Breakfast with Thomas

Posted by Nicole Bullock on November 8, 2008 1 Comment

Last Saturday, I met up with my cousin Thomas for breakfast in Orange County. He was the winner of my blog giveaway…which gave me a great opportunity to get “caught” up with him. He’s a few years younger than me, and I don’t know him as well as his older sisters Alaina and Jillian. When I lived in Oregon, he lived in Arizona. Then he moved to Oregon, and I moved to Utah. He recently graduated from BYU and moved to California with his wife this summer. His wife’s parents live in Michigan, but we missed them on their trip here a few months ago. So this breakfast was my chance to “catch” the infamous Thomas.

A funny story about Thomas: I was at the SLC Olympics Medals Plaza for the Barenaked Ladies concert in 2002. I went with my sister, and a guy caught my eye…smiled really big….and ran over and gave me a hug. He was obviously very excited to see me. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. So I played along and chatted for a few minutes, racking my brain with recognition for who I was talking to. Then Mary said, “Aren’t my cousin from Oregon?” and it hit me! It was Thomas! I hadn’t seen him since a trip to Oregon in 1998. In those 4 years, he’d gotten so tall and good looking. I can’t remember if I told him at the time that I didn’t recognize him right off, but the memory makes me laugh.

Can you tell we’ve both got the Watson baby blues?

Filed Under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Tagged With: Family, giveaways, memories

October Mega-Picture Post

Posted by Nicole Bullock on October 19, 2008 5 Comments

Friday night we went to our ward Halloween party. There was a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot, then carnival games, donuts, and cider inside. Rosie wore her witch costume, and I threw together an disco fashion victim ensemble in about 10 minutes before going out the door.

In honor of Taylor’s last Saturday in Michigan, we decided to do some touristy Michigan things. We went to pick out a pumpkin with Rosie, then drove to Hell. No seriously. Hell, Michigan. It’s an itty-bitty town with about 4 buildings. The building in the pictures is the Screams Ice Cream parlor. You can top your ice cream with many creepy toppings served directly out of a coffin. There’s all sorts of prank novelties, souvenir tees, and Halloween stuff…many priced conveniently at $6.66!

We then drove to Frankenmuth, Michigan’s little Bavaria (and big tourist trap). There’s a replica chapel like the one in Austria where “Silent Night” was performed the first time. The main attraction is Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, the world’s biggest Christmas store. It’s like five Costco-sized buildings all in one, erupting with holiday cheer. Outside are many creches and nativities and Santa statues. We should have bought one of the “Pilot’s are just “PLANE” fun” ornaments.

Next we decided that we wanted to see one of the Great Lakes, so we thought we’d drive up to Saginaw Bay. With a very inadequate map (on the back of the Christmas Store brochure) we drove up through one of the most depressed areas I’ve ever seen. Boarded-home after boarded-up home. Abandoned manufacturing plants. Post-urban decay. After getting lost for an hour between Saginaw and Bay City, we decided to just head back. We went to the Pearces’, our surrogate Michigan family, and watched Iron Man in their home theater.

Overall, a great family day!

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A few pics from the baptism

Posted by Nicole Bullock on September 20, 2008 1 Comment

Filed Under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Tagged With: Family, Rosie, Utah

Two Cool Trips

Posted by Nicole Bullock on May 27, 2008 3 Comments

I’ve been behind in my blogging for a while! I’ve been on two awesome trips in the last week and a half, which I need to give the run d0wn in case I otherwise don’t blog about it.

California: I flew out of DTW Friday evening. The flight loads were pretty iffy, but a three hour flight delay got me a seat on the flight to LAX. I arrived in LA around 11:30, picked up my rental car and met Liz for fresh strawberry donuts in Glendora. I got in at the in-laws at 2:00 am, and was up again at 7:30. It was a super-hot, sunny day (over 100 degrees!) I visited with Lissy and Tyler, who are expecting twins this August (if not sooner). I did a little gift shopping, grabbed some In-N-Out, and rifled through the sweltering hot shed looking for my high school scrapbooks (no luck). Liz and I drove to Pasadena, indulged in marzipan princess cake and rum rolls at Federicos and continued on to the Huntington. The gardens were beautiful and relaxing.

