Trip to Utah! Part 1

This was hands-down one of the best vacations of my life! I don’t think I have ever taken a vacation just to see friends and have fun!

I got in late on Wednesday and drove to Provo to stay with Lisa. I slept on a very comfy couch in their gorgeous townhome. The next morning we ate breakfast and played in the sandbox with the neighbor’s kid and Cheyenne. Then we left with Robbie and Cheyenne to go to antelope island so we could play in the Great Salt Lake.

We stopped 3 times on the way there for Cheyenne to use the restroom. It was so funny to me and was a awake up call realization how much more time things take when you have even one kid.

The salt lake was not nearly as cool as other people have made it out to be. Lisa and I were freezing cold because the wind was so strong. The water was actually a lot warmer than I thought it would be. We had to wade out very far to be able to get in deep enough water so that we could try to float. Unfortunately after freezing our bums off we found out that there is a great ploy to get people like us to try to float in the salt lake. Fortunately, I can dispel the rumor for you that you float better in the Salt Lake. It isn’t true! It wasn’t as dirty as I thought it would be, not nearly as dirty as Utah Lake is.

We tried to take jumping pictures.

Well we showered off and then ate some lunch in the car because the air was so cold! It was so fun to hang out with them again though! I remember campouts with Lisa that were fun, especially that one where we figured out we were sleeping in a bed of thistles, or when Robbie, Lisa and I went camping south of Provo. So, fun times and good memories continued!

I was able to say hello to our old house. When we bought it it had Christmas lights on it. Four years later it still has Christmas lights on it!

I went off to Sarah Frey’s house after. She met me outside and we were both too excited to see each other. Since I’m injured I rode a bike while she ran along side. We both felt like it was old times and we were just catching up on a run. The wind was ridiculous and almost succeeded in blowing us both over. We made dinner together, chicken curry. Something that Amy, Sarah, and I used to make at BDA 2 all the time. I don’t think I’ve had it since we lived together, so that was an awesome meal with great memories. We were planning on making caramel corn but didn’t have butter, so ran to the store and got butter and a movie, despicable me. We made caramel corn and white chocolate caramel corn. I plan on selling these online soon!

So, we got to watch the movie and eat lots of caramel corn, while I fell asleep on the couch.

Friday Sarah has to work at 6:00 everyday so I got up the same time she did because I was still on east coast time. I decided since I was awake I might as well go to a session in the Provo temple. Twenty minutes after I left the house I was in a session! Oh I miss Provo and Mormon land a lot!

Afterward I went down to see all the adults in my life at BYU. I talked to Anne in the Track office for a while and even got a new recipe to try from her! Yay! I always had so much fun talking to anne in the office in college. She was so nice and hilarious and had awesome stories and recipes! While I was talking to her Doug came in so I got to talk with him for a little bit. He had broken his hand at a track meet which I think makes him pretty hard core.

I went to the locker room, where the code I new didn’t work, so I had to push the delivery button. I talked with Ang for a while while she was working. Good luck to her and all her travels and her master’s thesis! She is amazing and doing so much! I don’t understand how she has the time.

I went to Nancy’s office (equipment room person) and talked to her for a long time as well. Coach came in half way through so, I got to see him for a little bit. He was an awesome coach and a great friend. I feel like I adopted him as my dad when I was down in Provo. So, Nancy and I talked about really everything.

I tried to see Dustin (old trainer) but found out he was out of town. I also went to try to see Jeff Hurst, my other old trainer, but he wasn’t in either. I went by Iain Hunter’s office to say hi, but the trend continued.

I drove down to our old house in south Provo. When we bought it, it had Christmas lights on it even though it was June. 4 years later it still has Christmas lights up on it! I also took pictures of Aimee and Tyler’s house.

I went to lunch with Katie Palmer at Guru’s. It was the dinner I had with Scott the night that he proposed to me. It was so fun to catch up with her and all her crazy travels! I wish her luck at Nationals this weekend and fun in South America (forgive me for not remembering the name of the country). I hope that in the future we can go backpacking across Europe!

