Spring Break 2010 - Florida

Spring break was in the middle of March and by this time in the year we were DYING from not being able to see the sun. It was so depressing that we decided that we HAD to get out of the state and find some place with a little sun. We found an amazing deal to Florida. Our wonderful friends the Anderson's babysat Jax for us so we could enjoy our time and not have to worry about him.

They have a dog too and just LOVED playing together all week. They were both pretty sad to be with out a friend the week after we got back.

We were gone 6 days and were busy the whole time doing things. I can't believe how much there is to do in Florida. So much FUN!

Our flight got in really early Saturday morning so we decided that before we checked in we would head straight East to the Kennedy Space Center and take in some of the sites. It was really neat and Clint has always been interested in space so he really enjoyed it.

Do you ever find that when you're on vacation you always seem to run into someone you know? Well just as we were leaving we ran into the Barretts. They live in Clint's mom's ward in Utah. What are the chances that we would both be there at the same time and come from totally different states? It was fun to see them.

The next day was a VERY long day at Epcot. We had a good time but by the end of the day we were ready to go to bed!

Monday was the Magic Kingdom. I love that Disney has the fast pass system, but even with it, we still weren't able to get to all the rides. But that's ok because we went back on our last day.

On Tuesday we took a break from the parks and went to Cocoa Beach. The weather was nice but not warm enough to swim, so we just enjoyed ourselves laying on the beach for a few hours. We had to soak up as much sun as possible since we wouldn't be seeing it once we got home.

Wednesday we went to the Animal Park. It was pretty good but the best part about the whole park is the ride Expedition Everest. It is seriously one of the funnest roller coasters I've been on. It seems like 1/2 of the ride you're going backwards in a really dark place. SO FUN!

Thursday we went to Hollywood studios and had a GREAT time there. That seemed to be a little bit more adult friendly and they had some (2 or 3) pretty good rides as well. My favorite was the Rock' n' Roller Coaster. Also they have this really cool stunt car demonstration that is worth seeing. I was pretty sad because the studio back lot tour was out of commission. But we lived and hopefully we didn't miss too much.

Friday our flight left at 6:30pm so we went back to Hollywood studios to ride the Toy Story ride because there was no way we were going to wait in line for 3 hours to see it (the fast passes were gone) the day before. We also went on the Rock' n' roller coaster. We left the park at about 10:30 and then headed off to the Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain one more time. (I love that one!)

After that we had about 2 1/2 hours to kill so we decided that we would try and see if we could go on a swamp tour boat ride. I put in the address on the GPS and it said it was going to take an hour to get there. (Later on we found out that there was a closer tour). Once we got there we waited for a while and touched and held a baby alligator and then just was we were about to get on the boat we wanted to make sure that the tour was only going to be a half hour. To our surprise the tour guide said that it would be an hour. Since we were suppose to be to the airport in an hour and a half we decided that we wouldn't have time and didn't get to go on the tour. Now once we got to the airport we found out that our plane was a half hour late and that we would have had plenty of time to make it. Oh well, I guess we'll have to save that for next time.

All in all we had a great time. We got to see a different part of the county, spend some time together with no school interruptions, spend some much needed time in the sun and just kick back and relax. Clint says that he doesn't know if he'll ever go back, but I have a feeling that once we have kids, he'll change his mind.

CASA

Back in January Clint took a class to become a Guardian Ad Litem for the Akron area. The course was about 6 weeks long and it was an all volunteer thing. He really enjoyed the classes and was looking forward to helping out the kids in the area. Unfortunately when he was put on a case he got sick and was unable to help out. But hopefully when we go back he'll be able to did it again and finish what he started.

Here are a couple pictures of when he was sworn in. Great job Clint, as always, I'm proud of you!

Valentines Dinner 2010

So I am tempting to update my blog and I've done pretty good today. Keep scrolling and you'll find quite a few posts. Enjoy!!!

Every Year my mom throws this AMAZING Valentines Dinner for her kids. We had Prime Rib and potatoes and so many other yummy things. I was happy that I could be there this year, but unfortunately Clint wasn't there. We all missed him so much but I was happy that I could be there.

My cousin Tyler had been talking to Scott about his mission and he mentioned that he brought home this drink called Mate and Tyler was just SOO excited. He had gone to Spain on his mission and would drink it and he said that he hadn't had a good batch for a long time so they pulled it out and tried it. It was ok, it kind of reminded me wheat grass. Not a huge fan but it was good to try.

The family that could be there.

Elder Scott Veenker Comes Home From His Mission

On February 17, 2010 my brother Scott came home from his mission from Argentina. It's kind of weird to be writing about this because of my bad blogging habits it is now 6 months later and if feels like he was never gone. Anyway I was able to fly home to Utah so I could spend some time with him and it was great to see the family. Clint had school so he had to stay home so I got to fly by myself which wouldn't have been so bad except for the ordeal I had to go through.

So I was suppose to fly in on the 16th and then go up to the airport with the family, but again, life can't be planned so plans changed. I left Akron at 3:30pm, or at least I was suppose to.