After returning from Pasadena, I visited with my in-laws who had returned from a funeral. I grabbed a 20 minute nap, then drove out to Rancho Cucamonga for Chris and Mary’s wedding reception. The ring ceremony and reception was beautiful, and I ran into a lot of friends I was hoping to see. I then drove over to Brett’s to his Syttende Mai Norway party. I toasted to Norwegian toasts, and grabbed a plate of Scandinavian desserts to eat on the way to LAX. I dropped of the rental car around 11:30, and made it on the 12:30 flight no problem. Total time in California: 25 hours.

Upstate New York: Since Taylor was hired by the airline, most of our travel has been by airplane (except for our cross-country moving trips). Taylor, Rosie and I had the same three days off for Memorial Day, and despite $4.19/gallon gas prices, were itching to take a road trip. We left around 9 am, endured a 80 minute border crossing at Port Huron, drove through Ontario, Canada to Niagara Falls. We balked at the $20 parking fee to be in the closest lots to the Falls, and drove down the road to a $10 lot with shuttle service. The falls were beautiful and super misty, and a large rainbow stretched across much of the area. We got lucky with the Niagara border crossing, only having to wait 3 cars to enter the U.S. again.

We drove on to Rochester and met up with my old friend Alan, and his girlfriend Liz. We got reacquainted at his place, then drove downtown for dinner. The restaurant had an hour wait, so we drove to High Falls in the meantime.We returned to the restaurant and ate at Dinosaur BBQ, one of the best BBQ I’ve ever had! Alan also took us for a tour of his laser laboratory at the University of Rochester, where he is working on his PhD.

In the morning, we drove to Palmyra to see the church history sites. We hiked the Moroni Monument, watched a movie in the visitor center, toured the Joseph Smith and Frame homes, enjoyed the Sacred Grove, and finished at the printing press downtown. The drive back to Rochester criss-crossed the Erie Canal several times. We took Alan out for lunch at The King and I Thai, then hit the road back to MI. The best part of the return trip was the clear view of Toronto for much of the drive from the border to Hamilton. Someday the trip will be specifically for Toronto! We arrived home at midnight. Total trip time: 39 hours.

SOMEDAY I’d like to take a trip that I actually have time to relax…

Filed Under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Tagged With: california, Family, flying non-rev, vacation

Happy Birthday to ME!

Posted by Nicole Bullock on February 6, 2008 2 Comments

Today has been a lovely day. If it were only for my dad’s progress, I would have been a happy 28 year old woman. But I got a whole day with Taylor, and we had a blast! I picked up up from the airport right after Rosie left for school, had a lot of alone time together, had a nice lunch at Chili’s, went shopping for some gifts, Taylor cooked dinner, and we had cake and ice cream with Rosie. I finally got the Imaginiff board game, which I’ve been wanting for about 6 months. Rosie made me a beautiful necklace out of my nicest beads, and a bunch of handmade paper flowers.

For anyone who lives in Michigan, or wants to come out, we are having a birthday party/housewarming shindig on Friday night. Let me know if you want to come!

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Utah and Idaho Trip, and a fun family-filled 4th

Posted by Nicole Bullock on July 9, 2007 Leave a Comment

Current mood: exhausted

These past few weeks have been super fun-filled! My stress level has also been high, so I feel like I’m in a bit of a manic phase right now. I’ve never been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, but these last two weeks would make one wonder.

