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We made it to Payson! The first flight left after midnight..I can now add "sleeping (well, ish) with a mask on" to my list of accomplishments LOL. My bag also weighed 16 pounds..what a good omen! Haha. The flight actually went rather quickly, maybe 2 1/2 hours. We got to Seattle at 4 something..ugh, I hate that time of morning lol. We looked in a couple bookstores (ooooh, the floor is purple and shiny!! *stares in sleep deprivation* :P) and got a quick bite to eat before the next flight left at 6 something. I need a new computer, because it won't play things like Netflix since Flash was discontinued, so I had to pay for Internet to watch a movie (half of Big Hero Six). This flight was also around 2 1/2 hours, nice! I was SO happy to rip my mask off when I went outside LOL. It was pretty warm, in the 70s or 80s, and it was only 9 something!

It was nice to see mom, and we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel before driving up to Payson. There was a bad fire along that road last year, and a lot of the poor saguaros just looked..melted. The way they were drooping was so sad, especially since they take so long to grow! It's still a pretty drive though, and there's plants starting to grow again in the burned areas, so that's cool. It was nice to get to the house and relax! Ryan's friend Christi from Texas is visiting too (they've known each other since middle school..he was going to visit her in Texas, but it didn't work out, so she came here instead). Jo and Ryan disappeared and, uh..."unpacked" LOL. :P I excitedly found the school journals and stuff I'd been looking for (one is from 6th grade!) and have begun typing them up lol. I also found this article about autism mom printed out in 1999, and I about died when I read "the great majority of autistic persons are retarded, often severely." OMG D: D: D: Mom had underlined certain things, like this: "they ask annoying, pointless questions and indulge in tedious monologues." Ouch!!! Whoever wrote that article wasn't very nice. D: I was trying to read it to mom, but my exhausted stuttering was annoying and I was like "yeahh I'm going to take a nap" haha (Jo did too). I also had a migraine (maybe from the altitude change?), so that didn't help either (I took two Excedrin and Motrin, and it still didn't go away completely..ugh). Eventually we ate dinner and got some Culver's frozen custard (it was really good!) and now we're relaxing. I'm still very tired, I hope I sleep well tonight lol. I'm not positive, but we might go up on the Mogollon Rim tomorrow..nice, I love it up there!

Here's a pic from tonight's sunset!:

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( 8. Have you ever boycotted anything? )

Yesterday we arrived at Payson! Getting up at 5 something was totally fun..yuck (you know you've gotten up too early when you put your glasses on and your vision is still blurry LOL). I wish I could have seen Denali or something, but between the darkness, clouds and moisture on the window from the de-icer thingy, I could hardly see anything lol (yeah I know I've flown around it many times, but I never get tired of seeing it :P). When we landed in Anchorage we had to RUN to our next flight, since the plane arrived late in Fairbanks to begin with (they let everyone who was going on that flight get off first..thanks Alaska Airlines, you are awesome!!). I hadn't run that far in years LOL. We made it just in time, phew. The captain of this flight was a woman, heck yeah! She was super awesome and nice and funny. I looked for glaciers after we took off, but I only saw one for sure. I wish I knew which one it was (I couldn't get a good pic with my phone, booo)..it's so hard to tell when you're not exactly sure where you are and when everything's so snowy lol. It was pretty big and ended in water though, which was cool. I wanted to see more, but apparently when you fly directly to Phoenix you go over more of the ocean than land (direct to Phoenix is almost 5 hours from Anchorage). On the flight I watched Kubo and the Two Strings (very, VERY good movie) and Ice Age: Collision Course ("the ice is too icy" LOLOL)..pretty ridiculous but still amusing lol. After we landed and got the car and stuff we ate at a yummy barbecue place near Phoenix and then drove up to Payson..it was cool seeing everyone's Christmas lights! Sleeping was nice lol (Also after I opened Pokemon Go at the airport like 10 Pokemon showed up at once haha..lots of Ekans and Sandshrews here lol..I got at least two new ones, yay! At the BBQ place there were two Pokestops right on top of each other! I'd never seen that before :P)

Except for going to the store, today's been pretty lazy lol. Ryan has a cold, ouch. I hope he doesn't give it to us! Being sick on vacation is awful. The weather's cloudy and it's supposed to snow this weekend..noooo, I came here to ESCAPE the snow, not find more LOL

One thing I love about coming to Payson is reading stuff I wrote when I was a kid and stuff, even if I read it last time I was here lol (dad put a box by my room that had school binders in it..pretty sure I had written on every inch of those things haha). I found a school journal entry that I have to share here:

Feelings about The Diary of Anne Frank: I learned that you should have a positive attitude no matter what situation you are in. Anne Frank always had a positive attitude. Even when she was in the concentration camps she never gave up hope that she would get out of there. While she was in hiding, she never gave up hope that they would go back to their normal lives. I think everyone needs to have a positive attitude like Anne Frank had

Wow..WOW. That's deep for a middle schooler!! I guess I got my positivity from Anne Frank then..there aren't enough "wows" in the world to describe how I felt after reading that..

