Road Trip November 2011!

A couple weekends ago(Nov 18-20) me and three of my friends took a road trip to Flagstaff, AZ.  SUU was playing football at NAU and we decided it would be fun to go watch the game and spend some time in Flagstaff.  I had never been there and had heard good things about it.  On the way there we hit a wind storm that was blowing tumbleweeds allover the road.  It looked like a game where you were supposed to try to avoid them.  But we weren't able to.

Libby and the tumbleweed.

We had some problems finding our motel when we got there.  The GPS on my phone led us to a place that looked like a motel converted to apartments.  They looked pretty dumpy and we were really hoping that was not where our reservations were.  We finally found it.  The motel ended up having nice beds and I slept pretty comfortably. 

The next morning we went to historic downtown and did some shopping and looking around.  They had some really cool stores.  All of the store clerks were incredibly nice.  We decided that everyone we talked to in Flagstaff was.  It is just a nice place.  For lunch we ate at a place called Brandy's Restaurant & Bakery.  It had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives so we decided to try it.  I really liked my food. 

Garlic Fries and Quiche

This is where Guy Fieri sat

 After lunch we headed to the game.  NAU has an indoor football field.  It was really nice.  There was actually quite a few people there cheering for SUU.  NAU scored two touchdowns right at the start and I worried that wasn't a good sign.

Libby and I

At half time I was able to see some friends that live there in Flagstaff.  Brant works at NAU.  I know them because of our mutual friend Natalie.  So we took this picture and sent it to Natalie and asked if she was jealous.  She was.

Me, Rianne and Jana

Kyle, Libby and I.  Camaree wouldn't get in the picture

The game ended up being really good and SUU won 27 to 24! It made it worth the drive.   It was probably the football game that I paid the most attention to. 
After the game and shopping at a goodwill store (another wrong turn because of GPS) we ate at Stromboli's.  It is a pizza and pasta place one of my clients told me about.  It was pretty good.
That night we played girl talk.  It is a game that I remember from my childhood and Camaree still had the game.  Yes Kyle was a good sport and played with us.  If you fail the task you get you have to wear a sticker zit.

Camaree had zits too but she wouldn't get in the picture.

Don't ask me what Kyle was doing here.

Sunday we decided to take a detour to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I have only been to the North Rim and that was only once.  I know, it is a shame considering how close it is to where I grew up. 

It was breathtaking!  I was really glad we went.

This is what Libby and I did while we  were driving.  Yes we are like old ladies.

We also stopped for a minute at Lee's Ferry.

We had made a road trip CD and I think the two songs that ended up being the themes from it were "Meet me in Montana" and "Let's here it for the Boy".  They were the fun ones to sing along to.  Kyle didn't love the latter but he was a trooper with us three girls so we dedicated it to him.  We finally made it safely home and I think we all ended as friends still.  :)

Summer Road Trip 2011

My younger brother got accepted to NYU and therefore was moving across the country.  One day in June I got a text message that said "How would you like to spend 40 hours with your brother?"  I replied with "Driving to New York?"  He said "Maybe."  So I then asked "How will I get home?"  He said, "Fly on my dime."  I said, "I'm in."  It didn't occur to me until the next day that Nauvoo Illinois (Where my Mom is on a mission) is on the way.  So I asked my brother if we were stopping there and he said that was part of the plan.  So then I was even more excited!
Wednesday, July 13th we finished packing the back of the 4-Runner, attached the U-haul trailer (which took four of us standing on the back to do it) and headed out. 

Disclaimer:  A lot of my pictures are taken from inside the car.

Wyoming had a lot of windmills and I found them very serene.

We hit some heavy rain just after Rock Springs, WY

The rock formations were cool.

Can anyone guess what state this next picture is from?

I hope you guessed Nebraska.

