Sunsplash!

Yesterday I got the idea to go to Sunsplash (a water theme park that used to be the cool thing to go to when I was 10 years old). Anyway, in deciding who to go with I thought my nephew Gage would probably have a blast and be the most fun to watch. My roommate Bekah jumped on board and invited her nephew Kaden. So today I picked Gage up we spent a day in the sun together. It really was so much fun, I loved spending the one on one time with him. He was fearless and was the absolute best riding buddy on those slides!

My new toy!

Who says adults can't buy themself a toy every now and again. After weeks of visiting multiple scooter shops around the valley and making numerous calls to craigslist sellers, I decided on this lovely scooter. I am so excited to start driving it to work since the hospital is less than a mile from my house. I know I know, why don't I just walk to work? Well, that would just take too much effort and why do it when you can show up riding a barbie looking scooter!

Out of town adventures 2010...and the year isn't close to being over!

I'm pretty sure this stage of my life is my favorite so far. Yeah things are sometimes more complicated (or at least I make them complicated) and I'm expected to work and pay bills but I'm fairly confident I'm living the dream. I work three nights a week at a job I enjoy and come home to a couple of very cute and drama-free roommates (pictures to follow). I've learned the art of scheduling myself at work so I never have to take a day off and I still get to leave town for some fun vacations. Here is a recap of a few this year so far starting with the most recent.

Big Bear Cabin in Colorado:

One of my best friends in high school, Angie Johnson, has a cabin right outside Durango, Colorado. I just spent the last four days four wheeling, learning to fly fish, lounging in hot springs, discovering very small towns in the mountains and eating at their diners, going on nature hikes, playing croquet, cutting down trees, cuddling up in blankets next to a real fireplace (no gas involved), window shopping in Durango, and just enjoyed every second.

This was the view we had whenever we drove anywhere. Absolutely beautiful!

When we were at Walmart buying the food for the cabin we came across these little gems and decided it was a must to have nightgowns. This is next to the real fireplace mentioned above.

I have a bigger respect for life pre-chainsaw. I was just about spent after a few swings and it took a couple of big guys an hour to get the tree down. It's fun to say that I helped chop it down.
We took a 20 minute fourwheel ride up this mountain and had a picnic at the top. Some of the people rode in this ranger but I prefered the four wheeler. By the time we got home I was caked with dirt, it was totally worth it:)

I couldn't believe this! There was a pipe coming out of the mountain and it had the coldest, freshest tasting water ever. I think by the end of the trip people were annoyed by me because I made them stop every time we passed it. It's not my fault that it was right on the way to everything!

Huntington Beach:
My roommate Bekah had to go to a wedding in California so we decided to make a weekend excursion out of it and go with her. We left at 3am Saturday morning and arrived just in time for breakfast in Huntington. We all fell asleep laying on the beach and some of the girls are still recovering from their sunburns to this day. We shopped the main street in Huntington and was able to walk on the beach at sunset. That was a good day!

Here are my two roommates! Sarah Steiner on the left and Bekah Parker on the right. I love these girls and I love how we all have coordinating towels:)

This picture was taken pre-sunburn when everyone is still so happy. The two other girls in the picture is Amy and Angela Lindford.

San Francisco:

Three things that were on my bucket list was to 1) Go to San Francisco 2) Eat french toast at Sear's Fine Restaraunt and 3) Take a picture by the bridge. It just so happens that Andrew's family lives in the bay area and his nephew was being baptized so an incredibly fun trip just seemed logical. I loved spending the weekend with his family but my favorite day was definately the day just he and I went to the city. We rode the trolley everywhere, shopped downtown, ate clam chowder and Fisherman's Warf, shared a Ghiradelli chocolate sundae at the factory and ,of course, took pictures by the bridge and ate French Toast. It will be a day that I can't imagine forgetting.

Just a picture hanging off a trolley, loved this place!

The guy that took this picture was pretty funny. I think he was Indian (from India) and after we asked how it looked, he said "Really good, but (as he looked at Andrew) your shoes are burning." We laughed pretty hard and come to think of it, this is probably only funny to us:)

A trip to Idaho and another trip to California can be added to this list. I'm hoping to take advantage of this time of my life and continue to plan some fun vacations.

Home improvement time!

