Hawaii, Reno, and San Francisco

Recently I have been to Hawaii, Reno, San Francisco and back!  Okay, maybe I didn't physically go to Hawaii, but I sure felt like I was there as I walked through the office.  On the 31st of August we had a luau work party where people decorated their cubicles and office space.  Some got a little crazy so you really did feel like you were walking into a different place.  Thanks to Desiree, a friend of mine, I was able to participate in the festivities.   

Yes, this is where I spend 8-12 hours a day!

I won 1st place in the "Best Use of Fish" Category!

Over Labor Day weekend I really did go to Reno and San Franciso and spent the weekend with my good friend Ashlee Carter.  It was awesome! I flew in to Reno on Thursday evening and we caught up over dinner at Red Robins.

Friday morning we got in the car and road-tripped it to San Francisco.  It was a 4 hour drive, but time goes quickly when you have good company.  Ater we checked into our hotel room suite we got adventurous and decided to brave public transportation.  That was definitely interesting.  We headed across town to the Picasso exhibit. 

Funny story...we met a guy on the bus who was also going to the exhibit so he stayed with us the entire time.  His name is Luis, he is 33 years old, and he is from Costa Rica.  He had some great stories, not to mention he was pretty cute! He owns a restaurant in Costa Rica and was in town for a wedding.  Picasso is not my favorite, but as a good supportive friend, I went.  With Luis around though it did add to the experience! We parted ways and Ashlee and I wondered if we would ever see or hear of Luis again.  Turns out with the little we knew of him we were able to stock him and eventually found him on Facebook.  Ashlee has befriended him in FB... its such a small world!

Outside the Picasso Exhibit... we never got a picture with Luis (sad day!)

It was a true girls weekend, because the rest of Friday was spent being doing what else? Shopping of course! We went to H&M which was great! We also, for the fun of it, went into a Tiffany's and found the rings we eventually want to wear on our left hand! Good times!

Saturday morning we headed out pretty early and spent the day at Fisherman's Warf.  Who would have thought it would be so difficult to find a breakfast place there? After wondering for about 30 minutes we eventually asked the Marriot valet people where they recommend we go for breakfast.  Definitely a good idea since we were directed to this little cafe type place which was packed.  It was a pretty chilly morning on the coast, so we found a Starbucks and Ashlee got hot chocolate and I got a cup of hot water which was delightful to carry around. 

After breakfast we went on the Bay Cruise.  Tourse of Alcatrz were sold out until like September 17th... who knew it was so popular? Anyway, we went on the Bay Cruise which was great.  We didn't get to go on the island of Alcatraz, but we did get a great tour which took us out to the golden gate bridge and around Alcatraz.  It was very well done and I highly recommend you do this if you go to San Francisco, especially if you only have about an hour to spare instead of the 3 hours the Alcatraz tour would take.

Ready to board the ship

On the boat looking back towards San Francisco

Alcatraz

 Golden Gate Bridge

Once the Bay cruise concluded, we headed right to the submarine docked at Fisherman's Warf and went on a tour.  The audio made the tour awesome, it was fun to hear the stroies, facts and details of the boat.  I would never have thought it possible that 70+ men could be in that little of space for a 6 month time.  Crazy! 

Pretty tight quarters!

They got a shower about every 10 days... yuck!



We wondered around Fisherman's Warf for a little while longer before getting on the road to head back to Reno.  Don't worry, we didn't leave before we got our free piece of ghirardelli chocolate. :^)

The trip back to Reno took about 6 hours since there was so much traffic.  I don't think I could ever live in California.  It's a good thing we weren't in a hurry to get back for anything and the company was still just as great, so the drive, though long, was good.

Saturday night we saw a bit of Reno since we went to dinner and then went to a movie.  The next morning we had a lovely drive up the mountain to see Tahoe Lake.  It's amazing that the ski resort is seriously only 20 minutes away from the city.  Nice! The view was awesome and it was such a pretty day! 

Sunday afternoon Ashlee invited a few friends over for a fabulous dinner and a fun evening of great conversation.  It's nice to know that no matter where you are there are good people! We were having so much fun that they didn't leave until 11:30pm and Ashlee and I had to be out of the house by 4:00am to make it to the airport.  I got a 2 hour nap that night... needless to say I was struggling to keep my eyes open when my lack of sleep caught up to me on Tuesday!

Ashlee flew out Monday morning at 6:30am  and since it was an international flight we had to be at the airport mighty early.  I didn't wait but 30 minutes after she left before my flight started boarding.  Good timeing!

