Museum of Natural Curiosity and The Drowsy Chaperone

This last week was a lot of fun! After interviewing the week before for my dream job, and then spending the next week trying really really hard to not sweat over whether or not I got the job, I got the offer and accepted! Totally great.

Other than that I took my nieces for the afternoon while my sister-in-law had a doctors appointment. We decided to go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. It was SO MUCH FUN! First we went to lunch, and the girls wanted hot dogs, so we went to J-Dawgs:

They were happy! Don't know where the grump faces came from.

And then it was off to the museum. It was SO CROWDED! We had wandered for awhile trying to find it (and getting two little girls in and out of their car seats multiple times is no fun, just saying), and once we got there we had to stand in line for probably 30-45 minutes. But then we got it and it was fantastic. Kate (the little one on the right) is incredibly brave and independent, and wandered off on her own two times. Karli (on the left) was a really good sport about it though and would walk around holding my hand quietly while we looked for Kate. We had a great time especially in the water section, and Kate LOVED the little rubber beads you can build hills and landscape with in this picture:

A little blurry, but getting a picture of them in action is hard.

I kept having to stop her from throwing them. But how can you resist when they laugh with so much glee and smile so big. It really was so much fun. I would recommend going with two adults though, would have made the seeking I had to do a lot easier with more eyes since it was so crowded. When we got back to our house their Mom and Dad brought pizza, and we watched Aladdin.

We also had the great privilege of seeing The Drowsy Chaperone at the Ziegfeld Theater in Ogden. Scott's friend was in it and his wife had assistant directed/choreographed the show. It was so funny! I know they said that the crowd was kinda dead, but I was laughing my head off. We stayed the night (they invited us, how nice!), and in the morning they made us breakfast:

Kacee in the front and Kevin in the back

Kacee was nice enough to make a separate pan of eggs for Scott because he absolutely hates cheese in eggs. Mine were fantastic.

Last, we had a lot of fun at church. Here is Scott after being chosen by our class to wear the funny hat as a reward to our class because they were singing so loud:

It's just so fantastic!

And that was our week. Lots of fun!!

3,012 miles, 45 hrs. 46 min. driving, 3 time zones, and 10 states

This trip we took involved A LOT of driving (if you couldn't tell from the title). The number of states are states that we stopped in for some reason or another. Some to stay for a little bit, some to just get gas, and others to see sights or visit people.

We started out by going to Las Vegas, NV. We stayed in this super fancy hotel, which was surprising because it wasn't that expensive at all. I have wanted to go to a Cirque Du Solei show for a very very long time, and I finally got to go! We went to La Reve The Dream (a cross between gymnastics, contortion, dance, comedy, and synchronized swimming). It was pretty cool. We were sitting in the "splash zone" in the front row. Got a little wet, but we were dry by the time it ended. This picture was taken before the show started. Sorry it's so dark. We were surrounded by people that didn't speak English (or Spanish in my case), so we did a lot of gesturing and this is what we got. Didn't want to go through that again. My favorite part: when they took the guy up past were we could see (at least 4 stories) and then dropped him into the pool. Absolutely crazy!

Then we stopped at the Hoover Dam on our way to the Grand Canyon. We went on the tour through the bottom, which was pretty cool.

I totally love Scott's hat.

Then finally on to the Grand Canyon! It was mind blowing, seriously. Simultaneously Scott and I both said, "Oh my gosh," upon our first glance of the canyon. Pictures do not do it justice! It really looks like something painted on the sky.

Our first outlook. So pretty!

We went on a hike of the Kaibab Trail. Lots of great views, and Scott was brave and climbed to the top of this rock (yes, he made me do it too).

Then this big guy wandered into our camp. 

We were at the Grand Canyon for two days. Then we went on to Mesa Verde. Stopped at four corners monument, where I had the best fry bread I have ever tasted. It was fantastic. At Mesa Verde National Park (it's kinda small, in Colorado) we went on tours of the cliff dwellings there. It was really really cool! People actually lived in these about 800 years ago, and abandoned them after about 80 years being there. Seems like a lot of work for such a sort period of time. There are around 600 dwellings in the cliffs in the area. You can see most of them from the roads on outlooks, and there are a few you can walk through.

