Utah!

After we left Vegas (see previous post), we went drove to Utah. On the way there, we stopped at Daniel's and Tyisa's apartment where I was going to stay for a couple of days. Their new place is super sweet! They live in a historic mansion turned apartment building in Provo, Utah. I forgot to take a picture of it, so I stole this one from the Internet:

It's called the Knight-Mangum Mansion.
While there, we got to talk alot, watch some amazing things on YouTube, play games (including Uno Attack...oooohhhhh yeah!!! lol), and explore the mall. Daniel kept telling me that he didn't want me to be bored and tried to think of other things we could do in Provo, but what he didn't realize is that being there with him and Tyisa was plenty of fun for me. I miss that kid like CRAZY!!!

We did have our fair share of shenanigans, however. On Saturday, when my parents and Diane came to pick me up, this is how they found Daniel and me:

haha
Diane joined in the action too:

It was SOOO hard to say goodbye to my Benjamin when we left, even though I knew I was going to see him again in a couple of days. Here's a shot of Daniel and Tyisa and, of course, Baby Danny.

Next, my parents dropped Diane and I off in Sandy at Rio Tinto Stadium for the Real Salt Lake game. Our seats were pretty good. I got to be Diane's "plus 1" for the game, which she was seeing with a bunch of people from work. Initially, I wasn't super excited for the game, but once I realized how close it was to hockey (my favorite sport), I ended up really enjoying it.

They passed this shield around the whole stadium...kinda like The Wave. It was pretty cool! When we were passing it over our heads it reminded me of PE in elementary school when we used to run under the parachute.

After the game we walked to the train, which took up back to Downtown Salt Lake.
The next day was Father's Day and it was awesome! Daniel and Tyisa came up to Salt Lake to go to church with us in Diane's ward. Afterward, we had ham, Grandma Merrell's raspberry Jello, and funeral potatoes, with chocolate mousse for dessert. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk around Temple Square. It was amazing because the weather was perfect and we were all very relaxed and just ready to browse around and enjoy one another's company. That night, Daniel & Tyisa, my mom, and I stayed up late playing Uno Attack and Phase 10. The next day or two were spent hanging out, shopping, and sightseeing We also got to attend a session in the Bountiful Temple, which I had never been in before.

What an amazing blessing the Temple is! So beautiful!
Before we left, we decided to go to the Church History Museum. It hasn't changed much over the years, but we love it just as much the millionth time as we did the first.

We all had fun coloring at the children's artwork interactive display in the basement.
When it was time to go, we said goodbye to Diane and then stopped at Daniel's to say goodbye and we headed home. It was a great trip.

Jewel of the Nile...

...or Jewel of the Strip? Anyhow, I realized that I had never been to Vegas just for the sake of being in Vegas. My cousin got married in Vegas and I went there for that; I've been there to visit family, and I've driven through more times than I can count, but I had never gone just to have a good time. So, there's a first time for everything, right? Now, gambling isn't my style, so I passed on that aspect of it, but I did get to stay in a super sweet hotel!

I have ALWAYS wanted to stay in the Luxor! It had become kind of a bucket list thing and I found that if you stay there during the week, rather than the busy Vegas weekends, you can actually find some pretty awesome rates! So, I booked! It was amazing! The room was nice and it had the slanty windows that you can see from the freeway.

AND in the evening, we had an awesome view of the Excalibur with a little bit of New York, New York.

Aaaaand it was amazing inside too! Here's what we saw when we walked out of our hotel room door:

How awesome is that!?!?!
We also got to experience one of Vegas' many buffets, which was conveniently located in our hotel, as well as visiting the old Mormon Fort in a part of Vegas that was...uh...definitely on "the other side of the tracks". BUT it was still cool!

And YES, I did wear capri pants with tennis shoes, which looks fine on people with long legs, but not on my short legs. It was super dusty and dirty, so flip-flops were absolutely not an option. Don't judge me! : )
We also got to visit the Las Vegas Temple and do some work there.

It was awesome, of course! And all of these things made for a fabulous trip!

Off The Beaten Path

I had the opportunity to go with my parents to visit a section of Arizona that is, lets just say, less populated than others. We stayed in Holbrook and visited a few cool things around there.

I got to explore a little bit on the Navajo Reservation, which was cool and absolutely beautiful since it was mostly just undisturbed nature. We also got to do some work in the Snowflake, AZ Temple. It was such a pretty temple too! The pictures we took were'nt spectacular because it was SO windy there, BUT they have their charm : )

On the way home we visited the famous meteor crater. It is the world's most well-preserved meteor crater, as well as the first crater to be proved as an impact crater, rather than one made from a volcano. You know how sometimes, you'll go somewhere and you end up with a crappy tour guide that only knows the 10 facts he learned from reading a script? Well, we were way excited because our guide was not like that at all! He made that huge hole in the ground sound like Disneyland. Seriously, though, I really do love stuff like this and our tour guide made it even more awesome!

We also stopped in Lake Havasu and got to see the real London Bridge! It's crazy to see such an awesome, old, and dignified piece of architecture in a place like Havasu, which is, well...kinda ghetto. Ya know, the place where people go to get drunk and run around like crazies! : )

Anyhow, we enjoyed our little trip, which was pretty much spontaneous and got to see some cool things along the way.

Fresno!

This weekend, we were honored to go up to Fresno to attend my cousin's (2nd cousin or something, really) wedding reception. They were sealed in the Fresno Temple on Thursday and then had their reception on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day and it was so great to see them and honor them on such a wonderful accomplishment. Here's the beautiful bride in her dress:

They had a simple ring ceremony and then changed into Indian clothing. They actually met in India, when they were there working with school children...I think. Anyways, they met in India, so their reception was Indian themed. Very cool! Here they are with the groom's parents. (The father of the groom is my Dad's cousin, so that's how we're related)

Scott and Michelle really are just the nicest people!

