Miami - Part 2 - Animal Kingdom

Naturally, if you are going anywhere in Florida, no matter your age, you must make a pilgrimage to Disney World! To not do so would be something of a sin! We spent out first lovely day (it was about 75 degrees at the end of December!) clambering all over: which was so much fun because this was one of the only Disney parks I had never been to! I have heard about it but knew nothing about it except for the safari part. So of course we ran to the safari ride first and only had to wait about an hour in line! Word of the wise:

NEVER GO TO DISNEY WORLD AROUND CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS!!!!!!!

Every single day we were at Disney, each park closed because they were at capacity! Talk about mounds and hoards of people! And don't even get me started on the lines! But we did learn the art and magic of the fastpass! Anywho, back to the safari.... After waiting endless minutes in line we finally got to the point where we could see the trucks we would be riding on:

We got on a truck and headed out into the pride lands (and this is where my love of Lion King might take over. You have been warned.) to see all of the amazing animals roaming free. I was sure that there had to have been some safety feature like electric fences or at least invisible fences for our protection, but boy was I in for a surprise! Here are some of the things we saw:

At this point we had to pause because we had a herd of wildebeests stampeding, I mean crossing, in front of us

And then there were some pretty elephants (which is so cliche when you think of a safari but I'll let this one slide...)

At this point I was still searching for the invisible fences that would keep me from being lions meat (I know the wildebeests went in front of us, but come on, how dangerous can a wildebeest be? It's not like they can trample the leader of the pack or anything!) but then I was quite surprised to find this waiting around the next bend

But, as I learned studying geology, you always need something in the picture for scale because you never know how far or close this rhino really is. I mean, I could have some wicked telephoto stalker lens or something. So, being the good geologists that I am, I made sure to take one with scale:

That random object in the lower right corner is definitely our safari truck. There is NOTHING stopping that rhino from maiming our truck and spearing me right in the ribs and making a rhino shish kabob out of me! Seriously, Disney has way more faith in their animals than I do! We then ran across these warthogs and these weren't the singing/dancing/hakuna matata kind either. These things looked like they would eat me for a brunch appetizer!

After the safari we went to the Bug's Life 3D movie and Jake and I were seriously rockin' our bug glasses!

After the bug movie Jake and I skedaddled over to the dinosaur land, but no matter how persuasive I tried to be, Jake wouldn't go into the bone dig with me. He claimed it was for little kids and that we didn't qualify. I reminded him that I look like a child still, and we act like children still, and that I'm a geologist and therefor it is my duty to go in, but no such luck. We did however snag some fastpasses from strangers to go on the Dinosaur ride and I absolutely LOVED it!

And then we went to this mini roller coaster called Primeval Whirl which sounded so fun in writing that I didn't mind the LONG line! Jake and I passed the time by being silly and having fun with the mirrors:

and then proceeded to go on the WORST RIDE IN THE PARK!!! It was even worse than the Wild Mouse at Lagoon - way more jerky and starty-stoppy. After that disappointment, the day couldn't get worse, could it? Think again my friends!! We then went on the river rapids ride only to come out completely and utterly soaked. Was everyone soaked you ask? Nope. Just me. The rest of them had some wet spots, but were none the worse for wear. You can't really tell from the following picture, but this is just the start of the miserable evening:

Jake does have some wet spots but it doesn't appear that I am wet at all. It's an illusion. The only reason I look that way is because I don't have a dry spot on me! Oh, and did I mention that the sun was going down at this point. That only added to my problems! Luckily we were able to go on the best roller coaster in the park called Everest. And because we had fastpasses, we didn't have to wait in line at all!

And those shorts are not naturally that color either. They are much lighter if they are not completely drenched. The ride was a blast and totally caught me off guard several times! Then we headed for the must see event if you are going to Animal Kingdom - the Lion King show! And because we were in a party with a wheelchair, we got front row seats!

Seriously an amazing show! I saw Lion King on the stage in London and this is easily comparable! By this time we were getting ready to go and I was frozen but on our way out we spotted a friend I haven't seen in awhile so I took Jake's sweatshirt and ran to get my picture taken with her: After our long and tiring day we decided to go home. But not without one last picture of course!

