Counting My Blessings #23 - Colors

I am grateful for colors. The world is a much brighter place with them.

I always like reading the definition of color because it sounds so complicated for something that seems so simple.

1 a: a phenomenon of light (as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enable one to differentiate otherwise identical objects. b: the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources; also : a specific combination of hue, saturation, and lightness or brightness.

Counting My Blessings #22 - Utah Clean Air Act

I am grateful for the Utah Clean Air Act. I discover how much I enjoyed this act when I was in Las Vegas. I am happy that when I am inside in Utah that I don't have to share in other's carcinogenic habits. Now if we could just figure out the smog....

Our Road Trip

Bret and I decided that it would be fun to take a vacation to California.  We left Friday, January 9, 2009 and stayed the first night in Las Vagas.  We stayed at the 4 Queens on Fremont Street.

I am squinting in this picture because the sun was so bright, but the background is pretty cool.

Saturday we went to stay at my friends, Melissa and Benji Hadfields home.  They are so kind to open their home up to us.  They saved us a lot of money, and it was good to spend time with them.  I also have a weird germ thing with hotels, so it was nice to have a clean place to stay.

Here is Jordan their cute little boy.

I love this picture because Bret seems so happy to be hanging out with Jordan watching basketball videos on YouTube.

Jordan is obsessed with basketball, and I was able to win his affection by playing it with him.

Universal Studios

Monday we headed to Universal Studios with just Bret and I.  Here is Bret hanging out with Jason Bourne.

Here I am regulating on the Hulk.

I was sad that the Jurassic Park ride was closed...I really like Jurassic Park, and I wanted to get chased by fictitious dinosaurs.

Here is a little video of famous cars.  The delorean from Back to the Future is the first car on the video, and I can't even tell you how happy I was to see it.

I met Edward while we were there.  Isn't he dreamy?

Do you think I look totally Hollywood in this picture?  How did I not get discovered!?!

We had such a fun time.  We rode the Mummy ride a couple of times.  The first time I did not know that it went backwards, and can I tell you that freaked the trash out of me (I loved it.)

Disneyland

Bret and I had not planned on going to Disneyland, but because Universal Studio's was not as crowded we decided it would be a good time to go.  Benji had gotten season passes for his family by doing something extra spectacular at school, so Mel and Jordan were able to come with us.  Benji couldn't come because he had class.  It was much warmer than I thought it would be when I packed.  Luckily Mel had short sleeved shirts for me to wear to Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo.  Bret and I went to Disney World in July 2007, and it was fun to compare the two experiences.  This time it was a perfect temperature and not super crowded which automatically made it better.  Also it has been a year and a half since my surgery, while Disney World was only three weeks afterward, so Disneyland did have an unfair advantage.  The Disney World castle is better.

Here we are on pirates.  Jordan did well with the drops because we were going down little waterfalls (Jordan is obsessed with waterfalls).  The Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean is more fun than Disney World's.

I liked that there was a lemon tree.

This is a picture of my house that I was able to look up on a high tech coffee table on the innovations ride.  It was quite a fancy piece of furniture, and I kind of want one.  There are so many fun things you can do with it, and when it is not in use it looks like a pond and the water moves when you touch it as if it really were water.

Jordan rode with us on the Dumbo ride.

Bret made a face for the camera.

My favorite ride was Space Mountain.  I went on it at Disney World, but because I couldn't see to brace myself it was the only ride that caused pain where my gallbladder was removed.  This time we went on it three times, and we were in the front one of the times. Oooo, it was so fun.

San Diego Zoo

Bret and I went to the San Diego Zoo with Mel and Jordan, and we met up with my friend Chanel and her cute baby girl.

I loved the Koala bears, especially the momma and baby cuddling.

This bear was so funny playing with his toy.

The Panda's were so awesome in person.  Did you know that all Panda's are owned by China and are only on loan to the zoos they are at?

This cute little baby was sleeping up in the tree.  Did you know that Panda's can fall up to 40 feet without a problem?

I was loving the bears at the zoo.  This Polar Bear was having a great old time chomping down some carrots.  I myself enjoy a delicious carrot for a snack.

This turtles neck was crazy long.

There are some pictures with Bret, but they are on my friends camera and I haven't gotten them yet.  I'll post them when I get copies.

No explanation needed.

We left California on Thursday afternoon after a delicious ice cream party with Melissa and Benji.  We stayed the night in Mesquite, NV.  Friday we finished the trip home.  We stopped at a Shade outlet in St. George and I got six good shirts for $24 and saved $116.  I love sales like that.

I am so glad that we had such a fun road trip and got home safely.  It was great to see my California friends.

Counting My Blessings #21 - Hadfields

I am grateful for my friends, Melissa, Benji, and Jordan. Melissa and I became BFF (I had to use BFF because that term makes me laugh so hard) my senior year of high school. We were roommates our Junior year of college and we worked at Payless together. I met Benji my Junior year and did not want him to go to waste, so I set him up with Melissa...well the rest is history.
I am so glad to have a friend that I can talk to about anything with. We have so much fun, and we have remained close even though Mel lives far away now.

Counting My Blessing #20 - Pillows

I am grateful for pillows. Life really is much more cozy with them.

Counting My Blessings #19 - Having Enough

I am grateful having all my needs met. I have plenty of food, water, clothing, and a warm comfortable place to live.

Counting My Blessings #18 - My Job

I am grateful for my job. Those who know me well, know that I am not a always the biggest fan of what I do, but there really are parts of my job that I quite enjoy. I am so luck to have coworkers and bosses that I like. I am also happy for insurance and the financial security my employment brings.