Idaho/Utah Trip!! (8/17-21/11)

(Pictures will be added shortly!)

So we took a trip to Idaho and Utah in August because Sean's baby sister, Brianne, got married!!!  Unfortunately, not many pictures were taken because this is where my camera was misplaced. :(  But I have "borrowed" a few photos from Facebook to show.  Anyway, so Sean, Owen and I drove through the night on the 17th.  I think night drives are the way to go since Owen fell asleep after about 3 hours into the drive and was out for about 7 hours!  About 2 hours into the drive, the started getting upset and yelled, "I wanna go home!" Haha, well, that didn't happen.  Anyway, once we arrived it was just family hang out time.  We stayed with Sean's parents (Rod/Papa and Linda/Nana), which was really nice because we hadn't seen them in a while.  Owen had so much fun playing cars with his Papa.  They played for hours!  Nana and Papa had a nice collection of new toys for him when we arrived, so Owen was pretty excited.  Sean went to bed when we arrived since he did all the driving that evening.  I, however, did not.  I stayed up and hung out with Brianne and Nana for a while before Landen (Brianne's fiance at this point) arrived. After an afternoon of relaxing and fun, we went to Rod's sister's house for a BBQ with the Mattson side of the family.  That was really nice to catch up with everyone.  I really only met a few of them once, maybe twice, before then. 

(I'll insert a picture here later...it's still on Sean's phone)

The next day was Brianne's endowment day!  We all went to the Idaho Falls temple.  Brook (Sean's other sister) took Owen to the zoo while we were with Brianne.  The temple was so nice.  What a wonderful blessing and amazing experience it is to see someone enter the Lord's house and make promises for the first time. :)  As for the zoo, Owen had fun with his Aunt Brokie!  She bought him some goodies and they just had a good time together.  (Unfortunately, no pictures from this.)  After the temple, we all went to lunch with Landen's parents and the Fawcett side of the family (Sean's mom's side).  That was really fun to catch up with cousins and just spend time with them. (Again, no pictures.)  After lunch it was time for Brianne's bridals!  I was asked to do her hair for her wedding, so it was really fun to get her all dolled up and in her wedding dress a few days early.  She looked so stunning!  Her cousin Courtney took the pictures. She is amazing at photography!  I'm sure she was getting annoyed with me and my suggestions as I was following her around.  But everything turned out great and she was able to get some beautiful pictures before the sun set.

Ok, so Friday we drove up to Utah to decorate the church for the reception.  Seth and Julie flew in this day also.  Decorating was very...interesting.  It started out completely unorganized, but ended beautifully!  The place looked great and everything was ready for the big day.  That evening we went to Landen's family's house for a BBQ.  His family is so great!  Plus, the have the most amazing grass my feet have ever felt!! Haha.  Landen has a nephew that is Owen's age, so it was nice that he had a buddy to play with.  He had so much fun!  It was really nice to see and meet the family Brianne is marrying into...what great people.  I can't wait to see them all again.  (You guessed it, no pictures again.)

Saturday was wedding day!  That morning was a little hectic.  I burned Brianne's ear and made her cry...I think it was the combination of the burn and the stress all at once.  Then after Brianne was ready, I did Julie's hair.  Then after she was done, I had 15 minutes to get ready!!! Luckily my hair was in curlers and just needed to be pulled back, so it wasn't too bad.  We were off to the temple!  Brook was suppose to watch Owen for us, but she wasn't there when it was time to go in. So we had Sean's other cousin Emily watch him.  He was a little upset at first, but once they started playing and going outside, he was fine.  The sealing was so beautiful!  Brianne and Landen looked so happy.  It brought back memories from when Sean and I were sealed for all time and eternity.  What a wonderful blessing it is knowing that you will be with your spouse forever, and not just until death.  After the sealing, I helped Brianne get ready for her big debut!  Her and Landen looked just perfect when they exited the temple!  So happy and in love.  Lots of pictures were taken (their Uncle Shane took the wedding ones...they look amazing!) and then it was time for lunch!  We went to a luncheon and there was a ring ceremony held for those who were not able to attend the sealing in the temple.  It was really nice.  Owen fell asleep for the entire luncheon!  Thank goodness, because he was so cranky at this point. After the luncheon, we all went our separate ways for a little while and waited for the reception to begin.  Family had to arrive early for pictures, but they were fun to take.  I also had to get there a little early to get Brianne ready again.  She wanted her hair all up for this part, so I just needed to fix that.  She looked beautiful.  The reception was great!  Everyone loved the decorations and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Owen was really happy that the candy bowls were right up front.  He kept running over and taking handfuls. Haha. After the reception, clean up went smoothly and quick! We were back at our hotel no later than 9:00pm.  We just hung out with Seth, Julie, Courtney and Eric until we were tired.  Then we went to bed and got ready for our long drive ahead of us. 

The next day was our departure day.  I was up super early, got ready, packed the car, got Owen ready and was just ready to go way before anyone else woke up. Haha.  After everyone else was ready, we packed the car and had breakfast with Nana and Papa (Sean's parents).  It was great to hang out and spend some alone time with them not stressing about wedding stuff.  It was also sad so say good-bye.  I love our visits with them and wish we were able to see them more.  But it was time to go and get back to reality.  Our drive went really well...except for one part...Owen decided to throw up in the middle of Nevada! It was absolutely disgusting, but the poor little guy just didn't feel good.  I think his food didn't settle, because after he threw up he said, "I feel better now." Haha.  We didn't have anything to clean the car with.  All we had were two water bottles and a soda...so we were rinsing everything we could off with that.  Then we drove to the nearest gas station and got the rest of it cleaned up.  After that, our drive continued.  We didn't get home too late that night.  We got things unpacked and it was off to bed.

The trip was so much fun.  I wish we could take more of them.  It was so great to see Brianne and Landen get married and to see all the family again.  We definitely learned a lot about family road trips from this trip and will hopefully remember those things for our next one. :)