Summer Adventures Part One

I haven't really blogged lately.

I've been having a great summer so far. In fact, the other day I realized that it was almost July and I kind of got a little bit of anxiety realizing that the summer is going really fast and that it will be over before I know it! Luckily I've been doing some fun things!

Annalie and I went to the redwood forest. Luckily I wrote about that trip. I would have forgotten a lot about that. I finally am able to add pictures so here's a few.

I went camping with Lynsie, Annalie, Brittni, and her dogs in Southern Utah the last weekend of April. We went to Sand Hallow Reservoir and had a blast. We tried out my huge new tent, spent some quality time in the sun, and played in the water. I was still in the throws of my stress fracture, and my right leg started swelling quite a bit during the trip. That was unfortunate. But we had fun. We had camp fires, we played some games, and had a good time being friends again. We went in my baby little car and somehow we fit everything in the car. It was quite the Tetris game, but we did it. I am so glad Lynsie and Brittni came. I love them so so much.

I went fishing with my brother and brother in law on memorial day. We woke up at 5:30 and were out on the water from 6 until 2 or so. We fished at a park in Highland, at Vivian park at the handicapped park, and then at Deer Creek. They caught two fish at Vivian park and nothing else. But I had fun reading and floating on my boat for a while. I sure love being in the sun.

I had 10 days off at the end of May. I was originally planning on attending a wedding that week, but it was postponed, so I had a bunch of time off. I ended up going to Bryce Canyon National Park with my mom and my dad. We camped for two nights, spent time by the fire, in the little lake on my boat, and trying to warm up in our tent because it got pretty cold. My dad ran in a race. It was a fun weekend. The campsite we were at was perfect. Hardly any people, forest, by a lake, and peaceful. I would definitely go back again.

My latest adventure was to New York to visit my mom's side of the family. I'll write about that one in more detail. I was excited to go on an airplane somewhere. I went with my sister and her little son to meet up with my mom. Super fun times.

I can't believe that June is over in a few days. I still have a few things left on my summer to do list and I am really excited about doing them. I just hope summer lasts long enough to do them all!

adventure

Annalie and I, by some luck, were able to fix our schedules to get four days off in a row at the same time. We decided we needed to get the heck out of Utah and hit the road. So we went to the redwood forest!

We researched it all for a while and planned to go halfway every day. It sounded better on paper than in real life. I'm not sure we thought about just how much driving we would have to do. But we did it anyway.

We took my car pretty little car and I drove the entire time. I love my car and like driving it. Plus, Annalie is a scary driver. 

We left our house around ten or so and drove on through the boring nothingness that is Nevada. Seriously boring. Actually, the moment we hit the Oregon state line, the outdoors were a lot more beautiful and nice to look at. 

Oregon was so pretty and nice. The only two things I didn't like were the slow speed limits (max was never above 55) and how you can't pump your own gas. Weirded me out. Other than that, I think I want to live there some day. The first two interactions we had with strangers from Lakeview, Oregon were very pleasant. A lady was welcoming to us at her nursing home turned hotel (true story) and a couple people at the local Safeway let us use their Safeway card to get hefty discounts. We walked around the town for a while and decided to buy groceries for dinner so we could eat our veggies. We brought it to the hotel and microwaved it. It was yummy.

We woke up at 5:30 and got ready, ate the continental breakfast, and tried to be on the road as close to 6 as possible. Another long day of driving was in store for us. But the drive was gorgeous and we loved it. We made it to the forest around 2 or so. I was so sick of driving and needed to get out of the car, so we drove down a little road, got out, and did an easy 3 mile hike. 

Now, for those that haven't heard, about four weeks ago or so I started getting severe pain in my right leg after running. It kept getting worse and I recently found out that it's a stress fracture. So, I did this hike on a broken leg. It was too pretty to care. 

We got a little turned around when we came out of the trail not back at the parking lot we were parked at. We got turned around and I was totally going to ask someone which way was north but then we remembered that I had a compass on my phone! Wahoo! So I used that nifty gadget and we walked back to the car, single file line, along the road. 

We went for another little walk up a hill to look at the beach trail. So pretty. 