Thanks Ashlee for the great trip! It really was awesome to spend time with a great friend!

Last story... last night I went to a fireside where Sister Sheri Dew and Sister Wendy Nelson spoke.  They were amazing!! I love Sheri Dew, she is one of my hero's! I even got to shake their hands and thank them for coming.  It was great! 

Amazing

Amazing is the best word I can think of to describe my week...

1.  Amazing that after 1 year and 5 months of working in my current job I finally heard a "Thank You" to the all the contractors as a whole.  It was recognized that we are actually part of the team.  I did receive a thank you all the time from my old CO, whom I miss, but that was a first for hearing it said about all of us contractors.

2.  Amazing that I came home from work on Wednesday and did not leave my apartment again until Thursday morning.  Wow! That never happens! With the temple closed for remodeling until October I now have some free time on Wednesday's- Nice!

3.  Amazing that of the 2 good touches I had out of like 50 during my indoor soccer game on Thursday, one of those good touches ended up in the net! It was a pretty sad game, we lost like 8-1.  Yes, I got lucky by being at the right place at the right time and scored our only goal! I'm excited to be playing again... the last time I played indoor was November 2008!

4.  Amazing that I feel I can run again.  I ran for 40 minutes (that is all I had time for) on Saturday which is the longest I have gone running since June 25th.  My knee is still not 100%, but I can deal with minor pain. Yeah!

5.  Amazing and beautiful world we live in.  I love the mountains! I went hiking with some friends on Saturday to Maxwell Falls.  Beautiful day with great company.  Good times! 

 Marlies holding up Jason, Kimberly, Carrie, and I

 Lunchtime

6.  Amazing Race Season 2: A Mile High.  Typically sequels are not as good as the first, but this year's race was just as amazing! There were 3 teams this year and while my team didn't come in first place I definitely think we had the best outfits!

Deanna, Audra, me, Candice-  Go Team!

The first clue was written on the back of a puzzle.  I'm sure we looked mighty silly sitting in the middle of a main sidewalk at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  At least people couldn't miss us in those bright shirts!

The second clue led us to the Cookie Lady on 16th street mall.  At this stop we had to each down at least 2 cookies and a thing of milk.  I think there were 10 cookies total that had to be consumed.  Yep, I think I got 2 cookies and a bite and that is about all I could do!

The third clue brought us to the giant bench and giant water hydrant along 16th street mall.  Here one person from the team had to do the challenge which was to sharpen 2 pencils until all that was left was the eraser.

Candice's creative way to sharpen when her arms got tired.

We were in the lead until the next clue where we got thrown off track.  We went to the wrong King Soopers.  Oops! After finding our clue under the bottom shelf of the air filters we were off to East High School football stadium.  Here we had to go around the stadium throwing a football where each member of the team had to pass it to each other member of the team at least three times.  We were doing this while sprinting around the stadium. 

From there we went to Cherry Creek area and found our clue in an information sign.  We had to decipher a morse code message to know where we were heading next.  The message took us across the street (we drove around the block before we realized it was seriously right across the street.  Too funny!) to a FedEx drop box where we pulled out the blow up finger and were directed to go back to the starting line. We arrived second, about 10 minutes after the winning team.   

We ran a lot, we laughed a lot, we only went down a one-way street the wrong way twice (not on purpose one of those times), and most of all we had a great time!

All Participants

The Winning Team's Award Ceremony.  Nice job Cat, Gabi, Bri and Bo!

A great BIG THANK YOU to Diana for yet another AMAZING Race!

Course Marshalls Wes and Diana

Live Life To The Fullest

I know, I know... I'm sure you are shocked that I finally updated my blog.  It takes a lot of time to go through hundreds of pictures and to upload 51 of them :^).   I love this quote from Sister Julie Beck, "To walk with the Lord, we have to know what is essential, what is necessary, and what is nice-to-do.  There is a lot to do, but I find that it is amazing how much I get to do on my nice-to-do list.  The Lord blesses us with those mercies, but only if the other priorities are in order."

I am definitely blessed with how many nice-to-do things I get to participate in.  Indeed you may say I live life to the fullest! Enjoy the update through all the pictures.

Update 1 of 7: 4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  I love this country, I love the beautiful summer days, and I love having fun.  The 4th fell on a Sunday this year so we went to Civic Center Park to enjoy a free concert in the park put on by the Colorado Symphony and then watched the firework show. 

