WTF?!?!

The jewelry store where Ross got my wedding ring set has a policy that if you bring your rings in every 6 months for a cleaning and inspection they will replace any stones that fall out. Mine was due this month and we took it in yesterday. I had an engraving in my engagement ring and when I got them sautered together they buffed out the engraving so when we went in yesterday Ross asked them about it and they said they can put it back on for free. The lady at the counter asked what was engraved and I told her it was Y. T. F, for some reason she started to laugh. So we went to run some other errands while she worked on my ring. When we came back, I picked up the ring and looked at the engraving and the light wasn't good enough to read it well. When we got out to the car I was looking closer and had to laugh. I handed the ring to Ross to see what he saw, she engraved WTF instead of YTF. Kind of explains her laughing about it. We are debating whether we are going to get it fixed or not, cause it kind of fits still.

Last Weekend

Last weekend my niece, Celeste, was baptised. Ross wasn't able to go and Mel was sick so I rode down with Jeff and Nathan on Friday. I always forget how long of a drive it is to get to Bluff and I think that's because there really isn't a lot to look at. When Jeff picked me up he dropped off his camping gear, Ross was going to meet us for camping Saturday. Right off the bat Nathan was showing me that he lost a tooth. He was very proud of that and periodically through out the weekend would ask Jeff to look and see if his new tooth was any bigger. We had hotel rooms for Friday night. Originally we would only have a place to stay for Friday night so we had decided to go to Goblin Valley to camp on Saturday night. Then at the beginning of the week we found out that we had rooms for both nights but decided to camp anyways, the others stayed the weekend in Bluff. Nathan, Jeff and I were put in one room since we were staying just one night. The rooms were actually nicer than I expected for Bluff. The beds were actually comfy, but very small. They were smaller than a double bed and very short, Jeff is shorter than Ross and his feet were hanging off the bed, so if Ross had been there a large chunk of his legs would hang off. It reminded me of the scene in "Fred Claus" where Vince Vaughn is sleeping in the elf bed. The baptism was at 11 on Sat so we had some time to just play around that morning before getting ready, Brandon had brought his Wii so it was fun to watch the little boys and my parents play. I was back in our room brushing my teeth and Jeff told me he had to show me something. He said in the night he felt like he got bit by something and on the edge of his and Nathan's bed, coming out of the blankets, was a big black spider, it was the size of a cough drop. Nasty. It really made me nervous to pull the blankets from my bed out. Later when we were taking stuff to the car I pulled out a grocery bag with bags of chips and inside was another big black spider, not as big but still creepy. I can understand spiders but not in a hotel room. I expect my hotel rooms to be bug and rodent free.

The baptism was kind of interesting. I haven't been to a baptism since my mission and those were usually for adults in stake centers. In Bluff they just have a branch so I thought the baptism would be in Blanding in a stake center but they did have a baptismal font in the branch building. The floor to the kitchen comes up and there is a font under there. Very small but it does the job. It was a pretty short service since Celeste was the only one getting baptized, which I was very much ok with. After the service there was a lunch. After the lunch we were getting ready to go, I was outside talking to Ross making sure he had everything we needed him to bring and letting him know we would probably be leaving sooner than expected. Most of the time I was talking to him I was walking around outside and Nathan was following me. Every step I took he would follow and give me a flat tire. I would turn around to chase him away and he would run behind me again and step on my heels. He is def my brother's son. Funny kid.

On the way to meet Ross we stopped in Moab to get food for breakfast then met Ross in Green River and then went on the Goblin Valley. We didn't actually camp in the camp ground, cost too much, we just went out by Little Crazy Horse and found an open spot where someone had already made a fire pit and set up camp. Its a nice place to camp but the wind was horrendous. I am so not a fan of the wind. I had just put on some chap stick and then got out of the car to set up the tent and with the wind and all of the sand my lips were caked with sand. After setting camp and weighing the tent down we went over to the park. Goblin Valley is a very unique place. Its down in this little valley and there are a lot of clusters of red rock and sandstone. When the sun starts to set and you are sitting up on the rim the shadows and formations look like goblins. Its a lot of fun to hike and climb on the rocks.

