MTC --> Oregon --> Idaho Falls

MTC:

Dropping of Allie was one of the hardest things I have EVER had to do.  I thought I was going to get out of there without crying.. FAT CHANCE OF THAT! Oh boy did the tears fall.  We drove down to the MTC on Wednesday July 22, 2015.  We ate at Carls Jr.  I thought that I wouldn’t be able to eat, but surprisingly, I ate my whole sandwich.  We all did. We went to the temple across the street and cried and cried and cried.  We got lots of family pictures though.  After family pictures, we all jumped into the truck and took her to the MTC.  Again, that was hard.  They aren’t kidding when they said they just drop them off and go.  YOU DO! You get out of the car, say one last goodbye and then she was gone! You can follow her adventures in Nicaragua at  hermanaalliejackson.blogspot.com

Left to right: Jason, Me, dad (Brandon), Allie, Lindsie, mom (Angie), & Kendal

Just us girls! 

We will be reunited in 18 months!!! 

OREGON:

Devin and I’s day didn’t end there.  We drove all the way home, only to drive BACK to Salt Lake to catch a plane to Oregon.  I haven’t been on a plane since we moved home from Mexico.  Might I add, I am TERRIFIED of heights.  Thanks to my awesome husband, I just closed my eyes and hung on tight haha.  Okay, so it wasn’t THAT bad.  But still got my anxiety up a little bit.  BUT I obviously lived to tell the story.  SO! We got to the airport in Portland and they thought it would be a good idea to do construction near the entrance to the baggage claim.  We had to take a minor detour… which was fine just annoying.  We got taken to our hotel and really didn’t do anything.  The next morning we went to Bob’s Red Mill.  They are SOO COOL!! & very healthy! They have everything you can imagine.  We went to the temple also and HOLY MOLY!! GORGEOUS!! I love any temple that I go to.  I love that I can feel close to God even without going inside.  After the temple we hit the locks.  It’s a dang cool place! When barges come down the river, it’s a place that will raise the water level and then when the boat is in the locks, it lowers it to meet the lower river.  Or visa-versa.  Super neat.  Also, I rode a boat.  It was a 2 hour boat ride and was pretty fun! Just a slow tour up and down the  Columbian River.  That was all we really did that day.  On the 24^th, we went and picked up Devins Aunt and Uncle.  Then we went on our way to the BEACH!! Woohoo!! Spend the day at the beach just chillin’! 25^th we went to Tillamook Cheese Plant.  I quite enjoy cheese.  Depending on what kind.  Haha Oh my gosh after we went to Tillamook, we went back to the beach house and the beach and went to the tide pools! And guess what we saw?! STAR FISH!! :D we saw 6 different star fish, and Dev even touched one.  I didn’t.  it looked scaly. Ewww… I love starfish so much that Dev’s brother, Derik, bought me a real one (dead, obviously) to take home.  I love it so much.  On that note, Devin also bought me the most GORGEOUS lighthouse ever.  I am in love with it.  You can put a candle in the top of it so that it actually lights up.  Speaking of lighthouse, we went over to North Head lighthouse in Washington, and I actually went to the top.  Again, frightening, but I have an awesome husband that helped.  We ended our trip by staying in the Seashore Inn.  We watched the sun set that night and it was so beautiful.  We woke up Monday morning and went sand dollar hunting and then flew home! It was a great trip and a good time to spend with family. 

IDAHO FALLS:

Devin got a job at Melaleuca.  With that, came moving! After getting back from Oregon (on Monday) we had a funeral to attend on Tuesday.  (Devin’s great-uncle, Keith) We had half a day on Tuesday, half a day on Wednesday and all day Thursday to pack before leaving on Friday.  Guess what.  We hadn’t even started.  Lucky us huh! I swear I NEVER want to see another cardboard box as long as a live.  Obviously I doubt that that will happen, but one could wish.  We packed up all of our stuff and Thursday night we went to say goodbye to my family.  That was hard too.  What a week huh! So much crying haha but, we’re an 2 ½ hours away, so it really isn’t that bad.  We left at about 8:30 on Friday morning with Dev’s family and made it up here at about 11:30.  The men hauled all the stuff in while LaDawn and I unpacked.  Boy do we have a lot of crap! Dev’s family left between 2:30 & 3:30.  Surprisingly Dev and I got the rest of our things unpacked pretty easily.  We’re enjoying it up here in Ammon.  It’s a pretty, small town feeling place.  A lot like Wellsville.  I guess it’s not so bad. :)  

