Last Days in Utah

My 23-year-old sister-in-law has braces, and it's all my fault.  For the full story, click here. 

Short story is: last summer we were tubing on the lake and her mouth met the back of head and bent back three of her teeth.

The girl has since landed herself a man and gotten hitched.  Pretty good for a brace face, huh?  ;-)  My evil in-law plans of making her a lonely snaggle-toothed old crone were dashed.

Anyway, she's had her braces on and off and needed to come to Utah from Oregon for an appointment.  So the week of our move we got to see them one last time.  And the mom-in-law came too!

They were great.  We spent part of one day at Lagoon together.  Roy and I had already been there the week before for his work party.  It was a way sweet work party!  Everyone in the group wore these bright green shirts.  The park was just dotted with green all day. 

It was a good time.

Roy didn't come back with me, Laura, Leah, Jamie, and Jamie's childhood friend.  He had to work.  Plus, I think he'd had plenty of fun the first time around.  He loves roller coasters and has never had a problem with them, but after riding three of the parks craziest coasters back to back... he wasn't feeling too great. 

The second time I went was fun, but the best part of the day was the skycoaster.

 
If you like the sensation of dropping, of plummeting to the ground, this is the ride for you! 

Ah- I loved it!  They were pulling us up higher and higher and then suddenly started counting down, which meant it was time for me to pull the chord that would make us drop.  Apparently the guys didn't think I'd have the guts.  But I did, which I'm so glad for!



What could I do, anyway?  "Excuse me... I changed my mind!  Could you please lower me down real slow?"

Oh it was fun!  Laura didn't brave that one, but she did go on Wicked right in the front row.  Her scream-laugh was so funny I could barely breathe. 

 

So that was one of our last events in Utah.  We also made a trip up to Rexburg to say goodbye to all of our friends up there.  Wow, that campus is growing!  

We took Alexa and her boyfriend to go out on the lake with us and Roy's Uncle Mark.  Roy is getting the hang of the air chair and wants to rent one for Lake Powell this summer.  I definitely want to try it next time.

I was trying to see absolutely everyone before we left Utah.  I had a get together with some of my buddies from the Scotland trip.  So depressing to say goodbye!  We ate Hobb Nobbs and reminisced together.

We also went to the Springville Arts Fair with Sarah and Matt.  We wanted a picture.  There was a lady who had nothing better to do than wait for her kids to get off a ride.  We asked if she would take the picture for us but...

She seemed a little impatient.

We asked her to please take just one more.

We had breakfast with my Aunt Randy and Uncle Jay, we ate at Costa Vida one last time, we finally went to the art museum down the street... we tried to fit it all in!

I guess it's not like we'll never be up to Utah/Idaho ever again, but I look back with nostalgia knowing that this chapter in our life together is now closed.

We Found the Ring!!!

Before I move on to our life in Arizona... I thought I'd tell one last Utah story...

Roy and I thought we lost his wedding band last winter on a day at the slopes.  I was certain it was buried beneath the frozen snow in the parking lot, and so I waited for spring to thaw it out.

Well... spring came late.  My hope having been snuffed out by June, I went ahead and bought Roy a new wedding band in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.  $16.  Shrug.  It's kind of funny that it's from a Mexican jewel vendor, and at least if we lost it again it wouldn't be so devastating.

So moving day... Taylor Broughton, Josh Flint {Alexa's boyfriend}, and Carson were helping us move the big stuff.  Once our bed was hefted out of the bedroom, Taylor said something about a ring that was on the floor.

THE RING!!!!!!

The thing never even left our apartment!!!!  It was just warm and snug under our bed the whole time!

I was so happy I wanted to cry.  Not that there's really anything wrong with the $16 Mexican ring... but the sentimental value behind it just doesn't compare.

Thank you Taylor for finding Roy's wedding band!!!!

Roy is not quite as happy about it as I am.  He's glad it's found, but he still wants to wear the cheap ring.  "See, feel how heavy this one is," he said later that day.  He made me hold one in each hand and compare.  It's true, the nice tungsten ring is heavier.  For a reason. 

Hmmm, maybe we should put our original ring away under lock and key so that we won't lose it ever again.  Then Roy can enjoy the cheapness of the other ring... that is until it turns his finger green.

