On the Road Again

Or, more correctly, in the air again. After an amazing trip to D.C., (which I will write about and post about eventually), I am heading off on another trip, this time for work! I'm leaving on the 1st and heading to Chicago, NYC, and D.C.! Crazy ain't it? So expect an awesome travelogue for two trips when I get back!

Teach-a-WHAT?!

So, it's official. I started substitute teaching on Tuesday. IT WAS A BLAST! I absolutely loved it! I was able to go to a charter school down in Springville and teach third grade. We had some hilarious moments.

One of the boys had a birthday, and he was character! He had these big glasses that he had to constantly push onto his face to keep them on, and he loves, as he said, "ancient rocks." On their birthdays they get to do show and tell and so he brought a trilobite fossil. He cracked me up!

Then there was the girl who apparently every day around eleven has a stomach ache.

And the boy who after adamantly refusing to do anything all morning, decided to fall asleep on his desk, and when that wasn't comfortable, moved to the floor.

The kids are all so willing to please, and I can't imagine what I must have been like in third grade...no, I pretty much know...I was probably the most annoying, precocious kid ever. But I think I turned out all right.

After a few mishaps and many adventures (including getting there late because of ridiculous traffic and arriving right before the bell rang...meaning I was winging the entire day. Yeah. It was awesome.) I made it through my first day without too much trouble!

Did I mention that I love teaching?

Road Warriors

So I don't think that I've been in the car so much in my life... but it was SO worth it!

I got back on Monday August 18 from a 16 day road trip across the Southwest mostly with Eric, but with other random people along the way. It was crizazy! We started out on August 2 from Utah and headed down to Las Vegas where we spent the night and enjoyed some fantastic hospitality from my Aunt and Uncle there.

The next morning we went to church and hopped back in the car and headed to Fresno...and six hours later we arrived at the somewhat, kind of, pretty campus of Fresno State. I dropped Eric and Cory (I think that was his name...) off. And to explain...Cory was another EFY counselor and needed a ride from Provo to Fresno, and we were the winners :) Anyway, it was kind of funny. When I dropped them off, we went in and one of the head counselor people was telling us that we needed to go over to this building and check "him" in and then "he'd" check into EFY "tomorrow," and it was at this point that Eric and I realized that the head counselor man thought that we were dropping Cory off to ATTEND EFY...and it was really funny.

At this point I was gearing up to get in the car and drive another three hours to Santa Clarita down in North LA...but as I started driving I just decided there was no way, so I stayed in a hotel. Yeah, it was a blast, let me tell ya.

So the next day I drove down to Santa Clarita to visit my friend Lacey. We had some interesting experiences helping her relatives move into their huge and extremely fancy schmancy new house. The family hadn't moved in yet, so Lacey and I were the only ones staying there, which, let's be honest, made it a little freaky at night, but what can I say? We also randomly ran into Kirby Heyborne (you know, of Mormon movie fame...and beer commercials hah). Which was the point I realized that Jared (the director of the film I produced this spring) must live close by since Kirby is in his ward...

Thus, the next evening Jared was able to come over for a bit and hang. It was fun.

At this point I headed up to Visalia to visit my long lost cousin Geoff (who is really my Mom's cousin, which makes him something like my first cousin once removed, I believe) and his wife Lorile, whom I've never met...and his three extraordinarily cute kids! Kolby (whom I met when he was about four months old...and I am so sorry if I spelled them wrong...!), Eliza, and Carson. They are SO great! We had a lot of fun just chilling and catching up.

Here's a cute picture of me and Kolby when we built the most stellar railroad track EVER!

By the time I left, it was Friday and I drove up to Clovis to spend some time with Danielle before picking Eric up on Saturday morning. We watched some of the opening ceremonies that night! But unfortunately I missed the amazing part (lucky for us, Geoff recorded it, and when we went to stay with him on Saturday we were able to watch it!).

The next morning I went to pick up Eric and we headed up to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. They are SO beautiful and the trees are HUGE! They're the largest living creatures in the world! Oh and speaking of which...a few pictures to share

Here we are inside a tree trunk. It's true. Those little people in the light are at the complete other end...and we're in the middle of the trunk...yeah. They're huge. It's ridiculous.










