Week of Heaven (Day 6 and 7)

Our last couple days of our vacation was filled with lots of driving and lots of eating. But we also got to go visit the beach right before we left California to go back to Idaho. After a while of driving, we finally found a good beach where we didn't have to pay a million dollars to park and got to actually go down by the water. We went to a little dog beach in Hunington Beach. It was pretty windy and pretty gloomy, but it was still nice to go down and visit the water and feel the sand in between our toes. It was Chase's first time to feel sand and he LOVED it! It was so funny watching him try to walk around in it and then also go in the water (he didn't like the water so much cause it was FREEZING!). So we spent a little bit of time hanging out, taking pictures, and enjoying one of my favorite places in the world! I will definitely have to make a trip back in the summer where I can actually enjoy the water and get a tan. :) After the beach we got on the road to Vegas where we stayed the night again. We got up the next morning and packed up our stuff, said goodbye to some friends down there, and were on our way going North on the I-15! The drive wasn't bad at all. We made pretty good time. We were also able to stop in Provo on our way up to visit Beth and Doug at their apartment where we enjoyed yummy warm brownies and ice cream, and watched "John Q" before making the last stretch to Idaho Falls. Thanks Beth and Doug for letting us crash your place for a bit! We finally made it back to IF at 3am Saturday (Mar. 21). It felt nice to be back in my own bed and not have to live out of a suitcase anymore. I am so grateful that the Lee's let me go on this trip with them. We definitely got closer and had a lot of good laughs and made lasting memories. There were lots of times where we felt stressed, annoyed at each other, fought, and wanted to kill someone, but that's what family vacations are about, right? And that's how it made it even better and brought us all closer. :) I guess that is some really messed up philosophy, but I like it and I am sticking to it! And that is the end of my stories of our trip to California. HAHA
Kevin Malone: I just want to lie on the beach and eat hot dogs. That's all I've ever wanted.

Week of Heaven (Day 4 & 5)

The reason I only spent 1 day at Disneyland instead of 3 like everyone else, was because I wanted to go visit my bestest friend Sarah Morin! :) She has been gone for the past 18 months in the Tennessee Knoxville mission and it was so lucky that she was coming home during the same week that I was going to be down in California by her house! Once her mom had told me she was coming home March 12th and I was going to be in California the 15th-19th, I was so happy and started planning with her mom how I would be able to see Sarah. I told Sarah's mom that I wanted it to be a surprise, so Sarah had no idea what I was planning. :) Tuesday morning I got ready and texted her mom telling her I was on my way from Anaheim! When I got to her house, I rang the doorbell. Lisa answered the door, and told me to be very quiet and go into the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and there was Sarah! She was SO SURPRISED! It was so awesome and such a great reunion. I missed her so much! We sat and talked while Lisa colored and cut Sarah's hair. I had a present for Sarah, which was some CD's of my 100 favorite songs that came out while she was gone. While we talked we listened to her iPod, but it was all very old stuff, very soft music. It was so funny cause she was nervous to listen to "crazy" music. But I changed that very quickly. Haha. So, we headed over to Target to do some shopping. Sarah needed some new clothes and she wanted me to tell her what was cute and what styles were still in. She was so funny! We found some really cute clothes, shoes, and jewelry for Sarah to wear when she gets back to BYU! (and I got a couple things for me too. :). After that we went to Chili's for dinner and got some yummy food (southwestern eggrolls!). It was so nice to be able to hang out with her again. It was like she had never left and got all caught up on everything. Sarah was needing to buy a new car to go back to school so after we ate we went over to a few car dealers to try to get some good deals. It was funny because on the way over there, we talked about how the 2 cars that we hope they didn't show us would be a Buick and P.T. Cruiser, and guess what two cars he wanted to show us first? HAHA That's right! A Buck and a P.T. Cruiser. It was so awesome. :) But don't worry, we shot that down and he showed us some better cars. I stayed the night at Sarah's that night, she showed me her scrapbook of her mission and told me stories, and about the people she taught. I got her caught up on Facebook and filled in on hot movies and books to check out. It was so much fun and I am so glad I got to go see her. We won't be at school together anymore. Not living together. Her in Utah and me in Idaho now. But it just felt so good have my friend back and to know our friendship will last forever. Awww. :)

