Kathy's Wedding!

(Kristan, Elisa, Nicole, Kathy, Me, Connie)

One of my dear friends Kathy Ludlow got married to her missionary (LOL!) and we all made the trip to Oakland to witness it. Although Miss Kathy is a "cougar," he is a convert and went on a mission later in life (at age 26) so she isn't quite as crazy!

We made the quick weekend trip to witness her marriage. It was a great weekend girls trip and I loved seeing all of Kathy's friends from so many stages of her life. She is a wonderful friend and it was evident by how many people were at her wedding that she is loved by many. Here are a few pictures from the event.

(Elisa, Me, Connie, Nicole, Kristan)


(Me having a Marilyn Monroe moment!)

(Connie, Me, Kristan at the ring ceremony)


What a gorgeous sunset as seen from our hotel!

And since Elisa was in charge of taking Kathy's wedding dress back to Utah on the plane it was only fitting that Elisa tried it on right? We took this picture and sent it to Kathy the night of her honeymoon right before we tried to go to the pool (which was closed).

West Palm Beach

For the 2nd leg of our trip we headed down to Suzanne's brothers house in West Palm Beach. He lives in a great house where they have their own pool as well as huge community pool....oh and about 10 minutes from the beach. Really rough life! It wasn't as warm as I would have liked, but the beach in December is a treat in and of itself!

Other than the beach we just hung out and ate. We also drove down through the rich people's houses with Celine Dion blaring out the windows, but she didn't hear her song and come out like we would have hoped. We did find out that Donald Trump was having quite the party at his house as we drove by. We weren't dressed for the occasion or I'm sure we would have been invited in!

And then our flight home was canceled and we had to use my Medallion status to get us on a new flight that was not direct and I got home at 1am instead of 8pm. I think the airplane God's knew that I didn't want to come home!

(Izzie and Sadie)

(Me and Sadie)

Universtal Studios (aka Harry Potter World)

So I'm sure many of my friends will be very disappointed in this post, but I have never really gotten into the Harry Potter series, I've tried to watch them before this trip, but I only made it through 3 so I didn't really "get" most of Harry Potter world.

I did however, enjoy the fact that I could watch Suzanne and Kim "geek out" at all of the Harry Potter stuff. I also learned that skeletons are actually called "Dementors" after they scared me on the ride in the castle. I have to admit that even though I wasn't a HP nerd I definitely felt like I was transformed into a new world.
The butter beer was also delicious.


After Harry Potter world we went to the rest of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I don't think I've seen any amusement park as deserted as they were, not even Lagoon! We had no wait on all rides, in fact we got annoyed at some rides because they are set up assuming there is a line and you go through a lot of rooms where you watch videos before the ride so they force you to wait! Highlights included:

They don't mess around on their water rides. Even with a poncho I wish I had my swimsuit on. They were crazy wet with really big, fast drops.
Suzanne loves Jurassic Park WAY too much.....:)
I don't enjoy going up a 90 degree roller coaster slowly while hanging upside down......just shoot me over the top already!
The Mummy ride was awesome. Loved it!
I wish I could have enjoyed the Simpsons ride.....it was simulated and Suzanne and I had to close our eyes almost the whole time so we didn't throw up!

Disney World 2011

For Christmas this year I went to Disney World with Suzanne and Kim (a little early though). In between Thanksgiving and Christmas has to be the best time of the year to go to Disney World because it was empty. We almost never waited in line and could have done everything in 2 days (but we had 3 day passes). As Suzanne said "we wait for nothing!!" (after there was a 15 min line for a ride). It was wonderful to go on so many rides and see so many shows that I've never had time to see in my previous trips. Here are some of the highlights:

Animal Kingdom
Safari is best in the morning. All the animals are out and right next to the jeep!
The dinosaur ride is really are scary for me (as evidenced by the picture below)
I really, really, really like the Mt. Everest Roller Coaster.
Finding Nemo the musical is super cute and fun even for 3 single adults
Ponchos are very handy on the water rides (thanks Suzanne!)
I still "have it" with my awesome Orem "tiger" cheerleading moves
Lion King show dancers are a little scary to watch from the front row (WAY too close!)

Magic Kingdom
Dole Whip Pineapple ice cream - Delicious!
I need to figure out how to not cry at the fireworks (stupid "Wishes do come true!")
Florida does not appear to celebrate Christmas like Disneyland does. I was pretty sad that "It's a Small World" was not the Christmas version
Splash Mountain is awesome when you get to go 2 times in a row without getting out of your log
You can learn an awful lot about how much "progress" the world has made by going on the "Carousel of Progress"
I'm too old to spin on the tea cups so I made us just sit on them without spinning like the elderly people.
Contrary to popular belief you can not meet Flynn Rider (or any of the princes). Apparently they are only part of the parade.
Hollywood Studios
Rockin Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror in under an hour is a bit much and rattles your brains up
Never go in blue lights with bleached hair. Everyone will find out you aren't a natural blonde!
I was unsuccessful in my bid to get Suzanne to audition for American Idol, but we did enjoy the show!
I still hate Star Tours and had to close my eyes throughout most of it while having flashbacks of Amber puking on me last time we were there. Suzanne however went on it alone 3 times while Kim and I went to see the Muppets.

Epcot
It's really fun to "eat your way around the world" but you might feel sick afterwards.
Always eat at Le Celier (an amazing and pricey steakhouse in Canada). Well worth my $65!
The line was too long to meet Mary Poppins so we just looked from afar

And finally, this is what 4 days of amusement park rides can do for you. We did not plan this picture.....this was our 4th time on this ride. I guess it lost it's excitement.

