Vacation Part 1

We made it to Vancouver, WAshington tonight, and after a 2 hour long swim in the pool with Rachel, I decided to give you a glimpse so far of our vaction.

These are in no particular order btw. Here we have mountnoma(?) falls supposedly the second highest waterfall in America. Very beautiful, but packed with people. We forgot that it was labor day weekend. I love the beautiful trees and moss all over the ground. Green everywhere.


Cliffs seem to be the theme in Oregon.

I love ferns. I have a travel journal from years back full of ferns from almost every state I've been to.

Our bow-tie towel waiting for us at Holiday Inn Express. They give us a huge breakfast every morning. We best buds.

Full size Stonehenge replica. Some rich old guy who fought in WWII made it as a memorial for a bunch of soldiers. Cool lookin.

The parents

RAchel wall climbing.

Our sacrifice to the Washington Gods.



A vacation isn't a vacation without a squished penny to show for it.

Twin Falls Temple.

Me and the temple



Mt. Hood in the backround of the stonehenge mountain. It was SO windy!

Our first night in Idaho KOA. We had to set up the tent at 11pm in pitch black. It was anew tent too. Fun times.

The dock for the foot paddle boats.

The brindge at some gorge. Can't remember the name, you'll get all details when I get back to Utah. Base jumpers too. Videos to come.

Shoshonie Falls, Idaho.

I love all things mossy.

We'll oot n' aboot for the next couple of days. Just thought I'd give you a peek of our adventures so far. HAving a blast, and no sunburns, sickness or injuries so far. Seeya laters!

Bec

Farewell

Me and the fam(most of us) are off to a two week vacation to Washington, Oregon, and Canada. I may be the only one returning too. I'm the only one with a passport to get back into the U.S. If that happens, I'll throw a big party at my newly empty parent-free house.

A couple of our stops along the way will be Dale Chihuly's workshop and neighboring museum (just go to google images under his name and you'll see why I love the man), La Push & Forks Washington from the ever worshipped twilight series, the space needle, and buchart gardens where I hear is the most amazing sunken garden ever. Plus many more that will be spur of the moment excursions.

I'm relying on my two brothers and sister to water my garden enough to keep it alive while I'm gone. But just in case, I've had the soaker hose on for about 6 hours now. It's just starting to produce a plentiful harvest of tomatoes & squash, so when I get back I should have quite the produce collection.

I'll be sure to take mounds and mounds of pictures (you know me) and share several along the way if my dad decides to bring his laptop.

Rachel and I stopped at the library tonight to get a bunch of books for the driving part. One of them was all about HTML. I also have a book on TCP/IP I might bring. Might as well learn something along the way.

Must finish packing now.

Adios Amigos!

Musings

Could life get better?


Raised on this stuff


I think my brothers had hundreds of these when we were little. I may have even sucked on them as an infant.


Every female would agree I think.



This was a little something Rachel and I put together for Michael's birthday last week. We also wrapped up his desk chair, pillow, and a pair of shoes. It's fun to hear your brother scream. :D

Ace loves his double ended ball. He has quite the grip for a dog. This is one of his favorite things to do with Michael and Randy. I don't know who gets the better workout, MIchael or Ace.

One for the history books.

"I would be greatly,.........greatly.........uh..........Grateful."


This is Rachel realizing mid sentence that she combined two different phrases and to keep from looking foolish, combined them into one.

-I would greatly appreciate it

&

-I would be grateful

I ate it, yes I did.

I finally crossed off another item from my wish list. This thing is going to take a while.

Today we went to Buffet City for my brother Michael's 28th birthday. I have wanted to try sushi forever. I've heard from some it's nasty, others say it's amazingly delicious. I wanted to test the theory myself, but wanted it to be authentic so my judgment would be fair. I had A california roll with a bit of wasabi and teriyaki dipping sauce. (sorry about the quality, camera phone you know)

The verdict:

It seemed to be overly fishy tasting, a chewy raw texture, and a bit annoying because of the little fish bones to pull out of my teeth. I like my meat/fish cooked and hot, and this was the opposite. I don't think I'll be having the stuff ever again. But I can add a check mark to my list now. Only 7 or so more things to do.

