Snow, Hail, Rain, and a Pocketful of Sunshine

Warning: This is a long post...sorry!

Zach and I headed to Idaho for a short but very fun visit on June 5th. We were so excited to find some cheap plane tickets from Memphis to Jackson Hole...who would have thought?! We were supposed to have a layover of 20 minutes in Minneapolis but instead it ended up being 4 very long hours. It wouldn't have been so bad except they had us board the plane and sit there for 4 hours until the storms cleared and they finally let us leave at 9:30 Central time. The pilot kept saying that we would leave in a half hour and then come back on and say another few minutes and then finally he said "it may be awhile folks, they let one plane head to North Dakota and that didn't turn out so well..." I'm not sure what he meant by that, but I was glad at that point that we were still on the ground! We finally arrived in Jackson Hole at 10:30 Mountain time where Sara and Brody had been waiting for us all night. When we got to IF at 1:00 AM we talked with Zach's parents for awhile and then opened our luggage to find everything inside completely wet. I think they just left our luggage out in the rain the whole time we were sitting on the plane. Luckily, Zach signed us up for frequent flyer miles before we left and we just got a letter in the mail from North West saying because of the delay they were giving us 2,500 extra miles! Even though it took us forever to get to Idaho it was totally worth it!

On Friday we just hung around Zach's house and dried all our clothes :) Later in the afternoon we all (Zach's family and my parents) drove up to Island Park to spend some time at my family's cabin. I have so many memories of spending lots of summer days and nights at this cabin so I was excited to get to go during our short stay! We had a lot of fun playing frisbee golf up there. Our neighbor in Island Park made a frisbee golf course a few years ago on his property and it is amazing. I think this is the only time I have played where no one lost a frisbee! Afterwards we tried to make smores but our fire was kind of pitiful considering it had been raining off and on throughout the day.

Saturday morning we had my dad's famous Pat's Hash...a cabin tradition. Then Zach, Lyndon, and my dad decided they wanted to go fishing. Coleman and I ran the shuttle for them and as we were waiting in Cole's truck for my dad it started snowing!!! Only in Idaho does it snow in June! At that point, Coleman and I weren't sad that we weren't going fishing with them! When we dropped my dad off at the drop off point Zach was freezing already but they still went...crazy boys! Zach said it was the coldest he had been in a long time and that he actually missed Memphis weather. By the way, it was 93* the day we left Memphis!

Saturday night we met up with my best friend, Becky, and her family to celebrate her dad's birthday! It was so funny to see Kim's face when I walked in his house! He looked so confused, almost like he knew who I was but didn't believe it since he had no idea we were coming to visit! I absolutely love spending time with Becky's family and it was nice to see both her sisters, grandma, and dad. Later that night we went bowling with Becky, Kim, Ashlie, Brent, and Justin (Ashlie's little brother). I hadn't seen Ashlie and Brent for almost a year so it was great to hang out and have fun with them!

Sunday morning we got up and drove to IF and went to church with Zach's family. It was fun for Zach to see some people he hasn't seen in awhile. After church we went and visited with Grandma and Grandpa Oswald for a little bit and then drove back to Rexburg to have dinner with my parents. After dinner we drove back to IF (we did a lot of driving back and forth if you can't tell) and spent the evening playing redneck golf with Zach's family. If you don't know what that is then you are missing out! We were able to see Grandma and Grandpa Pilkington for the first time since Grandma had her heart attack. It was awesome to see them and see how well Grandma is doing. It's hard to be so far from family, especially when things like that happen, and it seems as though all those types of things have happened since we moved!

Monday morning Zach, Lyndon, Grandpa Pilkington, Hilary, Hailey, and I went golfing at Sage Lakes. The boys and girls split up and we had a lot of fun! I think I do better golfing when I don't have someone standing right beside me telling me what I do wrong every time I swing...ha ha! After golfing we went and ate at Craigos, yum! We miss their chicken ranch pizza so much! After pizza we played cards with Zach's family until it finally came to the time we had to say bye to them. We drove back to Rexburg and stopped to see our friends Bryson and Katie. Bryson and Zach were roommates back in the day and it was great to see them! We ended the trip by going to Wingers with my parents. They don't have Wingers in Memphis and we crave their sticky fingers all the time!

Our flight left Jackson Hole at 9 AM on Tuesday morning, so we left Rexburg at 6 AM. Luckily, the flight home was not delayed at all and we were back in 90* weather at 5:30 PM. We had so much fun spending time with family and friends while we were home. It was a much needed vacation. It's always so hard to say bye to them and not get teary eyed, especially since we most likely won't be going home again until next summer. We are anxiously awaiting July when Zach's dad will be coming out for a visit! Zach did his part of the blog by posting the pictures from our trip! :)