The sunset was amazing but the pictures don't do it justice.

On Sunday after we got camp cleaned up we decided to do Little Crazy Horse, some slot canyons that were right there. I did them years ago and they were pretty cool. Again the wind was horrible, it was whipping up the canyons pretty hard and all the sand was in the air again. We hiked together for a little while then Jeff and Nathan slowed down. We waited for them to catch up and when they finally did it was the funniest site. Nathan had been collecting rocks the whole way up and his pockets were so full of rocks his pants were falling down so he had to hike with one hand holding his pants up and he showed me another rock he was carrying in his other hand because it wouldn't fit in his pants. When the wind and sand got painful we decided it was time to turn around and head back.

On the way down when Ross and I got ahead of them we would wait a little for them to catch up. The last time we were waiting for them Nathan told me we could just go ahead and wait in the car that way we didn't get sand in our eyes and mouths, which was ok with me.

When we got out we headed to lunch and then home, the ride home was pretty uneventful, which was a good thing. We got a little rain and lots of wind but my parents who were actually about an hour behind us got pretty bad snow.

Weekend Warrior!!

I am getting very excited for this summer. Its already filling up, but that is normal, my summers are always full and they fill up early, in fact, the summer of 2010 is already starting to get things planned for it.

Ross and I had been talking about making a trip to Jackson Hole, he broke something I got from there and promised to replace it. We figured we will only be like an hour and a half from Yellowstone and Ross has wanted to see Old Faithful so we may as well go. Ross has been to Yellowstone when we were snowmobiling but didn't get to go in and see the sites. I think it will be fun. We are also in charge of my family's family reunion this year so we get to plan and do that in June. I think it will be a lot of fun. We are going to a camp ground we have never been to before and judging by the map all the camp sites are on the beach.

I also started today, due to my boredom at work and my desire to get out, planning another road trip. This time to Mount Rushmore. I have always wanted to go and I figured, why not take a weekend. It would take 10 hours to drive there, take off after work, take a tent and things to camp along the way. I have never been to South Dakota. Then we can drive down through part of Nebraska on the way home (never been to Nebraska either). Luckily Ross is all for it. I love to travel and sometimes he isn't as excited.

Along with everything else this summer there has been a lot of talk of doing a lot of hiking around here and in Salt Lake and multiple back packing trips, nothing as far as Havasupai but things we can just do over the weekend. Man, I am so ready for summer to be here and I wish it could last longer, it always goes by very fast.

6.5 Miles of Hell

To start off on thursday my brother and sister-in-law dropped my nephews off at our place for us to watch for a little bit while they went to an appointment, thats not the hell part. We don't really have a lot for a 5 and 2 1/2 year old to do so we put them on the wii. They had a lot of fun bowling and after each turn Zach, the 2 1/2 year old would yell "strike" and get excited. When they were done with bowling they decided to box and that was so funny. Between watching them and laughing I got some video.

Then on Friday Jeff, Ross and I were going to go to Bryce canyon to camp and hike. We have been wanting to do a winter camp out and we were hoping to be able to combine it with snowshoeing but that didn't work. They didn't have enough snow and wasn't supposed to get snow for a couple of days. On our way out of town I decided to stop and get Ross some hiking boots for his safety. Last year we did some camping and then went hiking in Arches and there was some snow and all Ross had was his skater shoes with no traction and, well, that was intersting. Oh wait. . . . . I have a picture of it.So, to keep my husband alive I got him some boots with good traction on the bottom.

It was about 8:30 when we got into the camp ground at Bryce and it was pretty cold. We did hit some hairy weather on I-70 on the way down but when we got to the camp ground the sky was pretty clear and there was a really cool halo around the moon. We just set up camp, the guys had some hot dogs and then we went to bed, we didn't have wood to make a fire and it was too cold to just stand around with out a fire. Last year we discovered the best thing for winter camping. You take like 2 or 3 of the hand warmers, heat those up and put them in your sleeping bag, one at the foot, one between the knees and one up top. With those I stay warm, and usually I get cold easy. It makes winter camping possible.