After lunch I went to Alred’s orchards hoping they were open and very disappointed when they were not! Then to Wilson’s diamonds to see if I could get my ring resized and to look at wedding bands to match the ring. We will have to do a custom wedding band and they way that I want it, it’ll have to be two bands. So, I dropped off my ring and didn’t have it the rest of the trip. I also got to go to Great Harvest bread, which is an awesome bread company in the Utah area. I got cinncimon burst bread for French toast on Sunday.

Sarah was already back home with Reagan. Reagan was getting ready to leave for the wasach back relay (Ragnar). Sars and I went and hiked squaw peak. Then joined Millie and her boy Spenser for yogurt at yogurt land. So, I am obsessed with frozen yogurt. They had the best flavors I have EVER had! They had vanilla wafer, cinimon graham cracker, blueberry acai, keyline bars, and it just goes on and on! The best combination ever was the cinimon graham cracker with the blueberry acai.

We realized in the last picture that we had BAD pities so we took another one.

This is why I miss Utah so much!

PROVO!

Yes we both got these on our first try!



This is rock canyon that I fell in love with when I got injured and had to just go on bike rides all the time.

After frozen yogurt Sars and I went back and made angel food cake! If you have ever had homemade angel food cake, you will never go back! It’s that good!

We started 500 days of summer, but both fell asleep on the coach, like the old days of BDA 2.

Satuday morning we running (me on a bike) with Millie and Cecily! It was so good to see Cecily again! We did Will’s and back with them which was very nastolgic. That was my very first fun I did with someone on the team. Sars and I went to the farmer’s market to look around. There was a little girl’s skirt that was adorable and I almost bought, no I do not have any announcements. Just because I like little clothes doesn’t mean I have a little one in me. Most people have a hard time understanding this. We went back to her place and I got ready for Inga’s wedding.

I wasn’t so smart and talked to Scott the whole way up to the wedding. This killed my phone, which was a problem the rest of the time. The sealing was amazing. I love to go to sealings, they always remind me of the promises and covenants that Scott and I made, and what we can become if we are faithful. There is so much love in that little room, I don’t think anyone could keep the tears back.

After the sealing I was able to drive over to bountiful and see Chelsea and her three wee ones. She’s amazing being able to take care of 3 kids under 3! It was nice to see her and have a quick update, since I am horrible at checking other people’s blogs. I need to just start to follow people so I will go to their blog and read it.

I went on a nice pretty walk along a train out in bountiful thanks to chlesea’s directions. Then off to the wedding dinner. The Ingebretsen's did an amazing job making their back yard look so beautiful! The dinner was amazing and it was fun to hear from those who spoke. It was so fun to be able to see Kristen Ogden, Carlee Clark Platt, Quebe, Tort, Emily Mickle, and Amber Harper Andrews. We got to all catch up and chat which was nice and fun. I miss all the running buddies I had at BYU!

My phone was unfortunately dead, so I had to drive back to sar’s place to figure out what I was doing that night. I already knew I HAD to go get more of that frozen yogurt. I had a missed call from Zach, so we decided to meet up at yogurtland. I got yogurt while he went and got Panda. We had such a fun time catching up and talking and I REALLY hope that we will be able to see him in October in Idaho, since he might be taking his last classes at the horrible, I mean BSU!

When I got back to Reagan and Sar’s place we sat and talked. Really I talked while they were trying to prepare their lesson, Sorry! We went to bed way too late again.

Sunday morning Sar’s and I woke up to make desert and breakfast. We made a Animal cracker crust for a Cake batter pie. We had to add a ton more cake batter than we thought we would have to. It was good still. We also ended up making an angel food cake from a box, not as good as homemade that we made the couple of days before, but she needed to make it for her family father’s day dinner that night. We also made French toast from cinnamon burst bread from Great Harvest bakery.

Church was fun. I got to go to their class with them where they had their class about the atonement and it was very good. We had snackies when we got home. I went over to Natalie and Jeff’s and had dinner with her delisious homemade bread. It was so fun to catch up with them. She is working at a step up from an old folks home as an RN. Jeff is majoring in PdBio so he is doing pre-med, hopefully somewhere in Arizona (where he is from). We played games afterward and then they had to take off to a fireside.

