the Mormon mob

saturday morning we left bright and early for idaho. we were going up to celebrate grandpa hatch's 80th birthday. we met mom, dad, ashley, brendon and kennady for breakfast at kneaders. it was the perfect way to start our road trip. our goal was to be in pocatello by 11:30. mitch and i took the z up. it wasn't the brightest idea in the book other than gas mileage is better than the jeep..... we made it just after 11. grandma and grandpa arrived around 12. it was a surprise birthday party for him. everyone gathered in a circle on the lawn to enjoy lunch and good company. 

after the party we decided to attempt a little thrift shopping. as we all pulled up to the store we couldn't help but giggle. we look like we are part of a mob with all of our black cars. {it'd be even better if it was black escalades. lol.} this was the first time mitch and i had been to a 'thrift' store. it's not necessarily our thing. we did find some serious entertainment out of it though. ashley and mom found a few treasures though.

at that point we rethought our plans for the day. we all originally thought that the party would've been an afternoon thing. but with the rest of the afternoon ahead of us..... we decided to turn our over-nighter  into a day trip. mitch and i headed up to idaho falls to visit my grandpa and aunt val before heading home. my aunt val just moved in with my grandpa this week. i got to see my cousin jerry and his beautiful new baby boy. then we all headed out for dinner. aunt val was incredibly sweet and took us all out to dinner. uncle wes and aunt connie joined us too. it was a fabulous party of 8. it's funny how comfortable you are with your own family. as amazing as mitch's extended family is, i've not grown up with them and am not nearly as comfortable around them as i am with my own family. {no matter the differences of our life styles}. i was incredibly grateful and happy that we were able to spend time with both families on this trip. as we finished dinner, we hurried out to our cars as the rain started to pour. we stopped back at grandpa's to pick up some pickled beets and grab a picture with them. then we made our way back down to pocatello to meet up with mom and dad.

the weather was insane. we drove through a pretty awesome rainstorm. the road was drenched and we almost hydroplaned a few times. grateful that mitch is a good driver. once we neared pocatello the sky cleared up and i enjoyed the view. unfortunately we spent the 4 hour drive home with the ac blasting to keep the window from fogging. needless to say it was a freezing and entertaining drive home. we aren't surprised we woke up with runny noses the next day.