Portland, Oregon temple.  07/23/15

Our van for the trip! Dev calls it the "shag wagon"

                           bought these for my siblings.  Hope, love, wisdom, courage, & patience

we were on a VERY high bridge.  I had it in me to take one picture then got nauseous on the bridge and had to leave...haha

Camp 18 were we stopped for lunch on 07/24/15

one of my favorite pictures of us!! top of a lighthouse, scared outta my mind! 

North Head light house, 07/26/15

Grandpa, LaDawn, Gerald, Claire, Me, Devin and Derik

3 of the 6 starfish that we saw! 

OUR APARTMENT!

starfish and lighthouse from Oregon

I LOVE OUR KITCHEN!!

We're moving!!

Guess what?! We are moving.  Idaho Falls, ID is where we are going to be calling home for hopefully the next couple of years.  Devin got a job at Melaleuca and he starts on August 3, 2015.  What a process that was!! Devin applied for the position back in June and it was seriously A MONTH LONG PROCESS!! So..it started out with a lady named Kym.  Devin met her at the career day up at USU back in like March.  Devin gave her his resume and she went nuts! She started circling all these things on his resume saying that he was a perfect match for a position that was coming up.  Then that was the end of  it! Well… the end of May, Devin applies for the MIT job.  Manager in Training.  This Kym lady calls him while he is at the farm and kind of does a phone interview.  Then he’s going to interview up there the next Tuesday.  He gets there and the facility is HUGE! It’s seriously like a castle.  Dev says that when he met this Kym lady, that she took him on a tour for like half an hour.  When they got back to the conference room, Dev asked her if she was going to interview him or just give him the tour.  She said that she had been interviewing him since he got there.  His confused face was showing, I’m sure, because the next thing that she says is “I’m an ex-FBI profiler”.. uhh what?! That’s not something you want to hear in a job interview.. he interviewed with a few people and then he had to go back up the next week and do it all over again!! He got to talk to the COS! (chief of staffing) According to Kym, if you didn’t pass the other interviews, you didn’t even talk to the COS.  It went really well with him.  NOW THE WAITING GAME STARTS! Ugh.. if any of you know me, I was DYING!! My anxiety was off the charts waiting to hear back from them.  Every day I kept calling Dev asking “have you heard anything yet??” and it seemed like an eternity before he called me to tell me that he had heard from them.  So on June 26, 2015, (seriously like 2 weeks after his last interview..) Devin texted me saying that he had got a call from Melaleuca.  He thought that it was me calling (because I’m always calling..) and he BARELY missed the phone call.  There was one problem.  They didn’t leave a voicemail.  He calls back and the lady who answered the phone said that without a message, she doesn’t know who called him.  He thought that it would have been Kym.  The receptionist transferred him to Kyms department and another lady answered.  Well.. guess what.  Kym doesn’t work there anymore! That’s why it took so long to hear back from her!! The lady called and said that she wanted to offer Devin the job.  As you can already guess, he accepted it. 

Apartment hunting:

