This year for Thanksgiving, we went over the river and through the woods to the Garling House. It was lots of fun! On Wednesday, we had Pie Night, so we eat pie the night before Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it. Then, on Thursday, we cooked up a storm in the kitchen and made a huge dinner. Everything tasted excellent, and it is nice getting the family together. Today, Ted and his brother Josh, went up to Targhee to go snowboarding, and it sounds like they had a great time! They wanted to be the first ones on the mountain, so Ted left at six this morning. Crazy!!! I slept in until nine...
Anyway, we had an excellent Thanksgiving. I couldn't choose one favorite part of the last couple days, but it sure was fun watching my sister-in-law, Melissa, go through every single add in the paper and make a list of things she would buy on Black Friday (today). She's a brave woman! Never before have I shopped on Black Friday, and I don't intend to...ever. But, I hope all of you who braved the storm of people and did go shopping had a good day, and found lots of deals! Hope everyone had a Happy Turkey Day, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Some things I am thankful for...
Heavenly Father, Jesus, Religion, Freedom, Loving Husband, Family, Friends, Plan of Salvation, Restored Gospel, Inspiration, Hope, Love, Understanding, Forgiveness, Knowledge, Education, Food, Shelter, Warmth, Kindness, Happiness, Service, Technology, Books, Computers, Animals, Water, Tractors, Vehicles, Music, Dancing, Laughter, Optimism, Faith, Cheerfulness, Life, Constitution, Temples, Mountains, Trees, Fresh Air, Flowers, Neighbors, and Holidays...to name a few...
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
We're HOME!!!
As some of you know, we have been on a two week road trip the last couple weeks, and have finally made it home.
We left on October 30th to go to Coeur D Alene to watch the State High School Cross Country Meet on the 31st. Jon, Ted's little bro ran and took 10th place!!! It was amazing! At the beginning of the race, he got caught in a huge group in the middle. By the first lap, he had gained ground and was running in 25th. By the second lap, he pushed himself into the front contenders and held 10th. He held his position and came in 10th on the last lap! Way to go Jon!!! The weather was freezing, and by the time we got to the car after the race, I think I was frozen to the bone.
After the meet, Ted, me, and Ted's dad went to a restaurant called The Cedar's. It is a restaurant that literally floats on the river. They had amazing food, so it turned out to be an excellent night as well.
We traveled to Seattle and Tacoma Washington on November 1st. We were lucky enough to get reservations at the Sky City Restaurant and eat in the Space Needle. If you don't already know, the restaurant rotates, so you get a 360 degree view of Seattle as you eat. The food tasted great, and our waitress kept us entertained with facts about the city. We found the Seattle Temple, which is actually located in Bellevue, and got some great pics! Another great day! Washington State is absolutely beautiful...driving across the state was a lot of fun!
After Washington, we headed towards Oregon. We took a detour off I-5, and visited Astoria, OR on the coast. It is a cute little town, and there is an amazing Coast Guard Museum there. It took a couple hours to walk through the museum, but well worth the time. We went out to Seaside after the museum, and traveled down HWY 101 for a while. The coast has the most adorable little towns.
Traveling towards Portland, we decided to continue past Portland and land in Salem for the night. It was a nice city, and we ate in because we were exhausted from the long drive. The next morning, we turned the nose of the car south again, and made a few stops along the way. First, we stopped in Brownsville, OR. It is one of my favorite little towns in the whole United States. We walked through the museum and got a T-shirt to add to our collection. (We buy T-shirts wherever we go, then cut them up and put them in a pile. We are going to be making a quilt out of them soon. It is going to be our "travel quilt").
After Brownsville, we stopped at Mt. St. Helen's Visitor's Center. It was great! I learned so much about the mountain! I remember when I was in elementary school, they used to show us the video of when the St. Helen's erupted, and it scared me to death. I used to have nightmares about it. So, when we went to the visitor's center, it brought back lots of memories.