This is camp before bed. And below is camp after we woke up.

You can't see it but its snowing still. We were told it wouldn't snow. It was so cold when we finally got up. We went in search of a pavillion to cook breakfast under cause it was so cold, windy and snowy. We couldn't find one so just ended up on a picknick table at the trailhead of where we were going to hike. When we were cleaning up breakfast Ross was taking a bag to the dumpster and slipped on some ice and ended up on his back. It was like in the cartoons when someone slips and end up in the air verticle before landing on their back. Luckily he didn't hit his head and when he got his wind back was ok. Jeff and I had been playing on the ice before and thought Ross knew it was there, a big sheet of thick ice with a layer of snow on it.

After breakfast was cleaned up we headed out for a hike. I was feeling ambitious because my workouts had been pretty good so I figured ok, lets do the whole thing, 6.5 miles. What I didn't factor in was the 10 pounds of clothing I was wearing. It was so cold. I had long johns, ski pants, sweatshirt, coat and boots on, at the gym its some thin pants and shirt and light running shoes. And the fact that half the trail was covered in snow didn't help either, made it very difficult and slippery. I was dead after 2 miles and just wanted to be done. The bad part was we hadn't done this part of the trail before and it was hard to follow the trail so we had no idea how far we had yet to go. The scenery however was beautiful, I love the red rock with the white snow.

I have never been so excited to get to the parking lot as I was after this hike. I think I just need to get into much better shape.

Yoga

I have a friend at work that has introduced me to the interesting world of yoga. I thought it was a bunch of hodge podge. Her and Ross, back in the day, would sit and discuss yoga and moves and things when Ross was really into it and I thought it was boring and a waste of time. Time has passed and now my friend is a certified yoga instructor and she just started offering classes. Part of the classes is a discussion on different aspects of yoga and things to improve our lives and most of the actual yoga part is for relaxation and stress relief as opposed to toning. At first I went just to support my friend but I have come to really enjoy it. I have definitely lost a lot of my flexibility as I have gotten older and so its great to get limber again and to work on my stretching, but it has also affected how I think about things. I have found I want to eat healthier and it makes my other work outs much easier mentally. Last night Ross, Bre and I went to the rec center and took a class. I did much better than I thought I would. It was all the toning and the more strenuous moves and it felt really good, I was actually able to hold the warrior pose much longer than I thought I would have. Then we got to stand on our heads. I am more excited to keep this up and continue yoga with my other work outs.

Temple of the Birds

On Thur night Jeff and I went out to Temple of the Birds to take some night pictures. Its out past Saltair off I-80. There is this old abandoned building and an old train car and tons of parts of an old water slide. It was really pretty cold but I got some ok pictures out of it. Jeff got some really cool ones, I just need to work with my camera more and figure more things out, oh and get a batter that won't die on me :) Here are some photos I took.

When we first pulled up it was pretty dark and from the beginning I had an eerie feeling like we were being watched and every time I looked at the left window of this building it looked like someone was there watching me. I hadn't been in the building so I didn't know what the lay out was, but it really looked like someone was there. I was trying to ignore it and not say anything cause last time we went to a ghost town to take pictures it was the creepiest experience of my life. We camped near it and I think it was Feb so it was still snowy and we hadn't been there before and it was up this canyon out past Green River and Crescent Junction, we pull in when it was light and looked around, this one was an actual house or I think it may be have been a boarding house, but this was the creepiest place ever when it got dark. Jeff, Ross and I all felt like there were people there and I took a picture and on the little screen on my camera it looked like something was up in the window. We camped a little ways down from the house in a little pull out and it was dark when we set up camp and as we were out looking for fire wood we found cow and deer bones so then we got to wondering about mountain lions, it was the time of year for them to be in the area, and we had high canyon walls that they could have dens in. Between the rain on the tent and all the other night noises Jeff and I didn't get any sleep, it kept sounding like someone was opening the zippers and creeping around camp (after this I swore of horror movies). Very long creepy night. So, after this experience I wasn't going to say anything to Jeff, didn't want him to make fun of me. We got in the train to take pictures and I still had the feeling, when I was done there I walked over to Jeff and asked "Is it just me or . . . . ." and he finished my sentence with "does it look like someone is in the left window watching us?" So we both felt it and from the same window. He assured me that there is no way someone can be up there, it was a big empty room with a stage. Jeff has started bringing his gun when we go to places like this, which makes me feel safer, especially when we are out in the middle of no where, and considering all the graffiti, people frequent it and we have expensive camera's and stuff, and we did have some odd visitors while we were there, they sat in their car and were either watching us or making out. We are planning to go out there again, just with full camera batteries.