The first night we stayed in North Platte, Nebraska.  We were hoping to find some good local food that night but we got there a little late and the only thing still open was Applebee's.  It was disappointing. 
Thursday, July 14th we got out to the car and Jeff realized that he had left the driver's side window down the whole night!  Some of his most valuable stuff was inside the 4-Runner.  Nothing had been touched.  The drivers side was up against a fence and I don't think anyone had even looked.  Thank goodness!
Right before we crossed into Iowa I realized we were pretty close to the Winter Quarter's temple so we took a detour and went and found it.

It was beautiful.  There is also a pioneer graveyard right by it.  We walked around it too.  It was very peaceful.

 

Right after that little detour we entered Iowa.  I think Iowa has more corn than Nebraska does.  It also had very picturesque farms along the road.
That evening about 6 pm we made it to Nauvoo, IL.  We teased my Mom and told her we had gotten a late start so she wasn't expecting us as soon as we got there.  Her and Neal had the night off.  So they fed us dinner and then drove us around Nauvoo.  I wish I could have taken pictures of the firefly's.  I love them, they fascinate me!  In fact we hit one in the car and the guts glowed on the windshield for a minute.  Only bug I felt bad about killing. 

The mighty Mississippi at sunset.

They also took us to get frozen custard in town.  It was delicious!  My Mom was so excited to introduce us to the owner of the custard shop.  There also happened to be other missionaries there that they were happy to have us meet.  My Mom and Step Dad live in a little fifth wheel trailer so they had arranged for us to stay at a house of some people they know.  The people had a basement with two bedrooms, bathroom and a separate entrance they would leave open for us.  It was very nice. 
Friday, July 15th, my Mom and Neal were busy so Jeff and I went to Carthage.  The minute we stepped out of the car I could feel the spirit there.  We of course took the tour so we got to see the jail and the room where Joseph Smith was last alive.  It really did make everything I have heard since I was little a lot more real.

Before going back to Nauvoo we drove into Warsaw.  Back in Joseph Smith's times they had a printing press there.  It was putting out anti-Mormon publications.  I heard that one of the church leaders told them they would never prosper.  The printing press and most of the main street looks abandoned.  It is kind of a dumpy little town.  Jeff also wanted to drive into Missouri so that he could say he had been there.  After we got back from Carthage and ate lunch we went to a show called "High Hopes and Riverboats" that was put on by the Young Performing Missionaries.  It was really cute.  Then we met my Mom and Neal in the grove where the guy who plays Joseph Smith in the pageant gave part of the King Follett sermon.  He was dressed in character and it felt like I was there. 

That night we got to see "Rendezvous".  It is the cute little play that the older missionaries perform.  We of course saw the one that my Mom and Neal were stars in.  I loved it!!

We were lucky enough to get pictures with some of the cast. :)

This was their big scene as Jed and Annie.

Jed is not a member of the church and Annie doesn't want to date him because of some of his ways.  Anyway they find out that saints need to leave Nauvoo and Jed realizes that he is on the saints side.  

Here the men are singing "We'll leave willingly, because we have to"

Saturday, July 16th was my Mom and Neal's P-Day, so they hung out with us all day.  It was nice.  We went to their trailer for breakfast.  Then we went and took a tour of the buildings that the Community of Christ church still owns.  It was a good tour.  We are pretty sure that the our tour guide was a member of our church which I think was a benefit to us.  He was very diplomatic in how he presented the information.  The Community of Christ owns the Nauvoo house, the Mansion house, Joseph and Emma's first house in Nauvoo, Joseph, Emma and Hyrum's graves and the Red Brick store.  Jeff was mad that they own those sites but they are doing a good job at preserving them.  It is thanks to them the graves are there at all.  Emma had hidden Joseph and Hyrum's bodies and they found them and created the memorials.
Following that tour we were able to go to a little vignette that some of the pageant performers did.  It was John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and others that talked about the missions that they were called on and the sacrifices made.  I felt like I was back in time.  It was so touching.  The spirit was so strong and it brought tears to my eyes. 
After that we went and did a session at the the temple.  It is a beautiful building inside and out.

Later that evening we got to see the other show that my Mom and Neal are in.  It is called Sunset and it is a series of little skits that the older couples and the young performing missionaries do together. 

