Fall Break 2019 - Ohio and New York

Brandon's dad and stepmom invited us to meet them at Niagara Falls over fall break, so we added a couple days at a national park in Ohio and had a nice little getaway.

Our first stop was Cuyahoga Valley National Park outside of Cleveland, Ohio. We had perfect weather while there - 70s and sunny - and we took advantage by hiking through the gorge and up to a waterfall.

The next day, we headed up to New York and made a stop at Kirtland to see some church history sites.

We made it to Niagara Falls late that afternoon and went for a quick walk down to the falls. Good thing we did, because it was the last day of sunshine that we had the whole trip.

The next day, Brandon and Jackson went fishing in the morning then we headed down to do the Cave of the Winds walk. We took an elevator ride to the bottom of the falls, then walked up the platform to be within 10 feet of the falls.

We walked up to the Hurricane Deck which was crazy but so much fun.

It was rainy that day, but the fall colors were still beautiful. We really enjoyed our visit.

The next day we drove home. An 8-hour drive turned into a 10.5-hour drive due to some road construction, which was rough, but at least the sunset was interesting!

BYU vs. Toledo

The last BYU game east of the Mississippi was at the University of Toledo in Ohio. We drove up and back in the same day and anticipated a pretty low-key easy win. Well, that didn't happen. We ended up losing. But we had a great time with my parents and Tessa and her kids and got to say hi to Thomas afterwards.

My friend Christa Keele (who lives in Utah) commented on a picture of mine saying that her husband and his brothers and dad were going out to the game so I found him and sent her a picture. Fortunately the stadium was about as big as a high school stadium so it wasn't hard to find him!

Jackson's 7th Birthday

Since we'd already taken Jackson to Tennessee for his birthday, the actual day-of was pretty low-key. We had birthday pancakes for breakfast before school, then he got to celebrate with his class at school and came home with a birthday crown.

That night, we had chicken nuggets for dinner at home, then met Brandon's family and Jackson's mom at The Cheesecake Factory for birthday cheesecake. He chose Oreo and barely ate any of it, so we got to eat it later. :)

We had a great time celebrating such a funny, sweet boy.

September Randoms

My co-worker Marissa left EVERFI in December of 2018, but we've stayed friends and when she had to come to Indy for a conference, we met for sushi and catch-up time. 

DoubleTree hotels have amazing cookies at their front desk that they'll give you when you stay. I rarely stay there, though, because it's usually much more expensive than surrounding options. But I love the cookies so much that I'll still go in and ask for a couple, and they always deliver! I found a recipe this year to make them myself. It's a great recipe, but nothing beats having someone else make them for you!

The BYU football season was all over the place this year, which made every week interesting. We were able to watch almost all the games either in person or on TV - this game against USC was a thriller, but BYU came out on top.

After a great year at work, I was promoted to Senior Schools Manager and got a nice raise - still loving my job!

BYU vs Tennessee

For Jackson's birthday this year, we took him to Tennessee for the BYU vs. Tennessee football game. We drove into the night Friday then started bright and early on Saturday in the pool. I think this was Jackson's favorite part of the trip. He made a couple new friends at the pool, which I appreciated because then he didn't insist I get in the water with him.

None of us had been to Knoxville before, so we headed downtown to explore and happened upon the BYU alumni association's tailgate party. We also went up in the Sunsphere Tower, which has a great 360 degree view of the city. My parents and Jacob and Nalon also came down for the game so we met them there that afternoon.

We fueled up before the game on pizza and garlic knots.

The walk from downtown Knoxville to the stadium was so beautiful - I love a good riverfront city!

The game was at Neyland Stadium and let me tell you, there's college football and then there's SEC college football. I've never experienced anything like it! The stadium holds something like 90,000 people and it was full, so it was incredibly loud. It was also incredibly hot, but fortunately the sun set quickly. 

In addition to my parents and Jacob and Nalon, we were sitting with Thomas and Madison's friends the Arringtons and their baby Dayton. He did impressively well in such a loud, crazy stadium!

The marching band was incredible! I was super impressed by their formations.

The game was tight the whole time, but with less than a minute left, we were down by 3 and pretty much gave up hope. But then BYU completed something like a 60-yard pass to put us into field goal position and the kicker made it. Overtime! We were shocked and so, so excited. We ended up going into double overtime before ultimately winning it. It was NUTS. So suspenseful, so exciting, and so, so fun. 

After the game, we went down to the loading ramp to wait for the players to come out so we could snap some pictures with our favorite player. 

The game didn't start until 7 pm and then it went into double overtime. Then we had to walk back to the parking garage and it took us like a half an hour to get out of traffic. It was a late night. Jackson hung in there, even though it was waaaay past his bedtime. But within about 7 minutes of being in the car, he was out cold.

We stayed the night there then headed home in the morning. What a fun weekend!