SEDONA with the girls

I think perhaps the last time I went out with the girls was in 1998 for a senior trip. Yup. I think so.
But my roommate Vanie is awesome at planning adventures, and also at recruiting new friends (I am not good at this).
So Vanie, Me, Molly, Mandy, Annette, and Gabby all headed out to Sedona last week. Sedona is a beautiful place about 2 hours from here. I had never been, but it's a place with a lot of yoga and rich hippies and beautiful red rocks and energy vortexes. We had so much fun.
Vanie had reserved us a fun little hotel with a kitchen and stuff. She had made delicious tamale casserole and brought water and treats and we decided she is a great trip mom. And I was dubbed the trip dad. As in the one who puts air in the tires and navigates the hikes and goes along with what mom says.
So we drove down on Friday night and slept and talked.
Saturday morning we all got up and ate at the Blue Moon Cafe and took pictures. This is Mandy eating her delicious tomatoes. Aren't we classy?



































Next we headed off to Grasshopper Point, a place of which I have almost no pictures of the beautiful water. We hiked through an incredibly beautiful creek where every once in awhile we would just stop and stare in awe.








Afterwards, I jumped. Off about an 8-foot high cliff. Like this:














It was awesome. And then Molly decided she wanted to do it, too. But only if I did it again and waited in the water for her. And, of course, I did. So much fun.
Afterwards, we debated for awhile shopping versus hiking. 3 of us wanted to hike (we are inside A LOT in Phoenix)- 2 of us wanted to shop. I looked up hikes on my cell phone. We drove by a hike-starting street. We hiked. Well, Mandy and Vanie decided NOT to hike about halfway through. This is them chillin' midway:


The hike really was beautiful. It was close to town and not too rugged, but it was good exercise (obviously) and had incredible views.

We hiked to the "7 sacred pools" which were more like the "7 icky green mosquito-growing pools." They were in a beautiful spot, though, and they were all in a row, which was cool.

Doesn't Annette look awesome here? To be fair, it was Vanie who brought the umbrella. And Annette was embarrassed wearing her swimsuit to hike 'cause she thought she looked like she was going to play tennis. And she kind of did :-)

I, on the other hand, just looked kinda dorky. But I was happy. And that's what matters :-)

After that, we all went home, showered and got ready for dinner on the town. I got a sweet shirt and sign for my room downtown, Mandy and I got these sweet sunglasses, I hugged a javelina, and we jumped in a pink jeep.




(In the jeep, from L to R, Me, Vanie, Molly, Mandy, Annette, Gabby)

Good trip. Amazing girls. Great friends.

Reasons why it's cool to date [my] paraplegic...

aka.... why nurses and paraplegics get along
aka.... fascinating things you learn by dating a paraplegic
aka.... what I learned from dating [my] paraplegic
aka..... why super-strong girls should date paraplegics
Here you go:

