor kid will probably be called Pete for the rest of his life.

My Perkinson girlies rock! Love my lady in-laws! Thank you for being so sweet.

My sweet sis-in-law, Kinzi, gave me my fabulous diaper bag. Love it!

My best friend has been the BEST! I am so very lucky to have her!

Thank you all for making me feel special and for preparing me for this exciting time! Now every square inch of our little apartment in New York is filled with darling baby stuff and we couldn't feel more blessed.

Thanksgiving and Fun Visitors!

2011-12-01T11:00:00.001-08:00

Family, Food, Football, Fun! We hit on all the important "F" words for Thanksgiving! Bryan's sister, Mary, and her husband, Gavin, came and spent the week with us and we had a blast! The first day we drove up to Sleepy Hollow and visited the creepy cemetery and explored the little town, just to check a new place off our list :)

This is Thanksgiving morning at the Macy's Parade. We had fun wandering through Central Park, catching glimpses of all the cool floats and performers.

I felt bad the boys didn't get to play football Thanksgiving morning because we went to the parade instead (personally, I think I was more upset about this than the boys were...it's tradition people!). All our friends here were starting their football games at like 10am and it just wasn't going to work...oh well, instead we just tossed the football around while we watched the parade.

The trees are still barely holding on to their colors. Soon they will be bare and I will be sad because that means it is going to get really cold!

The weather was so nice, we could have spent all day walking through the park!

The finished product! Pies were made the night before, ham in the oven, turkey in the crockpot (which turned out AMAZINGLY), and all the yummy sides to go with it! Thanks Mary for the help in the kitchen! Our little feast for the four of us turned out fantastic and I was very relieved...spent the rest of the day watching football.

The day after Thanksgiving, Christmas started going up throughout the whole city (some places even started prior to T-day)! It's so fun how NYC goes all out with decorations! Every store, every street has Christmas cheer! This is in the Trump Tower.

The shops on 5th Ave. were so much fun, except I've never seen so many people in my life!

Thanks for spending this holiday week with us!

My Beautiful Visitors!!

2011-11-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago my mom and Gretchen (my sister, Alysha) came across the country to visit me!! I was so HAPPY to see them and spend time showing them my new home :) We had so many things to do and see in only a few days and we wasted no time! Here are only a fraction of the pics we took.

Times Square on a Saturday night is a must if you wanna see all the crazy people dressed up.

I let Lysh take a pic of my belly to take home as a souvenir. It's growing!!

Got some Bubba Gump's shrimp on Times Square with the best frozen lemonade.

Lysh with Miss Liberty. We also took a ferry out on the water to get a closer look.

"Top of the Rock" at the Rockefeller Center where Bryan works.

Shops on 5th Ave. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Sorry, I cut mom out.

And the famous... too bad it was a 2 hour wait to get in. Maybe another time.

We hit up The Addams Family musical. It's not as good as some of the other shows we've seen, but it was still really fun!

Checked out the protesters on Wall Street...

Brooklyn Bridge!

Shopping in SoHo and HAD to stop at the famous Lombardi's Pizza for lunch. Sooo yummy!

And being goofy in the park.

Thank you for coming to see me! Come back sooooon!!

Washington DC and Baltimore

2011-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Since we've lived in NY, we have been lucky enough to travel along the East Coast a little bit and have seen some really cool things! It is kinda a pain to leave the city because we either have to figure out the train thing or rent a car (which is sooo pricey on the weekends!). But, this past weekend we got a car and drove to DC. We drove through DC when we moved across the country, but didn't get to spend much time in the city, so we wanted to go back. We jumped on one of the bus tours and went all over the city, getting off at different stops to run into museums or take pics. I couldn't get over all the amazing buildings! I am a huge fan of the style of architecture in DC and it was fun to see everything in person.

The Lincoln Memorial was probably my favorite thing we saw!

Mr. Lincoln himself.

We were lucky enough to stay with Bryan's cousin, Juliette, in DC, then got up early the next day and drove to Baltimore to meet up with our friends, Dennis and Taya Pitta, and catch Dennis' football game! Such a blast! It was a great excuse for me to bust out the purple skinnies to wear to the game.