As soon as we found out that Devin got the job, we decided that we would go up on the 2^nd of July and go apartment shopping.  WHAT A NIGHTMARE!! I enjoy shopping.  But that?.. that SUCKED! Never grow up.  We started at 8 AM and we finally got back to grandma and grandpas at 5PM.  We had these apartment viewings scheduled and they just didn’t feel right.  There was one that we absolutely LOVED in Shelley, but they wanted like $1500.00 by July 20^th.. I think we could do better than that… at one point, there was an apartment that we didn’t even want to waste our time on because the pics looked kind of old.  (the ones that we did see..) and at lunch Dev just had a feeling that we should go and look at it.  So we went.  When you got to the apartment complex, it seriously looked like a hotel.  In fact, I am like 99% sure that it was an old retirement center.  We looked at the apartment and it was very, very nice inside.  But when you walked out of the apartment, it felt like a hotel.  I did not like that.  It was a 1 bedroom apartment that was basically in a hotel room. We had another one in the back of our heads.  It was a two bedroom apartment and cheap.  I loved it.  Devin didn’t though.  By this time I was seriously in tears.  This was the only day we were going to be able to come up for a couple of weeks and we HAD to go home with an apartment.  So we said a prayer.  We prayed and then we waited.  Devin wanted to go back to the one bedroom apartment and take a look again.  I was fine doing that.  We went back and the lady was kind enough to let us look at the apartment, just the two of us.   I felt at peace when we went back.  I felt like I would be safe in this apartment.  We went back to talk to manager and she told us that it was fair game. (The thing with this apartment is that a guy was supposedly sending in a deposit for it.  But the manager was giving him til 4 PM and if she didn’t hear from him, then it was fair game.) Whoever could get her the deposit first, could get the apartment.  We wanted the apartment.  So we HURRIED to the nearest Zion’s Bank (like 2 minutes away) and got a cashiers check.  The poor lady trying to help us was having printing problems and it felt like it was taking FOREVER! We went back, signed the application papers and waited to get approved.  Of course we got approved, I mean, it’s not like we’re terrible people haha.  That was that. Now of course, I am IN LOVE with the thing that I cant wait to go and start setting up and decorating! Haha J  As of July 20^th, we will have our apartment and we will be on our way to Idaho Falls the last week of July!!

Work – Last day:

Ok, so I seriously loved my job.  I bill for doctors and I loved it.  I loved the girls that I worked with and knowing that I would have to leave them seriously just broke my heart.  After I put my two weeks in officially, there were days were I would just come home and cry.  My boss was amazing.  Mad at me for leaving, but amazing.  The girls that I worked with are so sweet and so incredible.  Well yesterday (July 17^th) was my last day.  I’ve been training my replacement all week and for some reason, the first half of yesterday went by very quickly.  Before I knew it, it was lunch and we were eating Jack’s Pizza.  Delicious, by the way.. After lunch the day seriously DRUG ON.. I knew that I would be leaving and it just made me sick.  I’ve never had a job that I have liked as much as this job.  I didn’t even know that it was possible to wake up in the morning and be excited and willing to go to work.  My doctors were so awesome to work with and their patients were so sweet.  Obviously you have your bad days where you talk to someone who is a having a bad day..but all the good days made up for those couple bad ones.  When it was time to leave, I went and I hugged my boss.  I held it together pretty well.  I kind of choked up but I didn’t cry.  Then I hugged the next girl and I just broke down.  Even today, I think about the fact that I’m not going to work on Monday and I cry.  It’s kind of embarrassing actually.  I hugged the rest of the girls and I left.  I cried the whole way home and I cried last night and I cried a little bit today.  (what can I say.. I am  A HUGE BABY) I know it will be ok.  I just feel like we were family there.  It’s never easy leaving family.  (if I was that bad at work, picture in your head how bad it will be when we leave our actual families…) I’m grateful for the friendships that I made at work and for the experiences that I learned.  I will forever love them and consider them not only coworkers but some of my best friends.  I’m excited for this opportunity that Dev has to start this new job and for us to start this new adventure together.  I know that it will be hard, but it will definitely be worth it. 

This is the front of the apartment complex

The center of the complex

Funny enough, these two windows are the windows to our apartments

This is our kitchen and part of the family room.  I dont know why I was such a ding-dong and only took one picture of the place... 

Nicaragua, Managua South.

OK…so I am WAYYY BEHIND!! This should have been posted in March, but life happened.  So here it is..9 days before she leaves..

