Back to Life

It's amazing how fast time flies, even when you're not particularly having fun. It's hard to believe that Tracy is six weeks away from his first semester in grad school.
Well, the first part of spring break was pretty boring. Tracy just did homework, and I worked on a few projects at home. He finished a take-home test that is due on Thursday and that a lot of grad students are just barely starting. On St. Patrick’s Day, I dressed up in green (with my Ninja Turtles shirt and clashing IMUA sweatshirt), put on silly things that my mom sent us in a package, and took pictures. Told you I was bored. (Mom, you'll notice that I even had the green gum in my mouth for this picture!)

The real action began on Wednesday when we went to Spokane. The temple was much smaller than either of us imagined. The Angel Moroni looked huge, and the neighboring stake center was twice as big as the temple. When we went in, the temple worker told us that we needed our own names and the temple was open for only half the day every day. We were too late for a session, even if we had our own names. With half our plans ruined for the day, I thought we would have nothing to do. But Tracy planned secret adventures and surprised me.


His secret plans weren't expensive or dramatic, but I felt loved when he took me to a beautiful park (I love walking in parks) and to two malls (he hates going to one, and he took me to two!). But before that, we found a street with my name. But I don’t think I want to live there even though living on a street bearing my noble name would be pretty cool, because it looked pretty sketchy. Too bad!

My favorite part of the day was going to Riverfront Park, which, yep, is by the river. My favorite place was the playground area where they had giant playground equipment. We had fun taking pictures.

It was too heavy to pick up. ;) Good thing, because that was the slide.
Some perspective on the size of the wagon.

No, we didn't arrange the cement blocks. They are stuck that way.

The river. We took tons of pictures of the rapids. Tracy loves scenery and landscape pictures.

Then we went to the Riverfront Mall which, yep, was by the Riverfront Park, which was by the river. This mall was in the middle of downtown, and while Spokane isn’t the biggest city, I felt like everyone in the city crowded into downtown right as we were trying to navigate the streets and park. All the stores in this mall were hoity-toity and highfalutin with designer stores which had not one product under $100 except a bar of soap. (A little dramatic, but seriously—too expensive) No thank you!

We then went the next mall, which had a Kohl’s and JCPenny’s. I felt at home. We bought a Wii game called Chicken Shoot. It’s like Duck Hunt but with chickens and a Wii remote instead of a cool gun. It’s fun if you want to shoot things, but more than anything I just missed Duck Hunt.

We went out to dinner, which is now a rare occurrence. We lived it up and ate as much as we could, almost to the point of feeling as large as Buddha. We rubbed our bellies for luck to get home without falling asleep.

Tracy’s parents came on Friday to spend the weekend with us. Tracy seemed to reverse time and became a five-year-old. He showed them the Wii, his geophysics book, his new iPod Touch, and every other toy or sign of accomplishment he could. On Saturday, Tracy showed his parents his office and classrooms. It was good to spend some time with just them.

On Sunday, just like the Sunday before, Tracy played the organ in church. He did really well. He didn’t really use the pedals, but last week was his first time playing. I’m sure he’ll work up to using them.

Overall, it was a good spring break. We could get used to having one of these for the next two years.

Spring Break

For the first time in four years (even longer for Tracy), Tracy and I get a spring break! Finally—the chance just to relax and do whatever we want or catch up on homework or housework. Wait… That’s my life all the time now. Nevermind.

Although I’m sad that I couldn’t truly appreciate a free week during my college years, I am excited that Tracy will have more time to get things done and that we’ll be able to spend more time together. Although we won’t be going to Miami, Hawaii, or Mexico to party like crazy, we’ll have fun and get things done.

First of all, Tracy will work on homework (which will be boring for me but oh well). Next, we’ll get our taxes done, hopefully to reveal our large refund. Probably several times next week, I (and maybe Tracy too) will help Tracy’s professor paint his house. But the biggest adventure we have planned is spending a day in Spokane to go to the temple there and window shop. On Sunday, Tracy will play the organ in church, a new experience for him, but I’m sure he’ll be great.

I'll let you know how our week off goes!