The Barber's Virginia Adventures: August 2015

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Driving my mom cross country

As some of you know my mom hit her head last February and had a bad concussion. She sold her home and moved to Minnesota for a year and stayed with her sister. On July 25th I flew out to Minnesota to drive my mom home. We were able to have a mini reunion with some family on Sunday and early Monday morning we left for Kansas. At the last moment we learned that my mom could not go above 5000 ft because her eye has a nitrogen bubble and she could go blind. So, luckily Jason helped me find a route that would make us go through Kansas, TX, NM, AZ, and eventually Utah. We drove 8 hours plus each day. they were long drives but we finally got mom home. I was glad to be back in Texas because it is where I served an LDS mission for my church for a year and half. It was nice to eat barbecue from Rudys. So good. We did a lot of praying because there was a part of Utah that was above the elevation mom could go. The Lord gave us a miracle and all was alright with her.

Friday July 31st we arrived to my sisters home. Sadly, the night before we got news that my dad was on life support and a little bit after we arrived my dad passed away. It was bitter sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad but in the past he has done some things that were hard to forgive him for but I have forgiven him. He was a great dad for a lot of my childhood and he was a great father to my brothers and sister. My mom and sister and I got our nails done and we got my sister a ticket to go out and be with my brothers for a few days while they all grieved. Jason was supposed to fly out Thursday night but his plane got delayed so he went back home to try it again on Friday. Luckily all went well and he got in Friday night at midnight. He drove a rental car so he was exhausted. We woke up at 5am for some reason and we went to kneaders for breakfast. Gabby had taken off for Atlanta that morning. Jason and I went to Provo to get our BYU football shirts, eat In n Out, and to buy knee length shorts for work. Saturday we ordered pizza and went and saw Mission Impossible. It was pretty good. Sunday we went to church with my brother in law and hung out with Jason's aunt and uncles in Utah. Monday we saw a friend that we used to work with at BYU and her sweet baby. It was good to see friends again and be back in Utah for a short time. It was fun to meet my sisters dog Augie, he is so cute.

I am sorry if we did not see everyone but we will be back in December for ten days and would love to see many of you. We went to cracker barrel Monday night and Jason and I drove to the airport. We drove by our home in Sandy and looked at dowtown Salt Lake city. A lot has changed. We flew out on the red eye and I struggled to sleep. Some poor little girl woke up from her nap and cried a lot and I could not get comfortable. We flew to Orlando and had a lay over for 3 hours. As we got to DC our luggage never appeared on the luggage belt. They told us they lost it and so we got a credit and when they found it they would bring it to us. So, we left and about a half hour later they called and said the luggage was on the plane. They brought it to us five hours later and Jason had to turn back around and go on a work trip that night.

Mom and me and Patsy

Augie

Me, and my crazy cousins

Ice cream soda, so good

Mom and the Utah sign

Me and the Utah sign

NYC Anniversary Trip and Fourth of July

We decided that since we have reached being married five years that we wanted to take a nice vacation. Since we both had July 3rd off we took a Peter Pan bus that morning to NYC. We left at 7am and had a pretty uneventful trip till a passenger went up to the bus driver and said there was smoke coming from the back. The bus was about 20 minutes from NYC and a belt had broken was smoking. We all got off the bus and waiting on the side of the road for the another bus to come take us to the depot. Many stopped but could not take us. We waited for a good 30 minutes and got to the depot and headed out to drop off our luggage at a place that holds it for a bit. For lunch we had White Castles which were so good. Day 1- we walked around Times Square, Madison Square, the love sign, Rockfeller center, etc. Later we checked into the hotel and I had to get some blister protectors for my feet. We meet a dear friend that I had at BYU named Ashley. It had been five years since I saw her. Central park was a fun place to find her at and we walked to the Manhattan LDS temple and Lincoln Center. Later we went to the NY Yankee's stadium and to our surprise the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing the National anthem. It was so nice to hear them. Jason and I were so exhausted that we didn't make it to the end of the game. The game went into 12 innings and they came out with the win.

It was so fun to ride the subway, it was a little overwhelming but by the end of the trip I think I finally figured it out. Day 2 which was the 4th of July we woke up and had a egg bagel sandwich. It was so good. There was not much open that morning. After breakfast we went to the 9/11 memorial and pay respect to all those that were killed that day. It was beautiful place to be. That afternoon we went on a cruise ride out to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and back to battery park. The ride out to the statue was making me a little sick because the water was choppy and we were inside the boat. The ride to Ellis island was better because we were on the top and could see all the views. We got tickets to go to the pedestal of the statue of liberty- it was a lot of stairs to walk up and since we walked everywhere the day before my legs kept tightening on me. It was a great view and experience. I encourage all to go do it. Sadly, by our hotel since we stayed in the financial district no place was open for dinner. We had to go to times square to find a pizza place but in the end it was well worth it. For the fireworks that night we went to the brooklyn side to have the NY skyline as the backdrop. It was very crowded but the fireworks were pretty awesome. On our way home they shut down some of the subway stops so that was an adventure.

Day 3 we went to the 911 memorial and the museum. It was a bitter sweet experience. It was a nice museum and had neat displays. Inside the musuem they had a cool blue wall that they had different artists depict the color of the sky the day before the towers went down. It was very blue. There was a part of the museum that had voice recordings and pictures and things that dealt with the planes that day. It was hard to listen to, I cried during this part. It was crazy to see all the damage to some of the things they were able to display. After this we checked out of the hotel and went to the bus stop to head back to Virginia.