Fall Travels 7 of 8: Washington DC

I went to Washington DC and stayed with my Dad’s cute cousin, Shauna, for a week; she wouldn’t allow me to stay any less. I arrived the first day at FIVE A.M., yup, I took the red-eye, but not without a layover in Long Beach, California. Oh yeah, the Long Beach Airport is so small and ghetto that it doesn’t connect to all of its terminals so… I even had to be escorted from my SLC flight over to my DC flight because the terminals did not connect. That was funny. So I arrived at 5 a.m. to a big lovable hug from Shauna and she took me to her home where she had the master guest bedroom all ready for me… complete with chocolates on the night stand. I went back to bed and then got up at a reasonable hour.

We took that day easy and went to High Tea at a Mansion/Museum in DC. That was very fun and proper.

The next day we went into DC and went on a tour of the capital. We walked around the entire Mall to the other end to see the Washington monument, the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

In the rotunda of the capitol

The next day we went to Mt. Vernon; George Washington’s home. It was so beautiful. It is this HUGE estate right by the water; so green and lush. We toured his house and then went on a slave tour. Apparently George Washington was against slavery to a degree but since it wasn’t “cool” at the time he didn’t really speak out about it but he did do his best not to separate his slave families, but he also didn’t free them.

The next day I went into DC all by myself, Shauna dropped me off at the subway stop by her house and I rode it into DC! I walked a TON that day! I was even mistaken as a local a few times… that made me feel way cool. I visited the Vietnam and Korean Memorials, walked around a HUGE pond/lake thing to FDR’s memorial, which ended up being one of my favorites, over to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial which I thought was cooler than Lincoln’s (sorry Lincoln), I tried to get in on a tour at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing building but they cut the line off right when it got to me… shucks, I walked to the White House where my camera died so I’ll have to photoshop a picture of me into a picture of the White House. 

 The majority of the pictures of me on this trip were taken by me

After that I walked back to the mall to go to the American History Smithsonian which was SO COOL (I got to see the original puppet of Kermit the Frog, Dorothy’s shoes from the Wizard of OZ, a Stradivarius violin (the most expensive/ nicest violin you can get), the lunch counter where the sit-ins started with the human rights movements, and there was a whole section for the all the First Ladies of our country and it had a display of all of their Inauguration Gowns and lots of other cool things. That was a long day with lots of walking! 

The next day I went into DC all by myself again. I went to the international spy museum; that was so interesting and a lot of fun. Apparently some movies have inspired actual spy equipment and vice versa of course.

After that I walked passed the Ford Theater, where President Lincoln was shot. I didn’t get to do a tour because a play was going on… something to do the next time I go.

After that I went to the National Museum of Art Smithsonian and took a tour through the American Art Section. After that I went to the Air and Space Smithsonian but I didn’t stay long because I don’t really have a huge interest in airplanes BUT I did LOVE the Wright Brother’s display; that made it worth it. There was this quote I really liked by Orville Wright, “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity. In a different kind of environment, our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit.” I just thought that was really cool and I hope I can create that in my home one day.

After that I walked through the U.S. Botanic Gardens and then tried to make it to the National Reserves before it closed but I missed it so I went and bought a pretzel.


The next day we slept in, I got up and read my book on her back porch that is screened in, and then we went to a movie, out to lunch and then to watch her granddaughters play softball.


My last day there we stopped by the temple which is beautiful, we visited the National Cathedral and then went to Arlington Cemetery before Shauna took me to the airport.

It was such a fun trip and it was a lot of fun spending time with Shauna, she is so sweet, fun to talk with, adventurous and hilarious. I loved DC and would love to live there.

Enjoying the Stage We're At

You know, when we're little we just can't wait to be grown up. We talk about what we'll be when we grow up, we play house and pretend to take care of a family and go to work. I used to play school with my younger brother; I was the teacher, he was the student. (Ha, and for any of you who know Nate, you know the kid is a genius. So you probably wouldn't be surprise that these pretend school lessons were pretty much a joke because Nate would get bored with my dumbed down work for him.)

As we get older our time starts to fly, our lives are more complicated as we take on more responsibilities and try to figure out what is the best thing to fill our time and what to cut out but really we just burn ourselves at both ends and just get burned out eventually wishing we were still children with no cares in the world and so happy with the simplest things in life.

