From Atlantic To Pacific

I suppose it's about time to blog about my Christmas Break adventures....
So, how did I end up traveling around the country the week before Christmas while my husband stayed behind? Well, it's a pretty simple story, and has a typical plot for a girl like me who is married to the best guy in the world:

One day (back in June) I was on the phone with my oldest sister Krystal who lives in Virginia. I mentioned that our Christmas break was extra long this year and that perhaps a trip could be worked out to see her and her family. Then I started getting ideas of grandeur about traveling up to New York as well where I have another sister. I carefully looked at flights and proposed the idea to my husband. After looking at the initial fees, we determined that we could probably scrounge up the money to send me and managed to "coax" my mom into making a trip to see 2 of her daughters.

We first flew out to Virginia Sunday and stayed until Wednesday morning. Wednesday we spent 12 quality hours on a train together seeing the "sights" of the east coast as we traveled up to White Plains, New York where my sister Brenda lives as a nanny. Traveling on a train, you see most of the less-than-finer-parts of cities. But there were a few fun spots to see along the way and plenty of adventures that come with riding on trains (medical emergencies, crazy people, rushing to use a bathroom at a stop before they leave again etc). We even saw the Washington Monument in D.C. from far away.
Here's a basic summary of my 10 day trip with pictures:

 Went to Busch Gardens with my sister and her family. (Mini theme park that was all decked out for Christmas). 

 Hung out with these two cute girls. They have gotten so old since I last saw them in 2011. They are so much fun and perhaps some of the most creative kids you will meet!

 Rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty.

 Visited the World Trade Center Memorial and saw the new towers. It was somber but very neat experience to be there and take in what all had transpired in person. 

 Saw/Stayed in Times Square you always see on TV. Our hotel was just down a ways from this craziness. 

 Saw 2 Broadway shows (Newsies and Wicked for the 2nd time). AWESOME!!!!

 Our view from the 34th floor of the Marriott Marquis. A pretty penny for a pretty view for sure! Across the way is New Jersey and Staten Island. We wanted to use the work out room that looks out over times square but after several late nights and staying out until 3AM, we were too exhausted to even try. 

It's hard to believe that all happened in about 7 days. By the time I flew to LA to meet up with Mark for Christmas with his side of the family, it had seemed like a dream with the constant travelling and exhaustion. As much fun as I had, I was so glad to have my husband back. I don't know how I survived 2 years with out him because 6 days alone was long! I don't think I'll be planning any long trips away from him any time soon. We also learned that traveling around the holidays is nightmarish no matter if you're flying or driving. Coming back to LA right before Christmas, my flight was delayed almost 30 minutes. Mark's plane from UT was coming in from the mid-west where all the storms were. So rather than arrive an hour before me, he arrived nearly 2 hours after me. Our flight home was also delayed a half hour again. And even though we had to trudge our way through the snow to get into our apartment, we were so glad to be home and sleeping in our own bed again (me especially!) 

  Our stockings Christmas morning. This is what happens when you shop for stocking stuffers on Christmas eve in the same store-- you end up with identical ones. They're super soft and cuddly though!

Merry Christmas

and 

Happy New Year!!

Deck the Halls

As soon as Thanksgiving was done and passed, I was more than ready to set up for Christmas. Mark on the other hand couldn't get past the fact that it was still only the 24th of November. My argument: I'm leaving a week early for my trip to the east coast, so I need to get it out now so I can truly enjoy my decorations! (Even though the huge Christmas tree I will hopefully see in Rockefeller Plaza will make up for that!) Well since I'm the wife, and let's face it, Mark's a sucker and gives in to my demands more than he should I'll admit, he let me pull out the decorations.

Last year I bought a lot of these decorations post-Christmas season on huge discount/got them as gifts. So it it was sort of like Christmas opening up my few wrapped treasures and remember what I had.

I also invested post Christmas in my first "house" last year the day after Christmas. (Yes I'm one of those girls who will eventually have an expansive collection.) This year I sort of did the reverse. We were at Kohls one night (no surprise there) in September when they were having a 50% off sale and I also had a 30%off as well. So even though Mark wanted to walk out the door without me, I purchased a train to go along with my little Christmas house. I still want to get some "snow" for it. Perhaps next year I'll look for some characters along with another house to make it more village-y.

2 weeks left until the end of the semester we are both getting excited for a 3 week break which includes traveling (more for me) to see family and enjoy some warmer weather for a few short days in southern California.

