Episode 6 | THE BOYS - Nick Phillips & Ian Pudney

Take a listen to a fun conversation with two of my good friends Nick & Ian where we talk about things from proposing and wedding planning to Real Estate to Trail Running and doing races, etc.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Boom. We're alive. Back with another episode of the Steven Show. I got Nick and Ian on again. We got a lot to catch up on. Ian, last time we had both of you guys on, you were about to go on your trip. But I don't know if we talked about it. You recently just got engaged. Yeah, yeah. We've got a new house. March was a big month. And then you just went on a big trip. So did we talk about it last pod? Your engagement? No. I don't think I wasn't good, yeah. Because I don't even think you've told me the actual story or anything of how it all went down. Yeah, March was a big month.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Wait, last time Ian didn't even remember you had a girlfriend.

unknown 0:43

Oops.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Alright. But yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, yeah. See, I can redeem myself. But yeah, so I guess. Are you supposed to remember the date that you get engaged? Because I'm pretty sure I don't. But anyways, it was like middle of March. That was a bad start. But uh yeah, no, went uh went out to Colorado. But no, went out to Colorado. We did uh one of my buddies from college, like Gabe. You guys know Gabe.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Um he has like a cabin out in Keystone, like Colorado Mountains, and so like all my college roommates and stuff ended up meeting out there and went to a John Summit concert, like did all that. But then yeah, just one of the days we were all going to dinner and uh made a little pit stop off like this lake out there. Had uh one of my buddies, Jason, like him and his fiance like came with. She brought the camera, like walked down there, did the damn thing, and dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

How nervous how nervous were you?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Dude, it's it's hard. Like it's like I had all these things. I like had all these things I wanted to say, you know. Like, I feel like when you're getting up to it, like, you know, or like the couple days leading up to it, you know, you have all these like like good, like, yeah, you know, things you wanna uh wanna rip off, and then you get in the moment, it's like uh like nothing. So I I managed to pull out like the like I love you, like will you marry me? Like I got that, but that wasn't it. Like because I got down, and I'm like, I don't know, you just like forget everything that you plan on saying, everything you plan on talking about, like nothing it goes out the window.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

It's like same thing happened to me, and I think the same thing happened to you too. I was with you and you did yours, but did you even get anything out?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Like no, I like kind of blanked uh like definitely blanked out. Like I don't really even remember what I said. It was hard to because like I hate the idea that people are watching me do it. And yeah, yours was very public. Yeah, and we were in the middle of Leavenworth, like under the main canopy area, so like everyone walking by to it felt like they were all watching me, and not like anyone could hear you, right? Like they came or you talking and but nah, I just slacked out, caught on me, she said yes, and then we popped some champagne and it was like we called it a day.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

We got uh we got a little volcano, onion volcano out there, so yeah, there was like how we sold it though was uh because Jason and Ellie are getting married this summer, and so we rode with them to dinner, and then they were like, hey, like, you know, can do you guys mind if we make a little pit stop? Like, we're gonna do a little picture like table thing at our wedding, and so we've been trying to like accumulate pictures on just things we do this year. So, yeah, no problem. So, like that's how we like sold it, like you know, to go down there. And then yeah, they took pictures, and then after we're like they were done, and now they was like, Alright, like your turn, like you guys take some pictures, like, alright. So there's like a picture of me and like me and Brian standing there, and I'm like, I lock eyes with Jason because I was it was like one of those things it's like oh shit, like I kinda gotta do this now, and like you just like uh it was like pretty nerve-wracking, but I was like gonna lock eyes. I was like, Oh dude, and so there's a picture of like me and Jason locking eyes, and I'm just like, Yeah, here we go, like time to do it. But but yeah, dude, it was it was yeah, it was exciting.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Did she like have any hunch that it was coming, or was she completely surprised when you did it?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I think like it was a long walk like down to where we ended up taking the pictures, right? And so like I think as we were walking down, like she probably started to put two and two together, and like I feel like anytime you're in a spot like that, like with a nice camera taking pictures, like yeah, it's probably a fair guess. She did.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

I only had to ask her a couple times. No, she's just renting a room in the house. Yeah, her rent's outlandish, though. No, but dude, that's why it worked out good for me when I did mine because uh the people we were with, they always have cameras on them, and one of them actually takes like professional photos as a job, and so it wasn't like odd that she was out there taking pictures of everyone, and then I didn't even have to prompt it. Riley was like, Stephen, let's go get our picture, and I was like, Oh shit. And then the same thing happened, dude. Like, I had the whole week leading up to it, I wrote a bunch of things in my notes and I kept like reading it over and over so I'd remember it, and I look at her and I just go, I love you. And then I got down on my knees. So is that a yes or a what? Yeah, that took so long, and I was like, is that a yes or what?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

That video is so funny. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

So was that a yes or something? Because she was just sitting there screaming. I mean, I knew it was a yes, but she's just gonna say it. I'm like, come on.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

I remember a couple of years before too, we went to Anchor House, and you're like, Yeah, I got like all my notes, and you're like scrolling through. I'm like, dude, like there's no point. Like no point having any note.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

It was the thought that matters, dude.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I tried. Honestly, though, like, I don't know if this is safe for you guys, but I was probably more nervous when I asked her dad when I actually proposed. Because it was like, it was just me and him like sitting in like essentially like the living room, you know, like we're gonna play poker in half an hour, but like 30 minutes, just me and him, and it's like, how do you bring this up, dude? Like, I was like shaking, like dude, I was shaking too.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yeah, I was like my leg was shaking. Yeah, he didn't notice because we were we were actually on the cruise, and you were about to play poker, funny enough. We were in the casino and we walked over to the blackjack table and we're watching, and it was just me and Riley's dad, Sean, and then I just brought it up to him and just started talking. I I could tell my voice was shaky, but I don't know if he could tell my voice was shaky, and my leg was fucking like shaking too. I was so scared. I was like, dude, what is going on?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

I took Jordan's dad at Top Gun out in South Hill, and we talked the whole time. Wait, Top Gun? Is that a shooting range? No, it's on the it's on the Graham Airstrip over there, like right. Oh, that's right. It's actually a really cool bar, and it's got like a super cool view in that rain here. But anyways, yeah, we were there for like probably like an hour and a half, two hours. And I mean he knew why we were there, but then he knew, yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, why would it was like a Wednesday night? Like, why else would I never take it? I've never seen you taken Jordan's dad out on a Wednesday night to a bar. Um but anyways, and then at the end, I didn't even ask, and then at the end he's like, So are you gonna ask me anything? And I go, Oh shoot, yeah. I literally forgot. I was like, oh, I was so in my head, and I don't think I was listening to anything he was saying the entire time because I was just thinking about what I was gonna say. Because it's yeah, like how do you how do you come up with like like you think it has to be like the whole grandiose like speech, but as long as he likes you, I think you're probably gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

I don't know why. I don't I just lock up in those situations, even being in front of like big crowds and stuff, even if I'm not saying anything, like I just freeze up. I hate I won't say I hate it, but I just am not good in those situations.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Once I get into a flow of like when I'm talking in front of a lot of people, like when I first start, I'm nervous, but then once I start getting into a flow, like I actually like it.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

I would say you're yeah, I'd say you're good at it, and you're good too. Ian, you did the speech at Nick's wedding. I thought that was good.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Dude, I was not nervous for that at all. Like, completely fine, nothing, whatever. Got the mic stood up. And then if you look at it, it's like, oh my god. Like, yeah. And that was all that was like a hundred people. Like it was a good amount. No, it was like I bet 200 total, like between everyone that was there. You did good though. Yeah, it's funny. And I don't think it was like I don't think I've ever like I think that's the most people I've ever spoken in front of, and like I don't really think I processed that until I got up there, and I was like, a lot of people looking at you.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Prop Propsy you guys do, because I I have a hard time talking in front of like 15 people at the gym.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

I think what you have to do is like you just have to detach yourself, like because you think too much about it. Like what I try to do is just detach myself from what people what I think people are thinking, because most most of the time it's like 60% of the people aren't even paying attention. Yeah, I know that's 20% are actually like paying attention, and then like 10% are judging, you know, like how you speak and stuff. Yeah, but like in reality, like most people aren't even listening.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yeah, yeah, that's true. I I do think about that too. When I'm watching someone else give a speech or something like that, I'm like half in, half out most of the time, like barely paying attention. So yeah, yeah. I just don't have enough reps at it to be like comfortable enough yet. Yeah, well, and you don't really have to, right? Like for your job, it's not like you have to present. There's there's little things like public education and stuff, talking in front of small groups or like random people and stuff, but like it never really a big crowd, unless I unless you seek out those opportunities. And you obviously don't find opportunities. No, I almost did. I we worked uh it was like one of the diversity and recruitment workshops, and um at the beginning of it, everyone like got free breakfast, and everyone was just hanging out and stuff, and before we got started, they were like, they came over and they were like, We need one person from your guys' group. There's like six of us there just representing our department, and they were like, We need one person from your group who's gonna go up on stage and talk for like five minutes about your department and like about what like just about yourself, how you got into it, and all that stuff. And they they all like looked at me and they're like, Steven, you're doing it, and I literally made someone else do it. I was like, no shot, but it was like saying you didn't want to dude, why not? Because I don't I'm not good at that, and I know I know that's how I practice, but I'm in front of like a bunch of people who are trying to get hired as at a fire department, and I don't want to go up there and like freeze up in front of them, and they're just gonna be like, really? Like, yeah. Have you had to go to like a I don't want to be a fire player? Like, I don't want to work for that department. This dude can't even stand up here and talk. Have you had to go to the elementary schools yet? Like, uh yeah, there's story time. I remember like job recruiting in like elementary schools. We have started. We've done those events where like grownups and like anyone from 18 or older will come. We've also gone to high schools and like set up a little booth and then um elementary schools go read a little book and stuff. And station visits, little kids come by and all that. Like when you read a book in front of kids. No. Wow. I've only done it once, too. It was like a little little like kindergarten class.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I remember the firefighters coming to school like when you're a kid, and it's like always the coolest thing ever. Yeah. Yeah. Then Steven shows up and stumbles through a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Alright, dude, well, uh, you just bought this house. That's where we're at. We're in your backyard right now. What was the whole process of that? What made you want to move and all that?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Uh yeah, it was a good little spot, but we just like I think at the start of the new year, like at the start of whatever it was, like what is it, 2026, I guess? Like January, we kind of like started to think about moving, and we kind of got like, you know, we just started like looking, obviously like Zillow and whatnot. And it was at the point where it was like, alright, like I'm sure sometime this year we'll move and like buy a new house, but like not really a rush or anything. And then honestly, this was like the first house that we like first and only house we actually looked at, like saw on Zillow, Nick's mom came and showed us, and like, yeah, this house is sweet. Yeah. Within our budget and whatnot. So we like put an offer and got it. So pretty quick turnaround. Like, and they hooked it up. Yeah. But yeah, no, dude, it was uh, I mean, we just like there was a few, like definitely the yard was like a big thing, because like obviously at the old house, like no yard, like no grass, all rocks, like especially with whiskey, like having a little spot for him to like go out, run around and whatnot. Like that was pretty crucial. And then honestly, too, I think we were just kind of ready for like a little bit more space, and it was like might as well. So yeah, like I said, like this house was the only house and went for it. So yeah, we haven't made the first payment yet, though. So I think May May 15th. Yeah, wait till that comes in. Yeah, if we do another one of these after May 15th, I might hate this place, but it's it's good though. But yeah, dude, it's been nice, and just being able to like last night, just like have people over, like actually have like a little bit of a better space to like post people, like have a fire, not me sitting in the gravel, like yeah, it's nice. And then yeah, the other place that lady's there, so that that helps out too. But yeah, dude, it was it was honestly super easy. Like, like I said, like looked at it. I think we put an offer in like what two days later or something. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it was quick. Yeah, it's been nice. The moving is a pain, but I think we're like almost done with the moving, like just like dumped everything in the garage and then left for like three weeks just because I was gone for work, and then we got like Guatemala, so just like all our stuff was just sitting in there for three weeks, and then like literally this week, we've owned it for like a month. Like this week was like the first time we've actually been able to like put stuff away. Like, we went shopping all day yesterday, like started buying all the stuff, getting everything organized, or whatever. So like it's actually now starting to like feel like starting to settle.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, like it probably will be like a whole month before you actually feel like fully settled in, organize everything and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, I feel like it took us a while to like actually like feel settled in when we moved, but we've also moved like three times in the last year, so yeah, you guys have never actually felt settled in. I guess you guys have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, because you did Callop, then Cleal in the end. Three times in the last three years.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Yeah, if you want to talk about that, you can. You have that place up at Cleveland, yeah. And then you and Jordan live. Yeah, honestly, you shouldn't be. Because you're trying to settle right now. Yeah, yeah. I think we're gonna list take her in like a couple weeks. Yeah, but what go go all the way back in time and talk talk through that whole process.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

