Hello, Blog. Part 4

Okay, this will be the last post of my travels (and everything else I've been behind with)...

We left off on Wednesday in Julian.......

Thursday: Disneyland! I was so excited to go. I seriously feel like a kid every time I go. Jon doesn't understand my love for it one bit because he has hated the other two times we've gone (the only two times he's ever been). There's just something about it though. My family had annual passes growing up, so we went often as kids. I was soooo scared of all the big rides (except Splash Mountain.... how the heck did I ever get on that one when I was scared of Thunder Mountain and the Matterhorn??? I can understand Space Mountain, except my sister described it much different/scarier from what it really is.). Anyways..... we got there about a half hour after it opened, and we didn't get into the parking garage, so I thought for sure it was super busy already. But NOPE! It was the PERFECT day! I was so happy. We were able to go on all the rides we wanted to WITHOUT fastpasses (although, we got some anyways). There was not a single wait longer than 20 minutes. We got on all the big rides (except Splash Mountain- my fave!!!!! It was closed... and I didn't get to go on it last time we went either!!! :( I was pretty sad about that.). The best part of the day for Jon was when we went to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and watched Bill Hill and the Hillbillies. I had never watched any of the shows they've had in there before, so this was a first for me. I knew Jon would love it though because he is really into bluegrass music (WHYYYYYY?!?!). They were very funny and entertaining though, even if it wasn't my taste of music. Later, I ruined the whole day for Jon by going on It's A Small World (I hate that ride, but I figured he needed to experience it ONCE in his life. hahaha).

First ride of the day! Space Mountain. :)

Indiana Jones! Funny thing: every time we got off the ride, it broke down! We lucked out both times.

Waiting for Bill Hill and the Hillbillies show to start...

Not a very cute picture.........

Had to get a picture of Jon in front of the "Disneyland Fire Department." Maybe next time, I'll take one during the day when you can actually see everything.

Friday: We went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo with my Mom and Ry! It had been a while since I'd been there, so it was fun to see all the new stuff they built/are building. Ry was a real pill that day though, so we didn't stay long and get to see much.

We took the sky buckets across to the other side of the park (which we wanted to do the opposite way since the back of the park is downhill, and you have to walk uphill to the front of the park... but Ry was a pill that day, remember?).

This polar bear was showing off. I've never seen them come so close before, but you could tell he loved all the attention!

I've never seen the pandas so close before either. They are usually hiding because they like the quiet.

Baby gorilla.

Saturday: Jon got up early to go on a hike with my Dad. My Dad loves hiking, but he doesn't get to do it much anymore without any kids at home. So he was very excited to have Jon to go hiking with him. I took them up to Ramona and dropped them off.... and it was a very interesting day for Jon. Haha. He thought my Dad was going to die/have a heart attack/etc. They hadn't gotten very far into the hike, and I guess my Dad was struggling already. My Dad's legs got so weak during the last bit of the hike that he decided to go down the hill by sliding on his butt. Haha. He eventually sent Jon to go ahead to the Lake Poway food area to buy him a Diet Coke and try to call us to come pick them up. Jon took some pictures while they were up there....

You can see the ocean in this one.

We drove back on the next Monday. The weather was horrendous in Utah. I'm just glad we got through Cedar City and those passes before they closed the I-15. But we probably added at least an hour to our drive because of the weather. It got bad again near Nephi, which I hate because we were getting SO CLOSE to Provo, but we had to slow down again due to the snow.

What we've been up to since then: Jon has been finishing up his online classes this semester. He got accepted to the Fire Academy for the summer semester (starts May 7th!). He also got a job mowing lawns for rich people in Alpine, Cedar Hills, PG, AF, etc. We are lucky because his boss was okay with Jon getting off early MWF for the academy and finishing in August, when (hopefully) he'll be starting the Paramedic program. I really have not been doing much other than babysitting Ryleigh and Young Women's. My younger brother gets home from his mission next week!!! I'm headed to San Diego (without Jon this time) for his homecoming talk on Mother's Day. Jon and I are thinking of heading to St. George next weekend for some alone time/break from Utah County before he starts up his never-ending school, where we will never be able to go ANYWHERE (he has classes on Saturdays too).

Hello, Blog. Part 3

After spending a week in our own apartment, we packed up again and headed to my parent's house in San Diego for my 25th birthday! A few weeks earlier, my sister asked if it would be okay if we took Ryleigh with us since she was going to be off track then (she's in year-round school). So as soon as my sister dropped Ry off at our place, we took off. But first... this is what we woke up to the morning we left:

Lovely, right? NOT. I was so happy to going to warm, sunny San Diego!

