I’m BAA-ACK!!

WE arrived home last night at 9:45.  I was up this morning at 8:00 am, and I would’ve posted, but for some reason our internet didn’t work.  Eric didn’t have it back up until I got back from grocery shopping.  So it’s late, but it’s something!

Just for fun…some random observations from my travels:

• It drives me nuts that so many hotels do not have free internet.  Especially the expensive ones.  I can get free internet access at the Holiday Inn, but not in Vegas…sheesh!
• It gets a tad boring looking at rocks and holes in the ground for 10 days.
• Vegas is not that fun if you don’t drink, gamble, or enjoy looking at pictures of mostly naked women.
• Bellagio’s fountains are truly the best part of Vegas.
• My favorite national parks in order of most to least favorite
• Arches – neat visuals, fun hike
• Zion – Water in the canyon = trees, grass, vegetation, waterfalls
• Grand Canyon/Bryce Canyon – a tie here, neat spectacle, too many people
• Canyonlands – the hike (in the desert) was the best part
• Capitol Reef – NOT worth a trip by itself, but we just drove through it anyway.  It’s on the way between Canyonlands and Bryce
• Utah, Arizona and Nevada are really just long, open, boring stretches of land with NOTHING around except large monoliths of rock (mostly red).  There is literally a “town” maybe every 50 miles, usually with no services there. 
• It is SOOO good to be home!!!

Anyway, I’ll do some pictures and details next week.

We are leaving Moab, UT today!  We stayed in the same hotel for 3 nights and today we’re heading for southwest Utah to see Bryce Canyon and Zion NPs.  We’ll be driving through Capitol Reef NP on our way, but I don’t expect it to be so fabulous that we’ll need to stay there long!

Random interesting things that might interest you about my vacation:

• We have taken over 700 pictures so far, and we’ve only been to 2 parks!
• I’ve attached some pictures for you all to enjoy below.
• There are more Europeans here than Americans, I’m pretty sure.  We’ve heard German, French, Russian, some Eastern European languages, Japanese, Chinese, and more!
• We’ve seen people carrying infants (as in like 3-6 months old) through these parks.  Crazy people!
• I’ve gotten no major sunburns (30 spf sunblock), but just enough sun to come back a little bit tan. Yippee!

Okay, and on to pictures (from Wednesday):

This vista is taken from the upper side of Partition Arch…some vista, huh?

This is me walking on a ridge that had to be crossed to get to the next arch.  I was WAY up high and was very uncomfortable – notice the clenched fists (heights and I are on speaking terms…that’s it).  Eric took this shot right before I made him come walk with me and hold my hand to make sure I didn’t fall off!

And to end the day, we got some good shots of Arches NP’s most well-known arch: Delicate Arch.  Isn’t Eric a good photographer!?!

…but I don’t have them uploaded yet.  So pictures to come sometime later…sorry for the suspense!

Quick Recap:

• So we arrived in Denver yesterday with no difficulty.  We even got all our luggage right on time!
• The rental car is a Pontiac G6 (dark gray).  Very nice and great gas mileage!
• We drove through a snow storm in the mountains in Colorado.   
• By the time we got to Utah (app. 3 hours later), it was 67 degrees outside.
• The Colorado/Utah border is not very visually stimulating.
• The scenery got TONS better in Moab, UT. 
• We spent the whole day in Arches National Park today.  We hiked 4 hours (about 7 miles) and drove the rest of the park.  Lots of great things to see there.  Hopefully the pictures turn out!
• We can see snow-covered mountain tops from our motel room at the Aarchway Inn.  Such fun!

Okay, enough for now.  I’ll update again in a day or two!

We’re Off!

So it’s a lot early for a post, but I thought I’d do one really quickly before we left.  We will have my laptop, so there is a chance I’ll post, but I can’t promise where we’ll find free internet access, so who knows when a post will come.

I got everything on my list done yesterday and then some.  We are totally ready to go (after I put my shoes on!), and we fly out of Columbus at 8:00 am.  See you all later!

