The Utah Trip.

Finally!

So much time has passed since I went out West. Due to circumstances that have taken place since the trip I don't feel as though I can post in the detail I had originally planned. Still, I can give you a brief overview:

Adventure #1: The flight. Five glorious hours in a non-stop flight that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Yes, I had a wonderful conversation with Mr. Beck, but it was a long flight! Pictured at the left, coupled with a small bag of stale peanuts later, is all the food we were offered. I don't know about you, but when I travel, I get hungry! I did "enjoy"...though it was a very good thing I saved the oreo cookies. You'll see why....

The second adventure: My brother-in-law, Brad, assured my sister, Liz, that there was plenty of gas in the Yukon to pick me up from the airport and get me home. Wrong-o! Now, my sister and I are no dummies. When the car ran out of gas we turned off everything - didn't even leave the key on while in the ignition, but the battery went dead, anyway. That's why you see Brad not only adding gas to the Yukon [left], but then (after driving back to the house for jumper cables) giving us a jump start with his little Honda [right]. Long story short, even that didn't work and the Yukon had to be towed. Liz and I took the Honda and went to the house. The result: a five hour flight to get to there, and then a three hour trip from the airport to the house! (By the way, it should have been 20-30 minutes, tops.) I was starving, but I shared my oreos, anyway. :o)

Day Two: The Take-over. At the time of my visit, Brad was co-owner and vice president of a company. Unfortunate things had happened and Brad had to stage a corporate take-over. Yeah, you could say it was hostile. Things got scary for awhile and I spent the next few days learning more about corporate law than I ever wanted to know! A lot of time was spent at the office going through files, etc. There were late nights and early mornings. Depending upon your point of view, you could say things turned out badly...or very well.

The rest of the trip is kind of blurry. Given the amount of time spent at the office, little else was done. I did my shopping at the airport before boarding my flight for home. We did see The Nutcracker, about which I posted earlier. We went out for a couple of dinners. And we laughed. My sister and I always laugh. And I got to see all of my nieces & nephews, to include my great-nephew, River. Here they are, from the oldest to the youngest:

Jason was at his second job. Can you guess where? He works so hard -sometimes up to 18 hours straight- and was tired. Malia works at a ski resort on ski patrol. She had just finished a very long day and met us at a Mexican restaurant. She was tired, too! We met up with Kailani after she'd had about 5 hours of sleep. Her hair wasn't done so guess what..this isn't her best shot, either!






This is where I saw Kainoa and Kela the most: in a car! I regret not being able to spend real time with them while I was there. Kainoa and I did play a game of California Speed in the conference room at the office one day. At least they are willingly wearing the scarves I made for them. River is eating a turkey sandwich. He is Jason's son and not quite five years old. He is very entertaining to talk to, let me tell ya!




Utah is gorgeous. My sister laughed at me a lot because every time we'd go around a bend in the road I would whip out my camera to take pictures! The woman has a mountain practically sitting in her back yard and she laughs at me? The neat thing about the mountain-pictured on the left-is that it turns pink when the sun sets. Nifty, huh?




Last but definitely not least: Liz. Bad picture, great sister! Words cannot begin to describe how I feel about her or how thankful I am that she is my sister.

I'll be going back to Utah soon. Hopefully during this year. And I am going to take Andy with me. I don't see my family nearly enough to suit me. I only hope they feel the same about me!