Arizona

So after Christmas Mark and I went to see my familia in AZ. here are a few pictures from the trip. i tried to put them in order, but it didn't exactly turn out. so here we go.

here is most of us before dinner on some night.

Now that Mark has been in the family for some time now, I thought it would be safe to introduce him to St. David. that is the town i was raised in until i was 13. very small.

Mark met my Grandpa (papa) for the first time. pretty sad, but true.

we paid my dad a visit

A grand event occurred during this trip. Mark tried sushi for the first time.

it was also my sister Tara's first time as well. here they are with their first bite! can you see the fear in Mark's face? He didnt really care for it, but i figure it takes a couple times to convince him right?

We took several trips to the movie theater. i'm not sure why because we actually only saw one movie while we were there. (we had bad luck, it was sold it so we went early the next day to buy tickets in advance) Anyway, we kept seeing these stupid speed limit signs that were ridiculous speeds. in this same little complex there was this one as well as one that was 13 mph.

and, you can't see it in this picture, but directly above the speed limit sign there is a no parking sign. and yes, we are in a parking lot.

The grandest event that took place this trip was decorating my mom's bedroom as a surprise for her. we did the ENTIRE thing in about 8 hours while she was at work. And it was a lot of work. My mom has lived in her house for 10 years and has never done anything to her bedroom.

I'm really upset that we didnt get a good before picture with her previous furniture in there, but its not all that much different without the furniture. just picture very outdated things lying around.

Anyway, this picture was taken right after we had removed the nasty wall paper border that was going along the ceiling. when we took it down it revealed the previous color of the wall, that hideous pink.

Sanya, getting exciting to see some color on these walls!

Tamra, painting away

Mark and my brother-in-law Calvin spent the entire day spray painting (not in this picture obviously). but they spray painted a dresser, an armoir, a table, a mirror, and a frame. very busy boys.

The finished product. needless to say my mom was stunned!

right before we had to leave for the airport we all met at 5 guys for lunch. Mark and I love it and try to go there often, but none of my AZ family had been there before, so we introduced them. 5 guys didnt disappoint!

Me and TK

Mark me and Dally Pally

Me and Tama-lama

The girls minus one: mom, sany, tk, and me

all of us

It was a great trip! It was so fun to see and hand out with everyone! and we got to be out of the cold for a while!

Sun Valley 2009

Last week we went on our annual trip to Sun Valley. We'll start off with the traditional "lift" picture:

Who is the 5th shoe you might ask?


It's Wendy!!!

Mark and I at the top!

All of us on the trail with the camera propped up on a log

We had quite an adventure this year. We had a time limit of two hours, so half way through, we left the trail and just started walking down the service road. Well it turned out it wasn't the service road we thought it was and we ended up walking all the way over to the wrong mountain and back again. We finally made it though.

Mark and I were fine with the round-about way down, but i felt so bad for Wendy. She forgot to bring her hiking shoes with her, so she had to borrow her moms Tennis shoes. Let's just say there weren't much traction on them.

Once we finally made it down, we went home and cleaned up, had some lunch, and went swimming. Then cleaned up again and Mark and I went bowling at the little bowling alley they have on the resort.

I'll just come out and say it: I suck at bowling. Mark beat me by more than double the points

Mark and the ball. They are practically one now.

Later we FINALLY made it to the ice cream social. They have this every year and of the three years we have gone this is the first time we have made it for some reason. I mean come on, it doesn't get better than free ice cream!

Here we all are enjoying our ice cream.

Strauss, Kassandra, Katrina, Robert, Mark

Mom and Dad

Wendy, Doug, Cheryl, and Abi

Mark REALLY loved his ice cream!

Almost as much as the kids!

Strauss

Abi

Kassandra

Later that night we went back to the condo and hung out and played games.

I saw Cheryl combing Abi's hair and couldn't resist a picture. So cute!

Some of you may remember our trip to this store 2 years ago. We were pretty disappointed there weren't as many weird clothes to try on this year. This was the best we got

We had a great time! Thank you Mom and Dad for providing the opportunity for us to relax in such a great place!

Washington D.C.

So Mark and I just got home from our great trip to Washington D.C. We had so much fun and saw so much!! So here are a few pictures from the trip.