We drove through a tree! It's some privately owned place. We paid $5 to go through and take pics. The attendant at the pay station was funny. She was an old lady who obviously loved to talk and didn't get a lot of people to talk to. She told us a story of how a whale got caught in the river last year and they never did get her out. I love talking to old people. Call it a gift. 

We deciding to really find the ocean and walked along the shore. We got brave enough to dip our feet in. We kept inching closer to the water until a large wave creeped up on us and got us all wet. It was freezing cold!! But so peaceful and lovely. I love the waves and the smell and the subtle humidity in the air. We could have stayed forever were it not for the cold. 

We checked into a hotel and then I got cranky and hungry so I made Annalie go to dinner with me. We went to a nicer place and ordered almond crusted halibut with raspberry sauce. It was incredible! So amazing. We left satisfied and went to sleep that night after watching 19 kids and counting on tv.

We woke up the next morning and talked about the day. We felt like we did everything we could in the redwood forest while I had a broken leg. We wanted to go to crater lake but then discovered it was snow covered and would require chains and 4 wheel drive. So we googled a bunch of stuff and decided to go to Lava Beds National Memorial. It had a bunch of caves and was only a half hour out of the way of going home.

So I drove. And drove. And drove. We got there about 3:30 and borrowed flashlights from the ranger stations and went into two caves. The first was lit and easy. The second, called Valentine Cave, was also "easy" but had no light and got pretty low in some places. My flashlight ran out of batteries so I used my phone's flash for light. It worked out pretty great. 

I ended up really hurting my leg. The unevenness of the ground and the darkness and almost crawling we had to do was really not good for my leg. We turned back and made it out with a minute to spare before we had to turn our flashlights back in. I popped some ibuprofen.

There were so many other caves to go into but without light it would be impossible so we drove back to Lakeview for the night. 

We ate at a Mexican Place with the spiciest salsa I've ever had. It was good. I iced my leg and went to sleep.

In the morning we ate and packed and headed on the road again, this time to home. The drive was long and boring as we headed into Nevada yet again. We ended up playing cards for a while. (I'm a great knee driver.) We stopped in Wendover for lunch/dinner and made it home by 6. I was exhausted and worked the next two days. 

It was a fun trip. We spent most of it in Oregon, most of it in the car, and but mostly had fun. 

We hardly fought, which is good, and talked about everything. We love my Sirius radio. Most heard song was "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and also "Carry On" by Fun.. 

I'm glad we went even though it was too fast and was way too much driving. It was great to just leave for a while, not think about work or anything, eat good food, and get out of utah. I hope to go on a bunch of trips this summer. I've got a lot of plans!


p.s. I've been trying to add photos to this post for days but it's not working.... maybe later!

Dear Eligible Males,

Dear Eligible Males,

I'm here to talk to you about my roommate. You should marry her. Here are some reasons why.

She's a nurse. That's right! She's finished her four year degree. She has a full time, well paid position at a hospital that she loves. Benefits, YES! Health, dental, 401K. She's got that all taken care of. She's well off in the money department. She's got a pretty new car too, fellas. Marry her, and all this can be yours too.

Remember that four year degree? That means she's smart. But not just any degree. She's a Registered Nurse. She has a license to give drugs and stab people with needles. She went through the torture of nursing school and testing and she came out victorious. She's intelligent, can carry on a real conversation, and has a brain. All things lacking in most unmarried gals. 

Oh, and did I mention that she's trilingual?? Yeah, yeah, you went on a mission and learned Spanish? She can freaking speak English, Ukrainian, and Russian. 

She's pretty amazing when it comes to church things too. She's had 5 callings at once before. She's served a real mission, she is knowledgable in the scriptures and gospel, and actually likes going to church. She'll make intelligent comments in Sunday School. 

She's talented, oh man, is she talented! She plays the piano, mostly self taught, and can sing like an angel. She can cook amazingly difficult recipes and makes frozen yogurt. She MAKES it. She crochets, bead-works, and quilts. She was an interior design major for a while, so she's got an eye for making things beautiful.

She's funny. She's got an amazing laugh, she likes cheesy movies, her favorite color is purple, and she listens to mostly good music.  She even likes video games. The whole package, fellas.