Getting into balcony house. It's about a three story ladder.

Crawling through a hole to see part of the dwelling.

Scott climbing out of the dwelling.

We even went on a twilight tour of Cliff Palace, the really big one, with a guy acting like the original explorer of these ruins.

Then it was on to Kansas. We always stay with the Ross family when we go to Kansas, and I totally forgot to take a picture with them. The Ross' are this awesome awesome family that took me in after my house burned down. We got together with my brother's family while we were there of course and tried a new BBQ place (K&M). I thought it was pretty good (the onion rings, mmmm), but Scott likes Oklahoma Joe's better. BBQ is a required stop in Kansas City. So good. 

Salena on the left, Nathan in front, and Justin next to me.

I normally try to take my nephew on some sort of date when I'm in town. He remembered from last time I was there (a year and a half ago, seriously!) that I told him we could go to Lego Land. They only let you in if you have a child with you, and Scott wanted to go too, so we went. This is from the section where you make cars on race them or see how far they'll fly on a ramp. Nathan just wanted to take one and make it go over and over again. Scott wanted to make a cool looking car (he built the engine). I didn't make one until the very end so that I could race Nathan. We had a lot of fun.

I even put a spoiler on the back.

And then was the excuse we had to go to Kansas (which we didn't really need one, but grad school got in the way) was Megan Duffy Field's wedding! It was totally beautiful, had the most fantastic cake that I've had since my wedding, and great food. She looked absolutely beautiful and I'm really happy for the new couple (her husband's name is Jamie Field). Megan, Jen and I were connected at the hip in high school. We did everything together, so it was great to get together again at her wedding.

Jen on the left, Megan in the middle, and me on the right.

So that was our vacation. It was really great, and I was super sad to leave Kansas. Cried as we pulled away from the Ross' house, but we're happy to be home. Sorry this post has so many pictures in it, but it was worth it!

26 for Scott

So it was Scott's birthday the week before we left on vacation. I'm a little late, but between leaving for vacation, being on vacation, and then coming home and getting a bunch of phone calls for interviews (yay!) I've been trying to keep up with life (and honestly I've been a little lazy).

On Scott's birthday we had dinner with his family. So the night before we went out to dinner. He got to pick, and decided to go to this Hibachi place we were told about (thanks Wendy!) in Lehi. They're kinda a faster version of Hibachi where they don't do all the tricks. You just order, they make it, and then you pick it up. Their noodles are AMAZING, and they serve a lot of food. Scott always wants steak, and I always want tempura vegetables (mmmmm, I'm salivating just thinking about it!).

I said, "Look happy," and this is what I get!

So on his actual birthday we went to his parents, grilled some burgers and hot dogs, and hung out with the gang. Scott's family get together all of the time, which is just fine by me. So everyone was there except his brother who is on a mission in Texas. His Grandpa even came down for it.

Just having a good 'ole time chatting.

Earlier that day Scott's Mom asked me to make a cake for him. I asked Scott what he wanted and he said, "Make something nerdy." What they heck does that mean? So I thought and thought and thought until I decided that I could make a scrabble cake! Scott loves scrabble, but no one will play with him because he's so good at it.

Yes I measured the lines. And the squares are butter mints that I put letters on. They were a little small to also put the score on too, otherwise I would have. Scott said that he forgot to calculate the score on it. I even looked up a picture of it so I would put all the colors in the right spots for bonus places.

A genuine Scott smile, kinda hard to get!

And of course, I got these cools candles that glowed in different colors and they didn't want to light. In true Huff fashion, Scott's Dad decides to get out his torch and light them. I thought it was so funny I just had to immortalize it in a picture.

The arm in Scott's Mom.

So that was Scott's birthday. Lots of fun, and concluded by us going home and packing all of our camping gear into our car for our trip. Post on that to come.