So we gosh, we what we started dating in December of 2021. No, sorry, it was like January of 2022. Dated for like eight months, and we did exactly what I tell everyone not to do. I always tell people do not buy a house with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Until you're married, don't buy a house together. And of course, we broke that rule. We kind of did too, but yeah, I mean I've just now engaged. You never know, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Like you know, engaged before, right? No, no, we got we bought the house first, then then got engaged. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, but you don't qu you don't count as like a typical client for me because you're my friend. Yeah, but no, I always tell people don't just because you never know, right? Like I've heard stories of people and I've helped people actually personally, like they buy it with their boyfriend, girlfriend, they break up, and then it's like, well, shoot, now what do we do? Like one person. What do they do? Most of the time they end up selling it. You know, because like they'll come just split it 50-50. Yeah, I mean, however they figure it out, right? Like, that's not my wheelhouse. Like, they gotta, you know, it depends if they're civil or not, right? Like, if they're civil with each other, they'll usually split it, or like if one party, like, you know, say they paid for the down payment, like, you know, they'll reimburse themselves. But it can get dicey. I mean, I've I've helped people where I've helped people where it's referring to the divorce lawyer right now, right? Well, that's kind of what you have to do. It's like you almost have to, yeah, you have to get an attorney involved. Um most of the times they're civil because they've at least talked about it. But I've had times where, yeah, like they're like, you know, I don't want my ex-girlfriend boyfriend to know anything, right? Yeah, so that's a little tough, but anyways, I guess where were we where was the question? Oh, it was.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

So you and you and Jordan bought a house together. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

So we we were uh I think we were like driving back from Idaho because my parents used to have that place in Boise. And we were driving. Yeah, that place was awesome. But we were driving back, and it was like a Sunday or something, and um Jordan was just on Redfin, and you know, she found this house in Clay Allen, and we had been talking like oh how cool it'd be to have a spot in Clay Allen because like I've always loved going there. Yeah, I love it. Um, and then uh I think we were driving back or something, I don't remember. No, we weren't driving back. We we went out there for a day to go check it out, but anyway, so we went out there, checked it out, and we just like both were like, Yeah, let's do it. Like, if I could have done it over again, probably wouldn't have done that. Um it was fun, it was honestly it was a great experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Uh you got a lot out of that.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

We got a lot out of it. Like, honestly, like we had a ton of fun. Like, it's in the middle of the mountains, like everything I loved to do, like you know, be outside, snowmobiling, like snowmobiling up to the house in the wintertime. Like, sweet. That was so fun. Hoisting a couch over the ball. Hoisting a couch over the balcony, bringing a couch up on a bobsled. Like, that was like we had some good times there, bonfires, like hunting. You know, it was fun, it was a really good time. But like for a financial sense, like it just we weren't we thought what we'd do is buy it, Airbnb it, and then you know, be millionaires. I don't know what we thought. Uh, and none of that worked out because like once we got it and we like realized like once I actually ran the numbers of what would I have to do in order to even like break even, like it was pretty unrealistic. Like, how many days I'd have to rent it out, what I would have to do, who I'd have to pay, how would people get up here? Like, once I logistically went through everything, I was like, oh my gosh, that like what were we thinking? But it was a great time. What I was just gonna say, it always sounds like a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

It always sounds great, and then like actually implementing it is yeah, not as easy.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Well, then, you know, so we got married and then literally pregnant like a month later, and then that that was when we were like, you know, there's no way like we can stay up here and have a kid. Like, there's just no, like, how are we gonna bring up a kid in a snowmobile? Like that makes no sense. So, right? It was just in like, you know, what if something happened, right? Like, you're hours away from any hospital. Um, so that was when we were like, it was probably uh what was it, like 2024? 2024. It would have been 2024. We were like, okay, we need to, you know, move back to the west side, but then we were like, how are we gonna do that? Like, we can't pay this place by ourselves, we can't Airbnb it because we're not ready for that, nor would we make even enough money. I wasn't making like barely anything in my job because I was still pretty new. And then by the grace of God, someone wanted to rent it long term and they've been there for two years now, and they're moving out next week, and like they've been great. I mean, they've paid on time. We've had like at the first it was a little rocky just because uh you know, when you're move you know how it is up there. It's like when you're in the middle of the woods and it snows two feet, like what do you do? You know, so but they've been great, and uh they're moving out next week, next week or two weeks, and we just realistically just don't want to pay for a vacation home. Um because we also like how often would we even go up there? Probably not much, yeah. But anyway, so 2024 we moved back to Pewala, had Casey, and then in 2025, we bought my grandma's place in Buckley and have been there and will probably be there for as long as I want or as long as we want. I mean, I don't know, a long time. But then I look at that house, or I look at this house, and I'm like, dang, should we have just bought something that was brand new? Because like her house has a lot of work. Yeah, we got a good deal, got a good deal, and like in Buckley, yeah. In Buckley, like you don't really get like for a downtown Buckley home, you don't get like a yard like that, like that much space, but it's a lot of work, a lot of work. But so yeah, that's been the last four, I guess four years now, but four years out like we moved three times. I don't know, yeah. Clay Allen was a total that was a curveball. It was fun living out there, I will say. The Mountain Max, the old rain. 1999 Mountain Max, dude. Those things still like I think three poles is what they start up on and it starts.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Yeah, yeah. Remember when we got there super late, wasn't it like me, you and Brady? Yeah, we kept trying to start it, but the brake was on. The brake was on. Oh, dude, the Donsa.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

I absolutely were there be like, no, you gotta let it warm up for 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

I absolutely just burnt that bell to it. Like, I that was so bad. That was so bad. But it was dumping snow. It was like a blizzard, it was a blizzard. We were the only one on the mountain, too, because it was like a random weekend in November, and it was just a blizzard. And we drive like we drive like halfway on the main road to get to the house, and yeah, it's starting to get warm. We were driving like halfway in the truck to the main house, and I was like, dude, there's no way we're gonna make it up. So I backed out and then we went and got the snowmobiles out, and then it was just like, oh boy. So that was fun. Josh Kumar is calling me. Should I answer it? Should I tell him we're potting out?

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Sorry, Josh, we're potting. Sorry, Josh, you'll watch this.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, but the public house is gonna work out good though. Like it's a good spot. Like a good yard and stuff. That's kind of why we bought this house, too. It's like a house that's like a like Forever, honestly. Like just post up for a while.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Like never have to worry about moving for a while. Or if you and Jordan do want to move, you can move into the spot that I have right next to where I'm gonna get Connor's building. I'll hey we'll already be like right down the street from there. Yeah. Are you getting one of those houses? Are you one to? Yeah. I'm going.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

I told him I'm going to be sick. They'll be sweet. They'll be good, like little houses building. Yeah. I mean it sucks because like the permitting process is taking forever, which sucks because it's like he got approved already, right? He got approved for something, yeah, and then now they just have to I think they just have to issue the permits now. Um just waiting on that before he can build. Yeah, I think he's got everything ready to go, and then it's like as soon as he gets the permit, that's when he can start. Like how long do you think it'll take for him to build one? Oh he'll have it done, I bet, by the end of the summer. Yeah, six months. Yeah, I can't imagine it'll take him that long.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

And you guys think you can make it work? Yeah, I think so. I think we can work. I mean, I have I've been in my house for like 13 months. Yeah, what are you gonna do with the other house sell it? Yeah, I wouldn't have enough money to from it, like rent or whatnot. And I I don't have enough money saved up for a down payment or anything like that. But Sean and Nick and Connor all think that they can make it work somehow. We can figure out something. There's always a way. Where there's a will, there's a way to make it happen. Which makes me feel like I should turn my hat backwards. Yeah, this is not sponsored by a cross-country trader.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Trader. Hey, that was one of the companies we were actually looking at moving to. They're a good company. I should just cross it out with a shirt or be a great radiant across the top.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

I'm just gonna put a picture of myself up on the show. Yeah. I don't even think we sell hats, honestly. Dude, that could be something you could do next. Make some nice hats. Honestly, I do need to do some pending. Well, you were talking about how you want to do a podcast too. I do, yeah. What's your what's your idea behind all that?

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Uh so my idea is a few things. One is is like, so like my my main source of referral is from real estate agents, right? And most times, like when lenders call real estate agents, like not to get too deep in the weeds, but when they call, you're basically cold calling them. And the last thing, like, what happens when you get a cold call? Like, hang up, hang up. Yeah, you don't want to listen, like you you don't need what they're trying to give you, right? Well, that's kind of how it is, like, with lenders. That's a little bit of a warmer call, though. Honestly, that actually is, or like you do it through someone you know. But my idea with it is like, well, like if I can call and say, hey, like watch my pot. No, I want to say, like, hey, I want to have you on it. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. But I want to have you on it, and like I'll dice up, you know, five clips for you to post on social media, right? Like, I'm giving you something to do. But I also think it's good too, because like I feel like most people, not most, but a lot of people when when it comes when it comes to real estate are not very well informed. Like headlines, headlines are crazy. People listen to like what their like dad who bought a house five years ago or ten years ago had to say, and like not saying like that's bad to not like you should listen to some advice, but the like in our world, like firefighting, like probably what is it, electricity. Electricity or whatever, I don't know. Well, anyways, like it's constantly evolving, like things are always changing, you know what I mean? I kind of forgot, like, you're gonna be able to do that. I know what you do smart people. I know what you do, but I don't know exactly like what I don't know exactly what you do. But like it's always it's always evolving, right? So I think being able to do something like that where you like can talk about like what are we seeing here, and everything's different, like every market is different from the next, right? For sure, and what works for one person doesn't work for the next guy, right? So that's where I feel like something like that would be easy to do.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

You can't draw it. I would enjoy listening to something like that because buying my house was such a learning process for me. I still don't know that much stuff, but like everything was brand new to me, and it was just like it was very eye-opening to start learning about just like real estate itself and just like your what your process is, like selling mortgages and all that stuff. Like, and if there was something out there that basically like real estate for dummies that you could listen to, like it would be perfect for me.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

And that's the other thing, too, is like you know, buying a house like what I do is so much more than just like a mortgage, in my opinion. Like, it's like financial literacy because like what we're teaching people and what we're talking to people about is like how to use money, how to budget, how to how to use a credit card, how to like that's what you help me with budgeting and yeah, lining up all my expenses. Yeah, it sucks. And it's shocking how a lot of people don't know how to do that, and they you know, in and they don't actually realize they don't even they don't even make a budget, you know. And so I think that's where that could also help is like if I could turn someone and say, hey, go listen to my podcast and like you know, just play it as you're driving in the car, and you'll learn a few things about like what you should just do, not even just to buy a house, but just to be financially like well off. Or not even well off, like I think well off is like not a great term to use, but like just financially literate, because yeah, the the overwhelming majority of people don't know, you know, even kind of the simple tools of like how to be smart financially, like unless you were taught it, which most people aren't, like you're not taught in school. Parents, like as long if your parents don't teach you, then not really you don't really have any other resource but to do your own research, which not many people do that, and then they come talk to someone like us, and then it's like then we kind of straighten everything out for them, right? So, and then like you can talk to a financial advisor, but a financial advisor is gonna go like 10 steps beyond what most people are at because most people are aren't even in a phase that they're ready to start investing. Yeah, they're in a phase of like I need to figure out like how much money do I spend per month versus how much money do I even make per month, right? So I still gotta do that.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Is there is there anyone even like tapping into that? Like in your world, is there anyone who's doing I know people are doing like Instagram videos and reels and stuff like that, but is there anyone doing what you want to do?

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Yeah, I mean I've seen stuff, but not anyone that I know personally, in my opinion. I don't think I don't think I know anyone that is. Um but you know, I've seen stuff of like you know others, like mainly it has to do with like business growth, less so of like, you know, how could I turn like how could I make someone better off financially, right? So like that's even been one of my ideas too, of like not even just business generating, but like just giving back is like if I could help like say you go teach at a you know, you guys go to a school, right? And you teach CPR kids. Yeah, like why aren't we doing something where we're going to a high school for seniors who are about to graduate and go off into the world? Why are we not going in like once a month and teaching these kids how to use money? Dude, that would be a good thing. You know what I mean? Like, why are we not doing that? Explaining interest rates to high school or like why why are we teaching kids the I don't know, the declaration of something from 1892? Like, what like what are they gonna do with that? Like, they're not gonna do anything. Like, why aren't we teaching kids this real life skills? I get so fired up about it because it's it's just it's sad because of like there's there's just such a lack of education when it comes to money in like basic school. Like, I just don't understand it. I really don't. Yeah, but at least you know what a metaphor is. Yeah, no, seriously. Yeah, exactly. At least you can recite Shakespeare. Yeah, it's like like not like those are the real stuff. Like, well, you know, there's there's good things that you learn in school, right? Like, there's I think all of that is like the found laying the foundation of like how do you read a book and analyze it, right? But like, why aren't we teaching 17 and 18-year-old kids who mo I mean, I feel like the movement, in my opinion, lately is like people not going to college anymore. And even college, like we both got business degrees. What did they teach? They didn't teach us anything about how to budget, how to save, how to use a credit card, how to do anything. Like, they didn't teach us any of that. What is one like takeaway that you took from like going to college? Dude, honestly, I could not think of anything off the top of my head that I literally took that I utilize today. Like, and I was a 3.8, very good student, showed up for school. Like, I did very well in school. You did, yeah. And I cannot name one thing right now off the top of my head that I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I learned that in college because now I apply that in my everyday life. Like what about you?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

I mean, I use a lot of like math. Yours is different, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yours is very specific to your career now. Yeah, and like obviously the stuff I learned in college was like a lot more like like specialized, right? So it wasn't just like, you know, again, like a general business degree, you know. It's like it was a very specific field that I use. But I mean, to be honest with you, like even probably 90-95% of that stuff I don't use. Like, yeah, you know, I took a bunch of math, I don't I use a calculator, like you know what I mean. If I have to do like 100 divided by 10, I'll just throw in my calculator, just be safe, you know what I mean? But dude, honestly, like honestly, it might be like a little bit conspiracy, but I honestly think like the reason they don't teach that too much is like probably because they bank on kids like graduating and like going and buying a $80,000 truck, you know, and paying $300 a month for the next 20 years, or like, you know, even to some extent like going to college and just jumping right into like student debt, or like, you know, like like if I feel like if they taught it too much, like you know, they would like recognize like hey, maybe these aren't good decisions, and like recognize that $200 a month for a nice truck doesn't actually mean you're paying $200 a month. It means it like it does, but it you're gonna end up paying $120,000. Like if you're able to put those pieces together and realize maybe I shouldn't do this, then you know, honestly, I feel like they probably lose a lot of money. So it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Think about it this way is like if you taught kids like financial literacy in high school, how many less like federal student loans do you think would be way less? I mean, think about kids that are 18 years old and they're signing up $100,000 in debt right off the bat. Like it's just it's insane.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

If I knew what I knew now in my life, I would have never gone to college, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yeah, it was a good like I I s I do say all this though, like I felt like I'm happy I went to school because like it was fun. We had a good time, like I just look at it like dang, like, was that four years I could have done something like my job like that I do now? It's like could I have started that a little bit earlier?

