Northwest Summer Road Trip

This is another "catch up" blog post. Don't forget to check out the 2 or 3 others I have written below this.

At the end of July after Kory and I finished working at our old job, I was able to go home for a few days! The adventures of the next few days were very unexpected, however. When I flew in we loaded up the car and Mom, Stephen, and I started a road trip to Portland. We were going to see Stephen's freshman roommate and great friend's mission homecoming talk in church. Trent came to Boise to see Stephen speak in church before he left on his mission since Stephen was the first to leave. Stephen was on his own mission when Trent left for his. So he really wanted to go to Trent's hometown to see him speak when he returned. Trent is from a town in Southeast Washington not very far from Portland, OR. So our plan was to spend time there Saturday evening.

After a long drive, we got into town and had Chipotle for dinner. Then we drove around downtown to check everything out. I really like Portland a lot. After playing tourists downtown, we decided to drive out to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Portland, OR temple. We got there just before the sun started to set. The temple is surrounded by tall beautiful pine trees, and has lovely landscaping and fountains. Each of us notices immediately the peace that we felt from being on temple grounds. We spent a lot of time there just taking it in and pondering. I love spending time with my family.






The next morning we woke up super early and started driving North through Vancouver, WA to Ridgefield, WA. We attended church where Trent spoke and told about the lessons he learned while serving a mission in Hungary. He is such an amazing young man, and he and Stephen were both excited to be reunited after years apart. They both have such a fun sense of humor. After church, we went over to his family's home for lunch and had a great time! Trent even showed us how to use a whip (a little trick he learned from the Hungarians)!


Trent only lives 2 hours from Puyallup, WA where my cousins live. So we decided that since we were so close and we still had a few days before I need to be back in Boise, that we would go see them! Unfortunately, it took us 4 hours to get there instead of 2 because of the traffic near Olympia. But, we made it to the Fowles house just in time for Sunday dinner (we totally planned that, except not really). Jodi's sister's family was also there for Sunday dinner and they brought Puyallup Fair scones for dessert! They were so yummy. We always have so much fun with our cousins, we sure love them! After dinner we played a game in their backyard, I can't remember what it is called but it's fun. You toss these strings with golf balls on the end and try to get them to wrap around the pipes across the yard. Here are some pictures of Stephen and my cousin Nykele playing, and being very competitive I might add.




Since Puyallup is close to Seattle, on Monday we decided to go have lunch at Red Robin on the wharf. That is something we have always done when we go to Seattle. We had tons of fun spending a couple of hours around there before we left town.








On our way out of town we stopped at a Costco so that we could get some Puyallup Fair Scone Mix. Then we hit the road and headed to the last stop of our road trip, which was Priest River, ID where my mother grew up. I absolutely love going there! Northern Idaho is so beautiful, and it's nice to get away and relax.

The first night we were there we got in right before a big lightning storm rolled in. There was constant lightening from 11 PM until 4 AM in the morning! The power went out only about an hour after we had arrived. I was so tired I fell asleep, but Mom and Stephen stayed awake watching the storm. The next morning, we got to work to help clean the house and the yard. Here you see Stephen mowing the empty lot.


After we got some work around the house done we were able to take a short day trip to Canada! It was fun to drive up there to the little Canadian town just across the border for a round trip of only a few hours. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The further north we got in Idaho, the more blue the mountains were and landscape was breathtaking. When we were in Canada, we raided the grocery store to get lots of yummy chocolate! You know, the good stuff that isn't found often in the states like Kinder Bueno and Bounty!


On our way back home, we stopped in Sandpoint, ID for dinner. We decided to get Arby's and it's a good thing because they had the most amazing huckleberry shake there! The owner of that Arby's would buy gallons of fresh huckleberries from a local source. It was amazing! The fun thing though, was that we decided to go to the part to eat our fast food so that we could enjoy some beautiful scenery. Due to some construction, there was a little confusion about how to get to the park. It was a good thing though because we ended up sitting in the parking lot of a beautiful Sandpoint hotel and overlooking the river. This is the view we enjoyed during dinner.


By the time we got home from our little afternoon trip to Canada, it was dark. We went to bed not really thinking too much about the storm that had occurred the night before. The next morning we woke up and Stephen and I went to go get McDonalds breakfast. On our way we passed my mom's high school (now the Junior High) and saw the the big trees in front of it were totally uprooted. When I first saw it I was confused asking why they would take those trees out! Then Stephen quickly informed me that they don't remove trees like that, and it was because of the storm. "For real!?" I replied knowing that what he said made way more sense, but I still couldn't believe it. We brought breakfast and Tillamook ice cream back home to eat with Mom. Yes, we had ice cream with our breakfast because the Newport, WA McDonalds sells Tillamook ice cream and that stuff is good!