I went and walked around campus since I heard the south of campus trail was redone a little. I always thought that trail was beautiful but they somehow made it even more beautiful with waterfalls and cute picnic areas. I also walked around the old places that Scott and I used to go. I saw that the sunset was gorgeous so I went and tried to get to the Y before it set too much. I didn’t catch it when it was gorgeous but it was still pretty. I called Scott and asked him if he wanted pictures of anything and of course he said the football stadium! Afterward I went home to Sar’s and did some blogging. I got to try the cake batter pie when she got home with it. It was delicious!

The next morning I had to say goodbye to Sar’s since she had work at 6:00. Sad! I went to campus and tried to see Jeff and Dustin again but just was able to send them text messages. I went up to the bookstore since they were having a sale. I got Scott a shirt and a DVD of 2009 football season.

Part 2 to follow soon...

Boring thoughts of Josie

This was written a week and a day ago, but I didn't ever have time to post it!

I’m on my way to Salt Lake City! I haven’t taken a trip TO SLC in 2 years. Last time I was in Utah was only a month ago for my sister’s Iron Man in Saint George. Before that I was there to help move my sister out to California from SLC. Scott and I also drove through there 1 ½ years ago, but we didn’t stay and visit.

So, I am so excited to be able to go and see al my friends that I haven’t seen in forever! Well, it really hasn’t been forever obviously. I feel like I should have accomplished more in those two years that we’ve been in Ohio. I have gotten a perfectly worthless master’s degree and I have learned how to make a dress, sew other things, half make a quiet book, crochet and baby boy’s and girls blanket, start crocheting an adult blanket, and have become a masterful priceliner. Usually people make notes of what they have accomplished around new year’s but I guess this is as good of time as any.

I have gotten 2 surgery’s from the same surgeon in Philadelphia on my hip. I have gone on a 20 mile run in secrete hopes (that I didn’t even realize) to run a marathon. I have taken the most time off running that I have since before high school! This is what I think is the craziest. I’m the most out of shape that I have been in a long time, yet I can still go on a hard bike ride, just only an hour instead of the hours I use to go on! I don’t think any of us can realize how much we will miss something until it is taken away from us.

All the non-runners/non-exercises in the world don’t understand why I would be so upset about not being able to run. They all see it as an excuse so they don’t have to feel guilty about already not exercising. Ha! I remember days at BYU where I would sneak a run or ride in and feel guilty ABOUT exercising! Funny how perceptions are different based on our priorities in life.

Another weekend

This week I had an interview at an old folks home as a wellness specialist. I have a second interview on July 11! Yay!

Scott had a half day on Friday and we are going to be in a hospital during our anniversary, so we decided to celebrate it this weekend. I'm a huge fan of Priceline. If you haven't ever pricelined a hotel talk to me, because you need to, you're wasting money if you don't. Some of our priceline finds have been $50 for a Marriot in downtown Philly!

So, we pricelined our hotel and went and played on their exercise equipment when Scott got off work at 1:00. We went to dinner at Montgomery Inn, which is a famous restaurant in Cincy that is along the river. During our dinner, we watched a big storm come in. Half way through dinner, the power went out! We got to finish eating and then our VERY kind waitress, Kim, said she didn't think it was right for us to have to pay for dinner! Crazy! So, we left her a tip and went out to brave the storm. It was a little scary of a drive back to our hotel but we made it safe.

Saturday we went to go Zip Line in Indiana. That was tons of fun and I'll put some pictures up. We went from there to a miami white water park and went paddle boating. While we were out on the lake on our paddle boat, we had a picnic under some trees.

On our way home we stopped at Meijer (grocery store) because they had amazing strawberries for 90 cents! We got 16 pounds on monday and 10 more on Saturday. Our new tradition is to each a container on our way home and throw the tops out the window in hopes we are planting new strawberry plants for next season.

The countdown to surgery continues at 11 more days!!!

Zip lining!!!
All suited up ready to go!
Out to dinner at Montgomery Inn. Scott is soaked because he went and got the car for me!
Blowing out the candles!
Yep, closer to 30 than to 20 now! He thinks he's old.

Homemade Pita's on our paddle boat!

Scott Zip lining. I took this picture while zip lining as well.

Last weekend and this weekend

Scott and I have had such a fun weekends lately and many more fun ones planned! Nielsen is awesome because they always give a half day before any holiday. So, Friday was a half day for Scott.