SPEAKER_03 33:00

But I don't know. That's true, but think about like all the stressors and the anxiety you have in your life right now that comes from your career and just your lifestyle. And now we didn't have any of that for those four to five years that we were in college. We literally had to go to go to class and play soccer. Yeah, senior year, I snowboarded. Mess around as much as we would.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Yeah, senior year. I think I got like 50 days of snowboarding. Yeah, I literally was snowboarding three days a week for like four months straight. Like, didn't have anything to do, no stress, nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Never another time in your life will you be able to do stuff.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Like now it's just like bills or whatever. But I remember we would literally we'd be at our house, have our Zoom like call going, just sitting on the table and we're just watching TV. We had a hot tub, basically the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

I used to put my laptop outside of the hot tub and take my like Zoom classes from the hot tub and just chilling.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Like when everything like first shut down during COVID, I was literally delivering Uber Eats with my laptop in my passenger seat, like playing and I'm driving around.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

I remember we used to have like soccer Zoom calls, and like our coach would be like super serious, and like we'd have to have our cameras on, and Steven would be delivering Uber Eats. And I'd put up like pictures of our coach's face as my background. Like great E2. Oh, that's so funny. But yeah, moral of the story is like where I think we started with like the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Moral of the story is budget.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Budget. But if you want to learn, call me up right now. You couldn't uh loop these realtors and do a two-minute phone call, so you can have a two-hour podcast. A two-hour podcast. Dude, honestly, probably would two minutes. It probably would be.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

It honestly probably would be. It would be way easier to ask them to come talk about themselves for two hours than me try to sell myself for two minutes on the phone. Honestly, would 100%.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Especially if you're like, yeah, I'll let you like get some clips. Like you can say like that's the idea of it.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Yeah. It's like if I I'll snip, I'll snip clips. Like I was telling or I was asking Zalen last night, like, hey, what uh like AI platform do you use so you can like put clips together and then I just send them and say, hey, post them on, you know, whatever, and there you go. You know, they're all yours.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Let me and Steven come on since we're both clients of yours.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

You could. I could have past clients. That would actually that's actually not a bad idea. Have them talk about their experience.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah, I actually was just You should just do it like with your clients right after you get done with the deal with them and just bring them in and be like, or talk about what their process was and everything.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, I actually was just thinking about it not too long ago because uh my buddy Jason just bought a house and never really thought about it too much, but he was like talking about when he bought it and he had like shop around, like mortgage lenders or whatever, and he was like, Yeah, this person, like, I don't know, like they seem a little shady, and I kind of thought about it. I was like, I've never really had to like it's always been nice, like just knowing like just knowing's good for you, you know what I mean? Well, it's easy when you know the person, right? Yeah, especially with a big deal like that, where it's like you want someone that you know is gonna like actually like kind of do do good by you, so it's like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I think it's hard because it's like I have to put myself in the shoes of the person, like you guys, like who don't know what's going on. And like when something like goes wrong, or like you know, something isn't exactly like how I presented it up front, and like I've had people before think I was shady because I was like, maybe like a fee was higher than what I originally thought it was gonna be, right? And then they think it's shady, and I'm like, no, I promise you, like, it's not. It normally comes in after the state. This is how this is how it works. Like, I swear. Especially when rate like most people don't know, most people don't realize rates move. Like, they don't know that, like, oh, like, you know, there could be a bad day in the market, and you know, you might have been at six percent yesterday, but today you're at six and a quarter percent. And then I show them that, and they're like, Well, wait, you told me it was this, and it's like, well, like markets, like they move with the market, right? Like, what is what is the typical like fluctuations with rates? Is there ever like huge jobs? 100%. When we were in San Diego like two weeks ago, uh, we had because uh I ran like the bombings and everything, and then oil prices spike through the roof. Yeah, and like for example, like I was quoting a client at like six percent on say it was like Wednesday, and then Monday when I got back, I was quoting it at 6.75%. Dude, yeah, that's like how bad it got.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

If you locked me to $5.99, what would it be now?

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Right before we gotta brag about it. Come on, dude. I got that $5.99. I gotta disclaim this is uh not advertising myself. Uh it's today. I mean, probably it's getting better. You're probably like six and a quarter. I just have to yeah, I can't, like, I have to be careful about like what how I well not like on this, like it's fine, but like six and a quarter though, about yeah, probably six and a quarter, six point three seven five. But but most people don't know that. And like, yeah, there are times like I've only ever seen it like two times in my you know five-year career of like huge market swings like that. Normally it's like gradual, it's like day by day, it like is kind of going up inching, but like there's days, yeah. Like when we're yeah, when we were in San Diego, I remember I went on a run and it was like six in the morning, and I always get alerts like in the morning for the markets.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Is that why you said I ran?

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yeah, because I ran.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Now I'm confused.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

I ran. He was bombing us, but then I ran to go up because you went on a run. Probably actually. What's the highest you've ever seen? Oh, dude, I blocked someone at 8% for yeah. What like when was that? October of 2023.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Steven, isn't that your room?

SPEAKER_02 38:36

No. Yeah, 8%. Back, yeah. Mine is pretty high, but it's not like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

It's like like 6.4. 6.4. Honestly, relatively, that's not terribly high. No, it's not terrible, but still. I I don't remember off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

It might be a little higher than that, too. But yeah, I think 8% was the highest I ever did. That's crazy. That was yeah, that was October 2023 when rates were like the peak of what most people have seen in their lifetime. The bank is just making the payday on that. Dude, the bank's honestly not making, they're not making any. That's what most people also don't realize. Like, I could get way deep into the weeds. When I sell a 5%, when I sell a 5% rate because of like where the where markets are at, I don't make any more money on you know, 8% if I sell you on that. Like, I make the same amount of money.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

You don't, like the bank does, though, because that's the interest you're paying to the bank, right? Yeah, but the bank's making an extra 3% again half a million dollar loan or something.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

But yes, but again, I could go into the all the back end of banks. Also, follow where treasury bonds are going, like where our treasury yields are going. That's that's where they follow. So if treasury, treasury yields are more expensive, that means like you're not making, you're not making again. I could go way too deep into that. What's the definition of a treasury yield? So like you know, like there's treasuries, like two-year, treasury, five-year, ten-year, twenty-year. So these are basically bonds, like bonds. That pirates are like bearings. See, I think this is way beyond what I would ever teach anyone because it's way too much. But anyways, I guess we're going to X Farrow five years. Moral of the story is the bank doesn't make any more money at 3% because you also have to think like the cost of money too, right? Like, I believe you, that just doesn't sound right.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Because it's like if the bank is giving you $500,000 to buy a house and they say, I'm gonna charge you five percent interest and in one hand, and then the other hand they say, here's the same loan, but I'm gonna charge you eight percent interest. But then why wouldn't banks always just charge eight percent? Well, no, I'm not saying I'm not saying they always would. I'm just saying, like, if the rates do go higher. And you're saying they always charge three percent? Like, what?

SPEAKER_02 40:50

No, dude. Again, I I could go it's too deep, and it's too, it's too deep. So the bottom all of us sick.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

Yeah, it was actually all right. Let's change. Yeah, let's change because this is getting a little over my head. I'm just trying to give the bank more of my money. That's really why I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

Honestly, just slide me a thousand bucks. Can you actually refinance me to an 8% money?

SPEAKER_03 41:11

The extra, the variance of the three percent just goes to my bad off. Well, you just gave another country some of your money because you were just in Guatemala.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Dude, yeah, it was actually pretty cheap. I didn't give that much. There's no sales tax, dude. It was crazy. That was like the first thing we noticed is how much cheaper it is when you don't have to pay sales tax or tip. Like we'd go to dinner and it was like, I don't know, like dirty because three dollars. No, dude, like you figure you figure a $40 dinner, you know, that's like five bucks in tax, like $20, $10 tip or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Like, oh, what was the tip a meal for two? What was the typical price? Just like basic meal.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

We stayed at a place that was like pretty nice and whatever, and like every night they did you could eat there, and it was like a three-course like dinner, like nothing super crazy, but like nice food, and it was like $25 each. What? Yeah, and that was for like appetizer entree dessert, and like we were getting drinks there for like six dollar cocktails or whatever, you know. So it was like you could get, yeah. For both of us to go out, like a decent dinner, like forty bucks or something. So that's not right. No, no, it wasn't bad at all. It's like a breakfast burrito here. Dude, $40. No, seriously, like it was crazy. Like, I don't know, and like you get like a steak with that, and it's like $25, but yeah. Dude, no, it was a it was a cool trip, though. It was fun to go see it. It was uh go back to day one when you're leaving. What airline did you fly? Uh so we flew, dude, that's actually kind of funny. So we get to like the lounge in LAX, and it was like the One World Alliance lounge, so you had to be at one of their airlines, and we flew like Avianca or whatever. I've never heard of that. Me neither. Never. But so the lady's like, what airline? Avianca? Yeah, the lady at the thing's like, what airline do you fly? And I was like, Avancia? She's like, what? I was like, Avencia? She's like, huh? And I like pointed to it because it was on the sign. She's like, oh, like Avianca or something. I was like, you you knew what I was getting. Like, come on. She just wanted to hear you pronounce it. But but yeah, no, so we did, let's see, we left Friday, like 7 a.m., flew to LAX, got to LAX at like 10, had like a four and a half hour layover. Like four and a half hours? Dude, it was long, but so we ended up like going to this lounge. It was like we got like a day pass, which was super nice. But how much are those passes like to go in all the lounges and stuff? It depends.

SPEAKER_04 43:23

I'm sure it changes, but like Yeah, it depends on the lounge.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

This one, so like with my credit card, you can get into some, but the one we were gonna go to was like full or something, and that would have been $35 each. But so, like, this was the only other one, um, and I think it was like eighty dollars each. That's not terrible. For four and a half hours. Yeah, and like I took a shower there, yeah. All the free food, free cocktails, free drinks. Yeah, yeah, it was a shower there. They had like an outdoor sitting area that was super nice. No sun, no, nothing like that. But like it was nice, and like it's just again, like we were gonna be there for like four and a half hours, so it's like And I feel like when you're heading to vacation, it's like, you know, you kinda want to like start off on the right foot. So we did that, but it was like eighty bucks a person, so um but yeah, good food, good drinks and stuff. And then so we chilled there and then did Oh, I guess some so Seattle LAX was Alaska Airlines, and then LAX to Guatemala City was the vodka. The vodka. But how long is that flight?

unknown 44:22

Five hours.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Five hours. You pretty much you literally go over like the entire country of Mexico, like top to bottom, pretty much. So that's not bad. But yeah, so we got in at like I don't know, like 8 p.m. on Friday. Took like a one-hour car ride. We were standing at a hostel in this town called Antigua. It's like an hour and a half. Um, so they sent like a car and picked us up. But dude, so we got into the city, and that weekend is it's it's a holiday because it was the Friday before Easter. What is that? What's that? Is it there's a name for it? Good Friday. Oh, is that Friday? Yeah. So no, no. Good Friday is not a hell no. Oh, the Friday, yeah, sorry, yes, Friday before Easter. Yeah. But anyway, so I don't know. But it was like, so that weekend is like their biggest holiday, like in the whole country, and they like celebrate or whatever. So we're driving in and just crazy traffic, like supposed to be an hour drive, like straight to the hotel, and uh stuck in traffic. We sat in the car for like probably two hours, not moving at all. Our driver, like, he was like, whatever, like such an excrew this, got in like the oncoming traffic lane, like drove like way up, and he like pulled off. He's like, You guys gotta go. It's as far as you get. So we got out. Like uh I just had a backpack, but Brian had like a backpack and a suitcase, so we had to like wheel it in like probably a mile, but the roads are like dude, like cobblestone, so you can't actually like yeah, so I had to carry it. But anyways, we ended up getting like to the hostel at like I don't know, maybe like 11 Friday night, which was not bad, and just a small little hostel, and then spent the first couple days in Antigua, like did the sauna cold plunge first day, and then left from there. We did like an ATV thing, that was cool, and then uh from there we left and went and hiked that volcano that I was showing you guys videos of.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

Yeah, I guess yeah, so I guess so.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Day one, we it was like so Earth Lodge was like where we did. We did like yoga, that was the sauna cold and plunge thing, dude. It was literally like an oven. I showed you guys a video. It was just like a clay cave with a wood-fired oven in it. Yeah, and uh it was cool, but it was hot. Like, yeah, yeah. How hot would you say? Like, dude.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

They didn't even have a thermometer or anything in there?