I loved this one too!!  It was so cute and a lot of fun.  Then it was time to go to the pageant.  There was a lot of people there.  I ran into a guy that used to be in my singles ward in Cedar City.  That was pretty random.  The Pageant was so so good.  I never wanted to go to Nauvoo in the middle of the summer because of the heat and the humidity.  But I am so glad I got to see all the extra stuff that they have going on during July.
Sunday July 17th we went to church with my Mom and Neal.  They only have sacrament meeting.  I could get on board with that except it is at 8 am.   They had a visiting authority that we got to hear speak.  It was Elder Costa from the Presidency of the Seventy.  After church we went and walked around the women's garden that is right by the visitor's center.  It is really pretty.

After that we went back to my Mom and Neal's trailer and they made us brunch.  Then it was time to hook the trailer back up and head back out.  Is was really hard to leave. 
We drove all the way through Illinois and Indiana that day.  We were still seeing a lot of corn and soybeans.  Somewhere in Ohio we ate at a yummy Italian place and we stopped for the night in Mansfield, Ohio.  We stayed at a Fairfield  Inn.  I only mention this because it was way nicer than the place we stayed the first night and my bed was so comfortable!  It was the best sleep I had had the whole trip thus far.  
Monday, July 18th we drove some more.  When we got to Pennsylvania we made it a

A Tourist in My Own Home Town

Last weekend I took my friends Erin and Libby to Orderville to celebrate the 4th of July.  We went Friday and slept at my sisters house.  Then bright and early Saturday morning we got up and went to the annual Orderville town breakfast.  My dad was the mayor of Orderville for sixteen years and I think he was the one that started that tradition. I love it!   The 4th of July after my Dad passed away the park was dedicated and named after him.  

Then we went to Glendale for the parade.  My sister did a float in honor of my Grandpa Goulding who served in World War II.  We helped her make the banners the night before.

That's right, that is me on there.  My sister, her kids, my Grandma and one of my cousin's kids were on there too.  My sister's oldest was dressed in one of my Grandpa's old uniforms.

I know you can't see the signs very well but if you could you would see that they look really great! :)

Then we decided to visit some tourist attractions.  Our first stop was this "Rock Stop".  It is not even a mile from my house and I don't think I have ever been inside. I didn't know the guy that owns it.  He asked where we were from and it was kind of funny to tell him born and raised right there.  He told us a little bit about the history of the place.  A guy by the name of Elbert Porter built it along with some dinosaur replica's.  They were all in  Orderville until the late 70's when someone, maybe the state of Utah, bought them and moved them to Vernal and now they are part of the dinosaur museum there.  My sister still remembers when they moved them on flatbed diesels.  I had heard a little bit about that all before.  In fact I told a guy I know from Vernal that those dinosaurs used to be in Orderville and he made fun of me thinking I was just trying to be a one upper.

Then we decided to go to Moqui Cave.  I have passed it countless times in my life and I think I have been there once.  It cost five dollars to go in.  We decided to try it out.  It had been a really long time since I was there.  I really didn't remember anything about it.  It was pretty cheesy but we had fun.  They have some dinosaur tracks and some rocks that glow under UV lights.  One thing I thought was kind of cool is they told us it actually used to be a dance hall and bar.

Then we went back to the park and bought lunch.  There was a soup contest and we decided to help judge.  Libby loved it!  There were some pretty good soups.  Orderville's nick name was soup town back in the day. There is a lady who has bought some of the older buildings along main street. One of them is now the Soup Town cafe and the one next to it has a replica of what the town looked like during the United Order.  So we went and checked that out. 

Lastly, we took a detour into Alton and not only did they get to see the little beautiful town but they got to see the Whoa sign.  There used to be more but I think this is the only one left.  
I really did feel kind of like a tourist since we visited some places I had never been. I don't know about my friends but I had a good time.  I hope they did too.

