Consider Wyoming Marked

One of the sites that we saw on day one was Green River. This is a postcard of it. It was nighttime when we drove through it, but I was still excited. I played a game called Oregon Trail when I was little (as I am sure that many of you did). I liked the old version so much that my parents got me a new version when I was older (Lex, you know what I'm talkin' about). Anyways, as we have been driving, I keep seeing some of the stops that was on Oregon trail. It's like we are playing the game in reverse! Except we don't get to do the hunting game. I will keep mentioning this throughout this trip. So...

On Day One: We saw Soda Springs, Green River and Fort Laramie.



Yesterday, after saying our goodbyes, we started our journey together across the country. We didn't leave until 6 pm, but we made it pretty far. We made our way across Wyoming. We stopped in Rawlins.

Here are some pictures on the road.





Here is Mia. She likes to lay on the floor of the back seat and put her head on the elbow rest.



There was some road construction (of course) along the way. There was one place that we had to wait for a "pilot car" to guide us around the construction site. This isn't a very good picture, but we thought that it was funny.




This is where we drove today...through the plains of Wyoming.




Here is Brady marking his territory.



Still marking...and able to look around at the same time!




At one of the stops we saw a baby red hawk. The guy who worked at the stop said that the mother hawk was still feeding it. He said that if it didn't take flight soon, that he would call the wildlife people. So I quit worrying.



Spencer hit a bird while we were driving! It made me really sad. I have never hit an animal before. In fact, I once swerved to avoid hitting a rattle snake. I have a tender heart...

Several years ago, the girls in my family went on a trip with Cheryl and her daughter to California. It was fun, but stressful because my mom had to leave early to be with my grandma. She started the tradition of making categories of things that everyone responds to. It helps add to the journaling of the trip. We have since continued this tradition. So Here It Goes!!

Day One:

Worst
Spencer: Bug bites when we got out of the car to take pictures.
Brianna: Freezing in the car. We had to keep it super cold to keep the dogs from freaking out. Therefore, I was freezing.

Saddest
Spencer: Saying goodbye to my family.
Brianna: Saying goodbyes, having anxiety about moving, and not being able to say goodbye to my grandpa. I love him dearly and I missed him at the luncheon.

Best
Spencer: Soft bed at Holiday Inn
Brianna: The warm bath at Holiday Inn after freezing to death in the car. Also, having a nice place to stay that allows dogs.

Favorite City
Spencer: Lava Hot Springs
Brianna: Green River with the big tall rocky thing and the tunnel you drive through

Scariest
Spencer: Driving on the curvy highway in the dark.
Brianna: Being afraid of being shot when we stopped at a shady place with board on the windows because I had to pee.

Something else that was funny was that when we stopped once there were some horses and cows. Mia hates livestock. I mean, they make her go crazy. She just barks and barks and wants to chase them. So it was funny to see her freak out at them. It was not so funny when she ruined Spencer's car door to try to get at them once, though.

Baloo grown up

Here is a picture that Baloo's owner just emailed us. Baloo was one of our eight puppies. He looks a lot like Brady. He's really big.

Dan and Jorden's Blog

Our friends Dan and Jorden have started a blog!!

Now we'll be able to keep up with everything they're doing while we're in New York. If you want to check out their blog you can click here.

Dan and Jorden served in the Italy Catania Mission with me. Dan is also a big Minnesota Vikings fan...

Idaho Summer Trip #3

This last week we were up in Idaho visiting family and friends again. This was my third time going up and Brianna's second. Next week we'll go up again for the 4th of July.

This trip up to Idaho was jam packed with lots of things to do. We celebrated our second anniversary (Brianna will blog about that later), we went to a Chukars baseball game, we went bowling, we went boating, we went to the zoo, and we went out to eat a lot.

Here are some of our pictures from the Chukars game:

We went with Brianna's parents. Bush was also there, so I sat with him for a few innings. It was $1 night. Tickets, hot dogs, and drinks were all $1.

My favorite thing to get at the games is the ice cream in the little baseball helmet.

The next day we met up with all of Brianna's family and we went bowling. I came in second. Dylan beat me. Even though I got beat by a five year old, it was still a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:

Jake went a little far:

Brianna sticking out her tongue:

Brianna dancing like a chimpanzee with the rest of the children:

Richard took a group of us up to Palisades to go boating. There was Brianna and I, Kar's family, and also Greg. The weather was a little windy, but for the most part it was really nice.

Here's Greg and I tubing. Greg was pretty good:

This is right before I fell off:

This is where we had set up camp. The shore was clay, so it was really hard to stick the umbrella or anything else into it.

Here's Brianna's butt. She slipped on the mud and fell on her keester.

Greg posing (Ladies, he's single....).

Afterwards we stopped to get square ice cream.

Here's Brianna and Sadie sharing an ice cream cone.

If you want to read about our trip to the zoo you can check out Warren and Becky's blog here. We didn't have our camera. Next week will be our last time visiting Idaho for a long time. Hopefully we get to see everyone and do everything we need to before we go.

Wendy's Wednesday

For the past four years Dan, Dave, and I have carried out a weekly ritual we like to call Wendy's Wednesday. Every Wednesday we would meet at Wendy's to eat together. We would talk about sports, school, politics, and talk smack to each other about our fantasy sports teams. Yesterday was the last Wendy's Wednesday that we'll be able to do together for awhile because Brianna and I are moving to Buffalo and Dave and Brooke will be moving to Omaha.

This was my final Wendy's Wednesday meal:



Here are Dan and Dave at our final Wendy's Wednesday:




I'll miss this weekly tradition that we've done the last four years. It's probably better that it's over, both for my health and also for my curvy physique.

Father's Day Picnic

On Father's day we met with some of our friends to celebrate the holiday. We went to Kiwanas park in Provo and had a picnic. We played bocce and a lot of other games. Here are some of the pictures:

Summer in Review

We haven't been able to blog much lately because we've been getting all of our crap boxed up and ready to go. We've also been trying to spend a lot of time with our family and friends. Here's a quick summary of everything that's been going on:


We went up to Idaho about a month ago to hang out with our family and to see our new nephew and nieces.



We went to the hospital to see Kar's new baby Micah:













We also got to see Nat's baby Ivy for the first time:






This was the first time that Brianna was able to meet Kylie. Here is Mindy with little Kylie:






It was fun to see Kenna interact with our dogs. She was really brave.






This is the face she would make every time the dogs would get near:






While we were in Idaho I got to hang out with my best friend Bush. We're both big into NASCAR, so we decided to give it a try ourselves at the Go-Kart rink:














Back in Utah we've been trying to spend time with Jenny and her kids. The other day (on John's birthday) we went and watched Bentley and Max play T-ball.


Here's John helping Maxwell hit the ball:






There was some kind of Scottish festival happening on the field next to us, so the kids got to play T-ball to the sound of bag pipes. Bentley displayed some pretty sweet dance moves while he was in the field. Here's his Michael Jackson impersonation:






And here's Jonah doing his impersonation of Osama Bin Laden:





And here's Ruby's impersonation of... well... Ruby...






It's been really hard to try and spend an adequate amount of time with each one of our family and with all of our friends. We only have a couple of weeks left. Hopefully we'll be able to have some more fun and say all of our good byes.