Highlights from Rexburg

While in Rexburg, we enjoyed good food, graduation, and family time. 

Pizza Pie Cafe

Waiting for the most recent Hiatt grad.

Yay Jenny!

How you watch graduation with a baby

Costa Vida celebration lunch for the most recent Lund grad (Yay Megan!)

Dash was jealous I was holding James instead of him

But then he forgave me

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Roadtrip Tips

Lessons learned from Road Tripping with a Baby:

• Bring more bibs
• Make sure you have some sort of stiffer cover (not cloth) for the carseat so baby doesn't get stifled or sunburned
• Be prepared to stop in obscure towns or rest areas every two hours
• Be prepared to be exhausted
• Expect blowouts and protect the carseat and yourself accordingly
• You won't have room for anything else in the car other than yourself, the baby, and all the baby's things
• Bring a book to listen to (we had "Daring Greatly" on audio)

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Fall Break

I will forever be grateful for the week off we get every semester in law school. A time to catch up on HW, sleep, housework...oh yeah, and catch up with family. :)

Angela came down for a night and we enjoyed hiking bridal veil falls:

Speaking of falls, looks like fall's finally arrived in the mountains:

We watched Monsters University (Angela's first time seeing it!):

And had lunch with our favorite Lund-cousin-that-is-currently-attending-BYU-Provo:

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Babymoon

This trip was kind of last minute, but we decided in July that a vacation was due after a full summer of work and pregnancy. We settled on going to Rockaway Beach, Oregon to visit my great grandparents and enjoy a little bit of Portland on the side. So here is the barrage of pictures: 

Of course, no vacation would be complete without a friendly game of Bingo. While we had fun completing the different assignments (ex: find a Utah license plate, make a dairy related pun at the cheese factory, eat something off of the other person's plate w/o them knowing, etc) we realized that we should probably mix up the order on both of our sheets, since we kept on getting the same Bingo squares.  

It's a two hour drive to Rockaway from Portland, so we had a rest stop at Hug Point.

And here's the main reason for our trip: Jim and Ilene. Some of the sweetest people I know, and they sure are spry for being 88 and 93!  I have the privilege of being named after my great-grandma, and have enjoyed visiting her over the years for our Lund family reunions. I was so grateful to squeeze in this trip to see her again, especially since this time we had her all to ourselves.

Rockaway is 14 miles away from Tillamook, which is famous for its Cheese Factory.

We had enjoyed beautiful weather with no rain on the beach! We basically completed the ice bucket challenge by submersing ourselves completely in the water. 

Matt learned how to play pinochle and quickly dominated. This was a picture of my and grandma's early win before Matt and Jim stole the lead. (I won't post the final score, but I will say we played 18 games of pinochle.) 

The Portland Temple!

Voodoo Doughnuts. Apparently a Portland icon. I will say, the line was extremely long to get in and they had some unique flavors. Matt's favorite was the mango jelly filled (bottom right) and mine was the Oreo topped (upper left). 

We would highly recommend Babymoons. It was a great trip.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

NC Bingo

To spice up our trip to North Carolina, Matt and I created a Bingo Sheet of things to do while we were there. The "***" are spaces we filled in for the other person to do, and the blank middle space is the free space. 

North Carolina Bingo Sheet

Find a man with great beard	Throw something really really far	***	Stand statue still for 8 seconds	Create fangs using anything
Eat a dessert in one shot	Talk about camping or spelunking with someone else	Jinx the other person	***	Balance something on your nose
Order some food with a real Southern accent	Find someone in the airport with a stuffed toy		Find a word that has more than 13 letters in it	Without asking them, get someone to quote a Christmas song
Find a couple making out	Find any animal from the deer family and take a pic	Find a Utah license plate	Eat something without your hands	Photobomb someone
***	Eat some food like you’re in a cheesy commercial	Take a really angry picture somewhere pretty	***	Take a pic with an inanimate object

Matt's Angry Face at our pretty Open House

Me eating dessert in one shot.