This is the General Grant tree, named the nation's Christmas Tree. You can't really get an idea of how huge this thing is. You'll just have to trust me. It is HUGE!










Here's a lovely picture of me fixing my hair...hah. But the view was remarkable!







Tree Huggers! And this was a small one...Seriously!




So after this we headed to Visalia, watched the mind-blowing opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics...and I had my first Chipotle burrito experience :)

The next day we headed to Tehachapi and visited with Eric's cousin and her husband and brand new baby Emilia! She was a beautiful little girl! We also went to church with them...and the baby actually made it through sacrament meeting! Hooray!

Later that day we headed down to San Diego to stay with Eric's friend Nicole. She was so nice to let us all crash at her house! Another car-load of Eric's EFY counselor buddies showed up later that night and we basically all crashed pretty quickly. Apparently we were blessed because the next day was the only truly sunny day San Diego had seen in a week and it was the only one we had while we were there...and we just happened to choose to go to the beach that day!





Here's the gang at the little Mexican place we ate at.








Soaking wet at the beach! Notice the nice hair-in-the-face look!





The next day was Disneyland! Yeah, yeah! Kimi called while we were on the way there, and we promised her that we would ride on Peter Pan...hence the only pictures we really took...





Yes, Peter Pan! Never Grow Up...







The next day we went down to La Jolla Cove. Eric and I went into a "Native Australian Art" shop. It was so cool! They do this amazing dot art...you should check it out if you've never seen it! We also went down into the caves they have there. It was really cool. Eric loved it so much that he's now more than convinced he'd be happy to go to grad school there! Admittedly...it is a pretty cool place. And the beach, well, you can never go wrong with the beach...

Another San Diego treat was going to Golden Spoon (frozen yogurt) twice. It was amazing. Oh yeah, baby!

The next day we left and headed for Mesa, AZ. Yeah yeah! So...funny story...we were stopped by the border patrol, right? And we rolled down the window, the guy asked us if we were both US citizens, we said yes...he said okay and waved us through... RIGHT?! What kind of border patrol is that?!?!?! We laughed about that for a good while, that's fo' sho'.

In Mesa we met up with Eric's friend Ricki and then we went on a double to Aida. Yeah...I thought that maybe I just saw a bad production of it...yeah, not so much. I really just don't like that show. The songs just go on FOREVER! But I had a good time. I went out with Eric's buddy from the mish Bradford. He's pretty amazing! He's traveled all over (he's going to the Air Force Academy) and has some great ambitions. I was thoroughly impressed...although it started out a big rocky with a slight mis-communcation about who was on a date with whom...It was pretty durn hilarious.

The next day I spend with John, Reva, and Marshall (Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin, respectively). We went to see Clone Wars for Marshall's birthday and then to a Mongolian BBQ which I LOVE! Too bad I was so full from all of the popcorn!!!

The next day Eric and I headed out of Phoenix and headed up to Flagstaff and visited my cousin Brieann, her husband Mark, and their baby girl Emily! Then went to the Grand Canyon...it was rainy and stormy and amazingly beautiful...



Some pics of the Grand Canyon!










After the Grand Canyon we took an amazing drive through the desert and saw the most beautiful sunset ever! Really. And luckily for you I took pictures. Unfortunately they're nothing like what it looked like in real life!

This is only one picture...but you get the idea...right?


Anyway, we made it to Ponderosa Ranch next to Zion around 10:30pm. Wahoo! The next day we went to church in a little podunky town called Orderville. Yeah. We talked about loincloths and politics in Gospel Doctrine. It was kind of hilarious.

That afternoon we played on the rock climbing wall. Then we went into Zion and hiked Angel's Landing. It got dark and I wasn't going to go up the chains in the dark, so I stayed behind, but Eric got all the way up with a couple of others. Here are some pics!


The first one is a picture of Angel's Landing. The next one is a sign where it starts to get steep, and the last the view from the topish...



The next morning we headed home and after 16 amazing days the Road Warriors finally slept in their own beds :) It was seriously one of the most fun trips ever! I highly recommend it...if you can stand all of the driving!

PS Sorry about any formatting issues and grammar problems...it's late and I don't care enough to re-read it :)