Holiday Part 3 - Utah

UTAH

After the long drive back to Utah we got to sleep in the next day because there was a special church broadcast for the entire Utah area. The broadcast included the YW General President and M. Russell Ballard! I felt so lucky to be able to be in Utah for that. He cautioned about a lot of things that can commonly occur where there is a lot of prosperity, but my favourite was that he actually mentioned Pokémon Go while Matt was playing Pokémon Go on his phone. In case you were wondering, no he just kept on playing. Specifically, he just advised that we should take time to put down our devices and spend quality time with each other.

Later on Sunday I visited with my mom’s parents that are now staying at an assisted living home near my mom’s house in South Jordan. The place is kind of like a cruise ship complete with a salon, gym, pool, restaurant like dining area, and fun activities scheduled each day. It definitely seems like a much better place for them and I was glad we were able to visit. My grandpa had us read some of his funny stories and once again I felt bad for not having read his autobiography yet. He did have us ready his autobiography though – the one that is literally an auto-biography or biography of all the automobiles owned over the years. It was pretty funny.

The next day Matt and I had to add Matt to my bank account in Utah. The branch manager at America First knows my mom really well as she works across the street and does all the accounting for Cruise lady. She helped us apply for a loan to help consolidate some of our high interest loans sorted. I was really impressed with how the credit union has improved over the years and I wish Australia had more credit unions.

We met up with my dad and his wife Liliana for lunch at their new house. I had never met Liliana, but I knew she made my dad happy. I got to practice a lot of my Spanish while visiting as she is from Peru. Although she speaks English, some conversations are hard for her to follow. My dad switches from English and Spanish when talking with her and it was wonderful to see how happy he is. After visiting with them we visited my dad’s parents at their home. My grandma was taking a nap, but grandpa woke her up so we could still visit. We talked about all kinds of things. They asked when we would have kids and the most I could say was that I wasn’t on birth control anymore. I think my grandparents have likely given up on getting great grandkids from my family since I’m the only one married so far. My grandpa pointed out that I had twelve years before I would lose my fertility! I learned more about my grandma’s past jobs as a secretary and my grandpa’s work in printing. They have had lots of amazing experiences! As I like to say “getting old is earned.”

After a long day of visits Matt and I had a nice dinner by ourselves at Texas Roadhouse. I mentioned to the guy we would like lots of their fresh baked rolls and he delivered! He brought a basket with four rolls for each of us. We demolished them and half of a 3^rd basket before our meal arrived. Matt had steak and ribs and he claims they were the best ribs he had ever had! In case you didn’t know, it is rare for Matt to ever give much praise to a meal so this was impressive. I had steak and garlic shrimp and they were both worthy of my happy food dance. The food was spectacular, the service was amazing, and we both agreed Texas Roadhouse was our favourite restaurant by far.

Our next day we had arranged to go on a massive hike to Kessler Peak with my brother Destin. Matt wanted to hike Mt. Timpanogus but the pass is being worked on so it was closed. We started out with a big breakfast for some reason and then Serisa, my dad and Liliana took us up to where the trail started. 

We had some disagreement with where the trail started since it is not a marked trail. In the end we took the trail my dad pointed out but Destin still thought the actual trail was farther to the left. When the small path we started on up the mountain came to an abrupt end, Destin tried to just help us up and to the left of the mountain. We found a bunch of deer trails, pushed our way through lots of bushes, climbed up loose rocks and soft dirt, and still didn’t find the trail. Luckily Matt had found me a walking stick early on that made my trek up the mountain a lot easier. We discovered we had reception when Destin got a call about their room listing. Upon looking at the GPS and the trail map on the phone Destin determined we had gone too far to the left of the mountain but if we headed up we should eventually run into the trail. This time we kept going up and to the right and about 30 minutes from the top we finally found the actual trail. The view from the top was worth all the effort and blisters obtained. I had only been once before when I was young, but Matt said it was the most extensive hike he had ever done in his life. My sister Carina used a mirror so we could identify the Woodruff cabin from the top. 

