One Trip, Two Trip; Red Trip, Blue Trip

Last month Bryce and I took our first solo trip together (that wasn't to Disneyland)!

San Francisco!

I didn't take a lot of pictures because this was my first time in San Francisco without any actual adult supervision and I was too nervous about making sure we got everywhere in a decent amount of time so we could make it back to the airport. We had roughly four hours there, and I want to say most of it was spent in public transport, so that was fun.

Later in October, Bryce, Becca, her boyfriend, and I decided to go on a ghost hunting trip to Tucson. Becca had found a Groupon deal for couples to go on this "haunted buildings in Tucson" tour. We toured around (and by 'around' I mean 'the outside of') some of the old theaters, a Masonic lodge, an old hotel, and more. We didn't get to go inside any of the buildings, which was kind of lame, but it was still a cool tour! 

Again, not a lot of photos. Too busy looking for ghosts!

When it comes to these day trips, Bryce is definitely the more spontaneous one. When we hadn't gone anywhere for a couple of weeks, he insisted we try and find a city that sounded interesting. A couple weeks ago, on a Wednesday, his original choice of Denver wasn't looking good, so we opted to try for Portland two days later. 

Despite some drizzly rain, the weather was beautiful! We visited the largest independent bookstore in the world, Powell's City of Books, where we found some fascinating reads:

We also visited another arboretum! 

I think we like visiting trees in other states since we don't have them in Arizona.

This was another short trip, but it didn't feel nearly as rushed as San Francisco (probably because we didn't know what we were doing at any point). I'd definitely like to go back to Portland!

We also had a pretty fun Halloween last week! We decided to dress up as Toothless and Hiccup (from How to Train Your Dragon), and despite my original, elaborate plans, I ended up rushing my costume due to lack of time and ability to get materials in time. It's hard trying to dress up as a dragon, you guys. But I did manage to make Bryce's costume within a couple of hours, along with my own. Yay procrastination!

Reenacting awkward movie scenes

We found a much nicer Toothless 

BUT I almost forgot, earlier that day, we went to the State Fair with his parents!

Why.

Yay fake dinosaurs!

I ALSO PET A CUTE GOAT. (the video doesn't want to upload apparently, so you'll just have to take my word for it.)

Which leads me to my next train of thought...I got a job at the zoo! Unfortunately, it is just seasonal, but the guy who hired me said there is definitely possibilities of me staying on. I'll for sure be there until at least May. I'll be an "Experience Guide lvl 1", which means I'll be supervising/answering questions at the stingray petting area, the petting zoo, the squirrel monkey enclosure, and occasionally the giraffe feeding area! I'm excited!

Creative Titles are Hard

I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to figure out what I want to write, but I'm not really feelin' it. Anyway, I went on a camping trip with some friends and then flew to Seattle so here are those pictures!

 We went hiking to a place called Fossil Springs Creek. It was a beautiful hike, except that it was four miles downhill and the return trip was the worst thing ever.

Becca's brother about to jump off the waterfall

Getting some sun! 

There was lots of cliff jumping, and a little cave partway down the river where you could ride a current around and around inside. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it; when it got later in the day the sun hit the water inside the cave and made it super blue. We even saw a bat fly around inside a couple times!

As you guys know, Benworth flies for free with US Airways, but it's his last year to do so, as he turns 24 in January. He's been wanting to take advantage of the benefits as much as possible, so since we both have Friday off, we've decided to try and take as many day trips around the US as we can. Two weeks ago, his parents, Benworth, and I, flew to Seattle for the day!

First we visited Pike Place Market!

Gigantic bouquets EVERYWHERE

It's basically a gigantic farmer's market. It's also the site of the original Starbucks! Which had a line out the door even after the morning rush so we didn't bother.

Later, we visited the Washington Park Arboretum!

We saw sooo many little spiders hanging out in the trees, but this guy was ginormous. Like the size of a large grape.

We took a little detour to Fremont to visit the troll under the bridge.

And the Center for Wooden Boats.

As we were flying home, we passed right by Mt. Rainier! Pretty cool.

Seattle was beautiful, and I think I'd like to go back sometime. We're next planning to visit San Francisco (tomorrow, actually!), and I'm very excited for that!

Two weddings and a trip to the ER!

I think it's been established that I am the worst blogger of the family, but I think I just like waiting until a lot of exciting things have happened and then I can unload them all at once like a tsunami of events to make my life seem more thrilling. Otherwise every other blog post would be like, "Today I worked at Deseret Book. We closed two minutes early" or, "Today I worked at Deseret Book AND Guthrie. The kid I worked with got mad at me when I refused to sing the same song eight times in a row". Not very interesting stuff.

BUT this summer has been full of exciting family things, as you guys already know. People got married! I think I've attended five wedding receptions in the past two months alone. Obviously, the only ones I really cared about were Ashley's and Jared's!

