the trip

i didn't post anything about my trip to utah yet! before i start getting hate mail ... i figure i better put some stuff up ... enjoy!

thursday 9/6:

woke up at 430 am to catch a 7 am flight: too early! *why* do i always get the super-early flights? honestly ... i had stayed at my sister eden's house because she was nice enough to sacrifice her morning sleep to take me to the airport. ... well, then i dropped my phone in the toilet at lax just before flying out. y'know, for fun.

we arrived at the salt lake airport around 10 am, but sat in the plane until 1045 while we waited to be taxied into the gate -- evidently the tow bar on the truck broke and they had to get a new one -- so that took a while. i finally got my luggage, rented a car ... and drove down to provo. (that's me in the sunroof of my rental car -- how lame is it that i had never driven a car with a sunroof before?)

i got down to byu around 1130 -- just in time to hand out the last ice cream cone for our grant thornton ice cream giveaway. then the whole gt team went to lunch at the brick oven near byu campus. after lunch, i finally went to my hotel, checked in, got somewhat settled, and took a quick nap! it was wonderful!

meet the firms started at 7, so we arrived by 630 to help set up and just "be ready." i had a *great* time -- i absolutely *loved* recruiting! meeting so many new people, talking to them about my experience and why i chose gt, networking with other people at my firm. it was so much fun. i love meeting new people!

after meet the firms, i met up with jessika -- an old high school friend of mine -- haven't seen her in probably years. after she showed me her new place, we went and got frozen custard at this cute place in springville called yummies and it was yummy! it was so much fun to see jessika and catch up on everything! (jessika -- how did i forget to take a picture with you?!)

then i went to pick up my sister matti. she's crazy. (i am putting this picture on here just for her. heh, heh.) she and i went to wendy's for some late-night chicken nuggets then had a hotel party ... which consisted of turning on the tv until we started falling asleep -- about 37 minutes -- then turning it off and sleeping. hmmm. my parties generally used to be a bit "wilder" than that ...

friday 9/7:

i woke up early and took matti to work. when i got back to the hotel, i decided to find the swimming pool: a morning swim! it was fabulous! i swam for maybe 20 minutes then sat in the hot tub for a few. but then i had to get going.

the firm put on a barbecue lunch with an oktoberfest theme at kiwanis park -- well, it was byu, so we did root beer instead of regular beer. mmeh. we also had some apple beer, creme soda, bratwurst, chicken breast, sauerkraut, and german potato salad. the food was great. we also had a root beer stein race and a hot-dog eating contest -- i couldn't believe how quickly this one kid put down 6 hot dogs and buns! (that's a picture of me with linsy, one of the girls out of the portland office.)

we wrapped that up by 2. then i went up to riverton to see my folks who were fixing something with the air conditioner at my aunt's house. i got my hands dirty, then i convinced my mom to come back down to provo to go to dinner with my old roommate kanani and her husband jeffrey: it was *all-you-can-eat sushi*!! i mean, c'mon! how can you turn that down!

and it was delicious all-you-can-eat sushi. seriously. we paid $20 a head, but probably ate about $35-worth of sushi each. oh my goodness, i go into a sushi coma just thinking about it.

saturday 9/8:

i think i slept in a bit on saturday and then spent the morning with my mom figuring out some stuff on her computer. i don't think we did much else on saturday -- probably took naps.

oh -- i got a call in the morning from this guy that my aunt has been trying to set me up with: he asked me out for that night. so around 4 i got ready for that and drove down to my aunt's house to wait for my date. he got there about 630 pm: we had dinner at chili's and then went to the driving range to hit some balls. it was a fun time. he was a very nice guy.

sunday 9/9:

sunday was church -- i really love my parents' ward: good meetings and wonderful people. after church, mom and i discussed the plans for monday for a bit and then took naps -- wonderful naps! ... i think i should sleep more on a regular basis so i don't end up taking so many naps when i go on vacation ... :S

mom and i then had dinner and played ticket to ride while we waited for dad to get home from work (he's been working so much lately!). ticket to ride is *so* much fun to play! my brother introduced it to us a couple years ago and i just love it. i mean, afterall, it won "spiel des jahres 2004" or "2004 game of the year" in germany ... so that has to tell you something!

monday 9/10:

monday was a work day. and we worked! mom and i decided that if we were going to work on organizing the office, we should paint it while we were at it. and then if we were going to do that, we might as well switch the office over to the bigger room. but if we were going to do that, then we needed to paint the bigger room, too -- fire-hydrant yellow isn't very concentration-and-productivity-friendly. so the original "let's organize the office" project got a little bigger.

bring it!

so in the morning mom and i went to lowe's for paint. then got started moving furniture and everything else ... and then we painted! and it was fun! i don't think i've ever painted walls before -- loved it!

we got the office painted pretty quickly because we only painted the top half of the walls (bye bye, cute-little-rocking-horse wallpaper!). after we let it dry a bit, we moved the furniture in and got it set up in there. (now we just need to do something about that bedspread -- sorry, mom.)

tuesday 9/11:

the next morning we painted the old bedroom (soon-to-be new office). yellow's not a bad color, so we just toned it down a bit -- and covered up matti's unfinished art project.

then things got to be a bit more work: so many things to organize as we put them in the office. but we were getting stuff done. the layout of the furniture was fun to decide about: we ended up bringing up a second large table from downstairs and will probably bring the file cabinet up, too. we'll see about that one -- it was too heavy for mom and me to move anyway. then lots of papers and such to just go through and throw away -- it's amazing how easy it is to hold onto stuff you just really don't need.