We continued down the I-5 until about Grantsville, then we turned west towards the coast. We wanted to see the Redwood Trees. So, as we drove, we found out that there was a familiar place on the road signs. Crescent City is a town about 15 miles south of where I wrote about the town of Smith River in my first book. As you can guess, our trip took a detour to the north for a couple miles, getting us to Smith River, California. Let me tell you...this place was amazing!!! We rented a cabin on the edge of the ocean and stayed for a night. It is a perfect place, because there isn't a lot of commercial places, yet the ocean is beautiful and it is gorgeous! One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We are definitely going back to Smith River. It is a place I could visit every year. Absolutely breathtaking!
With the cabin, they had a hot tub on the deck, so we sat in the hot water, and watched the sun set into the ocean. It was a perfect night, and we even got to eat a a cute little diner next door, which had some of the best food we had on the trip. The restaurant was named, Nautical Inn, and it had a great view of the ocean as well.
The next day, November 4th, we headed south again, getting to see some of the biggest trees on the planet! The Redwoods are huge! If you haven't seen them before, you need to! We stopped by the Chandlier Tree and drove our car through the tree. That was lots of fun! We got great pictures of it too! After that, we continued south, going through the Vineyard Country of Northern California. It is very beautiful. All the way from Washington to Northern California, we were speechless at how pristine our surroundings were. The people who live there are very lucky to have the sights they have.
We spent the night a a quaint Bed and Breakfast just outside of Santa Rosa that night. It is called The Gable's. The house is Victorian, and very nicely restored. The owners served us breakfast, which was amazing, and we were off on another drive.
We made it to Santa Clarita that night, spending a couple nights with my friend from BYU-Nauvoo, Anna Carr. She was so sweet, letting us spend a couple nights with her family, and keeping us very entertained. We loved her cute pets, Cocoa and Scratchy. She cooked us dinner, let us use her washer and dryer to wash clothes, and even let me do homework on her computer for a couple hours. We went to the LA Zoo together, went out to eat at an amazing Mexican Restaurant, and then took us to a football game. Her husband, Mike, is a coach of a high school team, and it was a great game! The whole game was a nail biter, and it has been a long time since I have gotten that into a football game. Very fun! And, Anna and Mike's team won, so it was great! Anna's little boy, Jeremy is adorable. He is extremely well-behaved, and easily entertained. When we were at the house, he would open the cupboards and pull out pots and pans. Sooo cute!!!
After LA, we headed towards Arizona!!! Yeah! I was so excited to be on my way to visit my dearest friend Sarah. We have been friends since we were in elementary school, and since I moved to Idaho, it has made it hard to keep in touch, so I was excited to see her and her cute husband. They live in a a place called Surprise, Arizona. It is outside of Phoenix, and quite new. It was founded in 1960, and is now a booming town. It reminds me of Ammon, Idaho, for those of you who are from Idaho, except ten times the size, and a lot warmer. We made it to their house, and were greeted by Sarah, Brenton, and two cute pups, Bosley and Lucy. Then, they took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and to Scottsdale! It was a blast! We looked at these huge mansion homes, which were incredible, and then we went to a mall. It was ginormous, and they had tons of amazing shops, including True Religion, Gucci, Barney's, Lucky, Guess, and Louis Vutton, to name a few. Walking around the mall was hilarious...we all had to go the bathroom, and we couldn't find them. Finally, Ted stopped and asked some girls where they were, and we found them. We went into a Christmas Store there, and everything cost about ten times what is should have. I don't know how that mall stays open, except for the fact that tons of rich people live there, so they can afford expensive things. We pulled up next to a Ferrari at a stop light, and cheered the guy who was driving it to light it up...or something like that. He laughed with his wife, who was in the passenger's seat, then took off when the light turned green! It was amazing! Definitely a highlight to the trip! The car sounded amazing, like a roaring lion, and it was sooo fast! It left us in the dust. Then, there was the smell of exhaust...mmm...there must be something the car companies put in their engines that make expensive cars not only sound good, but smell good too! Wish I could afford a car like that. I would drive it around all day...LOL! I wish.
