Our Travels . . .

Even though we had two weeks of time available to us between Rob quitting his job, and us needing to be back at school, initially we had planned on coming back to Rexburg the Monday after Christmas. Well, as many of you know, Rob and I are both adventurers at heart, and the thought of coming back to dreary Rexburg with a week and a half left to wait for school to start made us a little sad.

So, the morning of the 27th, we concocted a plan to head south. Rob's Grandpa lives in Barstow, CA; so we decided to start there. We left Springville, UT--where we were for Christmas--Monday morning, the 29th, and aside from a two hour traffic jam through Las Vegas, we had a great day of driving the 529 miles to Barstow. It was very satisfying driving out of areas where snow covers the ground, and into a climate where short sleeves are acceptable to wear in the middle of winter.

We spent Monday and Tuesday night with Rob's Grandpa and his wife Topsy. Grandpa and Topsy were married Fall 2007, and aside from a brief meeting them at our own wedding in April 2007, I hardly knew them. It was so nice to spend a couple of days getting to know them, and seeing Barstow in a different light. I've been there before--back in 2004 while friends of mine were stationed at Fort Irwin, but this trip opened my eyes to the beauty of the Mojave Desert. Rob spent about a year living in Barstow while growing up, and has fond memories of the area.

This is one of the three pictures taken of me during the trip. I'll post the other two later, but this one is definitely the cutest. I guess that is going to be how it's going to be with me behind the camera, eh? Anyway, we had a great time with Grandpa and Topsy. We ate at the original Del Taco, went to the Bus Station that is made out of old railroad cars, and I taught Topsy how to make Quesadillas. We greatly look forward to returning and spending more time in Barstow!