That one time I spent 12 hours in Beaver

This is Raegan. She is one of my best friends and she came to visit me this week. I only wish it had been under better circumstances. Let me elaborate. 

She came down on Tuesday night (12 hours post car accident-another post for another day) and she had every intention of being home by Wednesday afternoon/evening at the very latest. Hah...if only we had known the week that was in store for us. 

Background: Her family goes to Lake Powell every year for a week or so, and Raegan and Jeff (her husband) were headed down from Rexburg to meet up in Powell with her family. Long story VERY short, her car broke down in Beaver, UT. Not exactly the middle of nowhere, but basically as close as you can get to hillbilly land and still be right off the freeway. Her car had to get towed to the auto repair shop a mile down the road, got a rental car, and headed off to Powell. Fast forward one month, and Raegan stayed at our house and I was going to go down with her to pick up her car from the auto shop and drop off the rental car in Cedar City. Now, if everything had gone according to plan, we would have left Wednesday early morning, picked up her car from the shop, dropped off the rental in Cedar, and been home by 2 in the afternoon, and Raegan would have been home in Rexburg by that evening. Simple enough, right?

Tuesday night: call the auto shop, car is still not done. The mechanic said it would hopefully be done by Wednesday afternoon. Okay, not ideal in the least, but we could deal with it. 

Wednesday morning: car definitely won't be done today. Raegan has to figure out how to reschedule some assignments with her teachers. 

Wednesday night: car may be done by tomorrow morning, the mechanic said he would stay late that night and work on it, but he is the only one who can drive the tow truck to pick up stranded cars

Since we weren't leaving on Wednesday, Raegan and I went to DI to look for some colored suspenders for the colored run that she and Jeff are supposed to run in at midnight tonight. No such luck, unfortunately. We got some Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner, and just prayed that the car would be done on Thursday. Raegan had to be back, there was absolutely no way she could miss all of Friday too. Frustrated is a good word for Wednesday.

Thursday morning: called the mechanic, and he said he could maybe have it done today. She basically told him (in really the NICEST way possible) that she had to pick up the car today and could not pick it up any other time for another 2-3 weeks. We left on a whim and serious act of faith. 

We got to Beaver around 2:30 on Thursday afternoon and the car wasn't done. No surprise there, but the mechanic gave us a car that he had just rebuilt the engine on. He needed miles on it, and we needed to return the rental car. So we headed off to Cedar City. *Side note: we couldn't let the rpm's on the new engine go over 3000. We drove SLOW the entire way to Cedar City. Longest 50 miles of my life.

  

We stopped and got some lunch/dinner before we headed back to Beaver. We stopped at McD's for old times sake and ordered hot n' spicy's. So good and gross at the same time.

We turned around and made the long 50 mile drive back to Beaver. So it's been probably 2 hours now, and the car still isn't done. Oh my gosh. The mechanic told us to go drive around Beaver, see the town, and he would call us when the car was done. We saw the great town of Beaver...it took all of about 5 minutes. There were some pretty sights though. 

This was a little ways up the canyon in Beaver. A rain storm was moving in, and it made the views pretty breath-taking.

I love love love the American flag. I always feel so much pride and gratitude and joy in my country whenever I see it. I loved the look of it blowing in the wind and the storm clouds moving in overhead. This was in the parking lot at the National Guard building in Beaver.

This statue was in front of the post office and is a memorial that's dedicated to all the people from Beaver that served in WWII. 

2 hours of meandering through Beaver, we head back to auto shop and we were both basically at a loss for what to do. It's probably 7:30 by this time, and we had both planned on being home by now. There is a bench that sits in front of the auto shop and Raegan and I sat on that bench for probably 3 hours waiting for her car. The storm clouds (I really was obsessed with the clouds yesterday) were beautiful though, especially with the sunlight breaking through them. 

We talked about everything, literally everything. You name a topic, we talked about it at some point during the day. Finally, our butts were so numb from sitting on the bench for so long, we got up and walked around for a few minutes. I made Raegan stand next to the tow truck and take a picture to commemorate this lovely adventure we were on.

