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. 

October

The month of October has been one of the most busy and stressful months of my life in a long long time.
And it's still going strong with the stress.

Swarley. My new friend.

I bought a new computer. It's amazing and it has been a great purchase. It's helped me rediscover the amazingness of the internet. I've been able to blog again, look at pictures I've taken over the last year, and pay my bills on time. So, pretty much a priceless purchase.

I got in a car accident on October 5th. i was with my friend Ashley Baugh from when I worked at the pool. We decided to finally hang out since it had been like 8 months. And we went to a haunted house. That was actually quite fun, more fun than I thought I would have there.
Afterwards, I was driving in Salt Lake trying to figure out how to get on the freeway, when I was turning left and realized, too late, that I didn't have a green arrow or the right of way and there were 3 lanes of traffic headed straight towards me.
I heard honking, and the next thing I knew, someone had it the passenger side of my car. The first thing I thought was "Not my pretty new car!" 
The next thing I knew, I was staring out of my windshield, the windshield wipers were all on, and Ashley was sitting there, not saying anything, with the airbags inflated around her.
I asked over and over if she was okay. She didn't answer at first, probably shock. We got out of the car and figured out that we were okay. The other car was okay too. No injuries. 
The rest of the night is a blur. It was awkward not knowing what to do or who to talk to or what to do with my car. I hated standing there, knowing it was my fault, and trying to figure it all out. Ashley called her family, and they all came to help. The nicest people on the planet. Seriously.
I finally called my mom back after telling her it happened and hanging up a minute later. She handed the phone to my dad and he talked me through what I'll need to do with my car. 

During the surgery. Poor thing.

That's when I started to cry. I don't really know why. Adrenaline wearing off, gratitude that my dad was being so nice, thankful that it wasn't too bad, and annoyance at the police officers for being so unhelpful.
So that was that night. 
My poor car had been sick and in the hospital for almost 32 days. I guess it was close to being called a total loss, but by a miracle, everything was fixable and my car looks as good as new. It was amazing getting my car back. I missed her.
It really was terrible getting in a car accident. I don't recommend it. I feel stupid, most of all, for the momentary lapse of brain function that must have happened to have this happen in the first place. I am a save driver. I keep thinking that Dan would probably be kicking himself because he taught me better. Mr. Safe-driver. I hope he never finds out this happened.
But I'm so grateful that if I HAD to get in an accident, it happened like it did. No one was hurt. There was no screaming, yelling, or crying (until I cried). I got a ticket, but that's paid off. My car was repaired. And my insurance company has been really great with everything. 

Another thing. You know how I don't love my job. Well, I don't hate it. I'm just sick of it and need a change. Well, the count for job applications is up in the 30's and I finally got a call on a job and a job interview at Primary Children's Medical Center in the OR.
It was such a dream come true. They called on a Thursday, the interview was set up on Monday, and on Tuesday I was nervously waiting in the nurse's lounge for my interview.
I think it went well. I think back on it and replay it in my head and there's not much I would change. I think I did a good job selling myself and letting him know what I was really like and that I would be a good fit. But then I waited a week (that's what they said to do) and I called to bug them a few times, and I still haven't heard anything either way. I'm just going to call it a loss now, but mark my words: one day I will work in the OR at Primary Children's. Just the things he said about the job and the atmosphere of the place let me know that this could definitely be my dream job.
In the mean time, work really hasn't been bad at all. My new manager has made things a billion times better, I feel like I've learned a ton and keep learning, and most of my co-workers are awesome. 

In church news, I was finally able to go to church in October after not being there since the beginning of September. I got a calling on the activities committee of our ward. Kind of a new experience for me, but I'm sure it will be good. I also was asked to speak that Sunday (the one Sunday I got to go to church in October). I did a good job, I hope. I really enjoyed speaking and that people know who I am now.

The next Sunday I worked, and by some small miracle, I got off work 10 minutes earlier than normal. I wanted to get home to my parent's house because my family was there and I like to see them. But in my slightly excited state, I drove too fast and got pulled over. I can't catch a break. I got a speeding ticket. The first once in almost 10 years of driving. I had to pay even more money for it and take traffic school online. Now that I've been educated, you can bet I'm the safest driver in the world now. You know the kind; they completely stop at intersections even when no one is there, they never run yellow lights, they go a little bit below the speed limit. So yeah, I've now aged 50 years and have even MORE anxiety when I drive.