Thanksgiving 2012

Around October, my sister and mom who are more hard core runners than my wanna be self talked me into doing a run on Thanksgiving morning. Since I had just barely completed my first 10K (6 miles), I was not about to try and train for 13, especially on Thanksgiving! So I signed up for the 5K with my sister Monica and my Aunt Rosie. This was the one race I was sadly unprepared for. The sunny sky behind us poorly represented the temperatures that morning/day. I can't imagine how chilly it must have been for my mom and Shelene an hour earlier when their race began! It wasn't until about mile 1.5 that I started to warm up. Since 

 I had been training and trying to increase my running distance, my sister Monica was a good sport and jogged/walked the 3.1 miles with my aunt while I "sprinted" ahead. Mark was a good sport and despite the cold, waited out in the wind for me to cross the finish line and take a picture. I finished in about 35 minutes, while I may have had a few better times, I managed to run the entire course without having to walk--a feat I am proud of. Not that I was rushing by at lightning speed, but it felt good to pass people and not be the one being passed this time. 

 After I finished, I walked back about a half mile and waited to cheer on Monica and my aunt to the finish line.

 Funny story about these medals. Someone's kid was assigned to hand out the medals. From what I can tell, they started giving out the half-marathon medals (bigger in size) rather than tell people with marked bibs that their medals would be mailed to them. So I got the right metal, but my sister and aunt who came in later ended up with medals from the half marathon. I think they also grossly miscounted the 5K participants as well. We didn't realize it until after we took this picture, walked over to where they had fruit and hot chocolate. When we went back to try and get them the right ones, they just told them to keep them. Go figure, I came in with a better time and they got the larger medals! =)  (Also, gotta love us Wyckhuyses and our sunglasses!)

 Despite the biting wind, we stuck it out to cheer in Shelene and my mom as they finished their half marathon. From what we heard, the course was brutal with more hills than slopes. Add that with the wind and cold and you had a lot of runners disappointed in their times. Monica was the biggest cheerleader and not only ran into the finish line (again) with Shelene, but also again with my mom. Next year though, I think all of us will consider the shorter, more friendly course.
After the race, we enjoyed the afternoon and evening with my family at my parents' house. With only 14 of us it was a rather small and uneventful Thanksgiving. As usual, we hung out long after my other siblings left and got to help my parents put up their tree and the first of many Christmas decorations in their house.  

Fast forward to Friday: after I went out for some Black Friday shopping, we headed up to Salt Lake for a little getaway. We stayed again at our favorite hotel The Little America. That night they also turned on the lights at temple square. While it was SUPER crowded, we enjoyed holding hands and and looking at the lights and enjoying the beginnings of the Christmas holiday (me more than Mark).

I managed to get this mostly unobstructed picture of the temple from the east side.  Seriously, how much more beautiful and peaceful can you get? With it being opening night, we hoped to be caught in the corner of a news report but from what we can tell online, no luck!

 This spot is incredibly prominent for wedding photos. Since we were married in LA, we feel somewhat excluded from the Salt Lake Wedding photo shot. So now, we're in the cool kids club.

On Saturday morning, we miraculously slept in and enjoyed a light breakfast at their cute coffee shop. Afterwards, we headed down to the Riverton area to visit Mark's cousin Emily and her family. She has two cute little boys who seem to like us pretty well. We like them a lot too. It's definitely odd to play with so many legos and superhero toys, but they make it fun regardless.
Afterwards, we made one last stop at Ikea (of course!) No trip to Salt Lake City is ever complete unless we stop there on the way home. We went in looking for "abstract" art for our super plain and boring bathroom. Instead we came out with 2 puppets, 2 cube boxes (so I can finally get rid of my big bag of shoes in my closet and have it look more organized), and 6 short glasses. Plus the usual 6 Ikea cinnamon rolls.  Another successful shopping trip at Ikea, yet totally unintentional.
Although our trip to Salt Lake was mostly things we had done and seen before, it was still great to get away, spend some time together, and even get to see some family we don't see as often as well!

Life Updates

You could consider this post similar to one of those Christmas letters you get in the mail...this one doesn't come with any pictures of us, but I figured it's time to give friends an update on life for us. I know there are some friends and family who know a lot about our lives, and some are fellow friends from facebook who are past roommates, high school friends etc. So here's the basic rundown on each of us:

Mark is now considered a junior at Utah Valley University but will have junior status for a while still. He has been working at Insidesales.com for 2 1/2 years now and is a product manager. Our original plan a year ago was to have him stop working and go to school full time this fall. But due to some positive changes at work (ie a raise) we decided it would be worth it to have him continue to work full time and do night classes until he was no longer able to. From the looks of it, he should be able to finish as a night school student no problem with an estimated graduation date of April/August 2015.