SPEAKER_01 46:27

It had to have been like 190. Okay. It had to push it. Like probably the dry sauna. Yeah, yeah, they had I mean they had uh water, so you could have like thrown it on, but it was way too hot. Like we would have we couldn't have thrown any water on it in there. Yeah, that was way too hot. So we did that, and then and then that day, let's see, I feel like we did oh we went to a coffee plantation thing, did like a chocolate making class. It was like a yeah, because I guess like in Guatemala they have like they have like some cocoa plants or whatever, but it's like a big thing they do. So we it was actually super cool. The guy was the guy was like super knowledgeable. And uh so we did like a little chocolate making class thing, got like some coffee there or whatnot, but um, and then yeah, next day so we did the ATV tour, and you like go up this volcano, it's like it was like this touristy thing where you like like make a vault like a pizza on the volcano, you know what I mean? Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so it was cool, but so we like ATV'd around, it was awesome. But to get to the volcano that we A TV'd up, you had to drive like two hours. Yeah. So we're like in this car with this guy driving, and uh we drive through this city and it was like welcome to whatever, I don't remember the name of the city. I was like, dude, it sounds so familiar. Like, I feel like I've heard of this city before. And then it kind of came back to me. I looked it back, looked it up. If you go on like the travel advisory US website, it says like don't travel, like one to four. I ran like a four. Guatemala's like a three, like it's allegedly pretty dangerous. It wasn't we never felt unsafe, but yeah, one of the things on there is like level four, like don't go to like this neighborhood in Guatemala City for like any means, and then it was like, don't go to this city like for any reason. It's like cartels, okay. Because it's like, yeah, they border Mexico, so I think they have a lot of cartels, and then I think also like if it's like MS 13. Yeah, like I think there's a lot of gangs, but but yeah, dude, it was like under no circumstances go to this city, and it was the city that we were like driving through. I was like, dude, like we probably let's just keep going and not stop. But yeah, um, but yeah, no, APV just whipped that thing around. It's like four hours or something. We actually ended up getting lucky. It was like a private, it was like just us two and then the guy, and so that was cool, and then I think what else did we do? Did you guys share? Yeah, we did, yeah. So I drove pretty much the boy there, and she whipped it back, but it was cool, yeah. And it was like that was on pretty sure that was yeah, that was on Easter we did that. That was on Sunday. And so yeah, we like went through this little like village and they were having like a big Easter parade. So that was cool. It was actually like cool to see like all the Easter holiday celebrations and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

So any Easter bunnies?

SPEAKER_01 49:00

No bunnies, no bunnies, danger. A lot of the hogs uh no bunnies.

SPEAKER_02 49:04

They do actually like the tradition they like do or whatever is like in the streets, they have like sorry, can we pause? Do you guys want to I'm gonna grab an athlete for you or one?

SPEAKER_03 49:12

I'll take another one. I'll take one. I'll take one. Just take just take your mic off before you go up there just yeah, you can keep going on.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

But yeah, no, so they have like they get all these like colorful like flower petals and like grass and stuff, and then like in the streets they make these huge like kind of murals out of these. So that was cool to see, and then yeah, and then we left. That was day two? That was day two. And day three we left, and that's when we went to the volcano like hike, and dude. That was this is what I want to hear about. This is honestly probably the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. Like it it like rivaled right. What is oh shit, okay. What is the um volcano called? Do you know? Oh, dude. So the one nice thanks. Thanks, dude. So the volcano that was like erupting, it was called like it was called like fuego, which is like just fire, obviously. So that was the name of volcano. The name, the one that we hiked that was right next to it, I don't really remember exactly what it was called. It's okay. Even though Brandon probably 40 times, I still don't remember. It's okay. But uh, yeah, you know, this was like the one of the coolest things. But we so we got there, we took like a little shuttle bus, probably an hour and a half, got to like this guy's house. He was like the guy who owns like the tour guide thing. So we literally went to his house, like had some food, and then got everything packed up. He gave us like the spiel, you know, like you know, like it was like a pretty hard hike, like be ready, here's all we need, whatever. He didn't have to like it wasn't technical at all, it was a hike, but and then we drove, yeah, another like half hour to this volcano and started hiking. And I think we hiked, I think to base camp, it was almost like six miles, like four thousand feet, so it was pretty steep. But big group, probably like five guides, like twenty people hiking it. And so hiked all the way up, got to base camp. Um, they had like just these little they were kind of like shacks, right? Like they were little just like lean twos that you sleep in. Yeah, um, it had a mattress and stuff, but it was like pretty, pretty rugged. And then um at that point you're at like 11,000 feet, and you can see you're like. Were you feeling the elevation up there? Honestly, not really. Like, I was fully expecting to, but I didn't really like we both did pretty good. We had been hiking like a good bit leading up to it to like try to prepare, but yeah, no, honestly, like I feel like neither of us really felt it too much. There was a couple people that got like super sick, dude. There was one guy like there was like one guy that was just yarfing. He was from Colorado. I was like, how do you I feel like you're shooting us? He should be the guy that could be out of shape. Not really. I mean, he was like a normal-looking guy, like that just goes to show. I mean, like, elevation can be yeah, yeah. One girl had to like take an ATV down because like same thing. She got elevation sickness, like couldn't hike down, but but yeah, no, I mean it wasn't I don't know. Like we were talking a little bit last night, but about it, but like it wasn't that hard of a hike. Like in the online, if you read about it, it'll say like hardest hike ever. Like it almost felt like like Mouse, you know what I mean? Like it's it's hard, it's not like you know, it's a good good amount of birth. Yeah, exactly. So but and honestly, the second part that I'll talk about like was probably harder because we got there, you get there at like 4 p.m., chill for a little bit, and you can see the the volcano that like erupts, you're right next to it, but there's like a viewpoint where you like can go hike and be like on it essentially and be right next to like where it erupts, like the lava. But to do that, you literally have to go, it's like two peaks, right? So it's like this, and then you have to go down a thousand feet over like a hundred feet or whatever, and then straight up a thousand feet. So that was probably the hardest, the hardest part, just because you're kind of already tired from the hike to instantly go like straight down, then straight up.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Um did Brianne go with you on that one? Yep, she did that. Because I remember before you went, you said that she might have wanted to just stay. But that's cool that she went.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Yeah, yeah, because like I said, like reading online about it, it was like yo, hardest hike ever, yeah, yada. So we were both a little worried, like, you know, it was gonna be like Mount Rainier equivalent. Like, yeah, I remember being Mount Rainier, you get to the top, and it's like I I'm not gonna I can't do anything. Like, I'm not doing another 2,000 feet or whatever. But like I said, we got there, felt completely fine, so we both did it. Um but so we we do this straight down hike, straight up, and you're like on this volcano, and at nighttime it gets dark, like it starts erupting, and it was honestly the coolest thing like I've ever seen, probably it's crazy. Yeah, because it's literally like lava, like yeah, I'll never see.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

How close to like the actual lava would you say?

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Probably like I mean, less than a mile for sure. You're probably like from where we were standing to like the crater, half a mile. Could you feel it? Like, could you feel the heat? No, because it wasn't like when you think of an eruption, right? You think of like tons of lava like spewing out. Yeah, and it was so it was like it was a lot, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't like enough for to like radiate heat or whatever. But it dude, it was still like so cool. So we we sat like at that viewpoint for probably a good like hour, hour and a half, like got really dark, you can see it, whatever, and then yeah, hiked back, like did the straight down. The the way back was the hardest part, like because you go straight down, and then at that point it's like 11 a.m. or 11 p.m. I guess, and uh yeah, you're coming like straight up into base camp, and it is like straight up, and that's when that guy started puking. That's when like we had to stop like multiple times for people struggling. Like I was struggling, don't get me wrong, but like we had enough breaks where I wasn't like the liberty factor, you know what I mean? But yeah, dude, and then we got up, camped, woke up in the morning to go back down, dude. The sunrise there too was like crazy. Like that's sick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

That you guys camped out there. How were you even it? Were you able to sleep?

SPEAKER_01 54:52

Yeah, yeah, I slept really good actually. And like, uh that was another thing, it's like it gets freezing cold, which it got really cold, but like I was totally comfortable. And like, like I said, like there was mattresses, like sleeping bags and stuff, so it wasn't like you weren't like roughing it too much. It was like definitely nicer than a tent, too, you know.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

Yeah, it was, yeah, it was like exactly clamping, but um but yeah, you in like the like rainforest pretty much there, right? Like, yeah. I don't know Guatemala. I don't know I don't either. Yeah, yeah. I mean it is like I mean I think like Cancun, right? Like you're you're kind of in the rainforests.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

Yeah, you are it was like rainforesty. I mean, there was some parts obviously that were drier, and then like as you get higher up with the volcanoes, like it dries up a little bit. But yeah, no, it was it was we pretty much stayed like in the center of the country, and it was pretty like it felt like Cancun, honestly. But yeah. But yeah, dude, so it was sick, and then yeah, so sunrise school, and then we just kind of went down, had breakfast, hiked down. It was for breakfast that day. Dude, they like their beans. Yeah, they like their beans. It's like it's they're black beans, but they call them like black refried beans or whatever, but think of just like a bowl of black beans that is like mushed up halfway. You know what I mean? They're pretty good, but yeah, it's just beans, you know. Eggs, beans, eggs. They ate a lot of papaya, like fruit, which I like papaya. Papaya's alright, it's not my favorite, but yeah, a lot of fruit, a lot of eggs, a lot of beans.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

Uh what was the best thing you ate there, and what was the worst thing?

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Dude, honestly, the best thing wasn't even something we ate, but we got sangria a couple times. Dude, I'm telling you, that was like the best sangria ever. I don't know what they did with this, but that was everywhere we went, we tried to get it, but um food-wise. We had like a chicken kebab thing that was just obviously like chicken, peppers, onions, stuff like that. Even the chicken was probably like the best chicken I've ever had in my life. Was it actually chicken? It wasn't actually chicken. I think so. I mean, maybe that's why it was the best attack because it wasn't chicken. But no, dude, that was super good. But also, that was like at not like at an American restaurant, but it was at like have you been to like the yard house or something? You know what I mean? I don't know. Or like a what's a yard house? It's like a restaurant in Seattle, or there's like a couple there everywhere, but it's just like a sports bar. It kind of felt like we were in a sports bar a little bit, you know, so it wasn't like super authentic, but yeah, dude. We uh there's like a market in Antigua, which is that first city we were in. And I went safe, like when you buy the street food, you gotta be like a little careful what you got. So like I got like a lote, which is just like corn and stuff, right? You know, we're like walking around, Brandon's like, I want that, and it was like uh carnita, so it's pork. It was like a pork taco, and it looked not good, but if she wanted it, so I was like, I'm not gonna say anything, so she got it. She took one bite and she's like, I don't know if I want I was like, Yeah, I don't know why you went with the pork taco. It was from like, no, it was from like some dude in like a tent. Yeah, with like you know, it's just like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

Did you see any like what was the most wild thing you saw, like street food-wise? Were they selling weird animals and stuff that you no, dude?

SPEAKER_01 57:55

I have no I don't think, yeah. Dude, it honestly felt a lot like Mexico.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

Like I've never really experienced Mexico though, so I don't I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

Yeah, it was like yeah, and I I I guess you guys obviously haven't been to Peru, but it reminded me a lot of Peru, too. Like it's just pretty normal. Like the stuff they eat down there, like Peru's actually a little bit more exotic, but I don't think I really saw anything crazy. I'm trying to think of like I don't know, like the meat at the the street food things. Like, I I stay away from all of those, but it's probably smart.

SPEAKER_02 58:26

Yeah, like when I'm in Cabo and you see like a street taco place, dude, you're getting those. They're so good.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

Yeah, that's I feel like they're so different than like getting some steak carnitas tacos or something on in Mexico. I feel like you're pretty good. I'm trying to think of what it was like.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

When we were in Costa Rica, they had stuff like that, and we never got anything on the street. Unless, yeah, like you said, like you can get something like that you know is probably good for like corn or something.