I had Monday off, so I spent about 90% of it outside.  I loved it! Started the day with a bike ride in Cherry Creek State Park, then went kayaking, then went to a friends house for a BBQ, and finished the day with a little croquet.  Good times!

This is a good life! 

Deanna broke her mallet, so she was forced to play a little "shorthanded"

Update 2 of 7: Happy 30th!

Yep, it was the big 3-0 this year.  We went to a Laredo Branch reunion since the Branch Presidency was just released.  I guess after 7 years it was about time they got a break from us singles! After that we went to Chili's to enjoy some birthday yummy- but oh so bad for you - dessert!



Happy Birthday Jared! Man we're old!

Update 3 of 7: Utah when Jenny and kiddos (minus Emmy) were there 

It is always fun to get together with my sisters and was a bonus that I got to see most of Jenny's kids. I'm sad I missed you Emmy!  I headed to Utah for a quick weekend since Jenny was in town.  We played outside a lot and had a great time! (Note: These pictures are in no particular order since some pictures were mine and others were Jenny or Jessica's.)

I feel special that I got to celebrate my birthday with cute Jayson!

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a Mother and Daughters picture! 

 I lost this battle!

 Photo War!

I am one lucky daughter, sister, and aunt, because I'm thinking I have the best Mom, Siblings, and nieces/nephews in the world!

Update 4 of 7: Washington DC

This was a very, very quick work trip.  I flew in Tuesday, attended an all day meeting on Wednesday, and flew back Thursday morning.  Business travel is never really enjoyable, but I was excited for this trip since my friend, who I knew in Kuwait, drove 3 hours to come see me! We got to spend Tuesday walking the Mall, touring the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, watched an IMAX film, "Born to be Wild", and had dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant.  We chatted until about 10pm when she really needed to get on the road again!  It was great to see you Mara!

This one is for you Alyssa!

This is the Hope Diamond... that thing is massive!

Update 5 of 7: Mom in Denver and Relay for Life

The timing of my DC trip was such that Mom was waiting for me at the airport when I landed.  It was great to hang with Mom for a few days.  Unfortunately I still had to work, but we did get to spend a lot of time together which was great.  I was not so good at taking pictures while she was in town, so I missed the amazing Eliza Fireside she gave, sorry.  We did a lot while she was here: relay, shopping, hanging with Annie, fireside, toured a model home, hung with Jared and Katie, watched the Bachlorette, etc, etc, etc.  Thanks for visiting Momisita! It is always nice to have you around!   

The initial lap at Relay 4 Life

Mom, Katie, and the boys enjoying a beautiful Colorado sunset while walking at Relay

The theme for Relay this year was the 50's, hence the hula hoops and the cut outs. 



The crew that made it all night long!

I was so impressed that Mom made it through the night.  She even walked 10 miles! We went home and got a two hour nap.  Kind of fun to say out of 48 hours you've been up for 46 of them!

Thanks for coming to Denver Mom! I hope you will come back despite what you had to go home to.  I still can't believe the house got broken into and the fire that could have been much, much worse. 

 Update 6 of 7: Birthday Bash and Farewell Party at Cherry Creek State Park

It was my 30th birthday, so I had to do something big! I threw a party at Cherry Creek State Park where I rented kayaks, canoes, and a paddle board.  We also had snacks galore, ordered pizza, made s'mores, and had Kayce entertain us by playing her guitar.  This party doubled as a going away party for Kayce since she was heading to BYU the next weekend.  With 40 people there I would say that was a success!

 Update 7 of 7: Catch all

Occasionally a group of us get together and do brunch.  It is always an enjoyable time to hang out with such great gals!



Yesterday I attended a big YSA event at the Arvada Apex Center.  There was rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, and ice skating followed by an outdoor dance.  This was my type of activity! I got to ice skate so that made me happy! I even stayed longer then 20 minutes at the dance which is pretty unheard of.  It was a fun night. 

I got to speak in church today.  I invited a good friend of mine, a previous coworker, to come.  That was her first time in a Mormon church! I'm glad she came. 

So, there you have it.  I am no longer running (since my knee is still struggling to let me run past 30 minutes), but I haven't had a problem filling my time with other things.  I do a lot, I pack my days pretty full, being sure to get all the "essentials" in of course!  Outside of work, my time is mostly spent socializing.  I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people... both family and friends.  I love being with you and I gain such strength from you.  Love you!