Seagulls like Sun Chips

Summer is almost over (thank goodness) and I was just reflecting on a particular summer about 5 years ago. This was the summer that ruined my perfect legs and caused me to be self-conscious about them for the rest of my life. I will NEVER again think that putting sun tan lotion (SPF 2) on my white pasty skin while at the beach is a good idea. Especially if I am tired and think I might fall asleep.

Don't let the smile, and warmth of the sun fool you . . . he's dangerous.

White-pasty skin + the sun + sun tan lotion + 19 years old + friends that were "doing it too" + falling asleep on the beach = SUN POISONING!!

Now, I am a major freak about putting sun screen on before I do outdoor activities.

I use SPF 50 now. Although I did see that they make SPF 75 and 100. I'll have to try it.

This particular summer, my 2 best friends from high school and I decided to go to San Diego.

The Incident

We decided it would be fun to pack a lunch and go play in the ocean the first day we were there. We packed sandwiches, sun chips, a few other snacks, and water. I was so excited for the Sun Chips. (They were my favorite chip at the time). We ate some snacks and then left our stuff to go swim.
When we got back to our stuff, we noticed that there were quite a few seagulls flying around our site AND someone had clearly been messing with our stuff. We searched our things to make sure nothing was missing. Sure enough, the sun chips were gone. I was so sad. I was really looking forward to eating those. We ate our sandwich and that's when I looked up. It was a little unnerving to have seagulls circle us like vultures. But, I pushed it out of my mind. After a little while, I noticed that the seagulls were slowly closing themselves in on us. We were completely surrounded. And that is when I saw it. I saw it in the beak of one of the seagulls! "A sun chip!" I shouted, "That seagull has our sun chips!!" That's when I grabbed a fork, and started digging in the sand, right where the seagulls were trying to go. Guess what I found? A whole pile of chips. Sun Chips. The bag was missing though, so our conclusion was...

The seagulls saw us leave our site to go down to the water. They probably figured they had 20 minutes or so to rob us. They crept up to our cooler. Opened it. Took out the Sun Chips. Pecked with those ferocious beaks of theirs at the plastic bag (which at this time was not the really noisy recyclable bags) until it tore open and sun chips went everywhere! They saw us on our way back to our site. In a panic, they buried the Sun Chips hoping to cover up that it was them. Then, thinking we weren't watching them, they tried to creep close to us to reclaim their treasure.

Don't let their innocent looks fool you. They are a sneaky bunch of birds.

It's funny because I thought I saw a sun chip bag blow by us while we were walking on the beach and I thought, "Why would someone litter on a beach?" Turns out it was the seagulls the whole time. They are smarter than they look. Watch out.

Consequences of Stupid Actions

It wasn't until we got back into Mesa that I realized how sun burnt I was from laying on the beach. As the days went by, it got worse and worse - until it was so bad I had to go see a doctor. My legs were so swollen that I couldn't get pants on OR shoes. Not even flip-flops fit. My legs were a bright purple color and I waddled when I walked. For the first two days of being back from vacation, I called in sick to work because I couldn't walk... it was that bad. I finally saw a doctor. He said, "Hmmm... ya, that's bad. It looks painful. I'm going to prescribe some steroids for the swelling and something else for the swelling." (I can't remember what it was). As I tried to get up and waddle out of there, he stopped me and says, "You know what -- I'm going to give you 2 weeks worth of pain pills." He looked me up and down, "Make that a month's worth of pain pills." Yea! I never would have made it through without those pills. My family and co-workers/bosses made fun of me for awhile after that calling me elephant legs. So rude. I learned my lesson. Sun screen, sun screen, sun screen!!

Sister Fun!

This weekend, my little sis and her hubby decided to come visit me! . . . and I guess they came to see the rest of the family too. They live in Salt Lake and I hadn't seen her since my wedding.

They arrived in Mesa on Thursday night. Lyndsie, "CW", mom, dad, Seth and I all went out to lunch on Friday afternoon. "CW" really wanted what he called 'jiros'. I was confused, then I realized he meant, gyros (Pronounced: yuros). Ha ha - but he's from Colorado/Utah so we cut him some slack. He claims he was just trying to trick his wife - - sure, sure. :)

After lunch, we went back to my apartment (while Seth went back to work) and we relaxed and watched "Psyche." "CW" played video games until we were bored watching him, and then we went to look at houses.

Seth and I spent the night in Mesa because Lyndsie and "CW" were only going to be in town for 2 full days! Friday and Saturday. Friday was a good day, and Saturday was going to be a good day too.

Saturday morning, Seth and I got pre-qualified to buy a house! The lender came over to my parents house and we talked about finances. He didn't tell us anything we didn't know. But, we are so excited to start making offers on the homes we like.

After we met with the lender, Seth went over to his parents because his brother and family came in town, while my family headed off to Tuscon to visit my older sister, Kaylee, and her family.

I played with my niece, Theresa, for most of the time we were there. She followed me around and wanted me to play with her. It was so cute! It ALMOST made me want to have a baby. Almost . . . Anyway, Theresa and I danced, while my dad gave the nephews piggy-back rides, and the rest of the family talked.

Talked?? Did I say talked? I meant, steal my camera and take photos of themselves.

