Arizona!!

        Paul has a really awesome cousin that lives in Arizona, and we have frequently joked with each other about Paul and I moving to Arizona to live by them. I always thought it would be fun to live there. Its warm all the time, I wouldn't have to worry about snow, and I would live by Summer and Tyler, (who wouldn't want to live by them?).

       Well in order for us to live there, we would have to get jobs there, and the company Paul would like to work for does have an office in Phoenix, but they don't recruit from SUU, so his chances at getting in aren't extremely high. Paul was able to set up and office visit with the McGladrey firm in Phoenix to meet some of the staff and see if he would fit in at their office, (it would also get him a leg up in the hiring process). We set up the visit for over MLK holiday to give us some time to play with Summer and Tyler.

       We got to their place at 1:00 AM Saturday morning. Of course we were wiped out so we went right to bed and slept in pretty good. In the morning, Paul, Tyler and I went for a hike while Summer stayed at home to write a talk, (Summer is eight months pregnant and figured that going on the hike would be a little much for her so she stayed home to get other things done). We hiked a little mountain hill thing called Camel Back. I wish that I would have remembered my camera, because the landscape in Phoenix is pretty interesting. The valley is so very flat, but there are random mountain hill things that rise up in the middle of nowhere. It is really neat looking. Also they have tons and tons of saguaro cacti. I had never seen a saguaro cactus in real life, only in the cartoons, so I really hoped I could take some pictures of them too, but alas, I forgot the stinking camera. Anyway, back to the story, this hike we did was pretty neat. It starts out as an easy dirt trail, that progressively gets more challenging until you are practically bouldering to reach the top. The view was spectacular. You could see for quite a ways in every direction.

      After we got back to Summer and Tyler's place we got all cleaned up and went out for dinner. We went to this cool pizza place called "Oreganos." They specialize in thin crust pizzas. Paul and I went out on a limb and tried their mexican pizza. It was actually quite fantastic. We didn't expect it to be so good, but it sure was. After dinner we went swimming and hot tubbing for a little bit, then went to our traditional dessert restaurant, BJ's. Every time we have gone to California with Summer and Tyler, we would always get a pizookie at BJ's, so it just stands as a tradition that we have to have one when we are together. If you are wondering what a pizookie is, it is the most amazing dessert ever! Its like a half cooked cookie with a scoop of ice cream on top and whipped cream. They are fantasticly delicious goodness! After dessert we came home and went to bed.

       Church was church. Summer gave a great talk, we went to classes, then came home. Paul and I were a little tired so we took a wonderful nap outside, in the sun, in a hammock, AND got a tan. Oh yeah. The 75 degree weather was just about perfect. After our nap we played some games with Summer and Tyler and cooked dinner. For dessert, Summer planned a really fun game. We were split into girls vs boys teams and we had to cook a specific dessert, but Paul and I both had to be blind folded. Summer and Tyler could only tell us what to do. It was supposed to be a competition to see who's dessert came out tasting the best, but they both ended up tasting pretty great. Paul and Tyler finished before Summer and I did, but our food tasted just as good as theirs did.

       Monday morning Paul had his office visit. My plan was to go for a long run come home and do a little shopping with Summer. I went on my nice long 5 mile run, came back, and got ready to go with Summer. By the time we got to the store, Paul was already back from his visit. When we got back from our errands I got all the details out of Paul. He said he loved the offices, and the people and he could see himself working there! Yes! Plus for me! We did talk about how it would be hard to not have grass or seasons, and life would be paced differently in Arizona, but we are just keeping our options open, and we will go where ever the Lord wants us to go.

     Before Paul and I left to head home, we went out and played a nice round of frisbee golf in the beautiful 80 degree weather. I just never imagined being so warm in January, but I loved every minute of it. I did not win of course, but I had fun trying to keep up with the guys. After our game we headed back to Tyler's, packed up and headed home. The drive was quite long, but I didn't fall asleep once!! That is a big deal for me. Every time we drive, I always crash and leave Paul to fend for himself, but somehow I managed to stay awake for the whole 7 hour drive!!

      We don't know where we are headed in the next few years, but I certainly wouldn't mind moving to Arizona. Guess we will just have to see where life takes us!