It has finally started to cool off a little bit at nights so one night I got a little ambitous and decided to paint my garage floor. I don't think I realized what I was getting myself into. My grandpa moves frequently and every time he moves into a new house he will paint his own garage floor. Let's just say I have a new respect for my grandpa. Three nights and two gallons of paint later I'm finally finished! I wouldn't call it a professional looking floor but not too shabby for a beginner:)

BEFORE

AFTER- Taaaadaaah!

Here I go...

So I've decided officially that I will be running in the PF Changs Rock 'n Roll Marathon on January 17th. By marathon I clearly mean half marathon, c'mon I'm not that crazy. This will be my first running adventure and will be a fun thing to cross of my bucket list. A few friends from work are going to run it with me and our official training starts tomorrow. I just bought a new pair of running shoes and I'm ready to go! I figure if I post my goal on a blog and pay my dues to the marathon then I can't back out:)

Price is Right

"Carly Wood come on down, you're the next contestant on the PRICE IS RIGHT!" The crowd went wild, high fives all over the place, a lot of jumping and running, it was absolute madness! Hmmm... at least it would have gone that way had it worked out the way I hoped:) My two cousins Jared and Blake and I had the whole price is right experience today and it was quite a ride. Blake had made some rockin "ASU loves Drew Carry" shirts and we drove over to Cali Monday morning. So we woke up at 5:30 this morning to go stand in line at CBS studios. We already had tickets but apparently they don't guarantee a spot, we found that out the hard way. We got there and there were hundreds of people already lined up, some camped out all night! They only had room for 300 in the studio and all of the very loud groups you see had an automatic place at the show. We sat around for hours holding onto the hope that we'll get in. When we just about gave up, a group of ASU students showed up, thank goodness! They happen to have 3 spots in their group so we just pretended we were their best friends. Needless to say, I think there were some bitter people around us that we snuck our way in, but hey, arizonans have to stick together! The people in charge wrote my name on the official Price is Right name tag and it was sweet. They took us in groups of about 15 and talked with us and from there they decided who gets on. Blake, Jared, and I were all ashamed at our performance, we just didn't shine! After 7 hours of waiting, the show started and it is way different then what people see on TV, they would redo scenes and in between each game is a waiting period but it's was fun because Drew Carry would talk to us. He's a pretty funny guy. The show airs on November 10th and I'm pretty sure I got a solid 2 seconds total of TV time. Don't think I won't DVR it and watch it, I'll take what I can get!

Just waiting for the show to start in our sweet shirts!

My official name tag, why am I still so excited about it?

Ok ok, I'm almost done, I know I'm going blogging crazy!
The day before we went to the beach and then I got to experience Hollywood for the first time! We toured the wax museum, the genis book of world records museum, and the ripley's museum. The museums were ok but going through them with Blake and Jared was a blast. We laughed so hard I cried, what a memorable night! Here are some pictures!

It would be a trip to Hollywood if there wasn't a star picture. Personally I think Tim Mcgraw and I look very good together:)


Morgan Freeman was the most realistic sculpture at the wax museum. Dang how do they do that?


This guys was crazy. He would move and look like he was a wax statue, when someone would want a picture with him he would scare them half to death. We found ourselves just staring at him and waiting for him to jump at people!

Two posts in one day?!?! I'm exhausted!!!!

In a nutshell...

I know it's hard to believe but after 9 months of deserting this blog I thought I should turn over a new leaf and update it here and there. Too much has happened for me to write all the details but here are some highlights...
1) I bought a new house and with the help of my dad and his crews and a very helpful real estate agent (my mom), this place looks pretty snazzy, I love it! No roommates right now, I haven't found the right one yet.
2) I've been able to go on some dang fun vacations including a Mexican cruise, Rocky Point, Las Vegas, Idaho, and a very fun California trip which will be explained in the next blog.
3) Found out I will be getting a new niece from my sister-in-law/sister Nicole and a new little one from my older sister Rocky.
4) Met some really great people, dated a great guy, and made some fun friends.
5) I hit my one year mark as an ICU nurse. I am still learning like crazy and I absolutely love the people I work with. They make it so I'm excited to go to work, thanks guys!
Whew, I'm sure I've forgotten things but there's the update:)