what i did this summer

in case you haven't noticed, i haven't been blogging much. not for lack of things to write about, but for time to write about them. not only has work swallowed me alive, but i have been insistent that i wouldn't allow work to consume all my waking hours.

lately i have taken advantage of the opportunity to use some of my pto before work gets even worse and i am completely unable to take the time off. and i have been busy!

so, in honor of school starting up again, i thought i'd do a quick, "what i did this summer" post for all.

• jun 6 - 7 visit woodworths in tahoe, ca
• jul 2 - 9 visit all kinds of family in ogden, ut, and eagle, id
• jul 30 - aug 5 visit inge & jared in houston, tx
• aug 8 - 9 california all-state ysa conference in santa monica, ca
• aug 14 - 15 becky's wedding in las vegas, nv
• aug 21 - 24 visit woodworths in san jose, ca
• sep 3 - 8 bumbershoot in seattle, wa
• sep 11 - 13 help mom & dad pack in ogden, ut
• sep 20 - 23 annual training for work in chicago, il
• sep 23 - 28 visit eden & clint, et al, in boston, ma

i'll elaborate on the details in the coming weeks -- when i find time to post some pictures. because a picture-less post is hardly worth the read, let alone the write.

p.s.

oh, yeah. this is what else came in the mail ...

well, i mean, *i* didn't come in the mail.

just the ticket did ...

but, you got that.

right?

7 ate 9

i am in utah on vacation. heading home in the morning. i'll post stuff and pictures then ...

enjoy the anticipation.

the emerald city

one of my favorite people followed suit with so many others in my life ... and moved to seattle. i like to think that they are all just making the exodus with the intent to prepare that promised land for me. i'll end up there someday, mind you: just you wait. just you wait, henry higgins. (sorry, that sentence was just asking for it.)

in celebration of his outset to a new life and to to help him make the transition, i joined a team of 2 others in taking on the task of picking up matt's whole life and transplanting it to the emerald city.

aside from the almost unbearable, all-in-one-day, 18-hour car-ride, it was a fabulous trip to my previously-declared favorite-city-in-the-whole-world-that-i-have-never-lived-in. (think that's a long title? just imagine having to fit that on an 8½-x-11 ivory certificate. not an easy thing to do, my friends.) (oh, and please note that the car-ride is herein described as "almost unbearable" simply for its length: sitting in a car for that long should be legally, ethically, morally, and chocolately wrong. the adventure and the company was quite pleasant otherwise.)

(i don't think i have ever used so many hyphenates in one post before. nor so many parentheses. this is quite a monumental post!)

after dragging the dregs of matt's stuff to the cars, we scooted out of santa monica at the butt crack of dawn on friday morning, august 29. being so early in the morning, this meant, of course ... no makeup for me:

mattso didn't wear any, either.

the road trip was filled with adventures and sights such as these:

now, i'd imagine that there aren't a few of you guys out there who are feeling a bit left out at this point, but don't worry: it wasn't anything you can't recreate. all you need is a vw golf crammed full of stuff, a location that is 18 hours away, and a dave. gotta have a dave.

we got to seattle around 2 am and crashed (on our beds).

saturday started too early. but saturday started with a bang. dave showed me the most amazing stuff: debacterol. it's awesome. it cures canker sores. all you do is put the sulfuric acid on your tongue (or wherever the canker sore is) for 10 seconds, it burns like a race horse, and then your canker sore is just a bit of dead skin you wait to fall off. (kinda gross, i know. sorry.) as you can see from the picture, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

after such excitement so early in the morning, i suppose you wouldn't expect much else in the day ... but ... then we rounded up the troops and headed to ... bumbershoot!! oh, my heavens, what an amazing time was had. after waiting in a 4,000-mile-long line, we got into the gates around 11, i think. my old friend brad met up with us for most of the day (hi, brad!). we walked all over the place seeing everything that was there and making plans for what we just had to see before the day was through. after some discussion, we decided on a game plan of (1) eat bratwurst and french fries, (2) wander around for a couple hours, (3) watch modern dancers in the water fountain, (4) watch part of lucinda williams, (5) watch band of horses, (6) get high from second-hand smoke while waiting to watch beck, (7) watch beck, and (8) tucker out and go home.

