Utah Trip - November

So in case you didn't read all about day 1 from my Utah trip, you can read that by clicking here.

On Thursday I woke up pretty early and ran myself over to the grocery store Smiths to get myself a french cruller. AKA Heaven.

And then I tagged along with Michelle to a hair and nail appointment. I got my first gel nails! So pretty even though I forgot to take a picture! The salon was so cute and filled with adorable girls. We were there from like 10 am till like 2 pm, but the place was so cute it was a blast. But, I don't know how people can pay for that every couple weeks. Although fun, nice and relaxing, it's so expensive! A gel nail kit immediately on my Christmas wish list.

Michelle getting her hair did! Trying out hair and make up styles before the big day!

After that we ran off to do a Bridal / Groomal session! So lovely! Although it was November, I loved her spring colors! My girl made such a gorgeous bride!

At this point in the day I started feeling super sick. We had plans of going to my favorite Red Iguana for dinner, but I stayed "home" and let them go without me since I was feeling so sick.

After a decent nights rest I was feeling a bit better. I got to meet up with a good friend Alysha for lunch at the always yummy Kneaders, and finally get to meet her darling little girl Grace!

I did a little shopping around City Creek, and then went to Tai Pan Trading in Draper. Miss that place so bad!!

I then made my way out to Eagle Mountain to visit a few people.

I started feeling quite a bit more sick at this point, to the point that I was considering taking myself to an Insta Care. Instead, I showed up on the doorstep of some good friends, bawled, and asking for a Priesthood blessing. Although I was not grateful for being sick, I was grateful for being sick in a place where I was surrounded with plenty of places I could turn to for help! Thank you guys! I am so grateful for you!

And Saturday I was off to shoot Michelle Belle's big day the next day! I wasn't 100% better, but well enough to function, thankfully.

I got to SLC early and took the chance to walk around Temple Square. I didn't realize parking at Temple Square was free on the weekends! Pretty awesome!

And although I know everyone in Utah has been missing the snow, it was nice to not have to deal with snow on a wedding day! 

My best girl Michelle Belle made the loveliest bride! xoxo

The wedding was so lovely and I am so glad to have been able to be part of it!

That night I got to have a sleep over with my good friend Whitney. It was so great to get to catch up with her and hang out with her and her adorable little family! Thanks for letting me stay over!

Sunday I visited my home ward, said hi to lots of people, spent a little more time with my in-laws, then made my way to my Aunt and Uncles home in Alpine. Lots of family came over for dinner and to say hi.

The most unfortunate thing from the whole trip was with being so sick I could hardly eat anything. I wasn't throwing up, but I was super nauseous and could hardly stomach anything I tried to eat. (And sorry, no I'm not pregnant) But I basically just lived off of Cheerios and bananas the entire trip. Which, so heart breaking for me, the mega-foodie! So I didn't really get to fully enjoy my Aunt's wonderful food, but hopefully it's not too long till I get the chance to enjoy it again! 

Every where I stayed was truly so wonderful, but my Aunt and Uncles house was extra wonderful because it was the closest I felt like to being home which since being sick, was so nice. Thank you guys! 

Clearly, I was very sick since I really didn't take very many pictures throughout the trip. Obviously, this post is pretty lacking! Boo! Though, as usual, I did get plenty of mountain pictures;

But, Monday I was feeling a bit better and got the chance to visit my good friend Kelsie and my Aunt Bobbie with their cute kiddies! I seem to have lost the files of the handful of shots I took of those cuties! If I can recover them I promise I will add them to this post! Again - clearly I was sick because I have no idea what happened to those files! Ugh! 

And I had the chance to visit George and Polly. And George's inspiring bench! 

I officially tried Swig! Pretty good! Thankfully the recipe my mom found is pretty much an exact mach, thank heavens! 

That night I went to dinner with all my Cavanaugh sisters. It was so good to see them even if it was for just a short time! And boy do I miss Wingers! Yum! Bummed I didn't get a shot of us all together. Oh well! Thanks for hanging girls! 

The next day I went to lunch with my lovely Aunt and cousin. Oh man, I sure do miss Rumbi! Seriously need to nail down some copy cat recipes for that place!

And then we got some hot chocolate and cookies at another soda and cookie shop

And the next day I went on home. Luckily I was feeling overall fine so the trek home wasn't too bad. And extra lucky, I had the entire row of seats to my self on both flights! Thank Heavens!!!

Goodbye Utah! Till we meet again!

Landing for a little layover in Colorado;

And thank you Colorado airport for having my favorite place! Wish all the locations of this place hadn't been bought out in VA! Such a sad day! Oh, and I guess I did get one pic of my gel nails! Or gel nail I guess. Haha!

A big thank you to everyone who housed me or was willing to house me while I was there! Thank you for those who made the time to see me! And sorry to those I didn't get to see! I promise I won't let it be too long till I am out again! 