Yay #88! Luckily, the Ravens pulled out a "W" and we had an enjoyable night at dinner after the game. We really loved the Baltimore stadium, but the city was more ghetto than I thought it would be.

Did I mention the weather was PERFECT?? It was. 65 degrees and only sprinkled for a few minutes. Didn't even have to wear a coat and I was loving it! Kinda mad I didn't get a pic with everyone in it. Oh well. Thanks Pittas!

The Gender Reveal

2011-10-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

We are soooo excited to announce that we are having a BOY! These kicks were the very first purchase for our little monster. More importantly, our little dude can keep his nick-name for now which is Pete. After he's born he'll get a normal name, but for now we call him Pete.

I think it's weird when people overload on belly pics during pregnancy...just not my thing. But due to popular demand, (and since I now live so far from friends and family) I will post a few as I start getting fat. Here I am at 20 weeks getting ready to head to the gym. Belly is just barely starting to poke out.

This is the day we found out that Pete is a boy. 21 weeks. This is 2 weeks ago, and my belly has doubled since then!

In-Law Drama?

2011-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Nope, no in-law drama for us! I have been immensely blessed by marrying into such an incredible family. From day one I have been treated like one of the daughters and I have always gotten along with everyone so well. I definitely count my blessings when I hear horror in-law stories because I don't have any stories of my own. It also goes vice versa because Bryan gets along really well with my family (and my family has learned to disregard his frequent, rude comments). Anyway, we were privileged a few weeks ago with having Bryan's parents come stay with us! We gave them our bedroom and Bryan and I bunked on the living room futon, and we all were so happy to share our little bathroom for the week! The first few days we rented a car and drove up to Newport, Rhode Island and stayed in a nice little hotel. We had a great time driving around and did tours of some of the incredible mansions. I love this first pic of the shoreline with a few of the mansions.

Obsessed with this entry gate! Someday if you come to our house, you will enter through something like this...

Ok, I guess this house will do for our future home...better pop out some kids to fill it first!

The cute little restaurant we ate at right on the ocean. Great seafood!

The rest of the week was spent in NYC going to broadway shows, enjoying the opera, caught a Mets game, strolled through Central Park, ate some great food, did some shopping, and loved hanging out. Thanks for coming to visit us!

Dave Matthews Perkinson

2011-10-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Kinda a catchy name, right? We love Dave Matthews Band so much we probably would be temped to name our baby after him! (IF the baby is a boy that is...I'll let you know next week!)

Bry has always been a big fan and he got me hooked when we started dating. We have now seen Dave in concert 4 times together! If you haven't seen him in concert, you should. Best concert you will ever go to. One day we will make it to see him at Red Rocks or The Gorge or somewhere cool like that. Dave is now doing his Caravan tour and made a stop here in NYC! He decided to come the same weekend Hurricane Irene decided to come, so we got to see him Friday night on Governor's Island, but then Sat and Sun night's concerts got cancelled. Lucky for us, we only bought tickets for Friday night. And lucky for us, he came back 3 weeks later and did another weekend concert on Randall's Island! 2 Dave concerts in one month! Amazing. Even Pete (fetus in my belly) loved Dave. After the first concert, we got home at about 3am and as I was laying in the tub I felt Pete move for the first time! Definitely a sign that he loved the concert. (I keep saying that, and hope he really wasn't squirming because I inhaled too much weed).

Anyway, here are some pics I got. Some of them are pretty crappy because they were taken on my phone.

Getting ready for the concert to start.

I tried to upload a couple videos, but after leaving it to load for 2 hours I got impatient and cancelled it. Sorry!

Labor Day in AZ

2011-09-22T08:48:00.001-07:00

As much as I am loving it here in NYC, I was sooo excited to go home for Labor Day! Lots of events going on! We had such a great time! I got to reunite with some great friends and family members, meet Sarah's fiancé, Mike for the first time, see my brother tear it up in his first high school football game, play with my niece and nephew, lots of swimming and bbq, and best of all just chill with the fam! Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Baby Hayden (my niece) in her cutest little swimsuit...all ready for the pool!

