Sister Time

I have... interesting family dynamics. I have 4 brothers, one of whom I've never met, 4 sisters, and 2 sets of parents. Which obviously means divorce, remarriage, and thus step siblings. I only grew up with my one full brother. My mom remarried to my step dad, who is 10 years older than she is, which subsequently made his kids, a brother and a sister, 10 years older than my brother and me. They lived with their mom, and for the one year that my sister did live with us, I was in 2nd grade and she was in high school. Not a lot of sibling bonding going on there.

My dad remarried when I was in High School. Another brother and two more sisters. This time younger than me. They lived with their mom and my dad. I didn't. Again, not a lot of bonding going on there either.

I've since had some amazing experiences with my mod podge family. Being adults has put us more on a level playing field in life and I love the color that they each add to my life. I love my family and wouldn't trade any part of it for anything.

This weekend I got to hang out with my only big sister, McKell. Though our families have done a lot together through out the years, I think this weekend was the first time I've ever just hung out with my sister. Ever. No family function, no kids, no specific reason... just us and a Saturday night. We hit a comedy show for dinner and then hit a small hole in the wall for pool. And we laughed and joked and talked. And I loved every minute of it. I had some awesome shots in pool and, as always, I loved being with my man, who always treats me like gold, this night being no exception. And McKell's new man was fun too, this being the first time that we finally got to meet him. What it boils down to is that I'm so grateful to have her in my life. And I'm so thankful that we had the evening to grow together as sisters. And I look forward to many more, because I never did have a biological sister, so how lucky am I to get a second chance at it by having step sisters?

Pirates!

Loved it. Even if "someone" accidentally pre-ordered the 3-D tickets (which we're actually not a huge fan of...and prefer not to see)...Seriously, were we expecting me to say anything less about it? Except that I'm glad Kiera Knightly wasn't in it. I think Penelope Cruz's character was a lot easier to swallow.

Start date night out with a smothered burrito from La Frontera and end it with the new Pirates movie and I'm one happy girl... it doesn't take much :).

My first time.

I have a confession to make. I have never eaten sushi. I'm hit and miss with liking sea food. Mostly it's the texture. Some of it is the taste. But being as everyone raves about sushi it had been eating at me for a while that it was something I needed to try at least once. It was a kidless night for us, and hence date night :). I had gift certificates for Applebee's and a movie from work but when I mentioned that to West he said that could be our back up plan. Back up plan? Where are we going? I was going to have to wait and see. It turns out for once that West actually listened to me and my passing remarks of wanting to try sushi. He took me to a Japanese restaurant by our house where we also tried a new a soup with tofu (another first, I'm not a fan). I ordered a mango topped California roll (thinking I could stomach that with crab being cooked and all): And West ordered a deep fried spicy tuna: My first conclusion of sushi is that it's so pretty. My second is that I really like the crunch of the deep fried roll. And thirdly, I wasn't really a fan of the seaweed, which ended up in both rolls, even though we were both trying to avoid that very thing, but I think it's something that can grow on me because even though I didn't exactly like it, it didn't repulse me. I still think next time I'll specifically ask for no seaweed, but if it shows up, I'll eat it anyway. It's a taste that I think will grow on me. I loved this night simply because I know West had me in mind when he chose the place. It's all in the little things.
After dinner we saw "Inception" which I LOVED. Holy moly. I would recommend it.

Zion Run a way

West and I ended up with a kidless weekend. How often does that happen??? Rarely to be honest. Especially lately, so we definitely took advantage of it. I got online and booked us a last minute bed and breakfast room and off we went. Our hosts at the bed and breakfast were amazingly sweet and very helpful with information on the park. If you ever want to go to Zion, check them out for a stay at http://www.thedesertthistle.com/ tell them we sent you :). It was the most tastefully decorated b&b that I saw at both Zion and Moab on my google searching and it was also one of the most reasonable priced. I HIGHLY recommend them! So on the recommendation of Warren, our gracious host, we decided to try Angel's Landing. Hang on, there's a lot of pictures coming here:
Starting out... we have NO idea what we're about to get into! If you look closely at the side of the mountain you can see the trail steeply zigzagging on top of itself... not looking too fun at this point and we're just beginning Funny faces to be sure... but we were really Ex.Haus.ted! And not even half way at this point. Not even to the part they call "Warren's Wiggles" yet Warren's Wiggles... stacked below me in a steep zigzag ... ...and stacked way above us in steep zigzags Finally at the 2 mile mark where the steep steady hiking trail ends, and the steep narrow climbing part begins, we sat to rest and watched a chipmunk breaking into peoples packs. The next half of narrow climbing on the edge of steep cliffs is no place for a bulky pack on your back! But our camel pack was just fine. Just the fact that we made the the 2 mile hike to this point was impressive to me. And exhilarating. With a drop off on one side of us, West peers at the view on the other side... ...and what a view it was! Literally climbing up the ridge of the mountain As wide as our "trail" was As wide as the entire ridge to walk on wasDoesn't get much wider than this the whole way up. I told you before... I like to take pictures of my feet... it shows where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going... The world is my playground The view from that perch of West's:Way cool tree at the top. Oh yes... the top! The funny thing is, we saw two people turn back once we were on the narrow cliff climbing part. Seriously though, you made it through 2 very steep miles, push through the last half... it's so worth it! What a waste not to finish! Walking on top of the world! To the point where you absolutely can not take another step. On the very most tippy top edge of Angel's landing. Sorry, I wasn't about to get closer to get a better shot of below. No way!To tell the truth, going down was a lot more unnerving than going up! My crazy man screwing around Back on solid ground, and exhausted and craving ice cream. Angel's Landing... We made it to the very uppermost tip top... crazy, huh? Our cute bed and breakfast the desert thistle. These people are so stinking cute!! We dipped our feet in the cold water of the pool, grabbed some Mexican food in town, that I was way to exhausted to eat. Five bites and I was done. Bed. I want bed. We were asleep by 8:30. But here's some pictures of the cute place: They had a giant sheep in the backyard! Our room, the Zion suite (the next morning so the bed's a little rumpled... don't judge them because we didn't make the bed for our picture lol) The next morning we decided we wanted to see the Emerald Pools before we headed home to get the girls. These caterpillars were EVERYWHERE The falls at the Lower Emerald Pools: Behind the falls

On our way up the middle pools. We were told that the lower pool is where the waterfall falls, and the middle pool is where the waterfall goes over the edge. We really never heard much about the upper pool, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that. Right now we're just on our way to the middle pool.

One last shot of the Lower pool falls as we continue on

And to tell you the truth, the middle pools weren't anything much when we got there. They have the edge chained off so you can't see the falls from the top, not that I would have dared to look at it from the edge anyway...

We were less than a half mile from the upper pool so we decided "why not?" It was a good decision. The trail was a little more work because it was sandy, but once we reached it, wow... the pictures really don't do it justice. The waterfall was so much taller than the one at the lower pool and it fell into a real pond instead of just onto rocks. It was such a serene and beautiful place. We want to take the circus there. I had a hard time leaving the upper pool, but we had to be on our way so we could head home. I needed to meet my ex and get my part of the circus back. One last parting shot of the falls at the lower pool though.

On the way home my ex called saying he'd been in an accident with Deeds and B. B had been complaining about her stomach and after a CT scan the hospital was opting to keep her over night. I was planning a trip to her, but after a few hours of waiting for the hospital to make up their minds, they finally decided to let her go. I ended up getting them back the next day. The trip was refreshing and I was ever so glad to have my girls home.