Ha ha-- if I didn't know they were 8 years apart, I would think they were twins. I think it is safe to say that they did not plan those facial expressions, they just happen to be the same.

Landon was so cute. He wanted me to keep taking pictures with him holding a tire to his face. He was laughing so hard.

We had a lot of fun talking and spending time together. We left at 3:45. We got home 3 hours later. Tuscon is a 2 hour drive. I guess there was an accident. We were stuck on the I-10 for 45 minutes. 30 of those minutes we were just sitting . . stopped. Not moving. So, we found a fun way to pass the time. "CW" and I switched seats (partly because I was complaining how hot it was with the sun shining on me - - what a sweet brother-in-law). We switched in the middle of the freeway. It was kind of fun to get out and walk around on the I-10. We also took pictures of ourselves. We tried to capture our "bored" and "tired" look. I think we did well.

Later that night, we got to talk and hang out some more. They left Sunday morning. It was a fun weekend. I haven't gotten to spend time with my whole family like that in a while. :)

Six Flags -- A Scary Adventure

Last week, Seth and I decided to go to Six Flags with my parents. I had never been to Six Flags (Magic Mountain) before, although I tried one time last year. My friends and I got together early one morning - drove all night to CA, rode into the parking lot, and was turned away being told that Six Flags was closed that day due to a rain storm. The kicker was - - it wasn't raining. It had been raining earlier that morning, but had already pretty much died down by the time we got there. Anyway, I finally got to go for my first time last week. It was an . . . interesting experience. I can't really describe the experience in words, so hopefully the pictures will do justice.

We got something called a "Flash Pass" (because it was July and really busy). This "tamagachi" looking thing practically got us to the front of every line AND they gave us wrist bands so we could ride all the rides TWICE. I love roller coasters and I thought that was a pretty good deal. You just stay on the ride, show them your wrist band, and they send you off on the ride a second time. I would recommend this pass to anyone who goes in the summer. It sure beats standing in a 3 hour line for a 20 second ride.

The first ride we went on was mild. It is called Colossus. The roller coaster was wooden and just went up and down a lot. I kind of felt nauseous after riding the ride TWICE.


The next ride we went on was Scream. I thought that ride was a lot of fun, but it went upside down one too many times. My mom and I sat out while the boys went on their second run. It was getting a little too hot for us by that time so we went on a water ride. This simple log ride turned out to be one of my favorite rides. We got soaked!

Seth was drenched by the second run (mostly because I sat in front and he sat behind me and on the last drop I ducked and all the water washed over my head and into his lap -- hehehe). :)

The water felt nice because it was a hot day. We felt refreshed and ready for the next ride - - Goliath.

This ride was fun - - but made me really sick. There is a huge drop that takes your breath away and an inside loop that made my vision go black. It would have been a lot more fun if I didn't almost black out. I think after that ride we were feeling all bleh, so we went and ate lunch. Six Flags does not have the best food. But we all felt better after we ate. So . . . we headed over to BATMAN the ride.
We were all nervous and excited for this ride. We went on our first run. I was shaking so bad when it was over, but it was a lot of fun. I looked over at my mom and she said, "I think I could do that again!" Alright, I thought. If everyone else is doing it. . . .
After our 2nd time around, I could tell that my mom had made a big mistake. We got off and she had to go sit down. We rested and drank lots of water and cooled off. When she felt a little better, we went on a more mild ride - Ninja. This ride swoops in the trees. I think this was our second mistake. The motion of sweeping back and forth through the trees made my mom even more sick. When we got off we rested again and my mom thew up in the bathroom.

After she threw up, she felt so much better, but she was done with the roller coaster rides for that day. By that time, there were only 3 rides we really wanted to go on, so we decided we would go on them and then go out to a nice dinner and be done for the day. The next ride we headed over to was Tatsu.















This ride was intense. I was tired and hungry and we had been standing in line for 25 minutes and I lost it. So, the ride is really high and you sit in a chair and then they tip the chair forward so you're facing the ground. The whole ride is done while you face the ground. I am scared of heights and was trying to be brave, but right as we got up there, I stated crying. It's a little embarrassing, but it happened. Seth and my dad kept saying, "You don't have to ride this one." but I told myself I would try everything at least once. So I stopped my tears and forced myself to get on the ride. Once we started going I realized how high we were and we kept climbing higher and higher, and Seth said, "you should close your eyes and I'll tell you when you can open them." Well, I don't remember him ever telling me to open them and the times I did, I wish I hadn't. When the ride was finally over, I remember bursting into even bigger hysterical tears because I was so scared and happy I could get off the ride.

This is not the best picture . . but up close you would see me bawling, and Seth and my dad trying to comfort me. They really wanted to go on the ride a second time but what were they suppose to do with me. "Hey, you stand there by yourself and try to stop crying while we go on this one again." Hmm . . . so they got off with me and after I started walking on the ground again, I felt better.

We walked over to the SUPERMAN ride. After Tatsu, I felt like any ride I went on would be a piece of cake. We rode Superman twice.

This ride was one of my favorites, except the line is ridiculously long for a 5 second ride.
The last ride we went on was APOCALYPSE.
It was fast, fun, and safe. It was a great ride to end the day on.

I enjoyed spending time with my husband and parents, but I think next time we we'll go to Disneyland.