Utah Trip

Kyle and I were able to take a little trip to Utah this past week/end. We didn't go down during the holidays, but wanted to see family before we have our baby in April. I flew in on Tuesday afternoon, Kyle flew in on Thursday night, and we flew home together yesterday (Monday). Our days went like this:

Tuesday:
I got up bright and early (as did Kyle) in order to make it to the airport for my 8 am flight. Between mechanical problems and re-routing.... My (re-routed) flight left about 9. I flew to Boise, stayed on the plane, flew to Phoenix, switched flights, and finally made it to SLC around 4. And then of course my luggage gave me a scare when it was one of the last pieces off. Kyle's dad picked me up, and we were finally on the road to go back to their house around 4:45. Long day of traveling.

Later that evening, Kyle's mom hosted a baby shower for me with both the Hanson and Bishop sides. It was a lot of fun seeing some of Kyle's aunts and cousins, and we were gifted with some great things for baby Hanson! My mom and Charity also came, and I went home with them that evening.

Me with 2 of my 3 SIL's, Mel and Jess. They helped host the shower.

Claire helped me open presents, it was super cute.

Wednesday:
Just a relaxing day at my mom's. Charity was at school and with her dad most of the day, so Mom and I just chatted and ate and relaxed.

Thursday:
Similar to Wednesday, except Mom threw me a little shower that evening. Mom's two closest friends Becky and Berti came over (they are like grandmas/aunts to me, love them!), as did a friend of my moms in her ward, and another family friend came with her new baby and one of her older girls. There was some delicious food and it was good to see those that came.

Me with friends and my mom at the shower at my mom's.

Me with mom and Char.

Oh, Kyle also flew in this night, at like 9:30 pm or so. He stayed with his parents.

Friday:
Relaxed in the morning (Charity was off of school), and got ready for the day. After Charity went with her dad for the weekend, Mom and I did a little shopping at the Orem mall, and then she dropped me off for my friend shower that Ayisha, and Dani, threw for me. It was at the church where K and I had our reception, so that was kind of precious, and it was so good to see those that came!
Adrianne and Juliet, Leanna, Jenny, Katie, Shauna, Collin, Alicia and Everett, Em, and Ashley. And of course Ish and Dani. It was so good to see everyone and we got some super cute things! Baby boy is going to be so dang cute in all his cute clothes.

Me with one of my best friends from HS, Collin, and his cute wife Alicia and their baby Everett!

Me and BFF Dani.

Me with my BFF Emily and her cute sister Ashley. I adore them both!

Me and my Isha.

Me and Katie.

This night Kyle had a boys night out with his dad and 2 of his brothers. They went to Smashburger for dinner, played around at Scheels, and had shakes at Iceburg. I'm glad he could have a fun time with his brothers.

Saturday: 
Kyle and his dad came and picked me up at my mom's, and we went to Price to visit Kyle's grandma. Nate and Mel also drove down with their kiddos. We had a nice time with them and Grandma, and we also saw Kyle's Uncle Dennis as well.

Kyle and Avery drawing.

Kyle and Liam.

Me and sweet baby A.

Me and Whit.

Kyle and I with his Grandma Hanson. We love her!

We picked up my things, and we drove up to stay at Kyle's parents' house for the rest of our time here. That afternoon, and that evening Alan, Jess and Claire came over for dinner, and it was fun to spend time with them.

Sunday:
We went to church with Kyle's parents, and then I took a nap. Kyle and I drove down to my cousin Troy's house and got together with my Uncle Gordon's family. It was fun to spend time with some of my cousins, their spouses and cute kiddos.

Monday:
We spent the morning relaxing and playing with Claire (Kyle's parents tend her in the morning). We ran a quick errand, and then packed up our things before Kyle's dad drove us to the airport to catch our 5:40 pm flight. Our flights went fine, although we had a 2.5 hour layover at the Vegas airport that seemed to take forever. We finally made it back to Spokane around 11:30pm or midnight, and made it home and basically fell right into bed.

K and I with Claire.

We had a great time being with family and friends, and are so grateful for all the nice things we received for baby boy! It was kind of crazy leaving Utah, and realizing that next time we see any of our family and friends we will have a baby!

SoCal 2013

I think I mentioned this a while ago, but last year around this time Kyle decided to register for the Evolution of Psychotherapy conference, that was taking place in December 2013. This is a large conference, where psychologists, social workers, counselors, etc come from around the world to listen to presentations given by some of the biggest names in psychology, and it's only held every 4 years. As Kyle was still a student last year, he was able to get the student rate, which if I remember right got him like $400 off. So we decided it would be a great opportunity for him to go, and we figured we would make a little vacation out of it as well.

