Dear Idaho,

You are very far away.

Love, Kinley

Yes, we went, yes, we made it back... no, I wasn't referring to Idaho as the edge of the earth, there is still another time zone past Idaho kids. But I suppose it could be. Anyway, we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove... then we drove some more and then we were almost there. My kids are rockstars and were good sports about the whole thing. I convinced Tanner that when you close your eyes, we magically go faster. But if you close you eyes and fall asleep, it works even better. He gave it a try and was very pleased when he woke up. He kept closing his eyes and asking me what it looked like when we went faster. It was funny.

We drove through North Dakota this time, here are the high lights...

This is the enticement to take a detour down the enchanted highway, this is where the world has hidden it's largest collection of oversized, strange metal sculptures... to be honest, I was worried that if we did venture down, we would end up meeting a wicked witch, rumplestiltskin, or some other fairy tale villain. Or possibly have an experience much like that weird John Candy/Dan Akroyd movie... You know, that weird one where they are trapped in the crazy place and there is a weird judge, what is it called, does anyone remember? I don't know, it has been too long...

A large buffalo statue...

and the buffalo's dear friend, Cow... a must see.

So aside from seeing the fam, we went so I could go to a best friend's wedding...
Randah and I met in our junior high choir class when we were made folder partners because our teacher couldn't tell us apart. I think she later regretted it when we wouldn't shut up. Oh well... anyway, it was awesome to go. Edward is a dang cool dude and might I add lucky to his list of good qualities. Congrats guys! It was fun to hang out with Jennie, sorry Kristy couldn't come, but she had a baby 4 days later, ya know how it goes...

(oh, and edward... you are fired from taking pictures, just because it was your wedding day, and Jennie and I weren't the bride doesn't mean we can't look good in pictures too.) ;)

Also, while we were home, my little brother graduated Seminary. Way to go Andy! Now if you had only made it through high school... just kidding, he did graduate on Tuesday, I just wasn't there. He even had stellar grades!

What else did we do... well, we hung out, we went to Cafe Rio 4 times (yeah, we really like it, and have really been craving good mexican) and Plum Loco (more Mexican), hungout some more, Cory and I went shopping with my mom's credit card, that was fun... unfortunately everything we bought was for my brothers, but whatever, it was fun all the same. Actually, I went to the mall several times, and each time I say an old friend. It was fun to see you Katy, Julie, and Stefanie! Yay for shopping! Cory went riding at the sand dunes with my dad and brother one night, so my mom borrowed a van, and loaded the 4 grandkids up with us girls and took chinese out to my grandparents, that was a memory... ha! Shaneece had a concert that someone pulled a fire alarm during. Nice. The kids got to help Cory's parent plant the garden. Tanner loved it. I don't know what else, but thanks to everyone for letting us intrude.

It rained on the way back to Minnesota... this creek washed over the road on the way to Bozeman... yeah, you can kinda see the big rocks... we were glad we had a little more clearance because the cars were dragging the rocks... yikes.

It really did rain almost the entire way back. It made a long drive longer, but oh well. We left at 5:30 Saturday morning and pulled into our parking lot just before 2 Sunday morning. Did I mention it rained pretty near the entire drive? These fields were flooding... poor farmers.We drove though lightning for several hours at the end, it turned into the storm that brought the tornado we had on Sunday afternoon. We actually slept though the whole thing, not the driving through lightning... just the tornado, it is a good thing we live in a basement, huh!

I just want to thank my kids for being awesome, although at one point Tanner was telling me that it was such a bad idea that I had to drive there. He wanted to know how he could get a plane ticket, did he need to go to the airport or what... but that was the worst of it. Anyway, we are back, I have more stuff to post, so maybe I will get around to it in a few days! Until then... enjoy!