My Birthday

I forgot to post that I had yet another birthday. Turned the big 36. I am starting to feel really old. I celebrated with some of my favorite girlfriends by going to Texas Roadhouse. Without my knowledge the girls let our waitress know it was my birthday. I had no idea that Texas Roadhouse brings out a saddle for you to sit in. Might want to keep that in mind for future birthdays and choose a different place to eat!

(So maybe I enjoyed it more than I let on)

Melinda, Me, Kim, Elisa

Melinda, Mary H, Kim, Elisa, Me, Mary J, Suzanne, Kathy

Seattle (again)

In early November I needed to desperately get away from work. To say that work was a mess is the understatement of the year. So I decided to head up to Seattle just for the weekend to visit Amber & Scott.

We had a pretty bumpy flight out of SLC. It was VERY windy and I seriously almost puked on a number of occasions. I was also sadly not upgraded to business class like I normally am. When we landed in Seattle it took them a while to open the door to the plane and I looked toward the front of the plane and there was Elder Holland!! He is my absolute favorite. I tried to take a photo of him, but I just got his back and then they opened the door. You will have to look close to see the back of his head.

I got off the plane and Elder Holland was turning a corner down the hall. I literally ran after him and then realized he was just catching the shuttle train so I was able to catch my breath. I went right up to him and said hello. He was traveling with one of the seventy and Bishop Burton. We started chatting about BYU, why I was in Seattle, why he was in Seattle (on his way to Anchorage) and then conversation stalled. We were on the train and I had an apostle's listening ear and I ran out of conversation! Seriously, what is wrong with me. Nobody else talked to him the entire time, just me and there were some awkward lulls. As we parted ways though he told me to have a good trip and I told him it had already been a success because I had seen him and he was my favorite. He put his hand on my back and said "Oh you say that to all of us!" to which I responded "No I don't! You really are my favorite."

After seeing Elder Holland I guess I had to go meet Amber (LOL!). We then went to H&M to shop for a bit and then home to eat.

The next day Amber and I went for a run in the morning and then we went up to see Rattlesnake Lake. It was a cool day, but beautiful blue skies! We had a little picnic lunch and the kids fed (and scared) the ducks.
Then we went home for naps and then headed to see Snoqualmie Falls. Such a beautiful waterfall!
Then we had my birthday dinner (Shish-ka-bobs) and then we just hung out. The next morning before church Ashley and Andrew came into my room to snuggle. After breakfast Andrew said the words I'm always wanting to hear from a boy "Let's go back upstairs and cuddle!" It was super cute!

On my flight home I was looking for Elder Holland (just in case) and he was on my flight back to SLC as well. The best part though was that when I walked into the plane he saw me and said hello first! I was sad that all the upgrades to business class were gone because I was prepared to discuss my entire life with him if I had been in the chair next to him. Maybe the Lord helped Elder Holland out by not having a psycho girl next to him. :)

Las Vegas Ragnar!

This year I ran my first Ragnar race. My cousin Jenny convinced me back in May to run with her and some of her friends from her ward. Since I had already signed up for the half marathon at the end of August I thought I could continue training for the Las Vegas Ragnar and would be in decent shape.

This of course was before I tore the muscle in my calf, but luckily I had time to recover. I wasn't at my fastest, but I was feeling okay when race day came.

I was runner #8 in Van 2. I ran a total of 14.5 miles in 3 legs (4 miles, 4.5 miles, 6 miles) in a 24 hour period of time with virtually no sleep. It was surprisingly very HOT in Vegas for the end of October and when our van started at 2pm on Friday it was 90 degrees outside. As you run the race your van support leap frogs you and has water, cheering and anything else you might need.

My runs were at 3:30pm, 1am and 11:30am. My first run was very hot (as you can tell by the redness of my face!).

Thank goodness for van support to dump water on your head.


And I'm off!

My second run was during the middle of the night, but it was by far my favorite run. It was cool, a little downhill and I felt awesome! I ran 9:30 min miles which was a full minute faster than I normally had been running post injury. I really don't think I've had a better run in my life. No photos of course since it was 1am, but it was awesome.

There was a hotel at exchange 24 (our last major exchange with the other van). It was the Gold Strike hotel which wasn't the nicest or cleanest hotel, but the fact that we got 2.5 hours of real sleep not in the car and in a quiet room was awesome. Most people slept in the parking lot!

My final run started around 11:30am. It came after Jenny ran the "Ragnar" leg which was 5 miles up 1200ft in elevation and then 5 miles down 1200 feet in elevation. She did amazing. I have to admit I would have DIED doing her runs. As the next runner I was her support and since it was the middle of the day again it was super hot.


My final run was about 6 miles. Not the prettiest of runs as you can see, but I totally killed this run. One of the "fun" things to do during the Ragnar race is to see how many people you "kill" (pass). Of course we were not keeping track of how many times we got killed, but on my final run I killed 7 people! I had only killed 3 people on both of my previous runs combined.



Here I am at the end of my final run handing off to Hannah. You can see my last "kill" in the background. I sprinted the last .25 of a mile (6:45 min miles according to my watch) to kill her. I was especially proud of this kill because this van was always by us and they did not have a nice team name or very nice drawings on their van (let's just say they were very "Las Vegas").


I have to admit that this is the first time that I actually ENJOYED running and I would for sure do another Ragnar. I ran further than a half marathon but I loved it more. I think I liked having the break in between. Our van was so fun and we had such a good time giggling and being girls.

This is where we hung out for 24 hours straight!


Here's Jenny waiting to help one of our runners with her flag!

And sometimes you run into donkey's in the middle of your run!


Our full team (both Van 1 and Van 2)

Me and Jenny