There. I promised less pictures and I delivered. The last post had 21 pictures and this one only has 2o! More wonderful posts to come!

Miami - Part 1 - Flamingo Gardens

So it is finally time to write about the fabulous trip to Miami! Because I am such a picture freak, this will have to be split up into several posts. We will start off at the wonderful Flamingo Gardens! It is this hurt animal sanctuary with a lot of rare plants and birds that wander right up to you! It was quite fun! First Jake and I made friends with the local flock:

And then we admired some really cool and really tall trees:

After that we went into this netted area where there are many injured birds that walk right up to you! I tried to make friends by blending in

It was really quite picturesque

One of the birds got a little too frisky with me and tried to kiss me which made me scream pretty good

And speaking of getting too frisky... (ah - the wonders of nature in action)

After we decided to give those turtles a little privacy, we almost stumbled across an iguana - literally!

Then Jake was feeling lonely and decided to bribe a duck into being his friend. It worked.

Here are the rules posted outside of the aviary. My personal favorite is #14: Then we went to one of those little animal talks and I decided that I want an opossum as a pet because they eat snakes!

And since this is called Flamingo Gardens, we had to sit and watch the namesake:

We wandered off to find what else was there. That is when I found the otters! I have now officially decided to become an otter when I am reincarnated! They had so much fun swimming and chasing after each other and sliding down the water slide! What a life!

We also found some turtles and Adam (my brother-in-law), who has no problem breaking the rules, decided he wanted to hold them. I was totally freaking out because I am the ultimate rule follower but I had to at least take pictures of the whole incriminating event: And don't think that this was a one time thing either!

And did I mention that it was totally picturesque there?!

After, we found some fun spots to take pictures in! First there was this super cool lookin' tree

And then we found the wedding gazebo which was totally appropriate because we were there celebrating wedding anniversary #2!

And just in case you thought all of the rule breaking was done with:

Overall, we loved Flamingo Gardens and had a great time! And with that here is a beautiful parting picture
After this day I kind of lost my deep need to document everything so the posts after this won't have quite as many pictures. I promise!

Hempmilk. Fine if you are starving. Otherwise...

So I am back on my low-iodine diet. In case you forgot, that means:

no salt

no dairy

no soy anything

no butter

no margarine

no egg yolks

no sea salt

no seafood at all (that one is easy - I don't eat seafood anyway)

no chocolate

no marinated meat

no potato skins

no salted nuts

no red dye #3

no fun!

This time around, because I have been through it before and I was warned ahead of time it was coming so I could properly prepare, it hasn't been too bad! My dad made me some bread without salt and it is really yummy! I churned my own peanut butter at the health food store so that I know it comes from unsalted peanuts. I have a large supply of fresh fruits and veggies and dried fruit (dried the correct way so I can eat them). I made my own tomato sauce last night that was bland until I attacked it with my own blend of salt-less spices. So I have been surviving pretty well!

The one thing that is the hardest for me is no milk. I drink milk constantly! And not only can I not have milk, I can't have soy milk either! I thought that almond milk was the answer but found out that it is made with sea salt. So I finally found something called Hempmilk. It is not dairy and made from hemp nuts. My dad thinks I'm going to get high. So I had my cornflakes with blueberries this morning and decided to try the hempmilk. By itself, it's beyond awful. But when I covered up the taste with the blueberries and cornflakes, it was tolerable. But let me clarify - if you absolutely don't have to drink this, don't. As soon as I can finish this stupid diet, this will be the first thing in the trash.

I will have my first blood test on Monday to see how fast my TSH is rising. That's the thyroid hormone in my blood. The faster it rises, the faster I can take my test and the faster I can be done with this stupid low-iodine diet! Even if you aren't very religious, pray that my TSH skyrockets!

Pioneers we ain't!

So I was watching American Idol last night (which I am SO glad is back!) and when it was over I decided to watch the news until Jake was ready to go to bed - yes, we go to bed pretty early and I have no problem admitting that. Anyway - back to my story...