sunday was a day of rest. as it should be. kinda. church started at 9, where we met many cool people! then we went on a beautiful drive and a bit of a hike up near (in?) issaquah. the weather was a bit damp, of course, which makes everything so green and beautiful so it's okay. here's the group in front of lake sammamish ("yeah, i'd say that lake is pretty sammamish."):

while there, matt taught us about the life cycle of salmon. we learned a lot, and, having been thus educated, we were ready to go to the university. and so we did. we drove out to university of washington to walk around a bit. last year when i was there, the cherry trees were in bloom and it was just absolutely gorgeous. this year, the ducks were in bloom -- this meant more poop than cherry blossoms. not quite *as* gorgeous, but not bad, no. i was able to do about 17 cartwheels in the quad and didn't get any duck poop on my hands.

from the university, we went to a ward-member's house and had all kinds of yummy desserts at a "dessert potluck" in which the hostess prepared all the desserts, (don't really think that qualifies as a "potluck", at least where i'm from, but ... it's seattle -- who knows?), after which we headed to st. mark's cathedral to hear the episcopaleon monks perform gregorian chanting. that was an *amazing* experience.

monday was officially dubbed "moving day": early in the morning, we drove matt's stuffed car to his new place to unload ... 2,374 armloads from car to apartment later ... all of his earthly belongings were safely stashed in his new seattle station.

from there, we had to officially re-seattle-ize mattso with the purchase of ... dun, dun, dun ... a northface fleece from rei! oh, behold the re-seattle-ization (okay, now say that quickly 4 times and note the excitement on mattso's face.):

being now appropriately equipped, we headed out on an even greater adventure! after a deep fried seafood lunch at ivar's, we drove down to the water and to take a ferry over to [ insert name of island here ] island. we didn't have to wait too long before the ferry arrived and we boarded. i love ferries. i love being on the water. i love standing at the front of the boat and getting almost blown away and then standing at the back of the boat and feeling the calm ... ... love it. i think they should put more in l.a. -- ferries, that is -- not fairies. heh.

after arriving on the island, we started driving. and we drove and drove and drove. it was *bea-u-tiful*! we drove up to deception pass and had to take a hike: it was sunset and it was awesome.

after hiking down to the water and back up again. we drove to the top of [ insert name of island here ] island and to another ferry pier to wait for the next ferry. i love ferries. i think they should put more in l.a. -- oh, wait -- we already did that joke ...

umm, tuesday morning found us atop of the space needle. well ... tuesday mid-morning found us there: we were on vacation, afterall. but it was lovely. the city is beautiful from up there. and it's just so cool to be 605 feet up! cell phone reception was surprisingly really good at that height.

after returning to sea level, we checked out some other tourist staples in this fair sea city. such as ...

i love this waterfall tunnel.	there's a pig in pike place market!	look who we found.

we capped off the day with yummy pizza with new friends. pretty good day, i'd say ...

wednesday morning we went to japan:

and then china:

and then we had lunch in seattle's international district (aka, "chinatown") at the uwajimaya village. that was not bad chinese. (while in china, i also found a chinese grocery store that had colored tapioca. little pink, green, and yellow tapioca balls. so cool! and even more fun to eat than the boring white stuff!)

our fearsome foursome split ways shortly after lunch. dave and nastia got back in the golf and started south. mattso and i had a couple more small adventures in seattle before i flew to utah the next morning: we went to gas works park and spent some time in the sunshine, then we went home furnishings shopping at target ... which was sorely needed for his otherwise barren abode.

farewell, seattle! i'll miss you dearly! --

err, uhh --

i mean ...

farewell, mattso! i'll miss you dearly!

surprise!

