Star Valley Weekend

Mat was really hoping to fly this weekend, but that just didn't work out. Again. Every time we've reserved a plane and plan to fly, Mother Nature has a different idea and dumps rain on us. :) So we drove....

We went into Idaho Falls on Friday so I could see Bethany and visit with Mom and Dad Haderlie. Then Saturday we slept in (much needed by the way) and took our time. We headed off to Star Valley, it's honestly a gorgeous drive! Lots to see!

We were going to Grandma & Grandpa Haderlie's first. The reason for this trip was to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a huge surprise party planned for them, but part of the surprise was let out of the bag when an announcement went into the local paper. :) We were able to visit with friends and family, see all the new additions to the family! It was great!

The party was in Freedom. So for my family mainly who doesn't know much about Star Valley, I found a map! Their is the lower valley and the upper valley (Mat grew up in the lower), so I'm hoping this helps!

Grandma & Grandpa Park live in Etna, we stayed with them on Saturday night, in their "palace". It was definitely a palace! They let us stay in their new camp trailer! It's fancy!!!

And then Afton has the elk horn arch, which I also found pictures of :). It seems lately, Mat and I have been really bad about picture taking! We took the camera this last weekend, but forgot to actually take pictures.

We had a great time this weekend! It was nice to break away and get out into the country for a while. We haven't been back to Star Valley since August of last year and can't figure out why it took us so long!

The summer always seems to be the busiest time of year, but we're hoping to get another trip in to Star Valley before to long!

Mat's going fishing with the Haderlie boys a week from this weekend while I escape off to Oregon! I'm excited to see my family again! And I know Mat's overjoyed to go fishing, he's been talking about it for a while! :)

I'll try to get some pictures at least this next time!

Texas Pictures!

Here are some pictures from Texas!! :) We don't have many, but we have a few - there's a story to go along with that, I'll get to in a bit.

First off, Mat completely forgot about the "best ice cream on the planet" until well...we were all on our second helping. :) Mat took a nap and missed out on Grandpa Clarence's ice cream cone snacks! When he woke up though, he was told by us all how wonderful they were and then grandpa dove right in for a second helping! :)

Moving on...for most of the time the weather was really great! However, on our way to Lakey, Texas - where my grandparents have a ranch, population: 397 - we had some wild weather to go through.

My sister was taking pictures each step of the way (from the car). They turned out amazing! The only downfall was after these pictures were taken, we had a horrendous rain storm to drive through that made visibility impossible.

Once we got to the ranch, Mat was completely taken back. Mat lived in Houston and all the outskirts, he had never been to the San Antonio area or their outskirts. So he was pleasantly surprised showing up and seeing Grandma Doris & Grandpa Jim's 640 acre ranch. :) I hadn't been to the ranch since I was about 6 years old and a lot had been updated and remodeled, but overall it was still gorgeous! The morning time I think was my favorite, the sun coming through the trees in the front yard and just overall, breathtaking. My sister got a great shot of the morning time, I'm so thankful she took the camera!
Here are a few shots from the front of the driveway too:

The best part about being on the ranch besides being "out of sight and out of mind" of the busy cities and responsibilities of everyday life was we had so much area to roam! There were quads on the ranch so we were able to take those around and go explore. It's just gorgeous up there!

Mat and I also got to take our niece and nephew around, they had so much fun! Ash Lee, who's about 4, loved going fast! So for the most part she was steering and controlling the gas. :) I was just along for the ride. William also had a blast!

Our last night on the ranch, Grandma Doris took Mat & I, Mandy & Philip (Sister & bro-in-law) up and around the property to show us around. We had a great time and got to see a ton of amazing spots!

However, before we could really do much of anything, we had to reclaim our territory! My grandparents have cows, goats and lamas on the property, they are free to roam just about anywhere and well.....ride 4 wheelers apparently. :)

We are really grateful for our grandparents who paid for our trip down, we can't thank them enough for such a wonderful time! We did get one family shot, but Grandma Doris is our photographer for this picture, so she's missing:

These are all pictures taken by my sister, who was the only smart one to take a camera :). However, yesterday, her computer gave her the "screen of death". And her computer crashed. This is devastating in itself for her, but there were many many files that weren't backed up at all. The Texas pictures were among those that were lost, so these are the only ones we have. I still think they are great and honestly, show a range of the good times we had. (Thank you, Mandy!)

So that's our trip in a nutshell :). And this is my first time (ever) posting pictures to my blog, so I hope I did it right. :)

Texas!!

Hey Y'all!

We just got back last night from our Texas adventure!

Apparently, we didn't tell everyone about our trip, so I'll back up. My grandparents bought plane tickets for Mat & I to go down for the weekend. My grandpa has been battling lung cancer for some time now and even though he is doing good, he still wanted to have all of his grandkids and kids together this last weekend.

My sister flew out Wednesday with her kiddos, Mat, myself & my brother and law all flew in Thursday and then my mom and her boyfriend came in late Thursday night. We arrived and it was soooo WARM! Oh, how much we both missed that type of warmth. It was just blissful! Grandma Doris picked us up and while we waited for my brother in law to fly in, we went to dinner. And SAT OUTSIDE! So for some, this might not be the biggest deal, but it was just so comfortable and was just WONDERFUL!

Mat served his mission and lived in Houston for 2 years so he was familiar with the weather. And was in heaven! It was nice during the days that we were there and then at night we had thunderstorm along with lightening. It was just so neat!!

I will post pictures soon!! My sister took some amazing photos! And we were the stinkers that forgot to pack our camera. So I have to wait for her to get back. :)

The weekend was such a great adventure! The flight home was also fun! We had a 3 leg flight coming home, so we went from San Antonio to Houston to Denver to SLC, not changing planes in between. But it was a great time!

So now that we are home, I have tons of laundry, cleaning and homework to catch up on! :) So...pictures to come!!

Love you guys!

I totally stink at blogging. That's the only thing I really can say. :)

I will keep trying to update, but still bare with me. :)