We headed down just as it started to rain a little bit and at that time my legs were spent. I had to get down the mountain though so I just had to take breaks to stretch out my legs. The whole endeavour resulted in a few blisters and jello legs that didn’t want to work properly for 3 days. Still worth it. We spent the rest of the evening having kebobs at the cabin and playing Help Your Neighbour and Scotland Yard. It was a wonderful and exhausting day.

I don't think the video works and it is sideways, but oh well...

A Panorama that did not work out well.... Carina looks ok though.

Destin had the following day off work so we all went up to Park City. We ate at a Shabu Shabu place where each person gets a pot with seasoning and vegetables that just sit and boil. The meat that you order you hold with chopsticks and swish in the water until it is cooked to your liking. Once done with the meat you put udon noodles in the pot and finish it off as a soup. It was really yummy! Afterwards we attempted to go to the Olympic park to do a ropes course but it was closed. Instead we went shopping and Pokémon hunting. My legs really struggled up and down stairs but I know the walking was really good for them. Afterwards we had sloppy joe’s at my mom’s house and played Betrayal at House on the Hill. I miss playing games with the family!

Carina got Thursday off work so we went to her house to get some things out of her attic to take back to Sydney. While there, Carina had two Hispanics come to look at the room she is renting and they spoke very little English. I got to translate for them which proved to be a major challenge and I frequently just summarised. My favourite was trying to figure out how to explain pest control. I eventually said there are people that come every three months that take care of spiders and things. I couldn’t remember the word for bug so that was the best I could do. It was pretty funny and my sister was glad I was there. We had lunch at The Training Table which I’m glad still has my favourite turkey bacon ranch sandwich. I hope they never change too much as I have so many great memories from working there in high school. Serisa had an appointment with her physiotherapist so we explored the nearby pumpkin patch while we waited. 

Afterwards, Carina took us to see some of the birds that she works with. The African hornbill was a lot of fun as it actually enjoyed being pet, but I think our favourites were the two tiny owls because they are so adorable! All of the birds were amazing. To finish off the night we had a pizza and a movie night complete with Domino’s and the recent Huntsman movie. For the record I actually liked the Huntsman way better than the Snow White and the Huntsman.

Marshmallow the Barn Owl

Friday my mom had work off so we went to the temple. 

Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan, UT

 Afterwards we went with Serisa and Carina to the new Living Planet Aquarium. It was pretty impressive and they even had clouded leopards! We were lucky enough to be there when both the male and female were out and moving around in the enclosure. Clearly that was my favourite part.

My mom left for her date night while the rest of us met up with my dad to see Ben Hur in the movie theatre. I liked it, but naturally there were certain things I liked about the original more. Serisa had never really grown up with the old Ben Hur movie liked this newer version best. It just goes to show that the younger generations are missing out on some great classics.

Saturday Matt and I got up early to play at a volleyball tournament (I can't seem to find the photos we took of this though). I used to play a lot of UOVA outdoor doubles when I was in high school, but I haven’t played at all in the last few years at least. There were five teams in our pool and we played 2 games to 21 against each. Our first team was a junior team so the oldest was 14 at the most. We didn’t even warm up really. Matt hadn’t ever really played doubles or much volleyball in general, but he was great. He had good instincts of when to block and where and could even jump so high his head goes above the net. Unfortunately, his arms were not prepped for the beating. We lost every game, but not without a decent fight. Other teams including the juniors were much more consistent. The second to last team Matt’s arms were on fire and he borrowed a long sleeve shirt from my brother Destin’s partner (girl’s long sleeve shirts actually fit him pretty well). During our second game with that team I noticed my thumb was really hurting and was kind of shaking it. Just before the other team served I noticed the thumb joint was swollen and showed Matt. The other team was just one point from winning so we decided to take care of it after the won and they gave me ibuprofen and ice for it. We still had one more team to play and I convinced Matt to keep going. At that point we were both not making a big effort since Matt’s arms hurt and I didn’t want to make my thumb any worse. We decided to forfeit the last game. It was still a blast and my brother tried to convince Matt that we should play more regularly.

Can you tell which one I injured? 

After volleyball we went to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Carina, my dad and his wife Liliana. 

