What's behind curtain number one?

A NEW CAR!!!

Well, new to us. And it truly is in like-new condition.

We've been looking for a second car since we moved, and after months of searching we found one we liked! The only thing was that it was in Oregon. So TJ's dad and our brother in law Ryan were nice enough to go down to Portland and check it out for us. They told us it was amazing, so we bought a car we had never seen or driven before! Haha. We are so grateful to have such great family that are so willing to help us out. Thanks you guys!!!

Our car sat at the Emrich house in Washington for a couple weeks until we could go pick it up. We drove over to Boise (because flying out of Idaho Falls is outrageous), parked the truck, and flew over to Portland, Whit and Ryan picked us up and we drove to Chehalis.

So here's our new ride :) It's a 2002 Ford Escape. And it's basically awesome.

We are seriously loving this car!!

Sunday after we got there was Whitney's birthday, and mine was the Thursday after, so we celebrated our birthdays together on Saturday night with the whole family. Little Jane helped us blow out the candles too :)

We had originally planned on traveling to Washington on Saturday and getting up the next morning and driving back to Idaho, but our plans changed super last minute. Friday morning - the day before we left - we found out TJ needed to be in New Jersey that coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for meetings. That meant he would need to fly on Sunday, which meant we couldn't be driving back on Sunday. So I decided I'd just spend the week in Chehalis while he was on the east coast. So Sunday morning (the day after we got to Chehalis) we got up at 4 am and drove down to Portland and dropped TJ off at the airport (where we'd been picked up about 14 hours previous...haha).

I had a fun week in Chehalis :) I got to go to a couple of Kaeli's soccer games! I loved it. Took me back to my childhood :) It was so fun. There's Kaeli going towards the goal! (in the green shirt)

Just gettin' a drink :)

One night Kaeli and I went on a bike ride! It was fun hangin' out with Kaeli so much.

My birthday was on Thursday, which was the day TJ flew home! YAY!! So Kaeli got to get out of school early to come along with us to the airport and pick up TJ. I was so happy to get to have my hubby with me for at least part of my birthday :)

That night we went to Casa Ramos for dinner to celebrate.

Went home and had some birthday brownies with ice cream and sherbet, and got to open birthday presents.

My sweet hubby got me Ugg boots!!!! Holla!!!!!!! I've wanted them for a while, but they're just so expensive and we couldn't afford them. I had asked for them, but then we bought a car, so I told TJ to not worry about getting me a present. I honestly didn't think he'd got me anything since he'd had to go out of town so unexpectedly, but he was sneaky and got me these anyway. Love him.

We decided to spend Friday in Chehalis and drive home on Saturday. TJ went out hunting with his dad and got a couple ducks!

Then they went fishing and he caught a nice steelhead!!! It's been a while since he caught a steelhead, and he's been really wanting to lately, and he caught one!! Quite a nice fish, too! He was so happy when he came home. It was pretty cute.

That fish is going to be our dinner tonight. Yum!

It worked out so nicely that we got to have a little vacation out of what was supposed to be a quick, crazy weekend trip. I am so glad it did :)

And now I think I'm going to find another errand to run so I can drive our new car.....:)

Gone Fishin'

This past weekend TJ was invited to go on a BYU alumni fishing trip. Every year one of TJ's professors from his program hosts this fishing trip - he's HUGE in to fishing. At the last minute, a couple guys bailed on the trip so his professor called and asked if I wanted to come along. So, a couple hours before leaving on Wednesday, I decided I would go too!

His professor, Brother Mark Hutchings, owns a cabin up in Island Park, Idaho, which is only a couple hours from where we live. There is just something about being in a cabin... in the middle of nature that just....gets me. I don't know how to describe it. It's like magic. Maybe it takes me back to all the summers in Waterton spent with family playing cards. Maybe it's the coziness. Maybe it's simplicity of life. I don't know. But I love it. I dream of owning a cabin one day. Here's where we stayed this weekend:

It is a beautiful cabin! And huge. There are 11 queen size beds and 1 king size. Ya. We had so much fun. There were 9 of us on the trip, and I was grateful there was another female there! Another one of the professors brought his wife, so we became friends :) I didn't fish since I didn't have a license, and because it was so stinkin' COLD the whole time we were there. It snowed all day Thursday and Friday, accumulating a good 6 inches or so. It was so beautiful. But cold.