( lastly, some pics! )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: The Worst Journey in the World audiobook <3

Tomorrow mom and Ryan and I are flying to Arizona for our vacation! (The flight leaves at 7 something AM, so we have to get up early..ughhh. D:) While we're there we'll also go to Santa Fe to visit Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dean..Aunt Julie and Gina are going to meet us there too! I saw Cindy and Dean a couple years ago, but I haven't seen the other two (and Julie's children) in years! It'll be cool to see them again. I'll also see Dana again, since we'll be there at the same time! I so love that we can see each other in person more often than once every few years lol (how did dad manage to buy a house in the same town her husband's parents live in?! We'll never get over that lol). One of my favorite things about going to Payson is looking at old pics I haven't seen in years (it's weird though..my life is so completely different now that it feels like my Texas life happened to another person, in another lifetime haha). Dad said there's lots to look through, yay! We have Internet at the house now (we can turn it off when we leave and pay like $10 a month, so that's nice). Looking forward to nice weather and more sunlight too lol. It shall be fun :D

Today's trivia: Yakutsk, Russia, is the biggest city built on continuous permafrost. Its population is almost 300,000 and its average winter temperature is (−30 °F), which makes Yakutsk the coldest city of its size or greater in the world

I came across this picture when looking through that other guy's pictures (Debenhem I think was his name). It was just captioned with "expedition member" and something about the penguin, but he looked an awfully lot like Cherry to me..I was comparing other pics of him to this one, but I still wasn't 100% sure, even though the shadow (beard?) on the side of his face was the same. Finally I just decided to Google "Apsley Cherry-Garrard skinning a penguin," and what do you know, it IS him!! OMG that made me squee so hard LOL. So happy!! *flails* I'm getting good at recognizing him ;)

Cherry's on the left holding the horse's face. Good thing this one was captioned, I was thrown off by the guy in the white jacket again haha!

This is actually the picture I was talking about that I hadn't seen before when I was watching that one documentary..I believe Cherry is in the back row, third from right

Awwww, the ship's cat had his own special hammock *squees some more* LOL

So I was inspired by this picture...:

...to take one of my own! That honestly took some courage, I don't really like taking my glasses off cause it freaks me out how bad my vision is haha (sometimes I'll even close my eyes if I have to for whatever reason). Also, WOW, I look WEIRD without glasses haha!! My face is naked!

Today at work I found a book on Antarctic explorers..there was a pic of Cherry in it, so I went up to Denise and was like "that's my guy!!" haha. She must have recognized him from my Facebook posts, because she was like "oh, Cherry-Garrard?" The book had his whole name, so I was like "yep, Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard!" and she nodded and empathetically (is that a word?) said "CHERRY" haha!
I also came across Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson when cleaning books, which mentions him a lot..yeahhh I was a bit distracted at work after that :P

Mom, Ryan and I are going to Payson in December and the beginning of January! Mom mentioned having Christmas with Aunt Cindy, which would be cool :)

( Day 6: Post a picture of you at a party/wedding/convention/organised social event )

Today's trivia: When a male penguin falls in love with female penguin, he searches the entire beach to find the perfect pebble to present to her (d'awww)

Today mom and I found 5 caches and went to some very unexciting Indian ruins lol..basically there were just rocks scattered everywhere. :P "Archaeologist" was even spelled wrong on one of their signs..FAIL haha. It was a BEAUTIFUL warm sunny day though..I can't believe how hot 60 degrees feels here!! I couldn't imagine being here when it's over 90. D: I managed to step on a little cactus too, ouch!

