It takes about 9 ½ hours to get from our place to Andrew’s parent’s house, so we left Wednesday afternoon, and despite the snow got there later that evening. On our drive, we passed through Nebraska and Wyoming; saw a helicopter so close to us (but it is really hard to photograph a moving helicopter in a moving car); stopped to take pictures of a tree growing out of a rock and Abraham Lincoln’s head, and we stopped at Little America to get 50 cent ice cream cones. When you are driving through Wyoming, there are so many signs for the hotel Little America, and a few of them advertise these 50 cent cones, but we’ve never stopped to buy them. This time, we did! Well, Brianna’s blood sugar was high, so Andrew got the ice cream cone. He ate it, wearing shorts, with a snowstorm outside!
When we got to the Utah border, it was really snowing, but fortunately Andrew is a very safe driver and doesn’t mind driving in the snow, so we made it safely to his parent’s house and slept well that evening! The next day, we were able to visit Brianna’s sister, Elyse and her brother, Shilo. He just got back from his mission for the LDS Church in February, so this was the first time we had seen him in over two years! We went to In-N-Out for lunch; there is a new location in Orem, and although we were eating at 2 in the afternoon, it was packed! We ordered, and saw a group leaving, so we ran over to the table as fast as we could. After that, we visited for awhile, and then headed back to hang out with Andrew’s family and watched Fantastic Mr. Fox.
The next day was Friday and that is the day we always pack up everything and head to the hotel. Because they’ve been going there for so long, they can usually get an earlier check in, so we were ready to be there by noon. Unfortunately, the hotel wasn’t ready for us…so we waited and finally left at about 2:30. One of the rooms was ready, so we brought up everything to that room, moved some of it to the second room soon after (so we could start cooking dinner), and eventually, had to move everything to the family suite. After all that work, we were ready to relax!
Andrew and I did the dinner that night; we do this meal that is supposed to be like Costa Vida’s salads with chicken, rice, beans, and jalapeño ranch dressing. And we made some salsa, which actually is kind of a funny story. Well, first, this is Brianna, and I am a really big wimp when it comes to anything spicy. Mild sauce is spicy to me, but Andrew loves really hot and spicy things, although growing up, his family never had spicy food! I tried out this recipe for salsa awhile ago, and he really liked it, so we decided to make that. I double the amount of jalapeños for him, but when I made it for his family, I did the normal amount. I’ve been told that the jalapeños with scratches on them are the hottest ones, but I usually pick out really mild ones. This time however, I think I picked the hottest ones in the store! The salsa and ranch dressing were hot! Everything else was perfect though, so all in all, it was a great meal.
Although a timer is a helpful invention on a camera, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to. We figured it would be better if I took the next one.
Even though it was a long drive, it was nice to get out of town and see family! Surprisingly, the 9 hour drive didn’t seem as long as we thought, probably because we were listening to books on cd. As with all trips, it is always nice to get back home, sleep in your own bed, and try to get back in the swing of things. So that is where we are now, sitting here, trying to get back in the swing of things!
Enjoy the slideshow!