In the morning, we went to quest diagnostics. Our health insurance will give discounts for being healthy. While we were there we saw 2 cockroaches and the place just looked like a dump. It made us wonder what was going to happen to the 4 tubes of blood they took from both of us! Well, afterwards Scott took me to school to do PT and he went to work. I was in doing PT for 3 HOURS! I stopped on my was to Scott's work to pick up some coupons for a new frozen yogurt place in Cincinnati!

Scott and I went to lunch together at this place called Melt. Its primarily a vegan/vegetarian restaurant, but they have some stuff for the meat eaters too. Afterwards we figured out everything we needed to get for young women's camp, since I'm the camp counselor for our ward. We went to goodwill to drop stuff off and to look for a couple things for camp. Instead we ended up finding some really cute red shoes, oh well! We went to a park and played catch together then home for dinner. After dinner we went to the Imax "inside a tornado." We were hoping it would be as cool as Hubble was, but weren't too disappointed. We then went to the self-serve frozen yogurt place which was pretty good. I'm addicted to these places! We saw that the baseball stadium lights were on and so wandered over to see the game. It happened to be in the 9th inning with everything tied up. It wasn't UC playing but it was the high school state playoffs. It ended in the 10th and we went home.

I honestly can't remember what we did Saturday morning or afternoon, but trust me, it was fun. Saturday night we got all gussied up and went out to a nice dinner and then to an opera/orchestra festival at the music hall in Cincinnati. It was beautiful and we give much thanks to Karen Harsh for giving us those tickets! I later learned from Heather (in our church) that Music Hall is the oldest Opera house in the Nation! It is in a not-so-nice area, but they had plenty of police around when it got out at 10:30. By the time we got home I was exhausted and we just went straight to bed.

Sunday was just like any other glorious Sunday.

Monday morning Scott got our bikes ready, well, really my bikes ready, to go on a ride at Miami white water, while I got the rest of the food ready for the church picnic. I was a little worried to leave Scott with the bikes because I think we are on our 4th pump, since he has broken the other 3! That because of his manly muscles I guess:) Scott went to test ride both bikes just to check that everything was fine. My mountain bike tire busted when he went out on it or when he was pumping the tube. So, we had to go buy a new tire before we headed out to the park. Again, I blame this all on his manliness! When we got to the park I replaced the tire and the tube just for good measure. I didn't let Scott touch it, I just didn't want to run the risk right before we were about to go for a ride. So we went on a very short but fun ride, Scott on my road bike and me on my mountain. He claims that he got a workout even though he was on the road bike, I don't know if that's true. I'm so out of shape right now. I haven't run in 2 months! That's the longest in about 5 years! Yes, I am going crazy. No, this isn't entirely my choice.

After this ride we drove around trying to find the picnic. With Kristi Cox's help, we found the place. The picnic was a blast, we got to talk with people and Scott got to play Soccer. I wanted to, but again the no running and what not puts a damper on everything. We went home and looked up Taste of Cincinnati. It is a competition that happens every year. Restaurants from all over Cincinnati come and have 4-6 of their best dishes available in smaller sizes for you to buy and try. We found the different foods that we thought we wanted to try, and drove down. First we went on a walk next to the river, something that I love doing, except running. We got a Montgomery Inn pulled pork BBQ sandwich, a vegetarian black bean burrito, and the winner overall of the best dish this year and I think the previous 3 years running, Bella Luna's Prime Rib Cannelloni. We are defiantly sold on Bella Luna! Two of their other dishes were sold out and we kept seeing people walk by that were so sad that they were sold out. We went home with a movie to just relax for the rest of the night.

This weekend all started on Wed. when we got a call from on of Scott's old roommates, Rob Nance. He said that he and his wife were coming home for the weekend (home is Akron, which is 3 1/2 hours away from Cincinnati). So, on Friday, Scott left work early and we went to Akron, oh to see him. We had a fabulous dinner off a grill with them, and then delicious breakfast after a late night. Saturday we left them at 9:00 to drive back down. On the way we stopped at Dale Stokes Berry farm to pick Strawberries. We picked raspberries at this farm last year and we were so impressed with the price and the quality of the fruit. We were a little disappointed with the strawberries. They were $2 a pound and didn't taste any better than store bought ones. On our way out we thought, maybe we came too early and the sugar hadn't set yet. Either way I still can't wait for their raspberry season to start! Jim and Arlene called us while we were there to wish Scott a Happy Birthday! Thanks again to them for spending the time to talk on the phone (they are in Russia serving a mission).