My baby sister got her mission call.  I have quite the mixed feelings about her going on a mission.  We had friends and family over on March 8^th (2015) for a “opening party”.  Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, Grandma Karen, Jaden & Julie and their family, Kenny, Jason and their family, Meg, Miles, Bryson, Jared and Shelly and their kids all came.  A bunch of people that Allie knew also came to the grand opening.  At 3PM we ate Mexican Hay Stacks (just the family) and then we waited for people to roll in.  We had Krey and Brandy’s family as well Amy Rojas on a “skype” call.  Then the moment came.  Allie read her mission call and she says “NICARAGUA MANAGUA SOUTH” mission.  WHAT!? I instantly look at Devin, who’s behind me while I’m videotaping, and I see his eyes looking back and forth trying to figure out what the heck is happening.  Then he screams like everyone else.  Why is this so important that I look at him? Well, that was the exact mission that he went to.  How the heck did that happen?! Out of all of the missions in the world, plus all the Spanish-speaking missions (we knew she had to go Spanish..) HOW DID SHE GET CALLED TO HER BROTHERS MISSION?!  Now that we are 9 days away…I am seriously just numb. Devin is soo excited for her to go to the country that he loves just as much as America.  I of course, am still numb.  Allie and I fight and we don’t agree on everything, but she’s my baby sister.  I will always love her.  She’s been my best friend since I was 2.  That’s a long time to have a best friend.  I know that next Wednesday I will BAWL.  Its going to be bad.  I will bawl. And I will bawl. And I will bawl!!  Im not looking forward to it.  But I am looking forward to the adventures that she will have.  I keep saying hopefully I’ll have more time to post and this time I think I mean it.  And I’ll let you know why in my next post.  BUT for now: Felicidades Allie.  Estoy muy orgullosa de ti J Devin y yo te amamos y te esperamos lo mejor.  Yo se que tu vas a hacer cosas increibles. 

CHRISTMAS - FEBRUARY

Well.  I seriously suck at this whole writing thing.  I was doing so good too!! Christmas wasn’t so bad J I got a nice new camera.  I LOVE IT! It’s so nice.  Devin had also managed to surprise me with a Kitchen Aide! I absolutely love it.  I use it ALL the time!! Christmas Eve we went and spend the evening with Grandma Shirley and her family. (Devin’s dads side..) and Christmas Day we bounced around both of our families.  Devin got the new Xbox One for Christmas and I bought him Call of Duty and some stuff for grilling.  I tell you, he is quite the cook!! I love it when he tries new things on the grills. Also, I am getting quite pro at Halo.  At least on easy ;) haha.  We went up to my Grandma and Grandpa Jacksons house the day after Christmas since we didn’t go there on Thanksgiving.  It was really enjoyable.  Dad took us tubing behind the fourwheeler and the suburban. I haven’t done that in soo long! I was very sore the next day.. Nothing too exiting happened in January.  We celebrated Jedds and Grandpa Donalds birthdays.  Then February hit.  We had Grandma Karens, Megans, my moms and my birthday to celebrate.  For my birthday Devin got lower bowl tickets to the Jazz vs Bucks game that was actually being played on my birthday.  We decided it would be super fun to take my family.  Especially since my siblings have never been to one before! We ate at Chuck-A-Rama and enjoyed the game together.  The only part I didn’t like were the people sitting behind me.  I’m pretty sure they were already drunk when they showed up to the game.  I was just waiting for all four of us (Allie, Kendal, Devin and I – we sat in a different section than mom, dad, Jason and Lindsie) to have beer spilled on our heads. Devin and I had gone to the Jazz vs Lakers game 3 days before and someone had spilled beer in my shoe…But I mean seriously? It irritates me so bad when people drink and then talk about which one of them are going to drive home.  I know dang well every single one of them were drunk off their butts and then one of them was going to drive home.  Lucky us.  Or lucky me! You get to waive your beer above my head while you cheer for the team and then have it drip on my head.  It was a good thing that no beer got spilled on me or I would have been one ENOJADA birthday girl..

Devin spoiled me rotten.  Like usual.  He got us the tickets and he bought me season 6 & 8 of NCIS (Derik got me season7) and he got me a Caf-Pow mug!! Just like Abby’s.  I am seriously beyond excited.  Mom got me a new purse and a cute pink shirt! It’s been a good couple of months and I am excited for the rest of this year! J (pictures will hopefully come soon!!)

Mexico -- Part 2

Oh my heavens…this is turning out to be just like my journal.  I say I’m going to write ALL the time, and then I don’t.  Remember how I said I would write about Mexico in sections?  Well, here’s part 2. 

