Day 2 and 3 of our trip!

February 17, 2012

Well we woke up at seven and made smoothies with my new blender before we left the condo. We left by eight and headed for Idaho Falls to see Danielle, Brett’s sister. We hit some pretty bad roads on the way to Missoula. The roads were very slick and there was a huge accident on the way there by the Flathead. It looked as though a semi-truck with a rather large load of logs, lost control and his whole vehicle had rolled. There was a big mess on the highway. I hope that everyone was ok.

 I took some pictures on the way because the frost on the trees was absolutely breath-taking. There are a lot of orchards right by the Flathead, and I’m sure whoever picks the cherries and apples every day does not take for granted the view that they have each morning. Out of their right eye, the Flathead, out of their left eye the Mountains. Its no wonder people spend millions of dollars on these pieces of property because it truly is a “million dollar view.”

  

We stopped in Missoula, hit up the mall and ate at Subway. It was “Awesome February.” Any foot long was five dollars, and zero tax. Very delicious and fresh. Once upon a time I was a sandwich artist, nearly nine years ago and at the time when people ask me if I have any artistic ability, I would tell them I was a certified sandwich artist. Does that count?

We made it to Idaho Falls and checked in at our hotel. It was a real treat, we stayed at the Red Lion Hotel. Brett requested that we stay in the tower and get the best view possible. Well it couldn’t have been anymore perfect. We walked onto the balcony that overlooked the river, the waterfalls and best of all, the Temple. What a perfect place to build a temple right along the river. Talk about getting some gorgeous wedding photos.

After enjoying the view, we were both hungry. Without even asking, we drove straight to Café Rio. Next visit I get a free meal! It was super delicious. We were both stuffed and rolled our way out of the restaurant to meet up with Danielle and her date, Jordan.

She gave us both a hug when she saw us. She and her date were hungry so we went with them to Carls Junior where they grabbed a quick bite to eat. They wanted us to go for deep fried ice cream at Garcia’s. It’s weird cause no matter how much I eat, there is ALWAYS room for ice cream. It was delicious. What a great idea Jordan. We had a nice visit and stayed at the restaurant till it was almost empty. It was getting late and we wanted to be good adults by making sure Danielle made curfew. :p It was a party hanging out with those two and it was time time to say our goodbyes. With a very stuffed belly, we headed back to the hotel. I wanted to hit up the sauna and hot tub which was open 24 hours. Sweet! It was a relaxing way to end the day when we had driven six hours.

Day 4 Sunday

 The one thing I love about Utah is seeing my Uncle Rob and Aunt Carry who live in Alpine. I went to College in Provo and I spent a lot of my extra time seeing them and babysitting their kids. Their youngest one and only girl Lauren, is hilarious. She makes me laugh. You never have to wonder what is on her mind. Red hair, blue eyes and freckles, she is dang cute, but you can never trust her. She is one mischievious little child but we have a lot of great memories together. Its hard to see that she is already 10 years old, she is getting way too big too fast. She still greets me with a huge hug and a kiss when I see her. Its always hard to leave Rob and Carrys because we love their family so much. They have been so good to Brett and me.

They say when a woman gets married she marries her dad. On the contrary, I married my Uncle Rob. Lol. It is honestly crazy how much my Uncle Rob and Brett are alike. They are literally mirror images of each other. Its almost therapy for me to watch those two hang out so that I know what I need to do to understand Brett better haha. Rob is fun to hang out with, his humor usually puts me to tears and to the point where I can’t breathe.
                 This is a picture of their beautiful family

 My aunt Carry and I get along so well. She has spoiled me rotten for the amount of time I have invaded her home. She takes me in like I am her daughter. I have gotten some of my best recipes from her and expanded my cooking capabilities because of her. She has definitely shown me another side of Utah when it comes to all of the cute little shops and restaurants that she knows about. Carry and I would talk about random stuff until all hours of the night. Brett and I feel bad that we transferred up to Canada for Brett’s schooling, but we always try to see Rob and Carry once or twice a year since we have lived there.

The two older boys Mason and Conner are a riot. Those kids have a blast together. They always steal Brett from me the second we show up. If there is one thing that Rob and Carry’s kids have a lot of, its energy. They enjoy every moment of us being there. So right up until we wake up and until its bedtime, they want to be played with. When Lauren, Mason and Conner were younger, Brett and I would wake up in the morning to three sets of eyes looking right at us about 3 inches away. They would say to us, “You awake yet?”

 While we were at Rob and Carry's, we had a fabulous Sunday dinner along with my family, who were down for grad dress shopping for Hales. Flank steak, potatoes, greek salad, garlic bread and cream peas. Delicious. That greek salad dressing that my mom made from scratch was divine. My mom is one of those people who doesn't ever use recipe books to make stuff. She just does it off the top of her head. I could eat that salad three meals a day.

  My family and Robs family were letting dinner settle when all of a sudden Abby had a craving. Her husband wasn’t around to make the trip for her to get a frosty. I told my dad that Abby wanted a frosty and I would go get one for her. Dad said to get one for everyone. We called a few of the Wendy’s to see if they were open, one was closed and so we went to the one in American Fork that was open. We drove through the drive though, and would you believe the frosty machine was broken? So we went to the next nearest one, Lindon. We ended up going on quite the expedition to get frostys. We had to turn off the heater to keep everything cold for the drive home. A quick “craving” errand that should have taken all of about fifteen minutes ended up taking almost an hour. Funny thing was is that when we got home, the frostys were perfect for eating right away and weren’t cold enough to give you a brain freeze. Cassie wouldn't eat them because she said they were "sin" frostys from being bought on Sunday. lol. Oh well Abbs was happy and I'm sure someday when Brett and I start a family, he would drive to another state to get me a frosty if I was craving it. Brett joked that the next time we go to Wendy’s lets just drive past three of them and go straight to the one in Lindon. Were they worth it, you bet they were.