We got home ate really fast and left to go to a DODGERS vs. Reds game. One of Scott's co-workers/friends gave us tickets to this game. We were right behind the dugout just 5-10 rows up. I will not do the game justice since I did not see 9 out of the 11 runs the Dodgers earned. It was a very low scoring game, at the beginning, since each team had their best starting pitchers in. It was 2 vs. 7 in the top of the 8th. I went to the restroom and while I was there I got to hear about the dodgers, Kemp, hitting a grand slam! It was the first grand slam against the Reds this season! So, then the score was tied 7 vs. 7. It went into the 11th inning. I was getting tired and hungry and wasn't feeling well. I laughed and said that I just needed to go to the bathroom again! SO of I went. Four runs later I came back with the Dodgers up 11 to 7! The reds only got one run in the bottom of the 11th. We got some pizza on our way home and watched Ocean's 11 as we went to sleep. This next weekend we plan on going to Rising Sun, IN and doing a Zip line we bought on Groupon. Hopefully it'll be a ton of fun! We are doing it as a long weekend and a celebration of our 4 wonderful years of marriage together. Since the next weekend I will be in SLC for a wedding, and then the next weekend is surgery weekend! Yes, the count down has begun, 18 days till surgery!

This is the baseball game that we were both drenched in sweat by the end of it.
Taste of Cincinnati downtown!
In the background are THE P&G towers. If the front is Scott getting squashed by the P&G Charmin bear.
No, I didn't give THIS one to Scott (jk). It was from playing Soccer at our ward Picnic, ball to the face.
Inside Music Hall!
This is inside music hall as well.

Surgery as a Birthday Present

We are excited to say that I finally have a surgery date!!!!! So, Scott and I planned and did celebrate my birthday yesterday. We also had an appointment with Dr. Divine (Cincinnati doctor in charge of finances) yesterday at 12:00. Scott worked from home yesterday morning while I studied our script of what I was going to say to convince Dr. Divine that Cincinnati needed to pay for this hip surgery in Nashville, TN. I made Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies as a piece offering as well.

We had to wait a little bit to be able to see Dr. Divine, which was totally ok since I actually knew we were going to be able to see him. This has been a long awaited day. We have tried to get something with him for more than a month now. We have had an appointment scheduled only to find out he was out of town. Nevertheless it has been a very frustrating experience to just be able to see this Dr.

We started out by talking to him about his trip to SLC and the mountains. Then went straight into… I talked briefly to you several weeks ago that I am sure that we are going to have to do a labral tear fix surgery. This surgery is very important and has a huge impact on not only the future of my athletic carrer, but also my mobility and my family in general. Because the decision on who performs this surgery is a critical decision

Dr. Divine interups and says, “Don’t tell me you want to go to Dr. Byrd (Dr. in TN I have been wanting to go see.)”

I continued, “I have done a lot of research on different surgeons. I have read personal reviews online, read journal articles, and talked to several people at UC and elsewhere. This is what I have learned through that research…

This is where the plan got interrupted and Dr. Divine again and he said, “I don’t mean to minimize this in any way, but you have practiced this speech a time or two haven’t you?”

“ Yes, I have, because this affects the REST of my LIFE. This is an extremely important decision to me!”

Well, I tried to go on with me speech which I won’t boar everyone with, but it was amazing (because of Scott’s help).

The jest of the rest of the conversation was that UC will pay for the surgery!!!!! I was SO EXCITED! We thanked him talked about logistics and ran out of there. We went to the indoor track and shouted and pranced around. I think it was more me prancing around Scott. We also said a prayer of thanks that I feel is so inadequate. The Lord truly blesses us.

The end of the story is that I got a hold of the office and we are going to be going for the appointment the 22^nd (our 4 year anniversary), surgery on the 23^rd, and post-op on the 24^th of June!

I want to say thank you so much to all of you. We know that all of our prayers have been answered and have felt everyone’s love.

