Zen and the art of Cross Country Driving

I didn't realize how much work needed to be done in order to start my new life as a college freshman. Clothes needed to be packed, pictures needed to be taken, goodbyes needed to be said. It was funny talking to people at church about me going off to college. I was able to predict the way the conversation would go even before I had it.
It would always get around to how great the BYU experience is and how I am just going to love going there, and have so many new friends, etc. 

Anyway, we finally finished up packing all of the stuff in the car (and by we I mean mostly dad, although I did help keep Belle occupied by playing Just Dance on the wii) and my dad and I headed out west, and only two hours later than planned! Mom and I had persistently insisted that Dad not text while he drives (believe it or not its a big problem with him).

He didn't text (at least not that I saw), but he did manage to find other dangerous things to do while driving... 

Like eating chips.

 

Looking at the map.

Taking pictures of himself. 

And eating McDonalds (yes with no hands).

It is a miracle that we made it to Utah alive. 

And of course along the way I had to take the typical state sign pictures: 

This is the Kansas State sign I promise. 

It was an experience being able to see so many of the things that makes this country great. 

Like the St. Louis arch,

The rest stop in Missouri,

The beautiful sunset of the Midwest,

The Wizard of Oz museum in Kansas,

Bunnies in Colorado,

 This creepy semi-abandon house that had vultures circling around it, (We didn't stay here vey long) 

And the complex rock formations of Wyoming. 

We even found time to emerse ourselves in the culture by buying matching cowboy hats and stopping to take pictures in the middle of the highway. It was a weird experience being able to walk onto a highway without cars speeding towards you. 

I found that the most exciting part was being able to drive across state lines! It was such an accomplished feeling, knowing that the hours of driving had actually added to the progress. 

Personally while driving I learned quite a few things about myself:

- I can touch my nose with my tongue. 

- I enjoy pretending I am a member of the Vocal Point group by dramatically singing along to their songs. 

- I have a talent for eating french fries and driving at the same time. 

We only managed to get lost once. In a small residential Village (it wasn't even large enough to be called a town) in Missouri. However, we eventually found our way and even got Subway out of it. 

Finally, after a full four day journey filled with adventure, junk food, songs, and homework we reached our destination: 

UTAH!

All you need is Food

Recently, I have been in the cooking mood. I don't really know why, maybe it was the lack of real food for 2 months, the brand new kitchen, or the thought of my future starvation at college. Most of my recipes came from the delicious blog of a member of our stake, the-girl-who-ate-everything.com.

After a hot morning at the pool I was super hungry and craving apples and so I made apple muffins. They tasted delicious, if I do say so myself. They were so filling, Belle, the Penrod kids, and I chomped down on them.

The next day Ashley came over we made Jelly Roll pancakes that were like pancakes that you could roll around stuff like peanut butter, chocolate chips, or jelly. We had fun making different letters and animals with the pancake batter.

One night I made Spinach Lasagna Rolls and Blooming Onion Bread for dinner. After 2 trips to the grocery store, 2 near death experiences, a torrential hurricane, and 3 hours of cooking (at 8:35), dinner was finally ready.

I also cooked Stuffed Pizza Rolls, and an Angel Food cake for Mom's birthday.

After all of the cooking and cleaning, I don't think that I will ever make food again!

The early bird watches the sunrise

A couple of friends and I had decided to watch the sunrise on Ft. Lauderdale beach, and then go watch the sunset on the other side of Florida in Ft. Myers. We woke up at 5 in the morning and was on the beach just in time to see the beautiful sunrise. It was so beautiful. Afterward we hung out at the beach for a while and then had fun taking turns playing in a shopping cart. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, sadly, we were not able to make it to the west coast to see the sunset. But it was a great day anyway.

Please excuse the giant, bushy, mane on my head. The beach doesn't always make my hair look its best.

Pictures of people taking pictures of people taking pictures of people taking pictures.
I thought this picture was awesome because of the condensation on the lens that happened when I took the camera from the air conditioned car out to the hot humid beach.

So much DOGgone walking...

I had been asked to dog sit while a family in our ward was out of town. I had always wanted a dog, but after this past week I may have had a change of heart. Not to say that their dogs were not well behaved, but just a little too much work for my stress-free lifestyle. Luckily, I have a sister who LOVES dogs! Belle started accompanying me to walk the dogs, and actually was a huge help. As the week went on my role had started to diminished. By the last day it had been become a normal routine, wake up Belle, hop in the car, Belle walks the dogs, Belle feeds the dogs, Belle waters the dogs, Belle pets the dogs, the dogs slobber on Belle, I drive home. I lived in worry that one day she would realize how little I was doing and refuse to fulfill my responsibilities for me. It never came to that point and besides I was there all along the way to make sure nobody was dying.

Occasionally I would take a turn at walking the dogs. They were pretty fun to race, especially when Belle was holding their leashes. The young dog would turn around and pull the leash with his mouth when he decided you were going too slow.