Utah Trip Day 1

So as you may or may not know, I am here in Utah again! This time for my girlfriend, Michelle's wedding! I am so excited I get to be with  her on her big day!

Since I am here for a little longer this time, I figured I should go back to what I use to do when I traveled, and that is take the time at the end of each day to document what happened before I totally forgot about it.

We had hoped Dave had been able to tag along on this trip, but instead of buying him a plane ticket we had to buy a new car instead. Boohoo. But happy to finally have our hands on a shiny new car. (the shiny one on the left)

Buying a car was a horrifically painful process. And we didn't get home till late-ish Tuesday night. So I stayed up a little while and packed since I hadn't had the time to do so yet.

And the next morning I woke up early to say goodbye to Dave when we left for work at 5:30 am and finished up packing as well as making our space all nice and clean. My flight was at 12:30, so thanks to waking up so early, I had a easy relaxing morning leading up to the flight.

The roads to get to the airport had a fair share of traffic, but I still made it with time to spare. I had decided to check a bag as, 1: I wanted to be able to have a little extra space in case I chose to bring back some stuff. and 2: So I didn't have to deal with the luggage running to my connecting flight.

But upon checking my luggage they said due to weather my luggage may get held up and may not arrive with me in SLC and they would then call me when my luggage arrive at SLC and I would have to come back to the airport to get it. (Boo)

So, wishing I had just packed everything in a carry on, I headed to my gate and waited to board. I have never flown South West before, but they don't have assigned seating. You get to board the plane based on how early you checked in and just pick your seat. Kinda weird, but luckily I checked in somewhat early.

Once we were on board we then still sat waiting at the gate for 30 minutes. The pilot mumbled something over the intercom about how the system was saying the plane had the wrong kind of gas, but they think they have the right kind of gas, but the airport wouldn't let us leave until it was corrected....

We finally got into the air, and got into the air in a very very bumpy manner. Those first 15-20 minutes of the flights had to have been some of the most bumpy I have ever experienced. Scary stuff!

We landed in Denver about 30 minutes late. My connecting flight was boarding at 3, and we landed at 3, but luckily my flight to SLC was delayed about an hour and a half.

Whenever I fly, before I go to the bathroom or get food or anything I always walk to the gate and make sure the gate info matches my flight info so I know where I need to be for certain. Well I was trying to figure out where to go, the Denver airport it fairly big, and the signs were not clear to me. So as I was standing in front of the screens listing all the flights and their statuses and gates, and this lady from my flight in come up to me and says "I was told to follow you because you are going to SLC, right?" And I was like, um, yeah. She asked what gate it was and we then proceeded to head to the gate together. She then went off to get food. But so random. I didn't talk to anyone, and as far as I know she wasn't sitting near me, so I have no idea how she would have known I was heading to SLC. Random! Weirdness.

And I forgot to mention how freezing the Denver airport was! Someone said it was like 3 degrees outside when we were there. Oh boy. It was freezing walking off the plane, and then inside the airport was overall okay. I got a bagel and then sat down near my gate, against the windows and it was freezing. By the time they started boarding I was shivering! Ack! Not ready for winter! I didn't realize how spoiled we were in VA!

They were worried the flight out of Denver may be canceled due to the weather. And ug, that would not have been fun. But thank heavens, it was not canceled. Although, it was weird; they had us ride out onto the tarmac and then they sprayed the plane down, first with some clear stuff, and then next with some green stuff. I had a window seat so it was interesting to watch.

The flight was short, just over an hour. My seat neighbor was friendly, from Orem, married with 5 kids, 4 boys and 1 girl. Travels a fair share for the family business. Met his wife on his mission, where they both served in Germany. Always nice to have some good conversation on a flight and hear peoples life stories! LoL

There were also these kids... or couple on both my flights. There was a girl who honestly could not have been any older then me, with a young baby boy, under a year old, a girl who looked like she was 3 or 4, and then another boy with her who honestly looked like he was 15, maybe 17 at most. I am still so puzzled. Were those kids their own and they just looked really young? But they seemed really overwhelmed. And really really looked way too young. Were they all siblings? But where were their parents? Why were they flying alone with such a young baby? I saw them walking through the airport twice and they were just by themselves. Although in SLC they did meet a rather older lady at baggage claim who was excited to see the two young kids. But still, so weird. Got any theories?

I will probably always be shocked by how much nicer people are here then they are in VA. In VA people only worry about themselves and getting wherever they need to get to the fastest. But here, people are happy to hold the door open for you, let you cut in line, smile and chat with you in passing, things that rarely rarely happen in VA.

I then met up with my girl Michelle Belle at the Cheesecake Factory in City Creek for a late dinner. Yummy stuff!

And that's pretty much it for today's adventures!


