My Brother

So a couple years ago my brother got this crazy idea in his head that he was going to join the military. Nah, I'm kidding, I'm proud of him. He's been gone for SO long though that it's been weird to think about what he does in a day. I, unfortunately, missed out on his basic training graduation, which I feel bad for, but I had some personal matters that I needed to take care of back at home. He's been doing so well though, making tons of friends, experiencing so many new things, and seeing parts of the world he probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Before he left he and I used to have these long conversations about anything and everything. I'd usually go into his room at night and we'd chat about work, school, boyfriends, girlfriends, just all sorts of random stuff. Sometimes we'd be mad at each other at the end, sometimes we loved each other even more, but it kept us close. Even if we did end up fighting within a couple days we'd be right back at the same ol' conversations. It was nice. Then while he's been gone I'd moved in with Larry and went on living my life, just as he lived the new parts of his. Well throughout the years he kept saying he would plan all these trips to come out, sometimes he and I would try and plan surprises so I'd go pick him up at the airport and we'd surprise our mom with his visit, but they'd always fall through for some reason or another. It got to the point where I almost didn't want to know about visits till he was on the plane because it was SO heartbreaking thinking I was going to be seeing my brother soon and then find out it wasn't happening.

Well this year we got super lucky and he told us he finally got an approved leave and he was able to come out for about 3 weeks. I was ECSTATIC! That was until I realized between school and work I'd probably only see him like 3 days so I figured I'd just have to make the most of the 3 days I did see him.

Things definitely started out rough, I mean it'd been like 2 years since we'd seen each other, he's grown up, he's now 21! He's not a teenager. I'm 23, I'M not a teenager, we've become little adults on our own and we'd changed...A LOT! We definitely had to get used to the new people we'd become. But after a few harder visits I finally sat him down and we had a little conversation like we used to and I got to understand a little more of why he was the way he is now and he got to see how much I really miss him and love him and how proud I want to be of him and be able to share with other people! I AM very proud of him, just to be clear, and nothing will ever change that.

Another unfortunate part is his trip went by way too fast and we had to say goodbye on Thursday to him. Mom, him, and I all went out to Applebees for lunch before she had to take him to the airport and then we said our goodbyes. It was almost emotional, but he promised he was going to try his hardest to be back out for Christmas, so we're really hoping he can be. I'll be done with my current classes then so I'll actually be able to see him a lot more if he can come out then. Here's to hoping we do get to see him then!

Our last pictures together:

Mom and her son

We really were sad, even if you can't
See it in our expressions ;)

Babies, Babies, everywhere!

So I hope I don't get into too much trouble with posting this, but I'd like to share some exciting news! No I am not expecting a baby, that's not what this is about! I would like to share that I became a pseudo aunt times two over this week!

Announcing:

Oliver Kade Landon
Born: September 12, 2011
6 lbs, 10 oz, 20 inches

And...

Cailyn Ann Bradsby
Born: September 8, 2011
6 lbs, 1 oz, 19 inches

I never thought I'd be so excited for someone else to have a baby, but I really am! A HUGE congratulations to the new parents: Cole and Stacey (Oliver's parents) and Skyler and Jena (Cailyn's parents). I'm so so so happy for both sets of parents. I watched both of them go through different trials and happy moments during the path of becoming parents. I'm definitely glad they let me in on the details! I'm not sure if either set really reads this, and they didn't know I was posting on it, which is why I hope I don't get into trouble, but I'm beyond ecstatic to see the new babies and wanted to share the joy! As far as I know both mom's are doing great and both dad's can't get the grins off their faces! Love you guys!

Drive Home

So I know this doesn't sound like a super exciting post, but I had a lot of fun with the whole trip, I'm mostly using this blog to preserve memories, and I think the drive home had a lot of memories to try and keep.

So the drive home was pretty long. I told Larry I think the drives home seem longer because once you leave your house for a vacation and hit the freeway you're instantly on "vacation mode", but when you leave vacations and are on the freeway you don't actually hit "home mode" until you get to your driveway. I really couldn't wait to see our kitties again, I had missed them a lot on the trip.

I think my favorite part of the drive was reading my magazines and when something interesting or funny came up I'd tell Larry and we'd have full on conversations about the topic. Like most other couples, I'm sure, during the normal week once we get home we recap how our day was, what we'll do the rest of the night, then ready for bed, and bed. Between me going to school and work (and being outside of the house about 13 hours) we don't usually have time for full on conversations, it's kind of nice to have them once in a while and pick each other's brains apart. It was nice to have them while we were driving, like I mentioned before, I'd read that article about some couples not being able to drive without fighting and I really do believe he and I get along so much better when we go on road trips.

The only bad part of the drive was HAVING to stop in Death Valley for gas and a bite to eat. The thing was it was 120 degrees there! Even the breezes were hot! It was miserable. But it was a quick stop and we got back into the nice a/c'd up car and on our way home. The craziest part of our drive home was being in between two lightning storms. I really wish I could load up video from my phone, because at one point we were so close and it was coming so fast lightning was showing about ever 2-4 seconds and I had to record it, and it looks crazy cool on my phone! It was funny because we saw one storm on each side, but we never drove through the rain at all.

We didn't get back home till about 10 P.M.-by then we were so tired we brought in the cold food and passed out! It was such a great trip overall and we had a blast through the entire thing, even with the minor bumps, we found our own way to make it through and we got along so well and I was so surprised I didn't forget anything major or something didn't get super messed up.

