Vacations Are Exhausting!

I spent the first week of break at home in Oregon. It was nice and relatively calm. The weather at home was pretty gross-108 degrees when I left. That Monday we went to see the tiger sanctuary. I bottle fed a tiger!!! It was an impressive place with some majestic animals, but I'm not sure I'd want to live or work out there. Dad needed to get back to fire camp in Agness that Wednesday. So, Tuesday after I visited the dentist, we drove to Gold Beach. That's a three hour drive into California and back up the Oregon Coast. The weather was amazing! It was only about 70 degrees and sunny! No rain!!! My mom, sister, and I spent a couple days on the beach watching the sea lions rolling in the waves and looking for displaced starfish. It was a great way to spend a few days of the break. Friday the 19th I flew back to Provo and dropped some things off in the apartment. The next morning I took off again for Ohio via Chicago. We ended up spending about an hour in a 'holding' pattern before finally landing in Cleveland. Apparently the weather was a disaster and the roads and runways were are rather flooded. I imagine Steve had a little fun trying to get to airport, though he says it wasn't that bad. Ohio was great. We spent a lot of time in the lake or on the lake...depends on whether or not the canoe was sinking or floating. Monday we went to Anna and Michael's band show. I enjoyed it, but they seemed to think it was awful. I guess that's how all performances go...the audience likes it and the players see the mistakes. On Wednesday Steve and I went to Kirtland and visited the temple and historic village. I'd never seen an ashery before, so that was fascinating. The temple is beautiful and we had the opportunity to go up to the top floor and see the classrooms. Thursday Steve and I went up to Cedar Point to take pictures with roller coasters. Well, the pictures were just a bonus for Kayela. I'd have to say my favorites were Millenium Force, The Raptor, MaxAir, and Wicked Twister. Pretty much we had a blast! And I never got sick, fainted, or screamed. Well, not entirely true. We did begin to feel a little dizzy after the second trip on The Raptor at the end of the day. I suppose that's not uncommon after 8 hours of vestibular chaos! Oh! I saw fireflies for the first time!!! I can now check that off the list of things to see before I die. I also became the Fire Goddess. John and his little friend invented a game on the tramp that involved them jumping around while I threw a volleyball at them. The volleyball somehow became a ball of fire and I became the keeper of the fire and later the Fire Goddess. John's a funny guy. He created a shark out of sand that ate me while I was stuck/buried in the sand. And he never tires of swamping the canoe. It was all a blast. And it was great to get to know some of the Robisons. Steve is definitely not the quietest in the family...can you believe that? Well, I can because I know he talks, but there are a few of you who are still not convinced. If I failed to add any details, let me know. And Hayley, I'm sorry I didn't update this sooner so you'd know what's going on! Garrett comes home around February 14th!!!