So I have gotten to a point in my life where I am done with school and I have decided not to serve a mission. When people ask me what I am up to I just say that I'm working and playing. At this point in life girls in my area and culture are getting married (if they're not already), but that hasn't come my way yet. I'm not avoiding it but I'm also not searching for marriage as if it will bring true happiness and full meaning to life. I am excited to one day be married and have a family of my own but I am also enjoying my life right now. I think it is important to be happy with whatever stage you are at in life. I figure if you are waiting for the next step to happen in order to be happy, then you never will be. You'll just always be waiting for the next step and missing the joy of the step you are at right now.

Now I am being true and enjoying what stage of life I am currently at but I must say... I am excited for some aspects (only some) of being old. And when I say old... I mean Old. Like 80s+ old. See, at that stage of life you can say whatever crap you want and nobody corrects you because it would be rude or they figure "Oh they're old, just let them be." You can fart in public and pretend like you didn't hear it. OH AND HEARING! If you don't want to listen to someone... you can either pretend like you can't hear them OR if you really ARE loosing your hearing you can just take out your hearing aid. Problem solved.

Fall Travels 6 of 8: Lake Powell

I went to Lake Powel with my cousin and his wife and their friends for my cousin's birthday. It was a lot of fun and an awesome group of people. The weather was perfect, the water was smooth and the scenery was beautiful.

So I went on this trip with the plan of swimming around in the water and tubing. I was perfectly content with hanging out in the boat while people skiied and wake boarded. (Is boarded a word?)

Jessica, Julie and I... We were singing disney songs because we're that awesome

Colby and Jessica

And this is why they are guaranteed to have cool kids

(This is not photoshopped, I repeat this is not photoshopped)

Well I got talked into trying out the wake board. The first time I tried I couldn’t get up for the life of me and it was killing my arms. I tried again on the last day and I got it! I was a proud mama and I loved it!

I'm just happy to be up

Cliff Jumping! Wahoo!

(All credit of these fabulous pictures go to Jessica B)

This Post is Part of the All You Can Jet/Fall 2010 Travels Blog Post Series
All You Can Jet/ Vegas
Boston
Maine
New Orleans
San Diego

Optimism

Optimism... to always be optimistic is easier said than done and sometimes those people are a bit annoying. But when I think about it, it's the genuinely and humble optimists that are actually really neat people whom we love and truly look up to and even strive to be like...

A few months ago in Relief Society, Jane Dudley (President Hinckley's daughter) came and spoke to us. She actually talked very little about her dad but more about her mom. It made me think, we loved President Hinckley so much but we also loved his wife just as much. She was sweet and kind but also a true person, patient and down to earth. Jane talked about her mother's constant humble optimism in life and she shared the following story that made me laugh but I also thought it was so tender, full of a lot of love and patience:

Three days before Sister Hinckley and President Hinckley were going to get married, President Hinckley called up Sister Hinckley and said, "Umm, let's have lunch... we need to talk."

At lunch President Hinckley said, "We can't married!"

Sister Hinckley replied, "Oh? and why is that?"

President Hinckley explained, "We can't get married because I only have $100."

Sister Hinckley replied, "You mean to tell me I'm getting a husband AND $100?! Perfect! See you in three days."

2012 Reading List

So I did this last year... well let me re-phrase that... I wrote a blog post like this last year 2011 Reading List Blog Post aaaand... epic fail! I only read two books (well plus another not on the list)... pretty embarrassing. Oh well, I'm still glad I at least read and maybe this year I will read FOUR books. Woot!

This is this years list; I wrote explanations of why I chose the books I am adding to the list this year. If you would like explanations for last years' books, please click on the link above (insert Amy smiley face here) My plan is to finish each book every 3-4 weeks (but let's be honest... I don't really have the best track record, so we'll see how it goes). I'll still blog after each book finished... aren't you so excited?!

