Trip to Rexburg to see Andrea

I traveled to rexburg to help andrea pack and clean her apartment and take her things back with me to keep as a storage in my garage. it took about 8.5 hours to travel there because it was a blizzard! I was driving 35mph in 80mph zone most of the way there. When I tried to go faster, I started sliding too much to feel safe. It was scary! I'm so grateful that I made it. In Pocatello, some strangers in a panda express parking lot helped me put on new windshield wipers, because I was having a really tough time with visibility. I even had to pull over at one point and call Tyler because my windshield was Freezing up and I was using wiper fluid every few seconds to de frost the windshield. When i ran out of windshield wiper fluid, it was really scary and I had to put my hazards on and pull over as soon as I could because I literally couldn't see through the frost of the windshield. I called Tyler and he told me to use the defroster. For some reason, I thought that  defrost was only to unfog Windows but I didn't realize it would help with frost if I put it on hot. Anyway, I luckily made it safe to Rexburg. I probably shouldn't even mention the fact that once I got to Rexburg, I had Andrea in the car and had stopped in a parking lot to pick up her roommate's car, and she was going to drive us back to their complex. As we were waiting for her roommate to scrape the snow off the windows, I jumped out to scrape the snow off my back windshield and still had the car in drive! After Andrea screamed, I was able to jump back in really quick and stop the car before it slamed into another parked car. I was very mentally exhausted! Anyway Andrea and I woke up the next day, got dressed and it turned out that we just practically as twins without realizing or planning it!

 

Bed time cuddles are the best!

30th Birthday

On my actual birthday, we celebrated at tucanos. it was yum. my fav thing is the lobster bisque. oh yeah, I'm 30!

Black friday

We got up at 5:30am to be in line at world Market before they opened at 7 so we could get a free tote bag. Actually, we shopped in bed, bath, and beyond while Heidi and Caitlin and Lilly saved our spots in line because it was freezing. Bed bath and beyond was also giving out $10 off $30 coupons. After about 6 transactions, we got great deals on curtain rod, curtains, throw pillows, throw blankets, and 2 knit vests.

Thanksgiving 2016

We hosted Tyler's mom and Caitlin's family for Thanksgiving. Tyler was excited to do a bacon wrapped turkey, a recipe from his friend Nate. 

Rob helped Tyler mount our new TV. It took most of the day!

Caitlin made Lilly some Harry Potter glasses out of pipe cleaners.

Me and vivee played a game where I piled pillows on her head :)

 Tyler and his mom watched Searching for bobby Fisher on the new TV.

Home depot

We went to home depot to get a rod for our sliding glass door. they didn't have the size we needed, so we had to get a bigger one and saw it by hand

 It was a bit tough, but Tyler did a great job!

Christmas lights

We went with Caitlin, rob, and Lilly to see the lights that they put up for the holidays in downtown Caldwell.

Anniversary Inn 30th Birthday Celebration

We had a wonderful birthday overnight date at The Anniversary Inn in the Sleeping Beauty Suite! We did it the Friday before my birthday since Julia and Matt were planning to come my birthday week which was also Thanksgiving. It was very relaxing to get away. we went downtown and I bought some sterling silver rings as a birthday gift to myself.  then we got some pizza from Pizza Hut and ate it in the hotel room. We enjoyed the time away even though we missed Vivee!

Ellie and Pemberly birthday party

 Ellie and Pemberley  had their combined birthday party. We got pictures with them with the presents we got them. I also wanted to make sure we got pictures of them in their new sweatsuits, which I thought made them look like little teenagers. Ellie and Pemberly came over that night with Lily and Caitlin, but Pemberley ended up running into the table because she wasn't feeling well, and they had to go home after not too long. Also, my room is really clean so I had to take a picture.

New president

Trump became president. It was so crowded at the polling place. When we first got there, the line was out the door! And it was a cold night. Luckily someone came outside a few minutes later and said that if our last name started after the letter N, we could come into a different line. So we got to go inside. Since we moved since voting in primaries, they wanted us to show proof of new address, even though we had already mailed it. We waited in about 4 different lines and it took over an hour all together. I was a little bit frustrated because I had tried to prepare in advance for the other things that we would be voting for, but Google had not prepared me for the different items on the ticket. They had long since run out of "I voted" stickers, so after we voted there was a lady  that would announce our names  and that we voted.  For me, she said "Erika Pickens has voted!" Anyway, it was an eventful evening! It was exciting to see how close the margins were, and made me feel like every vote really does matter perhaps.