I also have a really awesome best friend, named Ayisha, who said she would fly out to spend time with me while Kyle was at his conference. And also, since we have family just 1-2 hours north of LA, we thought we'd visit them as well. So, now you know the background, here's how our days went.

SATURDAY-MONDAY

We left nice and early on a COLD morning, and arrived at LAX around noon. After getting our luggage, rental car, and some lunch (at In N Out, of course) we drove up to Bakersfield to Blaine and Brooke's. We stayed with them through Monday and had a great time being with their little family!

TUESDAY

We got up early and hit the road after eating breakfast and saying our goodbyes. We drove down to Anaheim and checked into our hotel, and then we drove to Ayisha's hotel and picked her up, and we made it to California Adventure around noon.We spent the rest of the day riding rides, eating food, seeing the Aladdin show, and watching World of Color. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of World of Color. It was hard to see (yes, I'm short) and I think I would have like the normal, non Christmasy one better. They were trying really hard to promote Frozen, so that didn't really catch my attention.

WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY

Kyle spent the days in the conference, and Ish and I went to Disneyland! We also both picked up a Disney souvenir - a gray Disneyland sweatshirt for me, and a gray Disneyland shirt for her!

FRIDAY

Kyle spent the day at his conference until about 3:30. Ayisha and I had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and then did a little shopping in an outdoor mall. We found a great store, and we both walked out with a few fun things - even maternity wearable clothes for me! Once Kyle was back we drove to the beach for a few minutes, got dinner at Chik Fil A, and dropped Ayisha off at the airport.

SATURDAY

Kyle only did a few sessions at the conference, and came back to the hotel about 1. We then headed over to experience Disneyland together! It was SO much busy that day than any other day we had gone that week, but we still had fun. We decided to fork out some money to try (and split) a Monte Cristo sandwich, and some Pomme Frites from Cafe Orleans and we are sure glad! They lived up to the hype :) We stayed late to catch Fantasmic! and the fireworks - except the fireworks were cancelled (we assumed because it was windy). So that was a little disappointing, but we still had a great time!

SUNDAY

Kyle spent the  morning at the conference, and I made sure we had packed up everything and checked us out. We drove to the airport, dropped off our rental car, and got on our flight home. After a brief layover in Oakland, we landed in Spokane. We were really glad that the weather had warmed up to 35-40 degrees, as opposed to the 1 degree it was the morning we left. 

We had a great trip, and we know we are so blessed to be able to have gone. I am really excited to go back one day and take our kids there, and witness the magic in their little faces and bodies when the experience Disney for the first time. I'm grateful Kyle and I could go on this "babymoon" of sorts, and that I have an awesome best friend who will buy a plane ticket and miss work to experience Disneyland with me while Kyle was at his conference!

(I also have to say a public thank you to Kyle and Ish for putting up with me basically stopping to use every bathroom in the park, and stopping to sit down much more often than that! The woes of traveling with a pregnant woman....)

Yellowstone 2013

Since we were moving farther away from Yellowstone, Kyle wanted to go really badly. At first I was against it because we were moving across the state! But he said he would work really hard (which he did!) if we could go. So I gave in :) I love Yellowstone, too. We left on Tuesday, and came back on Friday (the week before we moved). We also had a groupon we had purchased for a river rafting trip in Jackson, so we wanted to make sure we used that. 

So we drove to Jackson on Tuesday, got our tent set up and spent the afternoon/evening hiking around Jenny Lake. 

My favorite buffaloes with the Tetons in the background.

Just a few more of my friends.

View of Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point.

View of the canyon from Inspiration point.

Kyle and I at Hidden Falls.

Our deer friend.

Our moose friends.

 Wednesday we got up, packed up our things and headed to Jackson. We went on a 2.5 hour raft trip, which was so fun. We did the "gentle" float and had a great time. We had a great guide, and a cute family of four from Utah in our raft with us.

It was really pleasant that day, and so pretty!

Me on the raft!

We saw quite a few bald eagles - and this adolescent one was so close to us!

Kyle and I :)

Close up!

 Side note: we had to sign our deposit agreement and send in our deposit this day for our new house. It was crazy with dying cell phones and no internet... But we got it done!

That afternoon we drove up to Yellowstone, where we stayed two more nights until coming home.

Gorgeous sunset over Yellowstone Lake.

Kyle doing his favorite thing - throwing rocks in the lake.

I believe that was an elk. 

All the buffalo have migrated to Lamar Valley!

Waiting for Old Faithful!

 As you can imagine, we had a great time! We really enjoy camping, and Yellowstone! This is the 3rd time we've been since we've been married! Now, next summer we'll have to explore Glacier!