What a Great Day

I haven't been flying since last May 23rd.  I've had the plane all rented about 5 times since then, but every I try to go it rains.  Plus its expensive and I haven't had the money.  So this last saturday I was finally able to go with some tax refund money.  I went up with my old flight instructor and friend Todd Christensen.  It was amazing, I miss flying so much.  I wish I could go every day.  We took of from Spanish fork airport, flew up provo canyon, over Heber and Jordanelle, past Park City, down through Parley's canyon and back to provo.  We made a few landings at heber and SLC.  It was a beautiful day for flying, and just reaffirmed how much I love to fly.

After I was done flying Amanda and I went with our friends Brandon and Lisa Jastal to a car show at Thanksgiving Point.  It was pretty cool.  There were some sweet cars.  Their friend had an old Model-T that was submitted into the show, so we got a picture of us sitting in it.  It was a pretty fun day and the weather couldn't have been any better.

                                                   Us and the Jastals (he's in the ROTC with me)

Congratulations is in order

Amanda finally got a job!  Woo Hoo!  She applied to work at Primary Children's Hospital in SLC a few weeks ago.  They had over 200 applicants, and only a few positions.  Well she got an interview and rocked it.  The people loved her.  They told her they would make a decision that weekend and let everyone know the beginning of the next week.  Well that happened before we went to CA, so the whole time we were in CA we were worrying about it.  We hadn't heard anything.  The week past, and still nothing.  Well Amanda sent some emails and tried calling, and no responses.  And still another week went by and we didn't hear anything.  So she sent some more emails and made a few more phone calls.  We were kind of starting to get worried, but we kept praying.  And finally today they called her and offered her a position!  We are so excited.  She will start July 26th, and we'll start getting benefits on Sept 1st.  She will be working on the medical unit, which is just a normal floor in the hospital.  However, kids will be sent to her until when they are kind of unstable mentally to become stable before they try out the mental hospital.  So it will be fun for her, she is really excited.

Is anyone out there?

So I am just wondering who actually reads my blog (besides my mom and dad).  Not that it is a big deal, because I really enjoy doing it.  I am always hearing how important it is too keep a journal, and I am horrible at sitting down and taking the time to write one, so the blog is the next best thing.  So even if nobody else does read it, I will continue.  Anyways, if you are reading this leave a quick comment so I can see if anybody does read it.  Thanks.

Third Times A Charm

Well, we went to California AGAIN!  It was our 3rd time this year so far.  This time we went for Amanda's friend Julie's wedding.  They were married in the Redlands, CA temple on May 1st.  Here is a little synopsis of our journey to the land of fruits and nuts.

We rented a car (because neither of our cars are reliable enough) and drove to San Bernadino, CA on friday Apr 30th.  As a little side note, we stopped in Vegas for lunch at an Arby's and Amanda ordered popcorn chicken.  She bit into the first one and it was completely raw inside!  So we broke open the other ones and they were all uncooked!  So I took them up to the counter and the manger was bugged.  She returned them, then resold us a roast beef sandwich.  I was shocked.  It was horrible customer service.  I was thinking they would just swap it out, or maybe comp our meal or something, but no.

Anyways, we got to our hotel that night and got some subway and watched the Jazz play the nuggets (which they won).  The next morning we had to be out of our room by 11 am, and the wedding wasn't until 2:30.  So we found a movie theatre and watched The Backup Plan.  It was alright, there were some funny lines, but I probably wouldn't recommend it.  After the movie we went to a local pizza shop, ate lunch and changed in their bathrooms and headed to the temple.  After the wedding and the whole pictures thing, we had another few hours to kill, so we went back to the theatre and watched Clash of the Titans in 3D.  This movie I would recommend, it was pretty cool.  Then the reception was in a neighbor's front yard.  After the reception we drove to Aliso Viejo, CA where my cousin and his wife live.  We stayed with them the rest of the trip.

                                                (picture I took of the Redlands, CA temple)

(they had this wall set up with their pictures all over it, and an empty frame the guests could stand in fro a picture as they arrived.)

The next morning was sunday, so we found a church and went to just sacrament meeting, then drove down to Laguna beach, which was only about 10 minutes away.  It was beautiful.  We pulled up into a parking spot and the person who was there before us had left 3 hours left on the meter.  That saved us about 6 dollars!  We walked around the beach, got some lunch, etc.  It was amazingly beautiful.  We walked along the sand, looked at shells, saw an old muslim lady smoking out of a BONG, a really old lady in a bikini, etc.  We saw it all.

Later that night we had a BBQ with my cousins and their next door neighbors.  The next day was DISNEY LAND DAY!  It was fun.  Amanda had never been, so it was a whole new world for her (no pun intended).  It wasn't crowded at all, so the longest line we waited in was about 20 minutes for the Indiana Jones ride.  Did I mention we got in for Free?  Yeah, we did the "give a day get a day" program for free tickets.  We volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for a few hours and got free day passes to disney land (which are now going for $75 a day per person!).  We also got honorary volunteer pins to wear around.  It was a great day, about 80 degrees, and perfect.

On the way home that night our stupid GPS took us on a toll road, which we didn't have enough money for.  So we are sitting there at the gate 15 cents short of the toll debating what to do.  If you just go through they take a picture of your license plate and send you a ticket in the mail.  There were about 6 lanes we would have gone too, but happened to choose this specific one (it was all automated and there wasn't any attendant around).  I had the though to check the place where peoples extra change is returned and sure enough there was 2 $1 gold coins in there!  Coincidence?  I think not.  Heavenly Father was watching over us.  So we payed the toll and went on our way.  It was definitely a tender mercy.

The next morning we drove to San Clemente to stop of the Rainbow Sandals outlet, then made the 9 1/2 hour drive back to provo and got home around 10:30.  The drive went by really quick there and back.  It was a really fun trip, and a nice break right after school ended.