Road Trip 20K2010

The Plan : April General Conference 2010
The Company : Ryan, Stuart, and Taylor Rios, Rick Curtiss, and Deanna
The Place: Rexburg, ID and Salt Lake City UT.

We began our trip like any other Noble family vacation...We left a little later than planned and made excellent time. The group departed from Libby around 7 pm headed south towards Rexburg. We arrived around 3:45 am and thought it would be appropriate to go to Stuarts apartment and quitely wake him up. Luckily his front door was unlocked so we just walked in. The boys went to the back bedroom to say hello and I waited in the living room. We talked for about 45 minutes with Stuart and formulated a plan for the following day. We stayed at Stephanie and Andrews that evening, but were so starving when we got to their apartment. Knowing my sister there are always DELICIOUS left overs in the fridge so I knew if I could make it to her apartment I wouldn't die of starvation:) Once there she had Ham, Potatoes, Salad, and Jello all in tupperwares in the fridge inviting us to eat. We couldnt help ourselves after such a long drive. I slept on the hide-a-bed, and Taylor, Rick and Ryan slept in David and Hannah's room. I woke up the next morning around 8 am when David came out, but I was so exhausted he just sat at the end of my bed watching a movie on his portable DVD player. I probably woke up around 9:30, made the boys some eggs... and then showered. Once we were all ready my FHE brother from Spring Semester 2009 Jeff Bench wanted us to stop in and enjoy some of his fries:) He makes the most mouth watering fries and fry sauce anyone could partake of. He also fried us up some hamburgers. He's probably the nicest guy I ever encountered at BYU-I. I'm so happy that I have friends from Rexburg I keep in contact with on a regular basis. After leaving there we gathered our stuff, picked up Stuart and began our journey towards Provo, UT where we'd be staying Friday night.

After Blackfoot we hit some very intense traffic, and were traveling at about 5 mph if we weren't sitting at a dead stop. It was about 40 - 50 minutes later we could see ahead an accident. It appeared to be one car in the median. We only were able to capture a couple pictures of the wreck before maneuvering around traffic to get ahead of the mess. Once we hit Pocatello the traffic pretty much dissipated and were on our way to bigger and better places.

Being that we got in so late the previous night, no one had really had the opportunity to get much sleep. Because I was the only female on the trip I somehow lucked out with shotgun the entire time...or it could be not so much luck, as it is the fact i'm dating the driver? Anyways Rick, Taylor and Stuart were pretty squeezed in the backseat if you can't tell...

(traveling stresses Taylor out)

Here is a beautiful picture of Taylor sleeping. Notice he had to sit forward to really get comfortable as all three guys in the back seat have broad shoulders. You can really tell how tired Taylor truly is by his finger in his eye that doesn't even phase him. Poor guys:)

The trip went fairly quick after we got into UT. Towns just flew by and before we knew it we had arrived at Bob's house (Rick's friend from Mission/School). After brief introductions and small chit chat we left Bob's to go meet up with Matt. Matt had bought a gun safe at a Costco in SLC and was bringing it back to Provo and needed help unloading it. While waiting for the safe to show up, Ryan, Stuart, Taylor and I drove around the Provo Temple and MTC. Once they arrived at Matt's house we went there and Ryan and Stuart proved to my brother they weren't just good looks. (note: Taylor spectated) Since we hadn't eaten since Jeff's we headed to IHOP and Matt joined us. It was fun for my brother to get to spend a little time with Ryan. We got back to Bob's pretty late and all went to bed:)

The next morning we got up early to head to temple square. We wanted to wait in line to attempt getting into one of the sessions Saturday. Once we arrived we were like #40 in line for the afternoon session. Which meant we were going to have to listen to the morning session over loud speakers while waiting in line all morning and afternoon. Can't complain though we did have fun sitting out in the cold:) We took the opportunity then to snap a few photos of Ryan, Stuart and Taylor. Because Taylor is leaving on his mission to Mexico in May - this would be one of the last times the brothers would really have the chance to create lasting memories and take pictures. I feel so blessed to have been able to be apart of their weekend together. It was so much fun!

It was quite difficult snapping pictures of the boys. They are photogenic even if they aren't looking at the camera! Silly guys:) Out of like 20 pictures i'd take in one setting - i'd maybe get one or two good ones where all three were looking at the camera smiling. Other than that they are laughing, joking and what not. But I can't complain because Kodak moments are just as good as any other:)

Ryan and his younger brothers Stuart and Taylor Rios.

Ryan and I braving the cold weather in hopes to get inside the conference center for the afternoon session!

Because it was so cold - I recommended that Taylor and his girlfriend go inside. She was freezing and didn't appear to be able to stand the cold. Stuart, Ryan and I waited in line holding their places.

During the morning sessions intermediate hymn we asked Taylor and Annie to come trade us so we could sit inside awhile. But then the sun came out and it temple square was empty. I asked Ryan and Stuart if maybe they wanted to go take some photos before the conference center emptied and thousands of people would be fighting to get those same pictures we were:) They agreed so we walked around temple square awhile and tried to listen to the talks.

These guys were just too much fun for me:)

What can I say.... I do love him!

The protesters were pretty mild this year...they kind of kept to themselves but they made their statement known.

After waiting in line outside for approximately 4 hours...they finally moved us inside the conference center in a holding like area. It was so cramped. My feet hurt so bad because I was wearing heels so while we stood inside I had to take them off. As people shifted around a seat became available, but only one. We made use of it by sitting on Stuarts lap.

They sat us right as the first speaker began. We were up in the nose-bleeds but I can't complain the experience of being there was far more intense than watching it on TV. Ryan and I sat directly behind Stuart, Taylor, and Annie. It was awesome. I was able to attend the session in which Jeffery R. Holland gave his talk on the difference in Love and Lustful things we seek after. It was so awesome. Everyone was in awe as he "told it like it is". There are no words for the emotions and spirit that took place.

Afterwards we filed out of the conference center and walked awhile around Temple Square. It was jammed packed of conference goers and a line ten million years long for preisthood session:)

Rios Trio.

Then plus me.

It's almost as if he is saying i'm all his...only... he's really mocking his brother.

Saturday and Sunday nights we went up to Park City where a friend was house sitting. It was so awesome. I had so much fun with the guys. They watched movies, played video games and pool...and we even got to go hot tubbing. It was snowing the whole time in Park City so that made the winter experience that much better! Because it was so cold on Sunday and we were so tired for the traveling and whatnot catching up with us, we decided to stay in Park City and Provo on Sunday and not even attempt the Sunday line on Temple Square.

Monday morning we hit the road back to Rexburg. Overall the experience of Conference was awesome. I loved every minute of the talks, walking around Temple Square, Provo, Park City, The boys, the memories...everything could not have gone better. It was a beautiful weekend. Plus I was able to spend "some" time with my sister. Never enough time, but some time!

So we say so-long UT and Southern ID, and head for Libby, MT. As tired as we were the trip was coming to a close - and it appears, others trips were finished also.