The Magical Land of ABQ

A few weeks ago, The Tieg Dog (I shall refer to him as T) and I (Liz) got the wonderful opportunity to travel down south to see our very very VERY good friends, the Gards! Elly, Matty, and Mr. and Mrs. Gard are what maketh up the Gard family :)

When we arrived, there were mustaches and a big sign waiting for us. I nearly ran down the escalator and jumped into the arms of my best friend. We hadn't seen each other in over a year and frankly, it felt like we had just seen each other the day before.

Elly was just as awesome, Matty got taller (he is now taller than me), and Mrs. Gard... she stayed the same :)

Day 1

Day one consisted of driving 5 hours to the airport and flying for another 2 hours before actually getting to ABQ. For dinner, we went to Chick-fil-a. It was my first time eating there and it was delicious! We then proceeded to the Gard residence, got the grand tour, and were completely wired! I don't think we went to bed until around 1am that night :)

(Sorry, the picture quality isn't the greatest) The Gard's with
their sign and mustaches!

Day 2

Creepiest. Museum. EVER! Period.

The Tinkertown Museum has everything from miniature wood people, to Disney princess figurines, to swords, to boats, to dolls, to automatons, to fortune-telling 25-cent machines. Our imaginations were running wild in that place and Elly and I have concocted a short story idea from it muahahaha. 

Then a supposed 1-mile hike turned into a 4-mile hike up the Sandias (know to the Gards as the Watermelon). Mrs. Gard convinced us (basically forced us) to do this easy (not so easy) 1-mile (4-mile) hike on the Watermelon. There was a burger place at the top and it's haunting aroma nearly made us all die. But, I'll admit, it was fun and now we have lots of stories to tell about it. So thank you, Mrs. Gard for making us go on that "1-mile hike". 

During this time, I introduced the group to the game 'What are the odds?' which we ended playing almost everywhere we went. I had to kiss the ground once. It wasn't pleasant.

On that fateful night, I was introduced to BBC's Sherlock. My life will never be the same. I got hooked and now I am a Sherlockian. We watched all 9 (*sobs) episodes during the course of the week. Yep, I'm addicted. 

Day 3   

*Grabs camera to see what they did next*

All the days got jumbled in my head, so I am using my camera as a reference for when we did what.

Clears throat Alright, day 3 started off with a Nerf war during which me and Elly almost died. We were feeling very lazy and tired. I think Mrs. Gard finally got tired of our whining, and gave in to our request of Starbucks. 

After Starbucks, we went to this place called... Goodman's I believe it was. There, I convinced Elly to buy a Giraffe, Girard Tobias XI, that she had her eye on for six months and I bought Tartar Sauce a.k.a. Grumpy Cat.

...I am talking about stuffed animals, of course.

Ah yes! I caught a fish! His name is Franklin the fish. Basically from day one I was out at the Gard's pond trying to catch a fish. When I caught Franklin, I nearly fell over I was so excited! 

The rest of the day we spent chilling out and making epic t-shirts.

Day 4

(This is going to be the longest blog post in the history of blog posts)

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE DOTS WAS BORN! We refer to our little quartet (Elly, Matty, T, and I) as The Fellowship of the Dots.

We started the day not really knowing what to do. Then (I think it was Elly) had the brilliant idea to make Lord of the Rings skits. We made a few (as you saw on the previous blog post) that are hilarious. From that moment on, I was Samwise and Elly was Frodo. 

We referred to each other as 'Sam' and 'Frodo' for the rest of the trip. We are nuts :)

The zoo! Oh how I loved the zoo! That's where our name, The Fellowship of the Dots, came from. We were eating Dippin' Dots and someone somehow came up with that name and it stuck.

We ran around the zoo like wild pansies acting out Lord of the Rings, tripping in the dark, freaking each other out, eating Dippin' Dots, and taking thousands of pictures of all of the animals. It was great.





Day 5

*Wiggles cramping fingers*

SANTA FE! Oh I cannot tell you how much I loved Santa Fe. We wandered around the State Capitol Building (and probably went places we weren't supposed to go), saw the oldest church in America, saw the spiral staircase, saw (and attended mass at) this beautiful church with relics (I LOVE saint relics), went shopping, ate delicious food, saw really cool art galleries (we saw the Chuck Jones gallery which was so cool!), rode the Rail Runner (a train), and just spent the day goofing off, laughing, and having a good time as friends. 

