That one time we got robbed

The day after Thanksgiving, Peter and I headed down to Provo to meet up with Krista, Kate and Ryan to go to Sammy's wedding in Arizona. We left our car in the parking lot at Kate and Ryan's apartment and rode in their car. 

When we got back, I looked inside our car and saw that the center console was open (where we had $500 worth of sunglasses). I asked Peter if he had forgotten to close it. He said he must have, but oh well. We noticed also, that the passenger door was unlocked and there were papers from the console on that side on the floor. Upon further investigation, we found that our sunglasses were gone. There was no sign of a break-in really, because older honda civics are really easy to get into. 

The Lindon/Orem police were SUPER helpful, not. After the officer finally stopped instead of speeding past us twice and leaving the complex without circling around again to actually try to find us, he didn't even listen to us. I had told him how we had parked our car there for the weekend, and later when we asked him what we could to do to try to get our glasses back, he said, "Well, just look out your window. If you wake up in the middle of the night, look out your window and see if there is anyone suspicious around." Umm, thanks sir, but I'm prettttty sure that I can't see for 50 miles.

So, to all you who think Rose Park is sketch, we haven't had any problems with theft in our 2 1/2 years here, but the one weekend we leave our car in Orem, and we are out our favorite sunglasses!

One point for public transportation

Since moving to Salt Lake, I have become very familiar with public transportation. It has provided some of the funniest, scariest ie. when a man was foaming at the mouth and no one was doing anything about it, sketchiest experiences of my life thus far. 

I rode trax to work for a few months and walked about 6 blocks in the snow to get to and from the mall. 

I rode the bus up to school for a few months before losing faith in the fact that the bus would actually come as scheduled. 

This semester I had taken to driving to 9th East and taking the trax from there. It reduces my travel time by about an hour each way and my headaches by half. Cigarette smoke doesn't exactly agree with me.

But, since it is winter and Peter can't ride his motorcycle to work anymore, I am back to relying solely on public transportation.

Three days ago, Peter dropped me off at work at 6:30 am in 24 degree weather. I had to ride the bus home at 2:30 pm. I walked a block over and waited for a few minutes. All went according to plan until my transfer point. I waited for about 45 minutes for my bus that never came. Apparently its route changed and I was unaware. Lucky for me, I am not a newbie to public transportation, so I knew what to do so I could still get home, but adding 45 minutes to an already ridiculously long route home from only 4.1 miles from my house.

My faith in public transit was partially restored today as I went from my house to IMC with no glitches to speak of. I had knots in my stomach as I waited for the bus, trying to decide what I would do if it didn't show up, or if it was late, because I only 7 minutes to transfer from the bus to trax, and if I didn't catch that trax, I would be late, which would obviously be the end of the world. I'm not a worrier at all.... 

It still took me about an hour and a half to go 10.8 miles, but at least I got there! 

Washington D.C.

We only had two days in D.C., but boy did we make the most of it. Late to bed and early to rise was our motto on this trip. We had to pack it in!

Anna picked us up from the airport, made us some lunch and sent us on our way with her awesome VIP pass to see the sights! We went on a hop on, hop off trolley tour and a duck tour. We got to see all the monuments and some other pretty awesome stuff in a short amount time, thanks to Anna.

 The view of the Washington Monument from the trolley. It was closed for renovation, so we couldn't go inside.

This is us in front of the White House. Not that you can tell. Thank you nice Asian man who took our picture.

Oh, there's the White House

 This is the duck tour we went on. We drove on the road with it and then floated down the Potomac. Just a bit of anxiety overtook me as we headed in to the river.

 Peter steering. A dream come true for my boat loving husband. And the three little boys on the tour.

 The Pentagon

They handed out these duck whistles. We officially made it to ultimate tourist status with those things. And, apparently your eyes must be squinty and weird while pretending to blow one.

 The National Cathedral was amazing.

The Capitol Building

We also saw the Library of Congress. Did you know that they have one copy of every single book ever published in the whole world? That is a whole lot of books. 

