Episode 52: In Which Jessica Attempts More Regularity in Blogging and Gets New Shoes

Well, its been another week and another weekend. June started and the rain stopped. I'm kind of sad but at the same time, it was drowning my poor garden. Of course, when its raining the birds are half as likely to find your strawberries. I think I might hate birds more than I hate snails. Unfortunately, you can't just kill a bird and not have it eat away at you for the rest of your life like a snail. Too bad they don't have consciences like human beings do...then they might die of guilt for eating the strawberries you were so excited about.

I'm sorry, I got carried away. Let's see, what happened this last week?

Well, the first weekend in June...which I am well aware was NOT this last week but deal with it k? Andrew and I went on vacation!

Where did we go on vacation to?

Lehi, UT.

Where is Lehi, UT you ask?

About 30 minutes north of here.

What is in Lehi, UT you ask?

Ummmmm...Cabelas?

That's right, Lehi is not really a vacation destination but its also not Provo and that is what we were counting on.

Since I get home earlier than Andrew everyday, and since our stuff was already packed, I went crazy cleaning up the apartment. My mom used to tell me to clean my room before we went on vacation and I thought she was crazy. Why would I do that? Well now, I'm all grown up and I know why. No one wants to come home from vacation to a house that needs cleaning!

We left as soon as Andrew got home from work that Friday and drove up to Lehi. After checking into the hotel, we were hungry so we walked across the street the Teppanyaki restaurant. As soon as you walk into a Teppanyaki restaurant in the middle of Lehi, UT you know not to get your hopes up, especially since Teppanyaki restaurants here are usually called "Japanese steakhouse". What? There were steakhouses in Japan?! Why was I not informed of this!? The food there can't even be considered REMOTELY Japanese. I would venture to say Tex-Mex is more authentic cuisine than this place, but it was still a lot of fun and slightly cheaper than Beni-hana. :)

I got Yakisoba (aka spaghetti with teriyaki sauce on it) and Sukiyaki (thinly sliced steak that has nothing to do with sukiyaki at all) but it was still good. Andrew got fried rice and filet mignon and salmon. When he got his filet mignon I stole a piece and the chef warned me that if I ate it I wouldn't like my food...and he was right. The filet mignon was soooooo tender it literally melted in my mouth. I was hard pressed to finish my regular steak after that.

It was lots of fun watching the chef throw his spatula around and light things on fire and stuff like that. At the end of the meal he flipped shrimp into everyone's mouth. Not only did I catch mine, I ate it too. I mean, it was already in my mouth, what am I supposed to do? Spit it out? So down it went and thankfully, down it stayed. =P

After dinner we changed into our swimsuits and sat in the hot tub for a while. Andrew alternated between the hot tub and the pool but even though the pool was indoors, I didn't feel like shocking my body like that and I stayed in the hot tub.

After we were sufficiently relaxed, Andrew took a nap while I took a shower. After I was done with that we drove up to the Timpanogos Temple. That's the one that we got married in! It was about 11pm so the temple was clearly closed, but we sat in the car in the parking lot talking. It was so nice.

Since it was past midnight when we got back to the hotel, we went to bed and woke up the next morning in time for free breakfast. I think I've only gotten up in time for free breakfast like 3 times in my whole life, its not a regular occurrence =P

After packing up and checking out, Andrew and I headed up the freeway to Cabela's! Cabela's is really cool, but still a little far from home to just go to randomly, but since we were in the area... =P

Andrew and I spent a couple hours wandering around Cabela's. He looked at guns, I dashed his hopes and dreams of owning them. Not because I don't want him to have a gun, he already has one...but because no matter how you look at it, we can't afford the 1200 dollar shotgun. Sorry. =P

We looked at backpacks, sleeping bags, and camp stoves....couldn't afford those either. We looked at knives and fishing poles...couldn't afford those either. But it was still fun to just look. And at the end, we were able to afford fudge. :)

Andrew found these sunglasses on sale at Wal-mart for $20.
Originally, they were 70 :)

After we were done at Cabela's we headed home. We stopped at Wal-mart to get a chimney starter for the barbecue and then we just kind of relaxed at home. After taking a short nap, we got up and made hamburger patties because we had friends coming over for a barbecue.

We barbecued hamburgers and played Ticket to Ride afterwards. It was really fun. I'm glad we have board games and friends to play them with because without them, my life would be empty. =P

Monday, for Family Home Evening and in honor of our "Almost Anniversary" (meaning almost 6 months since were married and almost a year since Andrew proposed) we took a break from fixing the car and Andrew made roast beef tenderloin. He's been wanting to for a long time now but do you know how much a tenderloin roast is at Costco (which is NORMALLY the only place you can get it?) 96 dollars! That's how much! But every once in a while Macey's has roasts in for 7 or 8 dollars a pound and so we got one.

I made a wilted spinach salad and we bought sparkling cider. It was a lovely meal...especially because Andrew made it and not me. :)

Due to scheduling conflicts we actually didn't get to work on the car that much and when we did...we kept finding we had forgotten an essential part or tool so it was a good week off...except that we had to do laundry. Gross. Laundry and dishes...2 things that are NEVER done. This time we put it off long enough that for dinner we made a quick yakisoba bento and ate it at the laundromat. mmmmmmmmm. :)

Last weekend, we got up early to head to the REI in Sandy. They were having their "Garage sale" and selling stuff for cheap. We went to look for a backpack for me but we got there too late and they were all taken. We did find a great pair of hiking shoes though and honestly, I'm glad we got those instead of the backpack. They will allow me to do things and go places more immediately. Had we gotten a backpack, I would still need shoes or the backpack would do me no good.

Andrew and I are looking at hiking Mt. Nebo. It's the tallest in the Wasatch Mountains. Timp is the second tallest by just a tiny bit....like not even 1000 feet. We did that one last September but I didn't have good hiking boots then and swore I would never summit another mountain without them.

After coming home, we had some time to kill before the service project we signed up for so we played frisbee  outside and then went on a bike ride. It was GORGEOUS outside. We came home, ate mac and cheese for lunch, put on sunscreen and went to our service project.

We volunteered with Habitat for Humanities. It was a good way to kinda get to know people in our ward and there is nothing like physical labor to make you feel good. We tore up the existing flooring and Andrew got to crawl under the house and jack up the support beam so we could redo the foundation. He got nice and dirty =p

After that, we came home, showered, and headed off to the Japanese session at the temple. It's the first time we've been to it together since the first time we saw each other after our missions. It was kinda funny because we were the only white people there. We even ran into the Hosoya's son. The Hosoya's were a very nice family in Koiwa (the area where Andrew and I met). Their son has lived in Utah for a long time now so we never met him, until  Saturday. It's a small world.

The Japanese session was HARD. My Japanese kinda sucks now anyhow....but next time I think I'll get the headset because it is NOT basic Japanese that they use. My head was spinning by the time the whole thing was over. =P

Sunday, Andrew had to work so I had to go to church alone. I hate those days. But Andrew was home when I got home and Nate came over soon after. We made chicken pot pie and Andrew practiced his drink mixing. It was a very nice weekend. :)