Hippie Girl

Sorry for the lack of blog posts

It has been a crazy couple of weeks! Bryant and I were able to go to his hometown of Mt. Shasta California for independence day weekend and we didn't bring our laptop so I wasn't able to keep everyone updated while we were there. Which means that this could quite possibly be a long one. Possibly... depending on if I can finish it. I might just split it up into a couple different posts if I get too tired (I took a 4 hour nap, woke up to watch Dr. Who and now I'm tired again... And yes, call me a geek but I love Dr. Who!)

Ok so lets start from the beginning...

Last Thursday my sister-in-law Chantel came down from Rexburg Idaho. My Brother-in-law and his wife moved to Sacramento and couldn't take their truck out, so we volunteered to drive the truck out to Mt. Shasta for them, which is about 3 hours North of Sacramento. Friday morning, we packed up and left bright and early, Chantel and I in my car and Bryant in Jacob and Sally's truck. (We had fun with walkie-talkies!) After a 13 hour drive (8 of that through Nevada... Worst. Drive. Ever.) we arrived in beautiful Mt. Shasta!!!

It was great to see Bryant's family! I got super lucky with in-laws. I even got to meet Bryant's youngest brother Tyler for the first time, who just got back from a two year mission in Argentina for the LDS church (well I had met him once before Bryant and I were ever even dating and it was only for a minute) On Saturday, Jacob and Sally and their super adorable baby Jayden came up from Sacramento and Bryant's Grandma Donna came up from Mountain Ranch. So they were able to have to whole family together for the first time in over 2 years!

Saturday we went downtown to enjoy and festivities. They shut down the whole main street every year for vendor booths and they have live music all day long. We shopped around for a while and Bryant enjoyed seeing all of his old friends.
Tyler (left) and Bryant (right) enjoying snow cones.

Bryant was a sweetheart and bought me a bright yellow wrap-around skirt! One thing I find really funny about this town is the amount of hippies that live there! But it makes for nice shopping because I love the clothes!My in-laws, Ed and Robyn enjoying the shopping too.Jayden enjoying her first 4th of July. Yeah I basically have the cutest niece ever!

Sunday, which was the fourth, we went to Bryant's old home ward for church. It was so nice being able to go to a class for the first time in over a year! I didn't have to spend 2 hours trying to calm a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds down. I also LOVED how nice everyone was to us! We have been in our ward for over a year and a very very small handful of people have acknowledged that we exist let alone talked to us. Nearly everyone in Bryant's ward was happy to see us and wanted to know how we were doing and were inviting us to go rock climbing and such. Very very nice people if you ask me.Grandma Donna with Jayden after church

That evening we all went to the golf course to watch the fireworks! THE WHOLE TOWN was there it seems like! They had bands playing and food and everyone was there hours before it got dark.
I even played a bit of football with a little kid. Well, it was more like he would toss it as high and he could above his head and I'd catch it so it wouldn't hit him in the face. Adorable nonetheless.Grandma Donna, Jacob, Jayden, Sally and Robyn

After the fireworks, we went home, had fruit pie and played a round of take two and garbage.Jacob and Sally playing take twoEd, Tyler and Bryant counting up tiles.

Monday and Tuesday Bryant took me around Mt. Shasta. I have been here a few times and it's a really small town and yet I still haven't seen it all. We went to the bookstore first which was probably the cutest little bookstore you ever did see. Just a few alcoves and a handful of tables. The fiction section in my store is huge. There it was maybe 5 or 6 shelves. Very small and I loved that it felt so homey. I would be very happy to work there. I wouldn't have a line of angry people wondering why the book Glen Beck recommended is out of print or impatient women standing over me repeatedly asking me where think and grow rich is while I'm trying to clean up a little girl who just puked all over the place (which happened today. Grrr)

After the bookstore trip, we shopped around for a bit. Most of the shops are crystal shops and hippie-type stuff (as Bryant calls it). We eventually made our way to the city park which looks more like a campground than just a city park. It was beautiful with all the trees and a river and we spent an hour or so wandering around in the woods. Bryant told me that people drink straight out of the stream cause it's the best water in the world. I didn't believe him cause I love my water at home which comes out of a spring a block away from my house, but I took his dare to drink the water at the spring at the park. There were, once again, lots of hippies there, filling up water juggs and such and so I wandered over to a different spring (I didn't want to drink where people's feet were, gross) and i'll admit it... It was pretty dang good water and extremely cold.

I have pictures from the park but I have yet to put them on my computer and this blog is too long as it is so I'll save those for another post.

I loved spending the weekend out there and I feel so blessed to have married into Bryant's family. There are all so amazing and loving. I really love Mt. Shasta too. Someday I'd really really like to live there. (Bryant says I would blend right in with the hippies...)