So to summarize, here are the highlights of the Utah/Idaho trip:

Attending Jen’s wedding reception at Tracy Aviary, and going out with Janet, Jon, Eric and Debbie at Fiddler’s Elbow after

Visiting with Grandpa Jack twice

Lunch at Kneaders and shoe shopping with Emily

Seeing my old co-workers at LDS Hospital and Core Lab

Lunch at Mimi’s with Heather

Going out on the town with Nicole for Cedars of Lebanon, belly dancing, and the Tavernacle

The Kingdom Event where we cheered on Rosie’s little skater boy McCabe

Making contact again with my dear friend Celeste, who I hadn’t seen in 5+ years

Going up to Rexburg to see Ricks/BYUI, the new temple, and getting together with the Perry clan

The Taylor Family Reunion at Upper Coffeepot in Island Park, ID. It’s gorgeous!

Going to Hatch Park to let McCabe teach Rosie how to sk8

Dinner with Aunt Julie and Lindsey in Provo. A CRAZY morning at IHOP with Jacob, Mary, Rosie and Shawn

Mary and Jacob had so much fun while I was there that they decided to come down to Cali to play for the week of the 4th. Within a few days of me getting home from Utah, Taylor was able to fly home from Florida for a few days. Taylor flew in on Thursday night to LAX. We did a lot of fun stuff together, like a Nikki Forova concert at Synergy Café, seeing Knocked Up, working out together at the new Glendora 24, seeing baby Ava Elizabeth Taylor, and lots of swimming. Mary and Jacob came into town on Monday. Me, Mary, Liz, and Jeanne went to the Fall Out Boy concert at the Honda Center that night. Mary was so tired from the drive that she was falling asleep right with me (how sad is it that I can fall asleep at a crazy-loud rock concert?) I had to work on Tuesday, but met up for lunch with Taylor, Mary, and Jacob at Honolulu Harry’s. We were trying to decide if we’d all see Transformers that evening, but all of the plans fell through and I wanted to get caught up on homework instead. The night ended with a gut-busting funny game of Imagin-Iff.

Wednesday was the 4^th of July. I was in charge of the program and music at my 3-Ward flag raising breakfast. I did a musical number called “America-Of Thee I Sing” with Mary, Dayna, and Natalie. We skipped out on the La Verne Parade because it was such a hot day. But we did go to a fun BBQ and swim party at Bishop Green’s house. Afterwards we went swimming at Gary and Eleanor’s pool. We met up with Lissy and Tyler at La Tolteca for dinner, and Jacob and Taylor went to Transformers with Liz and John Long. I could have gone, but I’ve had a lot on my mind and knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate and enjoy myself. I went back to Eleanor’s (since I was watching Nevaeh) and had a chat about some of my big upcoming life decisions with her, Teresa, and Grandpa Ron (which will be discussed in a later blog). Mary, Rosie and I watched the La Verne and Pomona fireworks from the Kohl’s parking lot, and I hit the sack as soon as I got home.

I was feeling terrible when I woke up Thursday morning. I was feeling super stressed (since I was about 6 hours behind in homework), I was sick to my stomach from all the eating the day before, and I knew there was no way I could concentrate at work. Plus, it was my last day with Taylor home, and I couldn’t bear being away from him. I actually called in mentally ill to work! I studied for a few hours, rested, went to the gym, chatted with my academic advisor, and got myself re-focused. In the afternoon, we decided to go to Dockweiller Beach to pass a few hours before Taylor‘s flight out of LAX. I forgot my swimsuit, so I just chilled under the rainbow umbrella and took lots of pictures, waded up to my knees, and rested…breathing to the beat of the waves. It was very therapeutic.

We drove around Culver City and Westwood for a while, trying to find a place that sells clam chowder in a bread bowl. But after an hour we still hadn’t found a place. And since we’d skipped lunch, everyone was starving. We ate dinner at Coco‘s and it was surprisingly good. We did a little more shopping, said our goodbyes, and dropped Taylor off at the airport. On the way back, we missed the exit from the carpool lane for the 605, and ended up driving around a little in a pretty scary area to get back on the freeway (but not before getting sundaes, of course!)