10 planes and 63 hours of travel

Soooo, I am back at home. It was so good to get home and have my own bed. Its always good to get home, not that I didn't have fun, but its good to be home. So this may bore some of you as I detail my trip so for those of you that are bored, I am putting lots of pictures, those are always fun to look at.

So it all started on Thur the 5th. I got off work a couple hours early so we could go to the airport. It was pretty uneventful and we got into the New Orleans airport at like 12:10 and Ross' mom was there to pick us up, then we had another hour and a half drive to Baton Rouge. I was pretty dead by the time we got to go to bed. Then we slept for a while and when we eventually got up we went to run some errands with Ross mom and we stopped to see Ross' great grandma and his sister-in-law. We stopped at Raising Cains for lunch, oh my gosh I had the best lemonade. Its a limited time drink, its made from fresh lemons and that kind of lemonade is so much better than what you buy in the store that is bitter. Very good stuff. Then we took Ross' brother some lunch and when we walked into his band room, he is a high school band teacher, he had the kids ready and at attention and called Ross up to conduct. I guess he had told his students that a very important band director is coming for a visit and they need to be at their best for him. I got pictures of Ross "directing" the band but they are on my cell and my phone is handicap and I can't get pictures off of it. But it was pretty funny. Ross didn't want to do it but was talked into it. Later we just hung out with his brother until we had to go to dinner and then we went to the grandparent's house for a little b-day party for Ross and I. His grandma got us a cake with our names on it and the whole family was there. They gave us both birthday cards and it was funny, on mine the card said happy birthday, and they wront in "in March". It was fun. Sat morning we had to go back down to New Orleans to catch the plane. Our first flight went from New Orleans to Miami and we had a 3 hour lay over in Miami and then a 7 and a half hour flight from Miami to Madrid. Luckily it was at night and the flight wasn't totally full so I was able to take a couple of seats and lay down and get some sleep. I am not one of those lucky people that can sleep on planes very easily. But I did get some sleep. Ross wasn't able to get any sleep, which is very odd cause he can sleep anywhere. We had 2 meals on the plane and they really weren't bad for an airplane. We got into Madrid about 9am on Sunday and had another 3 hour layover.

We finally got into Paris around 2pm on Sunday and I was so glad to get out of the airport. The plan was to spend a few hours in Paris and then catch a train in the evening to Amsterdam but due to Ross lack of sleep we changed the plans and stayed in Paris the night, which I was so glad for a break in the traveling. It was nice becuase we got to go and see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower that night. When we were at the Eiffel Tower Ross left Linda and I to go find a bathroom while I finished taking some photos. We were on a dark running path, kind of out of the way, and while we were waiting for Ross this guy approached us talking in French. I don't know what he was saying and we tried to tell him we don't speak French and he just kept talking and talking so we started to walk away and he started to follow us, kind of made me nervous, and finally Ross shows up and he left. Here are some pictures I got from the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.