Please don't judge how hideous i look in this picture. We left on Wednesday morning at 8:30. Landed in New York around 12:30. Then waited on the plane for an hour while they brought the "people mover" over to get us. For some reason they didn't bring us directly to a gate, so they had to bus us over to the terminal. Then we had a few hours to sit in the airport. This was my first time to New York and it definitely didnt count because we didnt have enough time to go do anything there, and i couldn't even see anything from the airport. not even one little building.

Then we got on a new plane and flew to Washington and got there around 9:00 p.m. So we spent all day in airports and on planes. Yet again they didnt bring us to a terminal, so here I am, standing next to airplanes, looking like i spent all day in airports and on airplanes. So once more, don't judge. (in case you can't tell, i'm pointing to the Washington Monument)

We took a taxi to the hotel where Mark's dad was waiting for us. He was smart and paid the extra money for a direct flight. he left 3 hours after us and got there 5 hours before us.

The next day was "business day." We met all the Utah delegates (2 senators and 3 congressmen) Here we are with Jim Matheson

After our meeting, we went and had lunch in some basement of some congress office building. I had a crispy chicken wrap. it was pretty delicious!

Then Mark and I headed over to meet the other congressional award people for a group picture. It was pretty miserable, but it had a great view!

We spent the rest of the day meeting people. Then we had the award ceremony. Sorry no pictures. I didnt want to be like all the other annoying family people stepping over everyone for a picture.

Then that night we had a very fancy, fantastic dinner with the congressional award people. It was just delightful! We sat next to people from Wyoming, and lets just say they have a lot of "state pride."

By the end of the day i wanted to scream because i had been wearing my heals all day and walking EVERYWHERE!! My feet will never be the same.

The next morning we had an appointment with Orin Hatch. I almost cried when i had to put the evil heals back on my poor feet.

After Hatch's meeting we went over to the Supreme court building. It was pretty cool. Plus, Mark's dad got us into the library there which you can't get in unless you are a lawyer. So we felt pretty cool.

Here is Mark, just reading a book from the Supreme court library.

After that Mark and I took a taxi home (i could/would not walk one more step in those shoes.) to change our clothes (hallelujah!!)

Then we set out to see some museums.

Here i am in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Mark and I outside the National Art Gallery. ( i think that's what it's called)

Mark being a dork. Isn't he so cute??

Then we went back to Senator Hatch's office and a nice girl there took us on a Capital tour. It was really cool. Then she took us out to where all the President's are inaugurated on the front balcony thing of the Capital. So here we are standing on the inauguration spot!

Every state gets to have 2 statures up in the Capital. I dont know who this guy is, but he is one of Arizona's, so i got a picture with him. (In case you were wondering, Utah has one of Brigham Young, and one of whoever invented the T.V.)

Then Mark and i headed over to the Library of Congress. I must admit, i was not excited about this. Mark kept saying he wanted to go there and i just didnt get it. I mean, come on!! we are students, we spend our lives in libraries. But once we were there, it turned out to be one of my favorite places we went.

The outside

the inside

Then we headed back to the hotel for a little rest. Then later that night we went to see the monuments. I think seeing them at night is definitely the way to go. they just look so much cooler all lit up!

This night we also saw the WW2 memorial and the Viet Nam memorial

Then the next day we went to the Newseum and the Holocaust museum. Both very cool, if you can call the Holocaust cool.

Mark trying on Lincoln's head in the Newseum.

Then we said goodbye to Mark's dad, and the two of us headed over to have some lunch.

We have some friends, Dave and Karly, who live in D.C. They had been out of town until Saturday night. So, we went over to their apartment, got their car, and picked them up from the airport. Then we went to see the National's and the Orioles. It was pretty awesome!

That night we went and saw the Jefferson monument and the FDR monument. Both very cool.

The next morning, Mark and I got up and went to wait in line for the National Archives. We had been trying to see these the whole time, but every time we walked by the line was huge. We were so glad we went first thing in the morning because the wait was definitely much shorter.

Then we met up with Dave at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. Here we are in front of some plane!

We took this picture looking into the helmet of a space suit. Cool huh!

Then we went and picked Karly up and had lunch at the Burger place Obama went to. I know, we are such tourists!

Then we went to Arlington Cemetery and saw the Changing of the Guards and JFK's grave.

Then we got on a plane and came home. well kinda. We got on a plane, taxied out to the runway, then had to turn around and go back to the terminal while they fixed something for an hour, then flew to Mineappolas and waited for about 2 hours then flew home. We didn't actually get to our apartment until 2:00 am.

All in all we had a great time!! Everyone needs to go to D.C. i think!