I don't think I took any pictures at either of them, unfortunately. I'm sure they're devastated :P

Anyway, the day before Ashley's wedding Bryce had an interview for an engineering internship the hour before we were supposed to go, so I drove him out there so Dad could just pick both of us up when he was finished and we could drive up to Prescott. What was expected to be just an hour-long interview at most turned into an hour and a half, but we got out of there fine and made the journey up ok. Prescott had some beautiful weather, and the club where the ceremony took place was beautiful!

It was a beautiful ceremony and I think I ate my weight in cream puffs, which is always a plus. Congratulations again Ashley! :)
The night we drove back Bryce and I attended the reception of a couple in our ward, and I WISH I had gotten pictures, because it was the most absurdly fancy wedding reception I have been to yet. It was held at the groom's dad's house, (which Bryce and I have both been to once before for a party, during which the entire time I kept thinking, "It's like we're partying at Gatsby's."), on their front lawn/circular driveway thing. We arrived a little late, where we were greeted by a valet service, and I was handed a paper fan and parasol as the catering people directed us to where they were just finishing the ring ceremony. There were assigned seats, and a three-course meal, and we left before they even cut the cake because they played like four wedding games and I was exhausted. It was kind of a weird experience.

But we managed to get a nice picture out of it so there's that.

And of course, a month or so later, Jared and Cate got married! I did take a lot more pictures here, as we walked around the Bellagio/ Caesar's Palace for a while before we went to eat pizza. 

The garden inside the Bellagio changes for the seasons and this time they had a glass greenhouse with a bunch of birds inside! Look at this guy's tail!

And the world's tallest (also largest? I don't know.) chocolate fountain

This is the spiral escalator inside Caesar's right outside of the makeup store I had to hunt down.

Fancy Chihuly glass ceiling in the Bellagio lobby

I just really like flowers, I guess.

The reception was also super cool, and the arboreum (natural history museum? Park?) where it was held was awesome! I've never seen so many donuts in one place in my life.

Other than multiple wedding receptions, I haven't been doing much; working, deciding what classes I'll need for ASU, working, etc. However, I did have a very interesting Monday night earlier this week. For FHE our ward was having a pool party at one of the member's parents house, where they had a trampoline and a DJ, and we played watermelon football. This house also had a two-story zip line. I had been to that house once before, right after our ward boundaries got rearranged and about two weeks before I left for Florida, and I remember the zip line had a harness that held your legs and then metal handles overhead to hold on, with a rope dangling beneath so you could run the zip line back to the next person in line. This time, there wasn't a harness, just the handles, but everyone was going down the zip line fine; my bishop's wife, my RS president, several girls and most of the boys. I figured I would be fine, despite my nerves. I'm not very good with heights, but my RS president was shouting encouraging things to me and she had done fine, and I didn't want to make the people behind me impatient. My hands were a little sweaty but the metal handles were textured for better grip and some of the other girls were saying that there was just a little dip at the beginning when the line took your weight, then it was easy the rest of the way. 

A few people have suggested that my hands were probably slick from the Vaseline that they coated the watermelon with, but plenty of other people who had played had gone on the zip line before me. Whatever it was, the moment I slid off the edge of the platform, I lost my grip and fell about 20 feet to the ground. 

Afterwards, a lot of people asked whether it felt like time slowed down as I fell, but I remember feeling like everything happened very quickly. It felt like I hadn't even been holding on, despite the cuts on my hands from the textured metal that prove otherwise. I remember trying to grab for the rope, but then quickly closing my eyes, and then landing on my back very hard and immediately feeling like my ribs had been compressed by a giant vise. Then I felt like I couldn't breathe and I started gasping like a fish and I heard someone say, "She's going into shock" and another girl in my ward (Kariann, who I later found out works in physical therapy) saying I needed to try for deep breaths and that two of the men were going to give me a blessing. During the blessing, I could still move my fingers and toes, and the most of the overall pain had started to fade into specific pains on my pelvis and my neck. I think that blessing helped a lot; I found out later there was less than a foot between where my head landed and the concrete porch. Someone called the paramedics, and while I was lying there Kariann made sure I could move my feet and checked my pupils before the paramedics even arrived. Anyway, the paramedics arrived, put me in a neck brace and a stretcher, and I had my first ever ride in an ambulance! Not super fun, especially since the lights in there are very bright and they never turned them off. They tried to put a plastic thing (a catheter?) in my arm so the people at the hospital could give me an IV if they needed to, but I said I'd really rather wait until we got to the hospital.

We got in the hospital, where they covered me with some blankets before destroying my swimsuit so a doctor could push on my spine so they could make sure nothing was wrong,  and then I had some x-rays and a CAT scan. So exciting! Except hospitals are very cold when you're just wearing a swimsuit and especially when you're not. Anyway, the results came back, and there was absolutely nothing wrong; no bleeding or fractures or anything. They didn't even give me an IV, so I have a lovely blue/purple bruise where the catheter was for no reason.  Ah well. I definitely have more to be thankful for than to complain about.