This was Ry right before we got on the freeway—she was freezing.

Ry did pretty well on the ride, considering we didn't stop as much as I thought we would with her. She was so excited to see Las Vegas because she hears stories about how she was born there. The weather was also pretty good once we got away from Northern Utah.... all the way until sometime after Barstow/before the San Bernardino area. We stopped for dinner in Barstow, and, as we were driving further and further South, the grey clouds in the distance got closer and closer...

This photo doesn't even do the clouds justice. It was crazy as we got closer. It started to sprinkle, then rain, then downpour. Unfortunately, we were in the worst of the storm during the big downgrade from the desert into the San Bernardino valley. I was pretty freaked out because that hill is so scary at night without rain... The rain was so bad that our wipers were on the highest setting, and it was still hard to see. Plus, we were hitting traffic (although, most of the traffic was leaving San Bernardino/LA instead of going into it). Luckily, Ry slept through all of this, so she didn't stress me out even more (she can do that sometimes).

Once we got away from the LA traffic, we had a smooth ride the rest of the way. The next day, Jon and I just relaxed at my parent's place since I had the next week packed with fun things to do!

The following day was my 25th birthday! My Mom made my favorite, Chicken Cordon Bleu, for dinner and ordered a Baskin Robbins' ice cream cake. Yum!

Monday: We went to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. It was fun looking at all the sea creatures. There are definitely some weird things that live in the ocean! They also had a tide pool that overlooked La Jolla shores and where you can touch whatever you want inside! I touched a starfish, sea cucumber, and something like a soft sea urchin (I have no idea what it's called, but that's what it reminded me of). Ry was so scared to touch anything, until the worker asked if she wanted her to lift a starfish up higher for her to touch. So she finally touched it and was obsessed with touching it after that. But we couldn't get her to touch anything else.

Ry touching the starfish.

La Jolla Shores, where I have spent many summers in the past.

Jon looking at the beautiful ocean and beach. (He loves beaches too since he lived near many for two years on his mission.)

Seahorse

Tiny seahorses

Weird seahorses

Jellyfish

Jon and me in front of the big fish tank that had a shark (the shark is not pictured though)!

Afterwards, we went to La Jolla Shores to pick up some beach sand for my sister... Something for her house decorations (probably for Ry's bathroom since it's beach themed). Later, in the evening, Jon and I went to walk around Lake Poway. Unfortunately, we got there somewhat late (they close the parking lot at sunset), and we didn't want to get locked in, so we just walked a little ways around and then back.

Lake Poway


The beautiful Poway. I love this.

Tuesday: We went to Balboa Park because there are a few museums that are free on Tuesdays for San Diego residents. So we got to go to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum (totally weird- but gotta love those old men and their hobby). I can't even imagine ever putting together something so big and detailed. They had the deserts of Arizona and San Diego. The Pacific railroad with the ocean and surfers. There was even a McDonald's with a car going through the drive-thru. It was pretty crazy, and it's so cool that these guys just do it for fun (their volunteers). Then we went over to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. I used to love this place as a kid, so I knew Ry would love it. They have tons of hands-on science experiments. I think Jon even had fun doing the experiments!

Ry has light up shoes (they're called Twinkle Toes)... so when she touched this, the electricity must have went through her and lit up her shoes without moving her feet!

I wanted to take Jon to the USS Midway sometime this week as well (I was trying to think of things Jon would enjoy doing in San Diego since I knew he wouldn't enjoy Disneyland), so my Mom drove us over there. She and Ry were going to just walk around at Seaport Village, while Jon and I toured the aircraft carrier, but Ry said she wanted to see the "big boat" too. It was a bit pricier than I thought (I was planning on bringing my student ID because I knew I could get discounts at all these places, but I must have left it back in our apartment), but my Mom was nice enough to pay for all of us.

Ry and Jon in front of the aircraft carrier.

It's a self-guided tour, so you can go in any order that you want. They give you headphones and a device that you enter in whatever number the exhibit is, and it will tell you about each part of the ship.


Jon in front of one of the planes with his headphones. :)


Jon in the ship's prison.


On the flight deck... Can I just say that Ry loves her Uncle Jon? They're best friends... or so she thinks. Haha.


Downtown San Diego from the carrier.


Coronado Bridge (I wanted to take Jon across that too, but maybe another time)!