Before our train left the next morning we got a chance to go to see the Arc de Triump and Sacre Cour. It was pretty cool to get out and walk around the city but it was so overcast and cold and starting to rain. I got a picture from Arc de Triump of the Eiffel Tower and the top part was missing in the clouds.
Our train for Amsterdam left Paris around noon the next day and we had first class tickets. It was kind of nice to have some time to relax. With the first class tickets we got a meal and drink and the day we went it was duck and some other random stuff that I am not sure what it was. It was my first time eating duck and it was good, it looked and tasted like ham. It took about 4 hours to get to Amsterdam and we just chilled on the train reading and playing Ross' ds. When we got into Amsterdam we got our tickets to go back to Paris the next evening and booked some hotels and went off on the search for our hotel. We got a little lost. Its a tradition with Ross and I to accidentally get lost at least once and its usually when we first get into the city. Finally we got a "taxi" it was one of those bike taxis where they pull a little cart that holds 2 people, we piled all 3 of us and our luggage and this guy had to pedal us around. When we finally got to our hotel and checked in we started up the stairs. Previous to this Ross and I had been reminicing about our first time we went to Amsterdam and the stairs they had in the hotel, they were so steep and narrow that I felt like I needed a rope and harness for safety. We started up the first set of stairs at the hotel, which weren't too bad, then we came to another set of stairs that were a little steeper and this is what we found at the top of the 2nd flight of stairs.
The door on the left is the door to our room. After opening the door to our room we found . . . .

The stairs were so steep and narrow and the ceiling over the stairs was so low that I had to crawl to keep from hitting my head and my pack on it. They were almost vertical. Then when you get to the room there was 3 twin beds. We had a bathroom in our room which was nice but the shower, that was a different story. It was right next to the toilette and had no shower curtain, the whole room was just tile and it was almost like the the toilette was in the shower. But considering how cold it was there as long as the shower was hot, thats what counted. After dropping off our bags we went out to walk around and find some food and do some shopping. It was pretty cold and starting to rain so we went back to our room and ended up falling asleep by 8pm only to be woken up at 10 by our neighbors. I think as a rule all the hotel and hostel walls in Europe are paper thin. All the places we stayed we could hear other people very easily. The next day we had a contintental breakfast at the hotel bar (in Amsterdam almost all the hotels and hostels are built on top of a bar/restraunt and the bar keepers run the hotel). It was so cold and windy and rainy all that day. We did go to the Van Gough museum, Ann Frank's house and the Heineken brewery. It was kind of funny, we got some weird looks when we declined the free samples and in one room they taught us how to fully appreciate and enjoy your beer and handed out beers to our group and we just watched. It was kind of interesting and the anatomy of the beer makes more sense to me, not that I will ever need that info. I didn't get a lot of pictures in Amsterdam but here are some I took.I had an odd experience that I would never have in the states. On our way back to Paris we had about and hour and a half layover in Brussels. We decided to use the restroom and get something to eat before we had to get back on the train, the bathrooms on the trains are so disgusting, urin all over the floor and seats and it just reeks. Most train stations you have to pay to use the bathroom and its only like 2o cents so its not a huge deal, but this bathroom was co-ed, the guys on one side and the girls on the other and a half wall in the middle. When I came out of my stall there was a man mopping the floor right in front of my stall. Here in the US its always a female cleaning the womens restroom if there are people in it.

I was hoping when we got back to Paris that it would be warmer and drier. It was a little warmer and we had a couple days of sun but it was still pretty cold. I wore long johns under my jeans and a couple long sleeve shirts along with my hat, scarf, gloves and coat. Even Ross got cold, and that just doesn't happen. The rest of the time in Paris we saw Versaille, Louvre, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, tried to see the catacombs and did some shopping. Let me correct, we tried to see the catacombs but we were like 30 min too late, they had closed and we didn't get to see it but it was ok, I was bummed but not the end of the world. Instead Ross and I just went and got ourselves lost. We have done that when traveling, just wander and go down random streets and we usually find interesting things and its kind of cool. Here are some photos of parts of Paris.

Versailles

I really had to go to the bathroom when we were at Versaille and was surprised to see they don't believe in toilette seats.
This is the Louvre. For those that have seen Davinci Code this is where it starts. The pyramid actually continues down underground to the middle of the museum.