Matt and I still had a bunch of shopping left to do so the rest of the time went by quickly with going in and out of shops. In the end our biggest shopping haul was at JCPenney’s. I don’t know why we didn’t head there first. They had the Levi’s Matt was looking for, and the Sketchers and boots I was looking for. We also got Matt another suit. To finish it all off we went to Texas Roadhouse with everyone. Apparently it was homecoming night so there were lots of couples in fancy outfits and we were lucky to get in quickly with a party of 8 people. The meal was just as delicious as last time, but this time I got a large frozen lemonade which was amazing! Someone really needs to open one in Australia. We said our goodbye’s to everyone that night. Carina and Serisa stayed at the house playing video games while I packed. When I finished I played a bit of Yoshi’s Woolie World with Matt and we both agreed it was awesome. I’m tempted to get a Wii U now!

The next morning, we started our long journey back home. We had a seven-hour layover at LAX, which was pretty brutal. Matt slept on the floor for a bit, but I figured my body would adjust best if I tried to sleep on the plane. I bought sleeping pills and I think it helped a ton since I got about 6 hours of good sleep on the long flight. We also managed to finish Season 3 of The 100. I don’t think I’ll be watching any more of that show. As it has progressed I have just gotten more annoyed with the needless drama and they seem to like to kill or ruin every character I like. Stupid. I watched the movie Me Before You after that and was much more satisfied.

Long story short we made it back, picked up our cat, and life is pretty much back to normal. Well almost normal. I spoke to my boss when I got back and found out that she had been in the hospital for 10 days, had major surgery requiring an induced coma, and now can’t lift over 6 kilos and will have to be doing rehab for the next three months! I’m so glad I came back to hear she’s ok rather than in a coma! Nevertheless, how traumatic! Naturally this couldn’t have happened while I was here, so they had to have family come help do my role while I was away. Well I guess life is staying eventful! 

Holiday Part 2 - Alaska Cruise

ALASKA

Saturday morning Mike and Holly drove us all the way to Seattle where we met up with my Mom and Chuck to go on our week long cruise to Alaska. Our ship was called the Norwegian Jewel and was a much bigger ship than the Bahamas cruise Matt and I went on last. I had told Matt before that on cruise ships there’s always a formal night and you can get food including fruit and ice cream 24/7. The last cruise did not meet the expectations for Matt, but this once certainly did!

View of Seattle from the ship

While at sea and hanging out on the ship we got to go to shows, play Deal or No Deal (more like watch someone else play), get massages at the spa on board, and eat lots and lots of food. Since we booked the cruise with my mom’s company Cruiselady we also got to hear from inspirational men Jack Marshall and Bob Millet from my church. On Sunday we had a small devotional where we got to hear from each of them. Since we can’t have sacrament on board the ship, this was definitely a wonderful alternative. We never made it to any of Jack’s other talks, but I did get to two other talks from Bob Millet and loved every one. Some of my favourite questions/topics were “What would it take to shake your faith?” and “If you died today, what kingdom would you go to?”.

Le Cirque Bijou acrobat show ended with the entire ship's crew

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, Alaska. We went to a fun lumberjack show and then took a bus to Totem Bight Park with the Cruiselady group. The show was a lot of fun and we got to watch two guys in our group compete in the axe throwing competition and one was the overall winner. The park was amazing to see all the totem poles as well as the history behind them. Sometimes the story behind the pole is what makes the totem more interesting. My mom and chuck had gone on a seaplane tour and because the weather was so amazing that they even were able to land on one of the lakes up in the mountains. I can’t imagine living somewhere that you could only get to it by seaplane.

The next port was Juneau, Alaska. The ship spent the first part of the morning traveling to a glacier called Dawes Glacier. Matt and I woke up at 6am to see it and ended up having to wait an hour for the ship to get there. We had a great seat in the front of the ship, but since it was rainy none of our pictures turned out very well. There were still a few hours till we actually arrived in Juneau so my mom and I went to do an Origami class on the ship where we made tulips. Afterwards we went to a Thomas Kinkade lecture in the art gallery. My mom has always loved Thomas Kinkade, but after learning about all the symbolism and spiritual meaning underlying each of his paintings I saw his artwork in a whole new light.

