The Day After The End of The World Half Marathon

Well the world didn't end yesterday, good thing too, or we would have been out the money for a race!  This morning Dan ran in the Day After The End Of The World Half Marathon in Humble, Texas.

The course was a 6.5 mile loop around some lakes and he ran around it twice.  The nice thing about it being in a loop was that I was able to see him 4 times during the race without having to move around much!  

There were hundreds of people who ran in the marathon and half marathon.  Dan came in 19th overall in the half marathon with a time of 1 hr 55 min.  

San Antonio Thanksgiving Trip

For the first time since our Honeymoon Dan and I were able to go on a vacation with each other that wasn't for family or work!  We were able to spend Thanksgiving Break in San Antonio.

For those of you that don't know, San Antonio is about a 4 hour drive from Houston, so it makes for a great weekend getaway location.

We spent Turkey Day at Sea World.  It was so much fun!  I got to pet a dolphin, these dolphins were nicer than the ones I encountered in Orlando...We went to all the shows and rode the roller coasters.  I decided that it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a turkey dinner, so we stopped at a dinner and had their Thanksgiving special with some warm apple pie.  Yum! :)

The day after Turkey Day I was unable to go Black Friday shopping for like the first time ever :(...but it was worth it. Dan ran a half marathon that day and totally blew away the competition and won!  He was so happy after!  His time was 1hr 47 min.

That afternoon we headed into downtown.  We saw the Alamo and the riverwalk.  I love the riverwalk it is so pretty!  We ordered ice-cream and enjoyed it as we sat by the river.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the San Antonio Temple.

Saturday we went exploring!  We went to Natural Bridges Caverns and did a cave tour there.  Dan's favorite part was when they turned off the lights and we were in complete darkness.

Even though we were away from family for Thanksgiving, it was great that we have the technology to be able to call/text them while we are away from them!

Utah/ California Trip!

Here is how I spent my amazing two week vacation with my family!

Sunday 28th: Dan drove me to the airport and eventually convinced me he would be ok without me for two weeks :).  I then nervously headed for my first flight by myself.  I was really glad to sit by a girl about my age from BYU-ID, I was worried I would end up by the person who talks the WHOLE flight!  Nope! We had a quick chat and then I got to read my book.  My parents picked me up at the Salt Lake Airport.

Monday 29th: We loaded the high-tech van my parents rented and headed out!  We stopped in St. George to eat at Brick Oven YUM!  The booth we sat at happened to have a picture of Jacob Hamblin (3rd Great Uncle) above it.  From St. George we went to Las Vegas.  Dad and Jake went to a car show while mom and I napped and relaxed.  We were all so tired that night we went to bed around 9pm.

Tuesday 30th: We drove from Las Vegas to Yuma, California where we stopped at a cool 50's diner with a gift shop full of old time memorabilia.  We then drove to Fresno and got ready to go to the Fresno Mission Farewell Fireside.  As soon as we pulled up to the church, I jumped out and went to search for my long lost sister.  She was up by the piano practicing the song she sang for the fireside.  Her back was to me and I went up and tapped her on the shoulder.  She turned around and fell into my arms and started bawling.  The fireside was really good and Erin's song was beautiful!
It's not a vacation without swimming, so Jake and I went swimming when we returned to the hotel.  We had to get our swim in before we had a missionary with us!

Wednesday 31st: Happy Halloween!  Turns out the people of Fresno aren't crazy...it was just Halloween!  We went to the Mission Home to pick Erin up, and ended up having breakfast with all the missionaries who were going home.  We got to hear the final words from the Mission President.  Erin left the Mission Home and came with us.  She took us around her mission and we met people taught.  It was very special.  Erin was such a good example to the people she worked with and they loved her!

Thursday 1st: We went to the Oakland Temple to visit my Great Aunt and Uncle who are serving a mission at the visitor's center there.  Northern California is so pretty this time of year.  We then visited a family that Erin is friends with in Sacramento.  We stayed the night just east of Reno.