The next day, Sarah took us to church before we headed towards Phoenix again. I wanted to go to ASU so I could get some research on the campus for my book. ASU is great! Mill Ave is going to fit into my story line wonderfully, and we even found some brand new places to live for my characters. It was exactly like what I had imagined, right there in front of me, and I couldn't believe it! Hope my book turns out as good as it really is down there. After Phoenix, we went back to the house, and I got to talk to Sarah! Yeah! It was so nice getting to talk to my best friend face to face for hours. I can't remember the last time we got time to ourselves to just talk. It was nice! Then, Brenton and Sarah cooked us an amazing dinner, BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, salad, and rolls. It was delicious! I haven't had grilled BBQ chicken that tasted so good before. My hat goes off to Brenton who was the master chef of the grill that night. It was a great couple days, getting to spend them with Brenton and Sarah. Love you guys! Thanks for having us!
After we left Sarah and Brenton's, we started north, something I was both excited about and sad about. Sad because we were leaving my friends and the warm weather, but glad to be heading home. The Hoover Dam is quite the sight. They are building a new bridge that is going across the top of the mountains instead of weaving down into the lower part of the canyon where the dam is, and it is incredible. It is unfathomable at how it is supported and standing there without being finished. It is going to be a work of art once it is finished. We stopped in Henderson NV, spending the night with Adam, Ted's little brother who is going to school there. Henderson is just outside of Las Vegas, so it was nice being in the city, but also outside of it. It was a great night! We went out to dinner with Adam, then got back to his apartment and kicked it for the rest of the night. He was so generous, he gave us his bed to sleep in while he slept on the sofa, then he got up early and made us breakfast before he went to school. He is such a nice kid! Sure love him!
After Nevada, we stopped in St. George to do some outlet shopping before we went through Zion National Park and stayed the night in Tropic, Utah at a hidden Bed and Breakfast called Stone Canyon Inn. It was really beautiful! I love Zion's! We drove through the cutest little town just outside of the park. I think it is named, Springdale, but can't remember. We decided when we retire, we are moving down there.
After spending the night just outside of Bryce Canyon, we drove through the park the next morning before heading north again. Bryce was amazing! Can't believe how much detail and beauty there is in the world.
We stopped in Midway, Utah, spending the night at Johnson's Mill, another Bed and Breakfast. It was great! Since it was our anniversary, we got there early, then went outside and canoed around the lake, seeing a beaver, ducks, and two swans. Then, we went on a walk, finding a buck, doe, and two baby fawns near the Provo River. It was great seeing all the wildlife right in the backyard. We got extremely close to the deer, and they didn't run away, so I got some good pictures of them. Then, we went to eat at the Blue Boar Inn. They had incredible food! It is on my top three list of best places to eat, along with Chico Hot Springs, and the Nautical Inn.
Our room at Johnson's Mill was beautiful!!! The bathroom was as big as our living room at our house, and the bedroom was the size of half our house. We stayed in the Waterfall Terrace Room, and it is the whole top floor of the Inn. It was amazing! The whole mill is newly remodeled and has some of the best views in the whole city of Midway/Heber City.
Then next day, we woke up early, getting ready to go to a wedding for my niece, but I got sick...deathly sick. So, we decided to skip the wedding and head home. I am sooo glad we did, because we got home around 4 in the afternoon, and if we would've waited and gone to the wedding, we wouldn't have gotten home until midnight. My mom, brother, and Morgan went to the wedding and represented the family, which was a relief. I am just so glad we came home. Today, I am feeling a little better, but I don't know what hit me. I was just glad we were on the last leg of our journey so that I could get home and rest.