One of Peter's favorite things was seeing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was pretty amazing, almost spiritual, to see such important documents, but to realize they are just that, pieces of paper. I'm really grateful for those pieces of paper.

Other highlights included the Lincoln Memorial, the memorials for World War II and the Vietnam War, Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. 

I am so glad that we got to go see these pieces of our American history. We truly have a great nation, even with its many flaws.

Once again, I didn't take any pictures with family, but while we were there we were able to spend time with Anna, Ben, Nikki, Michael, Ada and baby James. Ben and Nikki and family came down to Anna's place the first night we were there for dinner. We also made delicious caramel apples. The next night, Anna picked us up from the city and we headed to Ben and Nikki's house for dinner. We just played and played with those sweet little ones. We don't see these Joneses too much considering they live across the country, so it was such a treat to spend time with them! Ben was so nice to take us to our bus stop early Thursday morning so we could make our way up to NYC!

Wisconsin

Peter and I finally made it out to visit his parents in Wisconsin during my fall break. We were there for about 4 days and we packed it in. We picked a great weekend to go, or the U picked a great weekend for fall break, but either way it was great timing. It was General Conference weekend, so they didn't have their regular schedule of meetings so we got to spend more time with them. To make things even better, the leaves were changing and the colors were spectacular.

We got there on Friday night and headed to Los Besos for dinner to celebrate Peter's mom's birthday which was a few weeks earlier. It was a really fun restaurant with loud Hispanic music and yummy food. For dessert, we headed over to the famous Kopp's Custard. It was so yummy! 

 This is the view we had as we came in to Wisconsin. We couldn't even see the other side of Lake Michigan from the air. It is huge.

Saturday morning before Conference, Peter and I headed out on a run. We were training for a half marathon in a few weeks and we needed to get a few long runs in during our vacation. We didn't exactly get a long run in, only about 6 miles since I didn't realize that we would be going to the church to watch Conference and I couldn't just be in my pjs with wet hair, but it sure was beautiful. We ran along a river and it was really amazing.

We watched Conference with the missionaries and some members from the area and then we went to Kopp's for lunch. We had to try the huge hamburgers, of course, and get the obligatory picture of it. 

Then we drove through downtown Milwaukee, which was really interesting. It is the strangest thing to me that there are so many trees in the city. It makes it so much more pretty. We even saw Rapunzel's Tower.

After the second session of Conference, we had dinner with the Tuft's, who are from Peter's ward in Monroe. Sister Tuft is from Wisconsin and they were out visiting family. The boys headed to Priesthood and I stayed back with Peter's mom and Sister Tuft. 

Sunday we went to the two sessions of Conference again and then they took us to see the mission office, which is in this really cute town. It reminded me of Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls. They even had a similar town square and gazebo. It was very charming. We saw the transfer board. I should have taken a picture. It was quite overwhelming.

Monday morning we went on another run. This time we ran through the Botanical Garden that is down the street. I could seriously get addicted to running in such beautiful places. Redwood Road is just not appealing compared to these views. We got a little bit lost, but that just added to the adventure. 

After our run, Peter's mom took us to see a lighthouse. It was so beautiful. Also, Lake Michigan is so big that it has a tide. They have surfing competitions there. I didn't even know that was possible on a lake. It was super windy as we walked along the shore, but it was amazing.

 See? Windy.

After lunch we went to Holy Hill, which is where they have this really old, beautiful church and you can climb to the top. I think there were something like 147 steps. The view was magnificent. It was really windy at the top, though, so I could only stand to be up there for a few minutes. It was a little too scary for me.

The view from the top of the church.

I made Peter's dad stop the car on our way out so I could take these pictures. So glad I did.

We flew out Tuesday morning to head to D.C. We had such a great time with Peter's parents and exploring Wisconsin. I was almost convinced to move there. It was like being in the mountains all the time, without hiking to get there! 

Where are Peter's parents in all these pictures, you ask?

Well, I'm terrible and didn't take any with our camera.

They really were there. 

Peter's mom's camera has the proof.