Morning glory in the cabin. Gotta love it.

They fished mostly at Henry's Lake, which is about 10 minutes up the road from the cabin.

Thursday I went and watched TJ fish for a while, until I was freezing and wet. Then I went back to the truck and warmed up :) I love that you can see the snowflakes falling in this picture. My little fisherman :) And yes, he is standing IN the water. With waders on, yes, but still!

TJ had a great weekend fishing! All but one other person fishing were really into fly fishing, but TJ caught just as many on his spinning rod using worms, or his "garden hackle" as they called it. Too funny :)

All the fish he caught were cut throat, and all between 16 and 19 inches. They were pretty good sized fish!

Brian, TJ, and Brother Hutchings

Friday morning the boys all got up and went fishing and had a pretty successful morning, but it was also the coldest day of the weekend. It was somewhere in the 20's. Brr!! I curled up with a book in the cabin and just relaxed. It was glorious. Since West Yellowstone is only about 20 minutes from Island Park, that afternoon we went to....

and let me tell ya, Yellowstone was bea-U-tiful! The fall colors were gorgeous, and with a fresh layer of snow in the background...it was just incredible.

We got to see lot of wildlife, and took way too many pictures :) This bull elk was just right off the side of the road.

Love this pic.

We also saw a lot of buffalo. There was a big herd of 'em right off the road by this river. I think buffalo are pretty darn cool.

And in another place we saw some crossing the road.

We came across a coyote that was licking some road kill off the road. TJ got a pretty good shot of him!

We also stopped and walked around the boardwalk to some hot pots. This was on "Bacteria Mat." Look at that blue!

These are the "Paint Pots" that just bubbled up and were really cool lookin' and sounded pretty funny too.

We also went to see Old Faithful. It's kind of cool to see in the winter because you can't really see the water shooting up, it's just this huge cloud of steam. I apparently didn't put up the one of it in the middle of erupting, but just picture this a LOT bigger, and you kind of get the idea...haha.

This book was in the Visitor's Center at Old Faithful. We totally cracked up and had to get a picture!

Saturday turned out to not be the greatest day for fishing because it was pretty windy out on the lake. Bummer. So we hung out at the cabin for a while, then everyone had to go back to Utah. Since we only had a 2 hour drive home compared to their 6+ hour drive, we decided we'd go back to Yellowstone :) It was a beautiful day. It was the nicest day of the weekend.

We drove through the main loop around the Park and saw so much beautiful scenery and some more wildlife, and once again took way too many pictures. But I'm glad we did.

TJ's only wish was to see a bear. The day before, everyone said this time of year it was very unlikely he'd see one. Hah! He was so excited when we saw this grizzly eating in a field :) The park ranger that was there said they estimated it to be about a 450 - 500 pound grizzly!

The guy standing next to us had a really nice, legit camera, so as cheesy as it is, we took a picture of his picture of the bear. Haha.

After that we stopped at the Visitor's Center when we went to go see the upper and lower falls. They have a listing of animal sightings in the park and I had to document our bear spotting! I was kind of proud. It's the last on the list :)

And then...

My goodness. I could have spent all day here. It was breathtaking.

Those are the upper falls. We didn't get to hike around to 'em because we didn't have enough time. But there they are at a distance.

These are the lower falls. We got to hike right next to them.

We hiked back around the North Rim Trail, but it didn't quite lead to the Upper Falls like we'd hoped. We did get to see this pretty little waterfall, though.

At a different look out point to see the lower falls. So beautiful.

We drove past Yellowstone Lake. Gorgeous.

And down through the Grand Teton National Park. These trees were so cool lookin'! The leaves were bright orange. The pictures don't do 'em justice. They looked awesome.

Seriously looked like they were on fire.

And, of course, the Grand Tetons. My goodness those mountains are amazing.

It was such a great time of year to be there with all the colors changing.

It made for a long day of driving, but it was totally worth it! We ended with a gorgeous Idaho sunset just before we got home.

Love him. So glad I got to spend the weekend with this stud.

I feel so lucky we got to spend this weekend together in such a beautiful place. I'm seriously amazed at how beautiful this world is. We will definitely be making trips back to Island Park and Yellowstone in the future. Anyone wanna come with?? ;)