Now, to the grand finale of our meal, I introduce you to another fishy specimen up for ridicule: The lonely Octopus

Yes, this was on the menu. About a quater size octopus in some kind of marinade.



And guess what I did? Yes my friends, I ATE this! After the sushi I was feeling a little gutsy, we had a camera, so why not? I grossed out every member of my family but my brother in law Lema who had one himself. I almost gagged, but I chewed it, tasted it, and swollowed it. 6 people can attest that I ate an octopus. Extremely rubbery, with a slight taste of sardines.

It's just the fact that you know you're eating something creepy looking which makes it hard to swallow. Can you believe it? Kind of an adrenaline rush you might say.


Fun times.
Bec

Out with the old, in with the nude. I mean, new...

I did it again. I can't stick with the same layout for more than about a year. So here's a new one! I also added all the web pages I visit and lots more friends' blogs. Even some friends of friends blogs. People who I never talk to but knew from the good ol' days. Hopefully they don't think I'm stalking them. I also added a new layout to Rachel's blog(who finally decided to update past one post) and it's wicked cool.

Enjoy!

I found another "I'm-bored-out-of-my-mind-I'll-do-this-instead" thing. Instead of taking a picture of your desk and describing stuff, hit print screen and describe all the programs open on your desktop. You'll need to click on it though to enlarge it. Kind of small.



So glad I'm not teaching primary tomorrow. I would have stuck in a movie and crawled in a ball to sleep in the corner. I'm going to be dead for church! Had to work a late shift tonight, thankfully from home though! 30 more minutes!!!! No customers ALL night. BORING!!!!!! But, I'm buying some LB jeans with this money, so it's worth it!


Laters.

Parade of Homes 2008 UTAH!

Michelle and Lema invited Rachel and me to see the parade of homes with them. A couple of years ago when my aunts house was first built, they had it in the parade of homes. This was my first time seeing other houses. We saw so many beautiful houses that were decorated incredibly. I brought my camera and Rachel and I took over 300 pictures for ideas! We love house designs and decorating. We saw a 3 million dollar house and a ton of $600,000 + houses. So insanely expensive, but a blast to tour through. Here are a bunch of my favorites.

This candle was about 1ft dia. HUGE candle and it smelled SO good.


Rachel and her thoughtful pose.


Even the vent covers in houses were cool


I love raised sinks. I thought this one was awesome.


I had to combine three pictures, so excuse the retardedness of this picture. This house we titled, "The Castle" for obvious reasons.


We were in an angry mood first thing this morning. We decided to take it out on the camera.



We survived the FULL day of driving across northern Utah, thanks to my cool ipod keeping us entertained.



What girl wouldn't KILL for a built in stone vanity?


Guess how they lit up above the crown molding? Rope lights, cheap rope lights.


Cool entry way


I LOVE this faucet! So classic, yet modern design. LOVE LOVE LOVE.


Weird pillows. Thought they deserved a picture.


This scene made me think of the disney cartoon version of Cinderella when she's making the dress.


Speaking of cinderella, here's Cinderella coach/bed I would have died for as a kid.


How exactly do you clean a sink made out of copper? Cool nonetheless


My new car.......In my dreams. Don't you love my model pose?


Gorgeous kitchen sink.


This was the ceiling to a master bedroom. I felt like flying for some odd reason.


Cute little nook for writing.


This my friends, is a playhouse built inside a house. Talk about kid friendly. It looked like a miniature town for midgets.


RAchel decided to take a break from all the stair climbing.


These looked a million times better in real life. Really. Oh well.


This was the same house with the indoor playhouse. This was the play room. Yes, a play house and playroom. This has a built in swing, and the trees are half painted, half real.


Previously mentioned trees.


This is a candle. Could be handly in a blackout I suppose. A very long blackout.