The One with Spring Break: Utah

These Spring Break posts are gonna be long, wordy, and picturey! So I'm just gonna jump right in and ramble about our 13 day vacay!

On Wednesday April 18th Chris's friend Chris took us to LAX. Remind me to tell you the story of Chris and his two best friends growing up - Chris and Chris. I kid you not!
The day before our trip I went to the dollar store and stocked up on all kinds of little toys and thingamajigs to keep Fox entertained. We needed them right from the get-go! First up: this plastic water bottle. Worked like a charm. For five minutes.

We pushed the stroller around for awhile, then sat in some chairs (Fox squeezed right next to me in the same seat) and waited to board. 

On the plane we busted out Toy Story via laptop and held one headphone piece in Fox's right ear. It worked for about 20 minutes.

The flight from LA to Salt Lake City is only like an hour and a half and all-in-all Fox was a great boy on the plane. The only mishap was when Chris accidentally spilled his Dr. Pepper all over me... luckily it dried up before we landed, except in the crotchetal area so it looked like I had peed my pants... C'est la vie.

I LOVE seeing the Y on the Wasatch Mountains out the window!

Foxman didn't sleep a wink on the plane so he dosed right off in the hour car ride from SLC to Provo. Thanks li'l bro for picking us up!

The last couple of times we've been to Utah our schedules have been so packed that we haven't been to Chris's favorite eatery: J Dawgs. So, before we even unpacked, we drove straight there to indulge his craving. I thought I was the one who was supposed to crave things?!

I got a polish topped with special sauce and onions. Soooo good. We were thiiis close to buying a bottle of the special sauce. But you're not really supposed to eat hot dogs while pregnant so maybe next time.

We needed some groceries for Fox so we drove the few blocks to Smiths. As we were walking in I recognized my grandparents getting out of their car! How funny! So we walked around and filled our cart with them and they purchased our food for us - thank you thank you Grandpa and Grandma Warner! I think it's hilarious we saw them at Smiths before we saw them at their home. We were going over there next!

That night we picked up some Thai food and then stayed up late waiting for my mom and dad and Gypsy dog to arrive. My mom teared up seeing this on her phone:

All of us all in the same place at the same time!

The next morning, Thursday April 19th, I had a lot of things I wanted to see and do before part one of my brother's graduation. When Fox woke up he had a grand ol' time playing with Gypsy! He loooooves dogs. Especially ones that love him right back.

We dropped off Gypsy at boarding because she was being naughty and then we went to Hobby Lobby. I got some excellent frames at 50% off and wooden "JANE" letters for her half of the nursery. Then we went to University Mall so I could use a coupon at Archiver's. I saw the gal who hired me to work there back in 2007 and it was fun to catch up. I saw this project there and want to copy the layered butterfly look on a future layout:

On one of the windows of Archiver's there was a poster advertising the store and on it was a picture of this vintage notecard:

Nothing special right, except it's all about Wallace, ID (see the top left corner) - which is a major part of our Spring Break vacation! Coming up next post. You'll see; it's so funny how Wallace is "connected" to our lives.

After Archiver's we drove out to the Northridge Publishing offices so I could drop off a layout that's being published in Elizabeth Kartchner's Signature Series idea book. 

When I first started working at Northridge Publishing in October of 2005 they made Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, and one month it was Paper Trends (now Simply Handmade) and the other month it was an idea book (now the Create series). Today they make Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, Bead Trends, Cricut Magazine, Cricut Idea Books, Create Idea Books, Simply Handmade, Cook'n, and Signature Series (am I forgetting any? I can't keep track!). My how the company has grown! It's wonderful! I thank my lucky stars everyday to have found such a great job that allows me to work from home all the way in California when the offices are based in Utah. This was the first time I'd been to their new office and they are pish-posh! So much room to grow! All the projects readers send in are stored in their own room. 

There's an entire room dedicated to props and photography.

There's even a soda fountain - awesome! It was fun to catch up with fellow employees. And it was fun to get weird stares from about 90% of the people who I don't know cuz there are so many people working there now. It's a good thing.

After a pit-stop to pick up my mom's precious caramel popcorn, we headed home. My mom played outisde with Fox for a bit. He loves cars.

For lunch we went to Brick Oven. Chris stayed back at the Taylor Grandparent's house because Fox was napping. Thanks for taking one for the team honey! Our extended family was already there, including the Warners. This picture of them is so perfect, it seriously makes me want to cry! It's true - a picture says a thousand words. Can't you just tell what kind of fun, loving, generous, smart, accomplished people they are from this photo?

We were seated in our private party room and ordered lunch. 

I got a French dip. Mmm. 

Then we piled into our family Suburban, which has grown moss on all the windows (gotta love the Pacific Northwest climate!), and drove down to BYU campus for part one of my brother's graduation. 

Graduation was held in the Marriott Center. 

Pretty pink trees outside. 

Never in my life have I seen so many babies and pregnant women in the same vicinity. It was NUTS!

Eric's name wasn't even in the program because he still has one more class to take before he's officially graduated. Wah wah. 

Waiting for the grads to arrive. 

All filled up!

The teacher's robes remind me of Harry Potter. 

It seemed like EVERYONE, kids and adults alike, was either on their phone, laptop, iPad, or some other gadget. I myself was guilty, but WOW what did people do at long events before technology?

The speeches were good and it was fun to watch thousands of students graduate. 

My sister arrived on a bus from Rexburg that evening so we picked her up and went straight to Cafe Rio for dinner. 

Everyone except Chris got a salad. Fox was such a ham during dinner. We all looked at him and danced around and he went nuts trying to copy us and make everyone laugh. I wish I had caught it on video. That's my boy :)

We practiced a new 'do on Allie then went to bed. 

The next day, Friday April 20th, part two of Eric's graduation was in the morning. Once again, Eric's name didn't make it into the program, sad!

And once again, it was held in the Marriott Center because the School of Management is so immensely large. 

The reading of every graduate's name (there were literally thousands) took two hours. This is how I felt about it...

Fox only lasted a few minutes before Chris took him out. 

I snapped a picture of Eric walking across the stage. Yay Eric! Congrats! Soon you'll be making the big bucks! Can I have some?

At last the ceremony ended and Eric came and found us. He looks so handsome and happy!

Chris went home halfway through so Fox could nap, so this is the best family photo we got:

The Taylor kiddos.

For lunch we went to Los Hermanos. The chips and salsa are divine.

I love the view of Mt. Timpanogas from the top of my Taylor grandparent's driveway. 

Another view of majestic Timp, from BYU campus. 

Later in the afternoon we took Fox to the park to run around and play. Allie is such a good aunt :)

Pretty trees at the park. 

That night Tanya, Allie, Malm, and I went and saw The Lucky One. GIRLS NIGHT OUT!


There was a photo booth in the theater which we hopped right into!

It was a sappy love story, just what I like! And Zac Efron helped the cause too :)

We stopped at the BYU Creamery on 9th to get some scooped ice-cream and met up with my cousin Maren, but apparently every other visiting parent had the same idea cuz the line was out the door. Instead we bought a gallon of peanut butter cup ice-cream then went back to the Taylor's to eat it.

That concludes our time in Utah! Up next: Idaho!