"All 'board!"

This weekend, a week after we left Utah for DC, we flew back to Utah/Idaho for my younger brother's wedding in Rexburg. Here's a run-down of the week's events.

FRIDAY:
Leave work and go directly to the airport, where I meet Deidra. We see Senator Crapo and spend some time chatting with Congressman Bishop, both who are also on our flight West. We get on the plane and there is nowhere for our carry-on luggage to go, because all of the overhead bins are full. So we have to check the bag, which defeated the whole purpose of us flying with just a carry-on. (When we land in SLC, we see an entire family who all have two huge carry-ons that they are taking out of the overhead bins. We don't know who they are, but they are our sworn enemies from here on out.)

After a 4 hour plane ride, we arrive in Salt Lake and go to pick up our rental car. Our only problem is that we forgot which rental car company we booked through. So we go to the desk of five or six companies before we find the right one. Then we begin our 3-hour drive to Firth. We stop in Brigham City to have a "quick" late dinner at about 9pm. We decide that we'll stop at Sonic, because you can just park, order, eat from your car, and go. Unfortunately, it took them 20 minutes to get our food. I definitely picked wrong there. But we eventually arrive in Firth around midnight and stay the night with Deidra's sister, Karisa and little Laney. Unfortunately, Karisa's husband and little Hudson were out on a father/son campout that night.

SATURDAY:
Awake to the alarm clock at 6:30am and get all showered and ready to head to Rexburg. But we definitely took advantage of Karisa's cinnamon-roll-style french toast in the morning. Mmmmm! She also packed us travel treats for our flight back, and candy for our drive. How cool is that?

After missing the Idaho Falls/Rexburg exit, we take the long way to the wedding in Rexburg, but still make it there in plenty of time. We attend the wedding, meet the bride's family, say hello to my family and friends, get pictures taken, go to the official post-wedding luncheon, and head back out of town.

Aaron, my best friend from high school (who lives in the Seattle area) was also in Idaho for a wedding. Unfortunately, it was an afternoon wedding in Idaho Falls. We tried to touch base with him on our way through Idaho Falls (and even drove around the temple to see if they were taking pictures), but to no avail.

Then we get a call from Karisa, saying: "Are you guys coming back here today, or just heading back to Utah? Hudson just got back and when I told him you guys had already come and gone, he said 'Already? Aw, but I miss those guys." That was enough to get us back to Firth on our way out of Idaho. We were there for only about an hour, but in that time, I got to see some of the many faces of Hudson:


The World-Renowned Baker


The Train Conductor - "All 'Board!!"


The Rough-ridin' Cowboy

It was so much fun to hang out with that kid. He's definitely one of my two favorite nephews.

While we were at Karisa's, Aaron called back. He and his wife were going to be in Blackfoot awaiting the wedding reception that evening. So we got back on the road and met them in Blackfoot. We didn't really have a place to meet, so we just went to Winger's and hung out for a bit in their waiting room and caught up. Whenever someone tried to seat us, we just told them we were waiting for someone. It was great to see them!


We then drove onward until we reached Kaysville and spent a very enjoyable stay at the Bergstroms. Daron and Lisa were great hosts and we got a great night's sleep.

SUNDAY:
Daron and Lisa cooked us a perfect pancake, cinnamon roll, and bacon breakfast to start our travel home off right. We checked in online and printed our boarding passes from their house before we left - and we are glad we did. Upon arriving at the airport and dropping off the rental car, we found ourselves in the longest security line I have EVER seen! Fortunately, an employee suggested we go to the International terminal and check in there. We ran over there, waited in a much shorter line, checked-in and quickly walked to our gate - getting there just as the plane was boarding.

Now we're back in DC again and we are trying to recover from our whirlwind weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great experience!