Proof of the crazy heat:

 This was my first time seeing the Ocean (from what I remember) and I thought it was quite pretty (even if I refuse to swim in it)

So that is our entire California adventure, all blogged out. I wrote all these down a head of time so that I wouldn't forget, and I meant to post them all sooner, but then got a little lazy. I hope it sounded fun, I have a tendency to be excited about some tiny details that most don't care about, but we really did have a blast throughout the whole thing! So until next time...

San Diego Quick Trip

I was pretty excited to see the San Diego Zoo, it's one of the biggest zoos and the one in Utah is kind of lame. They took out the bears from the Utah one-I'm sure I've mentioned how much I like bears by now-so not seeing them for a while and getting a chance now made me more excited.

When we got there we thought we'd go on this bus ride that takes you through 70% of the whole zoo, it's free and shaded so we thought it'd be fun to start out on. They even took our picture before as a souvenir picture. Well right as we get ready to board onto the next bus lo and behold we get a call from Six Flags saying they'd found Larry's wallet (I swear I don't know how that boy gets so lucky, but he REALLY gets lucky at times) so we finished the bus ride, took some pics of the animals, and then left for Six Flags. We figured if it's a 2 hours drive there and 2 hours back, we'd get back in time to  spend a few hours at the zoo to finish it up and see what we may have missed from the bus ride.

Well we rushed to Six Flags-ended up taking us 2 1/2 hours this time-Larry ran in to get his wallet, then we got some gas and headed back. What we didn't count on was all the sudden traffic, took us about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get back. I was able to finish the book I brought (but had yet to actually read on the trip thus far) on the ride, which was nice. The only bad part was by the time we got back to San Diego, the zoo was only open for another hour, so we decided to just head back to the hotel and get dinner and relax for our last night in California. It was pretty nice-I got to see bears through the quick bus ride and we got the wallet back, so it wasn't too bad of a day overall, bonus: NO sun burns :)

I can't seem to post the picture they took of us (which is fine, because it didn't turn out too spectacular), but here are some pics from our quickie adventure:

The Main Entrance Sign

The Brown Bear we saw (among others)

This silly cat was waiting by the door to be fed and wouldn't look away for anything else ha ha

These two pics go together, the cat (if you can see it between the lady and the pole)
Was in a "cage" with a dog, apparently they are bff. The bottom pic shows the
Dog.

 Sorry, all the photos were from the bus ride, so we were further away and you may have to really look to see the animals in them.

Sea World Wonders

Ah, Sea World! So many things to be excited about there. I'd never ever been to Sea World before  and only knew it from TV or movies so I was really thrilled to see what there was to do and see. We took a bus to save on parking and got there around 10 and the biggest disappointment was the fact that Larry was supposed to get his ticket free for being in the military, but since he didn't have his ID we ended up having to pay for both tickets, but it worked out that we did have a little extra money and we still had fun.

We schedules to do the Dolphin Encounter, but it wasn't till 11:45 so we had an hour and a half to kill till we had to check in. So we decided to see the polar bears (for those who don't know I'm INSANELY obsessed with bears! I have no idea what started it, but they've been my favorite for as long as I can remember). I took SO many pictures and videos of them-they were just too adorable! Of course it was either RIGHT before this or RIGHT after this (but basically it was right as we got there) my stupid flip flop shoes broke and I had to ask an employee for a paper clip to kind of tie it all together.

We then went and watched their dolphin show-which was MUCH better than the one at Brookfield Zoo (Did I ever mention we went to that one?). At the zoo it was more an informative on dolphins thing, but here it was an actual performance-it had a story and was SO cool to watch and we definitely got soaked :)

After that we went and did the Dolphin Interaction thing and I'll say that was such a fun experience. Larry and I talked about when we had kids we'd love to take them to do it, it's a blast to feel them and play with them-I even go to kiss one! Although I will say the wet suits are a huge pain to get in and out of-so if you do do it-don't say I didn't warn you of that part ha ha.

After that we did the Penguin Exhibit, Shark Encounter, Turtle Reef, we watched their Shamu shows, the Pet's Rule show, and the Sea Lions Live show (which was hilarious). They were all so entertaining! I loved ever minute of being there. Unfortunately I forgot to wear sunscreen and got a nice little burn (on top of what we hard already gotten from everything else) and by that point I decided we should just go back to our hotel and relax.

Once we got back I saw how bad my burn really was and had to leave cold towels on my shoulders, chest, and fact to help cool them off, I've never done that before (it was Larry's idea) and man was I crazy before-it worked like a charm! I wasn't in nearly as much pain the next morning, and I have to say I got a little entertained at how fast I could basically cook the cold towels on my burns.

So overall Sea World was definitely an amazing stop that I'd recommend to others, it was sad to leave early, but we were too burnt to stay.

here are some fun pics (there are quite a few from this one):

All 6 were from the Dolphin Interaction program, we didn't get to keep
The wetsuits, but we did get some towels-which I thought was kinda
Cool. These things were so cute and fun to play with!

Super cute polar bear :)

A silly  Sea Lion

This was from the Sea World-Kinda nice shot if I do say so myself

The only bad parts, the broken shoe (don't know if you can see the
Paper clip that connects the left strap to the ring) and my nice red glow!