Utah! Utah! Utah!

July has been nuts. First weekend was the 4th, and I got to pick up Alessandra from the airport in Denver as she arrived back in the US after a month studying abroad in China. It was awesome! She was only in Greeley for 4 hours. Hah, Chelsea was able take her back to the airport in the morning, but of course we got pictures in.

This was a picture Alessandra was taking of a drum she bought so she wouldn't have to take it to Utah for her family to see...

Chelsea got to come over for a bit after the Greeley Stampede, so, like I said, she was able to take Alessandra back to the airport on her way home, it was a huge help.

The second weekend of July our friend Ryan was going out to Utah for his mission president's homecoming talk, so I went along for the ride, and to see Alessandra. We were originally going to pick Alessandra up, but her parents didn't want her to leave. And her family had tickets for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House, so Ryan and I worked friday night (till 10:30pm), I went and took a couple hour nap, and we left Greeley at 3:00am Saturday morning! Ryan, has a manual so I couldn't help drive, just help keep him awake, but he was crazy fast, and we made REALLY good time to Alessandra's house. We even had time to take a wee nap. The open house was amazing! The temple is so beautiful. I look forward to going back after it's dedicated.

This is a picture Alessandra took so I could see what I looked like with her sister Luli's glasses. I wanna get new frames, so I was just curious what I looked like. I don't think they're me...

You can't see us very well, but here we are in front of the temple. Ryan, Alessandra, Michella, Ruth, and me.

After the temple, I went down to Provo and got to hang out with Nicolle and Jillaine. Michelle was at home in California.

Sunday I got to go play with my cousins. It was really fun. Here I am with Deborah and Liza! Love those two bunches and bunches!

So the next weekend, Diane was going out to Utah for a wedding reception. So her job was to pick up Alessandra. She wanted me to go with her. Of course I wanted to. I really didn't want to cancel my Sunday School class for another week, so I told her that I'd go if we could make it back in time for church sunday morning. So we decided we'd leave Utah whenever her reception was over saturday night. Crazy, but I figured we'd be able to take turns sleeping in the back seat.

So next the question was when we would leave Colorado. Originally I thought the plan was to leave on friday morning. Then maybe friday night. But that didn't work out for Diane. So we left Saturday morning at 8:00am, and we left Utah at 9:00pm to come back. It was nuts! I hung out in Provo with Michelle, where Alessandra met up with us, and then we met back up with Diane. We got into Greeley at 4:00am sunday morning. I got 3 hours of sleep before church! It was crazy! But we all survived. Whether we've recovered or not is another issue. ;) It was fun though. And how many people can say they've gone to Utah and back from Colorado in one day?! Hah, not many. But Diane and I can. In fact it was so fast there and back that I have no pictures to show from it. How'd I manage to not take pictures? I'm really not sure.

So I got Alessandra, and sunday afternoon we made a big dinner for the Toy Family who was moving away to Mississippi on that next tuesday. We ate with them of course (oh, the food turned out amazing, orange beef with broccoli, and tons of vegies), and then hung out with them till birthday cake for Kristin Nelson followed by games at the Huffines called us away.

Alessandra got quite the workout playing with the 4 adorable kids (especially since it was so hot)!

How cute is baby Ammon?

Thursday of that week we were going over to Ryan's to have some dinner, watch some of The Office, and I had some zuchini bread to make (with yellow squash as an experiment). As I took a corner a little too fast to make the light (the one at 34 and 47th Ave, horrible light), two of the eggs jumped out and cracked. Of course I had to take a picture of Alessandra with the dripping egg. Hah, I was laughing so hard. The bread turned out awesome though!

Alessandra had to be in Colorado primarily for Chelsea & Sean's wedding and reception friday the 24th. It was great, and I'll post a blog entry about it, but when we got home we were beat! It'd been a really long day--over 12 hours down in Denver area, and dancing on hard wood with bare feet (couldn't do it in my 4-inch heels), so we soaked our poor dirty and tired feet in hot soapy water while we watched an episode of Robin Hood with Ashley! It was fun. We felt better after that.

Saturday was another wedding reception, then Sunday was filled with church (of course), choir stuff, visiting teaching, the Nursing home, packing, dinner, fireside, and finally we left Fort Collins at 8:55pm for Alessandra's house in Sandy. Doesn't Alessandra look so happy to be driving? She drove first of course.

I slept in the back seat while she drove for the first 4 hours. I slept for prolly around 2.5 hours. Not bad! Would've totally thought that would've been enough. She was still feelin alright to drive when we filled up on gas at 1:00am. Look at that! We didn't even end up having to buy gas on the Sabbath!

But we decided I'd drive anyway since I'd slept so much.

Well turned out I was WAY tired, normally I'm way good to go late at night and stuff. But turns out that was a big negatory. I was okay driving, but I was way tired. So after trying to get some Taco Bell and failing (apparently Wyoming doesn't believe in 24-hr Taco Bells, a friend mentioned Taco Bell a few too many times during the month of July, and I really wanted some), I lasted only until 3:00am.

We were already in Utah at this point. I knew we were close to Sandy, about 45 minutes away was all. But I had to close my eyes for a bit. So I pulled into a rest stop, Alessandra stirred in the backseat and I told her where we were. I curled up in the drivers seat thinking that I'd sleep for a half hour or maybe an hour. (I don't normally sleep very well in cars.) Yeah, Alessandra and I woke up at 6:00am! We slept for 3 hours! So I drove the 45 minutes to her family in Sandy, where I then slept for another 5 hours! Guess everything else in July just wore me out!

So I drove to Utah for 3 of the weekends in July (hence the blog title, know what movie it's a play on? I haven't actually seen the movie, but I've heard of it anyhow). And I saw Alessandra every weekend of July! It's been crazy!

Now Alessandra and I are at my house in California. Again, more to come later.

Till then...