Back to Houston

Monday

Monday morning I flew out of Tucson to Houston to stay with my grandparents for the week. My flight landed at 3 pm Houston time. Katie picked me up and took me to Target (since I didn't want to bring shampoo and conditioner and what not on the plane) and then to our grandparents' house. When we got there, Julia (my cousin) had been anxiously awaiting my arrival which meant I had to immediately change into a swimsuit and jump in the pool with her. After many squirt gun fights and being pushed off of floaties, we got out and got ready for dinner. Grandpa grilled up some steaks that were SO good. Seriously they were huge. Everything really is bigger in Texas. 

Tuesday

On Tuesday I bummed around the house in the morning while Julia was at baseball camp. I read a book and showered and got ready for the day. When she got back, we had hot dogs for lunch and played some board games. We ran around town for a little bit to do some shopping. We went to Dillard's and a tennis store to get Julia a new racquet. Then we cleaned up and went to George's Pastaria for dinner. Apparently everyone in my family has been there many times, except for me. It was really good so I'm glad I got to go!

Wednesday

On Wednesday Katie picked me up to go to her house and see if I could help her out with anything. Her house looks so good now! Last time I was there it didn't have any furniture so it has definitely come a long way. We ended up going to the outlet mall for a little bit and eating lunch at Escalante's (YUM). After Escalante's, we ran by Target again so I could get some pool toys that weren't guns. Once we got back to the house it was straight into the pool again. 

Thursday

Thursday was similar to my other days in Houston, but after baseball camp we went to Academy and Cavender's for some very important shopping. When we got back to the house, Katie met up with us and we played a few more board games. Then we went to the circus! I was really excited to go since I hadn't been since I was super young, and it was amazing! There were fewer animal acts than in the past, but they've really upped their game with the other acts. Go Ringling Bros, y'all rock. 

We were in the second row and had great seats!

The tigers were definitely the best part of the whole thing. 

They also had a bunch of trampoline performers and BMXers (is that what you call them??) One of the BMX guys had a U of A sticker on his helmet so we were basically besties.

Friday

On Friday morning Katie picked me up and we hung out at her house for a little bit. Then we went and window shopped at Cavender's and then went out to eat at Pappsito's! I haven't been able to go there in my most recent Houston trips so I was super excited. It was delicious of course. After lunch I got dropped off at the airport. My flight was okay but the lady next to me kept falling asleep and getting all up in my space so she was ticking me off quite a bit. I got my bag and headed out to the parking garage to find my car. I knew something was wrong right away because my car wouldn't unlock with the digital key so I had to use the manual key to unlock it. My suspicions were confirmed because it wouldn't start either. This was my first time ever having a car battery die on me, and I was ticked because my dad just changed the battery last August, so it shouldn't have been dead. I checked that the headlights were switched off, because I would've been really embarrassed if I had left my lights on for five days in an airport parking garage. Alas, they were off. I called my mom and filled her in on the situation, then I called AAA and sat on hold for a little bit. They were really confused when I was trying to tell them where I was, I guess not many people request service at the airport. They asked if I had shade or water, and I couldn't find any water in my car, so they set my call as a priority one since it's so flipping hot in Arizona. The lady on the phone said they would be there within an hour, so I walked back into the airport so I could buy some water and charge my phone for a bit. Of course once I walked back into the airport they called and said they would be there soon. So I turned around and went back to my car and waited another thirty minutes while sweating like crazy. Luis from AAA came and saved me though. He jumped my car three times and then checked on the battery. Turns out it was corroded really bad so I had him replace it and my car is fab now. First time I've ever had to use AAA since being a driver, but I sure was glad I have it! 

Saturday

Saturday morning Sydney, Jenny and I woke up bright and early and went on the 5th ward temple trip. Kind of. We met them at the Linden building, but since Sydney had names for us to do, and we were planning on sticking around in Mesa after the temple, we went up in our own car. When we got to the temple we couldn't find the people we knew, and we didn't have any of their numbers, so we just went on in and hoped they weren't waiting for us somewhere (they weren't). 

After the temple we went to the Richardson's house, got lunch, and had a lot of karaoke dance parties. We stayed there for dinner since Sydney's mom was feeding the missionaries, so we got some chicken fajitas. 

Sunday

This morning before church Mollie and Brittany came over to our house to visit with us and to share the visiting teaching message for the month. They are both so sweet and it was a great start to our Sunday. Church was at the Linden building and it was pretty rocking. I got a Diglett and a Rhyhorn during church so it was definitely a successful Sunday. When we got home from church, I saw on Facebook that there were Charizards at the Reid Park rose garden, so I drove on over there. My phone was dying and I wasn't prepared for a full on Pokemon hunt, so I sat in my car and caught a few Pokemon before heading back home. There were so many people there! Like more than on campus. I think I'll have to go back for some serious hunting later in the week. 

I'm a Pokemon trainer.

At the beginning of June I flew back to San Ramon so I could visit my family a little and work at Camp Summit (the camp I work at for a week every summer). I had a few days to get my things in order, relax, and pack for camp before I went off to the Marin Headlands for a week. 

Right when I got to camp, we had to get our CPR certifications renewed, which is always a fun time. This year we went through a different company and they had some super fancy dummies. And we all got our own, instead of having to share two of them like we used to. 

Here's mine. I named him Roger. I also kept breathing so hard that his chest (the blue part) kept flying off and hitting other people. I'm totally qualified to save people, I promise. 