The Calm in the middle of the Storm…

That’s what I feel today is.  But really I have a lot to accomplish today, so it’s more like the storm before the calm, I guess!

Sadly, we’ve had to change our plans for vacation somewhat.  We decided to fly into Denver so we could visit my friend Ghena, but between her visitors, her husband’s week-long absence (for work), and her children’s health, this week just didn’t seem feasible.   So we’ve decided to find another way for me to come out this summer, maybe in July, but not complicate their lives further right now.  Up side: we have two extra days of vacation which means we can be really flexible about where/when we stop.  Down side: I won’t get to see Ghena right away, and I may not be able to take Eric with me when I got back.  Definitely a bummer!

Anyway, as for the rest of life, we headed for the farm on Friday evening, later than usual.  It was hard for me to relax most of the weekend because I kept thinking of things I needed to do for our vacation and because traveling always makes me nervous, so I had trouble staying focused on really being there with them.  But we had lots of time to sit and chat, and Eric even got to play farmer on Saturday which he enjoyed and they appreciated a lot!
We got home last night about 10:15 or so, but since Eric is on vacation now, we didn’t have to rush home.  In fact, he’s still sleeping right now!  We have lots to do today, though, so I hope he doesn’t sleep in too long!

Okay…so things I should do today:

1. Look up and print information about the national parks we’re planning to visit
2. Clean the bathrooms
3. Wash the kitchen floor (I’ve been putting this off)
4. Pack
5. Run errands
6. Call Karen
7. Call Vicki

I’m sure there’s more, but we’ll see what happens…

Things I did yesterday:

• Laundry (lots of it!).
• Returned some clothes to the mall.
• Put gas in my car
• Ran to Meijer.
• Called my friend Erika (my best friend from college) whose 30th birthday was yesterday!
• Did some writing.
• Made dinner
• Watched a movie with Eric (Zoom with Tim Allen…really pretty funny!)

Things I plan to do today:

• Go to CU to get a bit of work done.
• Iron the permanent press clothes I laundered yesterday
• Pack for our trip to the farm this weekend.
• Maybe more writing, maybe not.
• Drive out to the farm (well, actually, Eric will probably drive, but I’ll ride along!).

I do not think I lead a very exciting life…at least I’ll be going on vacation next week.  That should be interesting!

EDIT 9:15: Okay, I am amused by this, so I will share.  I’ve just been on the TSA website researching what can and can’t be taken on an airplane since we’ll be traveling next week.  Here are some that amused me…

• Personal items     Carryon (1 qt. size bag per passenger, 3 oz. or less of each item)  Check – Yes (any size)
• Yogurt/Jello/Pudding/Whipped Cream  Carryon (3 oz. or less in qt-sized bag)  Check – Yes (any size)
• Toy guns      Carryon (as long as not realistic)   Check – Yes
• Crowbars/Cattle prods      Carryon – No   Check – Yes
• Meat Cleavers/Ice picks    Carryon – No   Check – Yes
• Sporting goods (bats, etc.)  Carryon – No   Check – Yes
• Martial Arts props      Carryon – No  Check – Yes
• Explosives/Gun Powder  Carryon – No  Check – No  END EDIT

First of all, yesterday, I realized how much I dislike Xanga’s new “Snap preview” that pops up when you put your cursor over anything on the page.  It’s not that the preview itself is a problem…but sometimes I have to click the link 2-3 times because the preview interrupts when I click on it, so I can’t go.  Maybe it’s just me, though…

I finished my book yesterday.  It was pretty good, though it didn’t really wrap up the storylines left hanging in Book 3.  That is always disappointing for me, so I really hope Harry Potter doesn’t end like that!  And my expectations are WAY higher for HP than for this series I just finished!

Unfortunately, I didn’t do very much more than read my book yesterday.  I did do a few things, but not much!  I would’ve done some writing on my book project, but my laptop had lost its internet connection, which means I couldn’t access my files, which means I had to wait until it remembered it could access the internet (which it eventually did, but not soon enough to justify writing!).