Rex loved his ride with Grandpa on the ice chest after Jason's football game! I couldn't get enough of these kids while I was there!

A little family trip to the bowling alley! First time I met Mike (on the right), Sarah's fiancé. Typical picture, everyone smiling and me being stupid, showing off Pete (did I mention on here that I'm pregnant yet? More details on that to come. But yes, for now we call my belly Pete).

I snuck Rex up the slide (since he wasn't tall enough) and he LOVED it! The nice lady let me take him a few more times.

My cute sister, Gretchen. (Ok, her real name is Alysha, but I call her Gretchen)

Playing at Max and Kinzi's house with Hayden!

Septmeber 11th

2011-09-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday afternoon we decided to go walk around Ground Zero in honor of Sept. 11th the next day. We had a very humbling experience. Of course, this day is celebrated all over the country, but it felt so much more REAL actually being here in NYC and walking down the somber streets with those that lost loved ones. Church yesterday was amazing. The speakers were great and the music was incredible. One of the many benefits of living here is that there are so many talented and brilliant people! One chick from the ward stood up without the mic and busted out a gorgeous opera song, then the choir got up and sang one of my favorite songs, "Death Shall Not Destroy My Comfort" and it seriously brought tears! Bishop got up and talked about how Sept. 11th 10 years ago was his second day on the job and he was just down the street from the towers. So many people here experienced the tragedy first hand. I can't even imagine looking up and seeing the planes crash into those incredible buildings with my own eyes! God Bless America!

Random thoughts from NY

2011-08-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

The past month has been so much fun and we couldn't be happier! We have been in our apartment for 3 weeks now and we just love it. Bryan went straight to work and has been pretty busy. As for myself, I am still learning the ways of the city and totally enjoying myself. Bry calls it laziness and I call it recouping from the years of hard work that I put in to get him through school. (Also doing all those things that I never had time for when I was working full time) :) Sooner than later I am going to have to find some kind of job to help pay for the freaking expensive groceries. We have already done some very fun things, but I have been slacking in the photography department, so here are some of the pics I have taken in the last few weeks.

I have already discovered some local favorites of mine. Here is one...Rita's! Pick your flavor of italian ice and blend it with vanilla custard and you have pure heaven. I am addicted. There are so many good places to eat here, when I come back to AZ for Christmas I will be one fat rolly polly, but perfectly content.

We love Puerto Rican food! One of the first things we did when we got here was look up PR restaurants. Here is one that we found and it didn't disappoint!

Mmmm, my pernil con arroz y habichuelas, of course with a side of tostones (my favorite!). Seriously makes my mouth water just thinking about this.

Here is Bry's catfish meal, I forgot the name of it in Spanish.

One day we went wandering up in The Bronx...

A few weekends ago we took the ferry to Staten Island to visit some friends that live out there. Here is Ms. Liberty on the ride back to Manhattan.

We had a blast with our friends, Catlin and Joseph Gedge, but of course I didn't get any good pics. Here is Bry going crazy with their two kids in the stroller.

The view from Bry's boss' apartment. Beautiful!

We had to make a decision when we moved out here, and of course we were not about to become Yankee fans...so we are Mets fans! We have made it out to 2 games already. We could go to a baseball game every night if it were up to us (except it takes forever to get out there).

These are 2 quick pics I snapped before we moved into our apartment. We are still waiting on a few pieces of furniture, then I will post more pics!

Starting A New Chapter...together.

2011-07-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

We made it to NYC and all is well! As I walk around I keep asking myself...is this really my new home?? It is all so foreign to me still. Where are all my usual hot spots that I love in Mesa? This is definitely a new way of life for us. But we are sooo excited! We found an apartment on the Upper West side of Central Park and get to move in on Wednesday next week! As soon as we get settled and get things figured out I will be posting pics of our new place! Thanks for all the texts, emails and calls asking how we are doing. Life is good in NYC!

Puerto Rico!