Virginia Beach

       The last full day that we had in Virginia was more of a chillax day. I really wanted to go to the ocean so we made a point of getting there. The morning was really relaxed. I went running and sat in the sauna for a little bit, came home, had some breakfast, then we decided where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do. We decided to go to Virginia Beach and see if the water was warm enough to swim. Eric and Amanda wanted to go to a museum so they left a little earlier than we did. We left with Paul's parents a little after lunch time. The drive to the beach took us about an hour and a half, so we had a lovely little drive from Williamsburg to get there.

       When we got to the beach, the place was seriously abandoned! You could certainly tell that it was the off season. There was parking everywhere, (if I had to guess, it is nearly impossible to find parking there in the summer). We found ourselves a nice parking spot by the board walk, and headed out to the beach. We started collecting sea shells (I think its fun to try and find big ones). Julie told me we drove all this way for me to get into the ocean so she said I had to take my shoes off and get in the water. So I did.
     
 

I wasn't expecting the water to be
so cold. Yes, it is the beginning of January, but I really thought that the water would be warmer. It was SO. COLD. I asked Paul to take a picture of me so that I would have proof of being in the ocean in January, and he decided he wanted to try and make a video! So while I am standing in the water freezin my little hiney off he is trying to figure out the camera. I finally just begged him to take a picture so I could get out of the water. Thankfully he listened to me and snapped a picture.
 
      After collecting like 80 shells off off the beach side, we decided to walk the shops. Rex and Julie are collecting the state quarters, and when they go on vacation they go to stores to see if they can trade state quarters that they have for ones that they don't have. We would go into a store, look around, usually get something, then ask the cashier if we could look through their quarters for ones that we were missing. It sounds kind of weird and lame, but it was kind of fun. Paul got a new swimming suit and a hat out of it, plus we found a shop with some amazing popcorn flavors. Once we had our fun, we got back on the road and headed back to Williamsburg.
When we got back to the condo we realized that since we were leaving so early in the morning, we needed to get rid of as much food as we could. We bought ground beef thinking that hamburgers would be a great meal, and we had never used it, so tonight we said, "Hey, lets cook some burgers!" Eric and Amanda were still gone and I guess had eaten while they were out and about so we made some big hamburgers just to use all of the beef. Holy cow, the burgers turned out HUGE! I couldn't even finish one. Paul could barely get his mouth around it. They sure were good though.

The rest of the evening was just spent cleaning, and packing. We leave for home tomorrow, early in the morning; so we wanted to get as much cleaning done as we can so in the morning we can just pack up and head out.

I really can't believe that I spent a whole week over here on the East Coast. The time sure flies by so fast! I am so excited for all of the other adventures that Paul and I have in our future!

Washington DC Trip

       When I found out we were planning on taking a trip to DC I was so excited. I had never been to the East Coast before so I wanted to see as much as I possibly could. We had planned on visiting DC just as a day trip. We were going to wake up early, drive there, see a few sights and drive back home, but we finally all sat down as a family and decided that we would enjoy two days of DC more than two days of Williamsburg. We found ourselves a hotel to stay in for the night, and started planning our trip. Now I honestly don't think there is any possible way to see EVERYTHING there is to see in DC in only two days, but we sure wanted to try.
     
        Eric and Amanda were crazy and left at like four in the morning to head up there. I honestly don't know why they left that early, but they were adamant about it, so they did. The rest of us slept in till like six maybe and left then. From where we were it was a good 3 ish hour drive so we did want to leave early enough that everything would be open in DC but just barely starting to open. When we got there, it was so amazing to me. I had seen pictures of all of the sights, but I had never seen the buildings in real life.

       The first stop that we made was to the Jefferson memorial. When we actually got to the Jefferson Memorial, I didn't expect it to be so big. I have seen the building thousands of times on the back of the nickel, but in real life it is a whole lot bigger. I didn't expect so many stairs, or for the statue to be so huge. I know the Lincoln statue is massive, but I didn't really know how big the Jefferson statue was until I was standing underneath it and I looked like an ant.

       Once we finished there we started walking up the street to go to the National mall, but I got held up at the Holocaust Museum. I have always been fascinated with the history of world war two, and while I was there I couldn't resist going to the museum. It was truly an amazing experience. Each of us were given a little passport with an actual Holocaust victim's name. Throughout the museum we read about the victim we were going through for, as well as a lot of history about world war two. At the end you could light a candle for the victim as a continuous memorial. It was a really cool and very powerful experience. Paul, his mom, and I were the only ones that actually completed the whole tour. The rest of them headed over to the Smithsonian of natural history.