I got to tell you, all of these stressful things were hard to deal with, but what kept me going was knowing that I was going on a trip to NYC the first weekend of November. I was excited. I kept thinking about riding in a plane, seeing Broadway plays, and eating good food in Korea town! I told everyone I knew about this trip. I was so excited.
And then....
Sandy.
That b*#@!. She wrecked the whole East Coast. I feel so bad for everyone that was effected. I was following the damage closely on the news. And then, the morning before we were going to leave, we officially found out that our flight was cancelled. So that went out the window.
We ended up going to the Grand Canyon. That was interesting and exciting. I'll write about that later.

Dad and Kevin at the race.

To combat the stress? Annalie and I took up running again. I haven't seriously ran in over two years. And when I did for a little while, it only last a few weeks until my knees hurt. But this time, I got a knee brace, made a plan, and we've stuck to it for 4 weeks now. I can now run a mile. I'm really excited about it. It feels great.

We decided to start running again after we went and watched my dad's race, the Pony Express trail run 2012. My brother Kevin ran 50 miles. And it is just inspiring to see so many people run for hours and hours on end. I would love to be able to do that. I'm not saying that I will for sure run a 50 mile race anytime soon, but I would love to be able to head out my door and run where I wanted to go. Plus, free therapy and stress relief. 


Well, this was all around just a weird month. Bad and worse and a little bit of good too. I'm glad it's over and that I can move on. One day I'll be grateful for these experiences. I always wonder why things don't work out the way I planned them to. It's frustrating. Especially when I feel like my life has always been exactly opposite of what I have planned. But one day, I'm sure, it will all work out and I'll know the why behind everything.

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.

Family Trip

Well, now that It's been a few months, I thought I'd tell y'all about my family trip to Santa Cruz/San Francisco!

 

We talked my dad into renting a van for the occasion, the best idea we had. Mom, Dad, Ryan, Connor, and I were in the van and riding in style. I got the back seat. Captains chairs, in the middle, went to the boys. We started out driving on Tuesday in the morning and drove to Reno.
I actually read a book on the way. Chronicles of Narnia. Quite an accomplishment for me since I hate reading.

At first glance this picture is adorable.
But what really happened was that
Dad wanted to hold the Old Lady's
hand while crossing the street.

We got to Reno, and quickly figured out that unless you were there to get drunk or gamble, there was not much to do there. We walked around a little bit. Met up with family, ate dinner at a buffet, and got our rooms at Harrah's. Lowy, Kevin, Jon, and little Kent met up with us late that night. I got to share a room with Lowy, Jon, and Kent. Jon likes to sleep in his underwear and yell "Mindy, don't look!!" haha.
We got up, got ready, and went to Denny's for breakfast as a family. So much fun. I have the best family in the world.
We got back in the car and drove on to California. Ryan drove for part of it and didn't even kill us.
One of the funniest parts of driving was how fancy our van was. Two tvs, plugs for an X-box, dvd player, satellite radio. Lots of buttons and fancy things. Well, at one point we were driving in front of Lauren and Jon and my dad says, "Should I deploy the tacks?" As he reaches for a button, my mom says, "Don't! There's a baby in there!" We erupted in laughter for a long long time.
We made it to Santa Cruz and drove to our KOA cabin.

Our first view of the beach.

That cabin was made for 6 people to stay in it. And even that was pushing it. Of course, there were 9 of us! It was interesting, to say the least, to fit us all in there when we didn't have all of the beds out.

The bathroom was as big as
this mirror. True story.

We met up with family and tried to make some plans for the next few days. We drove down to the beach and got to play in the sand and watch the ocean for a little while.
I love the ocean. There is something so peaceful and calming about it. The sand is nice and soft and warm, the ocean makes soothing noises, the waves lap against you. The water was freezing! But we ran around and Kent got his first experience with the sand. He loved it.
We went back, ate dinner, and made a campfire.

Dad and Kevin had a "jiffy pop"
competition. Kevin won.

So cute.

