hiking the Y

Come August Brad and I won't have access to our one our favorite things: hiking. As much fun as hiking across the super flat lands of Illinois sounds, I fear that the Chicago natives just call that "walking". In an effort to curb our saddness we are trying to hike a new Utah trail every weekend. We decided our first destination would be good ole' Y Mountain (we wanted to take it easy for our first trek of the summer). We've done three different hikes now, so I have a few posts to catch up on. Here was our first grand adventure battling the elements!

Y Mountain

Brad and I both had the same experience on our very first hike up to the Y years ago. We both scaled the side of the mountain straight to the top instead of taking the well worn and appropriately steap path. Although, his was on purpose on a race with a buddy. Mine was because my freshman room mate and I were both idiots and didn't realize that there was a path. Good times. The hike takes about 30-40 minutes (at a steady walking pace) and the view is not half bad. For those worried about the steap climb the woman that took this picture was two weeks away from giving birth. Also, on our climb down a gentleman no less than 90 years old was running (!) up the trail.

how many of us?

This link gives you a search engine that goes through the census bureau and searches for people that match your name. (thanks for your post jen)

http://howmanyofme.com/

Bridget's Results: I've decided it's a good thing I got married, because now I'm a one of a kind! With my maiden name there are exactly 132 others with the same full name! With my married name, there are zero with the same name (my new name probably hasn't hit the census yet).

Brad's Results: There is 1 Brad found in the census bureau. Is this the same Brad I know and love, or is there one other rogue Brad out there? Interesting.

Fun Facts about Names in the US:

• 50,213 people are named John Smith
• 1,063 people are named James Bond
• 309 people are named Charlie Brown (no lie, I went on a date with one of those)
• 114 people are named Harry Potter
• 510 people are named George Bush
• 32 people are named Emily Dickinson
• 39 people are named Johnny Cash
• 14 people are named Bruce Wayne

"nobody puts baby in the corner"

One of my best friends Ashley just had a baby last week!

He's adorable!

My brother's wife just had a baby this week.

He has lucked out with some stinking cute kids.

AND THE SUMMER OF BABIES CONTINUES:

• My friend Kristen at work is due in two weeks
• My sister-in-law Brook is due in June
• My other sister-in-law Ginger is due in July

new favorites

So besides the new grocery bags Brad got me for my birthday here are some of my other new favorites:

**An amazing apron from Anthropolgie. Kristin and Jenny gave it to me for my birthday and the picture does not do its cuteness justice. It might even be too pretty to cook in, I might just have to dance around in it Disney style so it never gets dirty.**This was kind of a present to myself, but this past weekend I got a waterbottle from our favorite local hiking store Out N Back (Plug Alert: if you are a camping/hiking enthusiast and you are ever in Provo you must visit Out N Back. Best place ever! It kicks the trash out of REI). It's a 32 oz bottle from Camelbak and I love that it has a straw you drink through and the top is wide enough to put ice in. My goal is to drink more water and having this guy around definitely makes it more enjoyable.

confessions of a twilight-a-holic

So I, Bridget, have a confession. Now it's not new information that I love the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer, but the first Twilight movie comes out this December and my number one guilty pleasure is obsessively reading all the updates on the making of the movie.

The movie industry fascinates me in general but when it's something that I'm already familiar with and extremely excited to see on the big screen it's adds an intense level of interest. The new trend among movies (especially those with a target audience of 12-25 year olds) is to have a direct connection between the fans and the actors. This is made possible with the thing they call the World Wide Web. Actors have been readily available for face-to-face interviews, written interviews, and live pod casts with the everyday jo-schmo fan sites. And Summit Entertainment (the company producing Twilight) has even put out a poll on the fan websites to ask them what kind of Twilight merchandise they would purchase. And this is just the tip of the Twilight iceberg!

It's an incredibly brilliant plan! They are connecting directly with the fans and getting them excited months before its release date and Summit Entertainment is getting free research for their upcoming marketing campaign. It's genius because it's working, especially on me. I check the fan sites almost everyday to see if there is new press photos released, interviews posted, or exciting clips of behind the scenes information. I'm continually giving updates to my friends about the status of the movie, which makes me a free advertisement for Twilight and a dream come true for Summit Entertainment.

In short, my fascination has led me to this final confession: I can no longer call myself a casual bystander in the Twilight machine, I have in fact become a "Twilighter" (what the internet community calls the die-hard fans) and I'm not ashamed to admit it! Some marketing guru just earned their ridiculously over-paid Hollywood paycheck, are you happy Summit Entertainment?