Week of Heaven

I know, this is long overdue, but hey, I did it so give me some credit! :) Last week I went to California with the Lee's! It was such a great trip. Nice to relax and get away from everything for a while. So from where I left off last time, we woke up in Vegas and went to church that morning (I felt very underdressed...everyone dresses pretty flashy there...:), and got on the road to Anaheim that afternoon. A 4 hour drive turned into a 7 1/2 drive!! There was so much traffic going into California. I guess everyone had the same idea of spending the weekend in Vegas to try and win some money....Haha. The only good thing about that drive was we stopped at In N Out for dinner! Mmmm We finally arrived at our hotel at about 10pm, which I was super excited about. I was so tired of being in my car. We had a really nice 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen! We got all our stuff in the room, and then us girls went to the grocery store to get some food for the week (much cheaper than trying to eat out or at disneyland for every meal). Then we finally got to go to bed. :)

The next morning we got all ready and headed off to Disneyland! Our hotel was super close to the park so we got to walk over. We also all wore the same shirt! I spent the night before we left making these shirts, and I think they turned out way cute. They had a picture of Mickey and his friends with the word "FamiLee" on them (the family I live with last name is Lee). The boys weren't really excited about wearing them at all, but we finally got them to put them on and be good sports for us. :) We met my Auntie Margie at the front so she could get me in while everyone else bought their passes. So we got inside, took our pictures:

and then got on our way to the rides! First we wanted to take some time to go on rides with Chase that he would like, so we went on Peter Pan. He screamed the whole time (I guess it is really dark the whole time, flying in a boat, and creepy fake people). Haha So then everyone decided that since I was only spending one day at Disneyland (they were going to be there 2 more days), that we would go on everything I wanted to go on! So we headed over to Space Mountain! As soon we had had gotten in the park that morning, Kaleb asked us over and over where the big marble ball that spun was. We didn't know, but we found it right in front of Space Mountain. So Kaleb got to touch the ball, and was very excited about it. :) As you all know, Space Mountain was pretty much awesome, the line wasn't very long which made it even better! And for those who don't know about the Baby Swap, it's really cool! If you have a baby with you, then you can pick up a baby swap card at the front of the line, then two people in your group take that card and wait at the exit while everyone else waits in the line and rides the line. As soon as they finish the ride, they pick up the baby, and those two people who waited with the baby get to go through the fast pass line! It's awesome. We then headed over to Indiana Jones (Jordon bought me a churro on the way over. I ALWAYS have to get a churro everytime I go to Disneyland! Mmmm). We also went on Pirates and the Haunted Mansion (Chase liked that ride). By that time, Kaleb had gone back to the hotel (he wanted to ride his skateboard rather than be at Disneyland....kind of odd I think), Lyndon, Stephanie, and Monica wanted to go back to the hotel too, so Jordon, Andrew, and I hung together the rest of the day! We went over to California Adventure and got some dinner at Winery Italian Restaurant (which was really good, but more money than what I wanted to spend). Our last rides of the day were California Screamin

My face at the end of the ride....:)

and Tower of Terror! (Best ride ever!) Even though it was only 7pm by that time, we were all just so beat tired, I had ridden the rides that I wanted to go on, and very satisfied with my day at Disneyland! When we got back to the hotel, Andrew and I went and worked out at the hotel gym, and bummed around watching TV the rest of the night. It was a very good day. :)

Andy Bernard: We have such a roller coaster thing, Karen and I.
Jim Halpert: Excuse me?
Andy Bernard: Roller coastery friendship. Hot, cold, on-again, off-again, sexual tension-filled type of deal. It's very Sam and Diane.
Jim Halpert: Wow.
Andy Bernard: From Cheers.
Jim Halpert: Yep.

Good things come to those who wait...