2011-04-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

The last few months have been so exciting for us! Bryan graduated from law school in December and went straight into studying for the BAR exam. He took the bar in February, and 2 days later we were on a plane headed for Puerto Rico! We literally took 300 pics in the 10 days we were there, but I don't have a year to post them all, so here are some of the favs. If you wanna see more, check out my facebook page! We had an absolute blast and are considering moving to Puerto Rico (50% joking, but Bryan did send his resume to a couple law firms down there).

The LAST day we were there I found my Dr. Pepper at a gas station!

Here is Bry at one of his old apartments from the mission

We did a tour of the camuy caves.

Good morning! One of the nights we were there we stayed in a little shack in the middle of the jungle (or forest...whatever). The next morning we had a visitor! Maybe because the walls didn't meet the ceiling.

Came across some kids playing some bball with this hoop...Bry had to show them what's up.

Our little shack.

A huge lake in the middle of the forest!

What's for lunch?? Marlin on a stick. Yum!!

Bry had the great idea for me to pose for this pic. Well, the wave ended up trashing me and do you see how sharp those rocks are??? I almost died.

love.

Pina Colada...extra rum please. With some mufongo for lunch.

Couldn't get enough of how BEAUTIFUL the beaches were!

Bry's near death experience... it was so windy out on those rocks. We found out later that some dude fell off the cliff at the same exact spot Bry is and was instantly killed. But it made for a great picture!!

Some new friends I made in Ponce at the Carnival

Best ice cream in the world!! We went there twice in the 1 day we were in Ponce.

Hiked to the top of a waterfall.

Zip-lining through the forest! Tarzan style but with goofy helmets.

The Andersons! A family Bry knew on the mission. Kathia cooked us an amazing dinner!

Yes, the church is true in Puerto Rico, too.

At a castle in Old San Juan...I sent him to the dungeon.

The view from our hotel in San Juan.

Ok, the only bikini pic you guys will get. This is off the island of Culebra. The snorkeling was so incredible! We spent a couple hours pretending we were as pretty as some of the fish we saw.

This is the day my hubby got fried. The knife on his leg left the best tan line ever.

Culebra. Please don't make me go home.

The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien

2010-07-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, we were able to take a trip with the Perkinsons to New York! It was an absolute blast and we are so lucky to have such a fun family! I took hundreds of cool pics but figured I better limit them on here.

Chillin at the top of Niagara Falls

We did the Maid of the Mist boat tour and it was so cool! We were in a boat and it took us right in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls. It was incredible to see and FEEL how powerful all that water is! There is so much water coming over the edge every second!

Father and Son

This pic is from the Canadian side of the Falls. We were able to spend a little bit of time in Canada.

We drove to Kirtland, Ohio and visited the temple and church history sites. Then, just for the heck of it we drove to Cleveland since we were so close. Tribute to Lebron! (or not)

Our fun car ride!

Palmyra Temple where we did baptisms with the whole family!

Sacred grove... my favorite part of the whole trip. So awesome.

Running down the Hill Cumorah! Is that allowed? Oh well!

Drenched!

"Are you seriously going to eat all that meat? Hurry, take one of these digestive pills."

The famous William Blake's "Ancient of Days". A copy of this painting hung over our bed for the first 2 years of our marriage... Why? No idea. It has since been moved to Bryan's office. This is the front of the Rockefeller Building.

Yay for Phantom! We also saw Mary Poppins, which was amazing!!

Yankee Stadium. We could sit at a baseball game all day long.

In the CROWN of the Statue of Liberty! What a hike up those tiny stairs!

Little Italy and Chinatown

The Perkinson Stampede! Loved it.

In front of our personal favorite Cathedral. Right up next to Columbia University.

The Amazing Mets!

Yes, we had to buy hats.

Video of Maid in the Mists! It was crazy!

Weddings!

2010-07-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

Mary and Gavin <3>

This is the sign-in book I made for her.

Mary is my sister-in law and one of my best friends. For those of you who know her, know that she deserves the absolute best... and she definitely got it with Gavin ! They are so cute and so happy together !

For Mary's Shower I scrapbooked a cookbook for her!