Something I totally love about our family is that we all have gotten to the point where we like to go to sleep early, around 9pm, and wake up early. Around 6. It was great that we all ran on the same internal clock.
Mom and Dad got the master bed, Lowy and Jon were on the fold out bed, and kevin and ryan got the bunkbeds. Connor and I had air mattresses on the floor, underneath the kitchen table. We had to move some chairs outside to make room for us.
We found out really soon just how severe Connor's snoring problem has gotten. It was awful. We were miserable trying to get to sleep. Around 11 or so, Jon got up out of bed, told Lauren he was going to sleep in the car, and as he was leaving he said, "Connor, you suck!" SO funny.
We did get some sleep. Connor said he slept really well. We gave him a really hard time about it all day. We kept saying, "Every time I yawn today, Connor, I'm going to hit you!" We ended up taking a vote and he spent the next two nights sleeping in the car. Mom and Dad were a little mad that we banished him like that, but we did not feel bad one bit. He snores like crazy.

The next day was our Santa Cruz day. We spent the morning taking a ride on a train through the redwoods. It wwas a lot of fun. I love spending time with my family. Most of my cousins and aunts and uncles got into the caboose of the train. We were funny and loud. It was a pretty ride. At some points the train would go really slow and we thought we were going to get stuck on the hills, but it went well.
We drove down to the boardwalk afterwards and put on our swimsuits and played at the beach. The water was freezing cold, but it looked like too much fun, so me, Ryan, and Connor went into the water and played for a long while. We eventually got out and ended up burying Connor, Ryan, and Jon in the sand. Kent had a blast crawling all over the sand and playing.
After playing and getting some sun, we walked along the shops at the boardwalk. I bought a sweatshirt. We ate deep fried oreos and twinkies.
We went back to the KOA and went into the pool for a while to wash out some of the sand we had up in our crevices. Haha. We took showers, had another fire, and spent a while with our cousins talking and laughing about the gipsies that were in a campsite up the hill. "Gipsied!" was the quote of the trip, said by Kevin. Our cousins got a kick out of that. They also got a kick out of how the Crocketts turned in for the night at 9 again.
Friday was San Francisco day! The day we had planned months before and were so stoked about. We left the KOA and drove up to the city for a few hours. Ryan drove like a champ. We made it to the city and eventually found this shady parking garage. (Oh yeah, we didn't have enough seats for everyone, so we made Connor lay down in the trunk of the van! hahaha.) The parking garage was full, but the attendant let us park, telling us to leave the keys so he could move it out of the way of other cars if he needed to. It sounded a little weird, but they do that in Korea all the time, so we did it. Ryan accidentally made the car alarm go off in the garage. Talk about LOUD! ha. We left the garage and walked to the pier.
ALCATRAZ was next! Oh my goodness, I still can't get over how amazing of an experience Alcatraz was. Quite possibly the best thing I've ever seen. Riding the boat over was fun. It was a cold morning, so we were all sporting our sweaters and jackets. We made it to the island and after a brief orientation, we walked up to the cell house and got our walkmans for the audio tour.
It was amazing. It was so awesome to see where prisoners so many years ago lived. And I guess I've never really known anything about prisons, so to be able to see it first hand and imagine what it must have been like was incredible. I loved the stories of the inmates and the escape attempts. I loved seeing the bullet holes in the ground and the pictures of the scary people. I loved walking into the cells and imagining the loneliness of solitary confinement. The tour led us all over the cell blocks and outside to the exercise yard and up to the cafeteria. My family loved it all as well. Kevin said, "Don't you kind of want to root for the prisoners and want them to escape?" So true. It was such a neat experience.
We walked around a little bit more and then headed back to San Francisco on the boat.
Hunger struck. We took out our little map and decided to go up to Pier 39 and fisherman's wharf to find some food. We ended up eating at this amazing little place with some great chowder and sourdough bread bowls. So yummy. We then decided to make the trek to Ghiradelli square so we could get some chocolate. We just didn't really realize how far of a walk that would be.
We saw some pretty cool stuff on the way. A guy painted gold like a statue, street performers, bands, weirdos, markets. I love walking in the city with tons of people. Reminds me of Korea.
We finally made it after walking for what seemed like forever. The shop was PACKED with people. We each ordered an icecream and waited. It was delish. Kevin wanted to steal the cups they came in. But we didn't. We walked on a back street back to the parking garage. Grand total was 4 miles walked. Doesn't sound too bad unless you add in that we had a baby (or two....) in the group.
Our car was there and not stolen! Jon drove us home. I got to say, I don't know how anyone did vacations without google maps on a smart phone. I gave directions the entire trip to all of the drivers, even my dad. We did use the map that Mom insisted on buying and bringing a time or two, but my good old iPhone saved us.