Overall, the trip was the best trip I have ever been on. It was nice getting to spend all day every day with Ted, and we bonded a lot. I was really nervous about the California traffic, but we did well, and didn't die. The weather was perfect the whole trip, and everyone commented on how lucky we were to have warm weather. It was a good 10 degrees above the normal temperature everywhere we went. We feel like that was a huge blessing. Thank you to everyone who let us visit and stay with you! We love you all, and are so glad we have friends and family like you! The best part of the trip was seeing friends and family. Even though the landscapes were great, and the cities incredible, there is nothing that compares to friends and family.
P.S. I would post pictures, but my computer is not letting me. I don't know what is going on, but I am going to give it a break because it has traveled the 4000 miles with us these last 2 weeks. So, hopefully it will start working again soon, and I will post pictures. If you want to see pictures though, just go to my facebook page. I posted the pictures of the trip as we went...so, they are all on there. Enjoy!!! :)
We left on October 30th to go to Coeur D Alene to watch the State High School Cross Country Meet on the 31st. Jon, Ted's little bro ran and took 10th place!!! It was amazing! At the beginning of the race, he got caught in a huge group in the middle. By the first lap, he had gained ground and was running in 25th. By the second lap, he pushed himself into the front contenders and held 10th. He held his position and came in 10th on the last lap! Way to go Jon!!! The weather was freezing, and by the time we got to the car after the race, I think I was frozen to the bone.
After the meet, Ted, me, and Ted's dad went to a restaurant called The Cedar's. It is a restaurant that literally floats on the river. They had amazing food, so it turned out to be an excellent night as well.
We traveled to Seattle and Tacoma Washington on November 1st. We were lucky enough to get reservations at the Sky City Restaurant and eat in the Space Needle. If you don't already know, the restaurant rotates, so you get a 360 degree view of Seattle as you eat. The food tasted great, and our waitress kept us entertained with facts about the city. We found the Seattle Temple, which is actually located in Bellevue, and got some great pics! Another great day! Washington State is absolutely beautiful...driving across the state was a lot of fun!
After Washington, we headed towards Oregon. We took a detour off I-5, and visited Astoria, OR on the coast. It is a cute little town, and there is an amazing Coast Guard Museum there. It took a couple hours to walk through the museum, but well worth the time. We went out to Seaside after the museum, and traveled down HWY 101 for a while. The coast has the most adorable little towns.
Traveling towards Portland, we decided to continue past Portland and land in Salem for the night. It was a nice city, and we ate in because we were exhausted from the long drive. The next morning, we turned the nose of the car south again, and made a few stops along the way. First, we stopped in Brownsville, OR. It is one of my favorite little towns in the whole United States. We walked through the museum and got a T-shirt to add to our collection. (We buy T-shirts wherever we go, then cut them up and put them in a pile. We are going to be making a quilt out of them soon. It is going to be our "travel quilt").
After Brownsville, we stopped at Mt. St. Helen's Visitor's Center. It was great! I learned so much about the mountain! I remember when I was in elementary school, they used to show us the video of when the St. Helen's erupted, and it scared me to death. I used to have nightmares about it. So, when we went to the visitor's center, it brought back lots of memories.
We continued down the I-5 until about Grantsville, then we turned west towards the coast. We wanted to see the Redwood Trees. So, as we drove, we found out that there was a familiar place on the road signs. Crescent City is a town about 15 miles south of where I wrote about the town of Smith River in my first book. As you can guess, our trip took a detour to the north for a couple miles, getting us to Smith River, California. Let me tell you...this place was amazing!!! We rented a cabin on the edge of the ocean and stayed for a night. It is a perfect place, because there isn't a lot of commercial places, yet the ocean is beautiful and it is gorgeous! One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We are definitely going back to Smith River. It is a place I could visit every year. Absolutely breathtaking!
With the cabin, they had a hot tub on the deck, so we sat in the hot water, and watched the sun set into the ocean. It was a perfect night, and we even got to eat a a cute little diner next door, which had some of the best food we had on the trip. The restaurant was named, Nautical Inn, and it had a great view of the ocean as well.