Everyday after we walked the dogs Belle would sit on the couch and let the dogs jump on top of her and lick her face. I thought it was soo utterly disgusting, but she loved it and would laugh it off. In the same way that this experience has made me realize that I am not the dog owner type, it made Belle realize that she wants a dog more than ever before.

But, I guess who could resist a doggone cute face like that?

Our Epic Adventure

As a graduation present my mom had planned for us to go on a Mediterranean Cruise to Spain and Italy. I will try not to make my account of the trip the length of a novel, but no promises.

Our EPIC adventure started on Friday June 10, when we headed down to the Miami airport to catch our Swiss Air flight into Zurich.

I just have to say that I never knew that a plane could be so comfortable and the food so delicious!! They served us not only dinner, but also break

fast, had unlimited movies, hot washcloths in the morning, and a

never ending drink service. What more could you need. No flight will ever be the same for me again.

They even had a vegetarian option for me!

After admiring the beautiful Swiss landscape through windows and vis

iting their weird looking rest rooms, we headed back on a plane to take us to Barcelona.

After arriving in Barcelona we spent about half hour waiting for the autobus and eventually we were shuttled away to the airport Hotel where mom proceeded to take a very much needed nap.

I was a little disappointed that everyone that we came into contact with in Spain spoke English; I never got to use the Spanish that I had been practicing. Nevertheless, it was probably for the better. I had trouble saying anything other than, "¿Dónde está el baño?"

The next morning we headed down to the lobby of the hotel where we were provided with breakfast. The seemingly ordinary food that was presented before us, had an extremely unordinary taste. To put it plainly the food was horrible! Or at least not what I was used to. The pancakes were too flat, the watermelon too dry, the water too clean, the orange juice too pulpy. I thought that I could wash all of this down with a cup of nice plain milk, but I was mistaken. The only thing keeping me from spitting out the warm (almost hot) sugary milk was all of the people looking at me as my cheeks started to puff out, my leg started to bounced, and I started to run from the table. And of course Mom only laughed.

Soon we were on the bus to the ship where we were bound to have the journey of a lifetime!

The first day on board was pretty boring. Our rooms weren't ready for the first couple of hours we were on board. While waiting we explored the ship. We ended up finding a spa where we got pedicures, a great buffet place where you could get all the food you wanted (for free), and a bowling ally where my dreams of being a pro bowler went into the gutter.

That night we attended the Blue Man Group, which was a truly amazing show!

The next day was spent at sea. We entertained ourselves with activities such as participating in family Wii, the digital photo scavenger hunt, playing bingo, laying by the pool, and going to a comedy show.

Family Wii was a good way to reaffirm my findings the night before that I cannot bowl, not even in a video game. But it was fun to play on a two-story tall screen.

We came in 2nd place in the scavenger hunt and had a ton of fun running around the ship. It was especially funny to watch mom interrupt ping pong and basketball games just to get pictures of her doing specific tasks, like shooting like Michael Jordan.

The next day we finally docked in Italy. Promptly at 8:30 am we were herded on a bus with a tour guide to show us the great sites in Florence.

We were on a half day tour with the remaining time left up to us to wander to uneven and crowded streets in the city. We started out looking at the beautiful architecture on one of many cathedrals.

We then visited some market places, some bridges, some other cathedrals, and then food and shopping.

After Florence we were in Rome. It was a much more hectic and dirtier place. It was amazing though to literally see history in front of you. Unfortunately, I failed to listen to my wise mother who told me to charge my camera, so the battery died half way through the day. However, I did learn the art of mental picture taking. I now have great mental pictures of the Coliseum, the old Roman Forum, and Vatican City. All in all it was another fun, but exhausting day.

Next stop was Pompeii. We spent the morning hiking up the volcano, Mt.

Vesuvius and toured the ancient city in the afternoon. We had a great bus driver that was always the first bus to each stop and beat all of the annoying tourist.When we got to the top of the Mountain a tour guide took us around the top and we were able to see an amazing view of all the cities below. At one point the tour guide had us all yell at the same time and we were able to hear an amazing echo from the volcano.

On Friday we had another day at sea.

We were able to sleep in and just relax by the pool.

I was able to convince Mom to go on the three water slides that they had on the ship. We did work up enough appetite to go to the family pizza making session, where we were the oldest people there. We made our pizzas amongst 5 and 6 year olds. In the evening we were able to attend the Beatles concert that they had and also the dueling piano show. The dueling pianist were amazing! They said that they had over 300 songs memorized. Not only could the play outstandingly, they also had great voices.

The island of Palma off of Spain was amazing. We had a bike tour that took us around part of the island. We stopped at a plaza and I was shocked to see that the roads were tiled, just like the side walks. It felt like a Disney Epcot city. It was also super clean. There was no piece of trash I saw on the whole island.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun filled with adventure, relaxation, and great food. I am so glad that I was lucky enough to have this opportunity.