Friday 2nd: Long haul home!  We, mostly I, drove across the barren wasteland that is Nevada and the Salt Flats...We drove to LDSBC to have Erin released by the Stake President.  It was a great experience.  Yay we got to listen to normal music again!  Jake took us to ice cream in his Chevelle.

Saturday 3rd:  Mom, Erin, and I went to super Saturday.  I then had lunch with my long lost high school friends.  It was nice to catch up.

Sunday 4th: Time to visit Dan's side of the family.  I went to the Gingell Mingle and we all sang happy birthday to Dan over the phone.

Monday 5th-Tuesday 6th: Sick :P Enjoying the comforts of home!

Wednesday 7th: Mom, Erin, and I went to lunch with my Mother-In-Law and had a good time.  We then went Christmas shopping, I got everything except for gifts for Daniel.

Thursday 8th: Jake, Erin, and I played around in Scheels.

Friday 9th: Erin and I woke up early to get to Logan before the snow hit...ya that didn't happen.  We had to get off of I-15 and take 89 through Davis/Weber counties because of the snow.  We also went 30mph through Sardine Canyon.  We made it to Logan safely though!  We went straight to Jake and Hannah's house.  BABY JOSIE!!!  She is so stinkin' cute!  After chatting with Hannah we visited Jake at work.  We then went to lunch with my aunts.  Friday night we spent in Nibley playing Charades and staying up late with 'girl talk'.

Saturday 10th:  I drove down to Kaysville and then drove to Bluffdale with Jake, Hannah, and Josie.  We took Josie for a horse back ride!  Aunt Liz is awesome ya know!  Jake had a great time riding, and Hannah was a brave soul and rode around for a bit :).  It was good to ride again and it was pretty with all the snow.  The four of us then picked up Dan from the airport.  We went back to Kaysville and spent the evening with the Garrett's playing games and chatting, and playing with JOSIE of course :).

Sunday 11th:  We arrived in Bluffdale just in time for church, not like it mattered...Erin was the last speaker...a little peeved she only had 10 minutes, I guess that is life. We then had a big to do at my parents house for Erin.  Dan and I then said our goodbyes and my aunt drove us to the airport.





I am so glad I had the opportunity to go out there to pick up Erin and spend time with my family!

Cardinals vs Astros Baseball Game

Tuesday night we went to the Cardinals Vs Astros baseball game in downtown Houston.  The drive to get into downtown actually wasn't too bad, until we were in the middle of the city, and most of that traffic was because of an accident and police cars trying to get to it.  We found parking that was really close to the field and free...I'll get to that part later.

Dan and I sat in section 111 on row 5, that's right we were 5 rows up from the field!  We sat on the Cardinals' side, so it was really cool to watch the players in the dugout and walk on and off the field.  We were in foul territory, but sadly and to my relief, no balls were hit at us.  We learned that if you want to take home a ball as a souvenir, you must sit right above the dugout and have a child who is willing to stand above the dugout and yell for the ball.  They only give the balls to children...Sadly this man sitting in front of us never caught on to this, and we watched him try to get a ball for about 4 innings.  It was kind of sad, he would shout and wave his arms around every time they were going to throw the ball into the audience, but the players just looked at him and then threw it up to the same group of kids. 

The stadium is an indoor stadium, so we didn't have to fight with the Houston heat while we were there!  It was very pleasant! Also, the snow cones there are bigger and cheaper than the ones at Bees games!  

I felt safe wearing Cardinals colors, because at least half of the fans there were Cardinals fans, by the end of the game we were sitting in a sea of red, all the Astros fans were headed home.  The final score was 4 to 0 for the Red Birds.

So about the free parking...the game got over around 9:30 and we walked back to the parking garage.  My heart sunk when I saw the exit gated up. I thought that the garage had closed and we would have to get a hotel for the night.  Luckily, we found an open entrance to get in and and open exit to get out.  The exit gate arm wasn't down and there was no one in the booth to stop us, so we just drove out.  So free parking!  Unless they took a picture of our license plate, we lucked out on having to pay for parking! 

