Video Shoots, Divine Comedy + Provo Canyon!

Oh hey there! How are you guys doing? We hope you're having a great Sunday.

Nothing like a day of R&R after a long, productive week :)

This week, both of the places I work happened to be doing filming for videos. It was a funny coinsidence!

The first video shoot came as a surprise. On Monday I was at the Rec Center finishing up a project when a coworker asked if I'd like to be in a short video that the Rec Center was creating. It sounded like fun and they needed help, so I said yes and we got started right away!

Filming only took 15 minutes and was no big deal, but fun to be a part of. My part was to be a patron  at the rec center whose workout was enhanced by the internet.The video is an application piece for the Rec Center to be one of the first 25 locations in Provo to get Google Fiber, an internet service that's supposed to be much faster than regular internet. I hope they get it! 

The video is already done, so I'll share the link as soon as it's up again. :)

Later in the week it was time to prep for the next set of videos. These ones were for my worksite wellness job. I met up with two of my favorite coworkers, Kristina and Jenny, and the three of us went grocery shopping for lots of vegetables, to be used as props! The videos are to go with health campaigns our company offers, and we started filming on Thursday. :)

Picking up our veggie props

On Thursday morning we all gathered at our CEO's beautiful home in Mapleton to begin filming. We grooved into 'acting' by learning how to speak and stand in front of a camera. It was a lot harder than we expected! Fortunately the film crew knew how to coach us. :)

Jenny on set!

Kristina getting her makeup done

Getting ready to talk about veggies!

My first job was a simple voice-over, so I enthusiastically read a script about ways to avoid overeating. This part was done in a sound-proof basement to avoid extra noise.

Later I got to be in front of the camera. :) My part was to explain various ways to add vegetables into recipes. Then I got to demonstrate cooking a veggie omelet!

Setting up lights around the stove

I thought it would be easy to chanel Giada de Laurentiis, but no! Have you ever tried flipping an omelet with a camera just a few inches away? Haha! It's so much harder than it looks!! But even with some hiccups, we got the job done and had fun. :)

perfecting the scene

The home where we filmed was a nice place to hang out for the two days of filming. It was complete with a yellow lab, chickens running happily through the yard, and lots of fruits and veggies to nibble on between takes.

There were SO many veggies, actually, that we were sent home with bags full of them after the last day of filming. We will be eating well around here!

We've been making the most vegetable-heavy dishes we
can think of, like this stir-fry, to use up our produce.

Friends have asked when the videos will be ready, but we haven't been told yet. It will probably take a few weeks for them to be edited, but I've already gotten the OK to share them with you when they're ready. So I'll let you know! :)

Even with all the excitement of video shooting, I still did regular work stuff this week, including teaching water aerobics on Friday morning, and three yoga classes during the week. 

This whole time Matt stayed busy with school work, army stuff, and TA responsibilities. Before we knew it, the weekend was here! 

On Saturday we both worked most of the day. Matt did homework + stadium cleanup after the football game with ROTC; I taught yoga + ran errands. But we decided to take a break in the late afternoon for a ride up Provo Canyon to enjoy the natural beauty. :)

Can you believe these colors??

We were so glad we did. The autumn colors were at their peak!

Part of the reason for our trip was to avoid the football gameday crowds. Since we live so close to the stadium the fans can sometimes be unmanagable, making it hard to get in and out of our apartment complex. Heading out for a few hours was the right idea this week, and we had a great time!

While on a short hike we asked some passers-by if they would take our picture. It turned out that one of them was a professional photographer! She took some wonderful pictures for us. Free photo sesh! :) If only we'd known to coordinate outfits ;)

I love a picture with good spacing, lighting, and background. Usually when we ask strangers to take our pic, the final product leaves something to be desided. Not this time. :)

We soaked up the beauty for a couple more hours before it was time to head back.

From there Matt went to Stadium Cleanup after the BYU football game, as part of ROTC's usual fundraiser. 

Let's wrap it up now with some more highlights from our week. :)

On Friday night we went to a BYU Divine Comedy show on campus. DC is BYU's sketch comedy group, and they put on shows similar to Saturday Night Live. They're great! We didn't get any pics, so let's sub in one of the group's videos instead :) For your viewing peasure:

FAIL by Divine Comedy

During the week we also had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, which turned out perfectly:

Finished up General Conference last Sunday afternoon from home:

President Thomas S. Monson. We love him!

Had an early-morning temple trip:

The sun was just starting to come up after the session

Found Spongebob Squarepants playing in the lobby of our dentist's office :D 

Got winter tires for the car! (this cost about half of what we budgeted for! Love that!)

And BYU Homecoming, with activities all week long to celebrate.

Today we have stake conference (where all the members of the wards in our geographical stake boundaries congregate for a meeting together. It happens twice a year and is an opportunity for us to hear from our stake leadership, all together). Later I plan on making apple pie... wish me luck! :)

That's a wrap! Have a wonderful week friends - we'll check in again next Sunday! :)