A Hike on an Island

Oh how life has changed.  Many things...most things if not all....have changed for the better.   Jeremy finally has a real job so now he works normal job hours.  This has resulted in complete utter happiness for me because I now feel like we have a normal life.  I guess that's until I get a job that has hours that prevent this, but until then...it's fantastic. 

It also has brought on a lot more time to kill, so this weekend we decided to get out and do some hiking.  Because of the area we are in .... meaning there is snow ... we couldn't go up into the mountains so we decided to head west and go to Antelope Island.  This is an island that you can drive to in the Great Salt Lake.  Pretty much all of the snow had melted at our house so we figured it would be about the same there.

We got up on Sunday morning, packed up, and headed out.  Unfortunately it was probably one of the worst days to go somewhere that you would actually want to see what you were looking at.  There was fog EVERYWHERE.  And it was thick!  There were times when we were driving that I could only see 10 feet in front of me, especially when we started to drive across the lake.  I had already been to the island with my mom a few weeks back, but Jeremy hadn't gotten to go with us then.  We thought it would be great for him to finally get to see it ... and we went ... but yet he still has yet to actually see it.  All we could see was grey and the landscape that was a few feet in front of us.

When we got there we headed to the visitor center and decided on a trail that took us up to a peak.  It was over 3 miles one way so we figured we would get as far as we could and head back so that we would be out before dusk.

Most of the way up we couldn't really see much, but once we got high enough we actually got above the fog.  It was so beautiful and sunny.  Unfortunately all we could see was fog for as far as we could see.  I can only imagine the view if it was a clear day.  We will definitely have to go back.

It was an extremely tiring trek up and we thought we were almost to the top, when we realized that the trail just kept going and there was no way we could finish it before dark.  We found a good point to stop, had a snack, and headed back down. 

On the drive out we spotted this huge herd of bison!  They were quite entertaining!

New Apartment

update:

So we've been in Salt Lake City a little over a month now and are really enjoying it here.  It's nice to finally see the seasons change and have NO traffic! I'm also enjoying going from 220 square feet living area to 850.  I must say it's a pretty nice change.  I've been waiting for all our wedding presents to arrive with my mom and now that they have I thought I'd post some pics.  Thanks again everyone for all the great gifts!  And of course money that helped buy most of the things inside our apartment!  By the way we live just 25 minutes from the closest ski resort, but we also live close to about 10 other resorts so feel free to visit!  We have plenty of room!

Traveling to Utah

Loading up Jeremy's bike for the trip

So yeah I know this post is super late....what's changed right?  I always write these posts late.  Maybe one day I'll get on top of things and post on time.  It's just that we've been busy with unpacking and shopping for the things we didn't already have. 

Here's what you've missed on "Days of Our Lives"...I mean on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week:

Our plan was to depart L.A. on Wednesday.  This unfortunately did not happen and was just silly of me to even think it was possible.  As those of you in L.A. know it doesn't rain but maybe 5 days a year, so of course it would decide that out of all the 365 days it would chose the 5 days before and after we were trying to leave to do so.  It was also silly of me to think that we could pack all of our belongings in a 6X12 trailer.  I mean we do only live in a 220 square foot apartment and didn't bring any of our furniture, but no....it wouldn't fit.  We proceeded to stuff and cram and stuff some more until we got all of the important things packed and then we tied things to various parts of the truck to bring the things that wouldn't fit the in back of my truck or trailer. 

I also made packing more difficult by wanting to bring almost every plant that we own with us.  The back of my truck seriously looked like a greenhouse.  I could have been a mobile plant nursery.  By the end of the day Wednesday we were soaked and finally packed.  Our bed was also soaked, because we had moved it out into the yard to clean the apartment, so we slept on the floor.

On Thursday we woke up, finished the tidbits, ate breakfast, and headed out.  We tried to beat the impending doom of rain that was heading our way, but failed.  It eventually caught up with us and we had to drive in the rain.  As you will notice the trailer was waaayyy over packed and wet roads didn't really help. 

Since we could only go 55 mph and way less than that up hill we didn't get to our campsite in Arizona until about 7pm.  If you ever decide to go for a drive I suggest driving through the short part of Arizona on the 15.  It was just amazingly beautiful.  Almost like driving through the Grand Canyon and then we even got to camp there too!  After the long day of driving we ate sandwiches and hit the sack.

We had mixed emotions about leaving.

The next day we finished the rest of our journey and made it to Salt Lake City around 2pm.  What a trip!

Jeremy was sad to leave his home... he was giving it a hug goodbye.

Anderson's 1st Birthday

I'm so excited, I actually made it to Anderson's Birthday!  I had initally decided that I wasn't going to fly in for the party because we had just gotten back from our trip and money was tight due to our 6 weeks of traveling.  But about a week and a half before the party I realized that there was no way I could miss it. 

