Spring Break!

April 2nd, 2014

Joseph & I took  our cousins Lauryn and Abrie to Portland Oregon with us. 

We made stops at Multnomah Falls, 

 Voodoo Donuts & The Portland Oregon temple. 

Then we had lunch at Garlic Jims, where we shared an awesome gluten free pizza, ½ Hawaiian ½ pepperoni so everyone was happy. Lastly the main event, we made it to the wooden shoe tulip festival. Where incredibly we ran into Abrie’s friend from school there, kind of crazy because that tulip festival was in the middle of no where. But we loved it so much we will definitely be going there again.

When we went to Spokane....

We stayed in this hotel! 

All expenses paid,

 pretty great hotel and great location in downtown Spokane.

We were on the 8th floor. With a great view of the Spokane River.

What did I tell you? Great view! 

The only downside to staying on the 8th floor,

 was if you rode up in the middle elevator, 

it was a little nauseating. 

Our hotel was wedged right between the convention center,

 and performing arts center.

And a block away from Riverside Park.

I love Riverside Park!

This is a slide! And a happy part of my childhood memories.

(I managed to use the branches to hide people, this was never sans people)

And the garbage goat! 

Push the button on the wall and hold garbage under it's mouth,

 and the goat "eats" it. 

Joseph was at "boot camp" and I went exploring. 

Or swimming, or reading...

I was at Riverside Park.

While taking these pictures I had an adventure.

I was taking pictures of little waterfalls,

 and I saw this homeless looking old man,

 and he was fishing off of the Spokane power tower.

It cracked me up. His line was soooo far down! 

So I snapped a picture. 

A few minutes later, that man yelled at me.

I was still on the bridge but pretty far away.

Also I was near a Grandpa with his grandsons,

who stepped defensively in front of me when the homeless man yelled at me.

I turned to look at him

and saw this...

He had caught a fish, and so I took another picture,

 and gave him a thumbs up.  

And continued on my way.

It was a funny adventure!

I laughed pretty hard. 

Joseph had a good time at bootcamp.

It was comprised of 14 people, and 5 vocational counselors from DSB.

4 people there were completely blind,  

the rest were varied levels of legally blind,

all semi-employed or un-employed.

I sat in on the last day and it was wonderful.

Joseph has been given new insight and tools to keep up his job search,

network, and how to sell himself to an employer better. 

He has been busy, with his "homework" since returning home. 

It was a mini-vacation, 

(when we were together)

We had fun, 

ordered room service 3 times

ate at a crazy expensive, dress for dinner- type restaurant (in the hotel)

still all paid for, we did really well sticking to the food vouchers 

and the last night we ate in the bar at the restaurant,

you don't have to "dress" for dinner, and it was half off.

We learned that drunk people are really loud, and really really friendly.

At least the people at the hotel were.

Overall it was an awesome experience for Joseph,

 and a welcome break from our live's stresses,

it should have been longer!

much longer.

A long post, with lots of pictures.

Our trips to Idaho, both all wrapped up in one.

During our trip in June we stayed with these lovely people: 

Jake, Bethany & Cadence.

Whom I was privileged to take their family photos,

 but for their privacy I've added a little disguise. 

We enjoyed staying with them in their new house,  

exploring the changes to BYUI campus, and to Rexburg. 

We also played in Idaho Falls, and in Shelley with our family.

 It was so good to get away. 

And we love any time we can grab to spend with our Idaho family this summer.

Exploring in Idaho Falls and seeing the flood waters invade the green belt.

Join me for a picnic? Or a nap?

I got a lot of beautiful shots of the Idaho Falls Temple.

After playing in Eastern Idaho we stopped and stayed with Alisha, Marc, Tori and Sera Jean.

on Mountain Home Air Force Base. 

This is when we met Sera Jean for the 1st time.

Our trip in July was with my family. 

Mom, Dad, Valerie, JR, Joseph & I.

It was quite a road trip, we did manage to have a lot of fun.

Some of the fun including Valerie peeing in a grove of trees.

And the rest of us laughing so hard, we were crying, 

I also managed to text her best friend about it, before she could. 

