Sunday, July 09, 2006

I'm Back!

Hey! I'm Baaack! Maybe you've noticed maybe you haven't. In any case here's a quick over-view.

Sunday, June 17th -Drove with W and Sy to Provo, Utah and stayed with my sister-in-law. The drive went well, no problems, went by really quickly. My SIL was surprised that I arrived as early as I did. Called her brother over and we had dinner together. My kids are the only neices and nephews so their aunts and uncles were really excited to see them.

Monday, June 18th -Drove from Provo to Kennewick, Washington. Got stuck in rush-hour traffic in SLC. Stopped for Breakfast. Drove to Boise, stopped for lunch. W and Sy both fell asleep in the car just outside of Boise and slept till Baker City, Oregon. A mountainous area about an hour and half from Kennewick. W cried bloody murder till Hermiston, Oregon. About 30 minutes from Kennewick. The whole time I didn't know whether to push on through or pull over. I felt that if I pulled over I would be giving in to his fit. My mom called the cell phone and said she'd get pizza for when we arrive. That point I was able to talk to W about the wheat fields, and the river, and the dam and the big barge, and apple fields. He finally calmed down and was excited to be "in town". He even said Kennewick.

Tuesday June 19-Tuesday June 27th - I hung out at my parents house. The last 3 days I was there it reached above 100 degrees every day. It's so odd because when I arrived it was in the nice comfortable 80's. We visited with my grandpa, we took the kids to see "Disney/Pixar Cars". They both loved it. The kids played in the wading pool in the backyard. We went in to my grandma's house to visit and W & Sy got to play with my cousin's kids. They had a great time. The last day I was there I invited my aunt, her two daughters, and their kids out for a barbeque. I made a home-made BBQ sauce and we cooked chicken and hotdogs on the BBQ. The kids played in the little pool and my cousin's and I had a nice time chatting.

Wednesday June 28th - Drove from Kennewick, Wa to Shelley, Id. My sister-in-law Brooke was getting married on June 30th and her bridal shower was Wednesday night. I was under stict orders to be there! :-) The drive went very well, W & Sy slept for the first 3 hours, which left only two hours till Boise. We had planned on meeting up with my old roommate for lunch but that didn't work out. We left Boise, the kids watched a DVD for a few hours and then slept the last 2 hours till my In-Law's house where they were greeted with open arms from their grandma. The bridal shower went really well, I won the prize for getting the fewest trivia questions wrong about my SIL Brooke.

Thursday June 29th - My hubby arrived with his brother and brother-in-law. He had planned on riding the bus but last minute bought a bus ticket and flew to SLC where he was picked up by Sterling and Gilbert. Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner was thursday night. W & Sy played hard and long all day with their Aunt Juell (12). Plum tuckered out the fell asleep during the 30 minute drive from Shelley to Idaho Falls. W=Ringbearer, Sy=flower girl, were so tired they didn't wake up when we arrived at the wedding hall. They even stayed asleep being put back in the car to go to the restaurant. Great food at the restaurant. Sy loved my teriyaki shrimp.


Friday, June 30th - Wedding Day. All the men went Golfing. My hubby, his Dad David, his brother Sterling, and his BIL Gilbert were together. None of them besides David had golfed before. Sterling bent down to try to blow the ball into the hole. David purposely stepped on a golf ball to push it into the ground on the green. The group behind them chewed David out thinking that Sterling was leaving divits in the ground with his kneews. My hubby, would hit the ball and instead of going down the green would go 90 degrees from the target and almost peg Sterling who was sitting in the golf cart!

I was on high stress mode hoping W & Sy would behave during the wedding. They both looked so good in their outfits for the wedding. But neither of them would have anything to do with the photographer. At one point W pretended to be asleep standing up so he wouldn't have to smile for the picture. During the wedding party picture Sy through her white rose at the photographer and an petal that had fallen off at me. When it came time for the actual ceremony to begin I was on the verge of tears hoping that they wouldn't freak out during the wedding. Brooke and Nathan were a little concerned about letting the rings be walked down the aisle with a 3 1/2 year old so W got to through flowers with his Aunt Juell and little sister Sy. They were doing so well till that darned photographer got down on the aisle to take their pictures. Sy had a melt down right there, but once the photographer was out of sight she came down the aisle without problem.

