Rolla! We Went There!

Oh my good heavens, I had a different blogpost almost all ready to go, and then when I was getting pictures off the camera to finish it off, I realized I didn't even blog about our trip to Missouri last month.  This is inexcusable!  For that reason I am going to blog about it now, and leave you all in suspense for just another day or two before I post the one I've already written.  I'm a little embarrassed and a little sad that I didn't blog a single time throughout the entire month of October, but for some reason I just thought there wasn't that much to report (until I just remembered this... *facepalm*).  But I'm sure with the holidays coming up, there will be plenty of occasion to share joyous news and photos with all my clamoring fans.  (Ha.) 

So, the last few times we've been to visit The Wife's family in the midwest it's been for Christmastime, and Julie had been thinking how much she missed seeing her home in the bloom of summer, or at least the leafy colors of fall, so we decided to take our visit a little earlier this year.  We were so excited to get away from work for an entire week and spend time with Mom, Dad, Marci, William, Marissa and even Tyler for a day or two.  It was an awesome vacation, fun and full of family activities, but also really relaxing.  (I mean, we do love our Disney vacations, but seriously, you're going non-stop on a trip like that, and you need a vacation from the vacation.  With this one, though we came home grudgingly, we at least came home feeling relaxed and refreshed.)  It was so great spending time with the kids and playing games with the family (favorites were Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii and Settlers of Catan, of course), shopping at Osage Beach, going to the kids' piano lessons, watching good movies and eating great food, and getting to know the puppy, temporarily named Puppy.  (Puppyyyyy!)  We spent the days:

• ... Hanging out around the house.  Sometimes there wasn't much to do, and there is nothing wrong with that!

Hee hee hee...  I caught her clandestinely.  I love it when my wife plays the piano.

William just refused to stop losing his teeth.  This was the second one in a week!

Here is Julie patronizing Marissa's shredded carrot stand, which she started when Mom bought a new little kitchen tool.

• ... Watching the kids play soccer!  William and Marissa both play for local teams, so we were able to see both of them play, either in a game or at practice.

The gals are hip in their shades.

This is me holding a Marissa burrito.

Puppyyyyy!

Julie looks great in Marissa's sweater.  She held onto it as we watched her practice.

• ... Going to an cool international fair at the college.  They had booths for many many international locations, live entertainment, exotic foods to purchase, and passports for the kids to run around to fill with stamps from various countries.  They even had a little petting zoo.

L'amour!

 

Llama faaaace!

Then we did a little walking around, stopped at the used bookstore, and the kids took turns having piggy-back/shoulder rides.

 

 

And then we had our own little international feast of sticky rice and Hmong egg rolls.  They turned out great, if I do say so myself.

Yes, we actually did pack our very own sticky rice pot and basket, just for this very purpose.

It was worth it.  I even made kua txob!

• ... Attending a ceremony where Tyler was inducted into the local college's hall of fame for his performance as a swimmer during his glory days.  They were even honored at the Homecoming football game, with fireworks and everything!  William was really excited to go to a real football game, though we only stayed there for a few minutes.

You totally love football, don't you Wife?

 

I really liked the marching band, who did a medley of Michael Jackson songs.  During Thriller they all put down their instruments and did the dance and everything.

•  ... Visiting nearby Onandaga cave!  Unlike Timpanogos Cave, there was no hike involved whatsoever, but like Timpanogos Cave, it was really cold inside.  It was so cool, and Julie took dozens of photos of pretty neat things (some of which turned out), but I'll just include a very few here.

Those are some humongous stalagmites.  (See Marissa and Dad in the foreground for scale)

8O

Can you see the stairway on the left?  That is one huge flowstone formation!

The lily pad room!

• ... Running not one, but TWO 5Ks with the family.  Our first Saturday (24 September) we ran on for JDRF's Run to Cure Diabetes at the local Lions' Club Park.  Everyone participated, and Tyler and I both placed in our age group!  (He took 1st, I took 2nd, 21:25, about 6:30/mile, 3rd overall, 2nd in age group.)  It was slightly less than a full 5K, but it was a really nice course on paved paths away from busy roads, and the weather was awesome.

I think this might have been the day William learned that orange peel smile trick.

Marci is hardcore.  I don't think Tyler realized that was the idea for this picture.

