Road Trip Week Two

So I definitely lied when I said I would be posting the pics of our second week on the road soon... back in April :) A whole lot has happened since then and those of you who read my bulletins know that my life has been a little insane lately. Long story short, I'm back in Fresno (Clovis) now and if you want details give me a call.

Dun da da DAH! WEEK TWO!!!
(that was my attempt to type a fanfare)

The second week was even better than the first week! We had SO much fun.

Our last stop before we left Colorado was Colorado Springs. We were originally planning to spend a half day there and then drive down toward New Mexico, but we had so much fun and there was so much we wanted to do that we ended up staying two full days!!

Our first stop was to ride the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike's Peak. We got all bundled up (the temperature is an average of 30 degrees colder at the peak than at the base!) and climbed aboard the train!!

Once we got to the top, the views were amazing. Every other passenger on the train was over 60, and they had an EMT standing there with oxygen since the air is so thin. We were even having trouble breathing! We ate some good chili and drank some hot chocolate, and then headed back down the mountain.

Next stop... Cave of the Winds! Brian had gone through this cave with his brothers when he was in high school and loved it, and we could see why! I had never been inside a cave before, and was totally awestruck by the size and beauty of it. Most of my pictures didn't turn out since it was so dark, so you'll just have to go there and visit yourself!



(yes, I took a picture of the picture they tried to sell me for $15... I'm cheap like that)

After the cave, we went to the Hopi Cliff Dwellings, which were about 2 minutes down the road. That was a very cool experience. These dwellings were built an estimated 3,000 years ago, and they are still standing due to their advanced architecture. We got to climb in them and everything!

Our next stop in Colorado Springs was the Garden of the Gods National Park. It was a huge area of land with massive red rock formations everywhere. We went right before sunset, so the colors were even more amazing. We hiked through the park and then left when we couldn't feel our faces anymore cuz it was so COLD!!

(the two barely distinguishable figures waving at you are Robbie and Brian)




Our final destination... Focus on the Family! Their headquarters were really nice. We took a tour and got to see Dr. Dobson taping his radio show.

But the HIGHLIGHT of the whole trip was... WHIT'S END!!

For those of you who grew up listening to the Adventures in Odyssey series, you can probably imagine how cool it was to walk into a fully functioning Whit's End(!), complete with Imagination Station, KYDS Radio, and the theater in the back! There were also the Underground Railroad tunnels(!) and a Narnia room complete with a wardrobe you could walk through into a forest!! Robbie and I were seriously acting 8 years old again and had SO much fun! Brian had no concept of what we were so excited about at all, but he allowed us our indulgence. :) For us, it was better than Disneyland!!!

Drinking "Wod Fam Choc Sods" in Whit's End! (if you have to ask, you're not a true fan)







The Imagination Station! (aka the elevator)


The Underground Railroad tunnel!


The theater and KYDS radio! You can actually be a DJ and they'll record you a tape!!!


The slide you take to get down into Whit's End from the main welcome center...


The Narnia room!


After hours of playing, we finally left to drive to Albequerque, New Mexico and stayed the night...

We left Albequerque Wednesday morning April 26th and drove toward Arizona on Route 66! (like in the song) Random sight... there were LLAMAS just chillin on the side of the freeway! So of course I had to stop and take a picture...

(I made Brian turn around to get this picture)

Llamas!!

Our first stop after our overnight in Albequerque (which I had a lot of fun learning how to spell as I was trying to get google map directions) was...

The Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert.

The Painted Desert was beautiful. The colors were breathtaking.

We were a little disappointed by the petrified forest. I was thinking we were going to see some thousand-year-old trees still standing there, but in reality all the trees had broken into pieces and were laying around like boulders all over this huge valley. Granted, trees that turned into stone thousands of years ago is not something you see every day, but I was a little underwhelmed.

After driving through and buying some petrified rock souvenirs, we headed out toward our next stop in Sedona, Arizona (the place that's being consumed by wildfires at the moment).

I wish I would have taken more pictures of Sedona and the surrounding areas, the scenery was absolutely incredible. We stayed overnight at the Hilton Sedona Resort and Spa, went swimming, played tennis (Brian KILLED Robbie) and I had a fabulous facial complete with hand and foot massages... heaven! The air was so clean and the hotel was beautiful--it was our one splurge on the trip and was definitely worth it. We're planning a trip back there in the near future... when it's not being burned up.

Next stop... Grand Canyon!!

It started raining as soon as we finished at the Grand Canyon, and we drove through a huge thunder storm on our way out of Arizona. It made for a beautiful view, though!