Once it was decided that I was going to go I immediately hit up Priceline and started to negotiate airline tickets.  I was planning on flying in the Thursday before, but Wednesday had rolled around with no ticket.  I entered my usual price, changed the airport to New Orleans, and thought that they would sell me the ticket for sure.  This still didn't work, but they said that if I flew that day they would give me the ticket for $190. 

 I got my shift covered at work, packed my bag, and jumped on the plane!  You should know that I had told no one that I was flying in so you can imagine my mom's surprise when I called her from Denver and asked if she was busy or if she could pick me up from the airport in a few hours.  She was estatic and said she would be at the airport with "bells on". 

 

Anderson came over on Friday like usual and we had a great day together....we even took some pictures out in the backyard. When Kristina came to pick him up I hid in the back and we continued to have my arrival a surprise.

On Saturday morning we headed over to Travis and Kristina's house to prep for the party. I crouched down and hid in the back as we pulled up in their driveway. Mom got out the car and said "I hope you don't mind but I brought along some extra help". I then jumped out the car and surprised them! They were also very excited that I had ended up coming.

In the end Anderson's party turned out really well. It took us a while, but Kristina was finally able to get him to nap at around 12:45. We then ended up having to wake him up at 1:55 so he could enjoy the party. Because of this he was a little grouchy and overwhelmed with all the people around, but he eventually warmed up and enjoyed opening his presents and eating cake.

On Sunday Anderson came over again and we went to the park and took a walk around the neighborhood. Afterwards we headed to Ninfa's and had a great time eating delicious mexican food and drinking margaritas. There's never a trip to BR without a trip to Ninfas....that would just be wrong.

Paris Day 2

Our second day wasn't much different than the first.  We picked up bikes and headed out to see more sites.  This time we headed towards Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe.  Once we got to the area we had in mind we ditched the bikes and continued to walk.   We eventually grew tired of walking and decided to find some lunch.  After walking in circles we ended up at a small deli type place where we could at least see the items so we'd know what we were getting ourselves into.

After lunch we decided to make our way out of the city to see a cemetery that my dad had asked us to stop by.  He's a huge history buff and wanted us to see a World War I American Cemetery.  I had actually found one right outside of Paris so we jumped on a train and headed out to Sureness. 

It was neat to see Paris from a different angle, being so far away, and we just happened to be on a higher elevation so we could just see it all laid out before us.  The cemetery was very somber, and we even found a few markers for soldiers from Louisiana, but we are glad we went.  Being there really made us think about how lucky we are to be living the way we do.  It also made me angry that human beings can be so evil, but that's a whole other subject.

Once we were back in Paris we were ready to finally see the Eiffel tower.  We had waited until later in the day because we wanted to also see it at night.  All I have to say is that I am not one to be overly amazed by structures, but being in front of the Eiffel tower was worth the trip.  It's just as magical as one would expect it to be.  We spent a lot of time taking picture after picture....a picture from this angle, a picture with both of us, a picture with the flash on, etc,etc.  After a while of that the hunger grew upon us again and we went looking for dinner.

Like usual we circled block after block trying to decide on somewhere to eat, when we realized we just weren't going to find the "perfect" place and we just decided on a restaurant called Cafe Le Dome.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, we didn't actually end up eating here.  This is where we ran into our first...and I think only...rude Parisian.  It started out with us deciding to sit inside because of the massive amount of Europeans that smoke. 

We deliberately picked a table that was away from the windows and both sat on the booth side of the table because of the extreme lack of people inside the restaurant.  This is when a waiter approached us and asked us if we were eating or just getting drinks.  When we said eating he told us that we could only take one table, meaning that we couldn't both sit on the booth side.  As Jeremy was getting up to move the waiter grab our menus and put them on another table and rudely told us to sit there and walked off.  He had moved us right next to the patio, which is completely open so basically we were sitting on the patio, in the smoke.  We were both pissed and I said let's get out of here.  We left and moved along to a much nicer waiter at a different restaurant. 

 The sun was finally going down once we left the restaurant so we headed back to the Eiffel Tower.  At first it was still a little light out and it wasn't really lit up, but after we waited a little while the lights finally came on and I thought "wow this can't get any better".  I figured we were now going to head back to the hotel, but Jeremy suggested we go sit in the grass.  I'm glad that he did because we were eventually treated to a light show that just topped our night off.

It eventually started to rain and we still stayed out for a while under the umbrella, but after it seemed like it wasn't going to stop we made our way underneath the tower to keep dry.  Luckily the rain didn't last much longer and we hopped on our bikes and rode to the hotel.  Goodnight Paris....we're going home.

 The following morning we jumped on the subway to the main train station where we got aboard the Euro Star.  This train brought us through the Chunnel to London.  From London we got on another train back to Edinburgh.  We stayed one more night in Edinburgh and then flew home in the morning.  And that pretty much brings us to where we are now.  The End!