Although his schedule is less than ideal for us and for the company he works for, they have been awesome and supportive in his decision. He goes to work from 6:30-3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays and then has class from 4-5. It's an early morning, but then he's home by 5:30. On Tuesdays he works a normal schedule and has one evening class from 5:30-6:45. Those days he gets home just in time to see me head off to my office for my evening on-duty time. Thursdays he works from 8-6 with a 2 hour "lunch break" for a 1 credit seminar class required for graduation. It sounds fairly pointless for anyone who already knows what they want to do for their career like Mark, but they somehow believe this 1 credit is crucial to graduation. He has kept busy for sure with 10 credits this semester, but it is surprisingly doable and I get more time with him than I thought I would, which is awesome.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am in my 2nd year as a hall advisor at BYU. Our new apartment is almost double the size of the previous building we were in before. So needless to say, I have more to clean and it can get extra quiet/lonely at times with Mark gone all day. There are seriously days where I do not talk to a single person unless I happen to be in my office and someone comes by. While there are difficult moments and residents from time to time, I have some great co-workers and managers to work with that make it fun. Plus it's quite fascinating to see freshman go through the same social and educational phases each year.

I have also been kept busy working on my class through UW-La Crosse. The class I'm enrolled in is "Helping Children Cope with Grief and Loss". I wouldn't say the class is depressing, but when you're reading books called "Mourning Children, Children Mourning" and "Private Worlds of Dying Children" it sheds quite a bit of light into the darker and sadder side of the children that Child Life Specialists serve and work with. With it costing us $1200 for the 2-credit class (out of state tuition costs), I am not sure if I will enroll in their 2nd course offered in the Winter. Because of my human development background, I only need to take the class I'm currently enrolled in before I am eligible to apply for an internship and ultimately sit for the national certification exam. While it sounds pretty easy and simple, there are a few bumps in the road that we'll have to figure out as time goes by. For now, it's fun to be "in school". I forget how much I love learning--especially in the field of child development/psychology.

That basically sums life up for us. Now that summer is over, most of our big adventures are over until next summer (7 months to go). We are toying with the idea of going on another cruise to the Bahamas, or perhaps the Caribbean. For now though, we'll be enjoying less exotic adventures such as the dollar movie theater, occasional restaurant and evening walks together.

Utah State Fair

The annual Utah State Fair was this past month. As it has been another bucket list item for us (yes, we lead such adventurous lives) we decided to go on the last weekend. I think I remembered the fair being much different than this one. Back in 2007, Mark and I went to the Ventura County Fair and I don't remember it being so crowded. That said, we picked perhaps the worst weekend to go since it was not only closing weekend, but the same night as the BYU vs University of Utah game. I can stand crowded places for a while, but soon my patience and interest in staying wears thin. Plus, fairs always bring ahem...very classy people which can bring about entertainment to an extent.
They had a tractor exhibition area. Sadly you couldn't cross the rope to get pictures on them.

We also visited the livestock areas. Surprisingly, the sheep and goat areas didn't smell that bad. It was the chicken and cow areas that were almost unbearable. This is a blue ribbon chicken.....obviously. 

 We found a few picture boards and couldn't resist getting a "family" picture. I knew Mark always would have looked great as a redhead. And doesn't the neighborhood city councilman look great with a pitchfork? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be carrying back milk from milking the cows or getting water from the stream. Either way, I have some awesome legs.

 My innocence was lost when I, along with my sister-in-law, realized that while we were in the goat arena, the announcement they made for showing the goats was for people to buy them to kill them- not as pets. And the "packer"...well let's just say I realized that he didn't just fit them neatly into crates into a big truck. So after we viewed the displays of sweet animals who were about to be auctioned off for killing, we decided to enjoy some roasted corn. (Though I later enjoyed a pulled pork sandwich.) Seriously, Mark has converted me to corn on the cob. It's messy and there's no polite way to really eat it, but that has to be one of my favorite parts of summer: corn on the cob slathered in butter with some seasoning salt, garlic or other savory flavorings.

 After enjoying some fair food, we decided to wait a while before hitting up any rides. We saw this awesome juggler from Oregon. He juggled hakysacs, baseballs, and even did one or two little magic tricks. His show was pretty impressive.

 After the juggler, we meandered over and found the Lemur display. If you sanitized your hands, they actually let you pet one under the supervision of their "friendly" staff. This little guy here was kind of crazy. He kept hopping back and forth on the cage, perhaps a little unsure of the strange looking humans staring back at him.