That night we went to an AMAZING dinner on Nielsen, because Scott is loved a lot at work (another huge blessing). It is a rotating restaurant. We both had steak. I had the best filet mignon I have EVER eaten. I didn’t even need to chew the meat! We went on a lovely walk and then did presents

Scott got me a 24-count mini muffin tin pan and plastic whisk (something I’ve been wanting for a while now). He also bought a necklace and matching bracelet, some muffin tin liners. The best thing was a baseball glove!! We played catch for 5 minutes before we watched a movie together.

This was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!! I got the best news and gifts and had a blast.

Trip to TX and UT

So, as Scott would like me to say, I left him for two weeks. Really this was only a week and a half and I made him all of his comfort foods before I left along with freezer dinners. Incase you want to know what these may be: Cin. rolls, spinach artichoke dip, banana cream cheesecake. The dinners I made him were: Chicken pot pie, chicken enchiladas, and pasts shells.

The reason I left was to fly to TX and then drive with my sister to Saint George, UT so she could compete in an Ironman and then tour around UT and back home to TX. Now, for those of you who don't know how cool that makes my sister, an Ironman is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run all one right after the other. The Saint George is either the hardest or one of the hardest Ironmans available. She did extremely well and finished in 12 hours 1 minute and 34 seconds. She was 5th in her age group, so she was able to go on the podium.

It was interesting to be on the viewing side of things instead of the participating side. It made me crave running and competing again. Unfortunately, with all my recent hip stuff, that won't happen for a little while. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry I don't shout things from the roof tops.

After Meredith became an Ironman we headed out on our adventure of southern Utah. Monday we went to Zion's and hiked Angel's Landing. I loved the hike but hoped that we would have been able to hike the narrows. When we started out it was raining. Neither of us had the best clothes for the hike. When we started going back down from the top it started hailing on us. Since it was raining and hailing the whole time the waterfalls were very full on our way back down. We had to run under a waterfall and so were drenched the rest of the way. We looked so funny on the bus ride back because it had stopped raining and so we were the only ones that were drenched.

After we defrosted from the cold ride back. We drove through a snow storm to get to Brice canyon. We couldn't find a cheap place anywhere, but finally found a place for $60 and a soup and pie restaurant with only one type of soup. The theme of this trip was waking up early for sunrises to no avail and bad weather. There were always clouds in the way of every sunrise or sunset. We had a nice hike that ended with a snow storm and drove to arches and canyon lands.

We again tried to catch a sunset and sunrise with a whole lot of failure. We stayed at a little cabin that was so fun and cute. After all of our fun hikes around the parks, we found a little homemade beef jerky joint and got some delicious jerky. We drove way too late into the night and the rest the next day.

We were able to have dinner with one of Meredith's friends named Jen. It was so fun to spend the time with Meredith and make some awesome memories! Here are just a few of the pictures from our trip.

Our sunset failure at arches
Balancing rock at arches
Our sunrise failure at canyonlands
Where they think a meteor hit.
Tunnel arch!
Cool tree at landscape arch
Pine tree arch
Landscape arch
Delicate arch!
Meredith doing camel under delicate arch
These were only from around 1800

Court of the patriarchs

We floated the river when we got back to Texas.
Me under delicate arch
Delicate arch from the other side, I don't recommend going too far over here, I almost fell to a very bad fall.
This was a cool arch on the way to delicate that you could see through to delicate arch. You have to hike up to it a little.
Again Meredith doing camel
And again!

Small update

So, we STILL have not been able to get an appointment with the doctor. Hopefully this week will be the week! I loved the quoted that I heard today in our stake conference by Elder M. Russell Ballard, "Sometimes trials are to show us how much we can endure." I guess I HAVE been praying to be able to increase my patience, and the Lord does bless us with what we ask for.

Scott and I were able to go to "Mormon Prom" as chaperons. I wore one of my old prom dresses and Scott wore a matching tie. We were mistaken as a couple actually going to Mormon Prom more than once. I'm glad I still look like I could be in high school even though my body feels like it could be a grandma!

The day or two before, Scott actually asked me to Mormon prom (even though we were just chaperones) through making me pop balloons and unfold pieces of paper that were a guy and girl holding hands. On it, it read "will you go to prom with me?"

Sometime later this week I will write an update about my trip with my sister to TX and UT for her Ironman! We then went and hiked all around UT, which was a blast!