Good Times in SLC

Last Thursday, June 17th, I went to Salt Lake to take my brother's car to him. I had a fun trip! I stopped in Provo and had lunch with my friend Kelly who I probably haven't seen for a couple years. It was so good to catch up with her. She recently got engaged so we had a lot to talk about. Then I headed the rest of the way to my brother's house. As you can see from the picture above my niece was excited to see me!! She is almost ten months old and I wasn't sure if she would even remember me but she did! As soon as she saw me she started kicking her legs and waving her hands. She wouldn't let me put her down for the first 45 minutes I was there. She has recently started crawling and I wanted to see it but she just wanted me to hold her. She kept smiling at me and putting her head on my chest. She missed me! I had missed her too, a lot!
My friend Natalie came down from North Ogden that night and after we went to dinner with my bro and his fam she took me back to her house. We of course stayed up late talking. The next morning we made the delicious tarts that we found a recipe for. (We made then last time she was at my house.) Then we had a fun filled day of shopping. I found some clothes I had been coveting online. :)
Later that night we met my cousin Carson and his wife Kori and their adorable little boy Cayson at a Chinese restaurant that my brother loves. He told me that he was almost as excited to eat there as he was that I came up. He decided he was 49% excited about David's Kitchen (doesn't sound Chinese, I know, but it is) and 51% excited about me being there. He is such a nice brother. It was a lot of fun to see Carson, Kori and Cayson. Cayson is two and full of energy. He looks so much like Carson and his brothers that I feel like I know him even though I don't see him a lot. He treated me like we were buddies and I loved it. He is a cutie! The food was pretty darn good too.


Natalie and I both slept at my brother's house and the next morning we babysat while my brother and his wife went to the temple. The outfit she has on is one I couldn't resist buying for her. She looked so cute in it.
After that Natalie and I drove down to the Draper Temple and did a session there. It was neat to be able to go to one of the newer Temples. I didn't know but it is actually one of the small temples. It was very beautiful inside, of course.
I have a friend that lives really close to it and I wanted to see her too. She wasn't answering my phone calls. So after I called my friend Bev to make sure I had the right number (thanks Bev!) I sent her a threatening text message. :) She got back to me and we were able to go to dinner together. I love that I got to reconnect with so many people on this trip!
I went to church with my bro and then after a sad parting from the little one my brother drove me down to meet my friend Libby for my ride home.
It was a great weekend and I think I will be making that trip a lot more than I have in the past. I can't let my niece forget her favorite aunt, now can I?

Arches Blows!

Erin, Laura and I went to Blanding last weekend because our former roommate Ida got married and we wanted to attend her reception. On our way there we stopped in Moab and hiked to the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. It was a fun hike but the wind was blowing like you wouldn't believe! There were times that the wind almost knocked you off your feet. I told my friends that it was the only time I have been grateful for how much I weigh. :)

That is the three of us under there if you can't tell. It was really windy under there. I was a little nervous we were going to blow off the edge.

This first one is a picture of what is called the Three Gossips which we kind of thought was appropriate for the theme of our trip. :) It was a pretty day except for the wind. Laura said that the wind was almost comical which was true. We just decided to laugh about it since there wasn't anything we could do about it. When we got back in the car we could feel just how dirty we were. If you scratched your scalp, your fingernails were full of dirt. It was gross.

After the hike we went the rest of the way to Blanding. We stayed with one of Laura's friends there. They fixed us dinner and then we went to the reception.

 

Ida looked Beautiful! The guy she married seems very nice. We of course didn't get to talk to her for very long.

On the way home we went through Wayne County. We stopped a couple times and took a detour. The detour was down a dirt road that was a boat dock to Lake Powell. When we got down there we realized the reason the road and sign wasn't kept up. We couldn't find the water. I guess that one hasn't been functioning for a few years. We stopped my car in the middle of this bridge (there was nothing coming) and threw rocks into the Colorado river. (I think it was the Colorado)

These are petroglyphs in Capital Reef. They were pretty cool and came at a time when it was good to get out of the car again. We had a fun weekend. It has been a while since just the three of us spent that much time together. I really haven't left town much this year and it was a good little road trip!