 I got this shot while we were waiting in line for the scrambler ride. Rides are overpriced at fairs to say the least, and Mark's siblings didn't want to go on any rides so we picked one before we left. This Ferris wheel actually was pretty safe with the seats being more of a booth style rather than a ski lift type chair. Ferris wheels scare me, but I felt that it wasn't a true fair montage without the Ferris wheel and a nearby popcorn booth in the picture.

 On the way back, our car hit another milestone in life. To celebrate us paying off our loan and finally getting the title in the mail, it hit 115,000 miles. It's been a good little car and I'm almost certain after the past 6 months it could drive from here and the airport/Salt Lake area on autopilot.

Cake Decorating

I am not crafty. My creative bouts come rarely and are usually less than impressive. Like most people, I envision that the projects I take on will turn out much more grand and amazing than the real product. Regardless, I decided to try my hand at cake decorating. 2 years ago for Christmas, my mother in law gave me a cake decorating kit. I finally managed to find a class segment that would work with my work schedule. The Cake Decorating Basics 1 class was offered at Michael's just a few minutes from our house. So for 4 Fridays, I left Mark at home for 2 hours and went to learn.
I really enjoyed the classes. There are actually "Wilton Certified" teachers who teach the course. My teacher Korin was fabulous. She is actually a pastry chef by trade and a very talented cake maker. There were a few tricks I finally learned that help with baking and decorating cakes I never knew such as how to smooth a cake after a layer has dried, icing consistency, and finally converting to what my grandma always told me during cake mishaps: use parchment paper so the cake comes out nice. (I have had more split cakes than I care to confess to.)
The week before our final cake assignment was Mark's birthday. So I tried my hand at using different tips and the gel outline we learned. If you don't have a fancy pan, you can essentially trace any shape/design you want and fill it in. For Mark's cake I did a duck since we're borderline duck obsessive.

 For a first timer, I was proud of myself the way it turned out. Sure it wasn't a "perfect" duck, but you at least knew what it was. And it was much cheaper than buying the $15-$20 duck pan from Amazon.

 For the final cake class, we had to come prepared to decorate our own cake using the skills we had learned. The week before was a fairly successful first game of football season for BYU fans (though soon to be crushed by two horrible games we won't go into here). So rather than make some fancy flower filled cake that is not my personality, I decided to try making a football field cake. My teacher gave me the idea for the green shag around the edge. I'm glad I actually forgot that I wanted to do the whole cake green shag. My hand would have been cramping and I don't know that the yard lines would have shown up as well.

By the time I finished the cake, Mark and I were pretty sick of cake/frosting. So we gladly shared it with my family for the Labor Day holiday weekend. Seriously, I went through 3 bags of powdered sugar, and a whole can of crisco. Bleh! Hopefully my love for buttercream frosting was only temporarily killed.
I think I might skip the flower design class and look into their basic fondant class. But between work and school, life keeps me pretty busy. (More on that later!)

A Place to Call Home

We finally moved into our new home. Through some persuasion and luck, we were able to move into the new buildings where I work when a co-worker left, leaving an open space. It has been a whirlwind in the last 3 weeks since moving, so we don't have everything "perfected" yet. But here are some pictures of our new abode.

You could say we live in a mansion. The buildings are 4 story and have 2 wings. Our apartment is on the first floor at the end of the hallway and UNMARKED. Okay, it has a number but it doesn't stand out like our former apartment did. 

Our kitchen. Hard to believe but the cupboards above the microwave are completely empty. The other side of the island is filled with drawers and cupboards. It's so nice to be able to spread things out!

 Our living room area. We love the huge windows. It lets in a lot of sunlight during the day. Hopefully they don't take away the nice grassy spot just outside of here and replace it with another brick building. The tall left bookshelf is our newest addition. It's from Ikea just like where 90% of our furniture is from. It's one of those trendy cube shelves that has no backing so you can see the wall behind. We also bought 2 baskets to fit in. Some of the shelves are empty but I don't feel obligated to fill it up with more junk.  I believe some emptiness can be aesthetically pleasing. 

 Our entryway. The apartment and building is card access only. So it's sort of like living in a hotel....and really inconvenient when you lock yourself out. We are hoping to get some piece of furniture for the entryway as the block of wood is now gone. But I have commitment problems when it comes to furniture. 

 Our main hallway. The items in the box will eventually be placed in a plastic rolly-type drawer set. Another yet to be purchased item. The door at the end is a large closet with shelves where we keep towels sheets, and other nick knacks that we hardly use. (And yes...those are rubber ducks...we've started collecting them and have over 20 now.) 