My advice to her, as she got out of the car

"Don't pee on your shoes!"

We went to Idaho for Sera Jean's blessing. 

Getting that many people on base was interesting.

Her dress was handmade by my Mom,

 from Alisha's wedding dress and some lace from Mom's wedding dress.

We really like their tiny little military branch,

 they were all so sweet, 

and remembered  us from our visit 2 weeks previous,

 and Mom and Dad from 2 weeks before that.

We really love our nieces all 3 of them (soon to be 4)

This is my favorite picture from our visit.

Joseph and Tori, they're such good buddies.

They play so well together. 

:)

Victoria Renee  "Tori"

We talked the family into going to Idaho Falls to see "real" fireworks. 

So the Swanger Family and the Mecham Family all stayed in a hotel,

just down the street from where we watched the fireworks.

Here is John showing off his "chariot" for Joseph.

It was really hot, much too hot for Joseph, 

his muscles get weak and rubbery when it's hot.

So John put this together to get back and forth in. 

Pretty awesome.

Joseph enjoying his ride. 

Check out the patriotic temporary tattoo on his arm.

He could make it wave! 

We had tons of fun,

 and it was great to have air conditioned rooms to cool off in.

Here are some of the great Fireworks that we enjoyed.

So those are the highlights from our trips to Idaho.

I know I missed some details,

 but that's what happens when I wait too long to write about it.

 To sum it up we've had fun, we needed it and

We're lucky to have such great family.

Oh the madness...

And we're off...

to Idaho to see Sam and Kaelee get Married

 in the Idaho Falls Temple tomorrow. 

Stay in Idaho, see family... leave Monday

go  North and over through Montana,

 to get to Spokane and stay with Sam's new family.

go to Neurologist Tuesday morning.

go to Neurotherapist Tuesday evening

Drive home

Crash into bed.

We'll Talk again soon. 

Vacation

We went camping near here:

Mt. Rainier.

We stayed in La Wis Wis campground.

If you sat in our campsite this it what you'd see:

So much green!

The weather channel gave us the idea the weather would be rainy and cold.

But this is what we got:

Mostly sunny. Temperatures in the 50's-70's

I was still chilly, Joseph was just right... most of the time.

We went into Mt. Rainier National Forest to hike.

We stopped and saw this:

Sunbeam creek.

We were heading to the Grove of the Patriarchs

It is an easy hike, about 1.1 miles round trip.

You hike down a dirt trail

That had a couple enormous trees that had fallen over the trail

Luckily Joseph is a muscle man, and lifted it for us to cross.

After the trail you come to a suspension bridge,

Only one person can cross at a time.

Here's Joseph at the end.

After you cross the bridge you are in the Grove,

the trees in there are thousands of years old and HUGE.

When we were done hiking we had our sack lunches, 

and drove to Paradise,

No, really that's the name of the city.

It's the city at the base of Mt Rainier.

And Mt. Rainier got a little shy when we got there.

Seriously, I have a picture and the mountain is completely behind the fog.

This picture was taken on our way back from Paradise.

We also got some great Views of the Tatoosh Mountians.

They weren't so shy.

And here I am back at our campsite.

Don't judge, I was camping, and cold.

 And it's a self portrait.

We had a wonderful weekend, 

Loved the fresh mountain air.

We had lots of quiet time together.

It was our first real camping trip, alone.

And pretty amazing for a quick trip on a budget.

We're ready to face the world once more.

Going to disappear!!

We need to disappear for a while. 

We will commune with nature.

Maybe meditate a little. 

Take a hike around the grove of Patriarchs.

Take in Nature's beauty.

Make Smores.

Tell Ghost stories.

Dance in the rain.

Relax relax relax.

Listen to audio books.

Snuggle lots.

Take time to be alone, 

no schedule to keep, 

no phones (we will have our phones, but they won't be on some of the time) 

No paperwork, no appointments, no work. 

We are going camping this weekend. 

Just the 2 of us.

Near Mt. Rainier.

It should be nice and cool (like in the 50's),

so I will be cold and Joseph will be just right.

We planned this a few weeks ago. 

