Utah Trippin'

Back in May, Russell had a week break after Spring semester and before the Summer term started, so we decided to visit the home of our single days: Utah Valley.  We went just for fun and also to drop of Russell's bike to a friend who was going to "babysit" it for the summer since we weren't going to take it with us to Reno.  Unfortunately, the weather was awful--rainy the whole time--so our plans to walk around Temple Square were totally busted, but we managed to still have a fun time.  :)

We went to 5 Guys (the burger place everyone's been raving about) in St. George.  It was good, but the whole double-patty thing was a bit too much burger for me along with the 50 other toppings.  Next time, I'll do a better job of ordering.  I wasn't a huge fan of their style of fry; they tasted a little "dirty" to me like the potatoes needed to be washed better.  They do, though, have a big box o' peanuts that you can scoop out of into these little brown trays.  Obviously, Ty had a fun time with the tray.  It kinda looks like a little WWII salute to me!  

We spent the night at Uncle Vic and Aunt Michelle's house and saw Riley who had just gotten home from his mission in CA!  Ty had a fun time playing with them and didn't go to sleep/act tired for a while.  (Speaking of which, he just woke up from his nap and is talking to himself saying, "oh, oh, oh, doh, nah, oh...")  The next morning, instead of going to Temple Square, we went to Ikea (okay, so we were probably going to go anyway...)  For those who haven't been to that lovely store, they have a bunch of rooms set up and decorated with products that you can find in the store.  Russell and I have a fun time looking at stuff and playing "someday when we have a house."  We both decided that we really liked this kitchen (with a few minor changes, of course).  Anyway, I decided I'd better take a picture of it so I can remember it down the road.

 

Ikea has some great little kid toys and we saw these ones on the shelf.  I tried to pull one down for Ty to look at/test drive, but they were bolted down!  Strong Russell lifted Ty up for a while so he could play.  The joke was totally on us, though, because about 10 feet later, we noticed a big play table with multiple sets of the toys for kids to play with.  Oops.

We got to visit Dan and Karla Smith in their new home in Kearns and see their lovely little girls and brand new baby boy!  Lucy (pictured next to Ty) was born July of 2009, so she's a year older than Ty.  She's a little small for her age and Ty's a bit large, so it was really funny to put them next to each other and see NO difference in size!  Cute.  Wish we coulda stayed there longer!

One of my favorite places to eat in Provo was Zupa's: a soup/salad/panini chain in UT.  We met Michelle Walks and my bro Kai there for some good lunch and even better company!

We have many a pictures of the 2 of us from Elementary, Middle, and High School.  Obviously, Ty wasn't in them.  Just me and Soshina...(shout-out!)

Kai and I hung out around BYU's campus for a bit while Russell had a play date doing man stuff.  (Ya know, motorcycles, video games, getting pulled on a longboard by a pitbull, and probably other stuff that I don't know about because I'm a girl...)  Anyway, Ty practiced his walking skills with Uncle Kai-Kai on the partially-dry (finally!) ground outside of the HFAC, a building I went to for a majority of my classes.

And although I didn't take pictures (I am poo at getting everything!), we did hang out with Chalyce and Ryan Peck for a while one evening and (of course!) went to Nicolitalia Pizzeria, Russell's former place of employment and dined with the Stentzels and Stephanie.  Again, great food and fun company!

We ended with the whole little fam-damily at the Y!  We had a fun trip and would love to make it back another time to see everyone, especially those we missed.  Don't expect us in winter--we don't do that snow thing anymore--but we'll see ya again, Woo-tah!