Okay guys. I know I said I was going to write about my trip every couple of days, but I decided that you are just going to have to wait until I get back to Idaho. I have pictures and so much going on, I want to be able to just get it all at once! So There! :) I will be back on Saturday!

Tales From the Road...

Well, the first day of my week vacation has come to a close, and though it has only been one day, it was very eventful! The family that I live with and I are spending the next week in Anaheim to play at Disneyland! We got up at the butt crack of dawn today so we could head down to Vegas where we were going to stay the night. After a lot of struggling to get everyone out of bed, dressed, and packed up, we finally set out on I-15 for a 9 hour drive to Vegas (well, that's how long I THOUGHT it was going to take). :) I am a huge fan of road trips. The loud music. Endless amount of junk food. Passing each state sign. Picture taking. Even sometimes the quarrelling with each other due to lack of sleep, hunger, driving in the middle of nowhere for many hours, or because you are just cramped in a small space with the same people for too long of time period. Anyway, I was driving through Salt Lake earlier this morning. Just minding my own business. Going exactly the speed limit. Singing at the top of my lungs and enjoying the company I had in my car with me. When all of a sudden, a cop decides to follow me for a while, but I stayed cool. I wasn't speeding, so I had nothing to worry about, right? WRONG!! He decides he wants to turn his lights on and pull me over. I was trying to go through my mind as fast as I could, anything that I could have been doing wrong, if I had all my needed documents in the car with me, and praying he was going to be really nice. He comes up to my passenger window and asks for my drivers license. Well, on my Idaho drivers license, it has a picture of me with really dark brown hair. I have really blonde hair now! I am sure he was thinking right then he was going to be able to bust me for something. He then tells me that he looked up my license plate and it said that I have no insurance!! I have been paying insurance every single month for the past 2 years on that car! It gets taken out of my checking account every month. If it's not being used for my insurance, who knows what Progressive is using my money on. I show him my insurance card. I was so proud of myself that I had my current policy card with me (that is a problem sometimes...). He then asks me if my account was delinquent at all (are you kidding me? I just told you I have had money taken out of my account every month for the past 2 years!), I told him no, he said, "Okay. Well, do you have any other questions for me?" Ummm. I don't remember being the one to ask you to pull me over cause I wanted to ask you a question!! I answered with a polite No and a THANK YOU! Yes. I told the cop Thank You. HAHA Thank you for pulling me over and almost giving me an anxiety attack trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Thank you for trying to lower my self esteem by telling me I don't know how to pay my bills. Thank you for causing us to lose more time on our trip and make the drive even longer!

Well, we finally made it to Vegas after a long 12 hour day on the road. My friends I am with like to take their time on trips. Stop like every hour. Spend in hour in KMart looking for socks. When I like to get from point A to point B as fast as I can with as little stops as possible. But hey, I guess we have a week to do this, right? I should just enjoy my time away! We had a very yummy homemade dinner. I am exhausted and feel like I have a sore throat coming on. Gotta go get some Airbourne. Oh, and I just ate a Krispy Kreme Doughnut. I LOVE VEGAS! :)

Stay tuned for more awesome tales from the road.

Dwight Schrute: What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany's at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No. I go for the chandelier; it's priceless. As I'm taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It's her father's business. She's Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico but I go to Canada. I don't trust her. Besides, I love the cold. Thirty years later I get a postcard. I have a son. And he's the Chief of Police. This is where the story gets interesting: I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She's been waiting for me all these years. She's never taken another lover. I don't care. I don't show up. I go to Berlin. That's where I stashed the chandelier.

FINAL WEEK!!