Our first week there was slightly…….chaotic.  We had one car.  We had no fridge.  We had 7 wrong-sized air mattress.  BUT we had each other.  During this 20 month excursion that my family went on, I will come to learn one thing:  My family is everything.  Growing up I was always very protective of my siblings.  I got even more overprotective while in Mexico.  I was terrified for all of us to go to school there.  What if someone teases my siblings for being white? For being tall or for being blonde? My biggest concern was that we were going to be teased for being Mormon.  Allie and Lindsie could handle themselves.  Any kidnapper would hand them right back.  My brothers however, are the sweetest things ever.  They’re the ones I worried about.

For the first week that we were there, mom had to drive dad to work.  Mom and dad could always tell where they were.  I on the other hand could barely tell which way was up.  We were really bored.  School didn’t start for about a month, and we didn’t really dare go anywhere without dad.  I remember one of the first nights we were there, mom and dad had gone grocery shopping and left us there at home.  All of a sudden we heard these big bangs! The house shook.  Tallie (our dog) was freaking out, barking.  Lindsie and Jason were crying.  We could have sworn it was gun shots.  I tried to call my dad, but of course I couldn’t remember the area code..  So what did I do? I used my noggin and I shoved us all under a desk that was in the front room, and guarded it with air mattress.  Not that they would have helped if someone broke in, but it made us feel better.  If we can’t see outside, they can’t see us inside.  Right?! Turns out, it was just fireworks. :) 

Before we started school, we had to take a test to get into school.  May I add that this was an AMERICAN SCHOOL.  I was American.  Why did I have to test to get in?!  I WAS THE AMERICAN!  So testing we went.  We had to read, write, do math and draw some stupid picture.  Results came back.  GREAT! …for Allie, Kendal and Lindsie.  What about Jason and I? Well….we didn’t quite make the cut.  I was furious.  They failed me because I drew stick figures..which in my defense…my stick figures are VERY cute.  We talked to the school and they ended up letting me come.. if we paid more money.  However, Jason wasn’t so lucky. They didn’t want to let him into their school because they were afraid that he would drop their overall scores as a school.  That made me even madder. I’ve always felt some sort of connection to Jason. (Especially after I dropped him on his face when he was 3 months old..haha..)  We act the exact same.  We both have ADHD, we both think the same things are funny, we’re two peas in a pod. He just won’t admit it yet :)

We didn’t really agree on letting Kendal, Allie, Lindsie and I go to the same school, and Jason be all by himself.  It made me sick to think about it.  So we mixed it up a little bit.  Kendal, Jason and Lindsie went to ISQ (International School of Queretaro) and Allie and I went to JFK. (John F. Kennedy) 

Mine and Allie's first day of school was nothing like I even thought it would be.  I was not ready to be a part of the minority class, and it hit me pretty hard.  We attended our first day and it was instantly noticed by everyone that there is a 5’10 white girl walking around with a 5’5 blonde girl.  People already knew that we were from the states.  The next task for them was to find out which state we came from.  The first two people to talk to us were two boys.  They were in my “generation”, or grade.  The first one had perfect English.  He was American.  The second one is what we called a “Fresa”.  In American terms, a stuck up brat.  (to put it nicely..) The American was polite to Allie and I.  He was from a neighboring state.  The Fresa however, threw me for a loop.  The American asked us which state we were from to which we both replied, Utah.  Instantly the Fresa asked us “Are you Mormon?”  Of course we said yes! And he walked away.. That was very difficult for me. I hadn’t even been there a whole day and I was already being judged. I knew instantly that I was going to be a minority.  I came from a school where probably 90% of us were Mormon, to having my sister, 2 teachers and I the only ones on campus that were LDS.  This was about to be a long senior year.

Since Allie and I didn’t know any Spanish, they put us in a program called “SWAS”.  It stands for School Within A School.  SWAS was my safe haven.  I could go there and feel completely normal.  There were other American’s there that were going through the same thing that I was going through.  The only difference is they were like average 9-10 years old.  We became best buddies.