When we finally reached Juneau Matt and I went on a sea kayaking tour. We thought it was a tour near the large Mendenhall glacier, and were disappointed that we couldn’t even see it. Nevertheless, we had fantastic weather. It was pouring rain when we arrived at the kayaks but it stopped when we got on the water and didn’t start again till we got out. While kayaking we saw about 4-5 bald eagles, a couple of harbour seals, and one straggling salmon. It wasn’t as exciting as we had expected, but we still had fun.

In Skagway, Alaska we did the Chilkoot trail hike and river float. Chuck wasn’t feeling well so he missed it, but surprisingly only my mom, Matt, me, and one other old guy made up the whole group. The tour guide was great and explained a lot of the neat things about the plants along the way. The mountains were absolutely beautiful! It was a great way to see the beauty of Alaska.

So a side story from all our ports is that Matt and I did a bunch of shopping. In Ketchikan I bought a Philip Stein watch which is also supposed to have health benefits. Well it stopped working that night and neither Juneau nor Skagway had the same watch to replace it and I had to ship it to them to fix in the end. Additionally, we had found a magnet and a stuffed moose we like at the lumberjack show but when we got back from the totem park it was closed. We hunted in loads of shops trying to find something else we liked and finally in Skagway we found the moose and magnet! I was overwhelmed with how many jewellery shops there were and my mom says every cruise port has tons of jewellery stores and especially Diamond International Stores. I don’t wear much jewellery and I’m not much of a diamond person as it is too glam for me. One woman tried hard to convince me to buy a necklace and when I put it on even Matt said it didn’t fit my personality. Another sales rep said Matt was lucky that I wasn’t a jewellery person. It was the end of the season in Alaska so it was a great time to buy stuff since everything was on sale and you could bargain to even lower prices.

Our last port was Victoria, British Columbia. We spent the day with my mom and Chuck. Somehow we missed getting a map, but were able to take a bus to get to Craigdorroch Castle. Matt and I had been there before but the castle is constantly being changed and restored so there were a couple rooms and other details we didn’t remember. The beautiful buildings including the Empress Hotel and the Legislature building make Victoria such a unique city. My favourite part though was the harbour seals at Fisherman’s wharf.

Overall the cruise was fantastic and it has made us excited to do another one in the future! As this was part of our 5 year anniversary celebration, I feel it was well worth it. 

Holiday Part 1 - Oregon

I decided to have this blog in 3 parts as when I completed writing it all up it was 6 pages. So to not overwhelm any readers, I have separated it for you and will post only one per day.

I’m getting considerable better at recording interesting events in my journal daily so instead of giving you a play by play of my entire holiday I will try to focus mostly on the highlights or things I have pictures for.

OREGON

After four planes we finally arrived in Portland, Oregon. I had managed to catch a bad cold that week but the day we flew out it seemed to be almost gone. Unfortunately, all the pressure on the plane and lack of sleep made it worse. I got to spend my first day on our holiday mostly in bed. Matt’s brother Mike had arranged his family and grandparents to come to Salem that day for a barbecue lunch/dinner. I managed to survive a few hours on Dayquil but eventually got so tired I had to take a nap. My biggest worry was that I would get their two young kids Danny and Rocklynn sick. Luckily I woke up the next morning feeling much better.

The next two days we spent in Corvallis with Laura and Michael Dexter. Laura arranged for us to go out with some girls and float the Willamette River. As Matt was jealous we went again the following day, but bought a raft so Laura could go with her kids. It was a lot of fun! 

Laura and her kids Liam and Amelia

That night I also got to spend a little time with our friends Patrick and Valerie Gollmann and meet their son for the first time. Next we went to Eugene and stayed with Matt’s sister Jaime and her son Jacob. We didn’t have any big plans in Eugene other than closing our bank account there, and visiting friends and family. Matt was still struggling with jet lag so he enjoyed sleeping in late. Jaime made us curry the first night and we had friends Paul and Cassie visit with their daughter Anya, and Matt’s sister Lindsey and her daughter Amelia were there. It was fun to talk to them after a long 3-year absence, although I realised it’s difficult to spend much time catching up in just a short time frame. Some things you just don’t want to post on Facebook.

