Day 3: On the road again

When we got up we had breakfast, quiche, which were delicious and creme brulee with out the brulee, but with blueberries instead, but they were also good. After breakfast we packed up. Our room was a French themed room with various knick-knacks, that were pretty cool.
This was just a cool fan in our room that was made of feathers.We were just about to leave and then the lady owner remembered that she told Eric that he could feed the fish. So everyone else that stayed there that night came out and watched him feed the fish. So this is the video of Eric feeding the fish. You can see them coming out sometimes

This fish was my favorite. Her name is Ms Piggy. The lady said this one was worth $1800!

These are just some cool trees that were in the yard.
Around Amarillo there were a whole bunch of horses that were painted with different themes, but we didn't have enough time to go see/take pictures of them all. This was the only that we got because it was on the way out of Amarillo.
On the way to to Houston we ended up going out of Texas, into Oklahoma, and then back into Texas. On our way, we were going to bypass Oklahoma City by a few miles but then we decided to take a small detour through it and see the memorial from the bombing in 1995. This was one of the entrances into the memorial. On the other side at the top it say 9:03 and then on the other entrance it says 9:01. The bombing happened at 9:02am and the two other times symbolizes the time the bombing happened.

This little part is for the children that perished. The colorful wall is many different colored tiles that were made by children from all over the U.S. By the fence there was a container of chalk where people could use it to draw whatever they wanted. We drew our names and where we were from. It was a pretty cool section. This building was on that was right across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was the one that got bombed. If you look close you can see the jagged edge on the top from the explosion. Also, most of the windows got knocked out from the bomb so instead of putting in new windows/glass they filled the holes with black bricks. You can also see part of the fire escape that fell off because of it. On the second picture you can see the words that one of the workers painted on the wall after the bombing.

This next picture explains the picture after it better than I could.
This is just a cool picture of the reflecting pool, in between the two gates.
As we were walking around the memorial there was this park ranger/tour guide person who was saying that if you put your hands in the water and then put them on the wall for 3 seconds the chemicals from your hands and the water mixing together does something to the wall and changes colors. So he said it's kind of like you leaving a piece of yourself behind. And he said to remember where you put your hands so you can bring your kids and they can do the same also. It was kind of neat. We put our hand prints on the wall that you can see in the upper picture and obviously the one below.
The two walls are part of the original Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and the two rectangles are the names of the survivors from the building and the surrounding buildings.
These chairs are from the victims of the bombing. On the front of each glass box is the name of each of the victims.
This wall was across the street from where we parked. It's one of the walls that they left up after they were finished with the memorial that people have placed tokens to remember the people lost.
The memorial was an amazing experience. One that I will never forget. A couple of times when I was walking around I almost started to cry because it was both sad but an amazing feeling seeing the memorial. This is our picture of us or rather the sign when we are coming back into Texas. We didn't get to Houston until about 9:30ish that night. We could have gotten there earlier, but I am glad that we went to the memorial instead, way worth it.

Day 2: Amarillo and such

So we drove all night into Amarillo and got there around 2:30ish in the afternoon. I wanted to take pictures at every state sign but it was either dark or I was asleep, which was usually the case.

This is just of Eric driving, who drove most of the 16 hours. What a trooper.

And now we're in New Mexico, for a little bit.
So we got to Amarillo about 2:30 and we didn't want to check in yet because we said we wouldn't check in until 8ish so we just did a drive by and then drove around the city trying to figure out what to do. As we were driving around we see this sign that says "Free 72oz. Steak" and then we wonder if it is the same place we are thinking that we saw on the travel channel. So we look up the directions and head towards there and it was! So of course we had to stop there.

So here is The Big Texan! Home of the 72oz steak!
As we were sitting there eating I was telling Eric that I hoped that someone would attempt to eat the steak. He said he wasn't sure if anyone would do it, but lo and behold a few minutes later this here gentleman stepped up to the plate. This challenge includes eating all of these: a whole 72oz steak, roll, salad, and 3 fried shrimp all within an hour. If all of these are eating you get the meal for free.
Here is a close-up of the steak. Kind of disgusting. This second guy tried to eat it but he was pretty much a lost cause. Didn't even get close.
This timer is actually for the first guy on the right and shows how much time is left. The second guy started about 25 minutes after the first guy and the third guy had barely started. We left before the second guys time ran out but he still had most of his sides left and most of the steak. we don't know about the third guy, but probably not. The first guy finished his steak easy, with 5 minutes to spare. He could have finished it with 20 minutes but he was just taking it easy.
This is just the big boot outside of the restaurant.
These are just of me and Eric messing around.
So when we get to the Bed and Breakfast, we see that the Oscar Meyer Weiner truck is parked in the driveway. I got really excited to see it because I have never been that close to it (kind of dorky I know). So when we check in to our room we find out that the people who drive the truck are actually staying at the same place we are! I was hoping that we would be able to see inside of the truck and eventually, later that night one of the drivers showed it to us.
Sweet license plate huh.
This is pretty much the inside, nothing too exciting, but still cool. After we got to see the inside the guy gave us some Weenie whistles, glow-in-the-dark even.
After we were all checked in we decided to go in the back yard and check it out. There was a koi pond out back with some pretty cool ones in the pond. The lady owner told us that if we stuck our fingers in the water they would come and nibble on out fingers. So they kind of nibbled, but more just sucked on our fingers. It was sweet. She asked if I wanted to feed the fish so I said sure.
Here is the video of it. You can here how hard the fish are sucking on my hand.