 Our bathroom is hardly exciting. There is nothing but a shower, freestanding sink and toilet. So we have to use the hallway vanity for most things. The marble shower walls are nice, but the shower is super small. And let's be honest, shaving is now a balancing act.

 Our bedroom. You can't tell but it's actually little bigger than our last place. I'm hoping to put up a picture or two in the bedroom...just haven't decided which ones yet. 

Closets...they're pretty roomy but kind of an eye-sore. I'm looking to invest in some cheap curtains and expandable rods so as to have a makeshift door. And it's also time I give up my "shoe bag" which typically becomes a mass pile of unorganized shoes. We bought a shoe rack but it broke upon setup...and I haven't had much time since. 

We love our new place and are grateful for the opportunity to move. It allows a greater separation between work and home for me as my office is down the hall. Since we hope to have this job for a few years, it feels much more homey than where we were before. 

We also bought a crepe maker last weekend, so if anyone wants to come to an unofficial housewarming party, just say the word and bring your favorite crepe topping! 

Idaho Part 3

If you read in reverse, congratulations! You made it to part 3 which is the last leg of our awesome 3 day adventure. The weather in Island Park had been cool and rainy Friday and Saturday. Thankfully, the sun found its' way through the clouds and gave us some beautiful weather for our last day there.
We put on our swimsuits and headed up the river to the boat docking area with a raft and 2 tubs. Mark and I planned to raft down. Turns out the water wasn't TOO cold so I ended up tubing down most of the river after my arms got too tired of rowing with Mark.
When we got there, we realized we forgot the  nozzle for the pump to blow up the raft extra. So while "Grandpa" Rao went back, we had some fun.
This is Mark getting really into his rowing...never mind the rocks that are under him rather than water. He was just getting hyped for the trip.

 Breanne and Ian had to get in on the tough posing pictures as well. Although it's a good thing they weren't in the water at this point...Ian may have fallen out of the boat with as far as he was leaning! 

 Then they convinced me to get in on the action. So I stuck a pose...

 After rafting through the bridge posts we were finally floating down the river. For some reason, we all had a song from Pocahontas come to mind as the river bended in all sorts of ways. 

 I believe this was right before they caught up to us and started hanging onto the raft while Mark and I worked hard to paddle. Moochers!

 This picture was actually taken while Bre was in her tube. Notice the ziploc bag I was praying my camera would safely return to after this picture was taken.

 Ian and Mark ended up rowing the raft most of time...well technically Ian. Somehow Mark convinced him he needed to focus on watching for icebergs/practicing his mermaid pose frequently found on the front of ships. Silly husband!

 So off we went, tubing and rafting down this river. When I got tired of rafting, Ian and I swapped places and  began my first tubing experience. Thinking of a great pose to strike, we caught up with the boys and tried to pose trying to show how relaxed we were on the slow moving river...but of course I lost my balance right as Ian snapped the photo.

 This was more how I imagined. Yes, I'm wearing a life vest. Being 5'2" you can't always take a 6' tall person's opinion when they say the river isn't "that" deep. Here we are, 2 beauty queens relaxing on the river...this was about 2 hours before we realized that no sunblock was a bad idea. 

Floating down the river was much more exhausting than we thought. And since some of us * cough myself * stayed up late, we caught a quick snooze before getting on the road. Of course before we could go, Ian's Grandpa had to make us one more delectable meal. He didn't just make us waffles, but also set the table with at least 5 different topping options and demanded we have more than just 2 pathetic toppings on a waffle. Such a funny man!

On the way back, we stopped in Rexburg to say goodbye to Alyssa and Stephen who left Saturday night (well Sunday morning at 2) for early morning church commitments. Ian, who was driving, was nice enough to make a stop by the temple and let me bask in the memories that flooded back from living there nearly 5 years ago. This temple was finished my last year there. I am in love with it. 

 The semester before I left I took a picture of this temple on a freezing sunny morning. I didn't really believe I'd  be taking a picture with Mark who was then on a mission 4 years later happily married. Although it was a quick stop, it was great for Mark to see a small part of my life. One day we'll go up for a real visit!

Getting home was a bit painful. We were all tired, we left late and we were all trying to comfortably travel while feeling those first effects of sunburn. But despite the late night it was coming home, and the sunburns that all of us still have from the weekend, it was totally worth it. A weekend road trip with friends is just what we all needed before the end of summer. Especially for us as our lives will become a bit hectic in the weeks to follow. Stay tuned!