Laura Vegas

day four of our utah trip … was actually 2 days ago. got a little sidetracked with coming home and settleing back in. anyways … day four was pretty relaxed. we slept in just a little … took our time getting ready … finished packing … and loaded up all our bags in this car.

can i say how much i loved this rental car! i'm not even a big car person … i can't even tell you what kind of car this was. lol! but i do know that it was so nice to drive. when i got in my own van last night … i realized how hard i work at turning that steering wheel. lol! but this thing was nice and smooth … loved it. and for the record … i am not very good with directions or finding my way around. we have this decent sized city about 20 minutes away from us here … and i would never try and venture myself around there. but utah??? i was amazed at how easily we found our way around. we had a few directions mapped out before we left … to the main spots that we knew we were going to. but the rest of the time … we just seemed to find our way. deneen drove the first day … and then decided she didn't like driving. lol! so i drove the other 3 days … and did so good.

we even managed to go back and find the restaurant that we went to with lisa bearnson. we hadn't gotten a picture the day we went … and wanted something to remember it. it was 2 days after … and we knew what exit it was off the highway. but after that … we just sort of back-tracked and looked for things that were familiar to us. this was tucked way back … on a little side road .. and we found it. isn't it the cutest spot! and check out their front door decor:

how cute is that! little pompoms … strung on fishing line. that is the most adorable thing. if i had a good door or window at my house … i would totally do that!

we also stopped back by the CK offices … for a few more pictures. this is actually what we did a lot of on sunday … drove around and took photos of the things we forgot … or the things we wanted pics of to remember all our stories. and we had a quarter of a tank of gas to kill anyways … before turning in the rental car. lol!

we also want to thank deneen's cousin, jenn … for letting us stay at her house saturday night. we really appreciated all she did … for the dinner, lugging up the air mattresses and blankets, giving deneen an extra suitcase to take home, for the donuts … and just letting us invade her home with all of our "stuff". although we left some "stuff" with her … so hopefully that made up for it a little!

so after driving around town … and stopping for a late lunch … we stopped off and did a little shopping. had to get some gifts to bring back to all our girls (deneen has 4 and i have 2). then we just decided to go to the airport and hang out. you should have seen us dropping off the rental car .. and having all these crazy heavy bags and suitcases to lug back over to the airport. luckily, someone had left a luggage cart there … and the dude let us use it without having to pay for it. so that helped.

when we got in to check our luggage … we started to get a little nervous. we had spent about 2 hours the night before … distributing the weight between the bags and trying to get everything to fit. we knew the limit was 50 pounds each. the dude in front of us put his suitcase up … and it was 51 pounds. and they made him take clothes out … and he was shoving stuff in his jacket. lol! i was so nervous … knowing how much stuff we had packed in. put the first suitcase up … and it was 50 pounds exact!!! i saw that it was the green one … and i was so proud and saying "yeah, that was MINE". lol! deneen had two bags … one of which ended up being only 27 pounds (she had odd shaped stuff and we couldn't really get a weight on it before) and 48 pounds. so we did very good!

then we went through security. this time deneen got to have a pat-down … figured it was only fair that we both got one. lol! we made it though there and found some seats … and just hung out for 2 hours. i got all the new pictures downloaded onto my laptop .. and started to edit them. but my laptop battery was draining super fast … so decided it would have to wait until we got home. so we just read magazines and chatted while we waited. when we were able to board the plane … i had to have some dude help me with my carry-on. i think if they had weighed it … it would have been over the 40 pound limit. lol! that sucker was heavy .. loaded down with paper and books. there was no way i could have gotten it up in the overhead thing by myself.

the flight was good. although right at take off … i got a bloody nose. totally random. i do get them on occasion … out of nowhere. and here we are on a plane … with no kleenex or anything. i was wiping it all over the sleeve of my hoodie. we had to flag down a flight attendant to get us something to clean myself up. and i think the dude next to me was thinking that he really crapped out on his seating … sitting next to someone like me. lol! the rest of the flight was decent. it was 9:00 at night … so we were both super tired. and there was lots of turbulance … so it was sort of a rough ride. and they had to discontinue the food service carts … and had the attendants go sit down and put their seat belts on too. which means we never got our peanuts. lol!

an hour and 45 minutes later … we arrived back home. although we lost an hour. so it was only 9:45pm … even though our bodies felt like it was 10:45pm. the same dude that helped me with my carry-on earlier (and NOT the dude that i sat by) … was nice enough to come and help me again. i owe him. although this time, finding our luggage was more work. when we arrived in utah .. our bags were the only ones left by the time we got to luggage pick-up. but this time … we had people everywhere waiting. it was crazy. took us a while … but we finally found all our bags. as soon as we walked out the door … deneen's hubby was just pulling up to get us. perfect timing. we hopped in and within seconds were headed home. we had an hour drive … and were so glad when we hit manteca!

i want to make sure and thank deneen's husband, ron … for driving us to the airport. both in the middle of the night on the way there … and super late at night on the way back. and my husband, joe … for taking such good care of the girls and the house while i was gone. the house was totally clean when i got home … not just picked up … but clean too. he also took an extra night off of work to be there with the girls … which means he works an extra night this week that he usually has off. and he missed a golf tournament … so i appreciate all that he did. and have to thank my parents … because they also helped with the girls quite a bit. and my mom, who stayed at the house the night i left and the night i came back … and hung out here until i was home. and the girls … who were really good while i was gone and kept their things picked up and clean. and they did miss me like crazy … and were so happy when i came in to kiss them goodnight. and i want to thank deneen … for the entire trip … and making it such a great time that we'll remember always!

and if you have made it this far … i want to thank you too. lol! for taking the time to read all of our posts and listen to us go on and on about our trip. and for all your comments and well wishes. this is one time that i havn't responded to each of you … but know that's it's only because i just didn't have the time. but i appreciated and read all of them! i don't love this photo … but it was one deneen took of me blogging one night at the hotel. lol! and yes, i was totally squeezing my eyes shut when she took it … as if me not being able to see her would make it impossible for her NOT to see me. lol! i won't even tell you how much time went into these blog posts … but i'm glad i did it. i didn't want to forget anything … so i really tried to get everything down as it happened. we're totally going to print all of this out … and use it right in our trip album. the pics are all ordered … and i'm picking them up today. so we'll have this trip scrapped in no time at all!