Tomorrow I'm gonna meet up with Dana and we're gonna go to Montezuma Castle (some of the best preserved Indian cliff dwellings in North America) and geocache along the way. Yay! I love going on adventures with her lol

Yesterday we finally arrived at Payson. On the redeye flight to Seattle I watched American Sniper and on the flight to Phoenix I read, dozed and did a crossword. I do NOT like the airport at Phoenix..it seems outdated and disorganized. The drive to Payson is nice and interesting, though kinda painful when you're tired lol. The weather was beautiful, nice and sunny! We at at Chili's when we got to Payson and took a much needed nap when we got to the house and just relaxed online (mom said it was weird not having cats trying to crawl all over us haha). We recently switched to Verizon and got new phones, so the service is sooo much faster than the just Alaska company we had before. I can go online through the hotspot on mom's phone, and that is so much faster too. I'm glad I don't have to go to Safeway or the library for fast Internet lol

Today we had lunch, found a couple caches and stocked up on food. It's weird..in Alaska you open the outside door into an enclosed entrance before opening the door to go inside (it's to keep the cold air from getting inside). When we walked into the restaurant I was expecting to open another door before going inside, and it felt weird to just automatically be inside haha. Today is another nice day..I hope the sunsets are as nice as they were last time I was here!

Since I'll be traveling to Payson tomorrow, here's the books I read in November:

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa (Nov 2-5)
Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama, and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore by Suzanne Strempek Shea (Nov 5-10)
Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions by Vicki Myron (Nov 11-18)
The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson (Nov 18-25)

Tonight I start on the journey to Payson! It's supposed to be in the 50s and 60s this week, so that'll be nice. Too bad I'm gonna miss work's Christmas party and the geocaching Christmas party though..they're both so fun! I can't wait to see Dana! I'll update when I can :)

( An album that can make you cry )

1. What dehydrated foods (meant to be consumed that way) do you enjoy? Not sure..
2. What’s your favorite dish made by stuffing one food with another? Turkey and stuffing
3. What’s your favorite dish made by rolling something up? Burritos, etc
4. What’s a meal you frequently consume primarily because the cleanup is quick? Microwavable pasta and stuff
5. What’s a food that’s made much better because of what you sprinkle on it? Oatmeal

Next month mom and I are going to Payson for a couple weeks! Dana and her fiance Matt are going in December too, so she invited us to come if we wanted to (it's still so crazy to me that we bought a house in the town Matt's family lives in haha!). I haven't seen Dana in person in a few years, so it'll be cool to see her again and finally meet Matt. Yay!

( An album you hate by an artist you love )

This vacation has come to an end..tomorrow we fly back to Fairbanks. NOT looking forward to it being -21, but I am looking forward to seeing Abby again, going back to work and fast Internet haha. The town of Payson itself is kinda boring, but it's the scenery that makes it special..I love that our house has such awesome views. We found 59 caches on this trip! (14 days in a row, yeah!) We might try to find at least one on the way to the airport tomorrow..59 just isn't a round number haha. Now if I could just learn to pronounce "Mogollon" that would be great. :P I don't know why it's so hard haha. I'm glad I finally got to visit!

( 8. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back? )

The drive to Santa Fe yesterday was interesting..I LOVED driving on the Mogollon Rim..it's so pretty!! I loved the ponderosa pine trees. There was quite a bit of snow too. When you leave the Rim, the trees suddenly disappear and it gets pretty arid. But we drove through the Painted Desert and past the Petrified Forest..the red rocks were so pretty!! We also drove past an extinct volcano, which was cool. We ate lunch in Albuquerque (yikes! Too big cityish for me!), found a couple caches and continued the drive to Santa Fe (around 60 miles from Albuquerque). I think we found 11 caches in total! Most were on the Rim..it was lovely caching up there. Santa Fe is definitely more relaxed and nicer than ABQ. It was nice to see Cindy and Dean and their new dog Blanca and relax haha

Today we had breakfast and explored downtown Santa Fe. The architecture is really cool! I think the buildings are made of adobe. There are a bunch of shops there too..we looked in one and went to a couple churches..pretty! Cindy and Dean also went caching for the first time (their name is "chilipup" haha). One was in a hotel and you go up to the counter and ask about the cache and they bring it out to you..weird! I've never found a cache like that before haha. There's a certain area where Native Americans sell the things they've made (it's regulated, so they can't sell cheap knockoff stuff) and we checked that out. I'm wearing a Payson shirt, and they kept commenting on it haha! There was a LOT of jewelry, but I found a magnet and these cat things made out of clay or something. It's nice to support local artists. :) After that we found a couple more caches and walked to where Dean would pick us up (he went back home to check on Blanca). Well at that spot was a used bookstore!! I definitely had to go in haha. It was actually pretty nice and organized. I didn't have time to look at everything I wanted to, so I think I'm gonna go back. There was also a brochure with the used bookstores in Santa Fe, which is definitely useful haha. Then we went back to the house..tired haha

( here are the pics i've taken so far! )

