Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Summer Vacation: Part 2

On Tuesday, after spending time around the Old Faithful portion of Yellowstone until about 3 or 4 pm, we traveled to Meridian. On the way, we stopped to get 50 cent ice cream cones in Montana, and stopped at the Costco in Pocatello to get gas, and just in time to eat dinner at the food court. We got to Meridian around 12:30 am Wednesday morning. We took turns showering and got to sleep by 2 am.

On Wednesday, despite the hot weather and late start to the day, we went to Zoo Boise. It was actually a really nice zoo, and the perfect size. My favorite parts were the petting zoo, where we could feed the animals, and the butterfly exhibit! The butterfly exhibit was so neat, and SO much better than the one I went to at the Living Planet Aquarium! There were so many butterflies, and so many different kinds!

 
 
This little guy is thinking hard about something
We found some prairie dogs
 
Butterflies!
This one loved Grandma!

One landed on me!
The next day, we went to the mall and did some shopping, which was fun. Later, we went to the Idaho Military Museum. We also had to have Sonic shakes that night, because that's a Meridian tradition for us. And a few of us played disc golf!

 

On Friday morning, we headed back to Utah. We made a pit stop in Twin Falls to see Shoshone Falls. I had never seen Shoshone Falls before, and it was so pretty!

 

We got back to Uncle Dean's around 5 pm. We took him shopping at Market Square, which was fun! Ricky and I used to take him there a lot when we lived with him. After that, we all had Chinese take-out together at Uncle Dean's because that's all everyone could agree on. It was so fun seeing and spending time with Uncle Dean again! Ricky's family left to go back to San Diego the next morning, and Ricky and I headed to Ogden for the sealing of his friend Bennion. It was SO hot (and smoky)! That night, we went to the reception. It was really nice, just really hot at the beginning! It was fun for Ricky to see his friends Reid and Bennion again! Ricky and I flew back to San Jose on Sunday morning. We are so grateful for the wonderful, full trip that we had! It was so fun being able to see so much of my family and of his family! It was perfect!

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Summer Vacation: Part 1

Since I have a new job and have to earn PTO over time before I can actually take a vacation, this has been my one long-awaited, much needed summer vacation (Ricky has had two trips home to San Diego this summer while I've been busy working).

We've been looking forward to this trip all summer, and it was packed full! We got to see and spend time with lots of family on both sides and spent time within 4 states during our 9-day vacation. Our vacation began on Friday when we flew in to Salt Lake City. My parents picked us up, and we spent the evening with them. We went to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Carlson in their home since they're moving to a retirement home soon. It was nice to visit with them and be in their house one last time...lots of memories there!

Saturday was the Hirschi Reunion, which was a main reason for the trip. It was at a park in Hyde Park, Utah, which is by Logan. Ricky and I went with Ricky's whole immediate family, minus Jake who was in France. Dean Jr. and Adelaide drove Uncle Dean there. And Dan drove Ricky's grandparents there, so it was a great turn out from our portion of the family!

The whole group. We had people there from San Diego and San Jose, CA, New York, Ohio, Bountiful, UT, and Meridian, ID!

Ricky and I with his grandparents and Uncle Dean

Ricky pointing to the line he comes from on the family history chart. He learned that Milton Hershey is his 6th cousin 4 times removed!
After the Hirschi Reunion, we of course stopped at the Pepperidge Farm outlet and the Gossner Cheese Factory. That night, Ricky and I spent time with my family again to celebrate my mom's birthday. We went to dinner with my whole family and my Grandma and Grandpa Coulam. Then we went to the Hale Centre Theatre to see the Newsies! It was a fun night!


Yellowstone
On Sunday, we traveled to Yellowstone! We camped there for two nights. Besides getting a moth stuck in my ear the first night, it was a really fun trip!

It was really neat to see lots of bison pretty close

The "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone"


The crew
Old Faithful
Ricky and the Economic Geyser. It fits him well!


Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Summer Vacation! We traveled from Wyoming, through Montana, to Meridian, Idaho to visit Ricky's grandparents. Here is the Meridian trip from last year, which was a blast!

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

My trip Home


I had the week of the fourth off of work, but Brooke didn’t. So I decided to take off for a bit and visit San Diego.

I went to the Del Mar fair. I was surprised at just how expensive the food at the fair has gotten over the years, a turkey leg cost 12 bucks! We ended up getting 4 turkey leg street tacos and splitting it between me, my two brothers and my dad.

On one of the days I decided to visit Mexico with my friend Fernando and his fiancee Chris. We got tacos, of course. And I saw a man balancing bread on his head.

While there, I looked at some of the interesting architecture of the city. I noticed there were no grass lawns. The way the homes are built is so stream of consciousness to me. Like it seems like the homes just happened, and not that they were planned in advance. I kind of like it, it has a sort of flair to it. Some might say a pile of rubble is unsightly, but it kind of gives the place character.

While there, I spoke to Fernando's Grandmother. She told me about how violent the city had become: “The men would rob your necklace and earrings, and if you didn’t have anything to take, they would kill you.”

While on a hill overlooking the city of Tijuana, I thought about how much of a difference a line can make. Just a line is the difference between English and Spanish, between relative safety and relative danger.

Other than that, I pretty much played a lot of Cuphead and Fortnight.