SPEAKER_03 58:52

When did you go to Costa Rica? We went for a hundred. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Yeah, that was fun. I'd like to know what year did you guys get married again? 2023. 2023. So coming up on three years. Costa Rica's cool. I would do it. I would do it. If I was gonna do it again, I'd do like an Airbnb. Because we did uh like a resort and it was all inclusive. And all inclusive has its pros and cons, right? But it gets old. Yeah, if I was to do it again, it I think it'd be fun to like actually like because we didn't really go explore much because when you're doing all inclusive, like the whole goal is to stay there and you know get all the food, get all the drinks.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Yeah, but it was cool.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

I liked it there. Everyone's like super friendly, I thought, like, not like people aren't friendly in other countries, but I thought it was like I felt and I also felt like super safe. Like I didn't feel like we walked around um what was the town? It's like a famous surfing town. I don't remember, but like we walked around all day, and I never felt like weird about it. Everyone was super nice, like cool. You walk on the beach, and like you know, people come try to sell you stuff, but they're like super cool about it. Yeah, and um, yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty well traveled. Like, I think a lot of people travel.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

When we were in Guatemala, my parents were actually in Costa Rica at the same time. Oh, really? Yeah, they were just down there, and they said the same thing, like they loved it. But it was cool. I like I would definitely go back. Yeah, so they did I think like two halves, like the first half of their trip, they did um like hotel or like Airbnb and like did the exploring stuff, and then like the last three days it was all inclusive, which is probably like you said, like the way to go. Because yeah, yeah. If you do the all-inclusive, like yeah, like you said, like you don't want to leave, because then you're like missing out on what you hate for, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

And then you kind of run out of you run out of things to do, right? Like there's only so many like times you want to go in the swim-up bar and yeah, just sit there all day. I could have stayed there that whole that whole time we were in Cancun. I could have stayed right in that pool, to be honest. I feel like it is it's fun, but like when it's only like not saying this in a bad way, but when it's only you and your wife, like you know, if you're with a bunch of friends, then yeah, probably being at this swim-up bar for hours would be great. But it was fun. It was a good time. Yeah, you can't just like pound to kilo shots, like you know, or well you can, but you could. You definitely could. Uh but no, it was it I I liked it. It was super cool. Dude, they have these like dude, they're like monkey mixed with raccoon, like what you call it. They're like these monkeys mixed with the raccoon, dude. It's insane. I don't know. But they come and steal. So if you leave your food raccoon. You eat this? No, no, no, no. No, when you leave if you leave your food, dude. Like one time I like go to walk back to my chair and it's like eating my pizza. The monkey. And I go, dude, get out of here. But yeah, it was uh you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Dude, when we were when we were on the cruise, I forget what it was either like Puerto Rico or uh St. Kitts, I can't remember where it was, but they had the little baby monkeys with like those diapers on them, and they were coming around, like setting them on everyone, trying to get money off of you for you to like take a picture with them. Yeah. This dude came up, I did not like it at all, but this dude came up and just set it on my head, and he's still trying to get money out of us, and we're like, no, we're not, we don't have any cash on us, we're not gonna pay you for it. And he's like, Oh, just take a picture. But Riley took a picture of me, and I'm like trying to smile, but also fucking hating it. Just the monkey sitting on there. Yeah, it was like a monkey like this big.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

Why do they put them on diapers?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:21

So it doesn't shit on you.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

But dude, I got shit on in Guatemala, bird shit on me. It was the first time it's happened to me in I think my whole life. We were like walking. That's happened. I thought someone spit on me. I looked back, it was right in the middle of my calf. I was like, dude, that's bird shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:37

Well, okay, so day three was hiking up, seeing the volcano. Day four, you woke up that morning, had the breakfast, and then what?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:45

Well, dude, so this is kind of where this is probably the only thing if we could go back, we could change. It's because we're talking about like all-inclusive resorts, right? We didn't do any of those, but after the hike, like we knew we were gonna be a little worn out, like, you know, so we wanted to get like a nice place. So we it was like the one splurge we did. We stayed at this, like it was like a resort kind of, but it was like small. Like each, you got like a bungalow essentially, and there was only five of them at the whole like the whole place, so it was like super small, and that's where we got like the dinners and stuff. But dude, so nice, like outdoor shower, like whole outdoor bathroom, like obviously private workshop. Outside, dude. Just naked. Just naked outside. Wait, really? Yeah, dude. Well, it was like, I mean, it was encompassed, like, don't get me like you were surrounded by things, but it was yeah, it was outside. So and so like and it's like look at your and like yeah, when we in Antigua, the first place we stayed was like a hostel, so like shared bathroom, really small room, and then we went straight to like the glamping thing, and so like we got here and it felt like I mean it was super nice, but it felt just like super luxury. Um and yeah, it was super private, because like I said, only five places, like that's where you know you could do like go on the lake. Because at this point we were like on the lake, and it's like the second most you know popular place. Yeah. Um, but yeah, you could just like go down to the lake, you sit there, you know, you get your drink, chill, it was awesome. But where we messed up is after that, so we were there for two nights, and then we went to a hostel on the lake, and the hostel was like same like glamping. It was more glamping, it was like an actual like room, but it was you know, and uh, but it was a social hostel, and dude, so there was like a hundred and fifty people at any given time, and there was only like one, like if you weren't in your room, there was only like one place you could be, that's where everyone was, and so it was like by that point we went from like so private, so secluded, like so nice, instantly into this, and it was like so. What we should have done is we should have done the hostel first, then like finished at the like nice resort because yeah, we were we got to that hostel and we were both just like did not want to be there at all. Like, like the socializing is fine, but like just yeah, again, like going from having like your own space, your own bathroom, your own everything, to having to share, like you know, you had to take a shower. There's like one shower area that had like nine shower stalls or whatever, so you have to work for 200 people. Yeah, literally, and like the bathrooms, like the toilets were like composting, like you know what I mean, like it's not flushing, like yeah, there was no nothing flush, like you just essentially shit in like a hole in the ground, you know what I mean? So yeah, it was I mean, we ended up liking it, like it grew on us, but um definitely we should have done that backwards, but yeah, anyway, so done with the hike, go to that the treehouse cabana place, um, super cool. But when you get there to this lake, like you get dropped off in like the main city, and then all these cities are just scattered around the lake, but you can't drive to them, and so they have like essentially like boat taxis, right? So, like you get dropped off at the main city, and then you get on like a boat, and it they charge you it's like three bucks, and then they go drive you wherever you need to be, which is really cool. But dude, at the end of the day, boats have been going all day, it's been windy, whatever, so it gets super choppy, right? And these boats, dude, they just set it in like one speed and go. And so you're Sitting there and just like just do and it's like non-stop, like horrible. It's like the seats are like plastic, like so uncomfortable. But yeah, so we got to the cat like the cabana place, like and then when we were there, we didn't really leave just because you know, like he's talking about all inclusive, like you know, you paid for the nice spot, like you don't really want to leave. And so we we explored a couple of different towns, but for the most part, just chilled there, like got our drinks and stuff. Um and then yeah, we were there for two days, and then after that, that's when we went to the hostel. But throughout those like four days, we were like on just the same lake the whole time, and like I said, there's just towns scattered over like all around. So you just you later grab a flag, like you flag down a boat, you drive over, they pick you up, and then you tell them, like, hey, I want to go to this city, they go drop you off, and then you can kind of like walk around, explore it. Yeah, that was that was the cooler part of the trip. Obviously, like the volcano is cool, um, but the city where you're in, Antigua, like it was cool to be there, but there wasn't much to do, whereas like on the lake, like there was so much to do, like, and that's where you kind of got to see more of like I guess like the local like life because all these villages are a little smaller, like still touristy, but less so, like um, but yeah, dude, it was cool. Yeah, that's where we kind of like explored, got all our souvenirs, got like coffee and stuff, and yeah, it was sick, dude. Yeah, but the boats were brutal.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:24

Brutal. Just choppy as shit. Yeah. What's your next trip that you planned? Or do you not have one planned?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:32

Like international or just I go to Colorado tomorrow. Or Tuesday. Well, like for vacation or nah, well, kinda, yeah. It's like a work team building, like we do a team building thing every year, so I'm fine out Tuesday, get back Tuesday. It feels like Monday because I did some work this morning, but um, yeah, so Tuesday. But no, I think international trip. I think we're kind of chilling out for a little while until we're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:56

You were talking about uh for your wedding. Do you want to do like Spain or Ireland?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

Yeah, I think we're like Yeah, we did some more like planning this morning, and I'm pretty sure Ireland is like the for sure spot. Like I think we found the venue it's gonna end up being. So how many people like do you think you can even have? So I think will it be small or big? It's gonna be smaller for sure. So this one is nice, and the reason we're gonna go with this one probably is because everyone can stay like on the ground, essentially. So it's like a castle, right? But they you know it's a hotel just at that like you know, you can obviously reserve a room at super super cool. But then like a lot of the places, like, you know, they'd be like, okay, we have like seven rooms, so you can fit like 14 people, and then like everyone else after that has to like find a hotel or whatever. Whereas here it's like, you know, like we have one wing that's for you guys to fit up the whatever, and then you know, we can fit up to additional like 80 people, which we won't have 80 people. I think right now we probably would bank. We're planning right now to have like on having between 50 and 60. Probably. Do we join virtually or like yeah, yeah, I was doing dude. Come on. You're going.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:09

You're going, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:10

Yeah. Yeah, no, but uh, so I think that's fine. Like I said, I think we figured out which one we're gonna do. Um, it's just a matter of like actually booking it and like getting the deposit book down, like reserved and whatnot. So that's gonna be awesome. Yeah. It's technically Moldernier. Are you gonna allow kids? Casey's not coming. Actually, no, are you gonna allow kids? I mean, probably. Like, obviously, if you don't have Casey, like, yeah. I don't I don't think we're gonna be like firm, no kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

I mean, some people are, some people are like, Yeah, some people are very like no kids. No kids at all. Which dude, I'm just like, when people do that, I'm like, I don't like it. I don't like it either. I'm like, so you're expecting people like just because you don't have kids, like you're saying like I get it, it's like sometimes they're like, you know, we want it to be like less distraction, blah blah blah, but it's like, yeah, but now you just cut out a bunch of people that like now they have to try to find childcare or talking about for ours, we want all of our friends' kids to be in the we want them to be like the ring bearers and the flower girls and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:08

Just we want like a horde of everyone's kids like coming down, like being a full. Casey gonna be a full Casey gonna be a full girl. Dude, put uh Casey and Bear in a little wagon and have Boone pull them down or something, that would be so sick. Yeah, that would be cool. It's just entertaining having kids there.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:24

I don't have an issue with it. See, I think though, like when you do the smaller wedding, like again, like we're doing 50 to 60, like it becomes less of a problem just because I feel like you know everyone so much more, and like both people know everyone so much more. Like, I don't know, if you have like 200 people, 300 people at a wedding, like you still know everyone, but there's some people that you're closer with than others, and like I feel like there's probably some people that if they did bring like their screaming baby, it'd be like, that's annoying, and that's probably why they say no kids. Whereas like 50-60 people, like again, like you bring tell Casey to scream.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:56

Dude, I'm right there with issues. I'm right there with you, but I think Riley wants a big, big wedding, but I would much rather have just like our tight-knit group of people that yeah, we really care about better for the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:09

It is kind of fun having a bigger wedding, like because like I got you know, I got to invite people I don't see like that often, like you know, like McRae, Joey, like I never see those guys or like Skypunter, never see them. Like I thought that was fun to see everyone. It kind of felt like a big party at the end. Which is but I mean, always to each your own, right? Because then now you gotta think you're paying per head, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

So and with the destination wedding, like you can't expect I couldn't expect 200 people to fly to Ireland, right? Like and like the 50 people that we are gonna invite, like, are close enough to where they probably will. Whereas again, like you invite 200 people, most of those people, like maybe not most, but a lot of them are gonna just be like, I'm not spending $5,000 to go to Ethan or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, wait, 5,000 bucks? I mean, I mean that was just the water. Is it not invited? Is it not just hell? That was just the wedding gift.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:57

I hope I'm invited. No, that'll be fun. Well, definitely, obviously, we're actually just talking about it last night tour tonight. Like, because I was like, Do you think we'd bring Casey? And she's like, Yeah, why wouldn't we? And I go, Oh, it's like I was like, I don't know. I didn't know if you wanted you thought it might have been just like our trip or yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:15

It does the smaller thing, like, it'd be a good reason to like just be like a vacation. But yeah. The smaller thing though, it does get hard though, because obviously you have to make cuts, like again, like like um like my buddies here, it's probably just gonna be like you two and Zalen, you know what I mean? Like that's in like Colorado, I'm gonna invite like those five guys, and like that's probably gonna be it, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's not gonna be like a big I can't invite everyone, because again, like those kinds of trips like just get expensive. So yeah. How many people are you guys like actually thinking it's gonna end up being for me and everyone in?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:46

We haven't really done any planning at all yet, but um I can foresee it being a lot of people, yeah. Like from just just how Riley's been talking about it and stuff, I can see her wanting to have a lot of. Well, so my I think my backyard fits next 300. I think I'll have to be. I think I'll have seven uh what are they called? Broom slides. I think it's yeah, I think I'll have seven breds. I think super uh if I'm thinking right, I last I counted when I was naming off the people with Riley. I think it's seven. Yeah. You two are both. Are you gonna announce the seven? When are you gonna announce the seven? I'll let you know. Who gets done with that? The magnificent. What's that movie? The magnificent dude, we should do that. The ridiculous movie. If it is seven of us, we should do like all mount up on horses.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

Like, yeah, dude, you know. You know what we should do for like the walk-in? Have you seen the video of uh the UAP the Champions League? Dude, they all that actually would be that would be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:48

Yeah, that would be awesome. Or it's like uh I've seen one where they have clips of them, like they're all it seems like they're all hung over and like sprinting in last minute, like getting dressed and stuff. It has them like videos of them running down the street like with their shirt off and like throwing it on real quick, and then they all come stumbling into the room. It's obviously they're not doing it right then there, but and then they all come stumbling in and like just make it on time. That's how they make it look. Obviously, that would be funny too.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:17

I feel like I feel like the destination wedding too is like I don't know, it's kind of cool because then it like gives people an excuse to like go on a vacation. Like when we went to Peyton's wedding, it was like we probably weren't gonna go to Cancun anytime soon, so it was just like an excuse to be like. It did just feel like a vacation, but I had such a function. Dude, yeah, yeah, so like you said, like you know, just leave Casey or whatever, like you and Jordan. It's just like we're forcing you guys against it. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:50

That'd be fun to have them like experience something like that. Like, especially that. I mean, honestly though, like that young, he's probably not gonna remember. But I don't know, I've never been to Ireland, but I could imagine it's somewhat safe. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:06

Yo, Connor. Who the fuck are these guys? Give him uh Casey's first Guinness. His first Guinness. Dude, we should. You should have it like catered by like proper 12 and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:22

Guinness, I think, is like all they drink over there. Like, oh, I think proper 12. Or Heineken. It's Heineken, is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

I think Heineken is like it's more Europe, which they do, but like Isn't Heineken like German?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:33

