Caution! Few pictures and too many words ahead!

The weekend of general conference and Easter we rented a car and drove up to Utah. I have traveled that road so many times that I did not even look into flying up there. We always drove up to Idaho from Arizona and it was no big deal. So off we went. We left Thursday afternoon and got to Las Vegas late that night. We found a good deal on a hotel online and booked it before we left. Our sweet little rental car came with a GPS that we wanted to chuck out the window at first but then it saved us several times. For some reason we decided to be adventurous and stay on the strip since we were going to be in Las Vegas anyway......might as well stay on the strip right? We could see our hotel from the freeway so we exited and thought since we could see the stupid building we could easily find our way there (at this point we wanted to throw the GPS out the window) and the GPS wasn't helping, it kept taking us to the wrong place. Blah, blah, blah, fight ensues, tensions are high and the bright, flashing lights and naked women sent me into hysterics.... fortunately for our marriage, we finally made it to the hotel, checked into a lovely, clean room and went to bed. That bed was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on. There was a big fluffy comforter, super white starched sheets, feather pillows and a big flat screen TV. We enjoyed our 10 hours there.

We headed to SLC and made it just in time for our mission reunions. I am ashamed to say that I have no pictures of these events.... We were really bad about taking pictures this whole trip.

We stayed in Pleasant Grove with my dad's cousin Joe and watched conference with him. Our friend Richard came over to visit and we talked before and between the sessions. It is good to see friends. After the afternoon session we went to SLC to meet Cody's mission president so Eliza and I could meet him.

He was very jovial and said Cody was his best companion. They just ooed and aahhed at Eliza.

After seeing them we went to my very good friend Becky's house. I went out to eat with her and her sisters during the priesthood session. It was so good to see friends! We reminisced about the good ol' Tucson days and all our fun hikes. Becky and I went hiking nearly every Saturday morning one spring/summer. We saw it all. I remember those days so fondly. I gained a huge appreciation for the beautiful Tucson desert and good friends!

Sorry this post is so wordy. We only took 4 photos the whole trip. What is wrong with us?

Sunday morning we dropped Eliza off at Star and Kendra's apartment and rushed off to the conference center. We had tickets down on the floor but it was completely full so we were told to go the overflow, I almost started to cry. It was such a huge ordeal just to get there and then to be sent off to watch it on TV... I was heartbroken. At the last minute we spotted 1 open seat and Cody let me sit while he looked for another one. He finally found a seat a few rows away, so we got to watch conference live. It was beautiful. Emilee failed to mention that in our hurry to park and then run to the conference center I accidentally left our rental car running during the whole session!! Whoops! There went our stellar gas mileage for the trip.

We hurried out of the conference center and rushed back to Provo to get Eliza. My cousins are the best and so sweet! Then we went home to pack and get on the road. Wow, it was a whirlwind trip.

We stayed in Las Vegas again on the way home but this time we stayed with one of my mission companions. She has a baby 2 weeks older than Eliza. They made us a delicious breakfast and then showed us the nicer part of the strip. We went to the Bellagio to see the huge fountain show.

We waited for a bit and then asked someone if they knew when the fountain show would start and they said it would not start until 3...which was about 3 hours from then so we left. Just as we pulled out of the parking lot the fountain show started. Someone was misinformed... We laughed, it is just our luck. Oh well. At least we got to see the nicer part of the strip. The Bellagio was beautiful and ornately decorated. The bathroom was super fancy with marble, cherry wood, and big lamps. There was also a big garden inside that had thousands of tulips and other bulb flowers. It was beautiful....now why didn't we take more than 4 pictures?! Why?!

Eliza makes this face and breathes in sharply every time wind blows in her face. We think it is pretty funny.

So that's our trip. Not that any of you really cared but now it is recorded for posterity.