my youngest sister matti and i decided earlier this year that we wanted to go to new york -- well, she wanted me to take her to new york and to be her tour guide. swell.

but then we found out that sibling #5 is expecting her first baby! (yea!) so we changed our destination to something a little further south -- houston -- and i abdicated from the tour guide throne.

so matti talked it out with #5 and decided on the end of may. then matti talked it out with me and decided on mid-may ... and we decided not to tell #5. heh heh heh. we did tell #5's husband, though. and he was more than excited about the tricksy plan. mwah ha ha ha.

matti and i were extra careful to make sure our plan wasn't discovered so we carefully instructed mom to not let it slip. and actually, i am kinda impressed that we were able to pull it off. i even called #5 from the houston airport after i arrived and was waiting for matti's plane to land -- called "just to chat" and i thought it would then make for an even better surprise when we showed up at her house in the middle of the night. heh heh heh.

oh, and it was a *good* surprise! i have seriously never heard #5 scream in terror like she screamed in terror that night.

my only regret is that we didn't get it on film.

i am quite happy that she didn't go into premature labor, though. for the record. (thanks for that, inge.)

so yeah. then we just had so much fun, a week full of fun. and we didn't even wait to get started. having arrived at inge's apartment at 230 am, we promptly sat down and played mario kart for about an hour before heading to bed -- it's so much fun to be sisters when mom isn't there enforce bedtime! :D

the next day we gabbed like sisters. well, we *are* sisters, so there's that. and we planned all the fun stuff we wanted to do while we were there. here's what we came up with:

thursday 5/8:

hang out at the house and plan the week
play mario kart and guitar hero III
dinner at whataburger (mmm! it was vacation so i declared the whole darn week to be beef day)
watch the new episode of the office

friday 5/9:

go to the houston space center
dinner at jack-in-the-box for matti's sake since there aren't any in utah
take a ferry ride from galveston to the bolivar peninsula
walk half-way to this cool park (it was tooo far)
take a ferry ride back to galveston

saturday 5/10:

stay home because the baby was upset that we did too much yesterday
play more mario kart, guitar hero, ... and tanks!
pizza from all-star pizza
watch some episodes of firefly (oh my goodness, i love this show!)

sunday 5/11: mother's day!

go to church
take naps
make chicken bundles for dinner (way yummy, inge!)
play games

monday 5/12: inge's birthday!

open birthday presents
play in the gulf of mexico
get sunburned
play miniature golf
dinner at el toro
eat birthday cake at home

tuesday 5/13: girls day!

watch enchanted
pedicures
facials
make-up
dinner at brian's texas barbecue (mmm ...)
play parcheesi
swim at the rec center and play on the spiral water slide

wednesday 5/14:

pack/clean up
visit gordon at the sea center texas
learn that gordo is not a jewfish; he's a grouper
lunch at jack-in-the-box, again for matti's sake since there aren't any in utah
go to the airport
fly home

... thanks, inge & jared -- i had a fabulous time! matti probably did, too. :P

it was so much fun to visit you again.

oh. and i just *had* to take this picture:

there and back again

an accountant's tale.

part of my responsibility here at gt is to represent the firm in our recruiting efforts at fine educational institutions such as byu. and i willingly oblige. last year i made a 10-day trip out of my recruiting assignment. and when a second opportunity arose to wave the grant thornton flag over the hills in provo last month, i tried to pack just as much into that trip.

friday morning, my flight left lax at 715. which meant that i had to be to the flyaway for the 5 o'clock bus ... which meant that i had to wake up by 4. or, 430. because i hit the snooze several times. as usual. especially since i had been up until 230 finishing some stuff for work (this was still in the middle of busy season) and then packing because i prefer to do everything last minute. (i think it sounds better if i say that i "prefer" to do something. don't you agree? makes it sound like i am more in control of my life, huh?)

after sleeping on the bus and then sleeping again on the plane, i was somewhat coherent when i arrived in salt lake. at least enough so that i noted that avis really does try harder.

from there, i drove down to provo and picked up my brother and sister to go out to lunch. we learned that the trunk to my rental car was pretty big:

actually, really pretty big:

yup, that's me *and* my brother *and* all my luggage and computer in there. impressed? i know. i know you are.

we had a quick lunch at wallabys smokehouse in orem (pretty good barbecue) and then dropped matti back off at work. jorgen and i went to his apartment and did his taxes. then i had to be responsible for an hour -- had a conference call for work -- after which i left for fat cat's for the recruiting event ...