Maybe it is German. It's one of those companies. That's another age guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

Alright, I gotta I gotta take a pee. Go for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

Yeah, you should bring the phone. Oh, that feels good. But yeah, dude, no, so I guess to wrap up one with X gone. It was a sick trip. But by then we were How many days total again? Was it Friday to Sunday? So nine. But dude, yeah, by the end of we were ready to like when we went to Norway, we were talking like, man, like we were good the whole time. Like we probably could have stayed a couple extra days. This trip, like, we could have left. We were ready. Nine days is quite a bit of time. Well, and I think the difference is like we were moving around so much that you were just constantly living out of like the backpack and stuff. I mean, so it was like hard to I don't know, hard to really settle in around. Yeah. So I think this is exhausting. Two days that you were at that one place. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But no, it was it was a cool trip. It was a good, it was a cool experience. I dusted off the Spanish a little bit, so dude, Brianne took two classes, like two Spanish classes, or four hours each, or three, I think. But uh, she picked it up pretty pretty quick. Really? Yeah, there was actually a few times where like I can like speak okay, but like understanding people's heart for me. Yeah. And there was a few times. Yeah, it's really just their normal language. Yeah. So they probably think the same listening to us. Yeah. Well, I think that's what gets me in trouble a little bit, because all like, again, I can talk like okay. And so they hear that and then think I can like understand it. Okay, and they start ripping. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm like chill that chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. But uh, but yeah, there's a few times where she was like, I think he's saying this. Shit, I think that is, yeah, that actually helped out.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:13

As long as like I wouldn't need a refresher just for like simple things like where is this? Or you know, I want this, or food, or just like just asking random, random, like basic questions just to get around. I do know it was a good trip.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:30

Are you guys doing anything? Like, you got any trips coming up or anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:34

No, because Riley's been so busy with school. She's almost done, right? Yeah, she's getting close to being done. She'll be done. Uh doesn't have a set date yet, but it should be mid to late June. Um, she has a couple makeup days that she has to do, so we'll see. It should be before July. Yeah, it should be before July, but then even after that, she's got like almost every weekend throughout August, September booked out because yeah, she's doing hair and makeup for other people's weddings and whatnot, which is partly why like we're not rushing into wedding planning or anything so fast because she hasn't really had time to even like take inventory on herself. She's just been go, go, go for the last almost over a year now. Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:21

How many kids are over there?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:24

Yeah, there's a bunch of kids. I've got your kids. It's probably gonna be so involved.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:29

Well, when are you guys planning on having your wedding? You said next year.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:33

She would love to have it like August next year. So just like a couple months after you guys. Um but yeah, who knows? We have played with the idea of like going in and actually just like getting legally married just beforehand, just doing that, and then still having a wedding later on. Get the insurance going. Not literally, yeah. Like we just so we get all the benefits and stuff, and just get that stuff out of the way, because at that at the end of the day, we're still gonna have to do that at some point, like go and do the all the paperwork and all that stuff. So we just kind of wanted to do that. I don't know if we're actually gonna do that or not. We just talked about it, but but yeah. You can also move this inside if this is too loud.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:12

Oh, that's fine. I don't know. Unless can I think this can cut out like that. Let's get it. I'm pretty sure. I don't know. I haven't played around with it too much.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:19

I'm sure it'll be alright. Yeah, I think we're actually gonna do the same thing. Like, because you can't like technically get married in Ireland, so you'd have to like get married here, just do the ceremony there. Yeah. But I think what we might do is if we lock down like June whatever 10th of this year, we might go in like this year on June 10th. Legally married a year in advance that way, because it's like the same anniversary, you know what I mean? Rather and I were talking about the same exact thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:45

So we'll probably end up doing that just to keep it easy. But yeah. And it seems super easy. I looked it up, all you have to do is like just fill out an application that's set a time to go in. To get married? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Oh yeah, you fill out like one form. Yeah. And then you go. Yeah, you go to the county auditor's office and file it, and then like three days later. They give you the license, is that what it's called? Something like that. And I think once you once you file it, I think they actually like it's like to a couple weeks, maybe until like I if I remember correctly, I could be totally wrong in thinking this. There's like a contestion period where it's like basically like your last chance. Are you sure? Are you sure? I don't know. I could be wrong. I thought there was some like waiting for some waiting period. I thought there was like some waiting period, but maybe I could be totally wrong.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:41

Nick, this chair's destroyed now. Oh, dude, yeah, it's nasty. You owe me a new chair. I'll actually got these on Amazon for like a hundred bucks total. Anyone want to do Tropic Pouch?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:53

Oh let's talk about that 50 miler last week.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:57

Oh, dude, yeah, I forgot you guys didn't do that. You did it, yeah. You did it. Nick, you can you go ahead and start talking about it. I gotta pee too, but yeah, we do need to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:05

Talk about it from your perspective, Nick. Because you did the last 17 miles. Yeah, that was hard. I feel like uh there's nine laps, and you did the last three.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:15

I did the last three. So when he came in and we started running like when I first started running, like he was running at a very manageable pace that I was like, I could definitely keep this up for a long time. Yeah, and and like the first loop that you do is the easiest one. And I was like, dude, this is gonna be this is gonna be cake. Yeah. And so we did the first loop, came back. I didn't even like really refuel or anything because I felt like nothing. Like I literally felt nothing. So like I think I had like a cracker and maybe like some juice or something. Um and then we went back out to the next loop, which is a little bit longer, maybe a little bit more challenging, kind of, because there's a few, like, definitely like a few good little hikes. Yeah. Because that's the one where you almost like go up onto the ridge. Yeah, you're going up the ridge. You're basically like going out, going up, down, and around. Because so that's yeah, there was that part was definitely a little bit of a hike on that. That was that was run up that. Yeah, you couldn't run up it. And like Steven at that point was not like I mean, not saying he wasn't doing good, but I could tell like he was definitely slowing down. Yeah, and so that was where like for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:26

Tell me I'm slowing down.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:28

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:28

No, no, no, no. You weren't here. You gotta hear the context behind this.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

Steven was sucking.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:33

Dude, I was so slow. When Nick jumped in with me, I thought I was hurt pretty good. Yeah. I was at what, like 34 miles, 35 when you jumped in?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:43

Yeah, like 35, and then I think like I think it was like mile 42 or 43, or no, it was sooner, it was like 40, was when you were like kind of because remember I had my water pack and you kept drinking off of it. And I was carry all your water. Dude, it was thirsty and I didn't need it. Yeah, it was like kind of warm. It was kind of like it was like this. It was like cloudy but warm. But hot.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:05

Well, over there, dude. And it started, it started to, I don't know. It probably was just because I had been running all day, but I was getting super hot. It felt like my head was in a microwave. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:15

It was warm. It was definitely warm.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:18

Yeah, you're stopping my water in two minutes. I was like, I can have more.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:21

But anyways, we were running pretty slow at that point. Like we were running like yeah, we were running like 15 minutes. Yeah, we're in we're in what past mile 40 at this point. Yeah, you're yeah, you're like mile 40, 41. I'm probably mile like eight, eight or not. You're like speed up. Dude, I was feeling great. Like I was right on your heels. And I was feeling great. And like, dude, we got back, I think it would have been mile like 10 or 11. And I felt, dude, I felt amazing. After the second lap, I still felt amazing. I had like seven more to go. That last loop. And dude, even as like we were going back out, I was literally as we were running, I was FaceTiming Jordan. Like I was having a full-on conversation, felt amazing. I'm sure you loved that Steve. And dude, like, no, it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

No, it was fine. I feel amazing. It was great. Because he did it right when we were like coming out of the aid station. There was a bunch of people there, and it was already like noisy and stuff. We were just jogging next to each other. It wasn't a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:18

And literally, like mile 13 hit, and you sped up, and like were I was like looking at my watch and we were like clocking like 840s. Really? I just hit the second win. Oh, I just picked it up. He was my last last bit. And then like mile 13 hit, and that was when my body, like, it was weird. It like flipped the switch, and I just was dead. I was so tired. Beyond that was the furthest you've ever read. Beyond that, yeah. 13. That's the furthest I've ever gone. Yeah. So like beyond 13, like my body literally was like, what the heck is going on, dude? And I could just see, like, because like that last loop, like you're starting up on top of the hill and you're going down, and then you're going across the river and then back up. Yeah. So like I'm up at the top, and I can see Steven just getting farther and farther away. And like to a point I can't even see him anymore. Yeah, and I was like, I'm like, there's no, I'm not even gonna try. And do you left him?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:17

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I dude, I was ready to get it done. And like, for whatever reason, I think because my stomach kind of took a turn on me. Nick, I don't know if you already said this, but like right when Nick was going to drink everything, I pounded like four cups of Coca-Cola, which and they were probably like four or five ounce cups. So it was like 20 ounces just sitting in my gut, and I was like, dude, I'm gonna throw all this up right now. This Nick had been running with me for literally a minute and a half. 200 yards, and I go, Hold up, I'm gonna throw up, and I just puked all of it up, and I was like, Oh, I feel great now. And I felt perfectly fine. When he started doing that, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna be good, we'll be fine. Yeah, we're gonna be running slow. Yeah, so then so that happened, and after that, just because I threw up, I still kind of felt a little nauseous, so I wasn't able to eat as much as I had been throughout the run. So my energy levels started going down a little bit, but then towards the end, like going into the final loop, I was able to eat like some pretzels, and I got uh one of the BP and go gels down. So once all that, like all those carbs just kicked in, I think that's what gave me the little boost because out of nowhere, it just was like a flip of a switch, and I felt like I had energy. So I just picked it up and I was like, Nick, I'm just ready to get this done.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:26

I was like hoping he was gonna slow down because I'm like, because when I was keeping up with him at that pace, I'm like, dude, there's no way I can keep doing this. And then yeah, he just started getting farther and farther away. But that was fun. And then, like, what was nice for me is like when we were down by the river, and I went and dipped my head in the river on the river. Yeah, you were saying that I should have done that. That would have felt so much. And then I had my buff and I dunked it in there. The water was so cold, it felt nice. Yeah, there was this lady behind me that like actually like kind of helped, like, because she was moving pretty slow, but like she would kind of pick up speed here and there, and like I could feel it behind me. So I was like, okay, I like it. Because I didn't move it. Yeah, I would because she would stop for a little bit, like put my head between my knees, and then I like would hear her start coming behind me. I'm like, okay, I gotta go again, and then I'd do that again. Like, I did that like six or seven times.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:12

But that how that little climb out of there go for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:15

Because that was speed, that was so it wasn't super long, but it was like it's straight up. That was like I remember that being it's like like mentally, yeah, because I remember it being mentally hard to know where you switchbacks, yeah. And they're just like straight up.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:29

I kind of got a little sketched out because I'm like, dude, like I'm like, I feel like I'm gonna pass out right now, and there's a straight cliff right here, and I'm gonna fall out. Yeah, but it was cool. I mean, honestly, like that was the first time I feel like ever in my life that I've like been pushed to that point of like physical exhaustion. Like usually, like, you know, when I've been pushed to that point of physical exhaustion, it's been like, you know, you're doing sprints and stuff, so you recover a little bit faster, right? So it's like you run 100-meter sprint, yeah, you're dead tired. But it takes you about two minutes and now you feel good again. Dude, we're there. It's like I was going and I'd stop and I just I couldn't. It's a slow burn. Yeah, I couldn't get that like fire back where I'm like, okay, I feel good again. It's like I was telling Chris this yesterday when we were running. I was like, dude, like I literally run like 10 steps, and my heart rate would jump right back to like 185. And then it would go back down to like 160, and then I'd do it again, and I'd be flat. Like it's not like I'm going uphill or anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:28

That's probably not good.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:29

I'd do it again, dude. It would shoot right back up.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:32

That's where the feeling and hydration come into play there. Because once you start noticing that happening, it's like you're either behind on hydrating or fueling, or you're just not fully conditioned for that distance, or like it's definitely all three. Yeah, honestly, yeah, you weren't you weren't really eating. I don't know if I told you to on while we were running, but you definitely weren't eating enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

Well, you probably need a little bit more on the last one. You're like, because you gave me those, like something you gave me something, you're like, hey, you should you need to eat those, and I didn't. Because dude, I had no appetite. I couldn't eat. I was like, like yeah, but you I had a goo and I took like one little bite of it. I think that's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:13

And I couldn't, it was disgusting. I think that's right, yeah. Cause I do remember because I was starting to struggle a little bit, and then I forced myself to eat that gel and stuff, and I started feeling good. And I remember telling you, I was like, dude, you need to eat, because I knew we were coming up on the point where you're about to go past the furthest you've ever ran. And so I was like, I knew I knew that was kind of gonna happen for you. You were gonna get to like 14. Why did you tell me that? Yeah, you're about to be able to do that. Because, dude, you just you just gotta experience it, and then you you learned you learned from it. But yeah, yeah, I knew around like 1415 you were gonna be like, okay, this is a lot right now. Yeah, that was hard. But that was hard. But I'm glad you grinded it out and got it done, dude. It was it was super pretty. I at least I thought I liked that course. I thought it was fun, it was really cool. It was cool, and I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

It was kind of like it was kind of like a little comical at the end because I didn't sign up for the race, right? Yeah, dude, as I'm running towards the end, like the guy has the metal ready to go, and I'm like, dude, I didn't even sign up for the race. You should have just a loan paste. I took a hard, I took a hard left where like you could go back to the aid station because I'm like, dude, dude, you should have gone through the ball. You should have got it. You get it like ready to go. They're like taking pictures of like, dude, I didn't even sign up.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:27