Spencer and Taylor:

Yes, this is very old, but Spencer and Taylor were married Dec 30th in the Newport Temple! We are so happy for them and LOVE having Taylor in the family!!

Send Me An Invite!

2009-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

There are so many of you out there that have private blogs and I cannot look at them! Even some of you on my "friends" list. Please send me an invite, or whatever you have to do, so I can be cool enough to get on your blog! My email is whitneyperkinson@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Camping Trip!

2009-10-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, we had our ward campout... an event that we look forward to all year! We decided that it would be fun to leave early Friday morning and go fish all day before we met up with our ward for the campout! We drove up to Tonto Creek and fished with Bryan's friend, CJ, and CJ's sister, Sammy. Unfortunately, CJ was the only one with any luck. We packed a picnic and were on the creek all day. Finally, CJ and Sammy had to head home so we drove up to Bear Canyon Lake to start setting up camp. I was SO bugged that we didn't catch anything (that's my White Family blood in me) so we decided that we would set up then run out to the lake for a bit and try our luck there. 5 MINUTES after I set up our tent it started pouring!!! Great, mud everywhere, a wet tent, no fire... this is going to be a miserable night. After sitting in the car for 20 minutes it started to clear a little bit. I told Bry to grab the stuff and we ran down to the lake. We didn't really bring warm clothes, and we were wet, and froze our butts off. We were out there until it was dark because I was determined to catch a fish! (Keep in mind that we were planning on eating the fish we caught for dinner, so we were thinking that we were going to come back empty handed and starve all night.) FINALLY, Bry caught 2 fish back to back, then I caught my one fish, Henry. He was a beautiful fish and tasted wonderful. So, there you have it. We ended up with dinner after all. The scary part was that we had to hike back up to our campsite in the dark and we had no idea where we were going! It was a miracle we made it back. It ended up being a very successful trip after all.

Here is Bryan cooking up our fish on our cool new stove!

Bry with one of his catches

Me getting rained on. This lake was so pretty!

Us sitting in the car waiting for it to stop pouring so we could hit up the lake! Yes, I know I look like a little boy!

Crawdads!! I caught at least 50 of them in the creek, they were everywhere!

Bryan and CJ. My husband's sexy vest is a little too small for him, and the hat just kills me.

2009-09-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

There's NO WAY I'm going to spend the time updating you all on our last year. So, I'll start by doing a quick recap of the summer! In May we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! Yay for us! It has gone by so fast, but has been so much fun! No little ones yet, and NO I'm not pregnant. Just thought I'd throw that out right in the beginning for those that haven't talked to in years! Bryan finished his 2nd year of law school at ASU. This summer he worked for a law firm named Collins, May, Potenza. He got lots of good experience and really liked all the people he got to work with. As for me, I am still busy working at Tipton Orthodontics. It has been a great job for me. Truthfully, I hate it sometimes, but most of the time it is a great place to work. I just LOVE looking into people's mouths all day long!!!

I decided that I needed a vacation this summer, whether Bryan was coming or not! So I went to California and spent a few days with the whole Perkinson gang, then met up with my Hall family for a couple days. At the Perk beach house it was just us 7 girls! So much fun! Laying out, eating lots of good food, playing volleyball, shopping, falling asleep watching Twilight (with all of us in the same bed...). I have the best in-laws in the world and I love all of them!

The Hall beach house was packed with my whole family (except for Bry, sad). There were lots of bike rides (usually to Seaside Donuts), football on the beach, boogie boarding, and mad card games at night! It was a blast chillin with my fam!

My last night there, my crazy sisters and I decided to do a P90X workout video. But, we also decided it would be fun to dress up for it! We had so much fun picking out awesome outfits and putting on ridiculous make-up! By the end of the night, we had a HUGE audience!!! It reminded me of living in the dorms at college, no joke! As you can tell from the pics, we had WAY too much fun dancing around like 6 year olds playing dress up! It was so refreshing. I just loved watching Kinzi because she was so hardcore. I love my sisters!

Blog Makeover!

