Hello 2013

Oh my goodness gracious. It's almost February. I haven't blogged since the Birthday Extravaganza in Chicago. Because so much happened, and painfully long blog posts are not my thing, you guys will get the extra short Readers' Digest version.

In mid-December, Scott officially "graduated" as an intern. The intern graduation was nice. The coordinators read bios of all of the interns as they walked ceremoniously across stage, stood in the spotlight and received their diplomas.

He also landed a full time position (fist pump in the air) in the Customer Relations department. There were no openings in the Marketing dept., so hopefully by staying with the company, he will be able to move back to his marketing team.

After graduation and my lovely last day at work, we packed up and flew standby back to Salt Lake for Christmas to spend it with Scott's family. Crazy I know to try and fly standby during the holidays but we took the first flight out and got lucky.

Going from Dallas to Salt Lake was a bit of a climate shock for me. I almost refused to leave the airport because it looked so icy out there. I was convinced I would slip and fall to my death the second I stepped outside. But I lived!

Instead of exchanging gifts this year, we decided to share a family experience and we took a cooking class! It was so much fun and I learned a lot. I think Scott and I may take several more cooking classes in the future because of how much we enjoyed it.

For Christmas I got a new little camera and a basic camera class (hopefully new blog post photos will reflect the skills I learn) and Scott got...wait for it... his own scuba gear! He got the entire regulator system - so regulator, octopus and computer. He was so excited. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of him opening his gift and checking out his new gear, but don't worry, there will be future diving adventures and blog posts.

We also went and saw Les Mis with Scott's parents and his cousin Nathan. Scott and I both LOVED it and this time around I felt like I knew the story pretty well and feel less of a newbie.

After Christmas, our time was spent packing up and preparing to drive back out to Dallas. We rented a 16' Penske truck and loaded 'er all up and left January 3rd. It took two days, five states, and about 23 total hours of driving time to make it to Dallas. But we did and got everything moved into our new apartment semi set up (it's still a process I am working on)

Other than the Christmas adventures, life's been good. Scott started his new job and I am looking and trying to make this apartment look homey.

Got Me A Cadillac Car

Cadillac Ranch: A lovely little stop off of the highway outside of Amarillo. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michaels. A number of Cadillacs from 1949-1963 are half-buried, nose first in the ground.

When I was researching stops along our drive, this little gem popped out at me and we had to stop here. Scott can tell you I was going crazy over the idea of Cadillac Ranch. It was all I could talk about the days leading up to the road trip. Did the idea of seeing the Grand Canyon and Four Corners excite me? Yes. But not as much as Cadillac Ranch. Weird. 

I was so excited because its such a weird stop. Millions of people can say they've been to the Grand Canyon, but what about Cadillac Ranch? How many people have gone there, huh?

Where Four Corners Meet

Also on our journey to Dallas, we made another detour and drove up to Four Corners so that we could say that we've been in four places at once. Scott really basked in the glory of Four Corners as you can tell below.

Grand Canyon

Wednesday, we left SLC and drove down to the Grand Canyon, taking the scenic highway 24 & 12 route. The Grand Canyon was breath taking - we wished we could have spent more than an hour there. We will definitely make a trip back there to hike some of the trails.

A scenic overlook on highway 24 

Rock formations on Highway 12

The Grand Canyon, located in Arizona, is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.  It is 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide. It is carved  by the Colorado River and exposes rock at its base being almost 2 billion years old.

Grand Canyon, North Rim

Start Trippin'

Dallas here we come!

We leave TODAY. In fact I need to hurry this post up so we can pack last minute things in the car and start the migration. But I felt the need to inform the world about our grand adventure.

As you can see from the map above, we're not taking the most straightforward route to Dallas. The fastest way would be to cut through Colorado (not pictured).We decided to make the road trip even longer and make a few stops along the way.

Pictures will follow.