Mom and Dad Visit Part II: Utah and Southern ID

We spent lots of time in the car while my parents were here, driving to and from Utah with stops along the way. 

smiling at Grandma in the car

Ava hadn't taken a binky for a couple weeks before this trip but being in the car this long, she needed some help getting to sleep so I tried giving it to her again and this is how she ended up falling asleep! I guess she kind of forgot how it works...

My mom had meetings in Utah so when we got there, my dad and Ava and I went to the Hogle Zoo, and the  Church History Museum:

 

We were sure missing our Eagle Scout daddy/husband while we were away from him for a whole week!

Bear Lake:

Hanging outside the motel room with Grandpa.  It was BEAUTIFUL weather while we were there.

We had to stop for famous raspberry shakes and they were DELICIOUS!

Soda Springs Geyser:

Cool geyser in the middle of no where, only "captive" geyser in the world whatever that means. But it goes off every hour on the hour, Ava loved it! 

We also spent time with Devin's parents in Declo, went to Gossner's cheese factory, took a stroll out at Lake Walcott, and stopped at the Minidoka County Fair.  It was my first time going to a lot of the places in South Eastern Idaho, so I'm glad they came and discovered it all with me! 

And Ava sure loved the extra cuddles and playmates!

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Celebration!

Finals aka "celebrations of my knowledge" if you will are officially O V E R!!  Never again will I take a test in that blasted testing center :)
Here's how I celebrated:

 Finally redeemed free car wash. I. love. car. washes.

 Finally ate this little delicacy that I got from "Bread and Jam" (best party ever - all you can eat Great Harvest bread and jam) in The Dean's office last week.  I knew it'd be worth the wait.

I didn't fully satisfy my sweet tooth so our friends the Luckys came over and the boys went out and got Cold Stone for us!

...Which I ate while I packed for PENNSYLVANIA! :)

p.s. Did you know Cold Stone has "Waffle Wednesday"?  Free waffle cones on Wednesdays!

p.p.s. Did you know there's only 10 more days until Christmas?

p.p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (12:15 a.m. - it's officially your birthday, as I write this) See you soon!

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Spur of The Moment

We've done quite a few "spur of the moment" things recently.  That means something different to some people, but for us it's like not knowing what we're doing within the 24 hour period that it happens.

#1 - The Jettarbug!
(1991 Jetta - turbo diesel)

It's actually not ours, it's for Devin's brother Derek.  He needs a car out here in April and he found a sweet deal on this so he had us pick it up for him on Friday.
      We left right after school and drove a whole 2.5 hours away to get it from a teeeennny tinnnnyy town called Teasdale, Utah. It was so windy there, too, I half expected the town to just up and blow away.

The cool part about the town though, was that you cross through a couple other really tiny towns to get to it and you know when you're there when the mountains instantly turn from snowy white to red rock, like this:

#2 - T.O.F.W.

(Time Out For Women)

My teacher had some extra tickets to this that she gave me for Friday and Saturday.  I didn't go Friday because we were getting the car, but decided to go Saturday and take my friend Corina while Devin went to "the coolest gun show ever" in Sandy :)  

I have NEVER seen so many women in one room/place before. It was insane - I would not have wanted to be the "chair stacker" for that event!  Even though we could only go for the session after lunch, I was so happy we did. 

Some of it was super cheesy *cough* Jericho Road trying to be sexy for middle-aged women *cough* but we loved the speaker that we heard: Wendy Ulrich.  

She gave 7 points on "your personal plan for happiness" and as an associate of counselors and psychotherapists, she knew a lot! I will probably go into these sometime on another post because they were so good, but since it's that season I'll focus on one that I liked best:

"Don't try to be happy, try to be grateful!"  

I love this because when I try and force myself to be happy it never feels genuine but there ARE things to be grateful for and how can you be miserable/unhappy when thinking about how good you have it? I think this is called optimism. But really, ask yourself this at the end of the day:

-What are 3 good things about today, and

-Why did/what made that happen?

#3 - Temple/Buca di Beppo

Devin and Jordan picked us girls up to go to the Salt Lake Temple with Jared & Jess and Chase :) 

image source: Deanne Smith

It was such a beautiful day in Salt Lake City on Saturday and this was the perfect way to end it.  

Afterward, we all met up with Abram and shared some big ol' family style pasta dishes at Buca di Beppo - we ate to our hearts' content.  Jared and Jess invited us over after for some leftover halloween candy and some mean rounds of CRUD (really fun pool table game).  Thanks guys!

Only 2 days of school this week!

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