Friday, February 18, 2011

Time to pop the bubble...

Some of you may know we have been mentioning moving away from Provo, UT... It is CRAZY to think I have been here 5 years already. It feels even longer than that... We have talked about random ideas over the years of what we have wanted. We thought about Midway, Ut at first. It is gorgeous in the summer and has a cute little town with cute houses... But going there in the winter is madness. Talk about a large amount of snow. I hate snow. I can handle rain. But snow, nah uh. Over the last 5 years I have appreciated Utah. It definitely has gorgeous mountains and friendly people. I came here simply for school and then I met Dustin so it has been longer than I thought. It is cheaper to live here and it is safer in Happy Valley. We have made some wonderful friends here and enjoyed being understood here, as far as being LDS. But I am ready for a big change, something different, a place to start new and a place to be more unique...
In California I actually enjoyed telling people I was LDS and explaining what that meant. Around here you walk around the grocery store and women are talking about relief society in the isles. Men mention where they went on their mission without even asking if you know what they are talking about. Everyone assumes you are LDS in conversations. Obviously because we are in Provo where LDS students go to school and live. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that. But it is too much of a bubble for me. I would like to see other cultures and be able to share our culture with others and be able to explain it to someone. I want our kids to be around more than just LDS kids who all know what primary is. Is that such a strange thing to want?
We have talked about Oregon because it is something new, a laid back and a pretty state. I have to have mountains, he wants farmland and we both like having the ocean close. It works. After our trip last week to Oregon we found a few places around Oregon we liked. Jacksonville, Corvallis, Eugene, and Reedsport. Corvallis and Eugene have better schools, more jobs, are more in the middle of Oregon, and are gorgeous. Jacksonville is closest to my parents, has a nice historic town, LDS temple, and great weather. Reedsport is closest to the ocean and has a huge lake nearby, but rainier and is a lot smaller. Eugene so far is at the top of my list.. But that puts us at 12 hours away from family. In Provo we are 12 hours away from my family. We didn't get any closer to family. Sigh.
Dustin told me yesterday, "Well, if we are financially able, we can find something in California so we are closer to family."
So this year, we are focusing on our finances and not screwing around anymore. We have to be comfortable financially with wherever we are going before we leave Provo.
That is where we are at at this point..


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

A Perfectly Executed Plan...

Well, we just switched drivers in Winnemucca so with all this time I thought it appropriate for me to post.

First, I need to thank my amazing wife for planing this trip. I Love You Lyss!

If you know Alyssa then you know that she loves to plan everything down to the smallest details. She had every day and almost every hour of our trip planned out. (and if the unforeseen incidents didn't happen it would have all been executed perfectly, I assure you... Ha) If you know me then you know that I'm almost the complete opposite. I'm a little more laid-back. She's rubbed off on me a bit, but I still like to just go with it.

Like Lyss described, before we even left things started to fall apart... starting with the Honda. Haha. She tried so hard to convince me that we needed a rental car and still keep her surprise, but I had to ruin that.... I'm sorry Lyss. It was still fun hiding under the blanket in the back seat while watching a movie so I didn't know which way we were going...
Oregon bound, everything went great as we followed her schedule. Ashland was really cool and the surrounding area was really pretty. Being from the Midwest I found myself liking the areas that had some farmland with wide-open fields, but Oregon farmlands are mixed with mountains of trees and lots of rivers and lakes. It was really cool.
Very happy, we headed to the coast. After living in the Islands for 2 years the Ocean has become something that brings back special memories and something that I can never get enough of... So my favorite part of the trip was when we went Bandon. I love little coastal towns and finding the favorite seafood shack. I've always thought it would be cool to live somewhere like that, but I don't think my skills are very useful there.... haha. I guess I could always become a Fisherman.
Everything was still going as planned as we drove up the coast to Florence. She had planned to then head inland to Bend. I wasn't ready to leave yet and so she changed her plan and we headed north to Newport. On the way we ate in Yachats at Luna's Fish House. We had the best fish and chips we have ever had.... Sooo good. We got to Newport around four. We went to the little shops and got some souvenirs before heading for Bend.

