Road trip travelogue (possibly as boring as it sounds)

As can be attested to by the mileage on our sweeet Saturn station wagon, we take a lot of road trips, usually to one of two destinations: Elko, NV or various spots in Utah. Last weekend, it was both! As a road trip veteran, I am well aware of the two essentials for a successful venture:
1. Rockin' music. Check - I opened these three CD's for the first time right before getting in the car. The TaySwift CD was a Christmas present from Cody and the Lady Antebellum CD's were purchased with some birthday money last week, as I have recently become seriously obsessed with Lady A.

2. A working car. This I didn't reeeally have. The Saturn's been running a bit rough lately (totally understandable given said high mileage) so we decided that instead of me going to Utah and leaving the three boys in Nampa, we'd all drive to Elko together so that Chuck and his dad could fix the car, and then they would stay and play there with Chuck's family while I headed to Utah.

And fix they did! It took all day, bless their hearts, and two more car parts being replaced than we had anticipated (both wheel bearings in addition to both CV joints), but the Saturn was running like a dream by about 6 pm.

We did let them break long enough for Pops to take us all out to lunch - aren't we thoughtful? (Thanks again Pops!) We were amazed at how much bigger Eli has gotten since we saw him right before Christmas.

Cute Lily-bug :).

Melissa cemented her forever friendship with Clyde by letting him play games on her phone.

Then it was back to work for the mechanics, and time for the rest of us to play some more!

The boys played inside with blocks (this is some Star Wars battle set-up, naturally) . . .

such a cute little concentrating face . . .

and outside with cousins!

And then it was time for me to ditch out and hit the road, luckily I only had about four hours to drive that night. Of course, a majority of the drive was this two-lane highway. Pops (who has driven that road hundreds and hundreds of times to Thatcher and back) warned me that I wouldn't see a lot of other cars, but that I might see wandering animals since it's open range, so it was really important to stay alert and not go faster than my headlights could see.

So about an hour into that stretch of the trip, I started thinking about what a smooth drive it had been thus far - my music was AWESOME, I had cell service (which we weren't sure I would), the car was driving amazingly well, I wasn't tired at all, and I hadn't seen any animals on the road. I took a minute to say a quick prayer of gratitude for this, and afterwards I realized I should continue to be hyper-attentive, just in case. Sure enough, not even two minutes later I saw three deer ahead in my lane. I hit the brakes and two of them ran off immediately - the third one made me sweat a little, but he moved too, just before I got to that spot. I was sooo grateful that my father-in-law had prepared me for this and that the Spirit prompted me to stay alert.

Which meant that I arrived at my destination for the night safe and sound and ready to see this be-a-utiful girl: Heidi, yay! We fit sooo much into our quick sleepover, including a decent amount of actual sleep! This was her the next morning on her way to a school thing, she doesn't dress up that much just for me :). We had such a blast though, I loved seeing her dorm room and talking and laughing and confiding and facebook stalking. No matter what Chuck/Quinn/any other guy says, talking on the phone is not the same as being together in person :).

That morning I had another hour of driving until I could settle in for the rest of the weekend and adore this sweet baby boy: Chase! Isn't he darling? He's actually bigger than this now, I stole this older picture from Courtney's blog :). It is his existence that prompted my trip - I couldn't wait until April to meet him!

I arrived at the Smith home Saturday morning just in time to crash a bridal shower that Gloria was hosting. The funniest moment of the day was when the shower's co-host walked in, looked at me, and exclaimed, "I know you! I recognize you from all your facebook pictures - you're like family around here!" and then hurried off to finish the party prep. It was sooo hilarious! I got to talk to her later, and she was the sweetest, funniest person ever.

Court and I spent most of Saturday talking, watching Chase be sweet, talking some more, etc. It was so fun to see Courtney totally in her element as a new mom. Chase let me snuggle him for a half hour or so without objecting too much - minus the couple of minutes that I had the audacity to talk to Chuck on the phone instead of giving him my full attention :). I quickly fixed that situation!

That night we went to dinner at Reed's new restaurant in Harrisville: Fat Boy's! It was a-mazing! Reed decided to get out of the franchise business and create his own place, and it's wonderful. Check out their official website and facebook page, and definitely stop in (or call and place an order!) if you're in the area.

I had the chicken fettuccine alfredo - soooo good.

Quick photo op.

Some of the super cool decor in the restaurant . . .

and a bit more. The whole place is really bright and welcoming; I'm excited to take Chuck in when we're there next - pretty sure he'd love the UFO Pizza.

Of course, no one let dinner distract from the main activity: adoring Chase :).

Sunday was a really nice day, too. Will and Heidi braved the snow to join us and we all headed to church expecting to hear Ben and Courtney speak, only to find out there was a mix-up and they were speaking the next week (aka today, I hope it went well!). Church was really nice, and after declining rides home, Heidi and I walked home in the snow tightly holding hands. Will walked with us, all the while saying how much I remind him of Dean Pelton from the hilarious NBC sitcom Community. This backhanded compliment inspired our afternoon activity - watching like five episodes of the show!

While we all adored baby Chase, of course! After that we enjoyed the delicious dinner Gloria made, topped off by a really nice Family Home Evening where Court and Ben shared their talks. Dessert was Court's special chocolate cherry cake to celebrate Ben's birthday earlier that week, and it was really good. And then, all too soon, it was time for me to get back on the road (after Reed helped dig my car out of the snow - thanks again!).

I drove to Elko that night to be reunited with my three sweet boys (whom I'm pretty sure barely missed me with all the fun they were having with Grandma and Pops and cousins!), and then we drove home to Nampa the next morning. It was definitely a whirlwind trip, but luckily we'll be headed back to both Elko and Utah in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone for letting us come and stay - and a very special thank you to my very supportive husband who encourages me to take these little getaways; I really, really appreciate it sweetheart!