Roadtripping to Seattle!

As many of you know, I recently returned from a super fantastic trip to Alaska.  We did a lot of things, so there will be multiple posts chronicling our many adventures.

The cruise ship started in Seattle, Washington.  That meant that if we wanted to be on that ship, we needed to be in Seattle.  Unfortunately, my house is in Lehi, Utah.  A little known fact about Utah is that it's not in Washington.  In fact, my house is a little under 1,000 miles away from the port where our ship would be leaving from.

Several members of my family were going on the cruise with us.  They are all normal.  So, they all took the normal form of transportation when you need to go 1,000 miles.  They all flew on an airplane.  (Airplanes, rather.  They weren't all on the same plane.)

Robyn and I are not normal.  In fact, I really like road trips.  Plus we figured we didn't want to buy plane tickets twice this year, and we want to go to California for Christmas.  We prefer to drive in summer rather .than winter.  So we decided to drive to Seattle.

The key to a good road trip is making stops on the way.  To make this possible, we did our road trip in 2 days.  That gave us the time to stop and enjoy a few places on the way.

I worked a full day on Wednesday, July 3rd, and then we hopped in the car and headed to Twin Falls, Idaho that evening.

I love Twin Falls.  There is a beautiful canyon just outside of town.  It totally sneaks up on you, and you don't see it until a few hundred yards away.  But it is fantastic.

We spent the night in Twin Falls.  Of course, we stayed in a La Quinta, because I love their breakfast.  It's super good.  The me of a year ago would have eaten about 5 of their waffles plus loads of other stuff.  The new me splurged a little and had one waffle with some eggs and sausage on the side.  I was full when I was done.  The new me is a strange creature.

After Twin Falls we headed back out on the road.  That's when the real road tripping began.  The reason I love road trips is because Robyn and I are stuck in a car together, just the two of us.  There are no distractions, all we can do is talk.  It's super good quality time.  We talked about everything we could think of.  Then we talked about more stuff, without thinking.

Then it was time to turn on some tunes and sing our hearts out.

"Bye bye Miss American Pie!"

Eventually we made it out of Idaho into Oregon.  Oregon took about 1000 years to get through, because their speed limit is ridiculously slow.  Apparently Oregonians are unable to control their vehicles at 75 mph on perfectly straight roads, so they have to keep it at 60.  Also, Oregonians are unable to pump their own gas.  I got to experience someone else pumping my gas for the first time.  I only had to pay an extra $.50 per gallon to enjoy the privilege of waiting 5 minutes for the girl to make it over to my car to begin pumping.

Lest you think I didn't enjoy my time in Oregon, let me share with you the Dusty Spur Cafe.

As we passed La Grande, Oregon it was time for lunch.  We asked Foursquare to suggest a good place to eat.  The Dusty Spur sounded like an adventure.

When we first pulled up we were skeptical.  But who wouldn't want to eat in a barn?  So we went inside.

On the inside, it was actually a really cute little restaurant with a rustic feel to it.

Even if we were the only ones there

Not to mention I got to sit with a really cute girl.

Sorry it's blurry.  Apparently I couldn't hold still to take this picture.

The food was really good as well.  It was a pleasant surprise.

After the Dusty Spur we got back in our car and exited the state as fast as we could.

Once in Washington, we decided to take a little detour from the highway and hit up Snoqualmie Falls.  It's a beautiful waterfall.  So, naturally we took a beautiful selfie.

I should have worn sunglasses

Clearly, I had to take an animation of it.

After Snoqualmie Falls we finally made it into Seattle.  We checked into our hotel and called my mom.  We met the family for dinner in a little seafood restaurant near Pike's Place Market.  After that it was bed time.

The next day we got on the ship.  Stay tuned for more posts about the rest of the trip.

Coming soon!

We JUST got back from our amazing vacation and I will (or more then likely, Jeff will) post all about it.  Here is just one of the many beautiful things we saw!

Discovering Scuba

One important item on my bucket list is that I really want to get Scuba Certified.  However, to maximize my certification, I really want Robyn to get certified as well.  That way, we can go diving on vacations and have lots of adventures together.

I had it all planned out.  We would take a class together and then live happily ever after.  (I know, it's a very detailed plan.  I hope you were able to follow that.)  Unfortunately, Robyn had a concern with this plan.  She was pretty sure that Scuba is too scary and she might die.

Amazon has a little program they've started to compete with City Deals and other similar companies, called Amazon Local.  They sent me a deal for a local dive shop where they could do a "Scuba Discovery" class for $10 / person.

