Utah Party Week

Holy moly, and was it ever a party.  I mean - it is ALWAYS exciting and fun and busy when we go home...trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with both of our families but it sure felt like there was something different this time.  It was seriously NON stop the whole week.  On top of not sleeping good or long enough any of the nights - we were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home.  But sooo many good and fun things happened.  I'd do it again just  like that if I had the choice!

We ended up sneaking out of town a day early.  Laura, my youngest sister, who was getting married the next week and the reason for our trip, was also going through the Bountiful Temple on Saturday.  So we told Tanner's family we were going to be there Friday, but we didn't tell mine.  We texted them pictures from our drive on Friday on Saturday telling them how much we wished we were going to be there with them.  Hehe.

We showed up at the temple and my dad saw Tanner first and did a double/triple take before he realized what was happening.  Awesome.  Then we saw my sister and mom and they both started crying.  I am so incredibly happy we got to make that and be there with her and all the family and friends that were there.  Such a special experience.  I love the temple :)

Later that day we did a little errand running.  We hadn't got all of the wedding gift shopping done so we needed to do that, and we were also in the market for a new ride.  Not to bore you with all the details of our shopping experience...I'll sum it up with this:

I didn't get any great pictures of it for some reason.  But it's a 2011 Audi A4 Wagon.  Tanner's brother has one and I drove it like 2 years ago and thought it was awesome but never figured I'd ever own an Audi.  But we were in the market for an all wheel drive and a wagon so our options were limited and Audi it was.  It's "root beer brown" and tan leather interior and has satellite radio and heated seats and is smooth and sexy :)  I love it.  But I will say I do miss my Xterra.  I figured I'd have that forever.  I loved that car.  But I guess it was time to move on.  This gets significantly better gas mileage too, so that helps me move on a little easier!

Sunday we had a dual family barbeque.  Both our families are awesome and get along really well and so we figured why not get to hang out with both one day?  Plus it made for the perfect opportunity to share our surprise.  While everyone was getting ready for dinner and piling more and more food on the table, I brought out a special plate to a table my parents, Tanner and his parents were sitting...

We got these from Parson's Bakery in Bountiful.  It had been our plan for quite some time to tell them this way (well, after we realized we'd be having a dual fam party).  As soon as we found out we were expecting we decided to wait till we were home to tell them because we wanted to do it in person.  It seemed like a really long wait and I was talking to people at work about it for several weeks before so it felt weird that our families didn't know.  But the wait was 100% worth it.  It took everyone a little bit to figure out what was going on.  Some longer than others :)  My mom caught on first and screamed and then everyone did and it was so fun and exciting and happy and the cookies were dang good so that didn't hurt either.  I was thinking I'd do a little pregnancy blog soon so I'll give more details about all that there.  But it was super fun letting the cat out of the bag.  I was having a hard time keeping it in!  (We were 14 weeks when we told them).

The rest of the evening we just hung around in the awesome summer evening air and played.  So much fun!

The next day the whole Niederhauser crew went to Cherry Hill for the day.  I'd never been and it was really fun!  It felt like summer.  Super hot and swimsuits and water.  Couldn't have been better!  I didn't get any pictures of that though.  That night we went to see Planes with Mimi and Papa and Nat and Preston and their 3 kids.
Tuesday was a hang out day with Nat and kids while Tanner golfed with Preston.  The Smithfield clan had to head back home.  Later that evening we did some shopping at City Creek - I got some new Sunday shoes that were desperately needed.  Tanner helps me shop when I'm too cheap to spend money :)  And then we ate at the family favorite - Rio Grande.  So yummy.  After that I headed home and Tanner headed back north with his family.  The next day was Laura's bachelorette bash and he was going to speed week with his brothers and dad.

I'll include a few of the MANY pictures from our party with Laura.  We did it up my FAVORITE canyon in Utah - Millcreek.  We spent a LOT of time up there growing up with cousins and even as an adult we would have dutch oven cook outs and parties and hikes and mountain biking, etc.  I love that place.  Plus it was nice to have more mountain time and it was a little cooler up there than in the valley.  We played a bunch of games, ate yummy food mostly in her wedding colors, chatted, opened presents and decorated corset sugar cookies.  It was a lot of fun!

The party planners

My cute niece Adi

 

Playing Bingo and then Scattegories

Pin the hose on the (hot, black) fireman :)

Trying to set off a mouse trap without cutting your hot dog.  Whoever had the longest hot dog at the end was the winner.

Loading her up with the essentials

 

And while we were doing the girl thing...

 Tanner got to spend the day at the Salt Flats doing something he grew up doing with his dad and loves. Speed Week! 

The next day was the wedding.  It really was perfect.  It was a hot day, but the morning at the temple was awesome.  We took a few pics and then had a couple hours to kill before the luncheon.  We killed it at REI by buying our box for the top of our car.  Luncheon was delicious.  It was at the Wight House in Bountiful, same place the reception was.  Tanner and I wandered around the shops on Main St. and then we played games at the reception till it was time for more festivities.  I thought the reception was really fun.  It was great to see so many people from growing up and such.  It was kind of chaotic trying to say hi to everyone and it was really hot in the building - but other than that, it was a perfectly exhausting wedding day!