Packed car. Connor in the trunk! Ha.

We got home that night and ate a family dinner with all of the extended family. I smiled and nodded like I could relate when my cousins talked about their kids and husbands. And I talked with the younger cousins who are still single and haven't popped out a kid yet. And it was fun. We took a few pictures, and then, in good old Crockett fashion, we were in bed around 9 or so.
Saturday morning we woke up and had to watch Lowy, Jon, Kevin, and Kent pack up. It was sad to see them go. We still had a lot of fun without them, but it would have been way more fun if they stuck around too.
The rest of us decided to go berry picking at a local field. It was a cold and overcast morning. I think I wore a long skirt and a sweatshirt. COLD. We picked blackberries and strawberries. I think we would have picked for hours and hours had we not had to have paid for what we picked. It was fun to pick them and they tasted AMAZING! We stopped by the shop and had some strawberry rhubarb pie. That was also amazing.
After that, we made our way to the beach to get in some more hours of quality beach time. It was still really cold and muggy out when we got there. I spent a good deal of time just digging and looking for shells. Cousin Jenny came with us too. She and Ryan took a nap. Connor and I ended up taking a long walk on the beach. It was so peaceful.
THEN the sun came out! And all of a sudden the beach and the waves and the water were so irresistible! We walked back to our spot quickly and run up to the car to grab our suits and suit up!
Ryan, Connor, and I then entered the (FREEZING COLD) water and stayed there for about 3 hours. It felt like 15 minutes! It was a blast. We had a boogie board and after that broke (ha) we body surfed the waves, yelling and screaming! Our favorite thing to say was "SHEE-HAW!" Don't ask. Also, my personal favorite, "Son of a beach!" haha.
We yelled and screamed and ate a bunch of sand and salt water and finally decided to get out. We packed up our stuff and left the beach. What a wonderful day.

Sunburned.

We snuck back into the KOA we were at and hurried to use the gipsies' showers. That was nice to be able to shower. We got back in the car and drove a few hours to Stockton and stayed the night there. On the way we stopped at the Garlic fest and had some pizza at a local joint. It was amazing pizza. Cloves of garlic on the pizza. YUM.
As we sat, waterlogged and tired in our hotel room that night, Ryan and I started to prank call Mom and Dad's room. Then Ryan ordered a chocolate shake. And Dad said, "Sure." and gave us his credit card to go out and find some chocolate shakes! Woot woot! We got some at burger king.
After a Sunday morning continental breakfast, we headed back into the car and drove over to Yosemite National Park. It was crowded. And hot. And we were sun burned. I'm sure Dad wasn't too happy that we were all just lazy and tired and didn't want to do much. He was willing to let us rent horses or go hike or go on a boat or something. But we were lame. We did stop at a gorgeous lake and sat there having lunch. Dad kept daring Ryan to swim out to the middle of the lake and tell a "Columbus" joke to them. (What bus killed thousands of native Americans? Columbus.) Ha.
I ended up having to pee, so we had to leave the lake and drive on.

Mom and Dad and Half Dome

We drove for what seemed like forever and almost stopped at a super creepy town for the night. Instead, we kept driving and stayed in Eli, NV. Quite an interesting place too.
Monday morning we got up and drove home. Good times.

Took this by using the timer on Mom's
camera. Impressive.

This trip was so fun. SO FUN. I loved almost every moment of it. (I did not like Connor's snoring.)

Dad and Ryan, in adjoining hotel rooms,
doing the same thing. 

I love my family. All of them. I have the best parents ever, the funnest siblings. They were the best part of this trip. The only thing missing from this perfect trip was Davy, Nat, Camden, and Alli. Other than that, perfect! Loved it.