Before the reception, we had the opportunity to attend a session in the Fresno Temple, which is always wonderful!

After the reception, we got to visit with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Richard a little more and they told us about Old Town Clovis, which is a cute little district of streets with lots of antique shops, some used book stores,a baseball card shop, and several other little shops.

My parents and I thought it sounded like fun and decided to go. I had never been "antiquing" before, so it was a whole new thing for me and it was SO much fun! I saw things that I remembered from my childhood that have been long gone and things that brought back such great memories of my grandparents. My parents experienced similar feelings. It was wonderful to have a leisurely afternoon! I found a few treasures in a used book store and then got my very first baseball card in the baseball card shop! It's this one:

Way cool!

I'm so grateful to have been able to spend such quality time with my parents and see other family members who mean a lot to me. It was a fabulous weekend!

Stuff of Fairytales...Royal Wedding!

As everyone knows, Prince William and Kate Middleton got married. How is this relevant to my life? It isn't! That's why it's so spectacular! Whether the marriage lasts or not (I hope it does...everyone deserves a shot at happiness), the wedding was bound to be spectacular, so I decided to enjoy the fairytale. My sister, Nancy, has vivid childhood memories of my mom waking her up in the middle of the night to see Princess Diana marry Prince Charles...a real princess' wedding! So, she and I decided to stay up all night and watch William and Kate tie the knot. It was awesome! When watching the Royal Wedding, tiaras are a MUST!

Then, of course we had to have some English Trifle, lemon cake, and sparkling apple cider!

We had fun watching all of the crazy hats, the princes in their fancy uniforms, and of course, the bride! Her dress had miraculously been kept a complete secret, nobody even knew who her designer was until she was walking down the aisle. Bravo Kate! We couldn't wait to see what she was going to wear and we were not disappointed!

All I can say is WOW!
Now, for a not so wow moment:

Check out that hat! haha! I suppose it's a British thing and I'll probably never really understand. *shrugs*

Anyways, it was such a fun night/morning and I love getting to spend time with my sis!

The Opposite of Wester

This Easter was pretty cool. We missed Diane, and Daniel and Tyisa, but those of us that got together had a great time! I went to my parents' ward and it was so nice to be there with them and go to Relief Society with my mamma again. When we got home, David, Melissa, and the boys were already there and Nancy was on her way. Jacob joined us a little later with Josh and Dylan.

We started out by adoring Baby Jonathan's adorable outfit on his very first Easter. Here he is loving his beautiful grandma.

This was immediately followed by the start of the inevitable gun fight, which continued sporadically throughout the night.

Then came the Easter egg hunt. Each little guy found some eggs, which were stuffed with the most delicious gummy bear fruit snacks ever.

We enjoyed dinner together and watched some Phineas and Ferb, which was...interesting. Next, we grown-ups played Moods. It's a truly amazing game if you've never played!

And of course the little guys dyed eggs. This year we had a Star Wars egg dye pack that came with a 3D poster thingy, so of course, Cy had to test out the glasses!

Bahahaha! Don't even act like that's not amazing! lol I sure do love those little guys! It truly was another great day together!

General Conference, Family, and Magic!

This past weekend, I drove up to Utah with my parents. We went up to see Conference and ended up doing so much more and having a really great time!

We left Thursday right after work and drove to Cedar City where we stayed at a little place called Knights Inn. I think that it really was an inn for knights because it had those little sparkly things on the ceiling (which I happen to love...not even being sarcastic) and I don't think a real knight would settle for less than that, right? Anyhow, the bed was super comfy and it was a good night.

We woke up early the next morning and got on our way. We stopped in Filmore to get gas and decided to make a quick stop at Utah's old territorial state house where we were able to take a short tour and take a little break from being in the car.

Our next stop was BYU in Provo, where we were meeting Daniel and Tyisa to go see the Carl Bloch exhibit. It was AMAZING! Such beautiful pictures and an awesome presentation. We rented iPads that were loaded with extra info about the paintings. Here are just a couple of the beautiful paintings we saw:

In person, these paintings were extra beautiful and it was great to be able to see them with Daniel and Tyisa.

Next, we drove up to Salt Lake City where we met Diane at Cafe Rio. We had dinner together and while we were there we found out that Daniel and Tyisa were going to join us later that evening and join in our sleepover, rather than just coming up the next morning. Diane, Daniel, Tyisa, and I ended up staying up past 3 am just talking and having a good time! It was such a great evening...even with the extreme sleep deprivation! : )

Saturday morning we had a yummy homemade breakfast and then watched Conference on TV. We hung out all day and then Daniel and Dad had tickets to go to the Priesthood Session that evening. Here's some of our craziness:

My mom, Diane, Tyisa, and I went to do some shopping at Wal Mart while the guys were gone. It was not my favorite way to spend the evening, but it worked out. After Dad and Daniel got back, we made milkshakes, talked, and watched Tangled. Later, when Daniel and Tyisa were getting ready to drive back to their place in Springville, it started to snow! It snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more. In the morning, we woke up to this:

So, naturally, we had to take a million pictures! : )

Then, we got to attend the Sunday morning session of Conference in the Conference Center, which is always cool:

I have always wanted to see Temple Square in the snow and I finally got my chance!

After that, we hopped in the car and drove home so we could be back in time for work the next morning. It was such a fun weekend and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be with my family members that I don't often get to see. My family means absolutely everything to me and this was just another reminder of why.