EarthQuake!

We are leaving today for another "vacation." I use the word vacation lightly. We are going home to visit family and friends. That isn't always the most relaxing thing, like a vacation should be. But I will be away from work and LA for about 11 days and that makes me happy. All of Alden's brothers and their families will be in Idaho, so we are taking family pictures. The idea of getting 12 adults (including Grandma Park) and nine boys under the age of 10 all looking at the camera and not looking too crazy is kind of a daunting task. But that's what the people at the photo studio in JCPenny get paid to do, right? Then we are having individual family pictures taken. It should be interesting.

Alden's best friend in Idaho had a baby girl about 5 weeks ago and I am very excited to get to see her. Lane and Angie are good friends of ours and we are meeting them at Bear Lake on Friday and Saturday. Chrissy and her family will also be there and I am excited to see her too. It's amazing how much you can miss your friends when living so far away.

The biggest reason for this trip home is because Isaac (my youngest brother) comes home off his mission in Houston, Texas on August 6th. We are planning on meeting my family either at the airport or somewhere in Salt Lake. It will be neat to have him home. I think that most of my family will be there for his homecoming, except a few nieces and nephews. Jerry is coming from Colorado and Steve from Logan, Utah and hopefully Linette (who lives just a few miles away). We will drive home on August 11th.

On another note...we definitely felt the earthquake on Tuesday. I was at work and we got a pretty good shake. Nothing happened here at the hospital, but they had to check for structural damage and keep the patients calm. Alden was at home in bed and thought I was trying to wake him up by shaking the bed. Then he woke up enough to realize what was happening. Nothing even fell off our shelves. It was scary mostly because you have no idea how long it is going to last or what is coming next. We didn't even feel the after shocks. They were mostly felt at the epicenter in Chino Hills. That is about 15 miles from the hospital I work at and about 42 miles from my apartment. It still makes my heart pound thinking about it. Yikes! And I realized that I have no instinct when it comes to earthquakes. I just froze and rode it out. The people around me either went under the desk or into the doorway. I had nothin'.

Until next time...

Home Again

I am back from vacation and had a great time. We saw so many new things and had fun doing it. I'm not sure how much people want to hear about it so here is a brief summary.

San Francisco on the 4th of July was busy but fun. It was foggy (usual thing for San Francisco) and the fireworks that went up really high couldn't even be seen. But it was neat to see them go off of a barge in the bay. We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., on of my favorites. The entire pier was covered with people. Talk about a traffic jam.

In Portland, well Hillsboro, we made it on time for Alden to join Brian for the second half of his bachelor party, the barbecue after they played air soft. Sunday we just hung out with Brian and his fiance Jennie. Monday we went to the international rose garden, Pittock mansion and Multnomah Falls. I could have spent all day at the rose garden. It smelled and looked wonderful. Tuesday we drove to Mt. St. Helen's and Seattle. We went up in the Space Needle and had ice cream. That is quite a view. Wednesday we went to the Japanese Garden and had dinner with Brian since Jennie was having her girly day/bachelorette party. Thursday we went to the Chinese Garden and Alden went out with Brian for another bachelor party that night. Friday we did some shopping and it was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Brian's family invited us to the dinner even though we weren't part of the bridal party. We had the most amazing Italian food I have had in a long time. Saturday was the wedding. It turned out so good. They got married in a park that is under the St. John's bridge and all the bridge supports are cathedral shaped. The reception was under a tent at the park. It was much hotter than expected but the shade really helped. Luckily they didn't have a traditional cake so they didn't have to worry about it melting. The bride and groom left the reception by boat on the river while the DJ played the theme song for 007. Sunday we drove to Merced, CA and stayed the night. Monday we drove through Yosemite National Park. I thought it would be kind of boring but it was much more interesting. We saw some beautiful water falls, a black bear, and the giant Sequoia trees. I would love to go back and do some hiking. We made it home at about 9:00pm. We were lucky and it didn't rain once while we were there. It was fun to finally meet Brian after all these years listening to Alden's stories about him.

I survived the first day back to work yesterday with no drama. Today on the other hand has been a little more crazy. Ted is in a meeting all day so I have an extra meeting to attend. Then this morning the power was out for about 45 minutes after a car hit a power pole somewhere near the hospital. A man was trapped in the elevator the whole time. It turned out to be the hospitals chief of staff. Crazy! Now I have to get everything unpacked and put back together. I hate that part of vacation.

Until next time...

Scuba

So I haven't posted in a while because my life is BORING! And I just haven't had much to say. We are getting excited for our trip to Portland and leave on Friday. I am excited to drive up there because I have never been that way. We are staying in San Francisco on the 4th of July and are planning on going to Fisherman's Wharf to watch the fireworks. I have looked up a bunch of things to see and do in Portland so hopefully we won't be stuck just hanging out. I hope the weather cooperates, but we are planning on rain. We may even take a day trip to Seattle to see the Space Needle and maybe even have a meal in their rotating restaurant at the top. We'll see if we are up to another 6 hours (round trip) in the car.

Ted is in Aruba on vacation this week so it is more relaxing here. I have a PT that comes in to do the evaluations and she is here only about 4 hours a day. Connie no longer works here and while she is a nice person, she stressed out Ted and made him cranky.

A new Sports Chalet has opened not to far from where we live and they had some good Grand Opening specials. So we have decided to certify for scuba diving. Alden has already done some of it he just never got certified. I am not the best swimmer but I think if I can figure out how to relax and breathe it will be awesome. So we are signed up for the class and have purchased most of out gear. The rest I think we can rent. I might need to buy some thicker boots and maybe some gloves. The water temperature here is so cold and when you dive down it gets even colder. While this all sounds fun and exciting, I am very nervous and I hope I can do it. We got about 45% off all the stuff and class by getting it on sale and standing in line for three mornings to get free gift cards. They were $10 to $200 but of course we only got $10. But no complaints from me, it's free money.

Until next time...