Tuesday, August 31, 2010

EFY=Girl's Trip.......

Earlier in the summer Andrea and I had talked about how fun it would be to go to Utah for awhile. We decided that all our big kids would be at EFY in San Antonio for a week and that would be a perfect time. After paying more for plane tickets than we had hoped to and Andrea making arrangements for her littles, we were all set to go! We left Sulphur about 5:00 in the morning to make the drive to San Antonio. Andrea drove her Excursion. It was she and I, Whitney, Evan, Mary-Catherine and Sarah-Beth. (I remembered that they hyphenate their names now!) Following close behind were the Powell twins and Trevor. We made good time to San Antonio, got everybody unloaded, registered and moved into their dorms- all in record time. (Evan's Company)



(Whitney, MC and some new friends)



(the girls part of Whitney and MC's Company) EFY is so awesome and my kids always love it. I was sad that this would be Whitney's last year since she is 18. We left at noon to drive to Austin to get on the plane. We had no problems other than we had decided to take only "carry-0ns" to save time. Andrea forgot that she had a huge bottle of expensive hair product in her bag. She sadly had to forfeit that to the security lady. Our flight was very bumpy and rough and Andrea and I were both feeling very ill. She actually about reached for her sick bag a time or two. Luckily...or not....we were sitting by an extremely talkative man who visited and chatted the whole time. It did kind of keep my mind off the horrible flight. We were met at the airport by my daughter Ivy and granddaughter, Piper! From that point on, Ivy was our chaffeur. All we had to do was buy the gas which we were glad to do. We had a great time. I loved my spot in the backseat next to Piper. Our first stop was Sandy! My friend from Saudi, Donna's, son had just returned from his mission to Peru and she was having a party at her sister's house. Alot of our Saudi friends that live in the area were in for the summer and there to meet Chad. It was fun to see eveybody and let Andrea meet some of our friends. We stayed there until late then went to another friend from Saudi, Leanne's house in American Fork for the night. It was so fun to be there with her. Andrea and I took over Tori's room while Ivy and Piper slept in another room across the hall. We were exhausted. We had covered alot of miles that day! The next day Leanne, Andrea, Ivy and I met Donna, her sister, and Debbie Stratford for a fun day of eating and shopping. Leanne took us to a cute little restaurant in an old house called Food for Thought. We all loved it. We enjoyed the food, the company and the yummy salad, sandwiches and deserts.
After a long lunch there, we hit up Rod Works and a few other Utah stores that I had always heard of but never visited. Said good-bye to Donna and Leslie and headed back to Leanne's to clean up to go to the temple. We met Debbie there and went through. I was wonderful to be there with these sweet friends and Ivy. Leanne's kids were so great and babysat Piper while we were there. Got up early the next day's and headed to visit Rita. We met up with Lisa there, had a great lunch and got caught up. We hit a few scrapbooking stores, a few cupcake stores (which will get their own post!) and maybe, just maybe did a bit of stalking! (also it's own post)


That night Rita had meetings so and Andrea and I headed to Lehi to do more visiting. We went to Cafe Rio and I met up with Richard and Dianna Barton. It was so fun to see them! Andrea met up with a friend there, too. After eating way too much.....again.....we hit up Ross to buy suitcases. We realized somewhere along the way that all the stuff we had bought was not gonna go into the carry-ons we brought. By this time it was late but we were running out of time. I really, really wanted to go see Debbie at her house so we gave her a call even thought it was 10:30 or so. She was a good sport and let us come. We had a great visit with her and I loved her house. Back to Rita's for another good night's sleep! Piper was such a good girl through all this running arounnd. Got up, did a little sightseeing around Provo and went to Tucanos for some Brazilian food.....because we just didn't feel like we had eaten enough on this trip so far....:( ha that's a joke.

Ivy left us there and went to meet some college roomies for lunch. We met up with her and headed to Salt Lake. Ivy's husband, Calder's grandmother has a beautiful condo in downtown that she offered to let us stay in. We spend the last night there. We got cleaned up and met my friend, Valeen at the Red Iguana. That's one of Ivy and Calder's favorite places ever. It was really good.
After that we thought that we must have more cupcakes! We knew there was another Sweet Tooth Fairy somewhere near so poor Valeen.....she was on her motorscooter and we made her lead us on a wild goose chase through Salt Lake and got there like a minute before closing! She's our hero! Slept great in the condo and up early in the morning. We ate breakfast right down by Temple Sqare then walked around the visitor's centers awhile until Deseret Book opened. We were so jeolous because Glen Beck was having a book signing later in the day (that Ivy and Piper actually got to go to). Unfortunatley it wouldn't happen until we were on the plane.

Piper playing in the grass and flowers on Temple Square.

Piper and Nana!

Our flight home was about as bumpy as our flight there but I did manage to sleep for most of it. We actually did spend some time in a van like this because somehow we forgot where we parked in the garage. Andrea thought you were supposed to leave the slip with the spot # on the dash! Luckily the guy was patient and we eventually found the car. Drove straight to Andrea's cousins house for the night. Got up early the next morning, got the kiddos and back to Austin. Whitney and Mary-Catherine had a date for Saturday night and Evan, Taylor and Matt hit up Six Flags.....I know this is more details than anybody asked for but it's mainly for Andrea, Ivy and I to remember our trip. It was great!

1 happy thoughts:

Susan said...

YAY you updated!!! I still wanna go to Rita's and Debbie's. And Park City!! Someday soon.