     When we got out of the Holocaust Museum we headed over to the Museum of natural history to meet up with everyone else. We had about an hour before everyone wanted to leave for lunch so we had to hurry through. Paul and I didn't get so see a whole lot, but we looked at some of the dinosaur exhibits, some of the fossils, and the gems. It was incredible to see all of the different kinds of gems and crystals they had in the exhibits. Once we left the museum we went back to our car and had some lunch. Then we traveled over to the national zoo. Amanda has an obsession with pandas and really wanted to see them, (which was totally fine with me because I like pandas too).

      We were told that the zoo did zoo lights and so we thought they would be open a little later into the evening so we could see the lights, but sadly for us, the zoo lights ended on the 1st of January, and here we were on the 2nd of January. Darn. We missed it by a day. We got to the zoo when it was starting to get a little dark so we really had to hurry as to not miss the cute pandas. We looked at all the outside enclosures but didn't see any animals! I was so sad. It was so cold in DC that all of the animals were in there inside enclosures and we didn't know where they all were. We found the panda house and visited the pandas for a little bit, but I guess that the chinese are VERY strict about what happens to the pandas. They have a tight schedule that has to be followed. So the panda house closes exactly at 5 every night. We got to see them but only for a short minute of time. After we got out of the panda house we visited the elephants. But these weren't any elephants, they were Asian elephants. :) They didn't look too Asian, but they were!

     We kept walking around in the darkening evening and went to the small mammal house. Sadly all of the indoor houses closed at 6ish, so we didn't get to see a whole lot. But we decided that since we saw the panda's and the elephants we had to be content with that. Plus it was getting cold and we were all getting really hungry. We walked to a cute little coffee shop to wait for our cars. Julie had a friend from DC come to the zoo with us and she was kind enough to buy us all hot chocolate while we waited for them to return with the cars.

     We got back to our hotel, cooked us up some dinner, and relaxed. Paul and I went to the hot tub for a little bit to get out of the chaos of six adults sharing one room with two babies. After we were relaxed we went back to the room to get some sleep. We had lots of plans for tomorrow so we needed our sleep.

       In the morning, the first thing that we did was drive to Arlington Cemetery. We tried to arrive at the cemetery right at eight to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier, but we got stuck in rush hour and didn't make it till closer to nine. But we figured we could take our time, look around, and at nine we would see the changing of the guard. I didn't think that the cemetery would be as amazing as it was. It was so beautiful, and peaceful there. The changing of the guard was a very solemn experience. It was one of the most memorable parts of our trip.

       After the cemetery, we went to the WWII memorial, the Vietnam memorial, and of course, the Lincoln memorial. I was so excited to go to the Lincoln memorial. I have seen it on the penny all my life, and seen pictures of it, and wow, in person it is even better. Lincoln just sits there with eyes that can almost stare into your soul. He certainly seemed like an amazing man. We took lots of pictures and then  left to head to the Smithsonians.

       About half way there, I decided that while I was so close to the White House, I would really like to go and get there as close as I could. Unfortunately for us, Congress was getting sworn in on January 3rd so the White House was pretty heavily guarded. So I didn't get to see it as closely as I wanted to. While we were heading over to meet the rest of the gang we stopped at the old post office. They let people go up into the bell tower and look around at the sights. It was really cool to see DC from up so high. After lunch, we ran to the national archives to see the constitution and bill of rights.

                                                                                By the time Paul, Julie, and I finished at the National Archives it was about lunch time. Paul and I wanted to go out to lunch for a date so we split with Julie and found a sweet indian place that is like Panda Express only with organic indian cuisine! It was fantastic!!! If  they ever have a restaurant named Merzi come to town, surely try it because it was some of the best indian food Paul and I have had.

       After lunch we headed to the Smithsonian of Air and Space. The others were there for a little bit longer than Paul and I so we didn't get to see a lot, but the exhibits on planes were really cool. We also looked at the shuttle exhibits, and the solar system stuff. I wish that we would have had more time, but I decided that the library of congress would be so much cooler. We gave ourselves a tour of the library of congress and I was in awe. The architecture was incredible! And to think that so many books are housed there is just amazing. It was just awesome.