She's beautiful too. She's addicted to chap stick, so you know she's got some great kissing lips!

Downside: she doesn't like chocolate or cheese. She's not into ice cream all that much either. But give her a frozen yogurt or something fruit flavored, and she's yours.

Seriously, dudes. How could you not be drooling right now?? 

So, get your acts together. She's the real deal.

Bittersweet and Big

I am so excited to announce that I have accepted a position at Riverton Hospital on the Med/Surg unit. I probably literally danced around a whole bunch the day I found out. I'm so excited to continue in my career and learn more of what being a nurse is about.

I have loved my job at Heritage. Really and truly, most days I would come home and I would think about my patients and really care about my job. At first my job was so stressful and I would come home and just dissolve into tears, wondering if it was worth it. Then it became worth it once I knew what to do and how to do most things.

We had a nursing class reunion a few months after I started my job and I was able to talk with a bunch of people in my class about our jobs. I was THE ONLY ONE who could honestly say that I loved my job. I was so nervous about telling people I worked at a Care Center while they all worked at fancy hospitals. But guess what? I actually loved what I did. I felt so lucky.

Of course I didn't love every day. Some days were too stressful to remember and others were boring. There are things I wish I didn't have to worry about (like water heaters, supply deliveries, putting admits in the computer, answering phones, etc.) but I have learned to figure things out very quickly.

I always thought it would be the end of the world to work at a care center when I was in nursing school. But now I couldn't imagine a better start for my career. I have learned so much, used almost every single skill I've ever learned in school, and I've learned to rely on my team, my knowledge, and really care for patients. I've also learned to handle stress better than I ever have in my life.

What I'll miss most of all are my co-workers. I had the best managers, the most amazing CNAs, and some of the funnest conversations ever. I hope we'll all see each other here and there and I hope we'll work together one day. I met the best people ever. Like LaChelle, Sarah, Rebecca, Valeriia, Andrea, Chad, Jennifer, Greg, Nate, Aubrey, Brandy, Mandy, Lacey, Q, Val, Amy, and so many more that I know I'm forgetting. Amazing people. I can only hope that my new co-workers are half as awesome as these ones were.

I'm sad to leave. But I'm happy also. It's bringing a lot of thoughts and emotions. But all in all, I'm excited for my life. This is a huge change. Huge.

:D And I'm happy.

 

Grand Canyon

Our trip to NYC was suddenly cancelled. I started the week off thinking about flying to NYC, going to the natural history museum, and central park. I did laundry, got everything ready, (all without a car, mind you), and even packed. (I had to pack 2 days before because of work.) 

Then, I woke up on Wednesday morning for work and found out that our flight was canceled. I mean, I guess in hindsight, it was good that we couldn't go because of all the power outages and subways being down. But it would have been better if the hurricane didn't happen at all. For more than just me. 

So, I was at work that day, texting Annalie to cancel our hotel and get our refund for our plane tickets. And I was sad. 

The next day at work, it dawned on me that I still had 5 days off and we could go somewhere. Annalie and I texted back and forth, I asked almost every one of my co-workers where I should go for the weekend, and by the end of my shift we figured out that we would go to the Grand Canyon, stopping in Cedar City on the way, making a detour to Snowflake to see Cyann, and then take an airplane tour of the canyon. It was set.

My mom drove me back to my house (again, no car) and I unpacked my hurricane weather clothes and re packed my Arizona clothes.

I enjoyed my food so much I
took a picture of the finished bowl.

We started off for Arizona on Friday morning. We drove down to Cedar and picked up a few things at Walmart that I had forgotten. We ate some yummy Thai food at Sweet Basil, and tried to see Brittni, but she was locked in the meeting from hell. So we ventured on our way.

Me: Feeling VERY sick. 

I started feeling "car sick" while we were in the car in Cedar. It should have dawned on me that it wasn't car sickness because we weren't even driving when I first felt it. We drove for a few hours, deciding to stop in Page, AZ. We got our hotel room, and I ended up trying to make myself puke for a while. I felt terrible. So sick.