1- Phrases like, "That's how I roll," and "we were just "rollin' by" become much funnier.
2- You never have to stand for the song in the middle of church. Moral support, you know.
3- You can sneak into church without your heels making that annoying noise on the cultural hall floor. You just sit on his lap and roll to the back.
4- You always, always have a chair. And you only have to look for one extra most of the time. It also doubles as an ottoman and/or laptop stand.
5- He can kick you in the face, stomach, or back and you can never get mad. (Because, it was a spasm. And he really didn't do it on purpose.)
6- You get wheelchair accessible seating at concerts. Which means ticketmaster picks out your seats individually. And they usually rock.
7- You can spend hours debating on if you are or are not strong enough to piggy-back him up the stairs.
8- And then one day you actually do it and you feel like the strongest girl on earth.
9- You can discern the quality and clarity of urine together and then steal his urinal to prove you can hold 850cc. (ok, this is the nurse in me)
10- Some of your most favorite memories just might be in a hospital where you fought for his pain medicine and fell asleep in his (oh so sexy) arms. And shared grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk. And got caught kissing by the doctor.
11- Your niece says things like, "Oh, I know what that's like; It's like when you wear your pants too tight and you can't feel your legs."
12- Meanwhile, he tells children the reason he can't walk is because he didn't eat his vegetables. To their horror.
13- Wrestling becomes a little more fair. Kind of. Even if he can bench you.
14- Making out on the beach becomes a feat of super-human-wheelchair-dragging-hormone-fueled strength
15- You know he loves you when he transfers into the pew at church at 1:02 to sit next to you.
16- Crazy stairs in Mexico= take-out breakfast on the Marina.
17- Acrobatic maneuvers involving removal of extra shirts to shield his hand from the banister while pulling the chair up the stairs. HOW DOES A FIRST FLOOR APT HAVE 5 STAIRS!?!
18- You start referring to yourself as a not-a-plegic
19- The phrase handi-cap scars = dirt marks on your white pants from wheelchair wheels
20- You learn to always park with space to the right
21- You can watch him sleep in ways that only people who have to be 1/3rd comfortable can
22- Dancing at nightclubs gets all of Vegas very excited.
23- You just might get out of tickets 4 out of 5 times.
24- You develop much less sympathy for the phrase, "I'm paralyzed." ('cause really it just means he doesn't feel like getting up.) (And yet, every time you laugh hysterically...)
25- But you still feel bad complaining about when your back hurts.
26- You learn to stop slowly at yellow lights. Something about balance.....
27- Parking rocks.
28- He teaches you weight lifting stuff you never knew. And you get to hand him the heavy dumbbells.
29- And maybe the best part of all, you can sit on his lap for HOURS. And he'll never complain.


38- (after bridget's) You get to learn the secret entrances to all the buildings. Through the back door, down the never-used elevator, around the corner, through the kitchen. You learn there's always a new way in. And you kind of feel like a VIP. or a spy.
39- You learn to slow down the pace just a little. Because while sometimes efficiency is awesome, other times life is about more than getting 12 things done in an hour....
40- And a girl who has spent quite a few years trying to do everything without help finally learns to ask for it. Yes, it just might be easier if the bellhop took all the bags and I didn't try to carry them all myself. Shocker.
41- "Awww crap! That's my leg I've been rubbing this whole time?"

p.s. I know there are more. I'll probably add to this for awhile... (And yes, bridget, you can, too).

We saw a rainbow.

There really isn't anything to report about Friday except we got home safely and I drove 25mph across the bridge in Page.
But I did realize that I forgot to blog the rainbow. One of the days in Park City, we saw one. We don't get a lot of rainbows in Arizona, so it was pretty novel for us. And yes, for awhile it was a double rainbow. And for a long while we could see it end to end, which I don't think I ever have. It followed us and we were all so cheesy and excited. And once there was even lightning behind it. It was really quite an exciting rainbow. And I loved it. We picked up Bridget and I quick pulled over to the side of the road to capture it :-)

Driving home. Kind of.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE (you know, with Jonmark waxing all "west side" while I'm focusing intently on the camera angle....)
The drive home was supposed to start at about 11 that morning. Which, due to the previous nights' events, was instead when we all woke up. I cleaned up a little and did some laundry while Jonmark made us breakfast. (Jonmark is usually wearing some holier clothes than these, but they were all dirty from our extended vacation. However, it was fun to see him in his WB). It was our funnest breakfast yet :-)

And Bridget and I finally got ONE picture together. Ok, two.


Basically, it was a great good-bye. So Bridget went to work, and Jonmark and I headed south. We had actually planned to go to the Manti temple for a few days by then, but, obviously, we had some detours. But we were still determined to go. First, we drove through Provo Canyon, which I love. The drive was beautiful and it was so nice. Once in Provo, we ran into a crazy storm that Jonmark called, "Repent Utah."

