Alcatraz

I have always wanted to go to Alcatraz.  I have kind of a weird obsession with prisons, especially old ones.  So when Connor and I decided to go to California for the baby blessing, I really wanted to go to Alcatraz.  We bought our tickets about a month in advance because we heard they can sell out fast.

Alcatraz was really interesting.  It's really a fascinating place, and it's interesting to see how the prison functioned, and also hear about the prison riots, and escapes.  It's also interesting to know that people lived there and grew up there.  Not prisoners, but families lived there.  Also, there is an interesting Native American history there, which is worth checking out.

Our boat out to the island.

One of the Guard Watchtowers.

Not my ideal location for a shower. 

I told him originally that he looked too happy to be in prison so this is the face he made.  :)

Solitary confinement in D Block.

I'm definitely too happy for solitary confinement.

I think this is the cell of Frank Morris, who escaped with John Anglin and  Clarence Anglin.

These are the pipes that they climbed up to get to the ceiling for their escape.

The kitchen.  They had to outline all of the knives in the cabinet so that they could know if any went missing.

We ended up staying out there for about 2 hours, and then drove the 2 hours back.  We got to Joe and Crystal's pretty late, but we stayed up and watched Escape From Alcatraz together.  Good movie.  And it was interesting to see the places that Connor and I had just visited.  

San Francisco

On Labor Day we headed into San Francisco with Joe, Crystal, their kids, and Ryan.  We had a lot of fun sightseeing.  Connor had never been there before, and the traffic was fairly bad due to the holiday so we didn't have a ton of time, but we saw some of the important stuff.

Pier 39

Vista Point by the Golden Gate Bridge

Addison slept almost the entire time.

Lombard St

We wanted to do more, but we just didn't have enough time.  Connor and I had tickets for Alcatraz so we had a bit of a time crunch.  But it was still fun to drive around and see everything.  We will have to go back some day and spend more time there.

Addison Mae

On August 4th my brother Joe and his wife Crystal had a baby.  After having 3 boys, they finally had a girl, which makes her my 2nd niece.  Her name is Addison Mae and she is soooo cute.

This past Sunday Addison had her baby blessing.  Connor and I drove out to California for it, and to spend time with Joe and Crystal and their kids, and do some sight seeing.  We had a ton of fun.  

Addison in her baby blessing dress.

Cameron, with Crystal in the background.

Me and Cameron.  He is so cute and loved to cuddle with me. 

Cody is such a sweet dog.  He is a Goldendoodle and is very good natured.  Connor had a lot of fun playing with him.

I'm not sure why we didn't get more pictures of Taylor and Alex.  Connor was in charge of the camera that day so I will blame him.  :)  Actually, I think the reason was that they were busy playing upstairs, which is why we didn't get any.

27 Years!

This weekend/Monday we celebrated my 27th birthday!

On Sunday we went up to my bro and sis-in-laws house for cake and ice cream.  Kari made a super yummy cake for me.  We celebrated and played games.  My mother-in-law and sis-in-law stopped by for a bit, which was fun.  Then we stopped by Connor's family's house before heading home.

The awesome cake and card that Kari made me. 

At midnight I made Connor give me my present.  (I'm not a very patient person when it comes to presents.)  I already knew what I was getting, and I was very excited.  I got a Nook!  I had considered getting a Kindle, and almost did, but then when I was comparing the 2 I found out that on Nooks you can borrow library books, which I think is a huge plus because I don't want to have to buy every single book I read.  So that was the deciding factor.

Anyway, a little after midnight Connor gave me my present.  My Nook!  And then I realized that it had to be fully charged before I could even turn it on.  Which takes about 3 hours.  (Remember what I said about being patient?)  So I stayed up until 3am so I could play with my Nook before I went to bed.  (I know, I'm crazy.)  Regardless, I am very excited.  I bought my first book, "The Help," which I am already enjoying thoroughly.  