Remember how I said I was super protective of my siblings? Well Allie branched out more than what I wanted her too.  I didn’t want her to go hang out with these people.  What if something happened to her? Long story short, I didn’t interact with my fellow classmates as much as I would have liked to.  I didn’t go on my senior class trip.  I didn’t go to parties (which was 100% my choice! There was lots of alcohol..) I didn’t go “hang out” with them after school or go get Starbucks.  I stayed at home.  With my family. Allie went on her class trip for a week. And she went on a week trip for a soccer tournament.  I struggled with that.  I had to go to early morning seminary all by myself at 5:30 in the morning.  I had to go to school by myself.  I had to be alone.  From the first day of school until Christmas break  I didn’t hang out with anyone.  I sat by myself at lunch.  Usually Allie would sit with me.  Or Butch. (our other American friend) but once Allie and Butch started to make friends, I just sat there.  To be honest, I didn’t really mind it.  It was no different than at Mountain Crest in my opinion.  I minded my own business.  I ate by myself and I went to class by myself.  It was routine for me.  The second half of the year I branched out a little bit more.  I made friends that I hope to keep for a lifetime. 

I felt bad for Kendal, Jason and Lindsie.  They weren’t getting the education that they deserved.  Kendal got teased a lot by kids at school.  They knew that he was Mormon and they would purposely come and say the F word in his ear.  Even when he’d politely ask them to stop.  He’d come home crying and hurt and it would make me so mad.  I could have killed every one of those kids.  Jason and Lindsie made lifetime friends. Some of them were even in our ward at church.  Kendal had great friends at ISQ too.  Ones that were nice.  In the end he did end up transferring to JFK for his second year of school down there. 

Every weekend down there, we spent it together as a family.  We’d go explore some new place.  We’d go to the mercados (little, tiny stores ).  We’d hang out and grow closer together.  We’d eat gorditas and we’d go to the water parks.  We went to the Zoo and to the beach.  Our “trip” to Mexico, was probably the best thing that could have happened to our family.  We were forced to be together instead of out with friends.  I am very grateful for my family.  I don’t know where I would be without them.

Estoy muy agradecida por mi familia y por todo lo que hicieron para mi cuando vivimos en Mexico.  Yo he aprendido que la familia es la cosa mas importante en todo el mundo. 

50 years?!

50 YEARS!

My Grandma and Grandpa Jackson were married September 21, 1964.  My grandpa was 16. Grandma was 19.  They have 5 fabulous children.  Chad, Brandon, Jaden, Krey and Kendra.  22 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.  This weekend we celebrated those 50 years that they have been together.  We met at the Roberts Community Center and had a little fiesta.  We took family pictures together. (It’s not very often that you can get EVERYONE from the Jackson side to meet at one place to get a decent picture, but we did!) After pictures we just hung around the event for a while.  We watched a video of my grandparent’s life together that my dad created.  We ate ice-cream and we talked. A lot.

It was so neat to be able to see pictures of my grandparent’s growing up together.  The camping trips they went on, trips to Disneyland, trips to Florida.  I told Devin that I now want a camera for Christmas so that we can take pictures of us doing things.  Other than selfies ;) hopefully that will be happening..:)

Other than going to Idaho, nothing much has happened.  School’s started back up so Dev is busy with homework, I’m still working.  Our families are doing well.  Dev is wishing that it was May so that he doesn’t have to be in school anymore.  I was wishing it was the holidays.  I love decorating for family parties so I am super anxious to hold a holiday party!! Other than that not a whole lot is going on in our little Fabricius family.  

JULY??

Holy cow.  What a month July has been! Devin and I have been going nonstop and it has been so much fun.  On the Fourth of July we went to Idaho Falls with Devin’s family.  We left and stopped at Wendy’s and ate.  I had a barbeque chicken salad and it was delicious! So good! I highly recommend it.  Devin had couple hamburgers.  I swear to you he is still growing!  After Wendy’s, we went to the hotel and it was GORGEOUS! It was so pretty! We were so lucky because the hotel that we stayed at (HILTON GARDEN INN) their back property that ran along the canal taped off just for the guests staying there. We had great seats to see the fireworks.  Before the fireworks we went to Bear World.  Have you ever been there?! Holy tolito.  It. Was. Awesome.  I wanted to cuddle with every animal there. Oh they were so darn cute! We went back to Idaho Falls and ate at Jakers.  Their steak was incredible.  The juiciest steak I have ever eaten. (besides Devin’s of course!)  The fireworks were great.  They were so bright and fun and we really enjoyed the time we spent with Devin’s Family.