I worked Friday, and felt very refreshed from Thursday to make it through the work day. Jacob and Mary picked me up from work for lunch at El Pollo Loco. After work we packed up our bags and headed south to San Diego. I found a killer deal on a hotel room on Priceline (a 3-star hotel for $60 on a Friday!) When we actually got to the room, I sweet talked the lady at the front desk and she upgraded me to a suite for free! So we got it for $140 under rack rate. After a dip in the pool, it was almost 11:00 by the time we were getting hungry so we drove around for a place to eat, but almost everything was already closed. We settled for CJ’s, and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday morning we wanted to go to the beach early, so we could go back to the hotel and shower before it was time to check out. We went to La Jolla, and I took a wrong turn. Instead of the beach I’d intended, it took us to this rocky/cliffy/tide pool area. We decided to get out and explore. There were all sorts of sea life (crabs, baby fish, anemones, etc…) We took a bunch of pictures and trapped a few crabs before letting them go. We drove further south to the first inlet we could found that was a sandy beach. We found a place with a staircase down that said “out of order.” Of course we were disregarded it, and hiked down some corroded stairs to the beach. We soon found out that it wasn’t just the stairs that made it a bad place to be…there were gigantic piles of seaweed and rotting fish life all over the beach. There was no way to avoid walking on the squishy, stinky stuff. We ended up having to walk almost a mile to a place that was suitable for swimming. It was a slightly foggy morning, so it took a little time to get used to the water, but before long we were body surfing, swimming, and riding the waves. We got a little lost going back to our car, since we wanted to avoid that beach yuckiness. We had to get back to the hotel quick to not miss our check-out time. On the way back to the hotel, we decided that we were having so much fun, and the room was such a good deal…why not stay another night? I was able to sweet talk the front desk again and we got the same killer rate. We showered off, relaxed in the room, and went to Chili’s for lunch. We shared lots of chips and salsa and a honey chipotle chicken crispers meal. We drove down to Ocean Beach and Mary, Jacob and Rosie did some more swimming, while I took another nap on the beach (all this playing was making me tired!).

We looked again for a place that sold clam chowder in a breadbowl, and when we found an ad for it…we headed right over. Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of clam chowder, so we shared a huge slice of pizza and a lobster taco. We drove around for a while, got some Starbucks, and went back to the hotel for more swimming. Jacob and Mary were totally sunburned so we had to get some aloe and cooling lotion.

After our continental breakfast on Sunday, we headed back to La Verne. Rosie and I ran to get ready for church, and Mary and Jacob packed up the car for their journey back to SLC. Due to the largest wildfire in Utah‘s history and Utah county traffic, it took over 12 hours to get home. But they made it safe and that’s what matters!

So there’s my last 3 weeks in a nutshell. Now it’s back to work, working out, and homework.

Currently listening :
Stadium Arcadium
By Red Hot Chili Peppers
Release date: 09 May, 2006

Filed Under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Tagged With: Family, Travel

Florida Vacation Details

Posted by Nicole Bullock on April 15, 2007 Leave a Comment

Current mood: content

Thursday I had to work a few hours at Chino Valley for the Emergency Department meeting. Afterwards, Melissa picked me up from the hospital and dropped Rosie and I off at Ontario Airport. I had done the internet check-in before I left work, but it ended up making it harder to check our bags. Luckily the Delta terminal line was pretty short. Rosie and I shared a smoothie and chicken chipotle salad in the airport before getting on the plane. The flight to SLC was pretty uneventful, but more turbulent than I’ve experienced in a bigger plane in recent memory. I was happy that Delta serves some healthy snacks and Sprite Zero (my current soda of choice.) We met up with my dad in the baggage claim for our 90 min layover. He brought me a Café Rio salad, which made me really happy. We chatted and got caught up until we had to head back through security. We had another boarding pass hiccup trying to go through security because our passes said ONT to FLL, and didn’t mention SLC because it was a continuing flight on the same flight number. I had to go back to the Delta check in to verify my boarding passes, then have the Delta employee escort me back to the front of the security line. Rosie realized that she forgot her MP3 player back in CA, but wasn’t too sad because there were plenty of radio stations to listen to on the plane. The in-flight movie was Freedom Writers….eh, it was okay. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale just after midnight. After picking up our luggage, we met Taylor out on the curb with a big hug and kiss. It was about 15 minutes back to FXE, which is the airport that Jet University is located. The dorms aren’t terrible, but we realized that the room that Rosie and I were staying in was practically a closet, and it did not have a bunk bed. Rosie sleeps on the floor, and I’ve got a twin bed. We stayed up until 2:00 am, and then Taylor headed back to his dorm room.