... a st. patty's day bowling party! wahoo!

it was pretty fun! i think most of the students that came (and there were so many that came!) were happy to have a laid-back event after some intense midterms. i talked to so many students and quite a few were interested in coming down to socal. which is great news for the firm!

i love recruiting. have i told you that before? i do. it's so much fun. i love just talking to everyone, meeting new people, socializing, etc. it's great.

after the recruiting event, i met my mom and aunt susan kay up in salt lake for dinner. i'd had pizza and cake at the recruiting event, but anyone who knows me at all knows that i can most usually pack down more food whenever presented. (elise ... member that one buffet where we almost killed ourselves by eating so much food because we were trying to stock up before fast sunday?? ha. oh, my stomach still hurts just thinking about it.)

the three of us then spent the night at susan kay's in riverton. (not riverdale, which is near ogden. i can never remember where susan kay lives except that i know that she lives in the river__ city that is *not* near ogden. and i remember that riverdale is near ogden. so she must live in riverton. pronto. yes, it's a round about way to get to that conclusion, but it's the only way i can do it. just thought i would let y'all in on a little bit of the lunacy i have to deal with on a daily basis just by nature of being inside my own head. now be grateful *you* are not inside my head.)

in the morning, we woke up early and packed everything in the car to head up to ogden. we left susan kay's around 830, dropped my rental car off at the airport on the way, and had an easy ride up i-15. once in ogden, the plan was to swoop in and pick up dad and then zip out of town. well ... it was a stretched out swoop and slow zip, if that. everything takes longer when a sorensen is involved. and there were 3 of us at this point. so you can just imagine. i think we were on the road by again around noon. (that's susan kay and i -- we made a mcguyver-esque window shade using only notebook paper and post-it flags to remove the sunglare on my computer screen for the drive.)

... 4 hours later ...

we arrive in boise, idaho. i like boise. i love to visit. and on this weekend we were visiting my grandmother and all the aunts and uncles on my mom's side because my aunt kathie and uncle joe were preparing to leave on their mission! (they got called to the florida ft. lauderdale mission and left for the mtc on april 7.) before leaving, they wanted to get all the siblings together for a nice dinner, and i'm so happy they let me come crash the party.

sunday morning we had a lazy time with yummy breakfast made by my grandmother, which included grandpa's skillet potatoes. mmm. grandmother then showed me how to crochet an edge on the baby blanket that i have been knitting for inge. (inge ... i really need you to tell me if the baby blanket needs to have some pink on it. like, really.)

anyway, and then kathie and joe came over with yummy homemade chicken soup for lunch. it was nice to see them and spend some more time with them.

then we loaded the car again and started the drive south. we got to ogden around 630, quickly unloaded some things from the car and then got back in the car ... because my flight back to l.a. left at 915 that night. i got back to my house around 1130, and didn't even pause to unpack or anything -- not sure i even changed clothes -- before getting in bed. i was exhausted. it was a fabulous trip, but it wore me out! and the next morning was more busy season.

thinking back about it right now, i'm really not sure how i did that. but i know that i did.

what happens in vegas

a few months ago, my friend becky won a romantic weekend for two in the exciting sin city of las vegas on the radio. we were originally gonna go back in november, but had to reschedule a couple of times and finally got it set up for january 4-7.

so after taking my cpa test on friday, i came home, did laundry, and packed to be out of the house by 5 so i could pick up becky from the airport at 6 (she was flying in from her Christmas vacation with family back in virginia). well, because of traffic, i didn't get to the airport until about 645 ... argh ... but then we were on our way up to vegas!