So it's 11:30 now. We are exhausted, bordering on slap happy. The car is finally down from the rafters, and they are getting ready to turn the car on. Moment of truth... and it starts. Halle{freaking}lujah. Now it was a matter of loading the old engine into her car. She needed to take it back to the yard she bought the new engine from to get $150 back. It was an entertaining experience to say the least, and we really almost just left without the dang engine. 

Her car was weighed down so much by that old engine. Oh man Izzy was a LOW RIDER that evening. The mechanic had to go pick up a stranded car about a mile up the highway, and then he would be back and we would get the paperwork done and we'd be off on our merry way. We drove her car around to make sure the engine was working, and came back to the shop, filled up with gas, and washed the windshield. This was probably the icing on the cake. One of her dang windshield wipers broke. 

Okay, so it didn't exactly break, but I could not figure out how to clip it back onto the wiper. So annoying! 

We were finally on our merry way home by 12:30. Longest 2 hours of my life. Raegan and I were both so tired and we talked to keep each other awake, but holy cow it was almost exhausting to keep conversation going. We really ran out of things to talk about. Probably never happened in our lives, and I'm sure it was mostly to do with the lack of sleep and frustration from the days events.

We finally made it home at an exhausting hour: 2:30 am, and we rolled into bed. I was so tired that it was almost difficult to fall asleep. Raegan left this morning and finally made it back to Rexburg by 4 ish this afternoon. So much for a quick trip, but thankfully, Izzy made it back to Rexburg in one piece. 

The next time I see Beaver, UT again...it will be too soon.

Lessons learned from this lovely experience:

1. Interference engines need to have their timing belts replaced

2. Auto mechanics are always running late

3. Driving home at 2 am is rough...

4. If you're going to be stuck in Beaver at a gas station for 6+ hours, you might as well be stuck with your best friend. 

The CUTEST brother ever

My mom and my brother came up 2 weeks ago to help Caitlin move in and to go to a funeral. This cute little brother of mine has quite the knack for having a quick wit and making smart comments that, from his 11 year old mouth, are actually quite hilarious.

This picture is from our Nauvoo trip-we were across the Mississippi from Nauvoo in a town called Montrose, IA.

Dan took Ethan fishing when they were here. Ethan has been so excited to go fishing for so long and I always felt so bad because it just never happened when they have been here in the past. Thankfully, this time it happened!! Dan was telling me that on the first try, Ethan cast the line straight into a tree. Poor kid. They didn't have a lot of time (we had to go to my Gramma's house for dessert that night), but Dan was able to teach Ethan how to tie the hook on the line. I guess they had a good time--I hope they did! Ethan was on cloud 9 to say the least. I walked over to tell the boys we were leaving, and as they drove by me, Ethan sticks his head out the window as the following conversation happened:

E: Do you want a ride?

A: Yeah sure!

E: Too bad!!!
Little stinker butt. They drove the rest of the way to the house and made me walk! Rude. I gave Ethan a hard time about it, and he has such a guilty conscious! He kept telling me he was sorry and that he loved me. It was cute!

When they got ready to leave Monday morning, Ethan had his DVD player plugged in ready to go. The car charger for the DVD player makes a pretty loud whirring noise when it's plugged in. The next set of dialogue was the interchange between Ethan and my mom.

M: I don't know if I can listen to that again...

E: Don't you have headphones?

M: Are you serious?

E: *laughing*

Nauvoo trip-In front of Joseph and Emma's "Mansion House"

This was at the Westward Expansion Museum underneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

 Favorite brother <3

Nauvoo: Day 1

This post, or rather series of posts, is LONG over due. If your really interested in reading it all, more power to you! These next few posts about Nauvoo are more for me to remember everything that happened...except that it was a MONTH AGO! So I need to get this written down pronto. So if you're in for the long haul of this week long trip, let's get started.

We left the lovely state of Utah around 530 in the morning and began this lovely trek to Nauvoo-a 19 hour trip we had decided to split up into 2 days. The destination on this first leg of the trip was Omaha, NE. Everything started without a hitch, until we started driving up Parley's canyon. This was the lovely view we had.

I was a little nervous to say the least. A traffic jam, up hill, driving a small little civic with only a 4 cylinder engine. Luckily, it only lasted about a mile or so then it was smooth sailings.  Caitlin was pretty much drugged out the entire drive on Dramamine. Poor thing gets so carsick and I could not find the "less drowsy" kind of Dramamine.