First I want to read all the books I have started and have not finished:

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (I started this last year but I was having a hard time getting into it so I jumped to another book... I need to finish it so that I can return it to the person I borrowed it from... eek)

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Work and the Glory Vol. 7 No Unhallowed Hand

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (I started this in college and loved it! Haha, I love being smart about money. I got busy with finals and didn't get to finish it and then it got packed away and I found it this past summer so it's now on the unfinished list)

Then I'm going to jump into the rest of these books: beginning to end!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Everyone is raving about it and yes I'm going to be that person that reads the books because everyone else is AND I saw the trailor for the movie and I'm intriqued AND I promised my cousin and his wife that I would read it, SO I'm going to read it before the movie comes out. Also, if this book turns out to be as addicting as everyone says then I will also be reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins soon after)

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (I love Peter Pan; I love the idea of Neverland - a place where you find adventure and imagination. A friend of mine found out that I love Peter Pan and she said I should read the book. She said it was well written and beautiful. My mom gave me the book for my birthday and now it is on the list. And it cut in line too!)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Utopia by Sir Thomas More

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson (This is the third book in the children's series about how Peter Pan became Peter Pan. I have been having so much fun reading these books. It isn't exactly a challenging read but... well... haha I really don't care)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Noticer by Andy Andrews (A few summers ago I read the book The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews and I loved it. I was telling a friend about it and he was said I should also read The Noticer... so it is on the list. I'm really excited for this one)

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

Twenty Years After by Alexander Dumas

Mount Vernon Love Story by Mary Higgins Clark

Ok! That is the list and maybe next years list too! I just hope I make more time this year because there are SO many books I want to read: Little Women, Jane Austin Books, Matched, The Tipping Point, Outliers... well we'll see :)

Fall Travels 5 of 8: San Diego

San Diego was a lot of fun! Earlier in the year my sister and her husband found a beach house for us to rent for a week and we went for it! The end of September we all went to San Diego for a week of the beach, sea world and Disney Land.

Getting there: My mom and I drove down together and spent the night in Vegas! We saw the Disney Broadway of Lion King and I LOVED it! It made me want to get up and dance. I know, silly, but true. The next day we drove to Long Beach where we picked dad up from the airport (lucky duck) and then headed on to San Diego to meet up with everyone.

The first official day we were there we went to Sea World… not kidding, my dad went running and skipping into the park with all the grandkids. I think it was half him being a good grandpa but the other half was his true and pure excitement to be in a park with knowledge and animals.

Yes, this was my brother-in-law's day pack through out the trip... he wore it proudly. I loved it!

The day we went to Disneyland and when we were first walking in I got so excited and I grabbed my little niece and picked her up and said, “We’re in Disneyland! Look! This is place where your imagination can come alive and where your dreams…” and then I saw this guy looking at me like I was some psycho and I realized I had gotten a bit over-excited… oh well!

Look how excited he is!

I went on cars with one niece… I pushed the pedal while she drove; except her version of driving consisted of bouncing the car back and forth on the median thing going through the tires. My nephew loved cars so much that he was mad he had to get off… he was mad at the end of a lot of rides until he understood the concept that there would be another ride to go on next and that we would come back.

I took my niece on her first roller coaster: Thunder Mountain Railroad! Pretty sure she didn’t know it was a roller coaster but I took her on it anyways. I MAY have asked her if she wanted to go on a train with me and explained it MAY go a little fast. Haha! She held her breath on every drop until I showed her how to scream… it was the cutest thing ever!

We also went on the Whinnie the Pooh ride twice and then we left my dad with all the scardy cat grandkids and we went on Splash Mountain while my dad continued to go on Whinnie the Pooh over and over again… haha… poor dad. We went on The Matterhorn for my brother Nate who was gone on his Mission and my niece requested it because she wanted to do it for Nate. She really was so excited and proud that she did it because she is terrified of that ride.

My parents and I went with my sister's family to the San Diego Zoo. Megan read somewhere that you could really laugh with hyenas if you got the right pitch so she was really excited to do it to them but she missed them when we walked by them. I’m kind of sad, I wanted to witness her screeching in public just to laugh with the hyenas.

The days we were at the beach we just sat and read while the kids played in the sand. One niece (the bird lover) of course collected bird feathers and seashells and decorated her sand castles with them. We found LONG strands of seaweed and played jump rope with them.

We made this sign out of seaweed for Nate and sent him the pic.

My nephew was sitting on my lap and then said, "I'll be back!" He left me and then the next thing I knew he was wearing these goggles. I laughed SO hard out loud.

I think one of the neatest things of the trip though, was all the little kids getting to know each other that much more and bonding. I woke up every morning listening to Bryce and Addie playing on the stairs reciting each other’s names. Addie would say Bryce’s name really quick and short, “hiii Bryce!” and then Brcye would emphasize the double syllable and say, “hi Add-dee!”

It was such a fun trip and I loved being with my family!