the drive was long because of the insane rain storm but it wasn't too bad since we both had vacation stories and other stories to catch up on ... and we finally got to the stratosphere around 2am, checked in, and went to sleep.

the only catch to this romantic weekend for two in the exciting sin city of las vegas was that we had to sit through a "no-pressure" time-share presentation given by the company that sponsored the weekend. which was torturous. seriously. first of all, we thought that the meeting was at 10 on saturday morning. but when we checked into the hotel , they told us that we had to check in with the time-share company in the morning -- they open at 6. so ... at 730 the next morning, i finally wrestled myself out of bed, brushed my hair and groggily made my way to the check-in desk. where i found out that our meeting was at 8 -- not 10 -- at 8. !! so ... i called becky to wake her up and then i ran up to the room to change clothes and run back down to get to the meeting. :S

and despite their reassurances that this meeting was "no-pressure" ... it was seriously the worst saturday morning i have ever spent. ever. even worse than the saturday morning i spent ... hmm ... i was just trying to think of a really bad saturday morning experience that i had one time and i can't think of anything ... so either i've never had a bad saturday morning or i have blocked all of them from my memory ... interesting. but what i can say is that *this* saturday morning was awful. when becky and i told them "no", we don't want to buy into their time-share ... wow ... i don't think i've ever been through a worse breakup. i've seriously never seen a grown man pout so much.

when they finally let us go and took us back to our hotel, becky and i crashed back into our beds for some much-needed napping. the only problem was that i was tormented the whole time by "no-pressure" sales dreams and didn't get much rest at all. :P ugh. seriously.

the rest of saturday was pretty fun. we finally woke up and got ready to be out of the hotel room by 230 and went over to the hilton to meet up with becky's dad at the star trek experience for lunch and some rides. so much fun!! and i met a borg drone named 3 of 6. he seemed a bit taken with me ... though he adamantly refused to help me be assimilated to the collective -- evidently he is now part of a de-assimilation initiative and was posted on the station in order to observe human behavior in an attempt to regain his humanity. (oh! also, the actress that played alexander's mom was there, too. she wouldn't let me take her picture, though, unless i bought something. oh, well.)

and *that*, my friends, is my star trek geekiness. i think that's all i'll subject you to. for now.

after yummy dinner and some star trek adventures with becky's dad, we three went to see menopause the musical. it was an interesting show. funny. but i won't go see it again. and i probably won't recommend it to anyone either. dunno. just not my kind of humor.

after that show, becky and i hightailed it over to the mgm grand to see ká, a fabulous cirque du soleil show about a village named ká and the plight of the young prince and princess who seek to return home after being separated and "must embark on a perilous journey". i *loved* it! really. it was seriously amazing. i'd go see it again any time, anywhere. you wanna go with me?

sunday morning, becky and i went to the gilcrease bird preserve in the neighborhood where becky grew up. we had a great time seeing the birds and visiting the petting zoo, too. this one bird was hilarious: i have never seen a bird enjoy being petted so much in my whole life. can you see the sheer bliss on his face?! i swear he would have crawled right into my lap and died of ecstasy right then had that pesky cage not been in the way. (oh, i don't think we were supposed to pet the birds, though -- so, if anyone asks, you didn't see this picture.)

we then went to visit becky's grandma and had lunch with her. she was very sweet and made yummy homemade chili for us. mmm.

after a couple hours at grandma's, we left to meet up with becky's dad. first we went to the mandalay bay shark reef. i *looved* that. i can't even express how much i love looking at sharks. i don't know why. don't ask. (we tried to take a cool picture, but it didn't quite turn out.)

then we went to the forum shops in caesar's palace. that is an amazing place. it's hard to believe that all that is indoors and that you aren't really walking the streets of ancient rome. i wished that i had brought my toga.

