Sam came to town!

Sam is on his much-needed, month-long summer vacation from culinary school. He came to Provo to visit me a little over a week ago... and it was, of course, a great time. I hadn't seen Sam since Christmas, and sadly, this might be the only time I see him until next Christmas (or at least in the fall sometime), since we live on opposite sides of the country and are both in school!

Anyhow, he was able to catch up with some of his friends who are still in Utah... old mission buddies, old roommates and ward friends, etc. Also, I had a chance to introduce him to some of my friends, too. We got to go to my friend Tiffani's house in Fruit Heights, UT and her family was full of questions for Sam about his experiences in culinary school and his future plans. With a little prodding, he even baked us an impromptu cake, which was awesome! Tiffani's mom tried to get us to come over again to let Sam wow us with more cooking, but alas, there just wasn't enough time!

Another highlight of the trip was floating the Provo River. Although originally we were going to try to invite some friends to join us in floating down the river, in Provo Canyon, on inner tubes, it ended up being Sam and I, which was a lot of fun since we had some good brother/sister bonding time. Although the water was a bit cold (the small rapids definitely surprised us a few times) and I got a couple of scratches from branches, it was well worth it! The view from the river, with the mountains on both sides of us, was amazing.

The final interesting highlight was that Sam got to stay with some friends of mine in, yes, his old house in Provo! Although he was staying on the top floor instead of the basement apartment (affectionately called "the pipes"), he got to relive his BYU 162nd Ward memories a bit. I live in some apartments that are a part of his old ward... and weirdly enough, he said he home-taught some girls who lived in my current apartment! Small world.

Unfortunately, I don't have any more pictures (what was I thinking?!) but we both agreed that the trip went too fast! Hopefully I can make it out to NY before he packs up and leaves the CIA in February!

Llama Fest

So, one of the unique Provo summer experiences... Llamafest. At the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, they had the annual Lllamafest. Emily asked me to go, and although at first I was skeptical as to whether it would be worth it, we quickly discovered that this would be memorable.

The Hare Krishna temple is beautiful. Very unique amidst the Utah landscape... we went inside and listened to a member of the temple answer questions about the faith and the meaning of different things. Very interesting! I still don't know a ton about this religion, but I'd like to read more to be more informed.

And, the llamas! There was a fenced-in area full of wandering llamas... and you could buy food to feed them. Emily and I just walked around and pet them. This one llama seemed to like me! He seemed to always be looking my way and walking towards me. I took a picture with the little guy/girl.



Anyhow, there were also llama races, an obstacle course for the llamas, dancing, music, food... and good times. Definitely a fun experience!

Maybe tennis class in the Utah summer wasn't the best idea...

So, I'm currently taking my last PE credit... beginning tennis. My tennis days were short-lived... I took tennis lessons for 1 or 2 years in elementary school, which is no surprise since I pretty much played every sport at some point in my childhood. However, my tennis career came to an abrupt end when I broke my arm at tennis camp one summer. We were doing some sort of drill, and I was running backwards on the court, and then I fell right on my wrist. Ow. The only good thing that came out of that was my cool pink cast that my Dad made for my arm.

Anyhow, I've once again decided to pick up the tennis racket. I knew that summers in Utah were hot, and man, I haven't been disappointed! Seriously, I'm not used to avoiding the outdoors in summer, but I really can't be outside in the middle of the day except for walking from one place to another. Anyhow, I figured that I should take my tennis class in the late afternoon, since 8 AM sounded pretty early and I figured that the temperature would cool down by then. Not really. The sun stays out longer and brighter here than in WI, and basically, it's still blazing hot at 5:15-7.

At Monday's class, I tried to move minimally when I didn't need to, but I think I must have been dehydrated, because I began to feel nauseated. That's happened a few times when I've been at soccer try-outs or somewhere where I've been working out really hard... but considering we're not really doing much running in this class, I think it must have been more of a heat-related thing. Anyhow, I felt pretty pathetic for feeling so sick... I almost had to sit down, and we were just doing some simple drills and games! I felt like one of those people crawling in the Saharan Desert. We all were pretty lifeless by the end of class. I better bust out the giant Nalgene water bottle next time.

4th of July in Utah!

Emily and I got some pecan and apple pie at the Freedom Festival days in Provo. Nothing like apple pie on the 4th of July!

I loved this sign! Basically, it says that if you eat three giant sandwiches in less than 25 minutes, you get them for free! They were huge sandwiches...

Hanging out with some people before the fireworks.


After the big fireworks, we went to Emily's house and had a campfire and lit sparklers! I hadn't done that in a long time... to be honest I once got a little burned from one when I was little and ever since, I had always been a little wary of them. But, as you can see, Camilla, Susan and I were having plenty of fun sparkler times!

This is one of the first times that I haven't been in Milwaukee for the fourth. It was a different experience... they seem to be much more into the 4th here in Utah... and I think they are more openly patriotic... much more festival stuff going on. But, it's been fun to celebrate in a different part of the country... I love the U.S.!

Bloody Foot Syndrome Returns

So, way back when, I wrote on the blog about how I walked around Madrid in my new shoes and got really bloody feet. I had to go to a pharmacy and buy a bunch of band-aids and sit on a curb and wipe my feet down in front of crowds of people. Then, to avoid further damage, I had to wear white running socks under my dress shoes for the rest of the night.

I had a relapse last weekend.

I went to meet up with an old roommate, Sarah, and her boyfriend, friends from church in Milwaukee, up in Salt Lake City. We ate lunch in The Garden Room, this good restaurant on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Afterwards, we walked around Temple Square a bit and then went to get a tour of the Beehive House, Brigham Young's House. As we walked in to start the tour, done by two friendly sister missionaries, I bumped my foot against a wooden pew. It looked like it would be ok, although it had sliced my toe a bit. Ten minutes later, my toe was bleeding profusely, creating a pool of blood on my flip-flop. I tried to ignore it, but I was afraid of getting blood on the historic carpet! I didn't want to have to explain that one to the prophet someday. Anyhow, I had to interrupt the tour and one of the sister missionaries took me to get some tissue paper to wipe my foot down. As I walked out, the fellow tour participants gave me sympathetic smiles and comments, "Wow, those benches must have been hard!" Um, slightly embarrassing. Anyhow, I hope I don't have any more incidents! :-)