This is Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

This is Gare du Nord, the North train station and the central point for us in the city, it was our point of reference.
The next morning, Friday the 13th, we had to be up at 4 to get to the metro to catch a train to the airport. That night between the road noises and the people in the hotel Ross and I got about an hours worth of sleep. It was a very very long night. On the walk to the metro it was snowing and by the time we got on the plane there was a little over an inch of snow. It was def a good time to be leaving Paris. However it was also the beginning of the longest day of my life, quite literally because we gained 7 hours coming home. When we were flying over the ocean for about 4 hours we were in the noon hour. So we had a couple hour flight from Paris to Madrid, a 3 hour layover in Madrid and just as we were getting on the plane they pulled us to the side to ask additional security screening questions. I was not happy cause in Paris they made us check our bags, I never check my bags, they said the flight was too full, however, there was plenty of room for bags and others had bags about the size as ours. So, we eventually got on the flight to Miami and that flight was about 10 hours. It was a very long flight and I got so bored. The movies they had on the flight were pretty boring and to show the extent of my boredom Ross and I ended up watching Beverly Hills Chihuahau, never again. Finally we got into Miami and had an 8 hour layover. Linda got a hotel room which was the best ever, we got a shower and some real American food, Wendy's, and just relaxed. I was thinking it was the best ever to get back into the US but everyone in the airport spoke Spanish and at Wendy's they were Spanish, so it wasn't really as great. The shower was nice because the bathroom in our last hotel in Paris, the shower didn't work. It was one of those where the head was attached to a hose and you can take it off and move it, but the hose had so many holes and leaks very little water came out of the head, and there was no shower curtain. That and the bathroom didn't have a door, it had a big opening into the room that was covered by an accordian curtain that had big holes and gaps, very little privacy. So I was very excited for a real bathroom and soft towels. The flight from Miami to New Orleans was only like an hour and a half, part of that a little kid was screaming hysterically and wouldn't shut up and so the mom was yelling at the dad, the dad was yelling at the son and a huge family fight on the plane. I was so glad to land in New Orleans about 11:30. Grant picked us up and it was another 2 hours before getting back to Ross' mom's apartment. So, when we were in Paris, the last full day there, Ross and I were shopping and he was telling me he was really sorry he didn't get me anything for Valentines Day and just hamming it up, I told him it was ok cause we were going to celebrate it when we got home (I had his gift ready at home) and it wasn't a big deal. He kept going and he wanted to buy me something in Paris to make up for it. Then on the drive to his mom's it was like 1 am and officially V-day and he wished us a happy v-day and when we got home, I was falling asleep standing up (I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours), we went into the room we were staying in and on the desk was a vase of flowers and a teddy bear. Ross had asked Grant and Leah to pick up something and have it there for when we got back. It was the sweetest thing, and he kept it a surprise. Best husband ever, I never would have guessed it. Such a sweetie.With how exhausted we were I thought we would sleep till noon the next day but we both woke up around 7:30-7:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. My eyes were still tired but I couldn't sleep anymore. I was amazed that we were up that early and it was also very warm. After leaving the freezing weather it was so nice to be in a such a warm place. Ross and I went and got some shorts to wear. I loved it, I heard it was snowing most of the time at home while we were gone and I didn't want to leave the warmth of Louisianna.

On Sat we went to New Orleans for some Mardi Gras parades with Ross brother and sister-in-law, Grant and Leah. It was fun hanging out with them and getting to know them. Its hard to get to know Ross family when we only get out there a couple times a year so this trip was a good time to get to know his mom and then hang out with Grant and Leah. While we were waiting for the parades to start it started to rain and rained off and on, but it was ok cause it was pretty warm. We stayed for 2 parades and they were pretty small so I didn't get a whole lot of beads, which considering the lack of space we had going home, it was ok. On the way home Ross slept and Grant asked me random questions about myself. I also learned how to use Tony Chachery's to season mean. Something I am going to try. Here are some photos of us before the parades started.

Then Sunday morning it was yet again to New Orleans to the airport, my 4th time there in 9 days. I was so excited to be going home and looking forward to my own bed. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun on the trip and enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was time to get home and be done with planes and airports.