the organization of the office is a project that we continued over the rest of my trip ... and there's still plenty to do. but it's in progress ...

tuesday night was so much fun! around 4 i headed down to salt lake to meet my friend michelle for dinner and then ... the keith urban concert!! yea! oh, it was so much fun! michelle and i have been every year since i got home from my mission ... so it's a tradition that i am *happy* to continue! the concert was so great -- he always puts on an awesome show and he is *amazing* on the guitar! and it was so great to spend some time with michelle ... i can't wait for her to move out here!

wednesday 9/12:

after such an amazing night, maybe things couldn't have gotten better ... but seriously each day of my vacation was so much fun.

wednesday morning i got up early and drove again down to salt lake -- well, bountiful -- to see my old roommate amy! she and i packed up her son and headed out to the mrs. cavanaugh's chocolate factory. oh, even just as we were getting close, the sweetest chocolate smell was so wonderful! wow. it was great. we watched a video about how they make chocolate and then got to see the factory in action. :) it was kinda funny -- a bit anti-climactic -- not much to see, but i just really wanted to eat *all* of the chocolate downstairs in the chocolate shop. it was seriously amazing. i bought some chocolate to share with amy and take home to my mom. (she shared with me -- mmm, yumm!)

mom and i worked more on the office the rest of the day -- i think ... man, i can't remember! i should have made this trip log sooner!

in the evening i got a call from my dad: there was a muse concert down in provo that needed to be loaded out and they were short a couple hands, so i of course accepted. i *love* working on concerts!! so he and i left the house about 930 to drive down -- usually, we arrive about half an hour before the concert is over, end up watching the end of the concert from back-stage, and then start tearing down the stage as soon as the house lights go up. i got put on the lighting/electric crew for the evening. i usually end up doing sound, so this was a bit different: but just as fun.

oh. i got injured: i was taking down lights from one of the trusses and had to duck under to get to the other side. but i came up too soon and conked my head (hard) on one of the lamps. but because i was there with some pretty rough and burly men, i didn't want to be a pansy about it so i just shook it off and got back to work, chanting "don't be a girl, don't be a girl" to myself. but then i started to feel a trickle running down from the top of my head ... umm, yeah, that was my blood. so i ran over and had my dad look at it -- i had gotten myself pretty bad, but i was okay: no stitches needed. so i got back to work again. but i'll tell ya, i had a headache. and a lovely streak of pink/red hair to go with it. i figure that just kinda helped me fit in better with the roadie crew.

thursday 9/13:

since dad and i didn't get back from the concert load-out until about 3 am, i slept in a lot on thursday. mom finally woke me up around 1230 to tell me to come with them for lunch: yummy javier's mexican food. (i use the word "yummy" a lot -- but seriously, there is so much good food in this world!)

after lunch, i can't remember what i did -- probably not much because of the intensive hard work from the night before. i swear, most of the time i think i am in pretty good shape, y'know, but then i go and work a concert with my dad that completely kicks my butt and i feel like i had been in some sort of cocoon for the past 30 years and had never used my legs before so i walk (as minimally as possible) around with unbelievably sore muscles for about 4 days while i recover. it's insane.

in the evening i got ready and went out to meet another old friend from school, desaray. we had dinner at this super cute italian place in downtown ogden and it was so great to see her!

friday 9/14:

i slept in again on friday, but not as long as the day before: i was up and at 'em by about 1030. but then all of us kind of lazed around all morning -- dad didn't have to work. it was a nice morning. mom had a job interview down in provo at 2, so we headed down there. mom drove while dad and i sat in the back seat and worked on building a database system for his company -- something i have been intending to do for a couple years now, but i just don't ever get very far on it. frustrating. i still have lots to do for that.

after the interview -- which went well: she got the job! -- the three of us went over to byu campus to check out the minerva teichert exhibit at the museum of art and to see the new hinckley alumni house. it was a fun afternoon followed by ...

... too much sushi!! *again*!! yup, we picked up my sister matti from work and my brother jorgen from his apartment, we called my aunt susan kay ... and then we gorged ourselves on raw fish. it was awesome.

wow. i ate way too much sushi again. it is a darn good thing that i don't live in provo: all my money would be spent, which would be problematic because i would need to buy new pants to fit my sushi belly, because i would *spend my life* at this place! ha.

after sushi, mom and dad dropped me off at amy's place. she and i and her friend karen made cinnamon knots (cinnamon rolls fashioned into knots instead of rolls). and then we watched a movie and did pedicures. it was fun. i spent the night there so that i could be there early in the morning to go hiking. it was a fun night.

saturday 9/15:

woke up about 730 ... well, i think amy was up much earlier with her son who has a habit of waking up too early every day. after quickly getting ready to go, amy, her husband, her son, and i headed south to go to timpanogos caves. it was a fun 1½-mile hike up followed by a 40-minute tour of the caves, and then a hike back down. it was really cool; i had a great time. that's me and amy inside the cave, though you can't really tell.

my sister maren came over that evening -- i hadn't seen her yet on this trip, so i was glad she was able to come. we worked on the office some more; maren helped. then we went out to dinner: chinese, this time. i think that's the same place we went for maren's birthday when i was up there in june. it's good food.

sunday 9/16:

after church on sunday, mom and i headed down to my aunt susan kay's house for dinner and games. yup, we played ticket to ride again: the three of us played once before my dad got there, and then all of us played one more time before mom and i headed to the airport to drop me off.

what a full trip!! i had a *fabulous* time and loved seeing so many people! i love where i am living now, but i surely miss my friends and family in utah ... that's why it is so great to be able to go back to visit!

welp, until next time!!