And the final destination on our cross-country road trip was (drum roll please)...

VEGAS BABY!!!



We stayed at the Ventian and got upgraded to a suite! Robbie enjoyed lounging around in his robe and slippers (he's got pics on his page). We did a little shopping, walked around the strip, played some black jack, got kicked out of a bar at Caesars cuz Rob is underage, and then went back to the room to finish off some wine coolers we had bought in Sedona. All in all, it was a blast. We'll go back when Rob turns 21 for some real fun...

The next morning we headed home (which is weird to say) to Fresno. The trip overall was fabulous, I highly recommend taking a cross-country road trip at least once. Next time I want to take the northern route and see St. Louis, Chicago, Yellowstone and Montana.

Maybe next year...

Road Trip Week One

WOO-HOOOOO! ROAD TRIP!!!

So Brian and I are planning to move back to California over the next month or so if all goes according to plan, and phase one of the move is a cross-country road trip! We left DC last Monday and have been driving through America's heartland on our way back to the valley!

Here are some of the highlights from week one...

First stop = Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia (Tuesday)

We stopped off in Roanoke VA (Tuesday night) and Nashville TN (Wednesday night) to sleep and then went on to...

Memphis, Tennessee (Thursday/Friday)
...by far my favorite city east of the Mississippi! (other than DC)

First stop = Graceland!!

Then we ate dinner at Texas de Brazil, which is THE coolest restaurant I have EVER been to. It's an authentic Brazilian steakhouse, with full-on gauchos in gaucho pants serving you as much meat as you can possibly eat, but they bring it to you on these huge SWORDS and slice you off pieces of filet mignon, chicken, lamb, steak, ribs, pretty much anything you can imagine until you can't possibly eat any more. It was amazing!

After dinner we walked around Memphis... Beale Street was awesome (birthplace of the Blues), they close down the street and all the bars and restaurants open up their doors to the street and have great music playing.

Along the banks of the Mississippi River...

Next morning in Memphis... anyone seen "The Firm?" (Tom Cruise rode this monorail to the Mud Island museum when he was on the run)

Driving through the heartland--four states in a day! (Friday)
(Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas)

Random Hallburton guy in McD's...

After spending the night in Wichita, Kansas (Friday), we drove to Denver, Colorado for the weekend and stayed with Brian's brother and sister-in-law!

We had a BLAST! We went to a LaCrosse game (which is my new favorite sport!) at the Pepsi Center, ate great steak, enjoyed the amazing view from their house on the top of a mountain overlooking Denver, and then headed out through the SNOW on Monday morning to head down to Colorado Springs!!

So that brings us to yesterday, and I'll post again as soon as I get a chance to upload the pictures, but Colorado is definitely my new favorite state (after California). I'm totally inspired to take up mountain climbing and/or spelunking!

Tonight we're in Albuquerque, and tomorrow we're headed to a Spa resort in Sedona, Arizona... I'm SO ready for a massage. Then it's on to the Grand Canyon, Vegas and then... FRESNO!! Wow, that is SO anti-climactic. Oh well, be there on Friday!

Joie de Vivre

All in all, it's been a great couple weeks... our last days in Washington for a long time. Our goal was to do as many things as possible that we hadn't done yet before we leave, and it has been a blast!

Last week was cherry blossom picnics and the zoo! The weather here was gorgeous, and all I wanted to do was be outside all day every day!

My brother Robbie came into town on Wednesday night, and Heather and Matt flew in Thursday morning to visit. It was so fun to have everyone here and get to be tourists together!

Thursday we got to go to the White House to watch a presidential departure on Marine One, and Bush 41 and the first lady were there too. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've gotten to do in this city. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and all the tulips were blooming. Then we got to hang out in the press briefing room for a while and take the obligatory souvenir picture behind the podium. Afterward we went to Old Town Alexandria and took a walk on the pier, ate dinner at our favorite little Italian restaurant, then came back to our house and played a great game of hold'em and went to bed.

On Friday we did the tourist thing all day... Holocaust museum, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean War memorials, Washington Monument, lunch at Potbelly's, FDR memorial, and lots of walking! Great pics and good memories...

Friday night was my last concert with my choir. We performed Mozart's Requiem at the Strathmore Music Center, and it was very emotional for me. Singing with the choir has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life so far, and it's definitely one of the things I will miss the most about living here.

