Downtown with the Family

And my family came into town to see us! They also had stuff to bring me (Like we need more stuff…oh well!!) We spent time with extended family and then we also went downtown to the Sears (now Willis, but honestly, who’s going to call it that??) Tower. It was so high up and REALLY cool!! The elevator to the 103rd floor was so fast, you could feel the change in pressure quite well in your ears. On one side there are these glass boxes built right out into the air!!! So you stand in one and it’s a pretty crazy experience to see so far down below you.

   

I think Mom was a little nervous… 

Pretty crazy, huh? We also walked around and saw my school (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then headed back on the train. Lots of fun!

The Road Trip

The Had-To-Be-An-Eternity Road trip. But we made it!! And I thought I’d tell you about it. Now that we are somewhat settled. :)

We left on the 19th and took 4 days to get here. 4 Days. Long time. Yes. We picked up our truck and had so much help from our ward getting it all packed up the night before. We were so grateful! It was all done in 30 minutes! Amazing.

We slept on an air mattress the night before we took off…given that our bed was in the truck. The air mattress decided to have a leak that night, so at 4:30 in the morning, we’re on the ground and John decided to pump it up some more so we could get a little more sleep for when we got up at 6:00. Yuky. We packed lots of snacks:

No, we did not eat everything there in those four days. Promise. Our first stop was Arizona to stay with the Skankeys. We love the Skankeys! But we do not like driving through Arizona desert. This is mostly what we saw:

i.e. NOTHING

Here is John, our new expert truck driver. (the funny thing is that he continued to make really wide turns in the jeep days after we returned the truck. hee hee)

His confident look is reassuring, no? ;)

We ate snacks (lots of them), listened to music, books on tape (THANKS mom!!) and I read another book aloud while we drove the many, many, many miles. It was a bummer being forced to go only 55mi per hour. That made the days very, very long.

Snacking… well, the after effects of eating blue sour straws :) I love having a blue tongue hee hee

Our truck was HUGE. And we had to tow the car.

We also stopped in Texas, Missouri, and then finally, Illinois. When we finally made it, we got our keys and got moved into our new apartment. We had a guy from our new ward show up and help us out (we knew it would be hard for people to come – we moved in at 9am on a monday morning) and then my uncle and a couple cousins came to help, which was great, so everything was still moved in fairly quickly. :)

Then for the mishaps ;) We were finally ready to take the truck out to IKEA (love!!!) to get a new bed frame, and John locked the keys in the truck. Oops! We were almost done! SO CLOSE! Thankfully, the problem was solved fairly quickly and painlessly. The drop off place was really close and they just made a duplicate key. So we had to run over there and get the key, then we could go to IKEA. Then! All the IKEAs are out of our bed frame in the size and color we need/wanted. No really. We checked four IKEAs. They are all out. Each one of them. Whoa. So it will be another 4-6 weeks before they have them in stock. For now, the mattress is fine on the ground. It’s cool :) But after all that, we got the truck back to it’s home at the drop off place and started unpacking. And as of now, we’re pretty much all settled in! Yay!

Well, We’re Here!

In case you were wondering, we are in fact, still alive. ;) We completed our 2000+mile trip to the midwest and we are pretty much all settled in. Funny how it’s so much faster to unpack than it is to pack. Hm. But anyway, we love our new apartment…it’s so nice to have so much more SPACE! Yay!!!

And our internet won’t be installed into our apartment until next Friday, so you may or may not hear from me much until then but I will definitely be back to tell you all about PASTRY SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

Hawaii – Day 7

Woo hoo! Lucky you, two days of Hawaii in one day!! And that’s because we’re disconnecting our internet tonight and I didn’t want to leave you hangin’ before we left San Diego!!! So…here you go.

The last day. And our 1 year anniversary!! We decided to go to the beach early in the morning to catch the sunrise. (which meant we were totally tired the rest of the day, but it was so worth it!!) It was very ‘romantical’ ;)

 

We went to church (and tried not to fall asleep) and after lunch we went up to Laie again to visit the temple grounds. We had wanted to go to the temple while we were in Hawaii, but it has been closed for 2 years (!!!) and doesn’t open up again until October. Oh well…I guess we’ll have to come back at some point ;)

I matched the flowers ;)

 

I have also completely fallen in love with plumerias.

We also stopped and walked around the BYU Hawaii Campus. (I still think Provo is better) ;)

 

And then…it was time to get back so that John and I could finish packing. Our flight left Sunday night and we got in Monday morning. Yeah, I know. Yucky. But we made it and now we’re getting ready for our 2000+ mile drive to our new adventure :)

and PASTRY SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s finally happening!!!!!!

Sounds like fun, huh? Whew!

Farewell to San Diego for now!! We’ve had quite the year, haven’t we??

Hawaii – Day 6

This day, Saturday, was the day of the dreaded family pictures. I personally didn’t think it was that bad. Just hot. And I finally got mosquito bites. But we were out taking pictures for a while, so I think everyone was fed up by the end ;) We got some good pictures though, as well as some goofy ones.

Aren’t those backgrounds gorgeous?! :) And ignore the fact that I’m the only one wearing brown…

So, we were also total tourists this day. Because our anniversary was the following day, on Saturday John and I wanted to do something that was just the two of us. We decided on…a SEGWAY tour!!

It was so fun! Both of us have ridden one before, 2 fourths of July ago, but it was only for a minute. So they taught us how to ride them and then we went on a tour around Kailua’s coastline. So pretty! But of course we had to wear the helmets and travel in a straight line and we felt pretty silly, but we loved it! Our guide took pictures for us and then when we got back, they put the pictures on a CD for us! So here you are!

 

I kept wanting to go faster…but couldn’t because I was right behind our tour guide ;)

 

After we got back from that, we went snorkeling. Well, I didn’t…I have a hard time with snorkel masks, but anyway, we went to a nice beach/bay and those of us who don’t snorkel enjoyed the beach.

And then we went home, had dinner and crashed. See a pattern yet? ;)