Las Vegas Trip

Back at the beginning of the month, Kristi and I went to Las Vegas. Her roommate season was getting married, so we got up early on Saturday morning and made the long drive to the Vegas Temple. I love driving with Kristi -- she makes traveling such a blast.

After lunch, we spent the day together, just the two of us. We went to a casino to watch High School Musical 3.

That night, we went to the reception. Seriously, Season and Tom had a beautiful reception. They had it in a chapel, but I've never seen a cultural hall look so good. We didn't want to stay the night so we left Vegas at about 9:00pm to drive home. Once we made it out of the city, I realized I lost my phone. We drove all the way back and went to the theater where we watched the movie and luckily they had it.

Driving all night was rough and we had to stop like three times just to take naps. We safely turned a five hour drive into a twelve hour drive. We made it home after the sun had already come up. I got to take a shower and run out the door to Church. Definitely a good week.

We are heading down to Mesa next week for Thanksgiving! Wish us luck on the drive down.

My beautiful girl trying to keep me awake



Kristi and I with Tom Thomas after the wedding



What a Babe!

So, I had to change at a park when we were in Vegas...Kristi took my picture

Complete Slideshow of Engagement Pictures

Hey Everyone, Kristi has posted our engagement photos on her blog. You can check it out at this link:

Engagement

Engagement Photos Complete

Well, the pictures have been edited and they look amazing! I picked just a view of my favorites to show. Kristi will be putting together an online album with the complete portfolio. I love this girl and I can't wait to spend eternity together.

10/29/2008

Today's Update:

Today I have an interview for an internship with General Mills. The job is in the summer and we'd be living in Scottsdale AZ. I'm really hoping to make a good impression because the position sounds really cool. Not only that, Kristi is a cereal fanatic! I swear, that's pretty much all she eats.

7 October 2008

Wasn't General Conference amazing? I felt like so much of what was taught answered my prayers. I'm so grateful for the inspired nature of the Apostles.

I have new group again at the MTC. Always a blast. They are a more reserved and spiritual group than usual for me. I'm a bit wild in my class sometimes; the adjustment has been a good experience.

School is still stressful as ever, but I've been getting excited about planning the honeymoon. Remember, we are pretty poor. I've been looking at hotel and ticket prices all week. It's all I can think about. I bit you are wondering where we think we might go? Well, I'm not sure I want to give out those details yet. If anyone wants to donate a couple...ten grand though, we'd love to go someplace like Hawaii or Europe. Just in case you got it laying around, you know.

Anyway, have a great week.

Don't miss the Red River Shootout!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview?gameId=282850201

30 September 2008

The month is winding down to a close. I can't believe it's flying by so fast already. Kristi and I will be getting married in just a few months! Holy Cow ... This week is a big week for me. The Career Fair is happening on Wednesday and I'm really nervous. I am trying a score a good internship for this summer, but it's hard in making those decisions. I'm at a fork in the road with the direction I want to take my management degree. It's all so bothersome and stressful. Luckily, I have my Kristi to brighten my day right? Starting tomorrow, my little champion is going to try working 40 hours a week for the month of October on top of her school work. That means the ONLY time we will see each other is as obedient students slaving away at the library. I too am thinking on taking on another few hours each week with a second job. I would love it. I'm looking into a couple places where I can get some field experience to possibly built my resume. Any ideas family?

I love you all. Kristi and I took our engagement pictures last week (and I don't mean ones taken by Jessi ... we actually took real ones). They look awesome too. We are getting them photoshopped and such before we post them up, but look forward to some beautiful shots of Kristi dragging around this ugly mug of mine.

21 August 2008

Lake Powell 2008

22 July 2008

It's finally happened...Kristi and I are official! I'm leaving the duty of the story telling to her on her blog, but I made the photo montage of the night. Enjoy:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Rachel Kirk is My Hero

Well in pulling my pictures off my camera I discovered this video I made with Rachel the day before she left the MTC...That twenty minute visit was the only time I've with Rachel in two and a half years. I love that girl: best twin ever! This video really captures our relationship.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

19 July 2008

I'm home from paradise! Holy crap was it an awesome week. I had a blast. We drove in Monday night and then hiked down about 7 miles. The whole hike is about 11 or 12 miles, the Indian Village is about 8 and then its another 3 or so miles to the first fall. We slept on the trail a mile outside of town Monday night and then went and got our permits early Tuesday morning.

We went to all three of the major waterfalls the first day. If you ever plan on making the trip, Navajo Falls is definitely the most fun to play at, there is tons to explore and lots of great places to jump into crystal clear water. Moonie Falls: can I say amazing. I think the fall is about 300 ft. and to get to the base of the falls you have to climb down a cliff holding on to chains...so cool. If you hike down the creek beyond that, there are lots of little 15 ft falls you can jump from and underwater caves to swim into.