The next day, November 4th, we headed south again, getting to see some of the biggest trees on the planet! The Redwoods are huge! If you haven't seen them before, you need to! We stopped by the Chandlier Tree and drove our car through the tree. That was lots of fun! We got great pictures of it too! After that, we continued south, going through the Vineyard Country of Northern California. It is very beautiful. All the way from Washington to Northern California, we were speechless at how pristine our surroundings were. The people who live there are very lucky to have the sights they have.
We spent the night a a quaint Bed and Breakfast just outside of Santa Rosa that night. It is called The Gable's. The house is Victorian, and very nicely restored. The owners served us breakfast, which was amazing, and we were off on another drive.
We made it to Santa Clarita that night, spending a couple nights with my friend from BYU-Nauvoo, Anna Carr. She was so sweet, letting us spend a couple nights with her family, and keeping us very entertained. We loved her cute pets, Cocoa and Scratchy. She cooked us dinner, let us use her washer and dryer to wash clothes, and even let me do homework on her computer for a couple hours. We went to the LA Zoo together, went out to eat at an amazing Mexican Restaurant, and then took us to a football game. Her husband, Mike, is a coach of a high school team, and it was a great game! The whole game was a nail biter, and it has been a long time since I have gotten that into a football game. Very fun! And, Anna and Mike's team won, so it was great! Anna's little boy, Jeremy is adorable. He is extremely well-behaved, and easily entertained. When we were at the house, he would open the cupboards and pull out pots and pans. Sooo cute!!!
After LA, we headed towards Arizona!!! Yeah! I was so excited to be on my way to visit my dearest friend Sarah. We have been friends since we were in elementary school, and since I moved to Idaho, it has made it hard to keep in touch, so I was excited to see her and her cute husband. They live in a a place called Surprise, Arizona. It is outside of Phoenix, and quite new. It was founded in 1960, and is now a booming town. It reminds me of Ammon, Idaho, for those of you who are from Idaho, except ten times the size, and a lot warmer. We made it to their house, and were greeted by Sarah, Brenton, and two cute pups, Bosley and Lucy. Then, they took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and to Scottsdale! It was a blast! We looked at these huge mansion homes, which were incredible, and then we went to a mall. It was ginormous, and they had tons of amazing shops, including True Religion, Gucci, Barney's, Lucky, Guess, and Louis Vutton, to name a few. Walking around the mall was hilarious...we all had to go the bathroom, and we couldn't find them. Finally, Ted stopped and asked some girls where they were, and we found them. We went into a Christmas Store there, and everything cost about ten times what is should have. I don't know how that mall stays open, except for the fact that tons of rich people live there, so they can afford expensive things. We pulled up next to a Ferrari at a stop light, and cheered the guy who was driving it to light it up...or something like that. He laughed with his wife, who was in the passenger's seat, then took off when the light turned green! It was amazing! Definitely a highlight to the trip! The car sounded amazing, like a roaring lion, and it was sooo fast! It left us in the dust. Then, there was the smell of exhaust...mmm...there must be something the car companies put in their engines that make expensive cars not only sound good, but smell good too! Wish I could afford a car like that. I would drive it around all day...LOL! I wish.
The next day, Sarah took us to church before we headed towards Phoenix again. I wanted to go to ASU so I could get some research on the campus for my book. ASU is great! Mill Ave is going to fit into my story line wonderfully, and we even found some brand new places to live for my characters. It was exactly like what I had imagined, right there in front of me, and I couldn't believe it! Hope my book turns out as good as it really is down there. After Phoenix, we went back to the house, and I got to talk to Sarah! Yeah! It was so nice getting to talk to my best friend face to face for hours. I can't remember the last time we got time to ourselves to just talk. It was nice! Then, Brenton and Sarah cooked us an amazing dinner, BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, salad, and rolls. It was delicious! I haven't had grilled BBQ chicken that tasted so good before. My hat goes off to Brenton who was the master chef of the grill that night. It was a great couple days, getting to spend them with Brenton and Sarah. Love you guys! Thanks for having us!