I love her simple cake with the flowers and burlap ribbon.  Her flowers and table decorations were all different and beautiful too but I figure this post is getting rather picture heavy so I won't put ALL of those on here either. 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Wood

 And of course - the super classy car decor made with love by Tanner and my brother in law Shane.  Good thing Laura is such a dang good sport!

"There's glitter EVERYWHERE!"

And the last thing we squeezed into this wild week was an overnight camping trip up in the Uinta's.  We went a little farther so that we could take all our dogs.  6 dogs and 11 people.  That's good odds, right?  The dogs playing in the water were so much fun.  Bandit, my brother's dog really got into it.  So funny.  It was beautiful and so fun to get a last dose of mountain air before heading back to the flat lands.  Don't mind all the pictures.  I can't help myself.  There could have been a lot more :)

Potty training in the mountains :)

 

We love our Rozzi!  Samson had to hang back unfortunately.

 

Hadn't done one of these for like 15 years.  Great form, though, right?

 

 Then we had to unpack and clean and pack and then we drove to Layton and then an very early morning for a long drive back to ND.  Although it was pretty fun in my car :)  Not sure how much Rozzi appreciated the slightly more compact space.  We all survived though.  And whew.  That's it.  We need to stop going on long vacations with so many things because it really makes for LONG posts and more pictures than people probably care about.  Oh well - I love them. 

North Dakota State Fair Weekend

As we were leaving the fair this year, Tanner mentioned we were on our year of seconds - second anniversary, second band day, second ND state fair, etc.  Pretty crazy that it really doesn't seem like that long ago that we were at this same fair last year.  Like we mentioned last year - this fair is a big deal here!  It goes on for a couple weeks and they get some pretty big names to play at concerts each night.  This year some of the lineup included Tim McGraw, Journey, Creedence Clearwater "Revisited" and Toby Keith.  We bought tickets forever ago, as soon as they went on sale, hoping to make it to a few of them (you buy one ticket and you can go to every concert, basically).  Well, the first weekend I happened to be in Vegas so we missed Tim McGraw, but the next weekend was Toby Keith so Tanner was pretty excited we were going to make it to that.

We busted out of town as soon as Tanner got off of work.  We both were a little more impressed with the fair this year, I'd say.  It seemed like they had more things to see and probably also we didn't have quite as high of expectations as last year.  Tons of food and rides for sure.  They also had a bunch of RV's that you could walk through.  That was kind of fun.  Plenty of booths of people selling bizarre things that baffled us that people would ever spend money on.  We wisely chose to spend ours on Dippin' Dots.  Then we came upon an arena where they were going to have a little stunt dog show.  So we decided to grab some food and sit and eat and watch.  It was short but actually pretty impressive what those dogs could do!

 They told us not to record anything in case we stole their tricks.  Pretty sure no one has or will ever think of that one. 

The lighting was bad so it's really hard to see any of the pictures but this one the dog is jump-roping and it was pretty cool.

Then we wandered around the animal barns.

Showin' off some pretty sweet pigs.

Tanner's favorite attraction - the KKK sheep division.

And then it was time for the concert.  I've never been  much of a fan of country music.  Even with The Highway blaring most of our road trips to and fro', I still don't love it.  Definitely tolerate it a lot more now, but not my first choice.  So I wasn't sure how much I'd like the concert.  We had decent seats and the view of the crowd kept us pretty entertained until Toby started.  Tanner was in heaven.  He played every single song he wanted him too.  And I must say it was a good show.  I like live music most of the time and even country music is better live :) He was a great performer.  Red Solo Cup was a big deal.  Just about EVERY person there had one so when he asked everyone to raise their cups, it was like a crazy sea of red.

We spent the night at our friend's that live there.  We wanted to stay overnight so we could hang out with them because they'll be moving to Denver soon and it might be quite some time before or if we ever see them again.  That's what we've decided is the crappiest thing about living up here.  It's so transient.  People come and go so much and we are meeting really great people and then they keep moving away.  I'm scared we're going to be like the last of our friends left.  Anyway.  That's besides the point.  The next morning we all golfed 9 holes at the course in Minot.  SOOOO much nicer than Williston's.  It's sad.  There were so many trees and it was so green and much better cared for and half the price.

 We accidentally both packed our pink golf shirts.  Tanner was so embarrassed to be matching with his wife.

Sara and Joe Lawson

Then we went to eat lunch at Ebeneezer's, an Irish pub type joint.  Holy moly - it was incredible!  We'd heard great things but this was our first time experiencing it and it did not disappoint.  It might be a regular for us when we go to Minot. Loved it.

Then we drove back to Williston for our second double date of the evening.  We met the Merkley's for another 9 holes at Eagle Ridge.  Emily hadn't been golfing since before her first kid was born and I must say she did quite good.  I am ashamed to admit I did not do good at all.  And the little immature part of me that would always get mad when I played my dad in racquetball and did crappy came out in full force.  I don't know why I get so frustrated.  But I did - and then played worse.  And it was a vicious, pathetic cycle.  That's probably why I don't have ANY pictures of the four of us playing.  Dang it.  We're going to need to go again so I can redeem myself and show that I can suck and be happy at the same time :)  We did get some pizza after which was delicious and fun.  And I think they are both still friends with us so that's good!