Mom says she didn't mean to cover my face, but I just don't know!  I was probably making a ridiculous expression anyway.  Also, Puppyyyyy!

There we go.

I am a champion!

But srsly, I know how to take a normal picture.

 

Tyler DID get the hardcore memo for this one.

 

The next Saturday (1 October) Julie, Marci and I ran the Pink Ladies 5K sponsored by the local college and to raise awareness of and funds for breast cancer.  At first I felt a little silly so I was just going to run bandit with the girls, but then I arrived and saw there were a lot of guys running (and the odd he-she... *smh*), so I decided it was okay.  It turned out to be REALLY okay because I placed first in the entire thing!  (20:02, 6:29/mile.)  It was kind of hard and hilly, but it was still fun.  It was a smallish race, but it always feels good when I happen to come in first, even if the circumstances are kind of in my favor. :D  Julie and Marci also did really well, but then we had to rush home and pack up to drive to the airport.

Sisters do as sisters should!  Matching-matching purple-squared.

Puppyyyyy! We were pushing for the name Jude, but the kids weren't entirely sold on it for whatever reason.

Julie loves the puppy too.  (Did I already say "Puppyyyyy!"?)

Why yes, I'm secure enough in my masculinity to wear this shirt.  I wore it all the way home.

• ... Snuggling with the kitty.  This is Owen, Julie's Kitty Boyfriend.

 

*jealous husband*

• ... And then, finally, finally, seeing the Gateway Arch on the way to the airport on our last day.  I've been wanting to see this every time we've been through St. Louis (just because, I mean, well, it's a major national landmark, right??), and we had just enough time.  It was huge!  And very shiny.  And super tall.  Like 600+ feet tall.  Marci didn't do so well with that bit, but I really liked it, especially going up in those space-age elevator pods.

 

XD

 

I know this one is blurry, but it's so cute I decided to include it anyway.

It was really windy, if I recall.

And then, alas, it was time to come home.  We were in a huge rush though, so at least it wasn't such a painful and drawn-out goodbye.   We can't wait to come back and visit again!  Thanks for everything, Rolla Crew!

This is Julie's "Phew, we barely made it to our flight, hopefully we get to sit together." (We didn't.)

This is my "We made it to Vegas, this is a really expensive sandwich, hopefully we get to sit together for the last leg of the trip." (We did.)

Fin.

Trek Westward

It's high time I gave a little report on the events of the last many days. So much has happened, I think it's best to resort to my bullet-list method, so here we go, this time organized by location:

Salt Lake City, UT:

• Thursday, 7 May 2009, I was awake at 5:15 am to make it to my 7:30 flight.
• I barely made the flight (I was ready to throw a fit if they didn't give me my boarding pass while the plane was still on the ground), and had a fairly uneventful journey of about 90 minutes.
• A two-hour layover in Denver gave me plenty of time to read (A Separate Peace), but I was way too antsy to even think of trying to get some sleep.
• An under two-hour flight and a somewhat bumpy but safe landing and I was in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis, IN:

• I was greeted by Julie, in pink, a sight for sore eyes at the end of the walkway. The night before we had bid an unemotional adieu to the webcam and MSN forever (at least as a primary method of communication). The countdowns are finally over.
• We visited the elaborate and exciting children's museum in Indianapolis with Julie's sister and her two kids, and Julie's mom. Dinosaurs! Mini dioramas! Politically-correct displays! Water toys!

These are some of the more photo-appropriate sentences we put together...

• A short drive later we were in Bloomington.

Bloomington, IN:

• We were in Bloomington from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon.
• I spent nights at Julie's roommate's boyfriend's apartment. Thanks again!
• Friday morning Marci, Julie and I went for a great run up and down the rolling Bloomington streets.
• We ran some errands and went shopping, picked up some graduation regalia and had a fairly relaxing evening.
• On Saturday morning I brought Julie some breakfast and helped her get ready for the big event.
• Julie's family came back from Indianapolis, where they picked up her dad who came in on a later flight, and we all headed to Cascades park for a walk before heading to graduation.

Too bad that small child was in the way! Although I guess this contraption is actually intended for small children...

I hardly even spun in this thing before I already started to feel woozy...

And then all in the family joined in the fun.