We also stopped at Sweet Tooth Fairy for cupcakes and cake bites and at Deseret for misc. mormon items like a book on tape :-)
The drive to Manti was quick, but we had started late, and we got there at 7:40, just in time to miss basically everything. But they snuck us in for sealings. The temple is GORGEOUS. It was built in 1888 and then remodeled in 1995. I commented on the staircases to a temple worker and she snuck me around the corner to the huge spiral staircases. They were totally insane. So so cool. The temple had such a homey feel with all the farmers and small town people there. And there were stairs everywhere so four old guys in white suits lifted Jonmark up about 10 stairs. It was such a cool site :-) Everybody there was so sweet.

















After that, we drove 3 hours to Kanab, where we stayed at this little Victorian hotel (yes, mom, with two beds....). It's Kanab's only boutique hotel and totally adorable. I even smelled all the furniture 'cause it smelled all new and solid and delicious. And in the morning we made waffles with our own little cups of waffle batter.

haha. You thought you were sleeping tonight.

The last night there, Bridget, her friend "Bama," me, and Jonmark stayed up forever talking about nutrition and my job and the church and tons of other fun stuff. And then crashed. A few hours later I was awakened by someone calling my name and asking for help. But it wasn't Jonmark. Bridget had a bloody nose. A BAD one.
As in, nurse practitioner or not, I could not get the clots to stop for over 45 minutes. No matter how far forward she tilted her head or how many ways we squeezed it, she was still swallowing blood.
We went to the hospital. Now, this is not the first time I've taken Bridget to the ER. She did puke incessantly a couple years ago when she was here in '08. But I think never at 2 in the morning.
Luckily, the PC hospital is beautiful and not that busy and we got right in.
Turns out, for major nose bleeds, you shoot 4 sprays of Afrin-type stuff in each nostril and then clamp your nose for ten minutes. And then repeat. And then spray 2 sprays in each one every 6 hours for the next 2 days.
Even then, Bridget still felt like she was swallowing a little blood, but it wasn't bad.
We got home at 5 in the morning, laughing really, because heaven knows we'd try to sneak in another crazy story before we left.

Ok, so maybe just one more.

We stayed another day.
Besides, when I woke up and came out into the living room, Bridget and Jonmark were engrossed in a very serious conversation. They looked up at me.
Bridget said, "Guess where your car is?"
"Towed." I said nonchalantly. And I was right. See, Bridget has an amazing quality of figuring how to get friends' cars towed. And I had let her park mine the night before right after joking about this talent. But, to be fair, I probably would have missed the tiny sign announcing I needed a decal as well. If only that boy would remember his little blue decal for me to use! :-)
Anyways, it made for a good excuse to check out some other exciting Park City sites, such as the NAC.
The NAC is short for the National Ability Center and they are basically a fancy-schmancy place for people with all abilities and disabilities to learn how to do sports. For example, they have programs for people who are paralyzed to snowboard and mountain bike and water ski and snow ski. And Jonmark maybe maybe used to be a kick-a snowboarder back in the day. And just maybe this could be the coolest thing ever.
It's a beautiful place and sounded amazing. They did need more than 2 hours' notice for us to get started, though. (Next time we're totally renting mountain bikes and heading out....)
The lady in charge of the ski and snowboard program is married to an amputee in the paraolympics and basically told Jonmark he should start prepping for 2012. Seriously, you would have thought she had a vision of the gold medal already around his neck. And she looked at me like I was in for the ride of my life. She was so totally cool.
Next, we had a secret "in" to go see the Olympic Ski Gym. As in, the gym where the Olympic skiers and snowboarders work out for like 5 hours a day. You know, with their anti-gravity treadmill and 54 degree "hot" tub and 104 degree hot tub and underwater treadmill and recovery kitchen and trampolines and half-pipes and, well, it was AWESOME. There were parts I knew Jonmark had to see, so once again, we hustled him up the stairs for a pretty sweet view.


Someday we're going back, and I'm going to be fitness tested in every conceivable way possible. I'm so excited.

