Road Trip July 28-30th

Yes, she DID send a 100 lb bag of Good-n-Plenty

We didn't get away from mom and dad's until later Saturday afternoon so we decided to just drive a few hours and stop when we were tired.  Mom and dad had graciously offered to keep Floyd until Nic was ready to move into his new place so we didn't have to choose our hotels based on who was willing to let us keep a dog.  We did a quick sleepover in Rock Springs, WY then took off to see South Dakota.  We had already done the "across the middle of the US" drive before so opted to head North a bit and see some places we hadn't been before.  Wyoming isn't considered beautiful country but I thought it was all nice in it's own way.

The terrain gradually changed into a pretty forest area and as you come through some winding roads up to the memorial, it's really pretty amazing!

So when I was in grade school we did those silhouettes where we stood  against the wall while our teacher outlined our profiles on black paper and then we cut them out to mount on lighter paper.  I remember bringing mine home and my mom taking it from the pile of homework and asking if it was George Washington.  Now I see why.

As we drove further through the towns there were motorcycles everywhere!  Apparently this area is very popular all the time with bikers though it also is on the trail for the Sturgis Rally which was a week or so away.  We spoke with a couple  traveling South and they saw our license plate and asked about the traffic around Denver.  The woman rider was very nervous about being around a lot of cars and they'd heard bad things about Denver rush hours.  We told them it wasn't probably wasn't any worse than any other big city during rush hour but they might want to time their arrival to avoid as much as possible. Hope they made it safely!

There were patches in the forest that looked either very dry or sick.  Looked like a fire waiting to happen.

We stopped and watch a group of teens who were jumping off the rocks.  Looked pretty fun!

We continued our drive into Rapid City, SD and had to check a couple of hotels for vacancies before settling in for the night.  We ended up at this Holiday Inn that was really nice and close enough to town that we could go walking.  I didn't have my camera but they had bronze statues of each of the presidents on the street corners.

We also got in early enough each night that we could hunker down and watch the recap of the days happenings at the London Olympics!

We made sure we stayed at places that offered free breakfasts which we thoroughly enjoyed before taking a piece of fruit and hitting the open road.  The next morning as we drove out of town, the Wall Drug Store signs started and for 50 miles along hwy 90, every few miles there would be another one.  Well, we couldn't just ignore them so we pulled off and Wall Drug Store turned out to be a street lined mish mash of shops, eateries and all kinds of things.  No real rhyme or reason to the place but they did offer a 10 cent cup of coffee in traditional white mugs we saw everyone carrying around the place and free fresh doughnuts to veterans which we felt compelled to take advantage of even though we'd recently eaten breakfast!

Fresh donuts made all day

In the mall area there's a mini chapel for travelers to slip into for a moment of quiet.  I thought that was a great idea.

Yes, I believe it IS a Jackalope

Yes, these ARE the touristy things you would normally have your kids climb on for pictures but since we were sans kids and since we are kind of dorks, we had no qualms about jumping in for some goofy pix.

The little kids loved this dinosaur who would come to mechanical life and raise up over that fence with an open mouth.

This reminded me of an old photo of my dad with his friend Stewart on a bench similar to this.  I think it was the same girl......maybe they were just sisters!

Moving On

 Our last few days in Utah were spent squeezing as much family and fun time in as we could.  We went to see WICKED at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake which was awesome.  We had never seen it though I know the entire score by heart and Jess really wanted to go so we made it family thing.

 Tom was going to try and detox from all the Good-n-Plenty mom kept putting out but every time he'd finish a bowl, more would appear.

Through a minor miracle and a landlord who I know was put here by God, we finally found an apartment for Nicholas.  At the last minute however, the dog became an issue but hoping we found our way around that as well.  We spent several days with great help from mom & dad getting his room set up.

We spruced up Grandma Lola's old dresser with some spray paint and new hardware!

 I spent one morning with Sara and Robyn.  They helped me do some last minute things in Nic's place then we drove down Main Street in Bountiful (where I grew up) to The Book Garden.  It's a used book store where I have a lot of credit because I donated boxes of books when we moved.  Sara is a big time reader and we're trying to convince Robyn that she should be so they got to go pick out an armload of books each for nothing!  Even Robyn seemed excited about it so hopefully she'll enjoy the things she chose.

 After lunch with the girls I dropped them off and went to meet my good friend Jayne in Farmington.  She had brought her dog Amanda and we decided to go for a walk on Lagoon Trail.  This trail runs through our neighborhood in Farmington and we miss it a lot so this was a great way to spend the afternoon.  We had a good long visit and a great workout as well.

Jessica came up for weekends to have sleepovers and we spent Saturday morning at the 25th Street Farmer's Market in downtown Ogden.  We shared a banana & Nutella crepe while looking at all the produce, crafts and goodies and also ran into some old friends.We've also been trying to convince mom and dad that they should try sushi.  Neither seemed very excited about it so on one of our last nights in town we took them to Tona which is a great place also on 25th Street in Ogden.  I chose 3 safe options for us to share with fish I knew they'd like then we also had some yummy tempura shrimp & veggies.  They actually seemed to like it!

 Finally, our last day we made a quick stop in Centerville where Taylor was having Chinese food with friends to say our good-byes.  He'll be coming to join us soon so we're looking forward to that!

Home Away from Home

 After moving our "to be moved" stuff into the graciously donated shed we discovered that clearly 1/3 of what was left belonged to Jessica so we invited her over for a purging.  We had a good time going through things, donating a lot and taking some others to her apartment in Salt Lake to make it more homey for her.

Once we had loaded Taylor's things into the "to go" shed we were finally ready for the movers.  They came first to the storage shed, and then to mom and dad's where all of the things we'd had in AL had been delivered.  We were lucky that in all our moves we got great guys who seemed to do a good job of loading, had terrific attitudes and were fun to have around.  We took a break mid-move and treated them to Jimmy John's sandwiches ("anything but pizza" they pleaded) then they were on their way.

 Once we had that major part of the move off of our plate we started checking off other things.....plenty of errands that Floyd sometimes got to tag along with, more apartment hunting for Nicholas,

Yearly exams and dental check ups for all

Helping dad fix a toilet

Trying out a new homemade ice cream recipe.  Burnt almond fudge....mmmmm so yummy!  We were invited over to Jeff's (he lives about 7 minutes from mom & dad) for dinner so Tom brought the homemade ice cream.  Shay had made it for the last family party so she took it as gauntlet thrown for WHO can make the most awesome ice cream.  We decided it's a toss up!

The grill master

Jen and Ryan

Jace & Kristen

BB Nixon & great grandma

Other awesome ice cream maker

 My marinade.  Well, not really....it's teriyaki but Jeff has loved the stuff since he served his mission in Hawaii.  When Tom and I were there a couple of years ago we drove all over the island trying to find just the perfect sauce to bring back to him!

Taylor kicking back inside

They guys enjoying the hilarity of crazy Utah drivers in the snow (who should know better) on Jeff's iPad

        Have had a hurting hip since before we left AL so running was a no go but mom and I took an hour walk most mornings.  And quiet evenings were spent relaxing on the patio looking out over their beautiful backyard.