Vacation to Utah...The Return to Sanity...

After the past 3 weeks straight with no fewer than 4 calls/pages every night leading to an extremely tired and very cranky SICU fellow, combined with not having spent no more than 3 hours total with Todd in the past month, we are off on a week of vacation in Utah and it could not have come at a better time!

Todd and I left LA for home on Friday, October 3. No excitement on this flight unlike my last...Danny Glover sat in front of me last month from LA to SLC and was causing a scene fighting with the flight attendant about turning his phone off and taking out his earbud in order to listen to the rules about sitting in the exit row. Todd and I actually had a row to ourselves and within minutes I was asleep not to awaken until we landed.

Todd's dad picked us up at the airport and we headed to South Salt Lake for a visit with Ed and Ila, Todd's grandparents.

Three generations of Grunander men...

Saturday we enjoyed a nice day of conference. Greg, Emily and the boys were down from Idaho Falls and it is always so fun to be with their family.

Cannon and Crew were both sporting black eyes. Crew had pulled himself up to a chair and then fell hitting the corner of the chair. Cannon's story however is much more interesting. He was playing catch with two other little boys at Colton's last football games. One of the boys became angry when Cannon didn't throw him the ball, walked right up to him and socked him in the eye.

Although hard to see in this picture, the entire area under

Cannon's right eye is black, blue and an awful color of green.

The shiner Crew has looks more like bad purple

eyeshadow gone wrong all over his right eyelid.

We were able to give Laurel a baby shower on Saturday night while all of the men were at priesthood session of General Conference. We spent most of the afternoon preparing with all of the girls...it made me very grateful for my sisters and the fun we are able to have together. We quickly learned that any Martha Stewart recipe that Emily has shouldn't be used unless she has personally made the item at least once before. However, two cupcake and icing recipes later, all of the salads and desserts were delicious!

Emily never fails to be the life of the party.

Could little Laurel just try to look pregnant...she is 6 months along after all!

The shower was fantastic. It was fun to be with so many family members and visit. Laurel got some great presents....we all can't wait for little Paisley to make her appearance!!! Once all of the guests were gone, the stress of the day led Mom to hit the bottle!!! An intervention is currently underway, however with little success...

Now Jocelyn wasn't dressed this fancy for our party. She went to Fremont High's Homecoming Dance that night with her boyfriend Cameron.

Sunday was completely relaxing and peaceful again enjoying all of the General Conference talks. Todd traveled to Idaho Falls with his family to visit his Grandmother and Aunt.

We spent Sunday evening eating a wonderful meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy thanks to my dear mom. Todd's friend from medical school and his wife were able to join us for dinner and our favorite past-time....playing cards with Grammy Char.

Monday my mom and I spent part of the afternoon in the DMV so that I could renew my license. I am proud to say that I have yet to get nor will I claim myself as a California resident by getting a drivers license there. The time at the DMV was quite entertaining as we joined the ranks of all of the finest in white trash that Ogden has to offer. You will be glad to know that Mom and I were the only ones in nice clothes, with a full set of teeth...our own of fake...and who didn't smell like smoke and alcohol. The best show was the illegal Mexican girl that spoke no English trying to obtain a license. She approached the desk and rattled off something in Spanish only to have the worker respond, "I don't speak Spanish." The same dialogue occurred a few more times before the Mexican girl finally called her friend up to the counter who spoke only a few broken words of English. Unfortunately for the girl, No VISA = NO LICENSE!

We then met up with the family for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and an evening of shopping with the girls. When we first ventured into the Newgate Mall...aka Ogden's only shopping area...I commented on how difficult it would be to leave LA shopping. However, I then discovered the shoe store with great high heels and flat, as well as the the deal of $17.99 for one pair and get the second for FREE. Two pair of shoes later, as well as a great purse and fishnet tights and I was reconsidering...

"Don't even think about eating a peanut.

These are mine, all mine!"

No trip to Utah is complete without a day of card-playing. Tuesday was spent eating junk food and playing cards until we dropped. Unfortunately, Todd killed us every game!

Emily was able to join in the fun from Idaho Falls via I-Chat.

Grammy, Aunt Emily, me, Aunt Jeanene and Mindy, Mom

We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the initial days of our vacation...more posts and pictures to come!