Yeah. And then you, you, and my mom both were like kind of cramping up after they're mom do it. My mom did the 25k, so she was done earlier in the day. And I came in on one of my loops, and she was like leaning on one of my rubber maids that I had there with all my stuff in it that I needed, and her she was like in full body cramps, and I was like, Mom, I gotta get in here, and I kind of just eated it open. She was like yelling, rolling around because like everything was cramping up. Um, but yeah, afterwards, like, dude, I don't know if I'm gonna throw up or what you walked away for a second, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:01

I literally could not, like, my stomach hurt so bad, and then I ate like half of a pretzel and just instantly felt like I had to throw up. And I went behind, I don't remember whose truck was right there, but I went behind their truck and just sat like with my head between my legs. Yeah. Because it literally felt like I was gonna throw it. But what what was kind of sketching me out on the last like it was probably the last like mile was every time I would step, my name over there? No. Oh. Every time I would step, uh, my like Achilles would cramp. But I didn't know your Achilles could cramp. So it felt a tender. Like dude, I literally thought, like, right, it was right here. It was on my left leg, but it was right here. And every time I took a step, my toes would curl. And dude, like I thought, like I literally thought I was about, like, is my I was like, is my Achilles about to burst or something? Because every step my toes would curl up and then my left calf would create a little bit. If you want, you get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:05

You guys want to move it outside? I'm gonna inside, but I'm feeling you want to move it inside. I I'm getting hot. Are you? Yeah, kinda. Do you want to move it inside? Alright. Yeah, inside.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:18

I probably got about like, because we're going to my parents too. Yeah. I've probably got like 10 minutes. We're getting close.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:25

We're making a little a little pivot.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:27

We got 40 minutes into the inside.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:30

Should we go parents too?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:31

Should we go upstairs or I got your hat? Oh, you do? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:37

Yeah. Get a quick little tour of Ian's house. It's a little mid-podcast break. Making our way upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:48

We finally got a vacuum there. That was a that was a big purchase. The first three weeks with no vacuum was brutal. Let's give this back. Oh, way cooler.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:04

Yeah, dude, I was super hot. We're gonna get hot. You think we all can fit in that? Yeah, we can I'm not gonna edit this out of the I'm just gonna leave it. Alright, we're back. Nick's equipment was cramping, I think. And my toes, my toes weren't growing up.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:26

Nick was in bad shape. Dude, that was a that was a grind. That was like definitely the hardest thing I've ever done by far. Everyone who runs a million miles a week is like, oh, that was easy. I was like, it definitely I was like, holy crap, I cannot believe that you guys ran 50 miles because I don't think anyone could have paid me money, nor would my body anybody do it. And go back and do that two more times.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:51

There's just no way. Yeah. Are you gonna run the full Leavenworth then now that you've done 17 miles?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:56

I definitely think my next one's a marathon.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:58

Yeah, because if you can do that, you can run a marathon.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:00

Do you think you would do the Leavenworth one in October, or would you try to find a different one? Dude, honestly, I thought trail running was way more fun than roadrunning. I I agree with that. I like trail running a lot more than road running.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:11

And it did feel like there was a ton of like, I mean, there was elevation at the end, but like most of it I felt like was relatively flat.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:17

So it seemed like pretty doable. I will say though, that was probably on the easier scale of like elevation gain for a trail run. There's if you sign up for any other ones, like kind of around where we are, there's always way more climbing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:34

Dude, the mountain dam one says elevation loss.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:39

It drops all the way down the straight out.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:42

I love that. I've never seen that, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:43

Elevation loss. Dude, I suppose a gain. Like I did the Cascade Express half marathon last year, and that starts at Hayek, like the snow quality tunnel, and then it just drops down the whole time. Yeah, it was a net loss. There was no gain in it. That's kind of nice, actually. Yeah. Yeah, wait. So you got third in that race though? I ended up getting third. Is that like your best finish? That is, actually, out of like any of the ultras I've done. Yeah. Which, like, I was happy with it and excited about it, but at the end of the day, there was only like 50 people that did it, so it's not that amazing. Um but I'll take it. That's a fast fast 50 miles though. Yeah. How? What was your time? Nine hours and 20 minutes. And what was the first place? Eight hours and 25 minutes. Oh crazy. It was she's female. Yeah, she she crushed it. But but I had no idea where I was in the race in terms of like what placing I was. Yeah. And that one dude, Jake, that was running with us, turns out he was the second place. And me and him, we were kind of going back and forth for a while on that last loop. And then I if I had known that me and him were second and third going back and forth, I would have pushed and tried to tried to do whatever I could to beat him in. But you can just blame me, say I was slowing you. No, no, that's the reason. But I had to wait for my patience. Because I caught him after I left you. Yeah. And then I went past him, and then he, because he probably knew, and so he sped up like a mile later and got right on my heels. And then I let him pass, and then he slowed down. I passed him again. But we were like chit-chatting the whole time. It was very friendly. Like we were talking to him when he was with us. Yeah. And he he was cool and everything. Um, but then it got to a point where he was just like riding on my heels, and it got to where we were about to do that last climb, and I just stepped out of the way and I was like, go ahead, dude. Like, I'm not gonna go balls out right now. I'm out of water. I don't want to like kill myself and end up cramping a mile away from the finish line. So I just I coasted in. I still kept him in my sight, but I was just cruising in, I was like looking at my watch. I knew I was gonna get a good time, which two weeks before I got 10 hours and like 15 minutes in a 50 miler. And so I was I was looking at my watch like two miles out from the finish, and I'm at like nine hours total. I'm like, okay, two weeks ago was an hour slower than where I'm at right now. So I was pretty happy with it. I just coasted in, and then he comes up to me at the end. He was like, Hey, good job, dude. All that cool. I I was happy with my time. Then like 30 minutes go by, and I scan the little QR code over by that 10 to like see the overall results. And he came in like two minutes ahead of me in second place, and I got third. I was like, Are you kidding me? If I knew I would have pushed way harder. Um, but it just goes the show, like always push all the way through to the end. If you really like want to be good and get good results and stuff, you can't let up at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:50

Felt like he was like, he was cruising, he was like a very consistent, like I just felt like he did not look like a runner, which was not look like a runner at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:59

Like a lot of the people that do those are that's what ultrarunning is like, dude. You you can't you can't ever underestimate someone just based off of what they look like because you never know, dude. Sometimes there's studs out there that have big beer bellies and they can just go smoke a hundred miler. Like did that girl just choose on her own the entire time. Like you never saw much like off the gate. Well, I mean, you know how the setup was, it was multiple loops, and so I had an idea that she was in first place just because she was I knew she was doing the 50 miler and she was just flying every loop. Um, but I didn't know like that's crazy. Yeah, she was just cruising, she she looked consistent the whole time. She didn't look like she ever really slowed down. If I were to guess her, like, what is that, eight hours and twenty five minutes? That's like a nine-minute pace the whole time. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:50

I can't run a nine-minute pace for two miles.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:53

Yeah, she was cruising. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:55

Yeah, that's insane. That was fun. That was a good time. Yeah, that you drank the Kool-Aid a little bit. Yeah, that was fun. I did I definitely do it again, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:03

Well, you sent me that one like a couple days ago. There's a new 50k or something. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:09

Yeah, it's just I could imagine it's gonna be like crazy elevation because it's in catch and like all those, it's like all huge hills. Yeah, start training.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:17

Just yeah, dude, all you gotta do is hit Mount Peak like at least three times a week, very minimum. Yeah. And then do five to ten miles a day.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:26

It's gonna sound like an excuse. So it's dude, it I feel like it'd be at least for me, because Monday through Friday, I'm I literally I don't I leave the house at 7 30, I don't get home till almost 5 30, 6 o'clock. And then, you know, that's why I try to go to the gym in the morning at five. And then so it's like that's where I'm like, it's hard to find time to do that. Because I do know, like, I do actually want to get up. I want to get like my next is like probably doing like a full marathon, and I know I have to run like four to five times a week. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out how do I squeeze that into my schedule. It's just gonna have to be sacrificing like when Casey goes to sleep, I'm gonna have to just go run for an hour, or like in the morning, maybe instead of going to the gym, just go for an hour, an hour run or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:10

Or even just like show up to the gym 10 minutes early and run a mile. Yeah. And then at the end of the gym before you leave, run another mile. Like you could squeeze in a mile or two here and there, or it goes like if you're going into the office, like pack your lunch, go run for 30 minutes at lunch, and then my dad has one of the walking treadmills I can put under my vest.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:30

Does that count? I walk four miles a day. Have you just been working more just to work more, or like has it just been busier?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:38

It's busy. Well, yeah, and I've been working, I have been working more to work more too. That's a long day, 7 30 to 4 30. Yeah, it's been like literally like every day. I've been I leave the house around 7 30, 7 45, and I don't get home till five to five thirty is usually when I'm getting home around. And then Casey goes to bed at seven. So it's like I want to spend that hour, you know, really only an hour with him.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:04

Um, and then by seven, dude, like I was just telling Chris this yesterday too. I was like, dude, like I can't work out in the afternoons anymore. I was like, I just lose so much motivation to move. That's why it's nice just doing it first thing when you wake up because you it's done. It sucks to wake up, but it's at least it's just done. You can go home, and now like I don't have to worry that I didn't move my body today.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:27

Yeah, isn't that crazy to think about though? Because honestly, three months ago, you would have been sitting here saying the complete opposite. Oh, complete opposite. And then now that you've forced yourself to start going to the 5 a.m. as as much as you can, it's just like once you start doing that consistently in the morning, it's like you don't want to ever change that. It's not bad. I mean, as long as you go, as long as you're getting to bed, like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:51

If I'm asleep by nine, if I'm asleep by nine, I'm getting seven and a half hours of sleep. Like, that's perfect. Yeah, which is perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:58

Yeah. But if I wake up before seven, my day's ruined. How's your sleep, but yeah, I sleep great. I sleep like I'm falling asleep about 10. Wake up about seven. About ten. Yeah, wake up about seven. Yeah, it's dude, it's that's the money. Yeah. Dude, come work out at 5 a.m. React. I go to Northwest. I go to the Northwest Fitness Zone now. Yeah. It just didn't make sense. Yeah. I literally was gone. I was like gone the last three weeks. It's like yeah, you travel so much. Yeah, it's like hard to pay that much money when you can't use it like consistently.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:30

So definitely if you're gonna go to a gym like that, like you have to like I feel like to make it worth it, you have to go at least three to five times a week. Yeah, otherwise it's just not it's just not worth it.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:39

Your money's worth. It's like Northwest Fitness Zone. I can go whenever I want and feel okay about it. Are they 24 hours there? Oh yeah, it's like what, like 30 bucks a month? Yeah, it's like 40, I think. 40 bucks a month. Yeah, that's not bad for what they have there. Like it's literally just machines. Well, in the assemble, I think I was spending like an extra 50 a month with how many elements I was like. Yeah. Their supply has been steady since I stopped going here. Their element revenue is plummeted. Never bring something to drink in the case. I literally get one every time. I'm like, dude, I told you I'm worthless in the morning. So I would like the night before I'd be like, I gotta bring a water bottle. We're gonna be like, you gotta bring a water bottle. Yeah, I would do that, or I'd like like put it in the fridge or like by the door, and then I would just forget it. Like every day I forget it.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:30

I did get it. I got an element the other day because I was after the on Wednesday after the max class, and my I my mouth was like bone dry. I was like, get any neat.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:39

Well, dude, and I think Kesha tempts you a little bit because that fridge keeps them like ice cold. You know what I mean? And like so you get so thirsty, and then there's just like an ice cold element right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:49

It's like I'm getting it. It is so pressure. Speaking of Kesha, I went to um she invited me to go to the home church, Nate's church this morning. Did you go? Yeah, I went. Yeah, nice. It was actually really, really good. Um, I don't know if you know him. His name's Rob. He was preaching. Um I forget, I don't know. I don't know. Um, but yeah, he did he did it really good, and it was just cool like seeing all the gym people go there pretty much. So it was cool to see all of that. Um it's right at Mountain View Middle School, but but yeah, you should. I mean, I know you're really connected in your church, but you should just like just to experience something different, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:29

I want to know next time he preaches, I want to go and watch because I listened to his last one, and um yeah, I mean it's definitely a different, like you know, every church is different, yeah. So like their you know, vibe and everything, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:41

So it's vastly different from Champion because Champion Center's borderline a mega church. Oh, it is it is like it's in the theater, like antith theater. Yeah, no, it's definitely a way, it's a way different vibe. I like both of them. Like I could see myself just going back and forth to them. What's like the main difference? Like the size, the size, absolutely, the size. Yeah, um I thought the sermon, is that what it's called? The sermon. Like sermon, you know. The service itself. I thought they were relatively similar, like a little bit of like Bible verses, and then just talked about like how it's applicable to life and just like bringing in metaphors and stuff, um, which I think Kevin does a really good job of. It almost feels like a motivational speech a lot of the times, and that's kind of what it felt like today. Yeah with the the guy, his name's Rob. Yeah, I think he does a good job with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:38

Yeah, like every I think you know, being in church, in my opinion, is the most important thing. Regardless of I think actually, no, I take that back. I think you have to be the church that like actually like really wants to like progress and move forward and like whatever way that means, that doesn't mean like more, it doesn't have to be more people, but I think like churches, I think where they fail is they stay stagnant and they don't, you know, again, like you kind of have to evolve, quote unquote, because you still have to keep the Bible as the center of the church, but like you know, technology, for example, like one way that you can really reach people nowadays is through technology and like through online and through resources and community and what and a sick drum kid. But yeah, no, I think there's there's I think it depends like ideally what you want out of church, like what's most important with church. Like, I feel like a smaller church like that, like relationship is probably gonna be one of the better things you're gonna get out of that. Where like a church like Champion Center, you have thousands of people, right? Like, you're not gonna you're not gonna get to know everyone there, right? A church that has 200, like you're not gonna get to know everyone like intimately, but you're gonna get to know them pretty well. You're gonna see the same faces very frequently.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:54