Saturday July 1st - We went rafting down the snake river. Brandi and Gilbert on a paddle boat, and my FIL David, BIL Sterling (19), SIL Juell (12) and my hubby and I rode on a homemade raft made of inner-tubes. It was a lot of fun, too bad my hubby broke one of the paddles in the first 10 minutes so with only one paddle we were at the mercy of the river. It was still a lot of fun. We ran into low-lying cottonwood trees, got stuck in a whirlpool, and when the river split to go around an island and we want to go on the branch with the rapids and the river wanted us to go the other way we all bailed ship, pulled the raft onto the island and drug it over to the other branch. All in all it was still a lot of fun. I had put sunscreen on myself, Juell and Brandi. But forgot to do our legs. I offered it to Gilbert but her refused. I got 3rd place for the worst sunburn. It was only on my legs and not too bad, Brandi came in second, again only on her legs, but her stubborn hubby Gilbert took 1st. His whole entire body was one big sunburn!

July 4th - We went to the 4th of July parade in downtown Idaho Falls and out to lunch. Brandi and Gilbert left in the afternoon to go back to Provo. Sterling hung around to play cards and eat dinner. Home made hamburgers and potato salad is always worth staying for. He also had me take his pictures for his missionary papers. He left later on and then we went back up to Idaho Falls and watched the fireworks over the Snake River that night.

July 5th - My Idaho grown hubby thought it would be fun to go to the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho. We took all the farmer backroads between Shelley and Blackfoot instead of the highway. We came to the intersection of 00 N./00 E!

The Potato Museum was fascinating. Did you know potatoes originated in South America? It then went to Europe and came to America from England. The largest potato ever harvested was 18 pounds 4 ounces, in 1795 in England. There was even a copy of a letter written to Vice-President Dan Quayle from the Governor of Idaho after he misspelled Potato. ...here is a box of potatoes for your Mr. Quayle. I know your boss really likes them. You can cook the potatoes any way you want to, as long as they are a true Idaho. P.S. Idaho doesn't have an 'e' in it either."

We then took the backroads back to Shelley. We went in the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, and it was during that time that David called wanting us to go rescue Gail in Idaho Falls. She is working on her Master's Degree and works 3 days a week at a school in Idaho Falls that teaches limited english students. She had lost her keys and couldn't get home. We went back to the house and got the spare key and drove up to Idaho Falls. The key would unlock the door but wouldn't start the car. We piled 6 people into our Focus and went back to Shelley. We were there for about 30 minutes when Gail's friend called her to ask if she was missing her keys, that she had picked them up by mistake. We then drove BACK to Idaho Falls to get the keys and go back to the school! As thank you for the many trips to I.F. in one day Gail bought us all Jamba Juice!

Thursday, July 6th - We decided it was time to travel back home. We weren't going to go the normal way through SLC either. We went through Soda Springs, over to Bear Lake were we spent an hour playing in the water, then went through Evanston, Wyoming where we say two Moose, and then down to Vernal, Utah where we say lots of Dinosaurs.

Friday, July 7th - We traveled from Vernal, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado. We then went on to Durango, Colorado. We took the million dollar freeway that goes through Silverton, Colorado. We drove passes that were 11,000 feet elevation, and 10, 476 feet, elevation, and 10, 358 feet elevation. We got to Durango, checked into our hotel room and went swimming.

Saturday, July 8th - We drove the final 4 hours from Durango, Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a nice drive, it had pretty much rained on us since leaving Shelley, Idaho on Thursday. It had rained the whole day on Wednesday as well. It was nice to have some moisture. The southwest sure needs it. When we got to the house I couldn't believe how much everything had grown in the yard in 3 weeks.

I left my husband home alone for a week, I have a lot of cleaning to do. :-) Not to mention all the unpacking and laundry from the trip. My hubby has tomorrow Monday July 10th off as well. We'll be doing some cleaning, and weeding, and lawn-mowing tomorrow I'm sure.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/09/2006 03:53:00 PM :: 6 Comments:

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