       After the library of congress we started the 3 hour drive back to Virginia. Before we got too far we stopped at cracker barrel for dinner. I had never eaten there before so that was a new experience for me.  After two long days of non stop touring, I was seriously pooped. I think I slept more than half of the way back home. DC was great. I have loved all the traveling Paul and I have done, and I am excited for all of our adventures to come! We still have one more day left in Virginia and hopefully it will be lots of fun!

     

Colonial Williamsburg

       After our semi-lame but quite fun New Years Eve, we all slept in a little longer than usual before beginning our trek to Williamsburg. After everyone got up and had breakfast we traveled to the Williamsburg visitors center. It had rained the night before and was chilly and threatening rain, but thankfully through out the day it was only cold, not raining too.
       
       Williamsburg, I guess, is kind of set up like Nauvoo, (according to Paul). It is basically a little colonial colony that you can walk through and visit houses and shops to see what it was like in colonial times. The first stop that Julie wanted to take was to see a comedy/musical show. We went into a tavern and watched the equivalent of a comedy act. Personally, I didn't think it was all that funny, but I don't have a colonial sense of humor either. The funniest part of the whole show was watching my little nephew Sage try and entertain himself. I think he was entertaining the women sitting behind us too.
     
After the tavern experience we walked through the apothecary, then walked over to the jointers. The jointers are basically like the wood workers. They build the houses, and fix everything. Once we were done looking at all of the cool wood work, we went and took a tour of the capitol. It was really interesting to see what the capitol looked like, and the history of it, but the lady that was giving out tour was SO boring. I know that it is mean to say, but she seriously had a monotone voice, no facial expressions, and put no emotion into our tour. Paul and I were sure glad when we could scurry right on out of there and continue looking at everything else.
       After the capitol we went to the jail. It was actually really neat to go and see. They told us that of the six jail cells that they had, three of them were originals from back in colonial times! They were kind of sad looking. All the cell had in it was a set of stairs, (for sitting on maybe?), and a slot in the wall where I guessed food would come in and out.
     

        We then visited the blacksmith shop, which always intrigues me. All of my brothers are into forgery and they come home with these awesome metal things, but I don't ever get to see them do it. So being able to visit the black smith forge I could get some what of an idea of all the work that they put into making their cool metal things. We stopped next at the gunsmiths shop, which was quite fascinating.  next up was the shoe makers shop, not the cobbler (because they fix shoes), but to the actual shoe makers shop. They told us that to buy a good pair of shoes it usually would costs a months wages. The cheaper shoes would cost around a couple of days wages. If I calculated that into how much I make, I just think I would never pay that much for a pair of shoes. But I guess if that was the only option I would have to go along with it.
     
       They had a big open field set up with some stocks there. I just couldn't contain myself and HAD to go put myself in the stocks. Paul, being the wonderful husband that he is, came and stood next to me in the stocks so we could pose for a picture.

We then ventured to the cabinet makers shop which was also neat. They had a lot of cool desks and finishing work that they were working on.
     

       Our last stop was one of my favorites. We went to the governors palace and watched a demonstration of how chocolate is made. They literally started with the cocoa bean and then went through the whole process of making chocolate. I had no idea how difficult and time consuming it was to get even a little amount of chocolate out of those beans. I now see why only the wealthy could afford chocolate at first. It really was a lengthy and strenuous process to make chocolate from scratch.
     
       By this time, Eric and Amanda had taken their two little ones back to the car to take them home. Paul, myself, and his parents kind of hung around a little bit longer before we headed out. We got our last few looks in, and then headed back to the condo. While everything we did fits in a reasonably small post, I assure you, that my mind was so blown from all the knowledge it soaked up. We went from place to place and every time, we were fed a little bit f history. When you get to the very end, you seriously feel so overwhelmed with all of this history. It was an amazing experience, and there is so much I didn't get to see, but what I did see was worth the while.

Tomorrows adventures will take us to Washington DC.

Yorktown and Jamestown

       The first actual day in Williamsburg, Virginia was very busy! In the morning I really wanted to work out because I had driven in a car the previous day for 5 hours and just felt like I needed some exercise. I convinced Paul to come with me. Eric brought Sage too. Not to work out, but to play on the playground near the fitness room. Sadly we needed a room key to get into the fitness center and Paul's parents had both the keys for some reason. So we all decided to play at the park for a little bit. We discovered that the playground area had a pretty sweet mini golf course. We got some clubs and played a quick 18 holes of mini golf before we went back to the room for breakfast.