Got good reservations at a campground, and near the restrooms. 

We've been gathering our camp gear,

 and purchasing the odds and ends we still needed. 

Looking forward to it! 

My boss  teased me about this trip and asked how much work I would be missing ( I won't miss a day!)

 but he okay'd letting me take two days off for Sam & Kaelee's wedding,

 and Joseph's appointments  in Spokane next month. (all in one weekend!!)

Life continues to be a little crazy but somehow these things all work themselves out.

Expect photos.

:)

High Flying

We knew when we set out to go to our Idaho home it was going to be an adventure, we've never flown together before, and we would be taking syringes on the plane. The drive was quite uneventful, we've made the trip to Spokane many many times. Airport Security, was another story. It was the standard take off your shoes send all your stuff through. But they took Joseph's white cane, and then "BAG CHECK!", the bag with the syringes. Like I said earlier we were prepared, the travel kit for the medication had an ID card in it, we also had a doctors note. What I wasn't prepared for was three people snooping around in the bag, reading and re-reading the ID card (like it was in a foreign language or something) and shooting us nasty looks. Is this what diabetics go through, what about people who carry epinephrine pens? They gave me really nasty looks when trying to speed things up, I told them the note in the bag is from his neurologist. Man, I felt like a criminal. And they took FOR.EV.ER! Finally they told me that they were going to send it through again, without the medicine pack and we were free to go. Luckily we were there crazy early.

We were boarded as VIPs, well Joseph was, I was his " and party".  We had assistance entering and exiting the plane and were escorted through tunnels and rode in pass code, fingerprint- reading elevators, it was intense. Our favorite assistant was a man with down syndrome, he took his job very seriously. He had a strong grip on Joseph from his first step off the plane, he led  us through said tunnels and elevators and then to our next gate. He didn't let me help.  He was so kind as to kick out a couple of elderly ladies from the handicap seats, so Joseph and I had seats, at the very crowded Seattle Airport. Unfortunately our efforts to stop these ladies and give them their seats back was in vain, they got away too quickly. We weren't ready to be waiting at our gate, we just wanted to know where it was, there was plenty of time to use the facilities and look around a little bit. Alas, those dear sweet ladies were long gone, and we were left feeling bad they lost their seats.

I would tell you how turbulent some of the flights were that day. Let's just say that it was a really good thing that I took some medicine for motion sickness! I don't get carsick or motion sick usually, but I guess that I do get airsick, especially on small planes. Boise was the worst, it was really bumpy and then when we landed, we bounced back into the air and then landed sideways. (I know, I was watching out the window, and feeling ill)

All in all a very quick (compared to driving), and successful trip to Idaho.

Our Plane in Idaho Falls.

J&S

All our bags are packed

We're ready to go.

This time tomorrow we'll be in Idaho.

Off for a big adventure,

we've never flown together before.

And he's never flown blind. 

Travel plans are set, 

we're all prepared.

I hope it goes smoothly, 

we have to take syringes on the plane!?

(we got a doctor's note to cover that a month ago)

We'll see our Idaho Family tomorrow.

See you in a week.

Love,

J&S

It went down like this... (short story style)

(This is the true story, thanks for your comments, and as you read you will notice that I incorporated all of them into my little story, look for them)

It was a chilly morning and in the slight breeze fog hung thick. As we departed for our journey that day we knew we would arrive our destination with time to spare, we had plenty of time and we had everything we would need. Little did we know the events that would unfold on our way. The trip started out well enough, my handsome companion Joseph and I were alone, and enjoying our time together. Julius (our car) kept us warm, comfortable and entertained us by playing lovely tunes, a soundtrack for our jaunt to Spokane (my birthplace). We were heading to see a magic man, called a neurologist, who looks at brains.

Remember the fog? Fog is a funny fellow, he loves to play tricks on us poor mortals, you know. He would tease, and leave for moments just to return to us full and thick the next. His best trick though is to persuade you to think you are moving slow when in fact if you aren't careful you could accidentally engage warp speed and miss your destination completely, or leave the planet entirely. Luckily, that was not the case with us, however we were traveling much faster than that of the posted speed limit signs. (And in the right direction, we didn't get lost.) I looked down, and discovered my error, but it was too late, curse you fog!

