Melanie & Tyler Brown

Joseph is the youngest in the family and it was a sad and happy day to see him graduate from high school.  It was a really nice graduation, too bad it took the grads almost an hour to walk!  It was a little too long, but we were all happy to see him walk even if he didn’t want to.  Really I just can’t believe he is that old…

So I decided that Tyler and I just really like all of these quick trips.  Over Memorial Day Weekend Tyler, Rachel, Joe, and I all drove to California.  Ali called and asked if there was any way for us to bring back her puppies.  So we jumped on the opportunity to take a little road trip.  We woke up and left on Saturday morning at 5 which means we got in about 4:30 there (it takes a little longer when you are driving with puppies).  We went to the beach and dinner.  We had dinner at this place called Swingers, and it was super tasty (they had the best onion rings I have ever had).  Then we went back to Ali and Rob’s house and all of us were exhasted and fell asleep watching tv.

The next day we woke up and relaxed most of the morning.  Then we decided to get up and get going so we went to get brunch at this place called the Terrace which was excellent too.  The best part about that place was it was feet away from the beach.  Then we went and played at the beach again.  Tyler was feeling artistic so he tried to take all of these fun pictures… don’t worry, i joined in too.  How did we do?! 

After a while we decided to head out because Rachel had to work the next day so we couldn’t stay too long.  We left about 4:30 utah time and make it in at 2:30.  Don’t worry though, we had to stop at this place called Raising Cane’s for dinner on sunday night (it was a fried chicken place, a southern food chain that Tyler fell in love with on his mission). The car ride was pretty entertaining though, but let me tell you, driving in the car with rachel and joseph when they are getting tired is not always the most fun.  haha It was still fun though.

It may have been a quick trip but we had a blast and it was so fun to see Ali again!

So almost a month ago Tyler and I drove out with his parents to Missouri for our nephew’s blessing.  It was such a fun trip, but the drive out there took way longer than it should have.  We were driving about 25 hrs (by the way I think it should have taken us 19 or 20).  But we had to take a slight detour from Rawlings up to Casper and then back down to Cheyenne and the road between Casper and Cheyenne had about 3 inches of snow on it in some places which made us drive a max of 40 in a 75… then other times the road had at least been plowed but were still icy at least we could drive 50 or 55 then…. finally we got behind a big 18 wheeler and cruised at a whopping 65.  We made it alive though and I think once we got into nebraska the roads were clear (I don’t know exactly when because I fell asleep).

We made it safe to St. Louis and went to dinner with Joel (Tyler’s older brother), Liana, and Jaxon.  We went to Bandana’s and got ribs… don’t worry, we had ribs the next night as well at a Lottawatta Creek Grill (which was way better than the first night).  We were able to go to the arch there in St. Louis and then on Monday we went to the Zoo!  Rand and Hillary (Tyler’s oldest brother) came into town on saturday and we were able to hang out with them.  So we had the whole family together at the Arch and for dinner.  (Oh and Tyler lost his jacket at the arch.) It was such a fun weekend.

I think out of all the days we were there Sunday was the funniest.  Joel locked his phone and keys in their apartment.  He thought they had left the their patio door open (did I mention they live on the second floor)  So after they tried the front door Rand and Joel boosted Tyler up on the balcony to try the patio door… well it was locked as well.  So we left Tyler up there while we called a locksmith.  In the meantime, Tyler was the poarch monkey and we threw him candy.   The rest of the day (well after the blessing) we just relaxed and played games.

Monday we flew home after the zoo.  Thank goodness for our flight home.  I like driving in the car for a while, but I’m glad our trip home was only 3 hrs instead of 20 hrs.  Tyler and I had a great time with all the family and are happy to say that baby Jaxon is super cute!