Josh loves his job as a police officer! He's been training for three weeks now. They have been hard, long weeks, but he loves learning and being out on the street. His first week was physically draining because he had to experience what he will be doing to criminals; he had to be tased and sprayed with OC spray (basically pepper spray). I felt so bad that he had to go through those things! He says the spray is the worst and he would rather be tased any day.
He's been out on the road with his training officer a few times and he's also gone through EVO (emergency vehicle operations). During that week he learned how to clear an intersection when he's rushing to the scene and how to chase a criminal along with several other driving techniques. He will be with his training officer for about 3 months. Once he passes all of the things he needs to, which is scheduled for July, then he'll be out on his own. He has a rotating schedule, so he'll never work every weekend (yay!) and he does work crappy shifts, but we expected that since he's the rookie.
It's been hard having him gone so much, but I've tried to fill that time with various activities so I don't get lonely. I truly treasure the time we do get together since that has decreased considerably! One good thing, though, is that Josh was able to test out of his online math class. He was worried about how he'd do training and school, so he took the placement test and passed with flying colors. He'll go back to school but only when he knows his set work schedule.
Now to tell about fun things we've done that I haven't blogged about yet. On March 6th, we saw The Zac Brown Band in concert. It was at The Rail Event Center in Salt Lake. It's not the best venue-in fact it looks like a converted warehouse-but we had a really great time. They are such an amazing band! If you get the chance, you definitely need to see them live! We got their about an hour-and-a-half early because there were no assigned seats; it was all general seating. The doors weren't even open when we got there and there was a huge line waiting to get in.
After waiting for about 45 minutes, they finally opened the doors, and then made us stand in 2 lines-girls in one, guys in another. They did this because they searched us before we could go in. They looked through purses and bags but also patted us down. I couldn't believe they did that! Here's the lady who searched me. 
Once we were in, we found there were no seats-it was standing room only. There were a TON of people packed into the space and we ended up standing in place for about 3 hours. It was totally worth it, though! All of those who weren't drinking alcohol stayed on the ground floor while those who were drinking had to go on top. Here's the line on just one side of everyone trying to get to the top.
Because we were there so early, we were really close to the stage. We were able to see the band and their opening act really clearly. The show started about an hour late because the band had just gotten here from Colorado. There was a huge snowstorm the day before and the road was closed so they had to leave their van, which held all their instruments and gear, and fly in so they could make it. The van arrived sometime during the show because it was parked outside when we left. The band had to use borrowed instruments and sound equipment, and still did a fantastic job. 
We had some pretty funny entertainment while we waited for the concert to start. We watched a drunk woman who was holding two beers and leaning over the railing. She kept swaying back and forth and we were betting with the people around us that she would spill on the people below. She never did end up spilling on anyone, but there were a lot of close calls. Here's a picture of her. It's not very clear, but you can totally tell how drunk she is.
We also took a "staycation" for a few days in March. We had taken a few days off the week of spring break to go to the Grand Canyon, but it ended up being the same time that Josh was finding out about Midvale, so we didn't go. We still had a great time being able to spend that time together, though! And we were able to go do things around Salt Lake that we usually don't have the time to do.
On Thursday, March 18th, we went to the State Capitol. Neither of us had been there since they remodeled it and Josh wanted to see the Fallen Officer Memorial that is on the grounds. The first thing that we did was take a free tour. It was so neat to see the inside of that amazing building. It is so beautiful and the architecture is incredible!
The memorial was really neat! We were both pretty solemn as we read the names of those officers who had been killed in the line of duty. I think we were both silently praying that Josh would never end up there.
We also went to the Utah Museum of Natural History that day. I never realized how many neat (and pretty inexpensive) things there are to do so close to home.The next day we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It is the biggest museum I've ever seen. It was so neat to learn about all the different dinosaurs and when and where they lived. There are also a ton of hands-on exhibits so it's a great place to take kids.
After seeing the museum we went to the farm that is also at Thanksgiving Point. There are a lot of animals in outside enclosures that you can pet and feed. We had a great time seeing horses, cows, alpacas and others. The goats were my favorite though. As soon as they saw Josh coming with food they all rushed the fence and started bleating at him to give it to them as quickly as possible.
