A Surprise Trip to Utah

So i have finally caught my breath to be able to sit down and blog... Katherine and I were talking today (which i LOVE doing by the way)...and I figured id make time to blog since she pointed out i really dont do it enough.

So a lot has happened lately, but the biggest event was a sporadic trip to Utah. When i was 16, my dad let me pick out a furniture set for my bedroom...and i've always loved it so so much. It's this really pretty deep cherry wood sleigh bed with a matching dresser and mirror. It's just so my style. I love it not only for how gorgeous it is, but it is such a fun reminder of my days in high school when we used to pile 6 of us into it and have slumber parties... (usually the six was a mix of me, katherine, kassie, heather stocker, adriann and sometimes a few different people were sprinkled in). I miss the days when I really had nothing to worry about, except waking up for seminary in the morning. :) SO, point being, I finally reclaimed my furniture for my future home. Lance and I decided we'd pull a trailer up to Utah with the bedroom set on it, along with a few other things... which turned out to be a really great (random) idea. That upcoming weekend Heather and Nick were in desperate need of some help moving their stuff from their house in orem to their new apartment in Provo (which is another story i'll get to).


This was a really... interesting... gas station Lance and I randomly pulled into. I'm pretty sure this is in New Mexico (worst state to exist, by the way... hey katherine... al-be-querrr-kay? haha. i always think about that when we drive through there.) Anyway I really love what the owners of this gas station is going for, but it just made me giggle.


Yes, this gas station was called "Jesus Christ is Lord Gas Station". I promise. That full name. Good for them for being so Christian, right? :)

So the roadtrip was actually pretty pleasant, believe it or not. Lance had a brilliant idea to buy two seasons of Smallville to watch on the way up and the way back. It made the trip go by SO FAST! I don't know why that idea hadn't dawned on me sooner. And to make that drive with my best friend made it that much better. Lance drove most of the way... we started off at 4. He started drifting over onto those lines in the road that alert you if youre drifting...like more than once... so i took over at 1 am until about 7 am. Surprisingly i didnt drift or become sleepy until the very last stretch of time. We drove into Utah around 11:30. We made pretty good time if you ask me!

The Wakefield family had no idea we were coming, Lance loves the element of surprise. I crashed while Lance (bless his heart, exhausted and everything) began unloading the furniture into their spare room. He had the front door wide open, with a trailer full of stuff, and his dad pulled up. He told us he almost had a heart attack because he thought robbers were stealing from his home! haha! It was so fun being in Utah and staying in the Wakefield house. It was good to bond with my future in-laws.

That Sunday was my dinner, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday. Lance asked me what i wanted to do, and my first response was "paint pottery". He's such a good sport about it... the whole painting pottery thing. Hes gone with me before and i think he secretly liked it, despide the demasculining aspect to the whole concept... anyway, he rolled his eyes and said "of course you do" and we headed out.

We both make a concious effort to really take care of our bodies and eat healthy, but every now and then we make exceptions, and this day was one of them. He asked me if i wanted to grab some dessert, and not missing a beat i said "PF Changs cheesecake" as an immediate answer. So we made a pit stop at the University Mall. He wanted cold stone so after we got the cheesecake we got lance some mint chocolate chip icecream heaven. which i ate too, naturally.


(not quite sure why i have such a surprised look on my face...i think im just really excited)
So then we made a quick stop at Banana Republic because they were having a massive sale, and picked up a VERY cute skirt for 29 dollars! SO inexpensive. It was marked down from liek 60 something. I love getting deals like that.

Next we finally made it over to Color Me Mine, where Lance's brother, mom and dad trickled in as well as heather, nick and virginia. I loved having most my family there! I just wished the other half could have been there too.





(sorry heather, i dont know why i dont have a picture of you on here!)

I always try and paint something practical that i can put to use, so usually a big mug or plate is my choice. Heather and I always look at anthropologie.com or urbanoutfitters.com for inspiration on what to paint.... This time i had made a trip to anthropologie and found an ADORABBBBLE plate set. They all have something written in French, and since A. Lance served in France and B. My kitchen will (tentatively) have a French (not Paris) flair to it.... so i took pictures of them with my iphone (about a month ago). I was happy to jump at the chance to try my hand at duplicating one of the designs. Lance decided he wanted to do a Hawaiian theme to his plate, so he found a cool beach scene and duplicated it on his plate BY HIMSELF!!! seriously it turned out SO AWESOME. i had no idea the boy had artistic talent...i guess he tapped into it because it looked so great.






(I Always make lance take a million pictures, and this face is almost always guaranteed to be in the batch somewhere. nice lance.)


This is the plate i tried to duplicate.


The next morning, since it was my actual birthday, Lance woke me up and made me such a yummy breakfast. I loved that. Theres something about a man in a kitchen that's so hot to me! We walked to church, because the Utah weather is SO gorgeous. It was fun meeting the people in their home ward. That evening Clydie made me an AWESOME birthday dinner. Ribs, chicken, Lion house rolls (my favvvvvvvvvvvvorite)tons of fruit.... it was like heaven. After dinner we gathered into the living room and they surprised me with a fruit cookie cake!! I don't know if Lance told her or not, but cookie cakes are for real my weakness.... Not only was it visually pretty but it was delicious. I wanted to eat the entire thing for myself. But i refrained. i did have 2 enormous pieces though.



If ALL that wasn't enough, later that evening, while i was sitting with Rob and Clydie (his parents) in the kitchen, they surprised me with a gift.


Clydie picked this out because she it resembled Lance and I... i think its the perfect, sweet thing that i can put in my home. Im thinking on the mantle (once lance builds us a fire place? yeah that sounds good). Anyway i loved it, and it was so thoughtful of the wakefields.

That day, between festivities, Lance showed me a REALLY cool thing he aquired while on his mission. I don't know the full story, but if this is incorrect ill fix it later. One of the member families in France (who really adored Lance), who have been members basically since the beginning of the restoration of the gospel, gave him this...:



This is a book of Mormon John Taylor gave them.... how COOL is that?! i love it, and it is a priceless heirloom we will cherish.



On Monday, Lance and I decided to go for real camping up in the mountains off the Alpine Loop. Lance's dad came along (clydie we missed you! she couldnt come because it was a big work week! hope that went well!).... it was an interesting experience. We got there, gathered firewood, set up our sleeping bags, made smores, and watched a movie on the laptop. When we woke up in the morning, there was a pretty solid layer of frost on our sleeping bags and pillows. in the middle of JULY! crazy. and annoying. but it was fine and i was glad to do camping "rugged style" (atleast that was rugged for me.)















That next morning, we headed back to Texas. The trip was good and chill... see you soon utah, after i become Mrs WAKEFIELD! WOOP!