We got to Wyoming, and immediately set the cruise control to 5 mph over and I could NOT wait to get out of there. If you're wondering why, read the first part of the Yellowstone trip and you will understand my paranoia for Wyoming and their highway patrol officers. I made the comment to Dan after we had crossed state lines into Nebraska that I did not see a single police officer through the entire state! It was so crazy windy through all of Wyoming and Nebraska. Not my favorite at all.

So like I said, we drove through Wyoming, and made it into Nebraska!! My Grampa made sure to tell us a few days before to look for mile marker 1/Exit 1 for Kimball Nebraska. When he and my uncle were driving out to Cleveland, they had a tire blow out right there at mile marker 1. Long story short, he told us to take a picture as we drove by.

I was looking forward to driving through Nebraska to see all the corn fields! That is all Dan talks about whenever Nebraska comes up in conversation. He sold there one summer and he loved it. Well...there was no corn to speak up. Not even planted yet! I was so disappointed. The fields haven't even been plowed since last season. We did have this lovely view to drive into.

Fortunately, the storm was not bad at all and had little to no rain coming down. When we got into Omaha though, the clouds were so dense!!! We could not see the sky! And it was super cold! THAT I was not prepared for. It was freezing!!! And wet. We stayed at a Super 8 that night and lucky for us, the heater worked.

This was a super cool bridge we saw driving through Nebraska. Huge, bright, and colorful. Love it.

In the morning when we were leaving Omaha, we could not even see the sun because the cloud cover was so thick. It was pretty depressing to say the least. We crossed into Iowa and the state sign, you know that whole "welcome to blah blah blah...," well in Iowa it's on the freeway! I missed it. I was ticked-it had been my goal to get pictures of all the state signs (besides Wyoming...hate it). It literally took me the entire trip to finally get a picture of the stupid Iowa sign.

Iowa did redeem itself though. Iowa in a nutshell: hilly, green, farmland, beautiful. That's it. Now you've been to Iowa. I loved it though. There were huge barns and farm homes everywhere, but with so much space still in between the different homes. It was picturesque, like the kind of farms that get pictured in calendars. Anyway, it was love, and if it wasn't so far away from Arizona, I would consider moving there.

One of the highlights on this trip was seeing the Mississippi River. It's something I've always wanted to see. It did not disappoint.

This was right where we started to cross the river at Burlington. Caitlin and I both were so stoked to see it that Dan slowed down so we could take a million and a half pictures. There was no one else around, so the slow moving civic driving across the bridge was not a safety hazard! We drove through a few little towns before we got to Nauvoo, and it felt like you were getting transported back through time. The homes are old, haven't been restored on the outside and the towns have probably less than 500 people living in them. There was something serene about it though, and it almost put a quiet peace over the entire area.

We got to Nauvoo, checked into the hotel, and waited for everyone else to show up. When my grandparents arrived, we drove over to town and stopped at the temple and drove around the town a bit. We stopped every 5 minutes to get more pictures of the temple from different views.

It is a gorgeous view though, from all places. We drove down Parley Street which empties into the Mississippi River, and I stepped into the river! It was cold! But, I've been in the Mississippi. One more thing off the bucket list.

There was a huge rain storm heading in, and I have it on good authority that when it rains out there, it comes down in sheets. We headed back to the condo and crashed for the night.

This statue depicts the brothers beginning that fateful journey to Carthage. Not far from this location by the temple, Joseph, traveling by horseback, turned towards the unfinished temple and said, "This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trails that await them."

End of day 1 :]

Next up: Day 2-lots of houses, the brick yard, and meeting Elder Hatch!

AZ or BUST!

Wow...lost in the drafts. This is from September 2012.

This weekend Dan, Princess Caitlin and I hauled it down to Arizona for my sweet grandmother's funeral. It was such a wonderful experience, great to see family (and one awesome friend!) and celebrate the great life this classy lady led. Seriously, she's amazing.

But this adventure started some 600 + miles away in the little land of Utah. Caitlin wanted to take the first driving stretch and we all agreed she'd drive to St. George and Dan and I would split the last 6 hours. Well, she had a boy texting her, who will not be named [and is now her husband], and since texting/driving is not allowed, she was having me text him back. No big deal. WRONG. She quite literally dictated every spelling and punctuation mark to me. Freaking hilarious.