 








I love Santa Fe so so much!! :) (The pictures are being stubborn. That's as good as it's gonna get)


Day 6

(Almooost there I promise)

We swam in the Rio Grande. Like, legit swam in it. We waded across it, made a mud castle on a small island in the middle of the river, and crossed to the other side and found trampoline mud! We proceeded to use said trampoline mud as ammo and had a mud fight. It's very rejuvenating for the skin :)

We went back to the Gard residence and caught Samwise the frog. He was fat and had yellow feet. We also got a tour of the Gard's Grandparent's new house! It's a pretty awesome house with a shower that Grandpa Gard said, "You could have a dance party in!"

Day 7

I think Mrs. Gard was getting tired of our loudness and obnoxiousness (is that a word?), so she dropped us off at this cool cafe called The Flying Star. We drank milkshakes, played board games, and laughed our brains out for a few hours before getting whisked away in the Gard van. 

Hi, I'm Liz and I have a gambling problem.

It's not just me, though, it's me and my Wonder Twin, Matty. We went to the movie theater and saw Guardians of the Galaxy (an entertaining movie, not the best, but entertaining). This movie theater had a few arcade games like any movie theater. Matty and I could not pull ourselves away! The sensible ones, Elly and T, told us to stop, but we couldn't. We have a gambling problem. That night we also went to dinner AT A CASINO! We were dying.

After the movies, we went to this store. It's seriously geek heaven. I can't remember what it's called but it has everything you could possibly want! Dr. Who, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Game of Thrones, you name the geek thing, they probably have it's merchandise. 

Day 8

Our last full day :( How depressing.

Elly and I went to the mall! The ABQ mall is HUGE! It was tons of fun but, unlike average teenage girls, we didn't go to the mall to 'shop' per-say. We went to goof off and have fun. We bought Build-A-Bears for crying out loud! (We're 17 and almost 16... you're never too old for a Build-A-Bear). 

 





It was lots of fun :) and I curled Elly's hair! She was being Frodo :) We didn't want that night to end. That's also the night (I'm pretty sure) we played Ghost in the Graveyard.

That game... NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PLAY THAT GAME WITH T! He is flippin scary. Matty and I almost died that night. No joke. 

Day 9

The horriblest day of the trip. The day we had to leave the magical land of ABQ and fly home. We put off saying goodbye for as long as possible, but it was inevitable. 

So it wasn't goodbye, it was "See you later, alligator."

That week was so much fun. I can't thank the Gard's enough for letting us invade their house and letting their lived get turned upside-down for a week :) I miss you guys so much!! 

The Fellowship of the Dots shall be re-united again! 

Thanks for a great time guys :)

Films from the Studio of the Dots

    I'll let Liz ramble on about the fantastic visit, but I wanted to share our videos. With the help of my brother and the Tieg, we made several parodies. 

Our LOTR: Return of the King parody, script courtesy of an OYANer

"Snark Week"

;)

ENJOY

A Sneak Peek of What's To Come...

Alright, my turn.

Prepare to witness....

RAINYSTORMY ALBUQUERQUE AUGUST

*INSERT RIO GRAND PHOTOGRAPH*

THE RIO GRANDE

... AND PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE...

*INSERT ZOO PICTURE*

A ZOO CONCERT

FLYING!

Get ready to meet...

LITTLE FROGS

BIG FROGS

POSSIBLY LIZARDS

And reunite with... 

OVER-DRESSED HOMESCHOOL SIBLINGS
(actually, kidding, but we are rather fond of bowties)

AND NOW, A SMALL TEASER WITH OBSCURE PICTURES OF RANDOM OBJECTS...

AND THIS GUY...

THE TIME OF THE DEPARTURE APPROACHETH

The Day is Nearly Upon Us!

Tomorrow is the day! The day I fly down to ABQ to be with Elly!! 



(That gif was just for you, Elly) :)

If you haven't guessed, we are both very excited to see each other. It's been over a year since she moved away from Dredford, and I've missed her every day since. 

I'm sure there will be a blog post in a week or so telling you all about our adventures in ABQ. 

So excited to see you mate!! 

(Even though, I'll admit, I am a tad bit nervous about flying for the first time) :) I'll be like Gus from The Fault in Our Stars...


"Oh my gosh, we're FLYING!"

I am so excited...AH! I think I might explode!! :D See you tomorrow, Elly :)

...it's so awesome to be able to say that!