2009-09-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

OK! Everyone has told us that we could NOT wait another year to post another blog entry, and well...we're getting close to that year mark! Until now, Bryan has done all the posting (in hopes that I would take over). And I have really had no desire to have a blog. But, I just got a new computer and finally convinced Bry to pay for the internet (don't worry, we still don't have a tv). So we are totally moving up in the world. :) Anyway, I am still trying to figure out the whole blog thing, so any tips would be appreciated! You'll be hearing from us soon!

Perkinsons' Travels: Memoir of Our Gypsy Lives

2008-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is Blogmaster Bryan checking back in with yet another blog ... yes that is two months in a row. I know there are a number of you girls out there who will read this (that makes it sound like we have way more friends than we actually do) and think "he's not the blogmaster, I am - he did two in two months, I do two a day!" All I can say is that you are weird and don't count. I am proud that Whit and I are actually doing enough cool stuff to even warrant
blogging in the first place. Now truth be told, this blog is like an amalgamation of five different trips that Whit and I have taken in

the last few months. I thought about making each one its own entry and then I remembered that I have a life and that Whitney gives me crap when I do blogs in the first place so I thought I would put it all together and sum up our adventures all at once.

1) First Trip - Merril Family Reunion.

At the end of the Summer we went with Whitney's family up to

Payson to this national park for her grandma's family reunion thing. Now I love Grandma White she is maybe the nicest person I have ever met, but a family reunion wouldn't typically make the sparse blog we have going one here

except that this place was sick! There was this natural tunnel/cave thing that was really cool. Problem is I don't remember what it was called but it is right outside of Payson and I recommend it to anyone .

2) Next Trip: Provo for the first BYU game. Once again this probably wouldn't have made the list (11 hours in a car is no bueno)(and I am not that hardcore) but we actually had a blast and Max had a huge game and got things started off right.

3) Next Trip: Romantic Weekend at Sedona.

This was awesome. Props have to go out to my Uncle John for hooking us up with a hotel room at his hotel in Sedona, I owe him so many favors its ridiculous. Anyway, we relaxed, drove around and took in the sites, did stuff that young married people are supposed to do, and pretty much had a blast. Yes, that fat guy jumpin off the cliff is me at Slide Rock... I may be fat but I am still fearless! Whit actually manned up and jumped from the same spot. I was legitimately surprised (she only did it cause she couldn't let me one up her). We got to see some crazy monsoons and Sedona is pretty much the prettiest place ever.

4) Next Trip - Back to Logan.

BYU played up in Logan against my Ags so we took that opportunity to return to our favorite place ever. I have to give our another shout out to my brother Ryan Bohm. (yes he is black but he is still my brother) Ryan and Jeanna let us crash with them and we had a really fun time. We got to see our old stomping ground, we hung out with some old friends, I beat Bohm at Birch which is the greatest golf course on earth, and best of all the Ags put up a fight and didn't embarrass us. For any of you who have never been to Logan in the fall it is the prettiest place ever...I just said that about Sedona but Logan wins in the fall. (It puts Provo or anywhere else in Utah for that matter to shame)

5) Last Trip - and it really was almost our list trip in this life -The Grand Canyon.

ASU lawschool has a fall break so a couple of weeks ago Whit and I decided to take a trip up to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't much of a planned outing...we just kinda threw some stuff together and went. We got up at like four thirty Friday morning and drove up to the park. We got there at about ten. We found a campsite and set up our tent. Then at about eleven we went down to the Bright Angel Trail. Now the trip to the GC was totally my idea, but hiking the Bright Angel trail was all on Whit, she talked to her boss

