I also probably have the stupidest question for you guys.  Im at work and didnt bring the manual with me. When using the autofocus, do I choose how the picture is framed and the zoom rate then half press the button for it to autofocus, or do I let the af feature do all the work for me?

depends upon your AF mode.

your camera has the following autofocus modes:

Contrast Detect (sensor)
Phase Detect
Multi-area
Center
Selective single-point
Tracking
Single
Continuous
Face Detection
Live View

I don't have a Nikon, but I exclusively use single point AF on my camera.

When using single point AF, you often need to use a technique called Focus & Recompose

But just like everything else, it all depends upon what you're trying to accomplish

Also, the word you want to use here is focal length

Zoom first then focus.

You can frame then focus, if your focus point is on your subject after you frame the shot.
You can focus then re-frame, if your focus point is not where you want it after the framing.
Either way, the auto-focus system is doing the work for you unless you are set for manual focus.

Thank you for the replies.  I will get to test it out some tmrw.

I almost exclusively use the focus & reframe method, with single-point AF.  The only time I'll change to continuous AF is when I'm shooting birds in flight, or other subjects in motion.

I set the focus point on my subject, half-press (or use the back-button focus), then recompose my frame, then full press the shutter release.

I'm also set to release priority, meaning the shutter will open whether or not AF is locked in.

I'm sure there's uses for all the fancy AF modes, but for my style of photography single-point AF works very well most of the time.