Utah Trip

Living far away from family can be tough for many different reasons.  Every time I see one of them calling on my caller ID, I can't keep from smiling.  I'm always excited to hear from them.  It may sound weird, but I always feel like I need to answer the phone...I mean you just never know if it's an emergency.

The other day I got some horrible news that my Uncle had passed away suddenly.  All of my uncles are a lot of fun, but Rick was the crazy one always wanting to play, stay up late with us kids and loved telling jokes and pulling pranks.  He was full of love for his family and friends.  Eventhough I only saw him once or twice a year, he was always quick to bring up an inside joke we had or a funny/embarrassing memory we shared to break the ice.  At a reunion many years ago he actually bribed me into riding The Colossal at Lagoon (something that my parents could never get me to do) by offering me cotton candy and $5.  After my mission he loved talking about other people in Spanish with me, he never said anything mean, he just loved to tease.  Everything was more fun when Uncle Rick was around.

I made a quick trip up to Utah for the funeral, missing most of the 2nd annual Roderick Roundup.  So many of my cousins were there including most of my family.  It was 2 days of crying because we missed him being there with us and laughing because of all the fun memories we have of him.  We all just loved him so much and you could feel that every time we gathered together to talk about him.  It was a very spiritual funeral, and another witness to me of the importance of the Gospel in my life.

Something I learned with this experience is that I never got to accept or realize my Grandpa's death 4 years ago.  I was on my mission and it was quite unexpected.  Since I was far from home and family and didn't know how to deal with it on my own, I just brushed it off as though it didn't happen.  This trip was great because for the first time I brought it up to my dad and got to hear all the details.  My Uncle was buried right next to my Grandpa so I got to see his grave site and I feel so much more at peace with it all.  I'm sure my Grandpa and Rick are having a great time together right now and I can't wait to see both of them again someday!

To finish the trip I got to see my beautiful cousin Robin (from my mom's side) who's living in Salt Lake right now and her cute little boy.  She showed me around the new mall there downtown and it was so nice to catch up with her and reminisce about childhood memories.  Also, I got to meet up with my two best roommates there to do some shopping.  After living with these two for 4 years, I miss that girl time!

After that, my dad and I rushed off to the airport and said our goodbyes. (our flights left at the same time)  It was an amazing 2 days and I'm so glad I got to go.  It's nice to know that even though I'm far away, I'm still a part of the family.

Summer

This summer hasn't been too eventful for us.  It's hard when parents or friends call and want to hear all about what we've been up to recently, so this is my attempt to remember some of this summers events.

Growing up with a pool in California, summers for me need to involve plenty of water.  For our anniversary my parents got us Sea World/Aquatica (their new water park) tickets and we're loving them.

Our first time we went on a Friday before school got out and we were able to go on every ride and see every show before 5pm.  It was awesome. On our way home Dave and I both shared our favorite part of our first day at Sea World.  I thought it was quite interesting...Dave's was having our gourmet picnic lunch I had prepared sitting in the back of his pick up truck out in the parking lot and mine was watching the Treasure Island ride from the bottom and getting soaked when it came splashing down the track. (I wish they gave discounted tickets to people who don't like roller coasters and would just like to go in and watch others go on rides)

It's a half hour drive and we've got our system down where we get to Aquatica right as it opens, run in and do all the rides that we want to with NO lines and then we're out of there by noon to go home for lunch.  I love leaving right as it's getting hot and crowded.  We don't bring in our phones or cameras, so sadly no pictures.  We're trying to make the most out of our passes.

More Water Activities

Besides hanging out at our pool here at our apartment complex, we really enjoy floating rivers.  Texas has a lot of rivers and most of them are great for floating.  Our favorite is the Comal river.  It's about 25 minutes away and has a fun little man-made chute at the beginning where you get tossed around and splashed pretty good.  Then it runs right alongside Schlitterbahn's (the famous waterpark here). This year they placed a can-ban so there is a lot less drinking and crazy stuff going on, so we try to go often.  Just last weekend we invited some friends to join us and we had a blast.  A friend found this picture online and what fun memories we have out there now!