Anyway, I told Mom what we saw and then we jumped in the car to tour the rest of the town and see what other damage had been done. Mom has the rest of the pictures. But it was crazy because several trees had been taken out all over town. We watched the news and heard all about the crazy storm the hit Northern Idaho. Apparently there were hundreds of lightning strikes in the greater area that night. Then as we were leaving town we discovered that several trees had come down just two blocks from our house. Cars were completely smashed, trees landed on carports and the corner of a house was taken out. That is when we realized that we needed to say a prayer expressing our gratitude for how much our Heavenly Father watched over us that stormy night. We had no idea how lucky we were! I wish I had the other pictures to show you, but here is one of the trees we saw on the way to McDonalds.

Ultimately, that road trip was SOOO MUCH FUN! I am so glad that I was able to make it for such an unexpected and adventurous journey with Mom and Stephen. I wish Kory would have been able to come! This is what he was up to while I was gone (baking chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and surfing the flowrider.)

Adam's Birthday-End of Washington

Our last weekend in Washington we got to be there to celebrate Adam's birthday! Yay! We went to Claimjumper and it was delish! It was really fun having all the adults from Kory's family (minus Kelli and Jeremiah whom we missed tons!) together at dinner. Most of the entertainment was from taking pictures. They speak for themselves.













The next day was our last day in Washington. We helped clean around the house. Kory showed me a desk top that he had all of his friends sign as his "yearbook" one year. Then Mom and Rix took us to the mall and then the airport. We had such a great time in Washington.

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

We had the privilege of attending the amazing Timpanogos Storytelling Festival over labor day weekend. The festival is rated as one of the Top 10 things to do in the United States in the summer. And it is right here in Orem, UT, isn't that awesome! Not only that, it was also the 20th anniversary of the festival. Therefore, some of the best storytellers in the nation were there to perform.

The evening events were held at the Scera Outdoor Shell. It is a stage located in a park with a big hill that the audience can sit on so everyone can see. It is seriously the greatest summertime activity. Both nights we found ourselves laughing so hard at some of the stories that were told. Kory and I went, and Stephen and his girlfriend Stephanie and roommate Trent came also. We had a great time!

First Day of School! (Totally Belated ha!)

I know, I know, school has been in session for 3 weeks now. So I am a total slacker. I apologize to all of you who have felt completely deprived of an update from me. I'm also sorry that I have not been following up on your blog as well as I usually do, either.

We flew home from Washington on the Saturday before school started. One day I will update you on the rest of the summer happenings, haha. But for now, I'll just try to catch you up with September. Anyway, Kelli was sweet enough to come pick us up from the airport. Thanks Kelli! I sat in the back seat with Aubrey, and she was not sure how she felt about me. Not joking, she stared me down the entire drive home. If I looked back at her for too long she would start to cry. I guess she wasn't too freaked out by me as long as (1) she had her eye on me, and (2) I didn't have my eye on her. I'm scary Aunt Ana Lee! Actually, she liked me a lot better now that we have been over to their house several times in the last month.

Cute little Aubrey.

When we arrived at our apartment my mom was there to greet us. She had come to town to help Stephen get moved in and ready for school to start up. While she was here she totally re-vamped our family room by adding a super cute cover to our couch, making us the cutest pillow, and adding other pillows plus a throw! We love it! Thank you so much Mom! If you add that to the great things we found at Tai Pan Trading Co. when we went shopping with Lynda, I think it looks fabulous! I'm very excited about it all. I have the most amazing mothers! :) We love having people over, and so far our company has really loved the change. We think our apartment feels more and more like our home everyday.




Just two days later, on Monday, Kory and Stephen had their first day back at school again. Being the memory catcher that I am, of course I snapped some pictures. One of the things I love about Kory is his open mind towards being fashion forward.

I just love having my brother here! We had so much fun when he was here before his mission, and it's so great having him back!

Salt Lake Temple

Kory and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Since then it has become an even more significant and special place to me. Kory and I were able to go on an unplanned little date together after seeing Britlynn. Since we were close to downtown Salt Lake City, we decided to go to Temple Square and walk around the beautiful Temple that we were married in. When you go there, they have a visitor's center that you can go through. One of the really neat things in the visitor's center is the statue of Jesus Christ. It had been a really long time since I had been there and seen it, so we went over there too. I love going to Temple Square because it is always so peaceful and beautiful.

After we walked around the Temple grounds we were able to go to Buca di Beppo for dinner. It was delicious!

I wanted to get a picture of Kory and me in front of the statue, so Kory asked a woman who was also there to take the picture for us. He chose to ask the woman who was already holding a camera, assuming she would know how to take a picture. Unfortunately, she was also French and didn't speak English haha. She did the best she could :)

I'm using my laptop because I am in Washington and obviously didn't want to bring my iMac all this way. My laptop has an older version of iPhoto though, so it isn't as easy to adjust the pictures. We were losing daylight quickly by the time we were taking pictures outside. You can't even see the picture with just me, I'll have to edit the brightness when I get back to Utah.

I know some of you don't know very much about LDS Temples. Since Kory and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and now that we are working on remodeling the Seattle Temple I thought you may be interested in knowing a little bit more about the Temple. Below is a short video that was made by the LDS church to explain the significance of them. I love going to the Temple, it is a special place that makes me feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I know that Kory and I are married and sealed together for eternity because of the covenants we made together there.