Well we have finally reached that time of my last day of my Beyond Fitness class! It was supposed to be last week, but it ended up being cancelled so we did it today! I am kind of sad it's over cause it really helped me out A LOT! But now I can keep going on my own and use all that I have learned these past two months. With it being the final day of the class, we did our final assesments as well. Since I am going to keep working hard, I am thinking of having one of the personal trainers do an assessment every so often to keep me motivated and working. That way I will have another way to see my results and motivate me to keep working. So here are the final measurements of everything:

*Total Weight Loss- 12 pounds

*Body Fat Loss- 3.4%

*Waist Circumference- 2 inch loss

*Hip Circumference- 2.5 inch los

*Skinfolds: Triceps- 1.1mm, Suprallium- 3.3mm, Thighs- 8mm

So now, I am in the "Fair" category instead of the "Needs Work" category. Haha. And soon I will be "Ideal"!! Yay! :) Thank you for all the support you all have given me. This is not the end! You will still be hearing every now and then of my work!

Here is what 12 pounds looks like: :)

Jim Halpert: How much weight have you lost, Dwight?
Dwight Schrute: I am hardly the problem, Jim.
Jim Halpert: No you're definitely the problem

Last night

Here are the pictures Cassandra and I took last night at Johnny Carinos....:)

BRIAN REGAN!!!

Yay! I finally get to blog about my awesome trip to the Brian Regan show last week in Blackfoot! :) When I bought the tickets a couple months ago, I was thinking I was going to go with this certain someone, but all that went to $%&@, so I took someone even better....Cassandra! But it was such an exciting night and lots of fun. If you ever get a chance to see Brian Regan live, DO IT!! When he walked out on the stage, I got so giddy and speechless, I couldn't even sit still in my seat. It was also kind of strange that he would come to Blackfoot. A very podunk town, where he performed at their high school. Haha But because it was a small auditorium, any seat you had was awesome. His performance was amazing, all new stuff. I don't think there was a second there that I wasn't laughing. Cassandra did a little video recording of one of his bits, but you can't really hear it over my laughing. :) Anyway, it was a really good night, and I wish I could have written this sooner cause I have forgotten a lot of the details, but it was definitely worth the money! Oh, and I also had to go to the show with orange hair cause that was the day I colored my hair and it went all crazy on me, so that's why it looks like I have orange hair in the pictures. :)

Driving to Blackfoot

Waiting for the show to start....

We were just a little excited....:)

BRIAN!!

Him again

Friday Night Date Night

Well, tonight was Date Night (as it is announced every Sunday in Sacrament that Friday night is Date night...). And though there is not a hott man in my life at the moment, I have a very hott friend named Cassandra who took me out on a little date tonight. :) I took her out to Brian Regan last week, so she was taking me out this week. Haha. But it was a totally fun night, and we took a couple pictures, but of course they are on her camera. I seriously need to get my own working digital camera (maybe with my tax return! Yay!). So she picked me up and we headed over to Johnny Carino's for a very delicious Italian meal full of yummy bread, snazzy italian music, and texting with the opposite sex (which is highly encouraged on girl dates :). We even got to end our meal with a scrumptous dessert that was WHO KNOWS how many calories. After dinner, we headed over to the wonderful Edwards Theater to watch "Confessions of a Shopaholic"! I was pretty excited for the movie cause I have read the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and it was a good touch for a girl's night out. There weren't many people who attended the movie, but my home teacher was there right in front of us with his girlfriend, and the best part about the whole thing was right in the middle of the movie, the man behind us starts snoring very loudly!! It made us laugh so loud and so hard, we had to scoot down in our seats so we wouldn't bother anybody. But seriously, the movie was pretty cute, pretty cheesy, and had a pretty cute boy in it. :) I give it a thumbs up! And now I am back home from a very successful date where there was no awkwardness. No wondering what the other person was thinking. No trying to fill in awkward silences. No debating on if you should say this or do that. No freaking out when you are on your way home and you wonder if they are going to walk you to your door, or if you even WANT them to walk you to your door, if you want them to kiss you, or if you are ever going to hear from them again. HAHA I could go on and on, but you get the jist. It was a fun night and I love my nights with the girls. :) Thanks Cassandra!

I was supposed to have my final class tonight of Beyond Fitness, but it got cancelled and our last day is next Wednesday (we also didn't have a weight in this week because we were going to do it today). So stay tuned for my final assessment! I am trying to be better! :)

Dwight: Hey Michael, how was your date last night?

Michael: [sighs]