some lessons learned.

Some things that have been on my mind lately.  All true stories.

1.  A strut is always followed by a stumble.

2.  A couple of minutes in computer time is four hours in real time.

3.  If you fight the law, the law will win.

4.  Karma.  It can be your BFF or your worst nightmare.

5.  There are few things in life better than ice cream.

6.  No drink is good enough to cost $12 dollars.  That's a 1/3 a tank of gas, 2 meals, or a whole lotta farmer's market products.

7.  Laughter is good medicine.  But so is the beach.

tasty food, good company, and the Y.

It is about time I finish my blog update on my trip out West. And a great trip it was. All in all I was there from Sunday to Sunday. I flew in and my sister picked me up. We hit up a local Sacrament meeting and then headed to my cousins' ranch. My home away from home. I LOVE it there. It is so peaceful and I love spending time with my family. Here are some pics of the view from the bridge and the room where Em, Mo, and I slept. When I say slept... it was more like passed out. You go to the ranch and you get really really good sleep.

And while we were there we got spoiled. Jenny made some of our favorite foods. And to top it off she made the most scrumptious desserts. Our last night there she made strawberry shortcake with homemade whip cream and these gigantic sugar cookies. They were the size of our heads. No lie.

After a couple days we had to head back to Provo so Em could take her last final before graduation. Pobrecita. On the way back I took lots of pics from the car. I might be a little obsessed with scenery while driving. It's just so beautiful and so unique. The mountains along the road out of Wyoming and into Utah look like they should have a Native American chief atop a horse right on the peak. I always look up to check just in case.

While in Provo I got to visit with old friends.  Dinah and I met up at had Mexican... Cafe Rio.  Thinking the name of the restaurant makes me drool.  I spent time with her adorable kids and her cute little pregnant belly.  And then, as if I wasn't lucky enough to see her pregnant she had her baby while I was there too!

I also got to visit some other old friends, including my dear mission comp Emili.  Sadly I didn't get a pic of that visit, but it was such a fun time.  And doubly sad, I didn't get to see everyone I had planned on seeing.  I just didn't have enough time.  Hopefully it won't be too long before I can have another fun vacation there.  

While there we as a family had decided to hike the Y, since me, Em, and dad had all gone to school there but none of us had ever before made the trek.  We spent all day moving Em out of her apartment, she lived on the 3rd floor (that's not including the stairwell to the garage).  Like that wasn't exhausting enough.  Em took us to J-Dawgs for lunch.  It was really tasty.  Up to that point I was a J-Dawgs virgin.  Then it was time to hike the Y.  I'm not gonna lie, that trek kicked my butt.  That may or may not have to do with me being out of shape but we all collectively decided to blame it on the "altitude".  It was hard but so fun.  I'm so grateful for the chance to spend time with my sister and parents.  We had a lot of good conversation and lots of good laughs.  Here are some pics of our journey.

And finally, here are some last minute sights of Provo, in case you haven't been overloaded by this post already.  Here goes.

The end.