It was great to get out and go into the city and enjoy the evening.  Next week we are going to an all day music fest/concert and we hope to go to the zoo the following week.  We have to go before the dinosaurs leave! 

Our First Month in a Foreign Country

Houston is named after this guy: Sam Houston

Well Daniel and I have been in Houston, Texas for a month now!

Things are definitely different here than they are in Utah and especially Logan, Utah.  For example, the population of Houston is 2.1 million people, the population of Utah: 2,817,222.  There are about as many people living around us in an hour radius as live in the whole state we came from.  There are people everywhere at all times of the day and night! 

The pros of living in Houston:
The mall in our neighborhood has over 70 stores...goodbye Cache Valley Mall!  Hello many many clothing options!

We live in the restaurant district of North West Houston and the restaurants are open after 9pm!  No need to go to Rancheritos for a late night snack, we can pick from much nicer (although maybe not as tasty) food joints.

Our apartment complex has a pool and work out room, and it is hot enough to use the pool without freezing. 

We are just far away from downtown that we are in the suburbs, we live about the distance from downtown as Orem to Salt Lake City.

It is so pretty and green here!  The flowers here are big and pretty and the trees and tall and green.  When we walk outside it sounds like we are living in a rainforest with all the birds and insect sounds.  They have really pretty birds here, we have already seen a Cardinal, Blue Jay, and Herron.

Houston isn't a 'TEXAS' as pretty much the rest of the state, a lot of the people living here have moved here from somewhere else.

The cons of living in Houston:

Want to go on a walk?  Sorry, no can do, this is Houston there are hardly any sidewalks here!  You must get in your huge gas guzzler and drive to a park or YMCA.  (Although gas is cheaper here since we live in oil country).

You don't want to go outside on a walk anyway, it is hot, hot, hot!!!  Just walking outside to get the mail will get me sweaty enough that I stick to anything I touch. 

We live 1500 miles away from our hometowns.  We like living out and on our own, but the fastest we can ever get home is a 2 1/2 hour flight plus the time it takes to get to the airport and go through security.

Cockroaches...that's all I'm going to say about that one...

All in all though, I am enjoying Houston!  We have no reason to be bored here and there are so many free and fun things to do!  We also live within a reasonable distance from Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, I don't foresee us being bored on Friday nights and Saturdays anytime soon!

Roadtrip!!!

These past few weeks have been so CRAZY!  On May 22nd Daniel accepted a job with Hewlett-Packard in Houston, Texas. His original start date was going to be June 4th!  We had no idea how we were going to be able to get out there that soon.  Luckily they pushed back Dan's start date to June 11th.

We were waiting to hear from the relocation company before we decided when to move.  We heard from them on June 4th.  From our conversation with them we decided to start packing that day.  With the help of family members we were able to pack up and clean by Tuesday evening.

Wednesday evening we drove to Kaysville and Bluffdale to say our goodbyes.  Wednesday morning at 6:00 am we left Bluffdale, Utah.  We drove for a total of 16 hours across Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas.  We stayed the night in  Salina, Kansas.  We knew we had hit the Bible Belt when we saw multiple "Trust in Jesus" billboards and anti-abortion billboards. Unfortunately we weren't able to stop and see the 7 foot Prairie Dog or the dozens of museums along the road.  I decided you know you live in a 'fly-over' state if you have a bunch of random specialized museums.

Thursday morning we left Salina, KS and drove for 12 hours through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Friday morning we got a storage unit close to Dan's work and we loaded all of our stuff into it. We then got rid of the UHAUL and trailer that we used to tow our car!  We had to go into the scary part of town to do that. We were glad t get out of there.  Friday night we looked at apartments online and narrowed it down to 4 apartments.

Saturday we looked at apartments and found one!  We are hoping to move into Carrington At Champion Forest by Friday the 15th.

Thank you for all of your prayers during our trip!  We were truly blessed and we were just ahead of the storms that contained tornadoes.