Oh, Idaho! (Part 2)

One of my favorite things about my weekend in Idaho was visiting the Rexburg temple.  The girls and I went first on Friday and took a couple of pictures (and soon after that was when I accidentally erased my SD card.)

This really is my new favorite temple. So beautiful.

Gorgeous girls

Late Friday night, I was emailing with Kim and I told her I was planning to go to the temple Saturday morning to do an endowment session and she asked if I was going with my favorite guy Greg.  The crazy thing is I hadn't even thought about asking him.  I'm so used to just doing everything alone, you know?  But I texted him at like midnight and he said he'd love to go (to the 9 AM session, in fact and we texted until 1 AM! Don't you love college life???)  Thank you, Kim, for the suggestion!  Greg's cousin Stephen plus their roommate Juan came with us.  It was such a treat to be in the temple with them.  I've known Greg since he was around 12 years old and I have loved watching him grow up.  He's just amazing and awesome.

Stephen, me and Greg.  

After the temple, I picked up the girls and we went to Bear World!  

The girls learned on this trip that I'm sort of obsessed with wildlife so getting to drive through a little park and see bears, elk, mountain goats and even a moose is really my idea of a good time. I won't bore you with a bunch of animal pictures but will include this one because this was quite possibly the coolest, most Zen bear you will ever see in your whole entire lives. 

Seriously.  Can you believe that guy?  He was so awesome.  Next we went into the gift shop and petting zoo and took all sort of fun pictures (all the while, talking in our Southern accents, remember.)

 

Nikki & Emily.  Seriously - how can you look at this picture and not laugh?

 

Sarah looks like she was trying to scare Cindy and succeeded!

After Bear World, we went back to campus and got Kristina.  We may or may not have driven around town with Sarah in the back of the car.

We got some Creamery chocolate milk and then went back to the temple and took a bunch of pictures. It was super windy (love that about Rexburg...um...not) but I got this beautiful shot of the girls.

I still can't believe how blessed I am to have these girls in my life (as well as the others who weren't with us that weekend...you know who you are!)  They truly fill my heart with joy and make me forget that I'm kind of old.

 

After the temple, we went to dinner with Greg and Stephen at Pizza Pie Cafe again.  

Love him.

Stephen makes the best faces.

After dinner, we took Kristina home and then went back to Sarah & Emily's apartment.  We hugged good bye and I of course, started to cry.  I'm such a baby. (Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!)

Sunday morning, Nikki, Cindy and I went to church with my friends, the Brownings.  

Sherry's husband was my bishop while I was YW president and it was so fun to get to see their new home and to see how much their kids have grown in the two years since they moved away.  I love their youngest son, Ryan.  He was one of my favorites when I was in Primary.

After church, the girls changed into road trip clothes (please note Cindy's shoes.)

Then we were off.  It was such a long drive but the girls were good and stayed awake for most of it.  Nikki had her laptop so we watched (I listened of course - I WAS driving after all) Despicable Me and 17 Miracles.  When we got close to Spokane, I texted my friends Richard and Sue to see if they wanted to feed us and let us use their bathroom and of course they did.  

Sue was out of town but Richard (who used to be my home teacher) put out a spread that she would have been proud of -- sandwiches, salads, juice, and all sorts of healthy food.  It was just what we needed to make the last five hours fly by even though it made me wish, again, that Richard and Sue hadn't moved so far away (notice a trend...my friends are all moving away from me.)

All in all, a fantastic trip filled with fun and laughter...so much laughter.  I want to try and remember some of the funny things we said like "I've got to pew" but it's after midnight and I'm brain dead.  Loved the trip, the time with the girls, our fun memories, eating at Costa Vida, and on and on.  I'll be ready to go back when the snow melts, girls.  Let's plan another trip now!