becky's dad treated us to dinner at the palm restaurant. oh, it was fabulous. i ate a 12 oz. new york steak *and* flirted with a very cute waiter. ha. he wasn't even "our waiter" -- but he kept coming out to the patio area to check on us. maybe he was "my waiter". :P yeah, whenever i caught him looking our direction, he gave me a wink or stuck his tongue out or blew me a kiss or even mouthed an "i love you" ... heh. i'd go back there again, too, any time. you wanna go with me there??

that evening we returned to the stratosphere to watch the american superstars impersonators show, which was entertaining. then we went up to the top of the stratosphere to look at all of las vegas from high above it. if it hadn't been so durned cold i would have loved to ride the roller coasters up at the top of that thing.

after we descended back to street level, we met up with becky's dad again to go to fremont street in downtown las vegas. we hung out there for a while, saw some sights, watched some guys make art with spray paint, and enjoyed the light show. it was fun. and freezing. vegas in winter is cold. just for the record.

monday we slept in until we really couldn't sleep in any longer. because we had to check out of the hotel by 11. (i've never stayed at a hotel where check-out is at 11. it's supposed to be at 12. what's up with the 11? must be a typo. must be.) anyway. and then we went over to the venetian grand canal shoppes and wandered around for a while. again, that's an amazing place. and it's hard to believe that you are indoors the whole time. we also went back over to the forum shops to see some more of what was there. as we passed the palm on our way out i spotted my waiter ... he was still very cute.

umm, monday evening we saw stomp out loud at planet hollywood, which was thoroughly entertaining. really. i was interested in seeing it mostly because i am a science nerd to some degree (ha ha -- okay, stop laughing) and i thought it would be cool to see what they could do ... but i was completely taken aback with all the humor in the show. i had no idea i would laugh so much! and that i would be taken aback! really. i love being taken aback! and laughing!

after the show, becky and i went to see the fountains at the bellagio -- beautiful. it was so much fun to stand there on the strip and listen to music, dance, and watch the fountains. i loved it.

we watched the fountains until about 10:15, and then becky and i got on the road to head back to l.a.

shortly after we left las vegas, becky fell asleep. and i called cute guy. he was such a sport and talked to me for the *whole* drive back to l.a. ... which, thankfully, kept me awake ... so we could arrive safely home ... at 3 in the morning.

the weather outside is frightful

13 hours in the car. google says that the drive from l.a. to ogden, ut, should take 11 hours. but google doesn't know that we had a 1½-year-old in the car. so it took longer. but he is a really cute 1½-year-old. see?

who wouldn't want to be stuck in a car for 13 hours with this cute kid? really.

so, eden, clint, and i packed the boy into the car at 7am on december 22. the drive wasn't too bad -- one person drove, one person kept the driver awake, and the third person entertained the boy. and we rotated responsibilities. it worked out great.

we arrived at my parents' house at 7pm. after a long day, all we had energy for was a birthday dinner and then headed off to bed. (my dad gave me a box *full* of dark chocolate -- now, that's love!)

the next morning was church. it was so much fun to go to church with almost my whole family -- it's been a while. we took up two pews! well, the short side pews, but still. haven't done that in a while.

monday was Christmas eve (as you know), so we set out in the mid-morning to finish up some last-minute shopping. and then the afternoon and evening were spent wrapping, making other preparations, and playing games.

oh my goodness, we played so many games during the whole week. it was *fab*-u-lous. i loved it. these are most of the games we played (i think):

mystery of the abbey
shadows over camelot
ticket to ride: märklin
bang! (with dodge city and high noon expansions)
citadels
incan gold
monopoly express
speed scrabble
mario & sonic olympics
raving rabbids 1 and 2
cars
mater-national

after opening presents on Christmas, we played more games. then the next day we played more games. and more games the next day. it was perfect. (which, by the way, if anyone out there wants an opinion on any games, let me know. if i can't answer myself, i know my sister or brother-in-law could certainly help you out. they are game gurus.)