Today we all hung out and went to the mall and ate lunch, then drove Matt and Heather to the airport to see them off. Tomorrow we'll be packing the car and getting ready to head to California via the whole country! ROAD TRIP!!! I'm SO excited! I'm going to try to keep a blog of our trip, so check back for updates along the way. Once we make it all the way to Fresno, I'll be starting my new job, which I am also very excited about.

So all in all, life is good. We're still waiting on our house to sell, which has been a significant source of stress, but also a tremendous experience in trusting God. We have both come to a place where we are absolutely able to accept anything and anywhere the Lord directs us to do or go. It is a wonderful and frightening place to be, but I am confident that we will look back on this time as a turning point in our relationship with Him and with each other. I can't wait to see what God does!

See you on the other side...

I Wish I Spoke French

I think I'm going to learn.

*sigh*

Life never ceases to amaze me. People are even more spectacular. Friendship is such a fascinating thing. How is it that, even after years of neglect, a friendship can come back to life with a single, soul-illuminating conversation? And how is it that another takes even more years to ressurect it than it took for it to die?

I can't even begin to name all the emotions that have been flooding through me the past two weeks. I feel like there is so much more I want to do in Washington, and I am getting sadder about leaving every day. I wish there was a way for us to stay until the end of the year, or even just the summer. I feel like my time there is not complete yet, and I don't know what that means, but as we were lying in the grass staring up at the blue sky and beautiful pink and white blossoms, watching the sun reflect off of the monuments, I could hardly keep from crying. There is such a deep unsettledness in the pit of my stomach that won't go away; even though I felt so much peace about all of this before, now I just feel like I'm mourning the loss of an old friend that I wish I had more time with.

The hard part is, I am thrilled about my new job. I met with them on Friday, and the people and the work are so amazing, I cannot imagine a more perfect position to be in. It's exactly what I want to do. I just wish I could do it in DC.

So now I must simply wait for all the pieces to fall into the right places, and trust that the direction we're supposed to take is made clear. I hate this feeling. I hate not knowing. I'm ready for a vacation from the stress of life.

Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.... "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them".... They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.... When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Breathe. Just breathe...

So... yeah.

Celebrated St Patty's Day by eating a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Wanted to go out and get "shmoffold" as my bro calls it, but married an "older" man so spent the evening watching Deal or No Deal... how exciting. (I love you honey!)

Got back from 3 weeks in Cali on Tuesday and can't wait to go back... got to go to the Crash Oscar party, saw some famous people... pretty cool. Other than the rediculous traffic and fake people everywhere, I think SoCal is pretty much my favorite place ever [insert Napoleon Dynamite accent here].

Was offered an awesome job in Fresno... we'll probably be moving back as soon as our house sells... glad to go, sad to leave.

Things I miss about California: Tri-tip, In-N-Out, Full-o-Bull sandwiches, Me 'N Eds Pizza, Mexican food, sunsets on the Pacific, driving down PCH, palm trees, people who know how to merge, the central coast, people who pull out hats and gloves when the temp drops below 60, and the fact that I could wear flip-flops every day I was there.

Today... went to Home Depot, planted some flowers in pots, caulked around our shower, talked to my friend Nancy who had a baby yesterday(!).

Currently watching the Patriot in HD while Brian cooks dinner... smells really good... I love marriage.

:)

James Blunt Sucks

So I usually don't do the bitter diatribe thing, but I had to say it. I do not understand how this guy can be the top download on iTunes. I mean, seriously, that "beautiful" song that is always on the radio is about him getting high, somehow ending up in a subway station (or probably a "tube stop"...since he's british or whatever), seeing a girl who is with another guy, wanting her body, she sees him sitting there totally stoned, he realizes he will never be with her, and continues in his high-ness. Wow. Every guy who gets high and loiters in subway/metro/tube stations leering at women should take notes from this guy and start writing music--they could all be rich and wasted instead of broke and wasted.

I was forced to listen to the CD on a road trip to SoCal w/ my little bro, whom I love terribly but who has poor taste in music... like the rest of the nation apparently. It made me want to start cutting myself and lie in a bathtub of warm water. I told my brother this, halfway joking. But really, the "music" was incredibly depressing, mediocre and unimaginative. Then I started snooping around the internet, and happened upon the music video for the song. And oh my goodness, the entire video is watching him commit suicide!! HE can't even stand his own music! All I can say is, if you think James Blunt is the next Bono, you should expand your musical horizons.

Thunderstorms

I love thunderstorms. There's something about the soft, steady patter of the rain on the window punctuated by the howling wind and a deep explosion of thunder. I can never get enough. It makes me wish I had a cozy library full of old dusty books and rich mahagony, and a deep red velvet chair to sink into with a hot cup of tea. Yes, tea and a fire in the fireplace... how lovely.