who goes there a lot and he recommended this trail. I am an idiot and didn't do any supplemental research before we started and I had no idea what I was getting into. Luckily we both had backpacks and plenty of food and water, but we were totally not dressed appropriately or in good enough shape to do what we did. On the way down everything was cool. We were jacking around and Whit was falling all over the place making me laugh and it was fun. Then we get to Indian Gardens which is five miles straight down and we realize that it is now two thirty and we still have to get out. So we ate and then started going up. Now I had seen people coming up on our way down and they had just looked hammered, but for some strange reason it hadn't dawned on me that I was going to have to do the same thing. ( It probably didnt dawn on me because for some strange reason I still think of myself as an athlete and if others can do it so can I, yeah that is a fallacy.) To make a long story short, we made it out but in the meantime: Whitney almost passed out and died, my shorts turned my inner thighs into hamburger meat (there is an image for you), and we almost got trucked by male big horn sheep that was trying to get a piece of a female sheep. After we got out we were dead tired and dirty. Luckily I there was a public shower at the top that we were able to use to clean up before we went to camp. Now I consider this a PG rated blog - and for that fact I cannot narrate here the absolutely traumatizing experience that happened to me in the men's public shower. If you are intrigued enough and aren't too sensitive feel free to email me and I will give you the adult version of the story...it was absurd. Anyway we went back to the campsite, I built a great fire we roasted some dogs and had a nice night around the fire. Sleeping was miserable because there was a windstorm blowing through and I slept about an hour. But anyway it was fun and we made it home alive.

Those are our recent travels, we are looking forward to some more fun trips once the semester gets over. I will post another blog soon to give some more info about what else we are doing but for now there you go.

Mi casa no es su casa

2008-09-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well - its only been about a year since we last posted a blog, so I thought it was about time to do something else on here. To be honest I thought if I got the first few blogs going that Whitney would take this thing over and make it all cute like some of you other strange girls, but she didn't. To her credit, she works like a pack mule and I don't blame her for not wanting to come home and blog. Additionally, we don't currently have cable or internet at our house (the greatest thing ever - it makes us read - that's why we are smart!) so she cant really do it at our house. Anyway, much has happened over the last little while and I will try to sum it up concisely. 1) Still no progeny, 2) Whit fixes alot of ugly peoples teeth and makes them pretty, 3) Law school absolutely blows, 4) Its really hot, 5) We bought a house.

This blog is focused on number 5, seeing that it is the most positive of the above listed (even though I still see the lack of progeny as a positive). At the beginning of the year I started thinking about maybe looking for a place to buy. It just seemed like a decent time with the housing market falling like Lucifer out of Heaven. My cuz Danny Perk moved down and started looking for us around ASU. We were paying like 900 bones a month for our 1bedroom apartment and we figured we could find something close to that to buy. Anyway, we looked for a while and almost bit on a couple but it just didn't feel right. We were getting close to giving up and renewing our lease when Danny suggested we check out a new development a little further east, on Greenfield and Southern. I didn't really want to be back in the old mesa stomping grounds but I went out there with him to check it out and I was sold. This development is a mixed condo / duplex complex. I didn't like the condos (too close together) but along the back row of the development there are a line of duplex single story houses. I was pretty sure about it after looking at a few of them, and when I brought Whit back it she liked it and it was a done deal.

Getting the loan through was a little bit of a nightmare - luckily my other cuz Dallas pulled some strings and made it happen (that sounds like it was one of those shady mortgages - it wasn't its with Wells one of the few legit lenders out there). However, it is interesting that two years ago a single mom with three kids making two grand a month could some how get a no money down four hundred thousand dollar loan and now you have to fight for every cent you get. Our financial system is a freaking joke - but that's a tirade for another blog. Bottom line is we moved our crap out of our third story apartment - I almost died twice - and we got moved in during the middle of May. Whit decorated and painted like a champ and we couldn't be more happy with it. I don't have too many pictures right now but I will post some others later. Its a three bed, two bath about 1300 feet. We have a nice little yard in the back - its all dirt right now. And it has a two car garage. Its fun and we like it. I would invite everyone to see it but - I'm not big on visitors so pictures are going to have to suffice.

