Utah Trip

Do you remember when my friend Marci surprised me earlier this year by flying into Tampa for my birthday? Well, I decided it'd be a fun surprise to reciprocate. The last trip I took on my own was back in December for my friend Halle's wedding in Ohio, and since then I've been itching to travel again. Robert was amazing and took leave from work to stay home with Abby for 4 and 1/2 days while mommy got a little break! 

I sat in the backseat with Abby on the way to the airport and we had fun taking pictures together. I love her cheesy grin!

At the airport, she blew me a kiss from the car and said, "bye, mommy!" and I thought all was well. Then I took one last look as they pulled away and I saw her crying. She had big fat tears rolling down her cheeks and of course then I did, too. Goodbyes are hard! But I knew she was going to have a great time with her daddy.

My flight took me through Denver (a 4 hour trip), then Salt Lake City (2 more hours) and then I jumped on a shuttle to head north to Logan, Utah (another 2 hours). It was a long day of travel. I went from sea level to an elevation of over 4,000 feet and changed from Eastern to Mountain time. But it was all worth it to see Marci and Joe. 

On Friday we headed north and crossed the border into Idaho to go to Lava Hot Springs. The hot water felt soooo relaxing and therapeutic. 

It was a pretty warm day so we stayed in the shade and had to take occasional breaks from our hot water soaking. The cool breeze felt amazing.

This was the deepest and hottest pool. I think it was 113 degrees? I lasted only about two minutes before I had to leave.

Fall colors! I couldn't have a been any happier to see this.

This part of the country has some truly gorgeous farmland. We saw a lot of livestock, cornfields, and hay bales.

On Saturday, Marci and Joe showed me around Logan. Joe is the marching band director at Utah State so we went to see the university. I love how the football stadium is surrounded by the mountains! I wish I could have seen him in action with the band -- hopefully next time? 

We had a Skype session with Abby later that afternoon. She had fun showing us her toys and she kept running around like a crazy lady!

Robert creeped us out with Abby's baby doll. Ha!

Brave Robert gave potty training a try while I was away. I was impressed that he was willing to go through that without any reinforcements. We decided awhile back to go the route of "potty training bootcamp" where you put your kid in underwear over a long weekend, hoping they learn from any accidents they make. I'll spare you the details (although there are some pretty funny stories) but ultimately we decided to give her a little more time. Abby did great and used the potty several times but she had several accidents, too. So we'll try again later.

Back to Utah...

Robert insisted that I eat at In-N-Out Burger (I've never been) while I was there so we drove down to Ogden on Sunday. Marci has to travel to Ogden to go to Target, too...how does she survive?!

Here's Marci's "animal style" fries. Impressive!

I enjoyed seeing more Fall colors out the car window on the drive back to Logan.

We celebrated Marci's birthday that evening with an incredible Oopsy Daisy Cake from Baked. Marci and I need to start keeping track of all of the birthday cakes we've made together. We made a lemon pound cake with lemon poppy seed buttercream this past April on my birthday. Two birthdays ago I flew to Virginia to visit while Robert was deployed and we made a delicious strawberry birthday cake. I made a chocolate peanut butter cake for her when we had a girls weekend at Sanibel Island several years back -- the infamous cake that split into 4 or 5 pieces on the drive there! Friends who bake together, stay together. ;)

My apologies for the blurriness.

We went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant that evening (after eating cake, not before, in true Marci/Bobbie style) and on the way we saw this crazy fog.

I'm so sad this is the only picture I got with Marci during the entire trip! Thanks, Marci and Joe for the great visit. I loved seeing your beautiful surroundings, the campus, and your favorite restaurants but most of all I loved seeing you! I wish we still lived close to each other. Marci, happy birthday again and I hope you have the most amazing year ahead. Love you, friend!