Half Birthday Surprise Party

Roy was born on Christmas day.  His parents brought him home in a stocking.  I know, so cute!

Roy's never complained to me about having to share his day with the most widely celebrated birthday in the world.  But still, since we started dating I've always celebrated his half birthday.  Good excuse for more fun.

This year I had awesome help from Carson and Shellena getting everything put together to throw a surprise half birthday party-- complete with half party hats and half a birthday cake!

We sang him half of the happy birthday song before he blew out 13 candles.

Half of a birthday hat fit Story perfectly.

The presents were stuffed into birthday gift bags that were cut in half.  It looked amazing, but I didn't capture a good enough picture for you.  Sorry.  The half birthday boy got half eaten candy bars and other treats.  Then we played pin the tail on the donkey..

And if the other half of the poster had been there I wouldn't have been so far off.

Roy was actually surprised!  When he first walked in on the half streamers and posters, he thought everyone must be celebrating my birthday early!  Haha!

That night happened to be one of our very last in Utah.  It already seems so distant.  We loved spending that time with our friends.  We miss them all already.

15 Hours Alone in a Car

The result:

{Anyone know why my videos won't convert onto YouTube from iMovie?  Oh well, it's probably best that it's not working.  Trust me, the result of me alone in a car for 15 hours isn't a pretty sight.}

Moving

We picked the perfect time to move to Arizona.  Sweltering 115 degrees is just the weather we like to be moving things on and off trucks.  :-)

This move has me ready to pull all my hair out.  I can't find anything.  Everything--everything--is boxed up.

Currently the boxes are baking in a storage unit across town.  With some luck, our stack of wedding pictures won't be all slimy and stuck together by the time we move everything out again.  Who knows when that will be.

We're crashing at my parent's place until we find somewhere to live.  Thanks, little sis, for letting us stay in your bedroom.  Oh, and for letting me wear whatever clothes you've left in your closet- because all of mine are in boxes.  Ugh- boxes!!!

Little miscommunication...  I thought we were keeping all of our junk in my parent's garage.  I thought it would be easy to access things like my clothes, laptop charger, shoes.  There's nothing easy about it, unless you consider a 45 minute drive, followed by picking through cardboard boxes in a steamy storage unit easy.

The plan for our next move (hopefully years from now) is to be a nazi with organization.  List on the boxes every single item inside.  "Living room junk" doesn't help me much.  And then I plan to pack pack ourselves suitcases to last us for a few weeks.

Maybe if I write it all here, I'll remember to do this stuff.  :-)

Packing in Utah was great, though.  We had some awesome help.  Alexa and her boyfriend came down from Idaho for the weekend.  That girl can pack fast!  I don't know what we would have done without her.

And I don't know what we would have done without these guys... hard workers.

But seriously, we had friends and family make us meals, move our furniture, and help us clean.  It made it so much easier and more fun.

Our last two nights in the apartment we were sleeping on air mattresses in the living room.  It was weird to have the place so bare.  Kind of sad.  We'll never forget our first place together.

But so far I haven't been missing the trains.

I have been missing our friends, the cooler weather, the grass, our ward, the university, my job, etc.  But I'm sure there are better things to come.  I think once we are settled in our own place and those boxes are finally opened... that's when things will start looking up.

When we finally find Roy's cell phone charger.
When I finally find that book I was in the middle of.
When I can have everything in it's place and organized.

Much more to catch up on later.

Dad's Day

When I was born, Tracy Collett became a dad.

No turning back.

The following is a mix of what I've been told and what I imagine.  But you'd be surprised at what is actually true.

When I was making my debut at a ridiculous hour in the morning, Dad was in the waiting room.  Guess he didn't have a back stage pass.

I think Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was playing quietly.  Dad has always said that song makes him think of when I was born.  So if it wasn't playing in the waiting room it must have at least been playing in his head. 

Knowing him, he had his perfectly placid face on, like nothing could ever bother him.  But secretly, deep down inside--way deep--he was feeling a little anxious.  Not sure how he does that.  The "Don't Worry, Be Happy Song" must help him keep calm.  It's a developing theory.

When a nurse finally came to tell him to come in, he missed a beat.  Dropped the song all together.  Walked calmly down the hall with that dead serious face.  He wondered: is it a boy or a girl?  Mom had insisted on leaving the gender as a surprise.  The suspense!