--- So clearly that was written my first day in UT. Which was 4 weeks ago. I forgot to publish this and then was sick the entire rest of my trip so I didn't have an exciting, entertaining post for each day. But here is this, and up next will be a single post with rest of the details of the trip, the good and the bad. ---

Virginia Beach

This past week Dave and I went on a quick little overnight trip to Virginia Beach. Even though it was only one night it was so fun and refreshing! We certainly need to make sure to plan more little overnight trips like that, it was short, cheap, but perfect. 

It wasn't quite warm enough to swim, and since it was our first time and we have plans to make lots of return trips this summer we decided to just do lots of exploring and familiarizing ourselves with the area. We went to three different beaches that I had researched before hand.

The first, and our favorite was False Cape State Park. It was 30 minutes from the heart of Virginia Beach, but was worth the drive. Totally empty and we had the beach to ourselves except for a little family way way off in the distance. People online said it was always empty even in the middle of summer. The sand was perfect and the waves were big. There is supposedly also camping that is only accessible by foot and is a 4 mile hike down the beach. We certainly plan on camping there at some point this summer! 

Like I said, the water was cold! 

Saw this at the parking lot. What??

There are a bunch of places in Virginia Beach that were on Diner's Drive-In's and Dive's. The first place we decided to check out was called Flip Flops Grill and Chill. The atmosphere was nice, the service was good, but the food was pretty appalling. We started off by ordering chips and salsa. The salsa tasted exactly like the pico I buy all the time from the grocery store, just with some mango chopped up and added to it. I ordered the dish featured on DDD; their BBQ Fish Tacos which were grilled fish, their mango BBQ sauce, slaw, tomato, avocado and lime crema. The crema and mango BBQ sauce was good, but the fish was very very plain and the tortilla's were clearly not fresh and seemed microwaved, which was a deal breaker. Dave ordered their steak tacos, which tasted exactly like steak tacos from Taco Bell. No joke. Exactly like Taco Bell. And to make it even worse, it was all horrifically over priced. 

We have been to many places on the hunt for good tacos since living in VA but have had no luck other then one shop in West Virginia - which we love and is super cheap but is over an hour away! Oh well. At least we know how to make good ones ourselves. 

After dinner we went to the Virginia Beach board walk. Beach + Sunset = Bliss! 

This is me freaking out over the cutest dog ever! 

It was just a little white fluffy dog, hopping around the beach, and then it

did a face plant into the sand. Adorable and hilarious! 

Let's not talk about how I tried and failed at flying a kite...

But it wasn't a sissy kit like this... It was a real kite, 

the wind was just gusty and it's been about 5 years for me!

Since it wasn't too cold and we are cheap we just camped for the night.

There were some pro's and con's to the place we stayed at.

It was cheap, average camp ground rates. The employees were super nice!

It was a 5 minute drive from the beach, 

but they gave you a pass to free parking at the beach.

The bathrooms were clean and amazingly nice. 

The nicest camp bathrooms I have ever seen! 

But... we were kept up till midnight with super loud jets flying overhead! So loud!

I usually bring ear buds, which I forgot about, but even ear buds would not have helped!

It was a weekday, so maybe they don't do that on the weekends? No one in the reviews made any complaints about loud jets, so maybe we were just unlucky!

I was up off and on till about 3:30 but once i finally did fall asleep I got pretty good sleep!

Dave bought me a MisFit Shine which is a pedometer 

but also tracks your movement while you sleep.

Below shows my sleep while camping. Although I didn't get lots of sleep, 

that's a lot of deep sleep! 

Usually I get that much deep sleep in 8 hours of sleep. 

I guess I need to sleep outdoors more often! 

This picture does not do justice; the jets were flying so low! 

And they started flying again at 8 am!

That morning we woke up and met my good friend from growing up and her hubby 
to do maternity pictures! They are only living in VA for the summer 
but it was so great to spend time with friends our age!

After the pictures they treated us to breakfast. 
We went to the next place on the DDD list called Citrus. 

The place was so busy! We had a tough time finding parking, but our food came out quick, and although it looks simple it was so yummy! So yummy! We will certainly be back! 

After our goodbyes we visited Cape Henry Lighthouse.

And then drove to First Landing State Park.

The beach didn't have big waves and had a lot more families, good for people with young kids. We drove through the camp grounds and the camp grounds were really nice with tons of trees! We will probably camp there next time.

After trying and failing to fly my kite we just soaked up some sun and then hit the road.

For dinner we stopped in a super sketchy part of Richmond and got Cook out. 

Oh. Man. I so love Cook Out. They are so cheap! I got a burger, a side of slaw and hush puppies for $5. And not some dinky little burger, a big yummy, amazing burger. Dave also got a burger and tried one of their hot dogs with chili and slaw. Good, but not as good as the hot dogs in NC. And to end the meal we enjoyed a peach cobbler shake. Yes. It was perfection. You could truly taste each amazing part of the peach cobbler; the crust, the peaches, the sugar crumb topping. Perfection! If you are on this side of the states you must make a stop at Cook Out. You're welcome.

Such a fun little trip! I can't wait to go back!