weekend getaway

This is officially my longest post ever. Brace yourself or skip a lot!

A couple of weekends ago Steve and I were able to ditch the kids to visit his family who live near the Oregon/Idaho border.

I make it sound like it was no big deal leaving the kids with my parents but really as much as I needed this break from the kids I cried in the airport as my dad drove away with them; it's just plain hard for me to say goodbye. I got over it fast though, and hopped on a plane to meet my hubby in Vegas.

We spent Thursday night in Vegas. Together. Alone. We had dinner, walked the strip, and window shopped. We also stopped in the Ghiradelli Store (a.k.a. heaven). That is a must-do whenever we travel: find the nearest chocolate store. Ghiradelli is a mighty fine chocolate store.

Friday morning our flight was pretty early, and well...we missed it. Long story short, we flew into Bozeman, MT and drove eight and a half hours to our destination in Oregon.

A shot of the strip as we flew away. It's not all that impressive from up here...
This post will bring light to one of my weaknesses that I've mentioned here before: I don't like taking pictures of people. I don't like to make people uncomfortable or force them to do something they don't want to do(or at least in my mind that's their opinion).

Don't be surprised by the number of landscape vs. people pictures.

The view just moments after hitting the road in Bozeman. ROAD TRIP!

A beautiful stream/river that ran along the side of the highway for some time.


We even drove through a part of Yellowstone National Park.

No sign of Yogi (or any other bears). Must have been too cold.




As we drove through Idaho we passed all three of the temples. First up was Rexburg,


Then Idaho Falls (we were too far from it to produce a reasonable picture),

and lastly, Boise


Now for some people shots. These are from Saturday night, as we joined the family at Kelsie's b-day party which was held at Aunt Judy and Uncle Steve's place in Oregon. Super people.


Notice these are candid shots that I thought I was being pretty sly about taking. I'm sure they were all thinking "Why is that crazy Fresno State girl taking pictures of the side of our heads?"

Did I forget to mention the whole family up there are very enthusiastic Boise State fans? Yeah, that was kind of jarring in the beginning, but I was able to look past that little detail...kind of.



There was snow everywhere. I was really worried about freezing my tush off, but it wasn't that bad. I managed and it was beautiful.


This was an attempt to take a picture of it snowing. It didn't work so well, but I was captivated, as it was the second time I had seen it snow (in my life). Absolutely beautiful. This is a shot off the back porch of Steve & Judy's place.


Ah! More people...I took this as we were getting ready to leave and I thought "It's now or never lady! Snap some pictures!" Meet Jim and Cami, and their mother Judy (Steve's cousins and Aunt).
There's Grandma Nomie and Uncle Steve. There were three Steves hanging out that weekend. It made it kinda easy to remember names. Uncle Steve here is one funny guy.

And the reason for the whole trip...Grandpa. He's not doing so well, so Steve (Steve's dad; yes, the poor man I sent the suggestive email to) thought it would be a good idea to make an effort to see him as time could soon be an issue.


It was a lot of fun getting to know a little bit about Steve's grandfather. I loved listening to everyone reminiscing the good ol' days and explaining some of grandpa's behaviors. One of my favorites that we got to experience was him singing. When I say sing, I mean sing. The man could belt it out, and it sounded pretty good too! Apparently it's also a good way to pick up the ladies...

Gotta add some estrogen to the frame; me and Sylvia joined the group:


It was touching to see how much love is shown and shared amongst the family there. All ages go to visit Grandpa on a daily basis, and they love doing it. They tease and talk with him and love him. He is one lucky man.

We were very lucky too. Not one moment of the visit was uncomfortable, weird, or awkward (ok, maybe it was a little awkward when I asked a 24 year old cousin what grade she was in, but that was my own doing). To spend time with Steve's family (for the first time) was awesome. I am so glad we made the long and crazy trip. And while it was good for me to have a weekend without the kids I was kinda sad they weren't there to meet everyone too. I have a feeling everyone would have liked us more having met our adorable offspring. It just seems to work like that.

I really enjoy flying, and I hope that our immediate family will be able to do some traveling in the future. I snapped some shots on the flight home to show the kids what it looked like to be above the clouds

and to be in between them

You know it's gonna be a good day when you land and there's a rainbow. Good stuff.

That's it!

I'm beat.