Steubenville Northwest: God Is

So this last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Steubenville Youth Conference for the third summer in a row!! *thunderous applause* If you've never heard of the conference, it's a Catholic youth conference for all high schoolers to meet other Catholic teens, have loads of fun, and, most importantly, grow deeper in their relationship with God and their faith.

I love Steubenville (as I mentioned above, I've been three times). Each and every time I have had an encounter with God that is indescribable. The first year I went, my heart felt literally on fire and I was overflowing with joy (so much so that I walked up to a random guy and gave him a hug). Last year I was overwhelmed because for the first time, I truly realized that God loves me. He died for me. Last year I cried a lot, I admit it :) This year, I got to experience God in a whole new way: through my peers.

Call me a creeper, but during adoration, I couldn't help but listen to everyone around me and look at their faces. Everyone was so on fire with God. As I was looking at their faces, I saw God in each and every one of the people at the conference. It was really crazy!!

Not only is Steubenville a place to get closer to God, it's a place to get closer to other Catholic teens. Our group was pretty crazy, insane, loud (very loud), but we all love God so much that we all got along. Heck, I made one of the guys' nose bleed (on accident!) and he didn't hate me afterwards. In fact, we were all kind of laughing about it. 

Even if you're not Catholic, you should go. There was a guy in our group who wasn't Catholic and he came with us. It was truly powerful to witness his conversion experience at the conference. Now, he is thinking about converting to Catholicism! Yay! Seriously, though, seeing him stand up when they asked "Who devoted themselves to Christ?" brought tears to my eyes. 

The conference is INSANELY powerful (why do you think I've gone for three years and intend on going a fourth?). And now since I've probably bored you with my ramblings, here are some pictures!! Enjoy!!   

Our non-air conditioned bus

There was a huge storm, so we had to camp in a parking lot

Elephant ride at Silverwood Theme Park (all the big
rides were closed because of the storm)

Left to right: My sister Sam and I

Playing with the Canadians :)

There were roughly 1,300 teens there (the theme was God Is)

One of the speakers/rappers/entertainers, Oscar Rivera
a.k.a. "Fluffy"

The music was AMAZING!!

Left to right: Ariana, Theresa, Me, Matt Freud (one of the
speakers), and Sam

Fr. Mike at Multnomah Falls

(Some of) our group at Multnomah Falls 

It's Independence Day!

"Yes, we know, Elly. I don't care, remember? I'm Irish."

Shut up, Art.

    *hem* I'd like to state... For all my anglophility, I do sometimes enjoy being an American. Fireworks, hamburgers, watermelon, country music, fireflies. Other countries have these things too, I know, but with US (PUN FULLY INTENDED) they've got a sort of freedomy tang. Yum yum.

    ANYWHO. I am indeed alive. This blog still exists. *waves hand* Hello, readers. I'm in Tennessee now. For the last time at this house. I'm not going to be sentimental now because that's the last thing everybody needs (and I'm still recovering from the SW).

    No, I'm just enjoying myself and trying to be helpful. I've babysat my dear cousin Dottie all week. She just about two and sort of testing the limits of her cuteness. =D

    Today I lazed around a little - read Tuck Everlasting, took a nap, caught two turtles (Eccleston & Tennant), played with Dottie, watched the Capitol Fourth, ate elkburgers and watermelon, caught fireflies, played Bananagrams..... It was rather glorious and very American with the exception of the siesta and the turtle names. Now I'm listening to fireworks I can't see with The Lion King playing in the background.

     I don't have a lot to say, and now I'm just rambling. Alas, I'd write an American ballad, but it is rather late.

*Francis Scott Key and Liz scoff from a distance*

-shame-

RANDOM THINGS TO WARD OF THE BALLAD-WRITING GHOST;

............. THIRTY ONE DAYS UNTIL THE VISIT.

............. MY RitR CHARACTERS HAVE STARTED TALKING TO ME AND DECIDING TO DO THINGS AGAINST MY WILL (is this good or bad?!??!)

.............. I WOULD ALMOST MISS NEW MEXICO (AND MY CAT) IF I DIDN'T KNOW I WAS GOING TO MISS THIS PLACE SO MUCH.

............. i need sleep and willy wombo and sherduck are giving me the evil eye.

        

    I hope you enjoyed the worstly written post ever seen here (penned typed by none other than the aspiring author). Talk to ya'll later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- elly

I feel judged.