Annalie decided to get me some Pepto while I went into the bathroom and ended up puking a few times. I felt a billion times better after that. But then waves of nausea hit again, and within another hour I puked a couple more times. I fell asleep listening to Annalie watch weird shows on TV. Then woke up after she had fallen asleep and puked again. After that, I was able to sleep. My stomach wasn't the best, but I knew I wouldn't puke again.

I woke up that morning, stopped at a store so I could buy a bunch of drugs and some Sprite, and we headed towards Snowflake.

Drugs to the rescue!

We got there and had to wait for a while for Cyann and Justin to come out of the temple. We got to sit around the temple for a while. Annalie forgot her recommend and I felt like crap, so we sat outside and talked about stuff for a while.

When Cyann and Justin came out, we were so excited to see them! It made all of the puking, cancelled trips, and horrible October worth it. I missed them so much! I'm so glad we can still be super best friends even though we never see each other and we hardly talk. We went over to their grandparent's house where Lily and Chloe were waiting. Lily was SO excited to see us! She kept saying, "I miss you so much!" and "This was a BIG surprise!" I just love them all so much. Chloe is so big and smiley. I can't believe it. Cy and Justin are just the same awesome people as they always are. They try to talk us into moving to Gallup and we try to talk them into moving to SLC.

We finally had to leave them. It was pitch black outside and we had to drive to the Grand Canyon.

We made it to the Grand Canyon around 10 pm. We got a hotel room. It was nice! And we went to sleep.

Sunday morning we got up for our plane ride. We got to the airport, and after not knowing where to go for a while, we figured it out. The airport had so many Koreans there visiting! I loved being able to eavesdrop. However, I would appreciate it in the future if they would talk about more exciting things. Ha.

Our plane was really small. It sat 10 people (including the pilot). We flew over the Canyon for about 45 minutes. The view was spectacular and so amazing. I loved it. We got to listen to a narration and some weird sound track during the ride. Afterwards I came to find out that Annalie and I had both been thinking about how we would have to save everyone if our plane crashed. We came up with a whole much of elaborate scenarios in our head where we would be heroes and use our lifesaving skills. Haha. We're nerds.

We headed to the canyon rim after that. We got out and looked over the edges. Annalie got scared being so close to the end. I love to imagine what it would be like to fall over the edges. Ha. We then walked along the rim trail. It was a nice day. Cool breeze, but warm sun. We ended up walking a little over 5 miles. We stopped at a few overlooks and took  few pictures.

We got hungry, found a place to eat, and then returned saw the IMAX movie about the grand canyon. That was pretty good. Really neat to see the bottom of the canyon. I REALLY want to go river rafting now. 

Then, we were losers, and spent the rest of the night in our hotel room sleeping. It was amazing. Ha.

Monday morning we packed up, ate, and started the drive home. We stopped at the Canyon again to see a few views, stopped in Page to use the bathrooms at the Glen Canyon dam visitor's center, and then made it to Cedar City to finally see Brittni. 

We found her and walked around down town Cedar talking about life. I miss that girl so much.

We drove up north, stopped at my parent's, and then made it home.

It was a good trip. Minus the throwing up and all of the driving we had to do. It was nice to have time off and just leave the state. And I was able to see my best friends. 

All in all, it was really good. 

Oh, and Annalie has some WEIRD music on her iPod. 

I moved.

In August I moved. Well, technically I moved a couple times. 

I moved from Saratoga, the house I was house sitting, to my apartment back in Provo. 

No offense to Provo, wait, YES offense to Provo: YOU SUCK. 

It was all welcoming and nice at first and I even bought into the wonder of P-Town. 

But then, like a horror movie, things changed and I started to see it's true colors. Now, I can't blame Provo for everything sucky that went on during that year, but it sure helps. I was super inactive in church. I went to church a grand total of 3 times during the first couple months of the year. And from May onward, I only went to church a couple times, but not at my correct ward. Part of the blame goes to my job, which likes to have me pass out pills and take care of people on Sunday. I like to think of it as "Healing on the Sabbath." But things got busy and I don't like Provo and so something had to change.

So I took the Mindy of the Provo. And yes, the Provo had been out of the Mindy for a long time.