When I saw that my heart leaped for joy!  This was the perfect compromise.  I asked Robyn if she would be willing to go discover Scuba with me.  I told her she only had to commit to one hour and then we could either confirm that it's much too scary and I would never bother her about it again, or she would discover it's pretty cool and we could get certified together.

The place is called Dive Utah and it's located in Holladay.  It was a little inconvenient because the class started at 6, so I had to leave work early to drive through traffic and get there on time.  But we made it safely, so all was well.

When we arrived, the first 30 minutes was a classroom atmosphere.  They explained all the equipment, they explained basic principles of diving.  (The most important thing we learned is to never stop breathing, because if you drift up or down while holding your breath, the change in pressure could cause serious problems.)

We had to pass a little quiz before we could get in the water.  I took the quiz before we started and got 100%.  But if that wasn't easy enough already, he went through the quiz question by question and told us the answers, so we could just fill it out as he told us if we wanted.

We finally got to get in the water.  It was just a swimming pool, but there were still crazy marine life forms such as a real live Scuba certification class.

The first thing we did in the water was put on all our gear.  As soon as I got it on, I realized that wearing a big air tank on your back is kind of like being a ghostbuster, with their big nuclear reactors on their backs.  Naturally, I shared that with the whole class.  "It feels like I'm a ghostbuster!"

Only seconds later, he had us put the regulator in our mouths and try breathing through it, above the water. Instantly, I knew that I had become Darth Vader.  (They must have based Darth Vader's breathing on a scuba regulator.)  I immediately regretted using up my geek moment talking about Ghostbusters.  Luckily, the teacher was either as geeky as me or he just knew his audience, because he said, "Luke, I am your father."  It filled me with gladness.

Once we were geared up, he showed us some basic skills.  We had to show that we could take the regulator out of our mouth (while still breathing out, because you never stop breathing) and then put it back in and clear it of water.  We also had to be able to clear water out of the mask.

Finally, he just let us swim around the swimming pool.  I definitely need work, I would be crawling along the bottom and would push the button to gain some buoyancy, then I would magically be at the top of the water.  After that, I would push the button to release air and I would be back on the bottom.  It would seem I need to learn balance.

After swimming around for a while, the class was over.  Then came the most important part.  We grabbed a camera for a photo op.

Robyn with some underwater love

Not to be outdone, I threw up some double love.

We're just the cutest little scuba couple.

The best part of the whole thing?  Robyn has agreed to get certified with me.  That means we have a future filled with diving all over the world.

SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMER!

It was my first week off for Summer break and it was wonderful!  I got to sleep in, clean the house, exercise, and be with family.  Here are some of the highlights from the week.

Cleaned the house and my classroom:
Ok so that may not be very exciting, but it sure made me relax so I could enjoy the rest of my time off.

Exercised:
I have been doing ok at it during the school year, but this week I was consistent and it made a fabulous difference.  I have been stuck at a plato for the last 2 weeks and FINALLY I reached one of my goals.  I have now lost about half of the weight I want to for the year.  So far I am on track and doing well!

Family:
I visited my sister and helped my brother's family (he had a small surgery and his wife is still having pre-term labor).  I love just hanging out and talking with them.  I sure am lucky to have such fun siblings (My brother and his wife are both doing fine).

I also had fun having a girls night with my sister-in-law while Jeff and his brother went out for a boy's adventure.  I am so proud of my new found quilting abilities.  I'm still not amazing but I did the whole thing in one night.  Who knew I could do that!


Keeping the garden growing and playing with the camera:
My flowers and veggies are still growing!  I picked up my camera one afternoon and started to have some fun with taking pictures.  It feels so nice to be able to have some quiet time to do things like that again.

Tomatos

Zucchini

I love my students and I was sad to see them go (I only cried a little this year) but Summer is a great adventure and I can't wait to see what other events will take place!

I'm Feeling 32!

(Side note from Robyn: before you begin... Jeff had his birthday on Memorial Day this year.  He wrote this then, but I didn't post it until now.  I was going to write about his day, but Jeff is a much more entertaining writer then I am.  I just get to take credit for most of the pictures)

Sometime early this morning, I turned 32 years old.  I don't know the exact time, but if you'd like specifics you can call my mother.  The word on the street is that she was present at the time, and surprisingly enough, played a fairly central role in the proceedings.

I've been 32 for less than 24 hours, so I admit that my sample size is a little small.  But, from what I can tell, 32 is pretty awesome.  Based on my limited experience today, here is what you can expect when you are 32.

