Last Hoorah!! (For Reals This Time!)

Ok so I guess I fibbed last time thinking that our BL trip was our last trip before school started again. I thought it was, but my awesome husband took me on a little last minute trip to Boise this weekend, which IS right before school starts, so this WAS the last trip! Haha

So we left Friday afternoon, after going to the gym, for the last time for 4 months, for me :(. And the first thing we did after arriving, after dropping our things at the hotel of course, was go to.... {"pause for effect" -Gru} Cabela's! Big surprise eh?! ;) And after we finally got out of Cabela's we went to the mall and walked around both floors! Which took a good 2 hours... It's huge! And then we finally went to eat! That's always my favorite part, because I am Always hungry!

Out of the many yummy places to eat in Boise, we decided on eating at the Cheesecake Factory since we had never eaten there before. It was good! There menu was a Book! that had everything from Chinese to Italian to Mexican to American food! :) And Tommy's favorite part was the dessert, cheesecake of course! {Not mine! I am not a fan of cheesecake! Especially the really thick kind, like the kind they serve :/ } But Tommy loves it, so I let him get any kind that he wanted! And he picked a chocolate mousse which was so rich that two tiny bites was way more than enough! The whipped cream was great though!!

 

Oh and the best part was the sugar rimmed raspberry lemonade!! It was THE BEST!!

 

And we ended the night with a movie at a 21 theater cinema! Again.. Huge! Then we finally made it back to the hotel with a King sized bed {classic tradition for us}, sadly it was hard, and three tiny worthless pillows.. Believe me, we have stayed in better hotels! I used to work for the same hotel chain in Bear Lake and I just kept saying, man if our hotel looked like this, our manager would have flipped! It was kind of ghetto.. And we didn't even get to go swimming in the pool because we were to pooped! But that's ok, by the way the halls looked, I'm betting the pool would have been scary!  :/

So anyways, the next morning we got up and Didn't miss the delicious continental breakfast {we did that on our first anniversary!} of waffles and weird, yellow sausage.. I'll just say, you get what you pay for haha.. And I always look forward to hot chocolate, and no hotel ever has it! But we started our day of right by going to the Boise temple {one more down!} and there was a total of three other couples, besides us, that were there, but it was a tiny room that only fit ten couples anyways.. it was a cute room :)

Trying to take a picture was really hard because the temple is so big and you can only back up so far before your in the street so this is the best I could do, and then we tried to take a selfie because there was no one to take one of us because there was a wedding. And none of the selfies worked out so great haha so we had someone real quick just take one of us, but you wouldn't be able to tell where we are.. but it's a good picture so I'm good with that!

 

 

After we got out of the temple we went to the Zoo! And a zoo's a zoo and once you've been to one, you've seen them all.. right? but they are still so cool and fun to go to! And neither one of us had been to one in a long time so it was fun! All the exotic animals were awesome, but of course my favorite animals were all the "kitties" or in the family of cats or even just looked like a cat :)

The lions :) Even though they are scary! They are still cute cuz they are kinda kittys, Big kittys! :)

And this guy was just cute! He looked really tired just hanging there on the gate while his wife and baby were playing :)

Our first photo booth thing :) We should have done color though, the black and white pictures didn't turn out very well... but still cute!! {And P.S.- For my family that see me squeeeeze my husband all the time because of how much I Love him!!.. (Especially Tam and Care) the last picture is for you!! That's our squeeeeze face! And my favorite picture too! :) }

I was really bummed that they didn't have any panda bears though :( they had a few red pandas but they are not even close to being the same!

And while at the Zoo we ate a very healthful lunch consisting of Keebler crackers and cheese/peanut butter {I like the peanut butter, Tommy likes the cheese :) }, a soft pretzel with cheese, licorice, and other junk food that I probably forgot about!

The next stop was.... Cabela's!! Again.. So I made Tommy drop me off at the mall while we went to Cabela's.. {I get bored there :/ } I made it one lap around the upper level of the mall and it was time to go! But I did find a cute skirt on sale! {the one in the background of our Zoo photo booth pictures}

So to end the night, on our way out we stopped at Texas Roadhouse {another classic tradition for us} and ate dinner! I, however, got a pulled pork sandwich instead of a steak.. I feel like kind of a betrayer because I didn't get a steak at the place where they serve the best steak! But I just wasn't feeling it ;)

And the very last stop on our way home was.....

Krispy Kreme!! Hot off the press!{Another classic tradition! We have a lot of them haha} We even waited probably like 20 min. watching them be made so we could get hot ones!
I'm pretty sure all the work I did at the gym this summer, getting back into shape again after last semester, was blown this weekend!!

