Fall Break 2023

For the past three years for my birthday, I've asked for BYU football tickets for my birthday. Two years ago Andrew and I went to Georgia Southern. Last year I went to Liberty with my friends. This year, the only game that was in our neck of the woods was in West Virginia. And it was the same weekend as stake conference, so I felt like I shouldn't dog Andrew. INSTEAD, I asked for tickets to a game IN PROVO. We looked up Caroline's fall break schedule and found out that they were playing Texas Tech at home for their Homecoming game. Yippee!! So, he got me two tickets and we all headed back to Utah for fall break again.

I fly infrequently enough that I'm still

in awe of the clouds and landscapes from above. :)

We flew into Vegas.

B drove down and met us there. He and Andrew stayed

together in a hotel that night.

C and I drove up to St George and got in WAYYYYY too late.

It was probably not safe for me to make that drive. :0

But I did it anyway... And we survived.

A little glimpse of the lights in Vegas.

On Saturday, the girls had the day to spend together.

Yay!

Farmers markets it is!

It happened to be a time of an eclipse.

Luckily, some nice people let us borrow their

eclipse glasses and we got to watch it.

Love it.

New earrings.

We stopped at three different markets and had such a great time together.

This one at Tuacahn was my favorite.

Look at those surroundings!

We had to try the Potato Tornado!

It was tasty.

Vintage jewelry--one of W's happy places

You probably can't see it in the pic, but a

roadrunner ran across the road right in front of us.

Yes!

The market at Kayenta had churros.

We stopped by Whit's apartment.

She's into crocheting these collars right now.

She has a ton of them and they are so pretty!

Isn't this one perfect for Halloween?

While the girls were hanging out,

the boys were down in Vegas at SpeedVegas.

B got to race this Porsche around the track.

He had downloaded the track on one of his games

and practiced at home before coming.

He did awesome and loved it so much!

First place for the day!

When they were done racing,

they met us back in St George so we could

go to the temple open house.

It was so wonderful to be with all my kids in the temple!

It is GORGEOUS and the artwork is SO

southwest. I would love to go back and do

ordinances there.

Then it was out to dinner at a Japanese place.

Super yummy.

And then Fiesta Fun.

The kids did a haunted house there that they said was pretty good.

Andrew and I coin pushed. :)

The loot.

On Sunday, we went to church and then Brandon took 

us to Kolob, part of Zions that's a little less traveled, I think.

We went on a little nature walk.

It was a gorgeous day and so fun to be together.

That red rock!

We went back to our Airbnb, got changed, and then 

B took our family photos at Snow Canyon.

He did AMAZING and I'll post those separately.

But here's a couple snapshots we took.

Andrew took this one and I love it.

Then I made us Navajo Tacos at the Airbnb and we played games

until the big kids had to head home. So happy we could

have them for a few days!

Our Airbnb was super cute and we loved it.

Aren't these Halloween decorations adorable?

While we were in St George, we decided

to have Care Bear do a college tour of Utah Tech.

Part of it included the Human Performance Center (HPC)

B still holds the speed climbing record!

After her tour, we headed up to the Wasatch Front.

We stopped in Parowan at the Parowan Cafe to get lunch.

Such a perfect little small town restaurant.

Then we headed to Utah Valley U to do another tour.

They didn't have any guided tours available at that time,

so we did a self-guided one.

These stained glass windows near the library are THE BEST!

They are called the "Roots of Knowledge" and it's so 

fun to look through all the panels.

After UVU, we headed to BYU. Yippee!

It sucks that our kids our so anti-BYU.

Andrew and I had such a good experience there.

And the value for the level of education you get is unbeatable.

Alas, our kids refuse to go there. :(

They had a homecoming devotional show with

lots of AMAZING performers: the marching band,

cougarettes, and international ballroom dancers.

Oh my gosh, I loved it so much.

Mint brownie chocolate milk????

Yes, please!

We also did an official BYU tour.

Caroline humored us. :)

But she wouldn't let me take her picture. Ha!

Then we got to sit in on one of Tony's religion classes.

I tried to slyly sneak a pic.

He's such a great teacher.

What a treat.

Cindy met us there, too.

Then we all went out to lunch at Brick Oven,

the restaurant we used to smell every day when we lived

at BYU, but couldn't afford to eat there.

On our way to Andrew's parents' house,

we drove the Alpine loop.

Last year when we came, we timed it

just right to have the peak colors.

We were just past the peak this year.

But still enjoyed our drive.

And still caught a few awesome trees.

We found a cute little mouse on the path.

Something was wrong with it.

Caroline gingerly picked it up and moved it off the trail.

So beautiful!

Ang and Forr invited us over for dinner one night.

We got to enjoy their lovely backyard and cool firepit table.