He wanted a girl.  Why?  Because oldest boys tend to get themselves into the worst kind of trouble, but girls are better behaved.

So Dad, how did that work out for you?  ;-)

Back to the hospital—there I was.  Adorable, healthy, pink bundle of joy all swaddled in one of those thin hospital blankets.  Mom was teary eyed and eager for the new dad to catch a good glimpse, tell her how beautiful I was.  He took me in his arms, his first baby, peered down at my bald head and said:

"Aren't her ears a little low?"

Happy 23rd father's day, Dad.  We've had our rough patches, but the truth is no one could replace you.  You're an amazing father! 
Thanks for everything, I love you.

PS.  Roy may be getting overly eager to be included in father's day.  He's taken to stealing adorable children.

Sunny with a Chance of Injury

Let's talk about the weather!

It took Utah Valley a while to warm up, but it finally has.  The rivers are near to bursting with all the runoff from the mountains.  I've loved going running along these rivers iPodless and listening to the water while letting my winter white legs soak up some sun.

But in a few weeks I'll be in a place where running is only plausible if you hit the trails by six am.  In the summer it's just not safe to be running past 9 am.  There's no rivers- heck there's no water anywhere- and the sun will flat out blister winter white legs.

Therefore, I'd really like to enjoy this kind of running weather every moment I can.  Unfortunately, that's not happening.

I've often read about runner's cross-training days "to prevent injury."

Psssh!  I'm young and spry, I'm not gonna get injured!  Not me!  I'll just run every single day and wear down my joints until I cripple myself.  Brilliant.

My left knee isn't liking running, especially since I tried to just push through the pain the other day.  Oh yeah, I'm filled with great ideas.

After analyzing my run, I think I figured out what might be causing it.  Check out how I lean in slightly with my left foot when I hit the pavement.

Better shoes?  Better inserts?  Better let the good weather go and give myself time to heal.  

The sunny side: Now I have plenty of cross-training days.

Seconds to Live

Counting down the minutes until our lives end (aka, Roy starts law school)!

Our calendars are sloshed full of everything—the poor little squares are all blank and blue ink. But we've got to live it up!  These last few weeks are a precious time in our lives.  Neither of us in school.  Both of us enjoying flexible jobs.  No real commitments to anyone or anything but each other.  We have to take advantage.

And so far so good!

Florida

Mexico

And coming up?  The Arts Festival here in town, a trip to Rexburg {one of our favorite places in the whole world!}, a day at Lagoon, and finally our annual Lake Powell trip. 

When are we going to pack up our furniture and entire apartment?

Oh, we don't bother with little trivial matters like that when we have only seconds to live.

I've been writing this post in small segments between events.  We're due to leave for a BBQ as I write.  I distracted Roy with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to steal a few minutes before we need to cut up the watermelon and go.  {I bought seedless, oops!  I never knew that was such a horrible thing to do!}

Now... 

Let me begin my story on the Florida 528.  It's a toll road, so beware when you're there.  We didn't like toll roads.  

The plan was to stay at the Bangerter's home.  Julie Bangerter is my mom's best friend who moved away to Orlando {so my mom had assured me} over a year ago.  When we landed and got in touch with Julie we asked for her address so we could punch it into our trusty GPS.  

St. Petersburg.  Hmmm... we thought maybe it was a suburb of Orlando.

But no, no it's not.  We ended up taking that road to I-4 and almost two hours away just to the west of Tampa!!!  That was a lovely surprise!  Mom clearly needs to spend some time with Julie so she can see where she lives, haha!

But once we figured out where we were going, everything fell into place.  Sure, we were much further away from Disney World than we had originally anticipated, 

but we got to see a lot more of Florida!  

We never would have passed the craziest airstream trailer park in the world:

Or hung out at a Floridian beach:

Or crossed the long bridge to the beautiful peninsula where they live:

 

Or found this incredible hotel-turned-museum from the 20s:

 

 Actually, a lot of things around St. Petersburg are still standing from the 20s.  Including the Bangerter's house, which is adorable!  I wish I had taken pictures of it.  Of course Julie decorates it so perfectly.  All of St. Petersburg had a very Great Gatsby feel about it.  Roy and I spent an evening exploring around Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Seeing the Bangerters was so great.  We had fun playing cards with them our first night there.  Monopoly Deal, of course.  Roy's favorite.   