So I was watching the news and the top story was how this community in Immigration Canyon had a planned power outage of 7 hours to fix something, but horror of horrors - it lasted up to 30 hours at a time in some places! I mean, I can understand how bad that would be, especially in winter, but if it's that bad, pack up and spend the night in a hotel! They interviewed this one lady who was really upset about the extent of the outage saying that sleeping at night was really cold (remember this for later) when the power is out. That makes sense. I wouldn't want to sleep at night without heat. But then they went on to outline the other horrors of living 30 hours without power. The biggest one was how this lady (same lady as above - in fact, she was the only one they interviewed...) had hundreds of dollars of food in her freezer that had thawed and was now worthless and had to be thrown away.

Ok. Let's think about that statement just a little bit. I'm going to start with the first part. Who has hundreds of dollars worth of food in their freezer!?! Maybe if you are storing someone's wedding cake, but I definitely don't have that much. I just took a quick look in mine - some ice cream, a few frozen pizzas, a baked ziti waiting for a day I don't want to cook, and a lot of deer meat that I refuse to cook. That doesn't even come close to even a hundred dollars! I doubt we're even approaching $50! But we are starving college kids with no children, so maybe that's the difference...

Now let's go on to the more obvious part of this statement that had me laughing for quite some time! The food in her freezer had thawed and was now worthless and had to be thrown away. Hm.... If I am about to loose hundreds of dollars in food, I would do some quick thinking and look at my surroundings to find maybe some resources to help save my investment. Lets all brain storm together, shall we? It is the middle of winter. I live in Utah. I live in Northern Utah. I live in a canyon. I live in a canyon next to a big mountain. I am living through one of our more stormy winters on record. I had a hard time sleeping last night because it was so cold. Any ideas coming to any of you to save your freezer items? Cause obviously none came to this lady. If she had been crossing the plains, I doubt she would have survived long.

Even if you have never been to Utah, you most likely know that Utah claims to have the greatest SNOW on earth. And everyone - regardless of whether you have ever seen snow or not - knows that snow is cold and if you stay in it too long you will FREEZE. Wow. What a concept for someone living in Northern Utah! Hello! Put your stuff outside in the snow! I don't live in a canyon and I still have at least a foot of snow outside my door right now.

Now some of you might say that this is an obvious conclusion to me because I am a certified science teacher and of course I would think this way. But you don't have to be a science geek to know stuff like this! All you have to do is read The Boxcar Children. And I've read The Boxcar Children which taught me that you can put your milk in a stream to keep it fresh. Obviously this lady's childhood library was seriously lacking.

My Belated Birthday!

After being on antibiotics for 24 hours, I was feeling a lot better (I even did my visiting teaching!). So we decided to do my birthday cake tonight. My mom didn't really want me to get a cake (she figured that Robbie and I just shared a cake) but my sister fought hard to get me the cake I truly deserved:

I think I look pretty good for having strep! And yes - I am 24 and I did get a princess cake for my birthday! And in case you couldn't tell, in the middle is a picture frame for the true princess:

*side note for the confused - I'm the princess. Not Jake. That would just be weird*

So when the candles were being lit I was watching to see if they sparked because that's the sign that they are trick candles. Sure enough, they sparked like crazy! But what I wasn't expecting was that the middle candle started playing "Happy Birthday" when it was lit! I was thoroughly amused by it!

After everyone sang, I got ready to blow out my candles while Jake took a picture:

But actually I was just pretending because I figured that would not be good to blow all over the cake with sick and germy breath. So after I posed - quite successfully I might add - everyone else pitched in and blew out the candles and then we chowed down!

Robbie might have had too much frosting and was driving us crazy so I told him to go run in circles in the backyard. Remember that there is about a foot of snow out there.

And there is definitely no coat on there. Robbie is so funny and he makes me laugh so easily! If you are every having a down day, just call him up and ask for one of his knock-knock jokes! You will be feeling better almost instantly! He has such a talent for always being positive! I love that kid!

P.S. For those wanting to know they got my cake at Albertsons and it cost $39.99

Who gets strep throat on their birthday? Pick me!!!

So it's the big 24 for me! And how would I be spending it? By being absolutely miserable.


