Spring Break in Utah!

 This year we took a road trip to Utah for Spring Break. I have never "driven" to Utah and was pretty excited :) We left Thursday after Sky was done at work, driving to Boise for the night.

 Leaving the Palouse

It worked out that Sky's parents were traveling to Boise late as well and we got there about the same time and drove the rest of the way Friday in tandom.

Our hotel was right next to the Boise Temple but I didn't get a picture :(

We went to the Salt Lake Temple to do a session. I had never done one at Salt Lake so that was awesome!  Stopping at In n'out for lunch after :) yum.

 LDS Conference Center, it was a beautiful day to  be at Temple square.

 Hayley and GG (Grandma Claudia) got lots of bonding time. Helping in the garden, eating her weight in peaches, pancakes and generally being doted on by GG and Sky's parents :)

 Hayley LOVED the space to run and play, it was a bonus that the weather was warm, at mid 60's (compared to Pullman.)

Hayley got a circus tent! It's really cute and collapses pretty easy, 

she loves sharing it with whoever will come in :)

 One day we drove up to Brigham City to see the new Temple they are building, it was beautiful!

We also spent some time at Grandma Mona's house, we had a great gathering and saw all of Sky's cousins and aunts & uncles.

Heading out, grabbed one more picture with Claudia.

Tuesday we left and headed on the Montana side to stay in Butte for the night.

We passed through Rexburg, stopping at BYU Idaho to look around a bit. We seriously saw the biggest church building ever, it was huge! And of course the Temple, always a nice sight. 

 While it was sunny and somewhat warm in Utah it was lightly snowing 

and cold when we arrived in Butte.  

I didn't get a shot, but we did see the legendary "Lady on the Mountain" 

It is 90 feet tall and stands lit up glowing on top of the Rockies at night. Pretty cool.

Wednesday, we got back in the car and continued up the Montana side through Missoula.

 

 Seriously gigantic truck with gigantic tires.

 Our traveler, being silly as ever.

While it was snowing when we woke up in Butte, we passed through all different terrains that day.

 All of which beautiful.

 And we finally made it back to the beautiful sunny palouse.

I especially enjoyed getting to see all the little towns in Utah, Idaho and Montana that I've met people from.  We had a great time and cant wait to see everyone again!

So Excited!

We have lot's to be excited about lately:
only 1 more month until spring
2 months and Hayley turns 3
 going to UT in 2 weeks
going to see my parents in 4 weeks
Sky is going to NIRSA next month to hopefully get some job leads
Graduation in less than 3 mos.
tickets to see our favorite bands in May
WooHOo!

And a couple pictures of our silly girl...

 We've been going to the library more regularly, Hayley loves books! She'll sit and "read" to herself for 30 min. sometimes.

 She also likes to store things in her trunk.  Babies napping...farm animals..whatever.

Also exciting...in the last year we have had 47 friends and family members have babies! 

I've also attended 12 baby showers, with 3 more on the horizon :)

Bringing the number up to 48,
In case you haven't heard...July 2012 we'll have a brand new family member joining us! :)

Snow Day!

 Just like most everyone else in the region, we got dumped on with snow! We probably have 2 ft. in the last 48 hours but it's been pretty windy blowing it around,  so it's hard to tell. Anyways- we've been enjoying it :) Hayley's been so happy to get out throw snowballs, constantly asking to build a snowman. (really fluffy snow though so the snowman didn't work out)

 ....she got stuck thigh high in snow.

We even played on the playground since she was all bundled anyway.

Then we got bored and made out first fort :) She was very excited to play under the sheet. Even thanking me for making a fort for her 

"That's so nice. Thankyou mommy a making a fort a me."

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Eve we drove down to Gearhart to spend time with Skyler's family. It just happened we were able to be there while all of his siblings came and went, overlapping at points. It was great to see nearly everyone. Considering it had been since Easter since we saw some last. The kids especially loved to see all their cousins. 

Sadly I didn't capture any photos of actual Christmas day...

But the days following we had lots of fun.

 

Since it's whale watching season, as the whales migrate down south these next couple weeks, we went up to Ecola State Park to see if we could spot any. I thought we did at one point..but we're pretty sure it was just some rocks that happened to break the water at just the right point.

Cute little light house that always makes me wonder, how did they build it way out there?

 We went to the arcade...

 There is a large herd of Elk that like to frequent Skyler's parents neighborhood. They are such amazing creatures!

As tradition, we took a picture in front of Camp18, a local logger restaurant about 15 min out of town. Great food, and lots of it. We got a similar shot last year on New Years with all the cousins. 

(Minus Milena :( they already left)

On our last night we planned to stay at Skamania lodge on our way out of town.  However Skyler's parents ended up needing to come into Portland anyway the next day and offered to keep Hayley overnight so we could have a date night! We had such a great time relaxing. We stopped in Portland, did some shopping and ended up here, at Bridgeport Brewery for dinner. It was delicious! Then we drove the 45 min to Skamania Lodge in the Columbia River Gorge.

The Hotel was huge and brimming with people and activities. We ate breakfast at their in-house restaurant- so.good. Then we drove back to Portland to Ikea for a quick stop while we waited to pick up Hayley from Skyler's Mom. 

We had such a great time visiting both families and seeing so many family members and friends. For our last week off, we enjoyed it together in Pullman, getting things done and relaxing in preparation for our last Semester to start. Yay!