Without my knowledge a police officer had clocked me doing 81 in a 70. He turned on his spinning red, white, and blue lights, signaling me to pull over to the side of the road. I did so. This short, round, kind faced man approached my window and checked my papers (you know insurance, registration, license). He left and went back to his squad car. I was upset, can you blame me, really? The magic man only waits so long and if we were late he may not see us. The officer noticed my distress.... I must stop to explain that there was no crying, wailing or gnashing of teeth present from myself. However the officer was so moved at my demeanor that he called another officer to join us.

The man that came was a tall, and slender man with a very large hat. He approached my window much like the round man, and he asked if I would exit the vehicle and speak to him. I did. He was so very sweet, I was led to stand beside him out behind our car, on the side of a cold and long highway. Things then unexpectedly took a serious turn that held me in complete surprise, apparently my emotional response to the first officer alarmed him so much that it must have seemed necessary for this conversation (or something very close) to take place :

"I wanted to talk to you and make sure that you are doing okay, I was informed that you were pretty upset when you were pulled over. Are you doing okay?"
"Yes, I am fine."
"Are things going alright? Are you in a fight or something? Does your husband ever hurt you?"
Shock and bewilderment hit me, full force. And must have read on my face as I responded,
"What? No. Never. My husband is wonderful and wouldn't ever do anything to hurt me.
"Well we just wanted to check and make sure you didn't need help or anything."
"Thank you I appreciate it, I was just upset about being pulled over."
"So, where are you guys headed?"
"We are headed to see a nuerologist in Spokane."
"A nuerologist huh, so why are you seeing a nuerologist in Spokane?"
"My husband has MS and has had a recently had a flare up and he needs to see this nuerologist, who specializes in treating MS"
"Wow, MS that must be upsetting for you"
"Yes. sir."
"And that must be pretty tough to deal with."
"Yes, yes it really is."
"Now that we know what is going on, you are free to wait inside your vehicle." "Thank you, Officer."

Shortly after this conversation, and after rejoining my loving, albeit worried husband in the car, the round officer approached my window. He took pity on us in our situation, and gave me a ticket for going 75+, thus reducing the fine by $50. (And just so you know, I have already paid my ticket,my first real ticket -that wasn't totally bogus! Seeing as how I obviously earned it.) We continued on our way at a much slower pace, as you can imagine. That little stop cost us 30 minutes,and $93. If it weren't for a handy cell phone, we wouldn't have bean able to call the office of the magic man, and let them know we were going to be late.

Following all of this, we did indeed make it to see the neurologist, and had a productive appointment with him. You should know that Spokane is a busy place, with many one way streets, but for a talented driver like myself and no immediate need for crazy turns, donuts or swirly maneuvers, we found our destination, and also a cute Italian restaurant in which to dine and toast our birthday. Then off to DQ where we got caught up eating ice cream, because it is the best treat in the whole world.

-S

(comments please on my awesome story!)

Thank you Thank you thankyou

I reserved my spot for the FSA conference and I am so so so excited to go. When I realized that it was located so close I felt a real need to go. I am so happy that I was able to make this happen. I wish that Joe could come with me but my schedule is much easier to finagle (nice word huh?) I am going to print out some business cards with my contact info and hope to make some more amazing adoption contacts. I will attend a variety of classes on a plethora of different adoption topics and take copious amounts of notes to share with Joe and you blog readers of course.

Did I tell you I am excited?!

Thanks to all who offered me a place to stay. I am overwhelmed and grateful. I hope that Joe and I can plan a fun trip so we can see you all, I forgot how many people we know in Oregon. Lunch sometime somewhere in or near Portland anyone? (probably after the new year, we have holidays coming up so soon! Can you believe it?)

Thanks so much! :)

-S

We're Coming to Kennewick

I get done with school on the 18th of July. We will probably be driving through the night and be in Kennewick on the 19th then we will be traveling back to rexburg on the 30th!! Just thought that we'd give ya'll a heads up we'd be coming that way, we'd love to see everyone.