Up, up, and away!

On August 29, 2009, my Mom, Dad, Emily, and I embarked on a wonderful adventure! Emily and I had received as a christmas gift, a few years ago, a hot air balloon ride! Well it took a few years, but we finally went! We got to the park in American Fork at 6:20am, helped prepare the balloon for flight, and finally took off around 7:30am. I was able to help hold the cords while huge gas-powered fans blew air into the balloon. Once it was blown up, the pilot added heat and it rose vertical in the air. Before we took off, the pilot let off a black helium balloon to test the wind direction and wind speed. He was mainly making sure we didn't float off into the mountains or over the lake. It's crazy to think the pilot cannot steer the balloon, yet the balloon travels with the wind, so at different altitudes the wind travels differently, allowing you to travel different ways and speeds. And you just don't know where you'll end up until you get there!

After we took off, my cute little blue corolla is the second car from the left. It was fun to see things get so small as we rose into the air!

A look into the inside of the balloon! I thought it turned out pretty cool!

A view of Utah County, BYU in the far distance, and of the two other balloons that took off at the same time as us!

Emily enjoying the view from up above!

I took this picture myself, I love doing that! In the background is Bob, the pilot, not the builder!

Dad looking down below. It was fun to see what we could spot from an aerial point of view! Things look a lot different from up above!

A view of Micron Flash Technologies in Alpine, the point of the mountain, and a look into the Salt Lake Valley. Micron, unknown at this time, soon became our landing site!

A view of Alpine valley, nestled into the mountains! I love the view!

The pilot wanted to try heading into the Salt Lake Valley, so he decided to land in Alpine, get more fuel, and head back out. Yet, when we landed, he decided the winds weren't very good and we stayed down. However, we didn't know we had landed on private land belonging to Micron. Ya, we soon had a security vehicle and an emergency on-site response team responding to our landing site. We weren't sure what to think. We were more than fine, but the pilot was a little nervous.

Emily is helping them deflate the balloon!

At the end of deflation! Our nice security man up on the hill in the red, and the emergency response guys standing next to him. I guess we made their morning pretty exciting with our unexpected landing, because saturday is their slowest day! They let Bob off with just a warning to try and avoid landing in this area.

Dad helping Bob and crew stuff the balloon back into the sack. They said the balloon weighs over 300 pounds and the basket weighs around 600 pounds. Wow! Overall, it was an amazing experience and we had an eventful landing!

Fish are friends...not food!

So for my recollection, as well as for your enjoyment, I wanted to quickly write down something one of my cute patients said. This little boy was two years old and was in with asthma. I had him for a few days and he was terribly sick and didn't do much but sleep. Yet, I came on the second day and he was full of life. He wanted to take a bath so bad that we jumped at the chance to let him. After the bath, his parents got his pajamas to put on...which had sharks on them! They pointed out to him that he was wearing sharks, and he replied, "yah, sharks eat Nemo!" Oh I wish I could've been there. I was retold this story, but I just cracked up laughing. His parents then replied, 'no, no, sharks don't eat Nemo, fish are friends." And in his cute way, he replied, "oh yah!" Oh, I love my job!

"Hey...you...guys..." (said with the voice of Sloth) I'm at Goonies Beach or a.k.a. Cannon Beach, Oregon

Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, OR...where the famous Goonies movie was filmed. It's a goregous view! I was so amazed at how massive the rock is just out there on the beach.

I was having a ton of fun with my camera and was excited to see what I could do! I think I captured some great aspects of this beautiful monument of Oregon. My favorite part was noticing the reflection that I caught in the water.

Check it out...I couldn't resist! I was there!

I thought it was fun to catch the grass along the side with Haystack Rock in the background!

Chantel and cute Norah! It was Norah's and my first time at this beach. Isn't she beautiful!

I'm a proud aunt! She's so precious! We've had a lot of fun bonding this weekend!

"Hey where are we going to get fish at this time of night?" or "Did I leave my curling iron on?" or "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" or "Gosh, I wish daddy was here with us at the beach!"

What do you think she's thinking? These were our thoughts, what are yours?

A baby elephant is born at Hogle Zoo!

Ok...just a few things in life I'm grateful for!

#1 - I won't have to be pregnant for 22 months like this mother elephant was, oh man! and...

#2 - My baby won't weigh near 251 pounds and measure 3 feet tall with a 15-inch trunk, wow!

But I wouldn't mind having one of these...

Isn't she cute! She's a baby of a friend of mine. Oh that's a baby elephant I could have!

And I've just got to say, wow... that is one amazing beard that guy has going on! ;) But what a cute, precious baby elephant!

My friend Chantel had her baby girl, beautiful Norah Ryann!

Norah was born in Portland, OR on August 4, 2009 at 8:21am weighing in at 8lbs 15oz. I'm so excited to be an aunt to another precious angel!

Have you ever walked-thru a drive-thru?

Well I just did...what an experience! I can now cross that off my list of "things to do in life"! So the story goes...I walked across the street from my new place to the America First Credit Union to deposit some checks and get a cashier check to pay our August rent. So I get up to the building and round the corner to walk in, yet it was locked. What? It's Saturday, but I know it's opened right now. I looked at the hours sign and only the drive thru was open on Saturdays. So I wasn't about to walk back to my place to get my car to just drive-thru the drive-thru. So I walked around to the back of the building, and waited to see what station opened up first and walked right up to the speaker and sucky up tube thing. :)

I called the nice person inside, and asked her if it was ok that I wasn't in a car...haha, she laughed and said it was just fine! So I received the same service, maybe even better. I didn't have to lean out of the window to hear her. It was great, I got my cashier check, and walked away feeling a little silly, but smiling ear to ear!