1. When you're 32, you don't have to go to work

.

2. When you're 32, you get breakfast in bed.

3. When you're 32, things like this will magically appear in your wallet.

4. When you're 32, you get to see a rattlesnake.

I know it's not a great picture.  Perhaps when you're 32, you won't be a good photographer.

5. When you're 32, you still have to watch your wife shop.

I told her I was documenting this, so you all know that I love her enough to go shopping on my birthday

6. At least when you're 32, your wife buys you a DVD in exchange for going shopping with her.

7. When you're 32, your wife will scream when she sees a lizard.  (I think it's a vocabulary issue.  She describes the lizard as "wiggly" which she appears to believe is a synonym of "scary".)

8. When you're 32, you get to see a pretty waterfall

This is Grove Creek Falls

9.  When you're 32, the river above the falls is even prettier than the falls.

Sorry the beauty is ruined by having me in the middle

10.  When you're 32 you get to have a picnic with your super cute wife.

11.  When you're 32, your wife will scream when she sees a rock.

        In her defense, she was a little jumpy after such scary things as a rattlesnake (potentially scary) and a lizard (not scary, but "wiggly"), and she insists there was something more than a rock, but I saw nothing.

12.  When you're 32, you receive great amounts of love on facebook.

13.  When you're 32, your wife does her best to make you feel special every second.

As you can see, being 32 is pretty awesome.  I highly recommend it.

May 19th update: A little late I know

We saw Iron Man 3

On Friday, Robyn and I went to see Iron Man 3.  I was disappointed that he wasn't Iron Man as much in this movie, but Robyn really liked that it focused on Tony Stark.  I'm not gonna lie, the army of iron men was the coolest thing ever.

Refinanced The House

We signed the papers to refinance our house this week.  It's gonna save us about 200 dollars a month which is nice.  The weird thing is that we get 1900 dollars back after the refinance.  The finance industry doesn't make sense.  Why don't they just loan me what I need?

Spaghetti Explosion

Robyn had made spaghetti for dinner.  I was trying to clean up and put the food away.  I filled a tupperware with spaghetti sauce and placed it on the counter.  The counter was loaded with lots of crap and I didn't realize how precariously I had placed it.

Naturally, the tupperware went tumbling to the ground.  When it hit the ground it exploded in all directions.  Most of it stayed in the tupperware.  I only lost about 10%.  But I marvelled at how far that 10% was able to travel.  It was all over the floor, the oven, the fridge, the door to the pantry.  I cleaned it up as much as I could, but the refinance guy was on his way and I knew I didn't have time.  I also ran out of paper towels, so I called the job done.

After the refinance guy left, Robyn asked me, "what did you do?"  I just told her the spaghetti sauce attacked me.  Because, let's be honest, that was the truth.

Bree and Sterling (good friends of ours)

Bree and Sterling are moving next week.  (Actually Sterling is staying, but Bree is doing an internship in LA.) Then at the end of the summer, they're moving to Arizona.

We thought it would be fun to go out to dinner with them.  We went to Ginger's Garden Cafe in Springville.  It was really good, and we really enjoyed it.  Right outside was one of the greatest things ever.  We saw this awesome statue of a kid riding a velociraptor.

We had a lot of fun and it was really good to see them.

Weed wacker battle

I fought a great battle with the weed wacker.  It forced me to wear pants.

Note from Robyn:  It has been crazy busy with the end of the school year coming.  I only have 9 teaching days left!  I will become a normal person again when Summer finally arrives.  Until then Jeff will have to do the updating, though his birthday is tomorrow so I may have to post about our epic day.

Adoption/Birth Mother's Day Celebration Walk

Today is Birth Mother's day.  Before we started on this journey I had no idea that they had a day like this.  I think it is a great idea.  Well, the local FSA groups have an annual walk to honor adoption and especially birth mothers.  Jeff and I decided to go to show our support and send a wishful thought into the air during the balloon release.

During the event everyone walks around the track once in honor of or for future birth parents.  Jeff and I each got a balloon and walked around with everyone.  After we finished the track we joined everyone in the middle for the balloon release.  It was so beautiful to see all the colorful balloons being released.  I said a silent prayer for the future birth mother who will become part of our family (in addition to the one I say each day) and let my red balloon fly.

I hope that where ever she is she knows we think about her and pray for her often.  I pray she has people who love and support her.  I hope she finds peace. I hope she is healthy.  I am excited to meet her someday.