I guess for now my little green Bombay Company chair, purple chenile blanket, and fuzzy leopard print slippers will have to do. I should go make some tea, though... tea would be nice. And maybe I'll light the candles, just in case the power goes out. Wouldn't that be wonderful!

I relish these moments of solitude. My husband is amazing, and I could spend every waking moment with him and still want more, but every time I do have a moment to myself, I remember how much I love "me time."

Especially recently, some of the most incredible moments with my Savior have been in those unexpected times of quiet and reflection. God has been so faithful to us. I have never seen such obvious and timely answers to prayer as I have seen in the past week. It never ceases to amaze me how, even though He doesn't have to, God chooses to allow us to be a part of what He does. I loved how our pastor put it the other week: if He wanted to, God could do the whole Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus thing when He wants to tell us something or when we go astray or lose perspective, but most of the time He doesn't. He teaches us to be sensitive to His still, small voice... through others, through His Word, through nature, through circumstances... how incredibly gracious He is to even allow us to know His heart, and even more to be used by Him to show others the love of Christ and meet their needs. How deep and wide and sufficient is His amazing grace!

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, beng confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christto the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11)

I think the other reason I love thunderstorms is that they make me feel so small. When I hear the boom of the thunder and realize how many millions of tiny raindrops are falling every second, I am in awe that God, my God, has orchestrated when and where each one is to fall, and knows exactly where the next one will go. But what is even more amazing, He also knows the path of every storm, every cool breeze and hot wind, every soft shower and torrential downpour... He knows.

Mmmmm. What a wonderful, warm thought on such a cold and windy night.

Wedding and Honeymoon Pictures!

Here they are! We're supposed to get our professional ones in a couple more weeks, but these are the ones we have so far... enjoy!

Rehearsal Dinner...

Wedding!

Honeymoon :)

Grappling

That's the word all the "senior members" (professors) at ASP would use to talk about struggling to get your mind and heart around a difficult concept. I felt it was appropriate to use in this context.

Last night was one of the most fun nights I've had in a very long time. I went out to dinner with a bunch of my old friends from ASP at this great little Thai place on the House side (Capitol Hill for all you non-DCers)... Dave, Becky, Andy, Scott, Melissa, and a few significant others and friends. We shut down the restaurant!

It truly is amazing, though, even after not seeing them for many months, when you've gone through that program together, you instantly fall back into deep, insightful conversations as if you'd never left. I have never had friends like that before, where you don't have to waste your time on the "how are you" and "so what do you do" questions that are obligatory in DC, and can jump straight into conversations about Absolute Truth, how to fix the American health care system, and philosophies of marriage.

The question I have been "grappling" with for a while now is much less existential, but much more difficult. Dave and I had a brief conversation about it and decided to get together tonight to grapple with it further and without everyone around. He is also struggling with the same question:

What now?

We both spent a lot of time back in California with our families and friends... and loved it. His question to me was, "did you think about DC at all when you were there?"

My answer, as well as his, was a surprising "no."

I never thought that would happen. Last year at Christmas, when we had just left ASP and were in the process of moving to DC, it was all we could think about. We couldn't wait to get out of Fresno and get back to our favorite city in the world.

But now, it's almost a "been there, done that" feeling. My question is a little more urgent than his, only becuase I am now looking for a new job after the wedding, and could theoretically move back if Brian and I both found work. Dave probably wouldn't come back until August if he did. But even if we did go back, what would we do? Yet another question to grapple with. After having worked where we have and had the experiences we have, everything else seems like an anticlimactic decision... from the International Relations Committee, and a Presidential Healthcare Commission... to Fresno? Maybe LA, but that would still mean we were hours from many of our friends and family.

Observations

It's amazing how one's perspective on life changes as time goes on.

I feel like I've been in a strange place for a while, both spiritually and emotionally . It's strange, being on the other side of a dream that's been fulfilled. All my life, all I wanted was to live and work here in Washington. Living here has been exciting, stressful, wonderful, difficult, fulfilling and disappointing all at once. I've had this "is this all" feeling ever since I left ASP last year. That was an amazing experience, but even there I feel like I missed out on a lot of great relationships because of the demands of my internship and my relationship with Brian. I was at a different place in my life than most of the other people there, I think. I learned more about myself during that short time than at any other time in my life, but I still feel like I have so much more to learn.

To be continued...