Look at Lyss' Valentines post if you haven't so you'll know the story of Willamette Valley. I won't go into detail, but I will point out that if we would have stuck to Lyss' plan and left the coast at Florence then we would have been in front of the storm and made it safely to Bend. ...and made it home on time. Again... I'm sorry Lyss.
Yet, another surprise… but a good one. It was a really fun detour to be able to stay with Papa, Lois and Mama Teri. Thank you all!
So to sum it up, I really liked Oregon. It was really pretty and the people were really nice. The weather was nice when it wasn't raining… haha. I know. Oregon rains all the time, but I'm hoping it was just especially bad because of the storm. The one thing that was kind of weird and definitely would take getting used to is the legally not being able to fill up my car...
So even with the surprises that we both had I feel that this weekend was perfect. I know there was a lot of thought and planning that went into this weekend and I'm grateful to have such an awesome wife. She was such a good sport during the unexpected changes. I know it wasn't easy... Everything went perfectly to me and if that was Lyss' plan, then she definitely accomplished it. Thank you for the fun birthday surprise getaway and looong weekend... I love you Lyss!!

So Lyss is telling me that I need to get off the computer so she won't be so bored... ha.

"The Weatherman was hungover..."

Well, looks like it really wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. Everyone had to put on chains (unless you had 4x4) but it was wussy snow over the mountains. I've seen worse. Psh.




"Wow, what a hole!" - Home Alone 2

So yesterday around 11am we looked online and watched the news to see weather conditions and where our best route would be to get back home. Every route there was going to be a heavy snow area that would require chains or have bad weather. It was like a wall of China preventing us from getting back to Utah. I think it was a sign… Don't go back at all! haha…
We decided to drive down through California to avoid some national forests in Oregon and other heavy areas. It was pouring heavy rain and very windy the way down. We got a body workout just from holding tight to the steering wheel and clenching our butts! Haha. We were going to stay a night in Reno so we wouldn't have to drive through the night in the storm but while I was studying the map I thought, Hey! We should stop by Papas for a night! We liked that idea way better than Reno and so did my mom because she drove just a couple hours to stay with us as well. Papa made us a delicious dinner when we arrived late and got to chat for a while. MUCH better than the corn nuts I was munching on along the way haha.
Unfortunately this is only picture we took while in Placerville... :(

We had a nice breakfast at Mel's Diner with my mom before we left and now we are on 80 heading to the mess. We will post a picture of what it looks like...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Plenty of time to write...

So with my digital hubby we are able to use the internet and charge any kind of technical device we have while we are driving a million miles all over the place so I am writing thoughts on here in the mean time. Hope you don't mind. I usually just have photos on here with small comments but I am enjoying just writing about stuff for now. Pictures will come someday...

Test driving cars around the west coast...

First off, let me explain why we needed to get a rental car this week... Last week I took our Honda Civic Hybrid we just bought 5 months ago to get a checkup before we drove 2,000 miles. That and we had a check engine light come on not too long ago. When I picked up the car they told me the reason for the check engine light was that our battery needed to be replaced. I have been used to a typical $75-100 price for a battery so I said "ok, how much let me just buy that right now." They said it was a $3,000 battery. HOLY CRAP! We called Honda and asked if there was any kind of warranty or something they could do for us and nothing. On top of the $3000 we would need to pay a minimum of $1500 for labor cost to install it.Dustin and I were stressing all day trying to figure out what to do. The local Honda dealership was willing to trade it in for $6,800 (what we had left to pay on our loan) and we wouldn't have to pay for a $4,500 battery replacement, and we would lease a new car from them. I thought, there has to be a better way. So I put the car on ksl.com that night at midnight and the next morning we sold it for $8,200. At that point Dustin didn't know we were driving to Oregon that weekend so I kept insisting we needed a rental car for a week to figure things out before we got another car. Dustin wanted to look at leasing a Hyundai Elantra so we went to the dealership and after 3.5 long irritating hours we left and I never wanted to go back or lease from them. Talk about pushy salesmen. I felt like I was in jail and they wouldn't let us go until we leased a car. Ridiculous. So we got a rental the next day and we will figure out cars whenever we get back to Utah.