The next morning we packed sandwiches that the Bangerters provided {so nice!}, then left for our long drive to Disney World.

That's where we met up with our fairy godmother, Rachel.

This girl is the one who was making all our Disney dreams come true!  She's a childhood friend of mine who has been working at the Disney parks for about three years.  She knows all the secrets, all the best places to eat, and was getting us in for free!  

Just to give you an idea of how great that is, a park hopper pass at the Disney Parks goes for about $130 per person, per day.  

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing Rachel is.  She met us at a park every morning to get our tickets for us, and then she'd hang out with us for a few hours, sometimes getting us right to the front of the lines.  We loved hanging out with her and her boyfriend Nick.  Both of them=amazing people!  Here I am punching Rachel in the face on Thunder Mountain.

Just really good at showing my gratitude ;-)

Seriously, though.  Between Rachel and the Bangerters, we couldn't be luckier.  We were so well taken care of!  Because of them, we were able to have a dream vacation.  We visited the four main parks and Downtown Disney in four days.

I thought we might as well top off the perfect trip with a set of matching Disney t-shirts.  Gotta be as touristy as possible!

Can't you just see the humidity?  It was hot!

 Pirates!

Story.  My BFF Lynn and I have ridden Thunder Mountain numerous times together.  Enough times to notice that in the middle of the ride you fly past an animatronic goat chewing on a piece of dynamite atop a red cliff.  It soon became a tradition to try to catch a picture of the goat as we shot past it in our roller coaster train.  Even when we take trips without each other, we catch a picture of Bailey to send to the other.

So the rides in Florida are all slightly different from the ones in California.  Bailey is a much more macho goat in Florida.  He gave up dynamite and switched to steroids.  This one's for you Lynn:

Humvee glasses!

One of our favs!  This and the Tower of Terror!

Epcot!  Where Disney preached around saving our environment incessantly.  The message is a good one, though, and it must have had an impact on Roy.  When we were leaving the park we noticed that a lane of traffic had stopped for a slow-moving turtle.  He still had about seven lanes to cross, and was most likely not going to make it.  Luckily Roy was feeling spontaneous and was high on Disney's save-the planet-message.

So he jumped out of the car, picked up the turtle, and ran him across the seven lanes to grassy safety.  All the while an angry Disney bus driver honked his horn and worked to rip his window open to yell at us.  But HE was cooped up driving a bus all day, so he clearly didn't understand.  I bet the other people in the bus, who were leaving the park and were probably also save-the-planet intoxicated, were cheering for Roy's turtle rescue.  My hero made it back into the car just before a bunch of cars rounded the corner toward us, and we took off.  I'm sure I heard applause from the bus as we sped away. 

Everest in the Animal Kingdom was probably my favorite ride of the trip!

 Hollywood studios!  Such a fun park! 

 We saw tons of awesome shows.  The best were The Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Fantasmic!

 Loved our tour around the world in just one day!
Starting with my favorite: the UK!

Getting lost somewhere between Canada and France?

Morocco!

China!

 Mexico!

Oh wait, we went to Mexico for real! Two trips in one!  The annual Reay family reunion was happening at Puerto Peñasco, and we weren't about to miss it.  Especially because my bro, Mason, is home from his mission for the LDS church!  We hadn't seen him yet, and were more than excited.

So we flew from Orlando to Phoenix, met up with my cousins and sister who flew in from Rexburg, and then made our way down to Rocky Point.  Needless to say, it was a long day of traveling for Roy and I.

But it was worth it!  The family was all together again for the first time in years! 

 This includes the extended family.  We only had one cousin and his wife missing.  This is an accomplishment.

So we spent two days in Mexico, hanging out at the beach, swimming in the pool, building sand castles, haggling with the Mexican vendors, and playing games at night after huge dinners on the patio.

By the way, everyone had a good laugh at my hair.  I'm still not used to it.  Compare it to my sister's hair.  Hmmm, yes, I think I'll go back to that color.

It was hard to leave Mexico.  I never get tired of Rocky Point.  But, we'd been spoiled enough for one trip, don't you think?