That day we had a terrible winter storm, school was even canceled. So I got to the airport and they said that the plain was delayed. I started to freak out a little bit because my lay over in Detroit was only 50 minutes. But the people at the gate didn't think I would have a problem so 30 minutes after my flight was suppose to leave, we boarded the plane. I figured if I ran from one gate to the next I would be fine until, the plane stopped to be de-iced. Ok I would have to run real fast, but I might still be ok.

We were on our way until the plane stopped again because it was snowing SO much that they couldn't plow the runway fast enough for us to take off. So we had to wait 45 minutes until the snow let up. Needless to say by the time we took off my connection flight was boarding. I did NOT want to be stuck in Detroit all by myself so I was praying that there was going to be some other way to Utah that night because I did NOT want to miss being able to see Scott in the airport.

Once the plane landed I ran out of the plane only to find out that I had missed my flight by 5 minutes. ARG! So I went to the Delta help center to get a new ticket and they said that the next flight I could get would be the next day at 12:00pm and Scott was coming in at 11:30am. I was about to cry at this point, then I called customer service and this lady said that I would have to stay the night but there was a flight that left 6:30am and would get me to Utah by 9:00am.

I was so excited! Now I just had to figure out the hotel things. So I stood in this hotel comp line for about 1 hour not wanting to have to pay for a hotel because we aren't the richest people when we are both in school. When I get up there some of my prayers had been answered and my hotel was going to be paid for along with 2 meal tickets.

So I headed to the hotel and got there around 11:30pm. I needed to get up at 3:30am so that I would have time to get ready and make it to the airport an hour early. Well unfortunately I didn't sleep at all the entire night! I was so exhausted the whole rest of the day, but it was worth it.

Anyway the good thing about having to spend the night in Detroit was that I could stay in the airport and see Scott at the gate when he came in. So I was the first one to see him and I think that my mom and dad were really jealous. But I think I deserve it after what I went through. He was surprised to see me and it was so good to see him.

Here is his plane landing.

This isn't the best picture but he is the one walking under the door in the very back.

There he is with someone's head right in the way!

He was very nervous by this time, he was about to see his family.

This is what we saw when we got to baggage Claim. Bad picture but the entire area was FULL of people. There was like 12 missionaries coming home at the same time as him so there was a ton of families there.

The sign they made, my name even got on it!

This is what was in the front of the house when we got home. So GREAT!

This was pretty funny. Britt started crying when Scott was holding him so he tried to give him to his mom, but unfortunately he gave him to the wrong mom.

Just hanging out after we got back. Waiting to be released.

Our First Big Storm in Ohio

So on February 5th we went to bed with no snow on the ground, it had started to snow a bit, but not enough to prepare us for how much snow we had in the morning. It has snowed at least a foot and it was so beautiful and fun to play in, I LOVED IT!

One thing you might not know about me is how much I love snow and the cold. I mean I wouldn't want to live in it 365 days a year, but I'm really happy when winter comes because I just love it! I love to drive in it, (I'm crazy I know), I love to ski, play, sled, fight and snowmobile in it and just walk around in it. I don't know if it's ones of those childhood experience things where I had a good experience in it once, or if it's just in my blood, but needless to say, I was very happy this day when I woke up!

Here are a few pictures to prove it.

The only way Jax could walk in it was if there was a path for him. It covered him completely. Could you image walking in snow that was taller than you? Neither can I, now that wouldn't be too fun.

ABC Weekend

Back in January we were very bored and wanted to have a little excitement in our life so I suggested that instead of just going to dinner and movie we try something new. We decided that through the weekend we would work on completing the alphabet one letter at a time doing one activity to go with each letter. We had to get really creative on some letters and some might say a little desperate, but that's ok, it made it more fun. Here's what we did!

First off we went to Applebee's

and ate

Buffalo Wings

Cheese Quesadilla's

and Spinach Dip

Our next stop was to the Exchange (which is one of those used movie and game store),

Where we bough the Firm (which we did not do :) it was suppose to be a fun weekend!).

For "H" we of course had to Hug.

Ugly picture I know, but we did some Jumping Jacks next.

Ahhh... Kissing was next ;),

The next day we started it off with Lunch.

And we of course couldn't do anything else for "M" other than a Movie.

During the movie we ate Nerds

We then Opened the door (can we say desperate?)

We kind of went out of order but during the movie we ate Popcorn as well.

After that we had a moment of silence being Quiet.

We were getting kind of sick of thinking of things to do next so we started looking at cities from the GPS and found Ravenna. Now for those of you who live in Ohio you're probably wondering why we would put ourselves in danger like that but there is s reason we went. My Psychology teacher would always make fun of Ravenna and the people that come from there so after all of his talk, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Let's just say that we're lucky we didn't pick that part of the city to live.

One of the ladies that I visit teach was moving that night so we headed to Staples,

And bought some Tape.

Again we replied on the GPS for our next destination which was Valdes Avenue.

After helping Angel move we stood under the Umbrella for a bit.

When we got home we played the Wii.

Yawned

And then did a little zzz's.

All in all it was a really fun weekend and fun to do something knew where we had to use our heads and creativity to come up with things to do. Next time you're trying to find something to do, please copy us, it's a lot of fun!

Oops I forgot X and I. For X we took an x-ray picture and for I...sadly I can't remember, oh well. Thanks for picking up my mistake!