So, so far we have had to go through 3 different rental cars over our trip to Oregon. The first one, a grey Chevy Cobalt, had a weird noise coming from inside and we didn't want to chance anything. So we traded that one in for a red 2009 Nissan Sentra a few minutes before Hertz closed. NO cruise control and it locked you out while the car was on. Luckily one of us was inside to unlock it... While we were having our snow problems out here in Oregon, the tire got completely flat and we found a small leak in one of the tires. Great. So we called Hertz here in Eugene and they traded us a red 2010 Toyota Corolla with cruise control and it won't lock you out.. Lets hope we don't have any problems with this one. Despite the inconvenience, Hertz has been very helpful and friendly during all of this and didn't charge us extra for anything and we have unlimited miles luckily.

Which way do we go???

After we stocked up on food at the continental breakfast (remember the part in 'Fun with Dick and Jane' when they stack up a plate at the all you can eat buffet? That was us. Lol.), we watched the weather channel and looked at routes online for alternate routes to get home. All the roads lead to a crazy pass of 20 inches of snow. Awesome. The whole west is having massive weather problems. On the weather channel everything was in the purple zone!! Ugh. Our best bet as of now is to drive down through California and stay in Reno or something for a night. Perfect timing for a big math test that is planned this week, a ton of homework, our job and animals at home waiting for us.
This has been an adventure and I can only imagine what will happen in the next 24 hours.
I hope we can look back and laugh at all this when it is all over.
I just wanna get back home!

Our exciting Valentines weekend...

