The Road Trip Extravaganza: Part 1 ~

It happened! Ben and Kim are now officially sealed! It's hard to describe what a fun weekend this was, and for so many different reasons.

It feels like we packed about a million things into four days, and all of them were great, so I decided to break it down a little bit and give each event its own post.

The Beginning - -

Dad was in Vegas for a work conference last week, so the rest of us packed up and drove to Utah on Thursday. I haven't been to Utah since our Christmas trip, so I was excited to be heading back in that direction for a visit again. We got to stay with our good friends, the Kays, in Riverton while we were there and we just went straight to their house. It was probably around 5:00 by the time we got there and once we got in and un-packed a bit, all of us headed over to IKEA. I think it was the first time that all of us, except Machelle, have been there. We've heard about what a cool place it is so we were really curious to check it out.

Of course, David wasn't extremely interested (it is a furniture store in all fairness), but he did try to start a couple pillow fights with me. It was fun to be there with the Kays' kids to chase him around and keep him from getting too out of hand. :)

 At the end of the route - yes, there is a route (maps included if need be) we stopped at the restaurant and ate some tasty food for dinner.

 After that we went over and checked out the brand new medical school where Logan is taking his dental courses. It was a super spiffy building - most impressive. Then we went over to check out the new place they'll be moving into in just a couple weeks, which is a bit closer to the school. For the rest of the night we went back to their house and once the kids were in bed (Malia and David included :) the rest of us stayed up and played games and ate treats. Dad was flying in from Vegas to Salt Lake, but his plane didn't get there until a little after midnight, so Mom and I left the game early to go to the airport to pick Dad up.
   Earlier, while we were in the car on the way to the school, Garrett was riding with us and he asked me, "Where's that one guy who looks like him?" And then he pointed to David. Haha! I explained that Dad would be there in a little while.
  Well, the next morning Dad was in the bathroom when Garrett woke up and came downstairs. As he got down, Garrett looked around for a minute then looked at me and said, "You tricked me." Then he wandered away, and I realized he was thinking that Dad hadn't really come. But once Dad came out, I said, "Look, Garrett." And when he saw Dad he was like, "What the?!" :)

  One of the things that cracked us up the whole time was Emmy and her opinion of David. She's the only one of the three kids that we haven't gotten to spend very much time with as they've grown up, so we were all trying to make up for lost time with her and get her used to us. She's a year old now, so she's old enough to be a little leery, but it didn't take too long before she let me hold her and carry her around. In fact, she seemed to be fine with all of us girls in just a short time, and we had her smiling and all that.
  But as happy as she was for us, the second she looked at David she got the most impressive scowl that I've ever seen! And the longer she looked, the deeper it got. It was amazing. And even though we saw her three days in a row, it always came back when David paid attention to her. There were about 3 or 4 times when, by some miracle, he got her to smile at him - otherwise, this was the stink eye he got from her!
(In fact, that's not even the best shot, it was way more intense than that).

  She let me hold her and play with her, but even then, she kept an eye on David where ever he was.

 While we toured their new house, me and the boys (plus one of their cousins) all had a few rounds of Duck Duck Goose, and crazy games like that.

 We were gone for most of the day on Friday, which was the wedding day, but when we got back to their house on Friday night we had lots of fun sitting up and talking. Dad and Logan even got a craving for pizza and had one delivered to them at 11:30 at night. They made quick work of it between the two of them! :) The next morning we got up and all of us went to Denny's for breakfast, then went back over to the school so Dad could check it out.
  We had so much fun visiting these guys! We used to get together all the time when they lived in Boise, just down the street, but it's fun that no matter where we all live we still get to catch up once in a while.

Stay tuned for the wedding.....