on the road again...

alright...i figured that i better take a few minutes to update everyone on the vacations so far. if any of you don't happen to know, i've been on two vacations, I'm in the middle of a third, and i will be going on a fourth the day after i return from this one. i guess i thought that i better live it up, because once school starts, i wont have much time for anything else. anyway, i thought i would give some brief summaries of some of the exciting things i've been able to do.

Vacation #1: Alabama/Georgia (July 2-9)
this vacation consisted mostly of cleaning out my grandfather's house. he lived with my parents for four years before he passed away in march, but he still had his house and a great deal of things in alabama, so i flew down and met my parents in huntsville to help clean. we ate some really yummy food and found some very cool stuff, but it was a very tiring job. the day before we left for utah, we drove the stuff mom and dad are keeping back to georgia and packed for vacation number two.

Vacation #2: Utah/Idaho/Wyoming/Montana (July 13-21)
we did TONS of stuff on this vacation. mom, dad, me, adam and his family and belinda's sister and her family all left sunday morning for Bear Lake just at the border of Utah and Idaho. We stayed in an amazing cabin and ate reeeeeally good food (tiffany owns a catering business and for good reason!) and soaked in the wonderful sunshine. here's a rundown of what we did this week:
-monday: We went to the Minnetonka Caves. At the very end of the tunnel (where we had to turn around), they let some of us walk back with the lights off. you couldnt see your hand in front of your face...and adam and belinda kept freaking us out by making references to scary movies. brad also got to bear lake in the evening.
-tuesday: This was the beach day. we rented a wave runner and spent the day out on the lake, and it was literally the entire day. apparently the water main in the town broke the night before and no one told us, so we scrambled to the nearest convenience store and bought 37 jugs of water. luckily, we weren't going to need to be at the cabin much anyway. the water was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. consequently, brad and i got REALLY bad burns. thank goodness for advil and aloe vera! that evening, they fixed the water main. we suddenly had a LOT of drinking water.
-wednesday: We packed up our stuff and said goodbye to the Jones' family on this day. we left the wonderful cabin we were in and drove through idaho, ate in jackson hole, took pictures in front of the Tetons, drove through Yellowstone, made a quick pitstop to old faithful, and finally got to Big Sky, Montana where we checked in to our posh condo for the rest of the week. Sadly, we didn't see much wildlife in Yellowstone except for a buffalo wandering on the street. still, i had my eyes peeled for a moose, and brad really wanted to see a bear.
-thursday: We drove out to west yellowstone and saw 2 imax movies, as well as ate at the restaurant where adam worked a few years ago. we also went to a bear and wolf discovery center. we finished the day by walking through the endless shops and i bought hacky sacks for my classroom. you know youve become a teacher when your only souvenir on vacation can be used in the classroom somehow.
-friday: This was the day we wanted to go to Boseman, Montana. we got up early and got there just in time to see the dark knight (which was AMAZING), and then we walked around Boseman. everything was wonderful until the torrential downpour. literally...it was hailing and the streets started flooding. the best part was that i found a snowboarding jacket and gloves for awesome prices!
-saturday: This was our final day and really the freebie for everyone. we ended up driving to a resort further up in the mountains looking for a gondola ride up the mountain. luckily for mom, it cost way too much and so we just walked around instead. we also stopped at another resort and found even more amazing deals on snow clothes, so i got some cool rossignol pants (apparently that's a good brand). we also saw a bear on the side of the mountain as we were driving! it was little, but brad finally got to see one. no moose, unfortunately.
-sunday: we packed up and drove back to adam and belinda's house. when brad left, noah hugged him and said "we REALLY love you, brad!" (say it to yourself by replacing all r's with w's. so cute!). they love him a lot. i stayed and we played that night.
-monday: when it was time for me to leave, i hugged noah and kennedy. thinking i would get a similar comment to what noah told brad the previous day, i said that i love them. noah's immediate response was, "where's brad?" one day they'll love me that much.....mom, dad and i then drove down to provo and moved some things into my classroom. we also ran some errands and got more school supplies and ate at my favorite sandwich place, gandolfo's. they then left with me fighting back tears. im such a sap, but i love my family!! i hate seeing them go.

okay, for your sake, i'm going to stop there. i'll write about the last two vacations as soon as i can. and i promise to add pictures as soon as possible. yay for vacations!