After we left Sarah and Brenton's, we started north, something I was both excited about and sad about. Sad because we were leaving my friends and the warm weather, but glad to be heading home. The Hoover Dam is quite the sight. They are building a new bridge that is going across the top of the mountains instead of weaving down into the lower part of the canyon where the dam is, and it is incredible. It is unfathomable at how it is supported and standing there without being finished. It is going to be a work of art once it is finished. We stopped in Henderson NV, spending the night with Adam, Ted's little brother who is going to school there. Henderson is just outside of Las Vegas, so it was nice being in the city, but also outside of it. It was a great night! We went out to dinner with Adam, then got back to his apartment and kicked it for the rest of the night. He was so generous, he gave us his bed to sleep in while he slept on the sofa, then he got up early and made us breakfast before he went to school. He is such a nice kid! Sure love him!
After Nevada, we stopped in St. George to do some outlet shopping before we went through Zion National Park and stayed the night in Tropic, Utah at a hidden Bed and Breakfast called Stone Canyon Inn. It was really beautiful! I love Zion's! We drove through the cutest little town just outside of the park. I think it is named, Springdale, but can't remember. We decided when we retire, we are moving down there.
After spending the night just outside of Bryce Canyon, we drove through the park the next morning before heading north again. Bryce was amazing! Can't believe how much detail and beauty there is in the world.
We stopped in Midway, Utah, spending the night at Johnson's Mill, another Bed and Breakfast. It was great! Since it was our anniversary, we got there early, then went outside and canoed around the lake, seeing a beaver, ducks, and two swans. Then, we went on a walk, finding a buck, doe, and two baby fawns near the Provo River. It was great seeing all the wildlife right in the backyard. We got extremely close to the deer, and they didn't run away, so I got some good pictures of them. Then, we went to eat at the Blue Boar Inn. They had incredible food! It is on my top three list of best places to eat, along with Chico Hot Springs, and the Nautical Inn.
Our room at Johnson's Mill was beautiful!!! The bathroom was as big as our living room at our house, and the bedroom was the size of half our house. We stayed in the Waterfall Terrace Room, and it is the whole top floor of the Inn. It was amazing! The whole mill is newly remodeled and has some of the best views in the whole city of Midway/Heber City.
Then next day, we woke up early, getting ready to go to a wedding for my niece, but I got sick...deathly sick. So, we decided to skip the wedding and head home. I am sooo glad we did, because we got home around 4 in the afternoon, and if we would've waited and gone to the wedding, we wouldn't have gotten home until midnight. My mom, brother, and Morgan went to the wedding and represented the family, which was a relief. I am just so glad we came home. Today, I am feeling a little better, but I don't know what hit me. I was just glad we were on the last leg of our journey so that I could get home and rest.
Overall, the trip was the best trip I have ever been on. It was nice getting to spend all day every day with Ted, and we bonded a lot. I was really nervous about the California traffic, but we did well, and didn't die. The weather was perfect the whole trip, and everyone commented on how lucky we were to have warm weather. It was a good 10 degrees above the normal temperature everywhere we went. We feel like that was a huge blessing. Thank you to everyone who let us visit and stay with you! We love you all, and are so glad we have friends and family like you! The best part of the trip was seeing friends and family. Even though the landscapes were great, and the cities incredible, there is nothing that compares to friends and family.
P.S. I would post pictures, but my computer is not letting me. I don't know what is going on, but I am going to give it a break because it has traveled the 4000 miles with us these last 2 weeks. So, hopefully it will start working again soon, and I will post pictures. If you want to see pictures though, just go to my facebook page. I posted the pictures of the trip as we went...so, they are all on there. Enjoy!!! :)
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