Trip home and home of the Grovers

Well, all my posts about our two week trip to the States wouldn't be complete without telling the story of our lost luggage. When we landed in Salt Lake, by the time we got down to baggage claim our beautiful purple polka dot suitcase was going around the carousel, and we were excited thinking we'd be out of the airport in no time. Well, that idea was squashed when we realized that our second bag did not seem to be coming. We took our baggage claim stubs to the attendant at the desk and she pointed out that of course the bag wasn't showing up. It was tagged to go to Pittsburg! Some idiot in LAX had tagged our bag with someone else's name and destination, and we were lucky to have even located it as fast as we had. The plane wouldn't be landing in Pittsburg for four more hours after we'd discovered it was sent there, so the airport wouldn't be able to get it back until noon the next day. Since we were planning on driving straight to Idaho that night, we were in quite the predicament. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, we just arranged for them to send it to Idaho Falls, and it got there the next day while we were just hanging out with Nick's mission buddy, Josh Grover and his wife Brooke. But it was mostly just annoying because the bag that got mis-tagged was the one with our clean clothes, my makeup, our toothbrushes, facewash, pretty much all the essentials. So we had to make a Wal-mart stop and stock up on a couple things. Staying at Josh and Brooke's was a lot of fun, we don't get down to see them near enough. It was nice to just veg and hang out with them, and their little boy Karver, is such a little stud. As well, I thought I'd share a few pictures of their house. It is absolutely beautiful! Josh works with his dad building houses, and he does custom trim work as well. He is so talented, and we were so impressed with how great it looks. Someday when Nick and I get a house, we want to have Josh come up and do the trim work, it's beautiful.

Josh and Nick

Front entry

Living room and wall of windows in living room

The kitchen

Stairwell

The master bathroom
Karver and I

We drove up to Cardston, the next day after getting our delayed luggage, and enjoyed an evening of hanging out with my family before driving home to Edmonton. Nick and I were excited to be home and sleeping in our own bed again, but our trip was great and we're grateful to everyone who opened their homes to us and spent time with us along the way.

Sunny California

I've been meaning to get the rest of our trip posted for the last ten days, but just keep procrastinating it. Maybe it's because I'm sad it's actually over and I'd looked forward to going to LA for so long. Nick and I had such a good time with Nathan, Lindsay and Beckett, they made us feel right at home. Thanks to Nick, Linds and I were able to enjoy some Girls Only time. I got my hair done, we did a little shopping and even made it to the beach. I'm sure if I lived in California I would go to the beach everyday, if only to read a good book for an hour or two. The ocean is so beautiful and I always feel totally relaxed. Well except for the first few minutes Linds and I were there and the seagulls seemed to be attacking us. Reminded me of a scene out of that old horror movie, Birds......creepy.... But once we'd moved a few feet they didn't seem to bother us anymore, so the beach day ended nicely.







Nathan and Linds were so great to go out and do lots of fun stuff with us; One night we got all dressed up and ate out at the Cheesecake Factory, and we spent another evening helping them get ready for a friend's going-away party (who knew I was so talented at cutting fruit into little stars?). We also had dinner at a Chicken and Waffle place, and it was so good. I know, fried chicken and waffles with syrup don't really seem to go together, but the meal was delicious. You probably had to be there to see what I mean.


One of our last nights there we spent a few quality hours jamming on Rockband. Nathan is so ridiculous at the drums, Nick and I could hardly believe it. I love this picture of Nathan because he looks like a strumming machine on that guitar, too hard core! And in the picture of Linds and I, she totally looks like she's singing into my guitar, so funny.


Linds and I drove up to Malibu to meet up with one of my old mission companions, Jaimee, and we had such a great time. We ate at a cool little restaurant on the beach called Paradise Cove and it was so beautiful. You literally walk out of the patio doors and onto the sand. You can walk right down to the water, and there is even a pier right there. The food was amazing, we all had this awesome clam chowder, and shared a platter of stuff like calamari, jumbo shrimp, etc. We barely ate half of it, but still splurged for the GIANT piece of chocolate cake. It was divine.