So, I am sitting in a hotel in Eugene Oregon, waiting for the birthday boy to wake up... My surprise was a 5 day weekend trip to Oregon. However, Eugene OR was not in our plans... Let me tell you how we got there...
The first 2 nights we stayed in Ashland Oregon. I had heard that it was a really cool town and the area of Medford was becoming a popular place to live. So I wanted to spend some time there to see if we liked that area. Ashland is a cute little historic town, but the neighborhoods are too old for us. It kind of reminded us of Placerville, CA if you know where that is. A town just outside Medford, called Jacksonville we liked. It had the nice old downtown feel but the neighborhoods were bigger and more spread out with farm land. Picture Kenwood, CA... We like homes that are not too close to the road where everyone can see your front yard, but can see your house a distance from the road.
We had fun in this area, we viewed a random Chinese parade in Jacksonville celebrating the year of the rabbit lol. We had delicious natural ice cream in and the best gourmet tacos ever at Agave in Ashland. We saw the tiniest temple I have ever seen in Central Point. But very pretty. Had a nice walk in Lithia Park and watched people feed a lot of ducks. And had a friendly continental breakfast with the only other person that seemed to be at our cheap hotel haha.
On Sunday morning we left early and headed to the coast. We stayed in Bandon and it was very pretty there. Gorgeous beach. The town reminded me of Sebastapol, CA. In Bandon, we of course had to visit the West Coast Game Park Safari. It is the worlds biggest petting zoo. All kinds of animals roam around free as you are viewing the animals that obviously have to be caged for your safety. We had deer and peacocks chasing us everywhere. We were able to pet a wild cat and some other random animals like kangaroos, skunks, possums, and raccoons. Dustin's face was lit up during the whole park haha. It was his birthday weekend. Of course we had to go to a zoo :)
We went to Cape Arago and looked for little sea creatures. Dustin poked a sea urchin for the first time. Later in Bandon we had crab at Tony's crab shack and local fresh yummy seafood at the local Seafood house. That night, it started to get very windy... We thought nothing of it...
In the morning we headed to Florence up the coast to see the worlds largest sea cave. It was full of 300+ sea lions that day and sometimes fits up to 500! We stopped at the Oregon sand dunes and ran around in the sand haha. Stopped at a few lakes to take pretty pictures. There are a lot of lakes there!
It is very cool everywhere you drive there is huge trees. Everywhere! It was like driving through a tunnel and all you see is big tall trees haha. There were a lot of cute little towns along the coast and we stopped in a random one with crazy looking people... and had some AMAZING fish tacos.
Back to the wind... Keep in mind as we are driving it is getting windier and windier. The guy working at the Sea Lion cave told us how fast it was at that time. 80mph! Then he said we were going to have a wind storm very soon. It was going to be at least 100mph! We were blowing all over the place haha. I originally planned on heading inland at Florence to go to our next hotel and still get there by daylight... Dustin wanted to see Newport, which was another hour and a half up the coast... It was his birthday so up we went. Got some fun souvenirs and it was a very nice city. It was about 4:45pm and was getting dark as we headed inland a different route than I thought to go to Bend, OR. It was going to be 3 hours to get there from Newport. I was excited to go there because it was this fun huge mountain lodge by a lake and a nice hotel. At around 7:30 we were starting to go through the Willamette Valley, which according to pictures online, I thought was going to just be their wine country with vineyards everywhere... Nope. There was a national forest we had to go through 30 miles long and it was raining... And we were like the only people on the road. Obviously a stupid place to drive through late at night... Rain doesn't bother me. But after an hour into it the rain started to get fluffy and thicker and thicker...I looked over at Dustin and said, "That is snow." We kept going thinking it was not much farther to the vineyards... The roads were becoming thick with snow and we were slowing down and then started to slide. Hands were tightening on the wheel and butts were clenching. Keep in mind it is pitch black and we had no idea what was to the right or left of us. We started driving up this little hill, seriously pathetic, and were sliding too much. We couldn't make it. So we stopped in the middle of the road because we couldn't move and I am freaking out. Dustin is holding his head not knowing what to do either. Next thing we know, we saw another car coming fast around the corner down this hill and when they saw us, they tried to stop. My eyes got huge and I started saying, "Oh no oh no oh no!" Annnnnd Dustin was just outside the car peeing of course... They started sliding and went to the left and were sliding for what seemed to be a long time and off to the left was a dark drop off. Who knows how far down. I swear I thought this car was going off the edge and we were going to be the cause of this guy driving off the road in the middle what seemed to be a snow storm now in the middle of no where! He stopped right before the edge and pulled up next to us totally fine. He offered to sell us his chains and they didn't fit so we grudgingly had to turn around. We looked at a map and we still had another hour in that area to go through. UGH. Good thing we weren't farther into it. So, I was very bummed turning around. I was quiet and sad. Dustin was handling it very well emotionwise. He kept trying to assure me things were fine and we will figure something out. I didn't want him to have a crappy birthday. He said, "As long as we are together I am happy. This will be a funny birthday story to look back on." I had to relax after that. I sighed and let go. We drove an hour to the closest city for a hotel and ended up in Eugene, OR. Stay tuned to find out how we get home!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sneaky love surprise weekend...

So I have been planning a getaway for our Dustin's birthday/Valentines weekend. As many of you know Dustin's birthday falls on Valentines day. Last year I planned a getaway as well and we decided we were going to take turns every year... Well I took over again this year.. Dustin doesn't know where we are going this weekend. We are leaving in like 6 hours lol. Unfortunately we had to rent a car because our stupid Honda Civic Hybrid gave us issues 3 days before we were leaving!!! It's been a headache. So obviously Dustin found out we were driving somewhere because I insisted on getting a rental car right away. I was originally just going to pack everything, sneak our suitcase and stuff into the car, and at midnight tell him we were going on a midnight food run and I would just keep driving haha.
He doesn't know how many hours away we are driving or which direction we are headed... I will post where we went after this weekend... Heehee...
Have a lovely love weekend people!