Wednesday: We were going to go to Disneyland, but I decided that my feet were so tired from all the walking around we did on Tuesday that we would go Thursday instead. So we headed up to Julian in the mountains of San Diego, where it gets snow. Remember that storm that we drove through on the way down to San Diego? Well, Julian got their own storm and got some snow. I didn't expect much at all because I figured it wasn't the time of year when they would still be getting a lot, but I was completely wrong. Oh, and the reason I wanted to take Jon to Julian was because I wanted him to see some towns in San Diego that aren't actually in the city (the only hopes I have for us ever moving to San Diego would be in Ramona, which you drive through on the way to Julian). Anyways, Julian is a cute little town that makes all their money off of their apples and the snow in the winter. People love to go up there to eat apple pie and play in the snow. There's also some good hikes, which Jon and I were hoping to do... but like, I said, too much snow.

My apple pie a la mode (actually I got an apple berry or something like that).


A crazy sign that tells you where all the shops are.


Pretty much the main street in town that has a bunch of these little shops.

To be continued.....

Hello, Blog. Part 2

I forgot to mention in the last post that Jon gave me an iPhone for Christmas... Although, most of you probably know that already since I love to use it for Facebook now. It made our upcoming travels not so miserable and were able to know exactly where we were at all times and where we could stop for food and gas.

About halfway into January, Jon and I hit the road, in our wonderful Kia, to drive out to Arkansas. I really didn't want to have to take the longer route (down south/I-40), but we figured it was our best bet to avoid ice and snow. We had an adventure out there like we always do.... especially in that dang Kia. (Long story, but something has always happened with that car in the South!) I took some pictures along the way and posted them to Facebook to help with the boredom, so you may have seen all these, but these are all I have from our Arkansas trip.


The sunrise over the mountains when we left.

These were taken near Arches and Canyonlands, where I soon lost my 3G internet for most of the first day of our drive.

Somewhere in New Mexico, Jon decided he needed to stop to go to the bathroom. This was the lovely gas station. I locked the doors of the car because I was freaked out. Got to love the Indian reservations- so safe.

We stayed the night in Amarillo, TX. My Mom later told me that both my younger brothers and I were all in Texas on the same day. Crazy! (One brother is serving a mission in Fort Worth and the other had finally gotten his visa and was on his way from South Carolina to Brazil for his mission.) I wish I had taken a picture of one of the waffle makers the next morning when we got breakfast at the motel- it was in the shape of Texas. Only in Texas would you be able to make Texas-shaped waffles!!!

Anyways, I don't think I could ever live in Texas. Jon and I have considered it, but from what I have seen (see above), it is pretty flat. Although, I'm sure this is mostly just the panhandle, but it hasn't looked much better whenever I have flown into Dallas.

On our second day of driving, we were getting close to Oklahoma City, when we heard a loud noise- like something hit our car. Jon pulled over immediately (he thought we blew a tire) and checked everything out. He looked at all the tires, and even laid on the ground to see if anything was dragging underneath. Nope. He didn't see anything... until he looked up near the windows. A piece of the trim had come off the back passenger door and whipped around, hitting the back window. I didn't get a picture of it at the time, but I did take pictures later. Jon just ripped the piece off and threw it in the car. (See what I mean about the South? It hates that Kia... or the Kia hates the South. We've had a crack in our windshield and the motor for a window go out in previous trips down there.)

The wonderful trim that broke off the car. Good thing we sold the car to his sister!!!! She knew what she was getting into with that car though (and we sold it for a lot less than it was probably worth).

Well, that's all the pictures I took on our trip to Arkansas. Pretty much, we were there for a month, and, for the most part, it wasn't very fun. The weather was horrendous. I just had to laugh when Jon said we would be getting away from Utah's winter, when it was just as bad in Arkansas. It was freezing almost every day (and even more so inside the house since their heat really doesn't work). It snowed quite a bit for the area, thus making it so you were stuck inside all day (hills + no plows + freezing weather = frozen, slippery roads). Also, since weather was crappy a lot, that meant no school, which meant too much time spent with my Nephew. We did get to go to Branson for a weekend, which would have been nicer if the Nephew was not there. But Jon gave me money to shop at the outlets (although, I didn't get to go to all the stores I wanted to because the Nephew was having a hard time- what a surprise!). I watched the whole Veronica Mars series on Netflix out there because there wasn't much to do (why was that show cancelled?!). Jon's Mom did buy me a month's gym pass, so I got to go there a few times. And I did get to hang out with Emily and Tanner a few times. Wish we got to hang out more- and wish Jon and I hung out more with Joseph and Julieta too. Oh well, let's just say that Jon and I are never planning on going back for such a long period of time again... and Jon will probably not be working for his Dad again. We both were ready to get home to Utah and have some quiet and privacy again! (And I was excited to go to San Diego and Disneyland soon after!)