And I would say with Champion Center, though, every time I've gone there, I've taken something away from the message itself. Like he's always given he or she, whoever's doing it, uh given something to where like I can actually take and apply in my life, which is what I appreciate because I've dropped into other churches here and there throughout the past couple years where it's like I can't comprehend what they're talking about because it's all biblical, like reading strictly from the Bible, yeah, which is totally fine, but I'm just someone who like you know how I am. I don't have any real experience or background with this stuff. So it's just very confusing to me. And still a little uncomfortable, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:36

I think that's where that's where I feel like Champion Center does really well, is like, and I you hear criticism from both sides of the aisle on this because people say, like quote unquote mega churches, they don't talk about the Bible enough, and they talk about yourself and you know, self-promotion pretty much. And it's like, uh, not really though. Like, I think they use a the Bible and they apply it into life to where people can understand. Because you also have to think, too, like, when you're speaking to thousands and thousands of people at one time, like exactly what you just said, like you can't go so theological. Yeah. Because you'll lose or you'll lose people. They won't you have to you have to kind of dabble in both, in my opinion. As long as you're keeping the central message is the Bible in Jesus, you like I think you're okay in doing that. I think there are churches that do like self-promote too much, in my opinion. Like they talk about the self and how you should do what you want and you should feel how you should feel, and it's like, no, that's not the truth. Yeah, um, that's where I think Champion Center is a really good job of tying in like the Bible, but then also tying in how you can apply it to your life. And you know, I mean, Champion Center is a conduit to thousands of people and brought thousands of people to Jesus, which is like that's why I I almost don't like the term megachurch because it had nowadays it almost has like a negative connotation with it because people are like, well, why do churches have why do churches have the big screens and all this money and all these things? And it's like, yeah, I can see where you're coming from, but like how many people do you think Champion Center or another church like that? How many people do you think they brought to Jesus? Millions. I bet millions, honestly, over 30 or 40 years. Possibly. I bet it's been millions of people, right? So it's like, yeah, that's where I hear it all the time because they're like, well, I don't think mega churches should have all this money, and I don't think you know we should be seeing whatever the pastor is spending money on, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:34

It's like no, like which I I understand that like thought process, and I to some extent agree with those comments, but also people, if they're really saying that specifically about Champion Center and that location that you go to, they should look back to the build of where it was from 30, 40 years ago when Kevin started it. Like it started like bankrupt. It started like home church, like Nate's church, like that. Like just a small little group out of probably I don't know, out of a school or something, and just kept building and building and building and growing and growing and growing. And he did that, he built it from ground up.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:09

Yeah, and I don't think there's anything, you know, a church that has 50 people versus a church that has a thousand people, like as long as the message is the same, in my opinion, like that doesn't make one church better than the next. Like, yeah, that's also where like sometimes I think too, like, people think like mega churches, like the people that go there think they're better than every other church, and it's like that's not true. In my opinion, that's not true. It's like, no, I think as long as the words get spoken, people's lives are changed, like, regardless of how many people go to your church, like it doesn't matter at that point, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:50:41

So I honestly wouldn't even sit here and compare Champion Center to home church, honestly. But if you were to really ask me, the only difference was the size, size, yeah, size. But like in terms of how I felt and the message and things that I took away from it is very similar.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:57

Yeah, exactly. And that's what it should, in my opinion, that's that's what it should do, um, regardless of how many people are how many flashing lights and people you know singing and drumsets, I have drumsets, you know, like how many people they have jumping around in stage.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:14

Yeah, when I walk in the middle, how much free coffee. That's other oh, that is another thing. You have to pay for a coffee at Champions Center. They have free coffee at home church.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:22

Yeah, because people are ordering Americanos with like their special creens and stuff. Well, they could put out black coffee for free for the people. I'll mention a thing or two. Yeah, please bring it up. Once that happens, I'll come back. Hey, Steven was upset there was no coffee with you. Please bring it up the chain. There is coffee actually in the volunteer room. You just have to volunteer.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:43

Well, is that what you get when you're on security duty? I go, yeah, I get to go get coffee. Okay, speaking of security duty, has there ever been times where you actually had to be like security, like actually step it up? I know there's I know there's one that you probably don't want to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:58

I know there's at least one. I mean, we had one like a few weeks ago or like a month ago where a gal like, you know, she like passed out on the toilet and like I I called Jordan because I'm like, hey, I don't I don't know what to do. Like I need your help. Did you go in the girls? No, I did not. No, I I waited outside. So you just left her hanging? Well, no. The the gal who came, the gal who told us, the gal who told us actually, uh, I gotta edit this out because I'm actually I can't talk about it. We're not we're not allowed to. I'm actually like not I'm actually not supposed to. He signed an NBA. It actually is like something like that. Like, I'm actually not supposed to talk about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:39

We don't know. We don't have to be a lot of people. Alright, Ian, has there been anything that you've ever had to do?

SPEAKER_01 1:52:46

Like I passed out on that Rainaria like at a seizure. Oh, that's right. Dude, I forgot. I got so pissed. The 911 people, man, they do good things, but this lady was not good. Because we're like coming down, me and Zalen were, dude. No, so me and Zalen were coming down. We had just it was when we summoned, and uh we're like I said, coming down, and this older, he's probably like 60, Asian guy, passes us, and as he's like walking up, and we were like on the paved path at this point, like we were pretty close to paradise. And as he like passes us, I like look at him because he's like kind of stumbling, like, and he's like doesn't look right. And so I asked him, I was like, Are you alright? And he like didn't speak English, and he was just like, Oh, okay, okay, like whatever. Like, all right, whatever. Like, kept walking, and uh literally get like five more feet, and I hear like something like almost in the bushes turn around and he like collapsed like into the bushes, like, oh shit, like walk over, like you know, get him on a side, like give him some water, like do whatever. But I think he just like he was having like a seizure though. So I call 911 and uh she's like, Where are you at? You know, I think Zalen at this point was like running down to get like the Ranger because it wasn't we only had probably a quarter mile to the Paradise Ranger Station, and so the 9-1 operator is like, you know, I tell her what's going on, she's like, Where are you? And I was like, We're at Paradise, we're like a quarter mile up the I don't remember the name of the trail, but I told her the name of the trail. And she's like, she goes, she started like arguing with me. She was like, she's like, no, that's not where you're at. That's not a trail or whatever. And I go, Yeah, like this is where we're at. I was like, you go to paradise, it's like this trail. And she's like, she's like, sir, I need to know where you are. And I was like, I we're on this trail, we're a quarter mile up, right past paradise. You go this on this trail, go up. And she's like, no, that's and she was like, she was like, that that's not a trail. Like, I'm not gonna be able to get anyone out there if you don't tell me. I'm like, what what are you talking about? Like, I'm arguing. So, anyways, like maybe ten minutes later, like Zalen runs up, the ranger runs up, and I'm like, still on the phone with this lady, and I asked the ranger, I'm like, she needs an exact location, like, where are we? And the ranger's like quarter mile up, like this trail, the trail that I've been telling her. I was like, the the park rangers here telling me the same thing I'm telling you, and she just like didn't say anything. But I was like, lady, you're pissing me off. But yeah, honestly. That was crazy. Save some people. So what happened?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:11

Did you guys stay there with them?

SPEAKER_01 1:55:12

Like uh yeah, the EMTs got there. Yeah, EMTs got there.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:16

And then I one how did they get how did they get them down?

SPEAKER_01 1:55:18

Did they move a cheap fire? Yeah, they brought a stretcher up. Uh because like I said, it was on like the pavement part of the trail, you know. But and then one guy stopped that was like a doctor or something, so but yeah, there's the EMTs probably like one of the stretchers up, got them up. But like that was pretty crazy. That was like that was like the most first responder I've been. I've never had first responder.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:38

Oh, probably, honestly. I mean, like, have you ever had to be a first responder? Yeah, I'd be the worst. No, absolutely not. There's never been like a situation where someone's had like a medical emergency in front of you. Has anyone choked in front of you? No, nothing really something's gonna happen like in the next one.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:54

I know, sorry. Um I'm trying to think if I've ever had I've had a couple like outside of work. Um, I don't honestly I don't think so. I mean, other than like other than like maybe playing soccer, maybe there was like one or two where like someone like got hurt or something and oh like in like something injury. Yeah, yeah, nothing like crazy. I'm trying to no, I don't think so. I mean the only tearing your ACL.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:23

Tearing my ACL, yeah. Dude, I was right. So I remember when that happened because I was playing left back that game and you're playing center mid, and so I'm on the left side of the field, I'm looking directly in. It was a ball that came up, and you were going up for a header, and you come down and land, and I just saw the way you landed and the way your knee buckled, and you just instantly fell. And I knew right away, dude. I jogged right up to you. You and you were weird. You were laying there holding your leg like this, and I was like waving Alice to come on. I like I knew right away that you did. I knew I didn't know specifically your ACL, but I knew you did your knee.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:55

I knew I busted it. I knew it was something because like it was such a weird feeling because like it honestly didn't really hurt, it just was like it scared me because I felt like a huge pop. Yeah, and like I thought maybe like, did I break my leg or something? Like, did I break something? And then like when I went down, like my knee just felt like I couldn't, like what would it? It felt like someone was like pulling a band almost, and like I couldn't straighten my knee out. And then that was when I was like, Yeah, I just I definitely just tore my seal 100%.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:26

Because you landed like this, and like your leg just kind of like buckled, did that thing where it like wobbled back and forth, and you just got weak and just fell.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:35

Yeah, that's horrible. That was so annoying because it's like it's literally nothing different than I've ever done. It's like you jump, you jump up one one time and like must have landed weird. I don't know. Like, I didn't land weird, I just landed like I would normally land.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:49

You just landed all your weight on one foot, you didn't land both feet, it was all on your left, yeah, left or right, or right here. Yeah, yeah. So weird. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:58

Sometimes it just like happened. Just happened for no people saying, like, yeah, it's like the perfect storm happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:05

Something was pulled, something was like off. I don't know. Maybe it just didn't warm up long enough. It was like just it could have been anything.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:14

Uneven ground. I mean, we played on grass, like was it a little uneven ground? Probably, because at that point, or in the season, too, like our field was pretty torn up. Oh, there probably was a little divot. Oh, speaking speaking of first responder stories, so back this was a while ago. Um, I forget what age I was, but I was taking a dump downstairs. I feel like I've told you guys a story before, but I was taking a dump downstairs at my parents' house, and I hear like my mom sprinting downstairs, like slamming footsteps, and she comes storming to the bathroom door. Like I could just hear her stomping so loud. So I was already like caught off guard. And then, dude, she pounds on the door like three times, like boom, boom, boom. And I was sitting there like on my phone. I was like, I was kind of annoyed, honestly. And I was like, what? Like, set it all aggressive like that. And she pounds on the door like three more times again, like right after I responded. So I was like, what the fuck? And I opened the door, like I crack it open and look, and my mom's like full-on choking. She's like, and I just didn't even wipe or anything. I pulled my pants up and just hopped out there and did like three pumps of the Heimlich, and she like puked up a big it wasn't like full puke, but you know, she like spit it all back up, huge piece of chicken that she was eating. And dude, like I was like shaking, dude, because it just caught me off guard. I'm literally scrolling Instagram taking a dump, and my mom pounds on the door, and then after that, we like cleaned it up and stuff, and she just goes right back upstairs and goes back to work, like nothing happened. I was like, what the what just happened? That happened to my Do you have to change your shorts? Yeah, no, I just went back sat right back there.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:58

I can't remember what I did. That my grandpa at one thing, I was pretty young, and I remember like he was choking on something. My I remember my big like uncle had to give him the Heimlich.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:07

It's scary, dude. Choking is so scary.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:10

I always get scared like with Casey, like when he takes a little bit too big of a bite, especially when Jordan's gone, because I'm like, if he started choking, like I wouldn't really know what to do now. We have like the life back thing, but I don't even know, I don't even know how to use it. I should probably go over the case. I should probably learn. You should probably take like super simple.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:26

You should probably take like a kid's like first aid CPR class. Probably. Like I just did that. After we're done with this, I can show you. You gotta do the back thrusts. Yeah, yeah. I just did I just did the first aid CPR, I think I told you this. Uh yeah, we'll wrap it up here in a minute. But dude, yeah, so the partner I was with was this huge guy, and you have to like practice the Heimlich. And I was like, fucking huge, dude. I'm like barely reaching over. He's like, looked like he was in like a biker gang. Well, yeah, you probably should take a little class because that's probably you don't want to like be in a position where you should know that or like need to know that and then not know it. Like I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:02

Well, that's why, yeah, like I said, like I don't get scared about me choking, I get scared about him choking because that dude will like just pound food. And I'm like, if he just like started choking, I really wouldn't know what to do.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:11

Well, we'll we'll teach you up on some child CPR and thank you. If if you're if Casey were to choke, we'll show you what to do. Yeah, we'll figure out. But sounds like you gotta get going. Yeah. So we'll wrap it up. I feel like we've done like two hours now, so yeah. All right, thanks for coming on, guys. Thanks for having us. Thanks. Like and subscribe.