The second day when we woke up the water was brown as the chocolate milk river in Willie Wonka's factory. It rained the first day and I guess it washed down tons of mud and gunk from upstream. We continued to play and have a blast. We were in the water long enough to slowly watch as the water cleared back into a heavenly clear blue. That night we had to hold a tribal counsel because a couple of the guys had gotten some really bad blisters hiking in and wanted to take the helicopter out on Thursday morning. So us poor college students who couldn't afford that three minute trip started the hike out at 4:30 am Thursday morning (FYI--those switchbacks coming out are a nightmare!). It stunk because we lost a whole day at the falls, but one of the guys mom dropped the check for us to stay in the Bellagio in Las Vegas!

A free night in a suite on the Vegas strip! We were 34 floors up and could see the whole city from our window. This suite was amazing, I felt like a celebrity. After walking around town for a couple hours we went to the midnight showing of the Dark Night...

Need I say more: holy crap...that movie was crazy good.

Anyway, I'm home now safe and sound. It's a relief to be off the trail.

Below are some pictures of my trip:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

13 July 2008

Three year ago today I reported to the MTC. Mom was a crying wreck, but I was excited as could be. I've come a long way since that day. I will be home from my mission a year this Friday. Today Kristi and I went to walk around the Provo Temple grounds.It is beautiful this time of year. As we were sitting there I thought about my mission, and how it had influenced my life. I am who I am because of that service.

The MTC sits across the road from the Temple and on Sunday the missionaries have free time to go walk around the grounds. A funny thing happened there. My missionary class wandered on to the scen4 as Kristi and I were leaving. I didn't shave today because I'm leaving for my trip to Arizona tomorrow and I was with a girl. They shouted down the road at me and approached with cameras ready for a celebrity photo shoot. It was great to see them one last time before they leave to the field. They were a great group. Now they will always have a picture or two of their MTC teacher with two days of stubble and a beautiful women on his arm. I'm going to my mission companion's house tonight and we are driving out tomorrow and then hiking to Havasupai that night. Then it is three days in paradise. Check out this link...it's amazing. I'll make sure to bring back lots of pictures


http://www.havasupaitribe.com/home.html

1 July 2008

I've known for a while that Kristi has a blog, but she has kept it a secret because in her words, "who would want to read what I have to write..." Well, I finally convinced her to tell me what it was (I had to beg after my web searching skills failed). I love that girl.

15 June 2008

So School is almost over. I have my last day of class on Monday! Then it is on to crazy finals which are going to kick my butt. I can't wait to be done so I can stop stressing for the rest of my summer and just relax with Kristi and my missionaries...awh, life is gonna be great. I've working on making some simple websites for my ISYS class. You can check them out at:

Todd Kirk Home

I highly recommend the "Texas: The Promised Land site"

The Web Server has been really temperamental so if some of the links don't work I'm sorry...

3 June 2008

Hi. This is Kristi Hardy reporting live from Mr. Todd J. Kirk's apartment here in the perfectly self-righteous land of Provo, Utah. Todd told me I should update his blog because he doesn't have time. He really doesn't. He's working on a practice test for another accounting exam tomorrow. His eyes are all red from studying all day long. Pobrecito. Would I could help him. He tries to explain business terms to me but it's all japanese. It seems to me that it helps to talk things out so I listen and smile. I guess it would be like me trying to explain flute techniques or minor chords and arpeggios.
I just came back from my Havasupai trip. It was crazy awesome! I hiked 11 miles one way to a campground where we stayed for 3 nights. During the day, we played hard. Rope swings, cliff jumping, diving through waterfalls, lying out under the sun, exploring canyons, floating down a river, and eating lots of M&M's! It was pretty much a perfect vacation. My dad wants to make this an annual thing, so every memorial day weekend, you'll know where to find the Hardy family. And it's always open invitation! Todd was just invited to go with a group of guys in July. He'll have a crazy fun time. Even if I won't be there. :,(
I feel kind of silly writing all this as one of Todd's posts, but it has kept me occupied whilst he studied. And he told me to write. Maybe one of these days he'll get back on here and give you more of an update on his life. The latest piece of news is that he's not attending summer term for school. Yea! I know he's thrilled about the idea as am I. Looks like Todd is going to have a little bit of summer break after all!

31 April 2008 (Surprise for Rachel)

Well, me and Kristi are still having a blast together. We spent last weekend with her sister Jen. We had a tone of fun: a picnic is Provo Canyon, J-Dogs (the awesome hot dog stand south of campus), we hung out at Dan and Connie's place (their aunt and uncle), and unforunnately had a One Tree Hill Marathon (barf...). It was a seriously a blast though and a much needed hiatus before I bit the bullet with summer school (the nightmare has begun by the way). Jen is really great and we clicked. Her daughter is adorable and I enjoyed playing with her too. The good news, is that I made a great impression. Yeah, that's right. Jen thinks I am pretty swell for Kristi too.



Sadly though, the surprise attack on Sister Kirk was ruined by Old Man Kirk, but Kristi and I still had the last laugh. We sent Rachel her birthday package last week, complete with candy, a new study journal which is really cool), and pictures of me and Kristi...

...together...

18 April 2008

Well Family, here is the first of many of the videos that I know you've been waiting for. This is the one that I was most embarrassed about because it was, how should I say it...gay

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I should be able to post the couples dance later.

