Utah–Idaho: a really long drive

Around Christmas or the first of the year I was informed by my roommate from college (who was also my maid of honor), Brittney,

that she was getting married!  And my first thought was FINALLY! … No, not really.  It was more along the lines of “You didn’t tell me you were dating anyone seriously!   But … YAY, I’M COMING!”  For some reason as I’ve started to have kids I would have this random thought Brittney will be getting married and I’ll be too close to my due date and wouldn’t be able to go out.  How awesome that she timed it so well that I’m neither nursing OR pregnant and thus got to go without any kind of child :)  Best flight in 4 years!

As I was spending money on a ticket to the Rockies, needed a car to get around, and had family in the SLC area I decided to fly into SLC instead of Boise, where the wedding would be.  This allowed me to come a few days before the wedding, steal my parents’ car from my brother,  and hang out with different people but first up were these two girls:

My two cute little sisters, Maraina and Caitlyn, that are both married now and Caitlyn’s even pregnant!  Relationships between sisters change a lot as stages in life start to overlap.  I spent all of Wednesday with my sisters, with a visit from my good friend Bethany as well, she’s getting ready to move to China!  Craziness.  I got to meet her 2 weeks old baby, Corinne and even snapped a cute picture of her a bit “newbornesque”.  I’m no professional, but not bad for a split second notice, right?  Bethany’s little boy, Carver, was also darling.

Thursday I spent with my sister-in-law, Summer.  It was fun to be able to just be helpful where I needed to.  I went to Costco with her, helped her finish up some jam, helped clean, played with her kids, just whatever.  Without my own kids to watch, I was glad to just be helpful.

Friday morning I took the lovely drive up I-15 and I-84 up into Boise, ID.  Wow… it’d been a few years since I did that.  LONG drive.  I mean, I knew it was long but… wow.  I’m glad I had Jim Dale (of the Harry Potter fame) to keep me company for the 5 1/2 hours of pure unending nothingness.  But I made it, the car did great with gas mileage and I was there for all the festivities.  The last time I’d been up to Britt’s house was when she left on her mission in 2006.  Her brothers were taller, but nothing else had really changed.  Friday night was a family BBQ and then Saturday was the wedding luncheon, wedding, reception.  It was gorgeous.  Brittney did all of the planning and made all sorts of things for the reception.  The weather was always a bit iffy, but the rain held back.  I sort of took the day off of pictures, too.  I just felt like she had hired a professional to get those money shots, so I decided to just put my camera away.  The temple had some very pretty flowers so I took some of those though.

I did  pull my camera out for cutting the cake.  The pro was gone since they didn’t get to the cutting until AFTER the reception was suppose to be over.  They were “in line” for the entire 2 hours! and the line never let up.  But the cake was beautiful, and delicious.

To see all the cute things Brittney made you can go to the professional pictures here.  To get an idea of how creative she was with everything, her guestbook was an ATLAS!  Never seen that one before.  You were suppose to sign on a place that meant something to you.  I took up all of Minnesota :)  That will be tons of fun to look through over the years.

I drove back down to SLC on Sunday and hung out with my brother, his girlfriend, my sisters and their husbands.  As a “thank you for letting me steal the car” I made rolls for my brother.  They were devoured ravenously by everyone, so it was a good thing I made around 54 rolls.  Destin only had about 10 left.

It was a great getaway.  I kept wondering beforehand how much I would miss my girls or how they’d do.  But I was exactly where I needed to be, and I knew that the girls were in good hands (Stephen and our friend Cindy Sandberg played nanny for us during the day).  The longest I had EVER been away from my kids is probably 24 hours.  I think maybe 5 or 6 nights away from Samantha (2 being daddy-daughter campouts).  It’s nice to know that I’m a person of my own accord and not just an extension of my children, and yes I can even hold an adult conversation without the words “potty” “dora” “princess” or other toddler inspired mommy words.

Hrm… for some reason I never wrote Brittney’s husband’s name.  Brittney’s husband’s name is Daniel.  And he was very nice and seems like a good match for Brittney. I had a good time talking to his childhood friends that came up for the wedding.