Matt's niece Amelia with Jamie's pitbull

Amelia with her rainbow dash jacket

The following day Matt and I caught up on the recent American Ninja Warrior videos while we waited for Lindsey. We all went to visit the Gateway Mall which had been completely redone since Matt and I were last there. It’s now mostly an outdoor style mall and we didn’t really like the changes. Considering how it rains most of the year there, it doesn’t make sense to me to redo a mall so that you have to go out in the rain to visit different stores. The layout seems way more complicated. On the bright side Matt found some great fudge at Cabela’s – a large outdoor sports store. To finish off our night we had all of the family meet at Papa’s Pizza and the kids loved being able to run around in the play area.

The family at Papa's Pizza

Matt's entire family kids and all!

Most of the week Matt had been trying to find a time to meet up with his best friend from his childhood. Finally, we worked out to meet Paul Suzuki and his wife Friday morning before we headed to Salem. Unfortunately, his wife wasn’t feeling well and so only Paul came. Although we spent a good 2+ hours at the restaurant, it just wasn’t enough time. I could tell Matt was sad that we didn’t spend more time with him, but sometimes on these holidays you can only get a few hours with people due to busy schedules.

Our last day in Oregon we went to the Oregon State Fair in Salem. Mike and Holly and their two kids, Laura and her two kids, Lindsey and her daughter Amelia, and Jaime and her son Jacob were there. Notice anything about the group? Matt and I were the only ones without kids! It was a lot of fun to experience the fair with a bunch of kids. We got to see them frequently change their minds about what they wanted to do or eat, and spend lots of time playing with corn. Our favourite was the petting zoo which had some less common petting zoo animals like deer, alpaca, and even a baby kangaroo! Another highlight was these large balls that float on water and all of the older kids got to go in one. They were pretty fun to watch. It was a fantastic day and I was glad we were able to spend that time with family and nieces and nephews. We may not live in Oregon, but I hope we can always keep contact so that these kids will grow up knowing they have family in Australia. 

Lindsey, Amelia, and Matt on the monster truck

Matt's nephew, Danny, in one of the blow up balls

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

I leave for the US next week so I realised I would have so much material to write my blog after that so it would be better to write about events since my last blog now. I recently read part of a book that says "Procrastination, by definition, is avoiding a task that you've chosen to do. If you decide not to do it, your problem has been solved" (The Feeling Good Handbook).  In terms of my blog, I definitely have been procrastinating.

The biggest thing that happened since my last blog was that I was released from my calling at church as Young Women president. I finished off my last week with the girls creating a Mormon ad video and later in the week I got to take some of the youth out for dessert for winning a previous bake-off competition. It was bitter sweet. The reality was that I was burning out with all the work and I believe it was the right time. It's mostly just really difficult that my world doesn't revolve around the girls anymore. I miss them! 

My new calling is Self Reliance Specialist. The church has really made an effort to help members know about the self-reliance resources. I basically help everyone to be more spiritually and physically self reliant by utilising the courses and resources that the church provides. There's also other programs I oversee including mum's pre-school, and an English class. It's a lot more flexible and I have my nights back so I'm excited to try something new. 

Another big piece of news is that I finally have working internet! As cable internet was faulty I had to find an alternative plan. I finally found a company that uses 4G wireless for internet purposes and they have an unlimited data plan! They are called Vivid Wireless and when I got my modem and I was pleased to find I get about 11mbps on average. That is nearly 3 times the speed I was getting before! So I can now download, scan, and watch videos on the internet without buffering or long delays. 

Other events include a couple of work dinners. For June we went to Teppanyaki and surprisingly my favourite menu item was the Kangaroo steak. It was so juicy. The next dinner in July was my turn and I chose the local Brazilian Churrasco restaurant called Rio's. The meat and sides were tasty, but the atmosphere wasn't ideal for talking to people. Near the end they do a show with scantily glad dancers and it went on too long for my liking. Then they just play music and let people dance which makes it too loud to talk to anyone. So far I think my favourite work dinner location was the Chinese restaurant we went to where we all fit on a round table so it is easy to talk to everyone.