Our last day there we took Beckett on a walk to the park and had so much fun on the swings and the slide. He is getting to be such a big kid now, it's crazy how fast time flies.








We ended the afternoon with another on of my favorite treats, Coldstone Icecream. Yum! Marble Slab has nothing on this place, look how full our cups are. (Has anyone noticed how much I've talked about food in this post? Ohwell, I guess you can say I like American food. :)


So we just wanted to end with a big thanks to the Roberts fam for being such great hosts and allowing us to crash at your house for so long. We had a blast, and can't wait until we see you next.

A WICKED Night!

Wow. Where do I even begin? If you have never seen the Broadway play 'Wicked' then I suggest you do. It was sooo good! I'd heard of the play and a bit about the storyline from some mission friends, but seeing is definitely believing. The calibre of the performance was absolutely amazing, the singing was so good I was awestruck the whole time. I wish I could have taken pictures or video-ed some of the play, but since I couldn't I guess all I can do is give my rave review, and encourage anyone and everyone to see it for themselves. As soon as the play was over I was wishing it would start again. I would love to see more Broadway plays, but in New York, so I am definitely thinking about planning a trip there someday. The night was also great just to have a girls night out with Linds. She has been such a great host this past week that Nick and I have been in California, we don't want to leave. But I will post more about our trip later. For now here are just a few more pics from our Wicked night last Thursday:

After the Play

I think Linds was a little embarrased that I was taking a picture of us amidst the mass of people exiting the theatre.

The outside of the Pantages Theatre (obviously-the picture is self explanatory)


Home again at the end of our night

Good ole Utah...

Well, Nick and I are lucky enough to have two weeks off work, so we made the long haul of a drive down to Utah for conference weekend. Dr. Cahoon (my old boss and our friend Ben's Dad) invited us to dinner with them, and Ben and Erin, as well as some of their family. It was so good to see them, we've missed you "Berin"! Ha ha that's your new nickname... We ate at the Restaurant on the Roof on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and the view of the Salt Lake Temple was so beautiful! It was a little chilly out, but we took some pictures outside afterwards, and I was glad, because the next two days all it did was RAIN!

Ben, Erin, me & Nick

We were able to snag four tickets to the Saturday afternoon session in the conference center, and brought my cousin Jane and her new husband Kenny with us. They were kind enough to host us the whole weekend at their house, so it's the least we could do :) Thanks guys! Sunday we drove back into Salt Lake from Provo to babysit for Albert and Christa while they went to the morning session with Ben and Erin. Zach was so good, I would babysit him any day! He even snuggled with me while we watched conference and I felt so loved. Funny how the simplest little things from kids make you feel so appreciated.

Isn't Zachary so cute!

We also loved being able to hang out at Kate and Steve's house and just visit with everyone. We also picked up dinner from one of my favorite places ever: Cafe Rio (why can't Canada have good Mexican places to eat?). It was so good! Jane and I did some shopping at Deseret Books during the Priesthood Session on Saturday and that was way fun too. Monday was also such a great day but totally exhausting. We honestly shopped from 9am-5pm and got a lot of great stuff. Nick got some much needed clothing, and I got a few things as well. I even started on my Christmas shopping so I'm totally motivated to get it all done ASAP. Why is it that everything is so much cheaper in the States? Canada is such a rip off, it's not fair. Monday ended with a quick stop to a sweet scrapbook store in Pleasant Grove, then I headed back into Provo for dinner with Brittney and Crystal, two of my companions from the Madagascar Mission. We ate at Los Hermanos and just sat and visited for over two hours. Who needs a mission reunion when you can do that? No, I really had wanted to stop by the Mada reunion, as well as the Joburg Mission reunion, but the weekend was just too crazy busy as it was. But it was so good to just visit and catch up with the two of them, and reminisce about all the good times. I love you girls!

Brittany, me and Crystal Ann at Los Hermanos in Provo