We still had some daylight to burn so we looked up some things that we could still go to that we wouldn't have to pay for and was still open. We found this place called Cadillac Ranch. It's these 10 Cadillacs stuck on there ends in the middle of a field. People could bring spray paint and paint all over the cars. It was pretty cool.

This was my contribution. We didn't know that we could paint on the cars until we got there, otherwise we would have. I did find a paintball however and threw it against a car.
King of the World!!!
I was too scared to climb on top because I had slippers on and I didn't want to fall.
Here is my other contribution. I found a piece of scrap metal and scratched out names into the paint and didn't realize til later that it has the go above it. The paint was so thick on all of the cars, it was crazy!
After visiting the Cadillac Ranch we decided to take a drive on Route 66. I thought it would be a lot cooler for some reason, but this was the coolest part.This is all for Day 2, which was already a pretty sweet day. Tomorrow we will set off for Houston!

My Birthday and Day 1ish

So yesterday was my birthday and the first day of me and Eric's Spring Break vacation. Eric had class earlier in the day, so later that day we went to the temple and then we went to Red Robin with some friends where I got a free burger and got really embarrassed when I got sung to by the waiters and the creepy Red Robin bird. But it was good food and fun to hang out with all our friends. After we ate we went to Stacey's and hung out with them for a little bit. After Stacey's we went home to finish packing.

We started to leave Pocatello around 9:30 to Amarillo. A couple of hours into our trip I started to feel really sick and was wondering how in the world we were going to make it to our destination the next day if I was really sick. So I asked Eric if we could pull over for a minute to see if I would start to feel better. I went in to the bathroom and almost puked and then I got the thought to ask Eric for a blessing. So we went behind a building and he gave me a blessing. Almost immediately after it I started feeling better and didn't get very carsick the rest of the trip. Thanks!

Super Cool

So a month or so ago there was this deal at Albertson's that if you bought 3 4-packs of Jone's Soda you could get 1 for free, designed by yourself. So we finally made ours and got them in today. Here's what they look like:
We also got to choose the quote that was on the back of the bottle. I don't remember who said this quote (you could probably Google it) but I really like it and think it's a good one. You can't really see the whole thing but here it is:

"The more connections you and your lover make, not just between your bodies, but between your minds, your hearts, and your souls, the more you will strengthen the fabric of your relationship, and the more real moments you will experience together."

Thanks

So today, this morning, I was on my way to Idaho Falls for a dentist appointment and it was snowing kind of hard outside. Everything was going fine but when I started to drive through the lavas (in between Blackfoot and Idaho Falls) when I started to fishtailing. I started to slow down but I was still fishtailing so I pulled off the road. I was shaking sooo bad. I sat there for a few minutes, shaking, and then call Eric freaking out. After I talked to Eric a cop pulled over and asked what was wrong. I told him I was fishtailing and I was kind of wondering if something may be wrong with the car. He checked the tires but nothing was wrong, so he said he'd follow me for a few miles to make sure everything was okay. So I started going but as soon as they turned around it seemed like a started fishtailing again. I went a little bit further, trying to be brave, but I got scared again so I pulled over again. I called Eric and asked him what I should do, and while I was talking to him another cop pulled over and asked what was wrong, so I told him and he said there was an exit that I should try to get to so I am not a hazard on the freeway. Eric called some people to try and get a ride to where I was at because I was too scared to drive. I got brave and drove the couple of miles to the exit and pulled over and waited for Eric to come and get me. I waited for a little bit and then our friends, the Turpin's, brought Eric to where I was at.

So thanks to all the cops who were nice to me. Thanks to the Turpin's who drove Eric to come and get me. Thanks to Eric for being patient with me for waking him up 3 hours earlier than normal and for driving me home. And most definitely thanks to Heavenly Father for making sure I wasn't harmed.

Brian Regan

So this past Wednesday me and Eric got to go see Brian Regan, who is a comedian, in Blackfoot. It was so much fun. He was super hilarious!

This one is of me and Eric showing how excited we are to see him live and in person!!!

And the ticket...

This is the opening act, Joe Bolster. He was pretty good.

These next pictures are of Brian Regan. They aren't the best because it was hard to get any good pictures and plus I felt kind of bad taking them because of the flash you can obviously see form the peoples' heads in front of me and I didn't want to try and move any closer either.