Friday morning we went to the gym for a really intense workout. The 24 Hour Fitness “Sport Shaq” was the most impressive gym I’ve ever been to. I did 35 min on the elliptical and about 25 minutes of weights. I showed Taylor some of the workouts that I’ve been doing with my trainer, including the correct way to do crunches on the stability ball. We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A, relaxed at the dorms for a while, ran some errands, then headed off for the beach. We went to Fort Lauderdale Beach, which is on A1A… “beach front avenue!” (Like from the song “To the Extreme” by Vanilla Ice) This beach was so beautiful….free parking, showers, clean sand. The water was sooo warm compared to California. We swam, played water games with Rosie, and took lots of pictures. The weather was just perfect….upper 70s so not too hot, just HUMID. We relaxed on the beach for a half hour, then went back in till we’d had our fill of salt water. We cleaned up reasonably well at the showers, then drove to Kyojin. This is an upscale Japanese and Sushi buffet. It’s the most pricey buffet I’ve ever eaten at ($20 a person) but it was delicious! The sushi was fresh and expertly prepared, there were lots of fresh veggie dishes to choose from, the gyoza was amazing, and the Japanese ice cream was marvelous. I had the biggest meal I’d eaten in a long time, but at least it was super healthy! We then went to see “Meet the Robinsons” at the local Regal Cinemas. We came back to the dorms, watched an episode of Roswell, and went to bed fairly early (it was a FULL day of fun!)

Saturday we spent most of the day in the car (approx 300 miles). We started the day out with a moderate (45 min) workout at the 24 Sport Shaq and got some trip food at the Winn-Dixie, including fresh pineapple chunks and peach soda. I was trying to navigate with some travel brochures (not to scale) and a 10 year old atlas. Taylor wanted to avoid the toll roads (which are everywhere here!) so we went a pretty roundabout way to get down to the Florida Keys. We were going to visit the Micosugee Indian Reservation and take an Everglades airboat ride…but once we’d gone about 10 miles, with multiple freeway changes, into a 45 mile trip, wasting almost 2 hours, we realized that the map was not to scale and it would take forever to get there. We did a little shopping, including the most clean thrift store I’ve ever seen (It was the Goodwill Megastore LOL) Throughout the day, I got a new memory stick for my cell phone, a cute new kimono-looking dress, some tanks, new swim bottoms, some souvenirs, and some clothes for Rosie….including a cute pink shirt with a skull and crossbones that says Pirate Princess.

The Florida Keys are beautiful!!! The water is all sorts of amazing colors, and the kitschy little old resort towns were entertaining to travel through. There weren’t a lot of beaches to stop at…most were rocky or had no parking. We drove about 45 miles into the 120 mile drive towards Key West, but the drive already took much longer than we expected. We got dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, and then paid a whopping $1.25 to take the toll road to a more direct freeway towards home (which shaved off about 90 minutes off our drive back.) After stopping for some groceries and a blanket at SuperWalmart, we came back to the Jet U Dorms to chill for the evening.

Today we’ll try to hit a sacrament meeting, and then do more sightseeing with Taylor before he’s back into the focused-student thing again. We might go to a different airboat Everglades place that is much closer, and maybe Flamingo Gardens today. Taylor will be in class tomorrow, so Rosie and I will do Wannado City and Sawgrass Mills mega-mall. Heidi Zender, our old neighbor from across the street in Balmoral, is flying in on Monday too. We’ll probably eat dinner with her and Rob that night.