And the last classic tradition we usually do but didn't this time was stopping at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a rocky road apple.. but we were too stuffed and had a lot of other treats in the car, so we decided against that one.. this time :)

So that was our last summer trip in a nutshell! Well, kind of a big nutshell.. And this was our last summer trip {for reals this time} cuz school starts Tomorrow!! Boo!! Yes, I am excited to be done! Just not so much excited to go back :( So the next four months are going to be devoted to school, studying, and getting fat!.. Again.. And I'm sorry for all the babbling in this post, I need to read some more in my maternity book {for school!!! ;) } and this post was just a procrastination.. hence all the talking and talking {typing}, but it's over now, and time to get to work :(

Peace!

 

 

It's Rainin' Cats and Dogs!

Well hello again! This post is nothing spectacular, just mainly for documentation and for my family to see :) And it will really be boring to my Twin Falls friends who most likely have seen all these pictures, so I wouldn't waste your time ;)

Ok so it was about the 6th of August, give or take a few days, and it had been raining for like two to three days straight! Seriously, I had never seen it rain like that before! Day and night was rain, rain, rain. The news said we got 2.7in. in the last 24hrs on the 6th, and 3.69in. in the previous 3 days! So needless to say, it was raining cats and dogs!(meaning-it was raining hard and a lot:) )

All the rain = a lot of flooding everywhere, roads were shut down, you had to get to the gym early to get a parking spot because half the parking lot was a lake, it was pretty nuts! So I thought I would just post some pictures for everyone to see and to look back on in years to come :)

These two pictures are of our parking lot, the pictures don't really do justice to how flooded it was though

 

And these two pictures are of a car dealership on one of our main streets! :/

 

Those apartments across the street are actually where we used to live! If we would have still lived there we could have rode in our boat! ;) haha

This road is the road we live on just about 200 yards from our app. So we kinda got lucky that just our parking lot flooded!

This picture is my favorite one!! This road was blocked off because it grades down quite a bit to go under the overpass, but this lady in the van drove around the "blocked off", "do not enter" sign and there she is! Haha just classic! Hope she can swim!

If this is the parking lot that I am thinking it is, the actual parking lot is down below that gate thing, you have to pull down into it (IF it is the right one I'm thinking of ??)

They advised everyone not to walk the path along the canyon rim... this is why!! They didn't want anyone falling off the dang edge!

So, that's all :)

P.S. I only took the pictures of my parking lot and got the rest off the news websites so copyright goes to them :)

Last Trip Before School :'(

So my last post was titled reunions, reunions, and more reunions, when in all reality we only went to one that weekend and hit three this weekend, so I guess that's what this title should really be..
 
We left BL on Tuesday July 22 and came home so Tommy could work Wed. and Thurs. and then left again on Friday morning the 25th to go back down! It was pretty great! Heck I didn't even mind all the driving, because it was all worth spending all that time with my family! The only "bad" thing is being down in BL that much made me really miss it!
 
So we left Friday morning at 7 to make it down in time for our hair appointments with my sister in law! We seriously get the works when we go home! This weekend was our family camping trip (kinda a reunion), and two more reunions on my side! So the weekend was packed with fun!


Oop there's another picture of Tally and her favorite person while I was getting my hair done!
So stinkin sweet!

After finally getting out to the camp site, we set up our tent, for our 2nd camping trip (in a tent) ever!, and had a delicious pulled pork dinner with a cookie bar dutch oven dessert and roasted marshmallows to follow and lots and lots of laughs! (If you hang with my family, it's nonstop laughing!) We laughed until 2 in the morning when we finally decided it was time to go to bed! Only to be up at 7 the next morning (I was anyways! Thanks to the dogs and my light sleeping!)

Some serious posing by our bed for the next few nights!... I seriously am sick of taking pictures of us standing the same way in all of them! So we were gonna be cheesers in this picture and do something different but everyone was looking at us so we settled for the same pose.. haha

This camping stay was a lot better than our first experience! We actually had an egg shell pad to go under us and were on flat ground vs our first trip fishing where we were laying on rocks with no padding and sloping downward so we had to keep sliding up in the middle of the night!

Oh and that's my husband!! Cute huh??! :) I think Tally wanted him to put that on (hopefully) ;)... he was a good sport!

Saturday morning we went to my Johnson reunion for awhile to say hello and eat lunch, but since we had another reunion to hit (and it was at the lake!), we didn't stay too long and headed out the best place on the planet, again, The Lake!!
 
When we got to that reunion we talked a little bit with everyone there, and since we and they had already eaten we headed to the beach to play! They had a lot of fun things to do like paddle boards, jet skis, and tubes, canoes, and football. 


We pilled in the back with all the kids! But don't worry it was only from the road down the beach and we were safe!
(There was a bad accident in BL a few weeks ago where a few kids flew out of the bed of an open truck because they were riding in the bed on a highway and were struck by another vehicle :( )

Tommy and I canoed across the lake ;) just kidding! We didn't even make it half way!
But it was sure fun!! And a good shoulder workout!

My older brother and sisters, missing the two youngest ones

All of my family that were at the reunion!
We missed my sister-in-law, her little girl, and one nephew!

