Vacation Day 2: Sunday

Because we were expecting to take forever to get to Seattle in the labor day traffic, we did not plan to go to church on Sunday (meaning we didn't even have clothes to wear to church...). So, we were excited to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing vacation Sunday. We were staying in my parents new camping trailer (which is pretty posh, if you ask me) so we would not be woken up by the family getting ready for church. The only downfall of the trailer was that it was perched on a very precarious post and I was terrified that we were going to break something and send the trailer careening down the driveway in the middle of the night. Luckily, that did not happen. However, as a punishment for skipping church, we were woken up at 8:00am by the most annoying sound in the world. It was this loud screeching noise that would not stop! Dan jumped out of bed to go and investigate, and I saw a flashing light on what looked like a smoke detector which led me to believe that the trailer was burning down. Remember, we were woken up out of a deep sleep and I was a little incoherent. As I got closer to the "smoke detector" I could read that it was actually a carbon monoxide detector...great! Even better! We were about to consumed by the silent killer! Now, some people (Dan) might say that I am a hypochondriac, and others may think I am a little paranoid...but I really thought we were on the verge of dying when suddenly the sound stopped. Lo and behold it was...an alarm clock. Blaring through six speakers in the trailer. For the purpose of waking us up. Funny. When we asked my parents about the alarm, they said "Oh yeah. That goes off every morning and we can't figure out how to turn it off." After another morning of this, Dan figured out that if you mute the volume on the flat screen TV in the trailer (that's right, the trailer has a TV...I'm considering purchasing one to be our home...) then the alarm turns off. I'm sure some of you are joking that we are complaining about being woken up at 8:00am...that is still a major "sleep in" for me, but driving all day can really take a lot out of a girl! So, to make up for our lack of sleep, we relaxed around the house, watching movies and playing games.

Vacation Day 1: Saturday

Our first day of vacation to Seattle involved a whole lot of what you would expect... a whole lot of driving. We made really good time. It only took us 11 hours to get from Ogden (where we stayed Friday night) to Covington (where Jorden's family lives). The only major event from our trip happened when we got into Oregon. We had planned to stop in Ontario, Oregon which is just across the border, but Jorden was taking a nap and I didn't want to wake her so I kept driving. Doing a little math I figured we may barely make Baker City but I would rather not risk getting caught without gas in those mountains so we saw a truck stop to the side of the road and got off to fill up. When we pulled into the gas station we realized that all of the pumps were covered with trash bags. Jorden went in to do some investigating and found out that they had run out of gas the day before. They suggested we drive 5 miles out of the way to this little town called Huntington to fill up. The only gas station in Huntington turned out to be a 2 pump, mom and pop store where they had to use a calculator to figure out how much we owed. At least they had gas. We had planned on there being a lot of traffic since it was Labor Day weekend, but apparently the economy discouraged a lot of traffic.

I LOVE BIRTHDAY WEEKENDS!

Several years ago, I realized that, when my birthday falls on a Wednesday, I am authorized to celebrate said birthday the weekend prior to and following the actual birthday. In addition, it makes sense that I would then be able to celebrate my birthday for an entire weekend (plus some) if it falls at any other time during the week. This year, my birthday was on a Saturday...last Saturday to be exact. I guess any normal person would have celebrated their birthday on Saturday...but as you may know, I am not a normal person. My b-day began on Friday, when Dan decided to take the day off work so we could spend it together. We have a tradition (which we can now call a tradition because this is the second year IN A ROW that we have done this) that we go golfing on my b-day. Some of you might be thinking "Sure...Dan takes you golfing on your birthday because he loves golfing". Well, actually, it was my idea to go golfing. I never share this activity with Dan, so I think it is a good time for us to go and do something he loves so much together. Plus, we end up going in the middle of the day when no one else is out (so I don't feel pressure to hurry up) and we always go to an executive course (so that I don't take all day to get to the green). Dan says I have pretty good form and that I have improved from last year...he's so nice to lie to me for my birthday!

After golf, we spent the whole day together at the Gateway, enjoying a meal at Biaggi's, taking in a movie or two, and topping off the evening with a visit to our pseudo-parents, Mark and Lisa. But don't worry...the birthday did not stop there! Saturday was my actual birthday, and my BFF surprised me with a "mini" homemade cheesecake (which was actually the perfect size and absolutely delicious!). On Sunday, my new secretary brought me a birthday bag with all sorts of goodies in it. Sho, Dan and I went to Red Lobster for dinner on Monday (FYI, Red Lobster does not give you a delicious dessert for your birthday...however, if you bring your own or buy one of theirs, they will sing to you...). My favorite thing to eat at Red Lobster is the coconut shrimp because of the fabulous dipping sauce. It is a cup full of pina colada deliciousness...that I can eat with a spoon as if it were pudding. I may or may not have requested several cups of the dipping sauce (and filled up on sauce so I had a loan shrimp leftover...poor little guy!).