I moved to West Jordan, up by Jordan Landing. I live with Annalie, my bestest buddy from school, and it's been a really good time so far!

New furniture makes me happy.

Beautiful bed.

My ward is really good. Not falsely amazing, like Provo was at first, but deep down this is a good ward. Now, (don't judge), but I've only been to this ward 3 times since I moved in. But it's definitely not my fault. It's work and General Conference and the Temple dedication's fault. I'm really happy to be at church and in a ward that doesn't creep me out. I spoke in church on the 21st. I have a calling. I go to institute willingly. I've even been to a few activities. And it's been good.

Our townhouse is great. I love it. I have a pretty pretty bed and I like living here. 

Utah County on the left, Salt Lake County on the right.
It was a clear choice. God approves.

Yellowstone

I was able to finally get more than two days off in a row.
I actually managed to get four off! So Annalie and I went on an adventure to Yellowstone.
I admit I was most excited to just drive my car and find out how the gas mileage did on just highway. (32 mpgs.) in Yellowstone, just going 45 and using cruise control I got 39 mpg! Rock on!
Anyway....
I picked Annalie up from her house after she had worked the night shift for 12 hours. I was so proud. She lasted until about 2pm and even then only slept for an hour and was recharged for the day. The drive was great. It seriously felt like it was just a nice afternoon drive and we made it up there by 3. We started exploring Yellowstone right off and went to a few geyser spots and then saw old faithful.
The best part of old faithful was the visitor's center. We went around and we bored until we found the kid's section. We learned a lot from this little diseased looking girl. The next best part was watching all the people wait for old faithful to erupt. Chinese people taking pictures, people asking dumb questions. And this one guy with a disposable camera that kept taking the crappiest pictures of the geyser. Entertainment at its finest!

That first night we went back to West Yellowstone and ate at a restaurant where we both ordered Bison to eat. We were so sick of the bison crossing the road and causing too many tourists to be idiots, we thought it would be great to eat one to show them who was boss. Delish!
We slept in a hotel that night. I slept great, Annalie was up at 2 and never fell back asleep.
We paced up in the morning and headed up to mammoth to reserve a campsite for the night. Lots of bison crossings later we made it and found a nice spot and put up our tent. We then decided to go on some hikes. One hike we went on had some crazy warning signs about bears that kind of freaked us out. We hiked in a little bit then got too freaked out and turned around. Haha.
We then drove around to the geysers again, ate lunch at a pretty riverside place, and continued on the "loop." Annalie fell asleep almost instantly every time we were in the car. Haha. But I woke her up when we got to cool places. Like West thumb, where we saw a bear! And Yellowstone lake. And then stopped at the mud volcano and did that little hike. Tired and worn out, we drove back to our campsite and made dinner.
We went to sleep fearing bears. I brought this book called "death in Yellowstone" about how people have died there. The chapter on bear attacks was terrifying. I thought it would be fun to read in the tent for scary stories but no! I was too scared. I didnt sleep much that night.
We ate, packed up, and started on our way up to Tower. I think this part was my favorite part of Yellowstone. Gorgeous. And hardly any people. We saw this beautiful waterfall. I kept asking Annalie what she would do if I fell of of the cliff. Basically she would leave me to die.
We did a couple more hikes. One to the "lost lake" that was so quiet and pretty. Again, scared of bears we returned right afterwards. And one to a waterfall. Then we went back on our way to see the grand canyon of Yellowstone. That was pretty and wow, I didn't pretend to fall off that cliff. Crazy.


We drove down to the Teton National park. We decided to camp there for the night. I'm so glad we did. It was breath taking. So gorgeous. And I was so happy to get out of the car and stop driving for the day. We set up camp and went down to the lake side and had some good talks about how amazing nature is and God is to create it all and how we are so glad to understand that and our place in the world. Deep conversations.
We ate a ton of food and then cleaned up in a hurry before it started pouring rain. That made me less scared of bears, luckily enough. We spent the evening in our tent, texting Cyann and reading about more deaths by lightning and falling off of cliffs. Annalie made a bracelet. And we fell asleep.
The next day we explored the Teton park a little bit more and stopped in Jackson Hole for lunch before setting out for our drive in the middle of nowhere Wyoming back home. It was a boring drive. But Annalie got some good sleep in and I jammed out to my iPod tunes.
We made it home. I was so tired.
It was a great trip. I miss it up there already. It was just a great trip to remember all the beauty in the world and that there is a world outside of work.
Can't wait to go back again!