Here's just a picture of our last night, and even though it's only a third of our circle around the fire, you can tell how good of a time we were all having!!

Haha little miss Tally loves to take after her Mommy and do my hair! 
She did this every day, several times a day! She probably would have done it all day if I would have let her!

There were a lot of picture that I didn't get on my phone so I'm sad I can't add those to this right now, but I'll add them sometime when they get passed along :)

Sunday morning we had breakfast burritos together and then packed up and headed home :( But Tommy and I didn't quite leave yet, we stopped at my sisters and did our laundry since it all smelled like smoke, and hey when you have an opportunity to do your laundry for free instead of paying two bucks a load, take it! But the time came that we had to head back to Twin. Tommy had to work Monday morning and I was going to a three day review to get a head start preparing for my boards :( So back to reality it was! And probably the last time we visit Bear Lake until who knows when, probably our cruise (132 Days!)

We really had a wonderful time visiting and spending so much time with our family! We are truly blessed with an amazing family! (On both sides!) And I am so grateful for all of them, and for all they do for us-we don't express it enough. We love you all Soo much!!

And back to nursing school I go, for one last semester!! So this may (or may not) be the last post until December..

So until next time..

COME ON DECEMBER!


Reunions, Reunions, and More Reunions!

 

Caution: Picture Overload!! (You're welcome! ;) )

Within two weekends right in a row, we had three reunions (just on my side!) to attend and one family camp out, which could be considered another reunion I suppose. So we headed down to Bear Lake on Thursday July 17th after our dentist checkups-which both came back cavity negative!! :)

We started the trip off by stopping at my sisters house to drop off some yogurt and for me to get zoned (Thanks Tam! She's Awesome!) while Tommy went and ran the shoots for my bro in-law. We ended up staying out there until late in the night having a good time catching up!


Here's just a picture of what our fridge looked like with all the Chobani we took to my family! Inside was stuffed on top, behind, and even in the drawers with yogurt!



The next day, Friday, we didn't do much, just hung out all day doing laundry (well I did), while Tommy slept :) But it payed off when that night I had the most awesome privilege to go to a fireside with my Mom and brother and some sisters, hosting Ashlee Birk, the author of the blog "The Moments We Stand"! It was an amazing, spirit filled (I cried the Whole Time!) fireside about the Atonement and her life experiences incorporated into that! I could have listened to her, her stories, her strength, and her testimony for hours and hours! So for those of you who have not read her blog,,, I Highly recommend it!


After the Firseside. I wanted to get a picture with Ashlee but felt like that would be weird to ask! And we had an "older lady" take this picture and she wasn't quite sure how to run my phone so it's a little off centered and the lighting was bad... But that's Ok! :)

On to the next day, Saturday, was the whole reason we came down. It was my Skinner reunion, which we missed last year, so I was really excited we could go this year! We went out to that and ate lunch, visited, played games, and shot skeet (clay pigeons). Tommy definitely had a good time doing that! And had a good competitor to shoot against, which they just kept switching on and off winning :)

When we left the reunion we stopped at Tam and Er's house again because they were roping again so Tommy went and ran the shoot for a little while, and then got back on a horse after 3 years and tried his hand in roping, again after 3 years.


Man!! Aen't that some eye candy!!



 

 

That was a catch!! (I think it was this picture! I had so many I couldn't remember which one he caught on!)

And this was my favorite part of the trip!! Well, maybe not my favorite, but it was close! I seriously Love kitties!! These Are my favorite pictures of the trip though! I laugh every time I look at them! (You'd have to know the cat! haha)

This is Stacy! My niece's adopted kitty! We were just takin a few selfies ;) and the last picture was my nieces idea of a photo shoot with "baby Stacy" all wrapped up!

And then we had a birthday party that night for my nephew who is now 20!! I can't believe it!

The next day was Sunday and we went out to Tam and Er's again to go to church with them! It was really nice spending a lot of time with them (and Stacy! ;) haha I had to add that in!), because we usually don't spend a whole lot of time with them. After church Tam zoned Tommy (Thanks again Tam!!) and we went to my brothers house later that night for another birthday party for my niece who is now 2!! So we got to hit two birthday parties in a row and I was so glad, because birthday parties is the one thing I have really missed living away.


The Birthday Girl and Tommy... She absolutely !Loves! him!!

We went home Tuesday night, but Monday was the last day that we did anything.

Monday we went to my favorite place in the whole wide world! Bear Lake! (the actual lake) I could spend every day out there and be perfectly happy!


You can't capture the beauty of Bear Lake on a camera! I wish you could, but this is the best I could do!
And it doesn't help that is sideways :/

On our way home from the lake we stopped at my Mom's house and raided the garden of peas and strawberries!

That's another thing I miss from living at home is the home grown produce, it's always sooo much better!! And I took it for granted while living there and even hated doing the gardening! Man the things we learn when we grow up and move away from home!