A week after the Fourth (9-13) we went to Denver to see Devin’s mission companion and his wife.  Devin and Kyle spent 5 months together in their mission.  They were robbed together, shot at together, had a knife to them together.  You name it – it happened.  So we figured it was only appropriate that they spend their “2 year anniversary” together.  Make sense, right? We thought so. J  We drove to Rock Springs, WY on Wednesday.  That hotel was the scariest thing I have ever stayed in.  5:30 in the morning Devin could have sworn that someone was in our room.  So he got out of bed and couldn’t see anyone.  He followed the noise and led him right to the window.  He swung the blinds open and some guy was just staring at him.  He closed those blinds so dang fast! Ugh I was so scared haha I had NO idea what the heck was going on.. I was so ready to go and chew someone at the front desk out for having someone outside our window, at 5:30 doing remodeling.. but I couldn’t.  Devin and I had failed to miss the sign that said “please excuse the workers, we are remodeling our hotel” or something like that.  Needless to say we didn’t really sleep that well that first night.  We drove the rest of the way to Denver and boy was it long! We stopped in Loveland and did a little shopping and then went right to Kyle and Ashley’s apartment.  We hung out and Ashley made a Chicken Parmesan dish for dinner.  It was fabulous.  Friday we went to the Denver Bronco’s football stadium.  The Sports Authority field in the Mile High Stadium.  He LOVED IT! It was so great to see him walk around the stadium in awe.  He would love to tell anyone about it.  So if you have questions, he’s the one to ask! J  We ate at KFC and then went to the ZOO! Again, I wanted to cuddle with everything that I saw! The only downside to that day was that it was so blasted hot outside.  Walking around the park was a little too hot for me, but they were so pretty and so much fun to look at.  I absolutely loved it.  We went back to the apartment and immediately left to go eat at Qdoba – it’s a Mexican restaurant and its was also, very delicious.  We watched the Colorado Rockies beat the Minnesota Twins at the Cores field.  Saturday we went to Mt. Evans.  It’s 14,258 feet about sea-level.  I was seriously crapping my pants the entire drive up, and the entire drive down.  It was so nice to see Kyle and Ashley that weekend and be able to have an enjoyable time together. 

These two pictures were taken at the Bronco Stadium -- Devin's favorite part!

The 24^th was so much fun too! We went to Juanito Bandito in Bear Lake.. seriously! The funniest thing ever invented.  I love him.  His Spanish accent and his stretchy – pants.  Best thing ever.  We went to Evanston WY that night and stayed in this great hotel.  Derik, Devin and I got to swim in the pool, just the three of us.  It was great! The next morning we woke up and drove to Park City – we went moose hunting through the Uintah’s.  I’m pretty sure I saw one.  I’m positive!  We got to Park City and went shopping at the outlets.  We then went on the Gondola. HOLY CRAP! Scariest thing ever.  I cried.  Like I seriously got mascara on Devin’s shorts because I was so scared. I mean we thought we were at the top of the mountain, there was a huge sign that said WOW! (making you think that you were at the top) but NOPE! Drop off into a ginormous canyon.  I bawled.  But I made it down okay so I guess I’m alright.  We went to the hotel which was gorgeous! Dev and I had our room and the bed was so comfy! I have never slept in a bed that comfy.  I slept til 8! Anyways, after we went to the hotel, I went up yet another lift.  We went to the Alpine Slide which was a blast! I had never been before so it was a little scary at first, but again, I lived J We had pizza from Maxwell’s pizza that was right underneath our hotel room and then Dev and I went swimming.  It was an indoor/outdoor pool and we had the whole outdoor part to ourselves.  It was beautiful to swim under the stars in a heated pool! Over all we had a great month of July!