One morning Andrew and I went to TopGolf.

We had a great time.

I signed Caroline up for a private lesson at an 

aerial studio there.

The teacher was awesome and C had a great lesson.

I couldn't believe how hard she pushed in that hour!

Learned some cool new shapes.

We also stopped by our favorite little French

store in Draper, La Petit Maison.

I wanted to buy all of these for Whit.

And half of these.

I'm not the biggest shopper, but that 

store makes me want to buy everything.

Luckily we flew, so we were limited on space.

And their stuff is expensive.

These little book-diorama-miniatures were amazing.

And we love smelling the $200 candles.

And we always have to get a pic of Grandma and C

in front of the sycamore tree outside.

We also met Erik and Heidi downtown one night for dinner.

I love them! We have such a good time together.

They were hoping to come out to NC for a Highland games

this spring, but it fell through. Hopefully we can hangout again soon.

One of mom and dad's neighbors had a 

Buc-ee Halloween inflatable in their

yard. What the heck?! Love it.

Another day we met Amy up in northern Utah 

to go birding at the Bear River Bird Refuge.

It was so fun!

There were great birds everywhere.

But we took too long and made Amy late to

pick up her girls from school. oops. 

Great Blue Heron in the middle of the road.

Hi, buddy!

I didn't have my zoom camera, so not 

a lot of pics of the actual birds, but here are some 

that we saw: Northern Shoveler, Western Grebe,

American Coot, American Avocet, White-faced Ibis,

and Northern Harrier.

Stopped for lunch in Brigham City at a super cute

restaurant, Idle Isle Cafe.

One morning Angie came over and we got to go

walking together. Ahhh, just the good ol days before

she moved 2000 miles away!

We were having a get together with the extended family

on Friday night at mom and dad's house, so B drove

up from St. George to be there.

We stopped at K1 Speed and raced go-karts.

I'm pretty good at video game racing, so I feel like I

should be good at go-karts. But I'm not. I think all 

my wrecks as a teenager have left me traumatized

and unable to take the corners as fast as you're supposed

to take them. But Andrew and B are good!

I reserved a spot at the Draper Temple for the cousins to do

baptisms. It was so special to be in the temple with family.

I'm so happy we made time for that.

We had a big dinner that night at Mom and Dad's.

This was the only picture I got... Lame.

But the Huishes came down and Tony and Cindy came up.

And it was so fun to see everyone!

Even if it was super short.

Lauren and Zac came up, so we got to meet

baby Maddox, our first great-nephew.

So cute and snuggly!

Meanwhile, Caroline has B in a choke hold in the hall. Ha!

I'm pretty sure Andrew and Dennis

got to go golfing together...

but I'm forgetting now.

Care Bear, Grandma and I got to do an escape room together.

It was one of my favorites we've ever done!

It was carnival/circus themed and the games to unlock clues were so fun, including this one

right behind us in the picture that made us feel like we were on Survivor! We actually were on the very last clue and didn't QUITE escape, but the guy let us take a pic with the "We Escaped" sign anyway. We were so close! And this was Grandma's first escape room experience. (She liked it so much that she took Amy's family and B back to do it again at Thanksgiving.)

And then it was time for the BIG game! Barb is my BYU football buddy. We're both superfans. And if we're both watching the games on TV, we'll text back and forth throughout the game. It is SO much fun.

I was so happy that she could come with me to a game in Provo!

Neither of us had been to a game there in YEARS.

Since I'm completely unfamiliar with how the parking would 

work for a game. And I was afraid it would involve LONG walks,

we decided to take Trax down to the stadium.

It worked out perfectly!

No stressful traffic to drive in and a quick and easy commute.

It was the PERFECT day for a football game.

We shared a delicious Cougar Tail.

I love this pic!

I got us matching Cougars shirts for her bday last year.

Look at that view!

Oh my gosh. Lavell Edwards Stadium is spectacular.

And the environment is ELECTRIC.

I didn't get any pictures or videos of the actual game.

I was too busy watching and cheering.

But here are a couple of snippets before the game started.

This was BYU's first season in the Big XII conference.

And it was a big step up in competition, especially in football.

So we knew there would be a few years of growing pains.

The halftime show was spectacular.

It was video game-based, which was so fun.

They played the themes from Mario Bros and Tetris.

At one point, Cosmo the Cougar and the Texas Tech Raider

were racing each other around the field in golf carts 

to a MarioKart racing soundtrack.

So fun.

This was right before the 4th quarter started.

Hype!

It was a GREAT game and

WE WON!!!

It was so exciting and memorable.

It will be a core memory for me.

So happy to have shared the evening with my fellow Cougar Fan!

And the next morning, it was time to fly home.

So grateful for this time we had with family and friends. Such a fun break from our normal routines.