Dan enjoyed the crab, and got a bright idea from Sho to pull apart his crab and put it all in the butter at the same time...it looked absolutely disgusting. This is one fine artery clogging meal!

To finish off my birthday extravaganza, my coworkers (and some former coworkers...but current friends) took me to lunch at Red Robin...and on Wednesday I enjoyed pie with the RS presidency. This was truly the birthday that kept on giving. Do I really have to wait another year to celebrate again? Thank's everyone for making my birthday great!

My Olympic Claim to Fame...

I LOVE the Summer Olympics! There are so many fun events to watch...I always think the Winter Olympics got robbed! Volleyball, diving, swimming, basketball, baseball, gymnastics...the event list goes on and on! I personally think that there are several summer events that should be made winter events, so as to allow the Winter Olympics to be some-what exciting. For example, gymnastics...it's an inside sport. Why, oh why does it need to be clustered in with all the other phenomenal events? It could be the star of the winter games! There are dozens of other sports that could be performed just fine during the winter (like swimming, wrestling, boxing, table tennis, basketball...all of which are inside events). I'm going to step off my soapbox now, as I wipe a tear from my eye for the poor little Winter Olympics...they may take the gold for funny event names (Slalom, Luge, Moguls, Skeleton), but they will never have my heart...or my attention.

Now, let's get down to business. My sister called me the other day and informed me that one of our old Sunday School teachers is competing in the Olympics this year. Jen has been keeping tabs on her because she was a pretty extraordinary lady when we knew her, so she was up to speed on her changed name and everything. When I knew her she was Melanie Pritchard, and she was quite possibly the funnest teacher I ever had. She is now known as Melanie Roach, the Olympic Weight Lifter. We always laughed at her because she wanted to be a weight lifter, but, she is this incredibly petite woman (5'1" and 119 lbs of pure muscle). I remember going to watch her compete in Canada, and she was able to lift me! Incredible! She has already competed this year a placed 6th...in the world. Way to go Melanie!

I need to get back onto my soapbox for a minute to discuss what technology has done to our Olympic events. I have been watching the judges play and replay the tapes of the gymnasts looking for absolute perfection...I am currently watching the men's synchronized diving events, and by replaying the event over and over again, and having the judges point out all of the mistakes, I'm starting to think these athletes aren't as great as they appear to be. Honestly, if I could just watch the event, I would love it and think that they are all incredible for being able to do what they do...so I don't think I like these technological advancements very much. I guess it helps inspire the athletes to be their very best, but do any of these athletes become depressed when they do not live up to last weeks performance? If suicide attempts are made, I will blame technology.

And now, for all you nay-sayers who told me that "trampoline is not an Olympic event", the trampoline competition starts at 11:00am on Saturday (happy birthday to me), and the men's and women's finals are Monday and Tuesday at 8:25pm...enjoy!

Tepanyaki

My parents took us to Tepanyaki in Layton for our birthdays this past weekend. It is fun to watch them do their little tricks and light things on fire. I was able to catch some shrimp in my mouth and listen to some lame jokes by the chef (for example he spun the egg he would later use in the fried rice and said "eggroll"). We drove up on Thursday night to surprise them and ended up sitting there for 3 hours without dinner because we didn't know they had other commitments that night so our plan backfired. We saw Dark Knight for the second time this weekend since my parents hadn't seen it. Saturday after our dentist appointments we stopped by Tony Caputo's Deli in Salt Lake City and got some great italian sandwiches.

My Birthday

It has been a while since we've been able to post, we've been really busy and our life seems uneventful at times even though we're super busy. I'm sure nobody wants to hear about what happens during the 3 days a week when my free time is spent at the church. August 3rd was my 25th birthday, which also happened to be Dave and Brooke's going away party. The Friday before we went to our annual birthday dinner at Ruby River to get a nice juicy steak. Sunday we headed up to Mark and Lisa's house for the going away party. It was hard to see another great friend leave. For my birthday Jorden got me the newest copy of my favorite game: NCAA Football '09. Jorden's birthday is this Saturday...what do you think we should do?