   
        After breakfast, the plan was to visit Yorktown, which I guess is where one of the key battles to the independence of the colonies took place. Yorktown was basically like a living museum. They had several walk through exhibits, but they also had people acting out what daily life was like and what one could expect as a colonist living during those times. We arrived right in time to see the demonstration of explosives. They showed us how to load the old fashion guns, as well as load a cannon. It was crazy to see how many steps they had to take to actually get the gun loaded and ready to fire off. They told us that the soldiers could have their guns loaded and ready in 20 seconds flat. Just from watching the presentation I was impressed that they could load them that fast. They told us that the tents the soldiers slept in had to fit six men. The tents were honestly the size of a two man tent now a days! No wonder disease and infection was so common back then.

       Next we were able to see the demonstration of the Revolutionary War surgeons, which, are completely different from doctores I found out. :) The surgeon was usually not medically knowledgeable, but trained to find a bullet and pull it out. I can't even imagine having someone stick non sterilized tweezers into an open wound to pull out a bullet. The thought makes me cringe! Even worse, they didn't have anesthetics for the pain of the surgery, just to help dull the senses for recovery. *shudder* We got to see the types of uniforms the soldiers most likely wore and what a campsite would look like.
    
       We also got to walk around a common village and see how everyday life was lived. They had some colonial houses that we could walk through, and they were just so small! I can't imagine living in a house that is all one room with a small loft for storage. The colonists lived so simply it has made me wonder what things I might do to simplify my life. I got to see so many neat self sustaining skills that I hope I can learn for the future. They showed us how they dipped candles, how they cooked their food and preserved it. They showed us how they dried fruits, vegetables and herbs for storage, and they showed us what types of activities they did for entertainment.
   
        We took cute little Sage into the children's part of the museum. It wasn't anything fantastic but they had some really cute colonial kids clothes that we used to play dress up with Sage. None of the clothing fit perfectly, but that made him look all the cuter drowning in colonial clothes.

   

















We took a lunch break and got off of our feet for about an hour, then we loaded up again and headed off to Jamestown. I was actually secretly excited to visit Jamestown because in 3rd grade I did my famous person report on Pocahontas. Obviously that was a very long time ago, but I wanted to see if what I was remembering from my research was true or just facts that I was remembering from the Disney movie. When we first got to Jamestown, we walked through the indoor museum exhibit that talked about the Powhatan tribe and what America was like before the colonists came to live there.
   

  Once we finished the indoor exhibit, we went outdoors to the living museum (similar to the one at Yorktown). First we saw the Native American side of Jamestown. We were able to see what types of huts they built. They were fixed structures similar to hogans. I really enjoyed seeing what the Native American homes might have looked like on the inside. I can't imagine living in a hut with no real blankets, just animal furs. The furs might be much warmer than cheap blankets, but it would be so weird to me to cuddle up a bear head.

   
   

After the tribal museum, we got to look around some ships that were similar to the ships that the settlers of Jamestown took to the Americas, like the Mayflower. We climbed around on the upper and lower decks, and played around with the rudder. We also checked out the sleeping places (which are teeny tiny). I don't know how they could have slept comfortably squeezed in the little nook that some of the sailors had to sleep in. Paul and I walked out to the bow of the ship and pretended we were on the Titanic! It was so lame but kind of cute and funny that we just had to do it.

     















Once we finished touring the ships, we were able to walk through Jamestown and see what that would have been like for the colonists. They had some olds schol armor that we tried on. The helmets were a bit big on me, but it was fun nevertheless. We made it to the settlement in time to see the Jamestown demonstration of explosives which was pretty neat, and loud! We walked through their church type building and visited the blacksmith. Just seeing how villages worked together back then is so incredible to me. The amount of self reliance they had within their village is so impressive. I hope Paul and I can take a little bit of advice from the colonists and learn a few self sustaining skills.
 

   

         Once we finished our tour of Jamestown we went home, cooked some dinner then had the coolest New Years Eve party ever!!  Okay it really wasn't super great, but we did go swimming before it got all too exciting to handle. We played in the pool with Sage for a little while and Paul and I played water volleyball with his mom. After the pool we watched a chick flick, paused it to watch the ball drop, gave each other a new years kiss, drank some sparkling cider, turned our movie back on, finished the movie then went to bed. Yay, Happy New Years! And we did all of that before Utah was at 11:00 PM. Thank goodness we were on the East Coast and had less time to wait. I was sure pooped by the time midnight rolled around.