Seriously - who gets strep throat on their birthday!?! Me - that's who! I was fine on Saturday - I went to Robbie's 6th birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheeses and then went to my birthday dinner at my sister-in-law Anna's house. I was fine until about 9:00 that night and then in a matter of 30 minutes I felt so sick I wanted to puke! I hoped to sleep it off by Sunday, but I knew when I woke up Sunday morning that it wasn't going anywhere. So I missed church (and my birthday candy bar!) and had a truly miserable day at home. I was achey (spell check claims that word is spelled wrong, but I like that way it looks so I'm totally leaving it!) all over and I was constantly moving and I couldn't swallow and I have a temp of 101.8- you get the drill. So if it wasn't gone by today (which it had better be gone because I wasn't going to be sick on my birthday!) I was going to go to the Health Center. Wouldn't you know it - I was still sick this morning. So I went to the Health Center and I could hardly sit up. Luckily the tests came back positive for strep so now I have antibiotics. The doctor said I will still be pretty miserable for the rest of the day today (very true) but that I should be fine by tomorrow. Thank goodness! So I convinced my family to hold off on my cake until tomorrow.

Rarely have I looked forward to tomorrow more!

My Guilty Pleasure - The Bachelor!

It's time I got this out into the open - I love to watch the tv show The Bachelor. I know - how mature of me, right?! But I've been watching it for pretty much forever and I love every season! I claim to just like to watch the catty girls who make fools of themselves, but really I'm a sucker for the romance too - watching them fall in love and rooting for my favorite pick. And I usually get really roped into it too.

I kind of get emotionally attached to people and I get really upset when some bimbo doesn't give them a rose. I was appalled when Brad dissed both girls at the finale (but really, both girls were better than him). I originally had high hopes for Matt Grant (mostly because of his attractive accent), the first British Bachelor, but quickly learned that he was lame and only in it to get some. But I knew we were in for trouble when DeAnna was chosen for the Bachelorette. She seemed so superficial and only in it for the tv exposure. I proved correct when she got rid of the perfect fit for her and settled down with a unkempt, pro snowboarder - only to split with him a few months later, allegedly using the line "I love you, but I'm not in love with you". Right...

The new Bachelor started his quest for love on Monday. His name is Jason and he was the one rejected in the finale by DeAnna. He is a single father from Seattle and isn't afraid to admit that the love of his life is his 3 year old son Ty. I have high hopes for him, but I am a bit worried about how this whole process is going to affect his son. Obviously I knew that this season would have many women on it who were single parents themselves, and I was right, but the lot seems pretty promising.

My big concern is that they showed highlights for the rest of the season and they showed DeAnna coming back and saying she made a mistake. If he falls for that, he should be the next contestant on The Gullible Loser because every one else in America knows she's full of it and I can only hope he kicks her to the curb. She's only there because her 15 minutes is up and she's trying to extend it.

Well, Jason has been quoted as saying he is now engaged (the whole season has already been shot and completed) and is very happy. I really hope it works out for him, but The Bachelor track record isn't good...

Valkyrie A-

I went and saw Valkyrie (staring Tom Cruise) over the Christmas holiday, and I really liked it! And no, I didn't just like it because it shows Tom Cruise in a uniform - although that was a plus - but it was just altogether a good movie.

The movie is based on some men in Germany during WWII who are, let's say, unhappy with the way Hitler is leading their country. They don't like the image of Germany that the world is getting. So their plan is simple - assassinate Hitler. Well, actually, it turns out that that plan is not so simple after all. The movie takes you through all of the planning and has some very intense parts to say the least.

It is based on a true story, and after watching it, Jake and I kept asking each other - how in the world had we never heard this story before?!

The only problems I had with the movie were:
1. I got confused with the characters and with who was who and who was bad or good. They all seemed to blend together in my mind, so if you see it, make careful mental note of each character.
2. Being a history buff, it was hard watching the movie because (SPOILER ALERT: actually, it's only a spoiler if you don't know WWII history...) I know that they fail. I know that Hitler took the cowardly way out and committed suicide after he knew his war was lost. So the whole time I wanted to root for them but also knew that they were destined to fail. Regardless, I still found the movie captivating and wondering how in the world they would fail because things seemed to go their way.