Also don't have any pictures from the ordeal, but I did take a picture of the sunset right before going to the party 

WORTH IT
(I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Catch-Up

Since my sisters have been so diligent the past month or so of keeping updated on their blogs, I figured I should join the party! Let's see...I guess I should start from my birthday, which was very fun. If you read Ashley's blog, you know she was able to join us for a birthday dinner at Benihana (and a California trip the next day), but earlier in the day we went to the Gilbert Temple open house, which was beautiful!

Not my picture, but a far better one than I would have been able to capture.

It's always nice to be able to walk through the temples before they're dedicated, and this is only the third one I've ever toured, which is pretty cool.

The only picture I have; squinty eyes and a terrible mustache ;)

Anyway, later we went to Benihana, which was delicious and surprisingly fun. It may have to be a birthday staple in the future!

The next morning, Ashley, Mom, and I flew out absurdly early to California! The weather was beautiful (although a little windy), and we ate breakfast at this really pretty restaurant right next to the beach!

We went shopping at a huge outdoor mall, as well as inside our cousin Jason's boutique, which was a lot of fun! 

Related? Naahhh....

Later in February, I found out that if you bring a birthday card to the King at the Renaissance Festival during President's Day, you can get two people in for the price of one! So, since Bryce was busy that day, I took his little sister Brielle, since she had never been.

I took like 800 pictures of the elephants but I'll spare you guys

later I realized the only thing I took pictures of was the animals. Sorry guys.

I hadn't been to the Ren Faire in years, so that was pretty fun! And very hot for a February, but still good.

(Man, I definitely need to try and update more often; I'm trying to go through my pictures and figure out what I've been doing for the last few months!) 

Near the end of February my friend Becca hosted a Greek-themed murder mystery dinner party, which was tons of fun! She had this whole Greek feast spread out, and the story we did was hilarious. 

I don't know what's happening with our faces here I'm sorry.

Anyway, I know Jared used to have dinner party kits like that...and last I heard, Nicole was the one who had them (??). Either way, if either of you (Nicole or Jared) know what happened to them, I'd be interested!

Life Updates

Ok, nothing too terribly exciting has happened lately, but I figured I'd give a little life update (sans pictures, sorry sisters).

I had a super fun time at Christmas with everyone, and afterwards I was lucky enough to go visit Dan and Nicole and Camden up in Utah for a few days. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures (that's Nicole's job, right? ;)), but I'm sure you can read all about it at Nicole's blog.

I'm still working (and enjoying work) at Deseret Book, but with the end of the holidays and the temple being closed for refurbishment for this and next week, business has slowed to a crawl and it can get pretty tedious (especially during the evenings, when I usually work). On the upside, I think I've memorized both Ephraim's  Rescue and 17 Miracles, despite having never sat down to watch either of them.

I've also started back up at Guthrie, but just at one day a week (during the school year there are a lot less kids, and a lot less time that they are available), and just for four/five hours, so it hasn't been too difficult to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, even just four hours there can sometimes stretch my patience to the limit; twice now I've had to work with a kid who has the biggest attitude for an 11-year-old I've ever met. Yesterday, the last hour and a half I had with him was particularly rough; he started being incredibly rude during group time and the director of the center where I work had to intervene several times, and he even resorted to spitting and attempting to scratch her. Not the most pleasant experience. Other providers have told me he has quite the reputation for talking back and eye-rolling....I thought that type of behavior didn't come until the teen years! Kids these days...:P

Anyway, I've probably mentioned this before, but this semester I'm not taking classes; just working up to save money to start going to Grand Canyon University for ASL interpreting. Exciting! I've also, on a sort of whim, decided to start learning Spanish, mostly due to this app/website called Duolingo (maybe you guys have heard of it?). It's pretty fun, and since Bryce served a Spanish-speaking mission, he's still fluent and can help me.The app is kind of cool; it has little lessons assigned by your level of fluency, and then you can build up points and compete against friends. It has you practice translating short phrases from English to Spanish (and vice versa) and will even have you repeat Spanish phrases. I'm only on the second level so far, and I would definitely say it's helpful to know at least a little of the language you want to learn, as it kind of just jumps straight into conjugating, without any real explanations of how to conjugate. I think I only took Spanish for a year and a half in junior high, but I do remember certain phrases, and (more importantly) I sort of remember how to conjugate. They only offer a few languages so far (I think just Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and German), but I've read they're planning on updating it soon with Japanese, Russian, and Korean, I think.

I'm liking it a lot; it's nice to keep learning things when I'm not taking classes. I'll make sure to keep you all updated with the progress I make :)