Trip part 1

OK, this is a little out of date, but the next few blogs are going to be about the trip we recently took to Palm Springs.

We left on Friday the 12^th of February (Happy Birthday Dad!) Since there were four of us going (me, Matt, my mom and dad) we decided that it might be more comfortable to rent a car, rather than stuff us all into the Corolla for three days. I found some awesome deals with Budget using Costco. But I had a problem. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to rent a big car, or a little SUV. The SUV was going to cost me more money, but with it being the middle of February, the chance of bad weather was fairly high. The car was less expensive, but I didn’t want to slide off the road.

I was checking the weather every day the week before the trip to try to decide which one to get. Finally I felt confident enough that the weather would be good and we settled on the car.

Friday I left work and we hurried out to the Ogden Airport to pick up the car. We were excited when the lady at the counter gave us the option of the SUV anyway – because it was bigger inside. So we ended up with a nice Ford Edge, with about 1,500 miles on it. Nice and new. She didn’t really have a chance to clean it, so we did find a bag of sunflower seeds in the back, and large chunks of dirt kept falling off the car, but it was nice and roomy (at least in the front seat!)

We hurried home and packed our stuff into the car and then headed out to pick up my parents. Once all of us were loaded in the car, we were off (after a quick stop for gas, diet coke, and dinner). The first day was going to take us from Ogden to Mesquite, NV. Not a bad ride, and we have done it several times. This was the most traffic I have ever seen on these roads! It was a constant two lanes of tail lights from our house to St. George! It made for MUCH more stressful driving for Matt, but he did great. We finally rolled into Mesquite about 10 or 11 (I can’t remember). Due to a miscommunication on my part, my parents were staying in a pretty nice hotel down there – not a casino. But I think the room was probably nicer in their hotel than it would have been in one of the resorts, so it was good. Matt and I dropped them off and headed to Matt’s dad’s place to crash. He was out of town, so we had the run of the place. Too bad we were too tired to even watch much TV. We went to sleep and got ready to wake up the next day.

Coming soon - day 2

Super Bowl Sunday

Last night was the Super Bowl. I think it is becoming more and more of a National Holiday (and I think we should lobby to get the day after the game off, Who is with me?) I think everyone I know was headed off to meet with friends and family and watch the game. It is about food and fun and being around people you like.

I was lucky enough to get invited ( or did I invite myself, I get confused) to my sister Chrystie’s house. We have had our Super Bowl party there for a few years now. My Brother in Law Preston made some yummy pulled pork sandwiches (so yummy!) and we brought some seven layer dip. There was fruit and drinks and so much food!

There was a lot of disagreement as to who would win the game. I was sure, positive, that the Colts were going to win, but I was cheering for New Orleans. I think my Grandma came out the winner with the best guess of the final score ( I was the biggest loser – I called it Colts by 21 – Oops!)

I wasn’t too impressed by the commercials. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, but there seemed to be a lot of underwear and rodents. The Gold’s Gym commercial made me question the choice to eat so much seven layer dip, and the nut/popcorn commercial kind of made me ashamed that I was laughing at it. But I don’t think there was one that really made me laugh out loud. Oh well.

But we had a lot of fun. Thanks Chrys for letting us play at your house.

Pack the House Night

Friday night was "Pack the House" night at the Utah Grizzlies game. That meant that all tickets, every single ticket in the arena was only $5. Since $5 is about what I am willing to pay to watch a minor league hockey team lose, so I was excited to go. We invited my parents to come and we hoped to have a chance to go to dinner first. Unfortunately the promotion worked so well that there were way too many people going to the game and we couldn't make a left hand turn for 45 minutes! We ended up eating at the E-Center (on the plus side, the burrito I had was yummy).

I have a rule that I am able to leave early from a hockey game if the team I am routing for is down by 6 goals or more. I was worried we would have to leave before I finished my dinner! At the end of the 1st period the Grizz were down 4-1. I don't know if the team was freaked out by the record crowd, or if they just are not good. Either way it wasn't a good strategy to play such a bad game with so many new fans in the stands.

The coach must have said something like that to the team during the period break because they came out in the 2nd period and the game got a lot more interesting. In the end they still lost by 3 (5-8) but the game was fun. I am looking forward to the next $5 night.