Micah happened to have a conference up in Provo last week, which worked out perfectly. I had been trying to get to Provo once more this summer because one my Latvian girls is in town for 6 weeks! So this worked out very well! No weddings, graduations or other big events, so we thought we'd just have a laid back week and get to see family and friends...which it was, but we ended up not having a free moment (even me, who wasn't working!) and kept so busy the whole time it was great, but we still didn't get to see everyone we thought we would. But we had a great time. Unfortunately, we didn't have pics of it all.
We took a different route this time on the "Million Dollar Highway" which was absolutely impressive!
We loved this town...totally in the mountains
We ate in this teeny old town called Silverton. Everything looked like the original times of the mining towns. This place had an old fashioned bar, served ice cream, and even had an old cowboy plinking around on the piano the whole time!
Micah started calling this place Switzerland & took a movie of it & thought we could convince people that we went to Switzerland...
then we found this sign a little ways down the road (before this favorite little town of Ouray) that actually called it officially 'The Switzerland of America"!
Sunday, we had stayed with B&T so we went to church with them, then went to family dinner. I got to see Sveta (my mission friend) for the first time in years! She came to dinner with us. Sophie wasn't quite sure of this second language thing and kept looking at Sveta kind of fascinated, kind of confused. Monday, Micah had to check in then we spent the day visiting some of our favorite Provo spots (aka Jamba Juice and such). That night we went to a birthday party for our friend, Royce! Great timing on that one! I had a short chance to run over and see one of my freshmen roommates, Jenae & her cute family! (no pics of this stuff, though :()
Tuesday, I got to visit with Sveta shortly, and see my friend little Heather & her boy, who's getting so big!
That night we went jet skiing with Best & Tan
'ello farmer's tans!
Wed morning, Bryce surprised me and visited for a bit before our hiking trip. That was fun, don't ever get much one on one time with siblings these days... Then Jamie & Michelle & I went and got Sveta and hiked Stewart Falls. Sveta had never been out hiking in the mountains, despite this being her 3rd trip to Provo. She loved it! I forgot she has had heart surgery and we might have strained her a little bit...she did really well and took a bunch of pictures.
After, she despite being in America for 2 weeks, she hadn't had ice cream yet, which she had been looking forward to since she left a few years ago! She had spotted the Creamery, so her and I took a lunch trip there.
That evening we threw a pool pizza party, and had all our local siblings there. This is the only pic I have of it, though, I believe. We got a pretty good whirlpool going, enjoyed an outdoor pool while the sun was out, then moved indoors when the sun went down, loved the sauna and topped it off with a hot tub! We were pretty spoiled! We went after that night to play games at Bryce & Lisa's.
Thursday, we both went on a BYU tour, as the closing part of his conference, then had Micah's cousins & brother over for another pizza and pool party. No pics of that either, of course.
Friday, we checked out, had lunch with James & Michelle, ran some errands, spent time with Jason after work, then went camping by a lake with Best & Tanner. It was the perfect camping spot...
We introduced them to a Lillrose tradition "Tonk Toasters"
It was the perfect spot until the morning we realized why it was so big...we were in a site, but we set up our tent further off in a big wide open area. Yeah, it was a parking lot and had some fisherman there in the morning when we woke up.
our tent:
theirs:
Saturday after getting home from camping, we met up with Micah's cousins, Jason & Jamie & Michelle again and went to a rope swing down in some canal way south of Provo!
Jamie, Jason, Brian, Mark
Brian
Mark
Jamie....
flipping
Brian flipping
Mark's girlfriend, Sara
Michelle photographing
Jamie's casualty
Micah didn't want to hurt his body any more than it already is (we're working with the back and a knee right now) and I wasn't fond of being the sole attention of the huge crowd gathered behind the rope and the big lines, so we went further down the path and swam back up and enjoyed swimming on this hot day!
We had some dinner later that night with Jason & Brian and enjoyed pizza for the 4th night in a row!!! Micah & Jason stayed up late fixing the AC on our car, so we could survive the drive home the next day, 9 hours through desert, then we spent the night at Jamie & Michelle's before taking off the next day!
and there you have it, another jam packed, no free time, completely fun, make us miss our family and friends trip to Provo....
We met up with our friends Brandon & Erica in Flagstaff and saw some of the sights
look how huge this fly is!
she wanted to take pics with the camera
Red Rock Canyon, right outside Sedona, which is a really pretty place all situated in red rock
The Silver VW Phoenix Gang
After Flagstaff & spending the night with Brandon & Erica in their cute new house, we went to Tucson to visit Micah's cousin Jenny & her family. We went to the Outdoor Desert Museum on Labor Day.
Getting ice cream at the museum
Jenny & her new daughter, Lilian
What a cute family!
We took a scenic route back to Abq that afternoon...
A lot of the roads were through old mining towns, well, current mining towns, I guess
I didn't really agree, until we got this picture.