29 March 2008

So this weekend was probably one of the highlights of the semester. Kristi and I went with my roommates to the Holi Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. Thousands of people flocked there.

People came from all over the State of Utah. I didn't quite understand everything that went into the ceremony, but basically they started by burning an effigy of some demoness.

Then everyone throws colored powder everywhere. It's pretty hard to breathe.

Cough cough...

Poor Kristi got a shot of powder right to the face and she couldn't really see most of the time.

Crazy Huh?

My Friend Will in total awe...

I must be pretty lucky to have a girl like Kristi actually want to be with me...man, I'm really weird.

Me, David, Will, Luis...Hare Krishna! Hare Rama!

Me and Kristi with the guys in front of the Hare Krishna Temple. We had to park a mile and a half away. Kristi and I got to have a special walk back to the car. Afterwards we went to the India Palace Restaurant and had some curry. It was a great night.

BYU Tree Tour

Saturday Morning I tried to finish the BYU Tree Tour. It's for my Biology Class. Cool huh? Yeah I know it was kinda lame, but my friend Luis came so it was okay.

27 March 2008

Ever celebrated the passover? In Exodus the Lord told Moses it should be a feast the children of Israel celebrate throughout all their generations. Christ himself observed the passover each year of his three year ministry and performed the Atonement as the great and last sacrifice at the time of the passover. Elijah the prophet has returned at the time of the passover on April 3rd 1836 as promised for generations during the passover season in the restoration of all things. In my Eng 350 class tonight we observed the passover. It was an eye opening experience. Number one, Jews eat some interesting flavors during the feast.
After class, my friend Ty and I had about an hour to hang out in Salt Lake while we waited for Ty's girlfriend who was doing laundry with her Dad. We decided to go to the conference center and walk around. I had never been on the roof before. Holy cow, it is so amazing up there. I learned so much about the building from a senior service missionary who took us on the tour. Look at this picture. This is my favorite part of this six acre roof. The east side the roof is designed to look like the mountains to the east with large fur trees growing healthily on the roof. The west side (my favorite) is left to grow wild like the desert of Utah which the Saints walked into when they entered the valley. It is a beautiful landscape with wild flowers and other plants all native to Utah growing wild. It's beautiful.


Can you see the fountain on the north side of the building? It is directly over the podium where the Brethren speak during conference time. I thought of the beautiful symbolism that the fountain of the Word of God is proceeding forth from this location. The parameter of the building is made from granite straight from Little Cottonwood canyon: the same granite as the Salt Lake Temple. The building even as the same imperfections as the temple. The conference center is built in a way that it does not distract from the Temple, but rather it compliments it. The guide told us they cut enough granite to fill a football field ten feet deep.

26 March 2008

You are looking at a new student of the Marriott School of Business! I found out last week that I got accepted into the Major. That means lots of school this spring and summer. I guess that will be okay by me.

There have been a bunch of new developments in my life recently. I am dating a beautiful girl now. I know, me? A girlfriend? No way, right? It's been pretty great. We've been official for almost a month now. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. Kristi was actually Rachel's roommate freshman year here at BYU and so we've been acquaintances for a few years. When I came home from my mission about nine months ago I got Rachel's cell phone. Like any returned missionary would do, I quickly looked through her contact list and started calling girls. Kristi was one of them. Our friendship started to develop from there. We are just a lot alike. We are both really weird and love to have fun. The best part about her is how easy she is to talk with. We talk about all kinds of stuff. Anything...


I'll be heading out of the Referral Center at the MTC in April too. I finally will be working as a classroom teacher and I'm way excited.

20 February 2008

I'm home from the cruise. It was so much fun to go to Mexico and put life on hold for a couple days.
School started again with a punch. I wish I could be back eating steak three times a day and relaxing in the hot tub, but we had to get back to work.

We made a facebook group to memorialize the event:

http://byu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8782062793&ref=mf

The Eurovision Awards

These two groups: Lordi (Finland) and Ruslana (the Ukraine) are both former winners. I got interested when I read about Ruslana in my Geography book. Apparently she is a good example of globalization. They rock hard...

11 February 2008

Another week rolls by as the work piles up. I found out this morning at work that the Church is beginning a huge mormon.org push in the UK and so the referral center where I work will be open 24 hours a day staffed by teachers like myself to be present to answer questions about what the Church of Latter-day Saints believes. This means I may be doing missionary work from 1:00am to 3:00am Saturday mornings...I'm not sure how I feel about that. Also, they finally fixed a glitch in the software that will make missionary calls more efficient. School's great. I am preparing my application for the Marriott School of Business this month. It's due the last day of February. I'll be going to school during the summer hopefully and working more full-time.

3 February 2008

Sunday was a long day as usual, but I always enjoy serving in the ward here at BYU. I actually taught the lesson in Priesthood meeting. I had more fun though teaching the Temple Preparation class as a last minute filler for Brother Philip in the bishopric who was out of town. I love teaching with no preparation...really, I think it is so much fun. After church meetings I got to keep running all over the place. My stake is having a huge Easter program that will have soloists from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and I went to that practice as well.