• That afternoon we headed to the top of the balcony to be seated in time for commencement. There we watched as probably a thousand graduates filed into the stadium and wondered if they were going to call every one by name (and admittedly glanced at our watches once or twice). In the end, they asked each group of graduates to stand according to their major, but only called the Ph.D. recipients by name. Swine flu paranoia was in full swing as they had instructed graduates not to shake hands with the faculty as they passed, but just "doff their hats." It was quite the game of Where's Waldo, but we were able to find Julie and her roommate Marcie sitting among the sea of black caps and gowns. I can't help but mention the speech given by the guest speaker and honorary degree recipient, Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby. Things were just fine until he started spouting some of the most unfounded and outright propaganda I've ever heard delivered to a body of young adults. I should have expected this a little more, I guess, since IU is the alma mater of Alfred Kinsey (even though his work has elsewhere been discounted and debunked in the world of psychology). Julie's family and I just listened in amazement at such an irrelevant rant that was met largely with applause, but some weren't quite as enthusiastic. Anyway, other than that, it was a really nice ceremony. We took abundant photos and had a glorious celebratory dinner at Olive Garden.

• Julie and I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine and were both sorely disappointed. She was mostly upset that they strayed so much from the origin story, but as for me, unfamiliar as I am with the backstory, I was just frustrated with how bad a film it was. Too many and underdeveloped characters (mutants for the sake of mutants, largely), flimsy plot, rotten script, poor Wolverine seemed out of character the entire time, and the effects were surprisingly quite bad. His blades were floating around his knuckles at some points! Epic disappointment.
• On Sunday morning we headed to church at the Bloomington singles' branch and it was nice to get to meet so many of the branchies I'd heard so much about. It's so funny to visit a singles' ward with your girlfriend, you suddenly become super-interesting.
• We finished loading up the cars with Julie's entire collection of material belongings and after a tearful goodbye to roommate Ann, we headed westward for the first leg of our roadtrip: Bloomington, IN to Rolla, MO, 339.24 miles, approximately 5 hours, 50 minutes.

Rolla, MO:

• After deservedly catching up on some sleep, we began the several-day process of sifting through Julie's stuff to decide what was necessary to bring with her right away for her move to Utah so we could fit as much as possible into one car.
• We helped out around the house and yard in anticipation of the promised thunder-storms and tornado warnings (there did end up being one pretty good rainstorm, but it was in the middle of the night anyway, boo).
• We had many plans of seeing Star Trek (its reviews were much more favorable than Wolverine's), but they never quite materialized.
• We of course had the local cuisine: Imo's Pizza, "A Slice of Pie," Kyoto sushi.

• We took several walks, including a nice footpath to a park that the kids liked, and a visit to the Maramec Springs fish hatchery (ew, sooo many fish, they were like little slugs slithering all over each other in the water).

• We watched the LOST season finale and (OMG) were blown away. Maybe Marci and Julie weren't quite as emotionally affected as I was (Juliet!!!). I'm a little annoyed with how much people, even fans, are complaining about LOST. First people were getting bothered by how LOST never gave any answers and things were too spread out, but when they start actually answering questions and giving us a non-stop season without hiatus, people start to complain that it's going too fast and isn't as fun. Come on, people. It's still the best on TV. Ever.

There's no LOST without gummi bears!

• We were quite diligent in getting plenty of rest so we would be ready for the final, longest part of our major roadtrip.
• Early Friday morning we were up and loaded in the car by 6:30 am and headed out of Rolla. Easily the longest period of time I've ever spent behind the wheel in one day, we crossed from Missouri to Kansas by mid-morning, were through to Colorado by late-afternoon, and finally rolled over the Utah border just before midnight. We stopped a couple times for gas and food (no fast food chains for us--we stopped at local eateries, such as Salina, KS's Brayard's Cafe, and New Castle, CO's New Castle Diner). The company was great and the conversation was always pleasant. We took turns choosing music and enjoyed seeing the sights along the way. I even did the state-crossing and time-zone shift rituals, reminiscent of my roadtrip from Utah to Maryland with Jake several years ago. The time even seemed to pass fairly quickly, until the last couple hours, which seemed relatively laborious (those Colorado mountains are a beast when it gets dark). Wedgewood Drive was never as welcome a sight as it was at around 2 am local time when we finally rolled into the driveway at home. Rolla, MO to Pleasant Grove, UT: 1323.89 miles, approximately 20 hours, 30 minutes.

Pleasant Grove, UT:

• Slept.
  

LDR conquered.