friday i finally broke free from the house and went to see my friend amy in bountiful. i love visiting her! we went to a park up near her apartment and took some pictures in the snow (so that all my so-cal friends can really see what a white Christmas was all about). then we went back to her apartment for hot chocolate and chit-chatting. she is so much fun and i just love seeing her whenever i get to utah.

that night we watched stardust with my whole family. it was so much fun to share that with them! i still am absolutely in love with that movie.

the next morning we got up, packed the car, and headed back to l.a. yes, another 13 hours. we got to l.a. pretty late that evening. overall, it was a fun trip. i'm glad we got to go and that eden & clint could come for Christmas this year.

tay-has

my little sister inge and her husband jared just moved to the city of enchantment (aka, lake jackson, tx -- about an hour outside of houston). and what's a better housewarming gift than ... me!? yup. 4 fun-filled days with the coolest almost-cpa in southern california. what more could you want? no, really: what more could you want?

i was to arrive on november 7, wednesday evening, late, but this was the first time last month that i missed my flight. so instead, i arrived thursday morning, early. inge picked me up a little after 6 am and took me to her apartment where i slept. yeah. she had a doctor appointment or something, so i crashed on their guest bed while she was gone.

when she got back, we showered and got ready for the day. it was fun to just chat and catch up. we took a walk over to the sea center texas, which is like a small aquarium that has animals, etc., specifically local to the gulf coast area. (i was interested to learn that dow chemical is a supporter of the sea center.) at the sea center, inge introduced me to gordy. he's a jewfish. inge thinks it's funny that "jewfish" sounds like "doofus".

we came home from the sea center and ate tuna fish sandwiches, which sounded appropriate, and then we played games/chatted/hung out until jared *finally* got home from work. at which point we all changed clothes and went to the rec center! so much fun! "the recreation center-lake jackson is 65,500 square feet of family fun and fitness." and yeah, it is! we played racquetball for a while -- jared played with some friends that actually know how to play, and inge and i played with each other and pretended to know what we were doing. i think we had more fun. though jared got more sweaty. and then we went to the swimming pool to slide down the slide. *loved* that!

the next day was friday and jared doesn't have to work every other friday. so friday we drove out to galveston, after a lazy morning of waffles and wii tanks. we saw the seawall and went to the aquarium at moody gardens. i had a blast watching the sharks swim around in all those tanks. sharks are pretty cocky.

that night we watched stranger than fiction since i had just purchased it when i spent the night at the airport, but i think all of us fell asleep before the movie ended -- it was a long day.

saturday we lazed around again in the morning. i guess that's what vacation is for, isn't it? and then we headed out to brazos bend state park. on the way there, we stopped to take pictures of longhorns -- we were in texas, after all -- and we stopped to observe a memorial site for albert sydney johnston, confederate hero and texas patriot. this is a picture of me looking confederate, in honor of mr. johnston. this is also me looking unsuspecting as fire ants were eating my left foot.

back in the car, we continued the drive out to brazos bend state park while i complained and tried to weasel some fire-ant sympathy from the newly-native texans.

at the park, we saw an alligator! he swam up just after we arrived and posed for a few shots. if you look closely at that picture, you can see him in the background between inge and me. it was mesmerizing to watch him swim over, which i think is precisely what he intended. it's probably part of his attack plan: enchant them with my movements, then straight for the jugular!

after hanging at the swamp for a few minutes -- not too long because we quickly became aware of a covert mosquito operation to eat us alive -- we drove to the george observatory. we had a 15-minute "mini class" about the stars and constellations and then got to go look through the enormous telescopes to see some of the amazing things in the heavens. we saw a dumb-bell nebula, some other-cool-things-that-i-can't-remember, and lots of stars. we also saw the andromeda galaxy! oh, *that* was so cool.

sunday was church. i enjoyed visiting with inge and jared. their ward is nice. after church we played ticket to ride, a way fun game that i have mentioned in this blog before. inge and jared have the märklin version that has passengers, which makes the game a little more interesting. after the game, we went to the airport and i didn't miss my flight back to l.a.; so i'd say it was a productive day.