Viaje A Barcelona

2007-12-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

After going through my first semester of lawschool, it seems like our trip to Spain this summer happened ages ago. Nonetheless, we wanted to share a little bit about how much fun we had in one of the coolest places on earth!
Last june, with the help of Papa Perk, and the motivation of my best friend C.J. Rogers getting married, Whit and I made the trip to Barcelona, Spain. I don't have the time or energy to dictate all our adventures so I try to hit the highlights.
After a 18 hour flight (definitely not a highlight) we arrived in Barcelona. It was the middle of the day on a Sunday and the first thing that tripped us out was the fact that we couldn't understand or read a thing! For those of you who aren't up on your cultural history, not everyone in Spain speaks the uno, dos, tres, kind of spanish that we are used to here in Mesa thanks to our immigrant friends. Barcelona is part of the state of Catalunya where they speak Catalan (which is as close to french as it is spanish) and that made things interesting. We found our way nonetheless and arrived at our hotel. Of course, the amatuer world travelors that we are we took a nap and woke up at 9pm rip roaring and ready to go. Lucky for us, Barcelona is a city of the night and our jacked up time schedule never really caused us much grief. We spent the next few days touring the city, which houses some of the coolest architectural achievements you will ever lay eyes on (as well as the most disgusting urine scented subways).
Whitney was on the border of vomitting nearly the entire trip thanks to some shellfish cuisine and lack of personal hygiene of the natives, but we made our rounds regardless. On Friday my buddy CJ and his beautiful fiancee Diana got married legally in Barcelona and that night we had a wedding ceremony and dinner reception. It was a blast, Whitney got her dance on, and those of you who know me know that I did not. We had fun and partied hard until about two in the morning. Then we all trekked back to CJ's apartment and me, whit, CJ's family, Diana's family, and CJ and Diana got prepared to catch our 6am flight to Frankfurt, Germany!
You may be wondering why Germany, well the Madrid Temple just so happened to be closed and we were not made aware of this until after everyone had purchased their tickets, so instead of cancel, they decided to take it to the nearest open temple -Frankfurt. So a herd of about twelve of us made our way to Verona Airport (on no sleep) and flew to Frankfurt. When we arrived at the airport we were made aware of the fact that Frankfurt has two airports one of which is next to the temple and one of which is an hour away. Yes, we were at the one an hour away. We rented a car and thanks to divine guidance in the form of a GPS system we made our way to the temple. That afternoon Diana recieved her endowments. All the workers were German and spoke little Spanish or English, and there were members of our party who spoke no English and some who spoke no Spanish and no one who spoke German. It was interesting to say the least. After the session we went to the sealing room and CJ and Diana were sealed by a nice old German who spoke no English or Spanish. very cool. I have to admit tired as we all were the spirit was strong. After the temple we all went out and ate Klausch (probably the best food I ate the whole trip) in an authentic little German diner, and then we crashed for the night.
The next morning as I was searching for my itinerary for the flight back to spain I happened to glance at our itinerary for the flight back to Phoenix and noticed it had a mistake. It said we left from Madrid not Barce. I was sure something was mixed up and I brought it to Whit's attention to clear things up (she had made the arrangements). When her face went pale I knew we had a problem. There was nothing I could do in Germany but when we finally arrived back at CJ's apartment I double checked our booking and sure enough - departing from Madrid. Once again for those of you not up on your Geography booking a flight out of Madrid as opposed to Barce is like flying out of LA instead of Phoenix. So we had to scramble, and luckily we were able to buy some of the last remaining tickets for an overnight train that next night that would get us to Madrid in just enough time to catch our flight. After that was secured, we spent our last day touring a castle/monastery/church named Tibi Dabo which might have been the highlight of the trip, and then we loaded up on our train and headed to Madrid. I won't elaborate so as not to turn this blog into an online book, but I now understand the plight of the sardine. Whit managed to sleep like a rock and the short of it is we made it to Madrid and 16 hours later made it home with some memories that will last a lifetime. If you get a chance, our recommendation is go to Spain.

Bryan and Whitney

2007-11-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

We have felt a little behind the times lately because we seem to be the only ones without a cool blog. So, we gave in and decided to post a few things so that anyone who cares, not that we assume anyone does, can see what's going on in the B&W Perk home. We are back in AZ and living like immigrants. Bryan, that's me talking in the third person, is in law school and my sugar mama Whit is slaving to put food on the table. It's all good though because someday she will be chasing twelve kids around and wishing she still had a paying job. (that was a hyperbole we aren't having twelve kids and no there aren't any on the way!) We love being back in AZ and are having a great time being around our families.