Here's an example:

A: Yes, period? [referring to the punctuation mark]

C: No, put yep!

A: One p, or two p's?

C: Who puts two p's after yep?!

And just a few other funny things she said...she slept most of the drive home, so the funnies only happened on the way down.

C: I like safety...and aggressive driving.

Enough said.

C: If there's no bathroom, there's no me!

This one quite literally killed me. We were talking about the time our dad had taken us to the daddy/daughter camp out, and of course they don't have indoor plumbing out in the boonies. Princess Caitlin doesn't do anything without indoor plumbing, and even the plumbing at Camp Lomia is questionable. So after explaining why in her 9 year old mind she could not use the outhouse, she came to the conclusion that she does in fact hate camping, and will never go camping without indoor plumbing. Then came the above statement.

That was Friday. We had the funeral on Saturday, and it really was a lovely service. In all honesty though, I am very glad we were able to make it. It was so nice to hear all these great things about her! You have to understand one thing about her: she is an intensely private person, and not one to go about talking about herself. That's just not who she was. But she was the most amazing person ever. I attribute my love of nuts (especially cashews) to her, because whenever we would visit them, she and my grandpa would always send each of us home with a little sandwich bag (not the kind with the ziploc, the kind that folds over) full of nuts.

We went to her house after the funeral to go through a few things and decide if we wanted any of her stuff. She had this awesome mirror hanging on her wall. It has this ornate rose/flower design going around the frame, and it's a nice long oval mirror. Instant love. INSTANT. And to make this even better, my dad had already asked for it a few years back, and said I could have it!! SCORE!!! So when I refinish it (the frame is in gold) I'll post a picture. Dan also got my grandpa's set of the Church History books. They were from 1945!! Definitely a treasure. He was so cute, he said "Now I have to get home and build our bookshelf!" and also reminded me that we're not sharing those with anyone!

We also found quite a few, okay a ton, of pictures around her house. So many old photos of she and my grandpa. They were adorable to say the least, and at the moment I can't find them. But, they will show up in a few weeks I'm sure and I'll have another photo dump to add to the posts.

I miss them so much every day. It's so weird to think I only have one set of grandparents now. I've had 2 for the majority of my life. I count myself very blessed in that arena. Each day, it makes me more grateful for the plan of salvation and my knowledge and testimony of it. I am so blessed to have one more person rooting for me on the other side and helping me along this crazy journey.

Blessings

Sometimes I find myself feeling very lost and confused amidst the craziness of this life and all the shenanigans that go on in the day to day scenes. I always get reminded in those low moments of how much I truly am blessed, and how much my Heavenly Father knows me very personally. I'm reminded that He knows exactly what is going on in my life and He is aware of how I am feeling.

Today was one of those moments where I was reminded of those very blessings that in the everyday moments often get looked over. 

Take some time tonight to think of a few blessings you may have overlooked today. 

Remember the little things. And the big ones. 

Bucket list

I have a bucket list going, and I'm sure there's a lot more things on the list than I've actually written down. Unfortunately, I suck at writing things like that down and then keeping track of the list! So my aunt Emalee told me she keeps a running list on a note in her phone. Genius! My phone is always with me and I rarely lose it.

But here's the start:

1. Run a 13.1.

2. Start a clinic in Africa

3. Then start a clinic in the Philippines

Small to start. But like I said, it's now in my phone so I'm sure it will be growing in the near future! And just so you can all be proud of me, I'm already taking steps towards the half marathon!! I am either going to run the SLC half in April, or the AF canyon half that's in June next year. I also started running 2 miles before I work out. Baby steps because I am definitely NOT YET a runner. I will be though, slowly but surely. My plan is to gradually add on another mile every 2-3 weeks (depending on which half I pick to run!).

Anyway, that's what's been going on in my life lately.

A few posts to look forward too:

-Nauvoo trip (longggggg over due! And it will probably come in parts)

-RS lessons the last 2 weeks (they have been DIVINELY inspired--at least for me!)

-Carthage trip (goes w/ Nauvoo but it definitely deserves a post all it's own)

-Funny things my cute brother says

That's all for now!!