Yesterday we found 8 geocaches! There was one at the library, which was cool (Fairbanks has one in their library too). We checked out their wi-fi too, which is SUPER fast! Definitely better than Safeway haha (we bring our laptop/iPad with us so we can use fast wi-fi before going back to the house). Mom has been wanting to go to a health food store, and near one of the caches was a place that said "Health Center" and "Medical Marijuana Dispensary." Mom thought it was both, but when we tried to go inside the doors were locked and a guy came out saying it was just a Medical Marijuana Dispensary. LOL. Whoops. :P After we got home we introduced ourselves to our neighbor, Karen (she knows dad too, so he said we should introduce ourselves too). She was very happy to finally meet us and her dog Mandy ADORED me. I picked her up (she's a kind of poodle) and she kept licking my hands. Karen said she does that when she's really happy. Karen said she likes cats, so I meowed at her, and she perked up and got even happier haha! She put her paws on my chest (I was sitting on the couch) and tried to touch my face with her paw! (Like Snowy!) Awww..so cute!! We'll have to go over there again sometime..

Today we went on a tour of Zane Grey's house (which is a replica, since the original one burned in a forest fire in 1990) and a museum of Payson. It was actually pretty interesting! We get Zane's books at the bookstore sometimes, but I never knew his history or that he lived around here. He was a dentist, baseball player and traveled around the world. He also built a house on Catalina Island!!! How did I not know that?? It was cool seeing first editions of his books in his house too. I had to buy some of his books to read haha. The Payson museum had artifacts from Native Americans, more Zane Grey stuff, info on the fire from 1990 (6 firefighters died :(), etc. After the museum we hung out at the library for a bit till it closed and went to check out the airport (I made sure to glare at the beacon LOL). There's a good view of the Mogollon Rim from up there. Thenn we went back to the house (we just found one cache today :P)

Tomorrow we're driving to Santa Fe to visit Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dean! We're gonna stay a couple nights at least there. Cool, I haven't seen them in awhile!

Yesterday when I woke up it was SNOWING! Ahhhh..I came to escape the snow, not see more! Haha. It didn't last long though. We looked in a couple thrift shops (I was really looking for a bookstore, but there doesn't seem to be one just for books), saw Zane Grey's house, found a cache and stocked up on groceries. My room has a nice view, but it overlooks the airport, and at night the beacon shines through the curtains and onto the wall..so annoying! Haha

Today we went to the Tonto Natural Bridge. It's one of the largest natural travertine bridges in the world (travertine is a type of limestone). Some of the trails were closed cause they had a big snowstorm on Jan. 1st and excessive melting is going on. The bridge was pretty cool though..you could stand on top of it and then walk down to it. The trails were pretty steep, which made my lungs feel like they were on fire from the altitude when going uphill haha. After that we had lunch at the nearby town of Pine and found some caches, then drove back to Payson..we're using the wifi at Safeway haha. I can plug mom's phone into my computer and use it as a hotspot, but it's annoyingly slow. I'm glad there is a close easy place we can go online for awhile though :P

So the two flights went fine (except for the screaming babies, ugh). One of our geocaching friends and his wife was on the plane too! Awesome haha. I didn't even try to sleep on the redeye..I'm so miserable and uncomfortable it's not really worth it, so I watched the in-flight movies instead (there's now an app where you can put their entertainment system on your iPad or whatever device you have..cool!). I watched Despicable Me 2 (I had to see the Minions everyone raves about haha..they're definitely hilarious :P) and Gravity. That movie annoyed the heck out of me..it's basically just Sandra Bullock flailing around and freaking out in space. I think it's kinda overrated..Interstellar was definitely better. Since I didn't sleep I guess that was my first "real" all-nighter (I haven't slept on redeyes before, but I always went to sleep before the sun came up). On the second flight one of the pilots was a woman! Sweet, that is so awesome. :D :D There needs to be more! I got to see the Grand Canyon from the air..so cool!! I don't remember seeing it from the air before. After we landed in Phoenix we picked up the rental car and started the drive to Payson (I think without stopping it takes a little over an hour to get there from Phoenix). Even though we were tired, we couldn't resist getting three geocaches on the way haha. The drive was interesting and beautiful! The cacti look so cool and the mountains are lovely. Even so, I was relieved when we finally got to Payson since I was tired and really had to go to the bathroom (TMI lol sorry). We ate at Chili's and then went to the house. It's pretty cool..the views are great! It's weird seeing stuff from Texas again. I was looking through some of my stuff and didn't even remember some of it (like school projects and stuff). So weird. I definitely took a long nap, so nice. I got into my PJs at 4 PM and didn't even care. :P I think I'll go to bed early too. Later!