Not a Care in the World... in Couer D'Alene

We left Houston over the weekend.

It was amazing to get out of the heat and see family.

However, it was no easy task getting there.

Remember how we've had record breaking heat and dryness and fires?

We've been asked to pray for rain.

To fast for rain.

Well the rain came- and it came on the exact day and the exact hour that we were supposed to fly out of Houston.

Pretty sweet timing, huh?

And it wasn't JUST rain- it was hail, and lightning and black, swirling hurricane clouds.

It delayed our flight by two hours... and they told us we wouldn't make our connecting flight to Spokane, which was the LAST connecting flight for the night.

Needless to say- we were super bummed kuz it meant we'd have to stay the night in Denver and not get into Spokane until Friday morning.

This trip (already being a short one as it was) was going to be cut even shorter.

We got into Denver an HOUR after our Spokane flight was scheduled to leave. 

An HOUR!

We jumped onto our phone as soon as we landed to check the flight status to Spokane...

They'd been delayed... and they were boarding!

We sprinted off the plane and down to the other side of the terminal... the gate was closed.

But miracle of all miracles- they opened it, just for us.

We had made it.

My cursing Southwest (in my head) had paid off ;)

And on with the weekend.

Jon's parents picked us up from Spokane and we drove to Coeur D'Alene to meet up with our Canadian family.

We spent the next few days soaking in the cool air here...

 Beautiful morning...

 We spent LOADS of time outside...

(because we COULD without melting! Ah, blessed Idaho)

 Out on the lake...

 Riding jet skis...

Hanging out under the shade...

 Enjoying scenery...

 "Where should we adventure to next Meli?"

"I dunno- I need to fix my hair..."

 Kayaking...

Did we get tired of Idaho? 

Not one bit...

 We did some relaxing...

and car napping...

And some Conference watching...

(bed head and all!)

And of course- some BYU football watching!

We even did some shopping while the boys went to Priesthood session.

But the best part- was meeting this cute little guy.

Our very own nephew, Sawyer.

Wish we could have taken him home with us!

 Pretty sure Jon won him over.

 Unfortunately- all good things come to an end.

And much to my chagrin, vacations come to a close.

Although reading this book on the way home made it a much easier flight :)

Sweet Breakfast

Jon didn't have early morning seminary this Friday. 

It was cancelled.

I thought for sure he'd be excited to sleep in-

but instead he was excited to STILL wake up at 5 and make me breakfast.

How'd I ever get so lucky?

I dunno... 

but he's a keeper.

One Point Away from a Fabulous Weekend

So in case you didn't know-

Jon loves BYU football.

So we packed up and headed to Austin for less than 24 hours for the BYU game against UT...

(which is University of Texas... not Utah... in case you weren't sure)

ANYWAY- as we drove across Texas we saw lots of these...

 Airplanes carrying buckets of water to the fires out here...

Texas is looking pretty desert-y these days.

We haven't seen rain in a good long while.

They say it's the worst since 1895!

And a little bit further down the road, we saw this...

lots and lots of burnt trees and burnt houses... some of it still smouldering on the side of the road.

Pretty sad. 

Hopefully Texas is done with fires for a while.

We were worried that they were going to close the roads down due to all the fires- but we had no problems, and finally made it to Austin.

*I say "finally" but this was a relatively short road trip for Brame standards... only 2.5 hours!*

We found our hotel in downtown Austin...

and proceeded to get geeked out for the game.

We walked a couple miles through downtown to the game,

and saw some Longhorns on the way...

Said "hello" to the State Capitol Building...

and found the mass of tailgate parties just on the other side.

While standing in the "Will Call" line to pick up our tickets...

Jon had a life changing experience.

Jon- "Ummm... yeah, that guy that just walked past me was Ty Detmer."

Me- "Ty who?"

Jon- "Ty Detmer!"

Me- "Ooohh... go take a picture with him!"

Jon- "No! I'm embarrassed- he's way too cool."

Jon proceeded to act super shy while he snuck this pic...

While getting our tickets, Jon kept looking over his shoulder to keep an eye on Ty.

We grabbed our tickets and decided to take the same route as the infamous quarterback to "see what happens".

Jon was super star struck... and it was pretty funny.

We found him again mid conversation and Jon stood next to him like a little boy until Ty was done talking. Jon tapped on his shoulder and begged him for a pic.

He gladly obliged.

And here is the result.

That is one super happy kid.

We then proceeded to dye Jon's hair blue...

And decided we were finally ready for the game.

 

Like all away games, the BYU section was in the sun... 

for a LOOOONG time.

 

And when the sun finally made it's way behind the stand- we were oh sooooo happy!

(But ooohhh sooo sweaty.)

My view for most of the game :)

And you probably already know- we played great the first half and spent a lot of time looking like this...

And the second half we lost our mo-jo and lost by one point.

It was pretty sad.

The UT student section kept yelling at us to "Go back to Utah to our multiple wives"...

super classy.

So definitely a great weekend- but just ONE point away from fabulous ;)

Glad It's Finally Here

Football season is here-

and SOMEONE in our household couldn't be happier...

(ok so we're both pretty happy about it)

 Go Cougars!