AND....we stay another day

In theory, we were going to start driving home on Tuesday, so I could work Wednesday night without dying. But the thought of getting in the car again so soon, or leaving the gorgeous weather, killed me. So I called and got the night off work.
So we had the whole day to play even though Bridget had to work.
Our plan was to go to the Salt Lake temple since neither of us had ever been, but it was closed for cleaning starting, oh yeah, today. Bountiful was the closest temple so we went there instead.
But first we went to temple square to get a copy of Jonmark's patriarchal blessing, which his mailing address had caused to be sent back 3 different times. We pretty much walked the entire square to get there even though we realized later we had parked pretty much right next to the library where it was. Who knew?
And really, who cared? Temple square was gorgeous, the flowers were beautiful, and it was so nice just to walk around. We took pictures of each other just for fun....

And then, off to Bountiful! We were halfway to the temple before we realized we hadn't yet bought a white shirt for Jonmark so we made a quick detour to Ross for a shirt and two smashing ties. The weather was just a little overcast and oh so perfect. All the little neighborhoods on the way to the temple were so picturesque. The temple itself was so beautiful and nice, too. There is the most gorgeous little atrium when you first walk in from the parking lot with a little tree and flowers and is so beautiful and serene. We got done right as the sun was setting and with the mountains and the lake it was absolutely breathtaking. And one of those scenes that you just know a camera isn't going to do justice. So you'll just have to imagine. Or go there.
Bridget was waiting for us for dinner when we were heading back, but I had to make a quick pit stop.
See, I used to be a waitress at a place called Winger's. I have a lot of fun memories from this place, and I'm still convinced they make the best wings in the world. And I had seen one on the way to the temple, we ran in, ordered 5 wings and 2 chicken fingers with creamy buffalo, snapped a picture, and headed home.
Jonmark agreed they are the best wings ever, too! Whoo-hoo!

That night was dinner at Easy Street. Easy Street is a cute little restaurant downtown. We ate downstairs where a guy played piano and everything was amazing.
We had shrimp cocktail and crab legs for appetizers, delicious salmon, and chicken with figs for dinner. Afterwards, the regular piano player was done, and suddenly a super sexy guy rolled over to the piano and started to play. And basically, it was amazing, too.

Fireworks.

The night of the 4th was all kinds of exciting.
I woke up starving so Bridget ordered us some wings from Maxwell's, where she works. And a caprese salad. Yum.
Bridget got to meet her awesome home teacher who also happens to be Jonmark's friend (gotta love the mormon world) when we all met up at the Marriott where he works. He played the ukelele while we ate wings in the almost-rain. And then it was time to go upstairs for the fireworks.
One of the great many excitements of dating a paraplegic is getting to carry him up the stairs. Only once have we done this piggy back style which I still think is best and which still scares him half to death (yes, I am the strongest girl in the world). What's sad is that no one is ever around to capture the excitement entailed in such adventures. Until now.

(Do you love my tough-girl stance?)
I did learn, however, that taking your flip-flops off first is a very good idea. And that one of the sacrifices you make is your shins. Which are still a fascinating shade of yellow....
And then, off to the fireworks. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the Idaho Falls radio broadcast. I mean, really, fireworks are extraordinarily less-cool without music, a point I always forget until the blasts start. Mark my word...never again. Fourth of July playlist here I come!!
However, despite the lack of music, we did have our own photographer (i.e, Bridget- the one who has no photos of herself from this night and who didn't watch a single firework except through her lens). And after about 50 almost-perfect photographs, at one point, she screamed, and we ended up with this:
At which point we could have just gone home, but we detoured through the fitness center. Where Jonmark asked us to pause for this:

At which point Bridget asked some random people walking by to become impromptu cheerleaders:

And then we played pool for about 2 seconds until we ran into to the snottiest little 14 year old from Escondido ever, reminding me that my kids will never grow up in a place where children are that stuck up.
And then, we went home. And passed out. :-)
Happy 4th of July!