UTAH TRIP DAYS 1 & 2
First of all, here is the link to our photos from the trip. The next three posts will explain them all, as will the captions on the photos.

After 5 hours in the car, we arrived at our hotel near the Salt Lake Airport. The boys were understandably stir crazy, and went nuts in our room. We hadn't been there half an hour before the people below us called the front desk to complain about the noise. Yikes! So the new rule was tippy-toes, although apparently both boys can stomp on their tippy-toes.

Day two started way too early. Our alarm rang at 5:30, so we could all shower and get hotel breakfast before we left at 7 to take Ryan to his test. Continental breakfasts are really convenient, except when you have small children. I think it's the excitement of being able to choose whatever they want to eat. We left a little late, but Ryan got to his test on time.

We left straight from the Salt Palace to go see my old college roommate, Bonnie. She has such a beautiful house in Lehi, and a cute little girl who's just 2 months younger than Zach. Her son in the picture is 6, but Jared had fun with him. Her older son was school, so we didn't get to see him.
We just talked and caught up from 8 am until noon. It was so wonderful to hang out with a friend! And it definitely didn't feel like it had been 6 1/2 years since we saw each other.

Then we moved over to another friend's house in Lehi. We've seen Katrina much more recently, but I hadn't met her tiny daughter yet. The boys played with all their cool toys, and Jared got along great with her son, Caden, who is just week or so older (but was supposed to be a month younger) than Jared. And Katrina and I just talked more. 'Cause that's the best part of going to visit a friend. We kinda forgot to take pictures, though.

We left there about 4 and drove back to Salt Lake to pick up Ryan at 5. With all the one-way streets and construction, it took me a while to get to the correct side of the Salt Palace. But then we just sat there because the test really ended at 5:30. But cell phones weren't allowed, so Ryan couldn't call me to let me konw. So we just sat there and waited. But it gave me time to get a great shot of Ryan leaving the Salt Palace with his giant pile of books and a look of relief on his face! Then we went out to dinner to celebrate. It was a really hard test, to say the least, and now we settle in to wait the 12 weeks (who knew it took so long to grade a ScanTron?) until they mail out the test results.

We were all very exhausted, but even more than sleep, Ryan and I needed something brainless to do. And the hotel has cable! So we stayed up kind of late to watch lots of House. I think Ryan likes the problem-solving (it's like CSI in a hospital), and I love the medical slant. Minds sufficiently numb, we settled down for a long Autumn nap...