My trip!

I took some time off work and went to New Mexico to have a best friend reunion and to meet a new little baby! It was lots of fun.

She's such a focused driver.

Annalie and I drove down together in a nice car that we rented. We didn't want to risk dying by taking our cars.

I'm so glad my phone takes amazing pictures. This wasn't even edited. Such a pretty sky. We drove down the backside of Utah. Really pretty sometimes, really boring some other times.

We stopped at the Monticello temple to walk around it. Now Annalie's been to every temple in Utah.

Pretty Windows.

We drove through Colorado. For about an hour.

An awesome picture taken by Annalie in Shiprock, NM. Random bridge. We had a good car ride down.

I was SO excited to see Lily again! I miss that girl. She's so cute. And energetic. She forgot my name a couple times, but I'll forgive her. I can't believe she's five now!

This is the little tiny Chloe. She is just perfect! New baby smell, tiny fingers, cute little feet, goes cross eyed, hardly makes a peep unless she's hungry. Just perfect.

I think Lily likes having a baby around. It might take a while to get used to it. I tried to explain what being an older sister means. It means you can tell her what to do.

She's so precious! I could have held her all day long.

 Cy, Chloe, and Lily. Words can't express how glad I was to see Cy. I MISS HER SO MUCH. It just felt so NORMAL to be at her house again. I can't explain it. Sometimes you just get lucky enough to have friends that, no matter how long you've been apart from each other, you can pick up right where you left off and not feel any different. That's how it was. Just so normal. Except now she had a different house and a little baby. But it was just so normal. I love her.

 Justin and Cyann being awesome parents. They really are great. And just hilarious. I forgot how hilarious Justin is sometimes. Cyann and I also rediscovered how fun it is to gang up on Annalie and tease her. (Sorry Annalie!)

 Lily took a couple naps on me. :)

Annalie didn't eat more than ten in the first sitting.

 Cy's cookies!! So good.

 Annalie and the little baby. She probably didn't know that I took this picture. Good thing she always looks amazing.

 Chloe even got a new name while we were down there. It sounds so sophisticated. Cha-lo-eh Ann-ah-bel-ah Ss-ha. We had a fun week. We watched tv, played with the little ones, took a tour of Gallup, learned about the Navajo nation, talked a lot about our nursing jobs, met Cy's new friends, had a private showing of "The Vow" at the local movie theater (Lily doesn't call it a futer anymore.... growing up *sniff*), bought Navajo jewelry, made great food, played games (I won!!), and just had a ton of fun just talking.
We had to leave on Monday morning because I had to go back to work on Tuesday. Stupid work.

His thumb is out and everything!

 On the way down we saw 11 hitch hikers. On the way up we saw 13!! I took some creepy stalker photos of these two.

Arizona

 We decided to stop at the four corners on the way home. I liked to snap photos of the state signs.

Colorado

New Mexico

Annalie felt a sort of zen being in four places at once.

 The four corners was awesome!! Good thing we were basically the only people there. We were (I was) running around like a crazy lunatic, so excited to be in four states at once! I even ran from Utah to Arizona to New Mexico then to Colorado and back four times in a row! Beat that, Dad!!

Going Korean for this one.

 We found some cheaper and pretty jewelry to buy at the four corners. Annalie bought some pretty earrings.

 These arrowheads are what I would have bought my family as souvenirs if I felt like they would like them or wear them. So, just look at the pictures instead and pretend that I bought them for you.

Utah

 It was snowy in Utah when we got back to our neck of the woods.

You can't tell, but we hit 13,000 miles in the car. Yay us!
Such a fun trip. I hope I can go back to visit soon! I already miss them all so so much!
Thank Cyann and Justin for letting us crash at your house and play! You guys are the best! Love you!