So anyway that means that today will be a day for getting some things done.  I really need to do laundry, and I think I’m going to run up to the mall to make a return.  I also need to run to a WalMart/Meijer type store.  Such fun, huh?

Next week at this time, I will be in Cheyenne, WY, visiting my friend from college and her family.  We will leave next Tuesday and spend time with Ghena before taking a driving tour of Colorado, Utah, and the Grand Canyon.  We’ll fly home from Vegas two weeks from tomorrow.  I’m finally getting a little excited about the whole thing.  It’s finally starting to feel like a real event that will take place.  Of course, I have a lot do to before we go, and we’ll be spending the weekend at the farm, so I really should get some stuff done this week.  Or maybe I’ll leave it all until Monday of next week…we’ll see!

Yesterday, I ran some errands and got a haircut.  It styled so easily this morning…I love that!  I got a new book yesterday, so I’m reading that now.  I also did some writing and cleaned the kitchen.  And I spent some time with Eric, too.  Overall, it was a nice day!

This morning, I’m a little surprised at how stuffy my house is, even with all of last night’s rain!  But with all the rain, I don’t have to water any plants today, and the ground really needed the water.  So I think I’ll just open the windows and see if I can coax some of the cooler outside air inside!

Not nearly as much to share today.   Yesterday wasn’t terribly exciting.  I didn’t go anywhere.  I cleaned up my house.  I did a good bit of writing.  I decided I’m going to have to break down and buy the fourth book in the series my MIL gave me (she gave me three of the books, and I don’t remember her saying there were four) just so that I can go on with my life!  I also watered our plants and generally hung out for the day.

Eric came home about 3:00.  He hasn’t been feeling very well since Sunday, and I think it’s connected somehow to the work we did on Saturday.  Maybe he hurt his back, maybe it’s the sunburn he got, maybe it’s just exhaustion.  But his stomach’s been hurting him, but not in any way that affects his ability to eat.  So he’s just really uncomfortable.  He’s actually still here this morning, and I don’t know if he’ll go to work today at all.  We’ll see!

Today, I need to run some errands, and I want to get a haircut.  We leave in one week for our vacation out West, so I want it to be past the “shorn” stage so I can do it easily while we’re gone.  Not sure what else is on my agenda, but I always seem to be able to fill the day!

It was a busy weekend!  Friday night, we had a guys/girls night with our small group.  The girls met at Autumn’s house and hung out.  The guys went to see a movie (Spiderman 3) and got ice cream.  It was fun to just sit around and chat, especially because a number of the newer girls came so we had time to really talk to them.

Saturday, Eric and I just hung out in the morning, but we ended up doing a lot of yard work in the afternoon.   We hadn’t planned on it, but Eric went out to edge the flower beds and before we knew it we were shoveling old mulch, trimming and replanting various plants, and other such activities.  Eric made me a new flower bed along the side of the house, and then we went and bought flowers to plant (which I did).  I now have impatiens and two new rose bushes in the ground.  Needless to say, we were pretty beat in the evening, so we watched our Nexflix movie (My Super Ex-Girlfriend) which wasn’t very good.  Don’t bother with it.  It had a lot of potential, but ended up just being kind of stupid.

Mother’s Day was busy, but pretty fun.  We headed for Cedarville right after church and grilled out for dinner.  Then Mom opened her gifts and we just hung out for the afternoon and played with the girls and Karen’s puppy.  We stayed for supper (pizza) and then headed home.  We were in bed just after 9:00!

Anyway, here are some pictures from Mother’s Day (boy is it nice to have our camera back!).

The girls loved the puppy.  Karen fenced her in by the side door while we ate dinner, and they ran back and forth between the gates, squealing and trying to pet the puppy through the wire.

The puppy was, of course, entertaining on her own!

And we also spent a lot of time outside.  That Holly LOVES to swing!!  And Kelly liked to help ‘walk’ the puppy! Eric was entertaining us with his juggling skills.