Trips and Adventures :)

I had about a month between the time that I graduated and the time when I started work (which is Monday, by the way) so I went on a couple of trips and had quite a few adventures to go along with them.

The first trip was to Vancouver, BC, Canada to visit my good friend Ella. My other friend, Lizzie, and I flew up together. Ella, Lizzie and I were inseparable in high school (except that we all went to different schools) and then when college came, we all went our separate ways; Lizzie to Wash. U in St. Louis, Ella to Simon Fraser University in BC and me to BYU. Over the years we've come together occasionally but we had never all been together in Canada. We had such a good time.... except that I, of course, forgot my camera (I mean, really, did you expect anything less of me?). So no pictures :(. Yet, anyway; we took a few on cell phones but I haven't seen hide nor tail of them since.

The second trip was to Phoenix, AZ to visit my sister, Piper. Nile smashed her face up the day before:

We all got our hair cut by Piper, including Peyton.

We went swimming one day because it was almost 100 degrees outside. The pool was beautiful!!

Eli put on these goggles and we told him to push them against his face to create suction so the water wouldn't get in. A few minutes later, he pushed them against his face and said "Look! I made function!"

This was like the only time I actually got Peyton to look at my camera. I think I tricked her into it, too.

The next day we went to the zoo. Nile was especially excited because the Arizona zoo has zebras and the Utah zoo doesn't.

We all got to pet stingrays, which was totally awesome!

Whatever you think a stingray feels like, it's probably wrong.

We also got to ride the merry-go-round, which I haven't done in years!

The monkey exhibit at the zoo is actually this house kind of thing where you walk in and the monkeys are like RIGHT-THERE as you can kind of see from this picture (the monkey is sitting in the plant)

Eli is trying not to touch the rope because the zoo-keepers told him that the monkeys pee on EVERYTHING.

Aren't my niece and nephew like, the cutest ever??

By the way, I ended up getting Peyton to look at the camera by asking if she wanted to see a picture of herself. Vanity is such a powerful tool :)

When we left Phoenix, the adventures really started to happen. My car started overheating as we were driving through the Arizona desert; what an opportune time, let me tell you. So we ended up in Flagstaff looking for a garage that was open on Sunday. My dad had called us and told us how to get to one, but we got hopelessly lost. We pulled over to the side of the road and asked a guy if he knew where the garage was. He said that he did, but he didn't want to tell me where it was because he worked at a competing garage. He took us to the shop and diagnosed the problem: new head gaskets needed; time: 1-2 days; cost: 1500-1800. Oh joy.

It turned out that meeting this guy was a huge blessing because they were the ones that could get it done the fastest. Everyone else told me it would take them at least 3 and probably 4 days. Thanks, Lifetime Automotive :D

While waiting for the car, and to get into our hotel we decided what better way to pass the time then getting our nails done? We walked into this little shop with two Asian guys who's whole mission in life seemed to be to make us happy.

We also ran into this little guy in Flagstaff; isn't he cute?

"What did you eat?" you may ask. Frozen meals and fruit from Walmart:

And Sonic!

"What did you do?" We waited... and waited...

I'm not as mad as I look in this picture. I had just barely looked up from my book :)

After about 2 and a half days of waiting (they didn't start on the car on Sunday) we finally got back on the road. We were so happy to be out of there. Flagstaff is officially my least favorite city in the US.

Cheers!