On Monday I did basically nothing all day long, which is exactly what I wanted to do.  And then Monday night we went out to eat.  I couldn't decide where I wanted to go.  I considered The Melting Pot but then I looked at their prices online.  Then we were thinking of going to The Garden Cafe at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Then Eric called me and sang the awesomest birthday song ever, and then gave me the idea of going to Benihana.  So we went there and it was delicious.  It's a Japanese Steakhouse where they cook the food in front of you.  I had been to one similar once before, but Connor had never been there and we both really enjoyed it.

Before the restaurant.

Funny story of the night - I accidentally drank the water of the little 13 year-old girl sitting next to me.  Without thinking, I grabbed the glass of water, took a sip, and then while I was putting it down I realized what I had down and she started to look over at me, also realizing what I had done.  I said "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I just drank your water!"  And then I found a server and asked her to bring the girl a new glass.  It was pretty funny.  I had to make a conscious effort for the rest of the night to not drink her water.

Anyway, since it was my birthday they gave me a free dessert, and took our picture.  It was also another person at our table's birthday.

Then, since we didn't have our dessert fix fulfilled, we went to Cold Stone and got some ice cream from there.  I got my fav, All Lovin' No Oven.  Yum!

It was a really great day.

Missing in America Project

Today was the funeral for the Missing in America Project.  It was a really cool experience.  The Missing In America Project goes around to mortuaries across the nation and searches for Veterans whose remains have gone unclaimed.  Deseret Mortuary, which is a part of Memorial Mortuaries (where Connor works), had unclaimed cremains of 16 veterans.  Today they had a service and military honors.

In front of Deseret Mortuary before we left.  This is a small fraction of the amount of motorcycles that accompanied us.

I got to go to the service today with Connor.  It was held at Utah Veterans Memorial Park.  We had a police escort on motorcycles, and about 70 motorcyclists who accompanied us in the hearse.  It was really cool.  We never had to stop at red lights because the police escort would stop traffic, and we drove all the way from Salt Lake to the cemetery in Bluffdale.

You can see in the reflection all the lights from the motorcycles that were following us.

The service was very nice. Connor was presented with a flag in honor of one of the unclaimed veterans.  They asked him to keep it at Deseret Mortuary.

Connor accepting the flag.

Almost all of the news stations were there:

ABC 4

Fox 13

KSL (This one has a good photo of Connor)

Channel 2 was there too, but I can't find the article online.

Salt Lake Tribune (I'm in the background in a couple of the photos)

Deseret News

Connor's Famous!

Connor was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune.  The article should be in tomorrow's paper, but it's online now.  He is working on a funeral for 15 Veterans, whose cremains have gone unclaimed.

You can read the article here.

Update

This is a little past due.  Connor got his stitches out.  We went the following week (so Aug 1st) to get them out.  We went back to the ER, which was significantly busier this time than the last.  Much more time was spent in the waiting room.  Probably only about 20 minutes, but last time we didn't have to wait at all.

Waiting...

Connor was less than thrilled that he had to wear another hospital wrist band.  We went in to see the nurse and they asked how long the stitches had been in for.  We said 1 week, and they said "Only 1 week?"  Then they asked who told us to come back in 1 week?  "Uh, the doctor did" I said.  Then they had to go find another doctor and have him look at Connor's leg to make sure the stitches could come out.  It took him less than 5 seconds to determine they were ready.

Unfortunately, I missed the interesting part of the stitches coming out.  They made me go answer a bunch of insurance questions.  By the time I was done, Connor was finished too.  He said that it hurt a little, and told me that I had mislead him because when I had stitches in my hip and they took them out it didn't hurt at all.  I guess my hip has a lot more cushion than his thigh, though.  :)

Connor's car isn't fixed yet.  Hopefully by the end of the week.  They had to order an entirely new roof, which Honda would only ship by land, so that's why it's taking so long.

Anyway, all is well.  Almost everything is fixed.  Let's hope nothing else breaks for awhile.