Me with an animal from the deer family

Matt throwing something really, really far.

We both were able to do everything except 'find a couple making out.' Probably one of the only times I've been disappointed for not seeing PDA.

What would you put on a traveling Bingo sheet?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

P.S. For the record, Matt was the first to get a Bingo.

Christmas in NC

We booked our flights back in August, and the time has finally come. Here's a glimpse of our list of "Things to do in North Carolina:

See the Festival of Lights (bad picture, I know, but the car was in motion). 

Have a fabulous Open House.

Visit Matt's old schools.


Eat authentic Southern BBQ.


Go hiking in the mountains (yes, it was a little chilly).


Eat at Krispy Kreme.


Visit our nieces' graves.


Have a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner.


Spend time with family.



List: Complete.

What was on your to-do list over Christmas break?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dreams Do Come True...

In New Orleans! (And Disneyland)
Tips for a great trip to Vegas to Huntington Beach to Disneyland and back again:

I would highly recommend staying in the MGM Signature hotel. It was the best hotel we stayed in the whole trip. It has a great view, a kitchenette (they even wash your dishes for you!), and no casino.

Huntington Beach is a great option because of its proximity to Disneyland. I would recommend parking in town and walking to the beach. I would also recommend going to Ruby's cafe at the end of the pier. (We saw a real dolphin out the window! *Note: this was an extra, unadvertised, and unplanned perk of eating there- dolphins are not always guaranteed)

Disneyland. Always, always, always use this amazing little app. It saved us sooo much time in line, and we were able to go to all but 6 of the rides between both California Adventure and Disneyland!

For Korean Lovers: Wi Spa. Since Matt loves Korea (see past posts about Korean Valentine's Day) we went to a Korean spa. They have a co-ed area called a "jimjilbang" where you can go to different sauna rooms together. My two favorite were the salt room and the ice room.

On the way back home, make sure you have sufficient gasoline to make it through the mojave desert. Because there are only 2 gas stations. And if there is a wreck on the 2 lane highway, you may be stuck there for 4 hours, moving a total distance of 10 miles. And there may be ridiculous lines for gasoline and the bathroom, due to the unprecedented need of dozens of people.

Happy Vacationing!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Disneyland

My sister happens to be a Disneyland fanatic. Which I fully support, as I reap the benefits such as going to Disneyland two years in a row. We went right after I got back from my mission in 2012 and again this spring.

My recommendations for a good time at Disneyland:

• Eat at the Blue Bayou restaurant, which is located in the middle of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. it is the most magical eating experience you will ever have. my sister and I went for the first time this year and absolutely LOVED it. 
• While we're on the topic of food, the Jolly Holiday Bakery is also a good place to eat at. Mary Poppins themed, reasonably priced sandwiches with home-made potato chips, great pasteries...it's like the disney version of Kneaders. 
• Also, if you've never tried a beignet before, please do so. They will change your dessert life and give you greater appreciation for the movie, "The Princess and the Frog."
• Watch the parades, the fireworks, and most importantly, "World of Color." World of Color is worth standing in the rain to see. Which we did. And it was epic.
• Moving on to general advice: Do a magic morning. (you get in an hour earlier than everyone else.) Be smart about fast passes. (once you use one, get another--they save you hours in line.) Sleep in the afternoon (the busiest time) and go back in the evening until closing.
• Things to do while waiting in line: the Cute Baby game (spot all the adorable children under the age of 3 who wearing disney paraphernalia); the Mickey Mouse Ears game (seriously, they have so many varieties of ears at disneyland now. see if you can spot every variety--there's easily over 20); Check the disneyland ride app on your phone to see what rides have the shortest lines so you can go there next. 

Also, after you've gone to Disneyland (because after this blog post, who wouldn't want to go?) check out this youtube clip (shamelessly back posting):

Rhetorically,
Rebekah