Ok! It has been long enough since a post has been added to this blog.
I will definitely be going back and adding specific posts about these two things, but obviously two large things happened in the past month:
1) Andrew and I got married! Saying it this way requires greater explanation, but being married is surprisingly awesome. Not that it wouldn't be awesome, but I don't know that either of us expected it to actually feel great--as in different than being not married and different in a better way. Of course I can't be content just saying the wedding was fantastic. It was a huge learning experience. We've come away from our wedding day with a lot. I feel lucky.
2) Andrew and I went to Paris! This should really be 1.a, I guess. We spent a week there for our honeymoon (lune de miel) and it was indeed sweet. My suspicions were confirmed-- Andrew and I are an unstoppable travel team and Paris is SUBERB. While we were there, Andrew was horrified to learn that I've never read the Da Vinci Code. Now that we're back, we're reading it together. (That really shouldn't be the one fact I share about going to Paris. Hmm. . .)
So both of those will get their own posts with pictures.
On Saturday, Andrew and I participated in a puzzle-solving scavenger hunt race called CitySolve. Being not-entirely-spontaneous people who tend to decide to stay home at the last minute, it was pretty brave of us to go in the first place, but boy am I glad that we did! It was so fun!
We arrived at Acme Burger downtown at 11:00am to sign in and got to see all of the other teams. Teams are typically of two, though you can have more if you want (this alters your eligibility for certain things, though). There is an optional costume contest, which, despite being called the Penn and Tellers, we decided not to participate in. Highlights were the Where's Waldos, who were dressed like. . .well, you get it, and then the In-Cred-Ables, a family of three dressed like the Incredibles with the surname of Able.
At noon, we went outside and were given our first clue. It was a multiple choice question, with different answers leading you to different intersections in the general area. Let me tell you, the iPhone gave us a huge edge. In fact, there was a pretty clear divide between participants with smart phones and participants with normal phones. After choosing Donny Osmond, we ran off to the intersection and were given our envelope of the rest of the clues.
The next two hours featured us running, jogging, walking and (me) gasping around Salt Lake, from downtown all the way up to the U campus. We had to solve 9 of the 10 clues on our list and after solving them go to the location in the answer and take a picture of both of us in front of it. We had to dig through recycling bins to get plastic bottles to spell out TRAX, ask families to dress their children in U t-shirts in the U of U Bookstore to get a big group photo of us and them wearing U shirts, and find obscure buildings like the Belvedere and obscure modern artwork near Broadway Theater that we never knew existed. It's three days later and I can still barely move my legs because we ran a good deal of it. It takes a seriously fun and distracting game to get me to literally run around for 2 hours in 90 degree heat.
The best part is we were the third group back! We didn't officially place third, sadly, because there were two extra challenges that could give you 10 minutes of extra time if you completed them and we decided to bypass them, but still, we got fourth in actual placement. They have a national competition in a select city in the US every year as well, this year in New Orleans. If you do well enough in your home town competition, you can compete at the national competition. We are TOTALLY there next year!
Otherwise, life is just trucking along. I am working on new programs for the Aviary. Boy scouts, girl scouts, home schooling, community centers, after school programming, onsite tours for elementary schools and more (seriously, that's not the entire list). Andrew is starting into his second week of grad school and is pouring over an immense amount of reading. He has some real characters in class this semester. You should ask him about it. My quest to make Andrew also want a purple living room continues. Lucy is getting huge and smart. She has officially learned 'Spin' and does it with MUCH gusto and enthusiasm.
And later tonight, our CitySolve pictures will be posted. Perhaps later after that, recaps of the wedding and honeymoon shall be posted. All in due time. Yeeeees.
