Jenna

As soon as things calmed down at work, I was on the first plane to Utah for a recruiting thing at BYU and decided to extend my trip and drive up to Idaho to see the newest addition to my family - my niece Jenna Mai.

She was only a few weeks old when I saw her. So cute!! It was fun to hang out with Dave and Kim on their home turf as well. I usually only see them in Texas during the holidays.

We did a lot of relaxing and just hanging out. Which was exactly what I wanted to do. I also wanted to take a trip up to Rexburg to see Ricks (err..I mean BYU-I) and everything that had changed since I was last there.

It will always be Ricks to me though. I graduated a year before it make the change to a 4-year university. Wow..I guess that dates me.

A LOT and I mean A LOT has changed since I went to Ricks. Even since Dave and Kim graduated from BYU-I, quite a bit has changed. The upstairs of the MC is now like the Cougareat in Provo - except way nicer. Who would have thought it would ever look like this....

Remember the days when all they had was pretty much Tomasino's? The bookstore is all new and massive. Just about everything in the Manwearing center is different. Except this....

The bowling alley! You gotta love the fact that you can take a bowling class in University. Pretty sure most non-LDS schools are jealous of this fact.

Not really sure what the point of riding your bike on campus is if you have to go as fast as you walk.

I even got to see one of my girls from CT! It was a lot of fun to catch up with Kelly and walk around campus with her. She always has the friendliest smile which made her one of my favorites in my ward back East.

We made it over to the old Hart building and of course I had to take a picture with the Viking! They are building this whole big auditorium right next to the Hart building because there isn't enough room for devotionals anymore.

Here is a picture of the 3 of us after our tour of campus! It was a gorgeous day. We then took a ride around town. There are lots new stores and restaurants. But thankfully some things haven't changed....

I had a roommate that would always go here and get a kids meal. It was conveniently located just across from our parking lot! :)

Oh...and I have no pictures - but Idaho Falls has also grown a lot! I'm pretty sure there was only a Chili's, Outback, and Mongolian grill place there when I was going to Ricks. Now they even have a Cafe Rio - (aka: Heaven on earth).

I saw lots of other wonderful friends while passing through Utah. I had lunch with my mission president and his wife, saw Wes --one of my favorite mission friends-- and his wife in Idaho, I saw Kelsey (pictured above), and was finally able to meet Johnny (Emily's little boy who is in the picture below) and Anna when I stayed with Joni and Brock one night. And got together with Jana, Heather, Nicole and Em for dinner one evening. And even spent one night with Julie when I first arrived in Utah. I think that is everyone I saw...Anyway, I got to see lots of great friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Thank goodness I'm on the west coast and get the perk of free recruiting trips to Utah again! It had obviously been way too long since I'd seen everyone!