A while back I went to a home show and got tickets to a property conference. Matt and I attended it at the end of June and it was awesome! We got to see all of the different kinds of strategies in property investment that are available. We really wanted to get into renovating, but now is just not the right time for investing. I don't want to start any major strategy unless I am confident we can dedicate enough time to learn how to do things properly.

So after our issue with the internet we discovered our blu-ray player was actually having issues and needed to be replaced. As most of our DVD's are from the US we need a multi-region blu-ray player. Somehow I was able to get our first one from the store and it was region free. Replacing it was quite difficult and I had to buy one online. The good news is that the old one was under warranty and they gave us cash back for returning it. Sweet!

In July is when Matt and I first learned about Pokemon Go - a week after it started. Our friends Brock & Kaytlin came over with their baby Ronan and told us about it. Sure enough Matt and I started playing. For the next week we went out nearly every night hunting pokemon. It was great because we spent a lot of time together, got lots of steps, and we went out to eat at a couple of new places. I also really enjoyed seeing new places and noticing art and other locations that were marked as pokestops. Matt has really taken it to the next level and even gets up early to take over gyms. At least he isn't all consumed, cheats, or spends heaps of money to get ahead in the game. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that are very extreme so it's hard to compete with that. The area around my work is terrible so I rarely find much when I go on my walk for lunch. Oh well. I can at least say I now regularly get 10,000 steps a day!

While searching for pokemon we found a couple of possum's.

As I've mentioned before in previous posts, I've struggled to know where I'm going in life since my dream of being an animal behaviourist died. I decided to work on my plan B to be a psychologist. Since making that decision I continue to feel better and better about it. I've been doing an online course on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (it was a living social voucher) just to learn more about the techniques. Then I hope to send in all my qualifications to get assessed. Well it happens that friends of ours have two housemates that are doing their psychology internship. While Matt discussed the painting they wanted to do, I got to have a long conversation with Eve about her program. She was super helpful in helping me understand how the program works. It made me nervous to hear about the assessments and how each case study with clients has to be perfect. Nevertheless, after discussing my previous studies and what I hope to achieve Eve confirmed that I should really go into Clinical Psychology. She helped give me the confidence to pursue that dream, and I was happy to learn that the internship program can work well as part time.

Besides all the other things going on, I had some fun things at work over the last month. The operations manager went on leave for over a week so I shared part of the role with the boss. It was a week where I felt like everything went horribly wrong, but somehow we all survived. Needless to say I decided planning deliveries is hard! On a different note, on my lunch break at work I dropped my phone onto a very rock path that completely shattered the screen. I was surprised that my tempered glass screen protector didn't really protect it at all. I was able to get a company to pick the phone up from me at work the next day and then the dropped it off after fixing it the day after. This was the first time I have ever broken a smartphone screen so I'm glad it was fairly simple to fix, although $200 is a lot to just fix a screen!

On a better note I have finally finished all 14 books in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan! I also finished a bunch of shorter books. I finished Think & Grow Rich and As a Man Thinketh regarding thought changes behaviour and the power of positive thinking. Similarly I finished Who Moved My Cheese about learning to adapt to change. I also finished two books written by a neurosurgeon and his near death experience and scientific evidence of heaven called Proof of Heaven, and Map of Heaven. An unusual book was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time written from the perspective of a teenage boy with mild autism. After all the self help books I'm in need of a fiction so I started reading Passage to Zarahemla and am loving it! I'm love technology which makes it so easy for me to listen and read books wherever I go!

It's been a good couple of months, but I am definitely ready for my holiday in the US!! I'll post details on that when I get back but here's a general overview - 1 week in Oregon with friends and Matt's family, 1 week on a cruise to Alaska, and 1 week in Utah with my family. Matt hasn't seen his family in three years! This will also be our 5 year anniversary trip. Just one more week!