It gave me a whole new perspective of the Germans and their feelings during the war. We are usually just taught the USA side of things: Germans were bad, unfeeling, cruel people who wanted all different from them to die. Okay, so it's not usually that bad, but rarely do they teach about Germany in a good light. This movie shows that while Hitler was at the helm, not everyone agreed with his tactics.

It is rated PG-13 for intense war scenes and people who get shot on screen, but the language was surprisingly minimal (Jake and I don't remember much but there might have been one F-word) and there is absolutely no sexuality, innuendos, nothing. There is a parting kiss between a husband and a wife, but if that sort of thing bothers you than you have bigger problems...

Saying Goodbye to a Giant Among Men

Dr. John Allen passed away this morning due to complications from surgery. This hurts more than most because just 3 short days ago, he seemed perfectly fine.

As a five year old girl, I had to get used to a new house, a new ward, and new friends. I was about ready to be done with new things by the time my mom told me we were going to see a new doctor. Like most children, I did not enjoy doctors and so I went with an attitude. I sat around waiting in a strange office hoping that he wasn't old and mean. When he walked in the room he didn't look too old, and he sure didn't look mean! In fact, he looked just like a grandpa should look. I wasn't completely convinced until he started to do my checkup and asked if there were dogs in my ears. I looked at him like he was crazy, until he looked in my ears and a dog barked! I was amazed! And then he found a frog croaking in my throat! I had officially labeled this doctor as cool! The visit was fun and I got a sucker when I was done, so by the end, I was completely sold on going to this new doctor!

Luckily for my family, this new doctor wasn't just a physician, he was also our friend and neighbor. I probably ran over to his house for some medical aillment more than I went to his office, and he never complained. So many little emergencies (Conner bitting into his tongue, Alex splitting her lip, Hana hurting her ankles from volleyball) were all taken to Dr. John before we ever even thought of the emergency room! Just this last summer my mom and I were concerned that my surgery site was getting infected under all of the bandages, but I wouldn't let anyone take off the bandage because I knew how much it would hurt. Finally I consented that the only person I would allow to take them off would be Dr. John. I went over there - on the 4th of July mind you - and he took the time to pull off my bandage (which was like a huge very sticky bandaid), inspect the site, and proclaim it healing very well. Then he went back outside to be with his family for their barbecue. This was a man who only thought of others. Never himself.

Every Christmas, my mom would think long and hard over what to give as neighborhood gifts. And of course, as soon as she had gotten the perfect thing, she would bundle us kids up to go out and deliver them. Those were always bitter cold days that we went out on, but we loved going to the Allen house because Dr. John or his wife Luana would always invite us in to get warm before we went on. That was always appreciated!

After Alex was born, who was a very sickly child, we grew even closer to Dr. John. He was always concerned for our family and he was so much fun that us children loved being with him! He became so close to our family that he was asked to participate in Rob's baby blessing (that's where the picture is from above)! Neither of my grandpas hold the same beliefs that I do, so it was nice to finally have a grandpa that I could go sit with at church. I never quite took advantage of that like Robbie has! He goes almost every Sunday and without even asking starts to rummage in Luana's purse for the candy he knows is in there!

As his children have grown up and got married, I have seen him change into the perfect grandpa! He was always willing to play with the children, regardless if it was board games or baseball. When Jake and I were babysitting for Wendy, him and his wife came by to grab a few things, but also just to see if we were surviving. As soon as they were in the house, all three children just flew into his arms!

My last memory of Dr. John is one that I will always treasure. It was Thursday night, and as Jake and I were driving home, Jake was purposelly sliding around corners for fun. We thought we were alone, but as we got out of our car, Dr. John was in his driveway laughing at us! He had been shoveling his driveway and had seen us slide around the corner. I'm so glad that my last memory was of his laugh! Of course, Dr. John was almost always laughing!

He will be missed by all. Because of the service he rendered so willingly and quietly, thousands of lives have been touched by him. Please pray for his grandchildren, his children, and most importantly, his dear wife. We love you Dr. John!