Little Trips! (Duchesne and Idaho)

Duchesne and Roosevelt!

A couple weekends ago, Jeff and I celebrated our second anniversary with a little trip out of town.  Jeff proposed Duchesne as a destination because he felt like he had a good idea of what most of Utah’s regions are like, but not Duchesne. 

I have actually been to Duchesne many times (to visit relatives), but I think the last visit was 13-15 years ago.  My memories of Duchesne were:

-       I think there’s a lot of dirt out there.

-       The church is up the hill.

-       There was a dirt ditch near my cousins’ house and they had put a rope swing on one of the trees.

-       My cousins had a cat.

That was about it.  So, we were excited to see Duchesne.

As we left home, I started looking online to find somewhere to stay that night.  Pretty much all of the hotels/motels in the region had truly awful reviews: “I do not think you could pay me enough to stay there again.” “I left at 2 am because I could not sleep comfortably there.” “The swimming pool was filled with dirt and had a massive tree planted in the middle.”  “This place was a close choice above simply sleeping in my car.”

It was really amazing, because the places didn’t have mixed reviews, or just one review—they each had 4 or 5 terrible one-star reviews, written by different people between 2008 and 2012. 

So, we ended up staying in Roosevelt, a town about 30 miles from Duchesne.  We paid $100 to stay at a pretty run-down motel that had mediocre reviews.  Apparently, hotels/motels are a booming business out there (in the middle of nowhere!) because of oil drilling in the Vernal area.  Our room included very slow WiFi, which we appreciated, because our smartphones were not smart out there—they were on the extended network, and we had no 3G or 4G, and no navigation available. 

Saturday night Jeff and I decided to go bowling.  It was a lot of fun!  The bowling alley was fantastic.  They had signs up that looked really official, but seemed like they would be tough to enforce.  Outside, a sign warned that if you were caught skateboarding, rollerblading, or on a bike within 50 feet of the building there would be a $25 fine and the item would be confiscated.  Really??  The bowling alley had a huge (empty!) parking lot, so I don’t know why it would even matter very much…but say they caught someone on their bike within 50 feet of the building.  How do they confiscate the bike?  How do they get the kid to cough up the $25 fine?  What do they do with the bike after it is confiscated?  Do they talk to the kid’s mom when they see her next, since it’s such a small town that everyone must know everyone?  Then, inside, there was a sign that said there would be a $1 fine for each time someone was caught sitting on the arcade games or pool tables.  That seems slightly easier to enforce.  But do people cooperate with that?  Do they pay it?  If people don’t pay, do they get kicked out of the bowling alley?  I’m so curious!

Anyhow, the bowling alley was excellent.  Jeff and I went bowling one time back when we were dating, but this was our first time bowling since then.  Jeff is actually a decent bowler.  I am very bad at bowling, but I still enjoy it.  Every time I go bowling, the same thing happens:  I bowl a whole lot of gutter balls, which doesn’t bother me much at first, but then becomes a little frustrating.  Then, towards the end of the game, I remember that if I’ll just take a step to my left (and pretend that is the center of the lane) my games go much, much better--I even get strikes. 

The next morning—Sunday morning—my cousin happened to be speaking in church.  (He was going to leave on his mission that week.)  So, we went to hear him speak in Duchesne.  Finding the church was an adventure because our phones still didn’t have maps or navigation.  We did eventually find it, and we were even on time. 

We had thoughts of hiking after church…but it didn’t seem like there was really anywhere good to hike.  So, we just went back home instead.  It ended up being a shorter trip than we had planned.  It was a nice weekend, though.  

[We always read when we go on trips; our book for this trip was Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five.  We're not quite done with it yet, but we've really enjoyed it so far.]

Idaho!

This weekend, my sister Tracy graduated from college!  She originally started attending BYU – Idaho when she first graduated from high school.  Then, she got married, and moved around, and she finished her degree by taking online classes (still through BYU-I). 

So, Tracy (and her husband, and her son) drove up from Arizona for the graduation.  My parents both flew up for the graduation, and on Friday we all drove up to Idaho (in two cars). 

The day that my dad flew up to Utah, he also had the “magical” idea that it would be fun to print t-shirts for all of us to wear to Tracy’s graduation.  So, that morning he printed shirts for everyone that said “GOOD JOB TRACY! YOU DID IT!  WE [heart] YOU” to surprise Tracy.  The graduation was Sunday-dress, so we just put the t-shirts on over our nicer clothes.

When my sisters and my mom and I were getting ready to go to the graduation, we had kind of a funny moment.  My mom kept debating whether she should wear a gray dress or something else she had brought that was more spring-colored.  She put the gray dress on.  Then as my sisters and I were getting ready, Sarah noticed that the three of us girls were all wearing similar teal/turquoise colors.  My mom decided she would change into her spring-colored option, and we were like, “Oh, you look fine.”  And Mom was like, “No, you’ve got to see this…” and she got out her other option, and she had brought something that matched us too!  We looked like we were dressed for a family picture, or something, totally coordinated, and all by chance!

The graduation was successful: Tracy walked across the stage that night and received her diploma cover.  (They asked everybody to not clap until the end, which we thought was kind of dumb for a graduation, but whatever.)  We took some pictures, which came out kind of funny because we’re amateurs and we don’t pay attention to things like lights above us.

Then, after Tracy’s graduation, we went out for dinner, went to bed veerrrry late, and came home the next day.