Camp was super fun and exhausting as per usual. One of my jobs at camp is to run the camp blog throughout the week to update parents so I'm pretty blogged out regarding camp. And I don't think I'm supposed to share photos of campers, which really limits my options on pictures for my personal blog. 

One of the sessions that we had was stamp carving, which was really cool. We had this special pink rubber that it meant for stamps (it's not an eraser guys) and these tools that helped you carve out the space around your shape so that there was a stamp remaining. I decided to make a pizza stamp and I put pepperoni on it even though I hate pepperoni because otherwise I thought it would just look like a weird triangle. 

We also made some pretty sick tie-dye shirts this year. Ellie (one of the other counselors) ordered a new kind of tie-dye which took roughly two hours to mix, since we had to make it in small batches. But it was worth it since the shirts came out so vibrantly! Unfortunately my shirt got other colors bled onto it when it was hanging on the clothesline to dry, since it was super windy and shirts were flying everywhere. 

On Thursday night we always have a "theme night". We can't call it a dance because that puts too much pressure on the evening haha. This year's theme was superheroes. Naturally I wore my superman underwear over my pants. It's kind of hard to see in the picture though and this was the only real picture of me haha. I'm also the camp photographer, so I'm not usually in many photos. 

After camp I went back home and rested for a few days. We decided to take Charlotte to the vet since she had been losing a lot of weight and drinking a lot of water. My mom thought she either had diabetes or kidney failure, and we were hoping for diabetes. So she went in to get her blood drawn and all that good stuff. When we got home from the vet, Dewey was freaking out that she had been in his carrier so he jumped in it and ended up taking a nap in it forever. We thought since he liked it so much, we would take his old crate out of the garage and leave it in the kitchen with the door off. So far he has been in it basically every day. 

One of the things I was most excited about doing in San Ramon was trying a new restaurant right next to my house called Poke Don. It was SO GOOD. It was a make your own poke bowl and I can't wait to go back fifty more times. Tucson, step up your poke game please. 

Here's a great picture I took of Dewey. 

I was only in town for a little while, and the Slavens family was in and out of town as well. Luckily, I managed to go out with Kristi and some children for Kristi's birthday lunch. We all went to Benihana, which never disappoints. I found out recently that some people have never been to Benihana. I'm sorry. Apparently other people just go to other teppanyaki restaurants, but Benihana is like THE teppanyaki place to go. We used to go to the Benihana right next to Disney World when I was little and it was the best thing of life. 

My parents and I drove up to Napa for the day one weekend to go to one of their new favorite restaurants, Mustard's Grill. It was so good! First we walked around Oxbow Market, as per usual, then we went to the winery my dad is a member at to pick up his monthly wine subscription, then we went to dinner. Everything was delicious! 

Ahi tartare crackers. 

Mushroom tamales 

Steak and mac&cheese 

After Mustard's, we made our way over to Bouchon bakery to stand in line forever. It was worth it though! I got an eclair and a brownie bite, and we got some doggie treats too. 

On the fourth of July it was Charlotte's 14th birthday! Earlier in the week we had gotten her bloodwork back, which showed that she did indeed have kidney disease. So we had to bring her back into the vet so they could take a urine sample to make sure she didn't also have a UTI. Of course when we took her in, she didn't have enough pee in her bladder, so we went back the next day. She still didn't have enough pee, so we left her at the vet for a few hours and came back right before closing. They tried to collect the pee one more time and finally succeeded! It was so frustrating - we wished we could just tell her to pee and get it over with. She's got some new medicine and supplements to add to her food so hopefully she'll put some of her weight back on! Right now she only weighs 7 pounds and she looks like a kitten. She better hang in there for a while because I don't know what I'd do without her. 

Also on the fourth, my mom was cleaning out her dresser and found some great things. She found an American flag do-rag and this cute dog shirt which I naturally put on Wilbur. He didn't really appreciate it. 

This past Wednesday I flew back to Tucson. Since then I have been bumming around town running errands, relaxing, and hanging out with my roommates. On Thursday night I discovered Pokemon Go and downloaded it out of curiosity. I was never into Pokemon as a child, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It's like geocaching but better. I made my roommates go on a quick walk with me around the neighborhood so we could figure the app out. Then on Friday, Sydney and I went on campus to check out the Pokemon there. Seriously everyone we saw was playing this game. It was hilarious! We hung out catching Pokemon at the Old Main fountain for a bit, then went home. 

On Saturday we went back to campus and even though it was approximately 130 degrees out, we caught Pokemon with Jenny for almost two hours. We were so hot afterwards and were desperate to go swimming. We weren't too keen on the rec center pool, since there are always a lot of people and we would have had to walk to it. So instead we went to Mountain Plaza and swam in their pool. Hey if they didn't want non-residents to use their pool they should lock the fences. No one tell our secret. It was sooooooo nice and I bet we'll be back later in the summer. 

Fun times - there were many Pokemon Go players at church today and people kept making the church building into a lure (where Pokemon gather at that spot for 30 minutes and everyone in the vicinity can catch them). We made some friends and figured out who was setting the lures. This app is so crazy how it has caught on so quickly. People are getting outside so much more and socializing a lot more too. We talked to a lot of people on campus when I normally just would have walked past them. I also would not have chosen to walk around in this heat without another motive. 

I'm flying to Houston tomorrow morning to stay with my grandparents for the week so hopefully I catch some cool Texan Pokemon while I'm there.