Bryan & Brittney Austin

Well we had a fun and adventurous weekend this last weekend. Bryan and I got this last Friday off of work because we had originally made plans to hang out with my cousin, Rich and go dirt biking and four wheeling down in Moab. Well due to a dirt bike malfunction, Rich was unable to come down so Bryan and I decided that since we had the time off we would still stick to our travelling out of the Salt Lake Valley plans. We just wanted to get away too bad. We took a road trip up to Idaho. We love Idaho. It is so beautiful and country style, the kind of style we love. Both Bryan and I have a desire to move from Utah and live a quiet and quaint life in the country side. We ended up driving thru some different towns and areas, looking at different horse property that is for sale. We hope to buy some next year.

We first made our way towards Shelley, ID. We had to stop off in Blackfoot, ID by my Grandma's property and we lucky enough to run into my awesome Aunt Pat. She was loading up her horse with her friend when we got there and got to "shoot the shit" as Aunt Pat put it for a while before finishing to our first destination in Shelley. We really liked Shelley. It was small, quaint, and would fit us just right. We then took a nice long drive to Arco, ID driving thru Atomic City, ID. Not a whole lot of anything there but we did really like Arco as well. We continued driving and really fell in love with Moore Mackay, ID. They are perfect towns with country feel, small, and in a valley surrounded by a beautiful mountain range.

At this point I would like to say that the Tom Tom has been fired from us using it again. We had found a small bed and breakfast in Mackay that we had made arrangements to stay at. We put the address into the Tom Tom and took off driving. It led up 16 MILES out of the way in the wrong direction. It is fired. Once we realized that the Tom Tom was wrong when it said we had reached our destination, in the middle of no where, we quickly checked the directions the website had given me and realized that it had led us way past it. We ended up almost at Mount Borah before realizing it. It was really sad. But we did end up finding our way back and to the B & B with no problems finding it once we turned around.

The Mackay Homestead Bed and Breakfast was wonderful. It was so quiet and beautiful. We had pretty much the whole lower half of the house to ourselves. It was a nice bed and the hosts were very gracious and wonderful people. We enjoyed our stay immensely and would recommend it to anyone who wants a get away to the mountains but do not want to camp. They treated us with home made cookies and fresh fruit. The morning of Saturday they brought down one of the best breakfasts I have ever had. It was cheese, spinach, potato, and bacon frittata and it was so excellent. They brought fresh fruit, homemade whole wheat bread, and the best freakin' jam I have ever had. It was so fresh and had little sugar in it. It was so good because you could taste the fruit in it. We loved it.

Well after driving through Idaho Falls, ID on Saturday morning, we became afraid of the snow that was starting to fall and decided to head back early so we would not get caught in a snow storm. We got back home and decided that since our friends that we were supposed to hang out with were sick and could not go out, that we would have a fun date night instead. We went to Applebee's first and enjoyed watching part of the UFC Championship and eating some good food. We then went to the movies and saw Red Riding Hood. All in all it was a good movie. The only thing we did not like was the cliche moments that were a little to close to the fairy tale that made you giggle a little. Other than that the acting was good and it kept us on the edge of our seats for most of it. Not a good one for kids though. Some sexual content and violence.

Sunday was not so good for Bryan but a good one for me. Bryan woke up Sunday and was not feeling good at all with a cough and chills. I made him stay home while I walked listening to Don Williams, Alison Kraus, and Garth Brooks, my three favorite artists of all time. I love their music and it made my 6 mile walk that much better. I walked over to the West Valley Family Fitness Center for my friend, Francie's little boy, Tukker's first birthday party. He is such a cute kid and it was fun to see Francie again since we do not get to see each other that often.

All in all a good weekend for sure. I will update with some photos when I find the time to plug the camera in.

Well the past couple weeks have been super busy for the us. Well mostly me, Brittney. I worked for thirteen days straight at work. We were switching over to a new computer system and it was a lot of training and transferring of our patients into the new system. Totaling at almost 40 extra hours of overtime I was very glad for a couple days off. Also had a big test, a big assignment to do and needless to say, I was burnt out by Friday evening.

The friday starting out okay. Bryan made me dinner, spaghetti, which he ended up dumping in my lap and burning me. Then we ended up just falling asleep with Bryan laying on me on the couch (he thinks I make an excellent pillow) and ended the evening early at that point since Bryan had to go to work at 11:00 pm until 7:00 am. He currently only has to work the graveyard on Friday which was pretty nice for me because then I got the whole bed to myself. I will admit I was grump when I got home so actually having a good nights rest and a bed all to myself helped my mood and soul from going postal on Bryan. Saturday was fun for me though. While Bryan slept from his late night shift, I had this groomer lady come to the house and groom Chewy and give Daisy a good bath while I started to sand and refinish one of our end tables. It was actually relaxing and enjoyable for me to sand and work on the end table. I love doing wood work and having fun craft projects. Chewy now is back to his devilishly good looking self and Daisy is a pretty girl with her claws trimmed so she does not tear my legs to shreds when she get a little too excited to see me. I did finish sanding the whole side table but due to the bad rainy/windy weather we had I was unable to finish staining it. It will have to wait for a good Saturday morning to finish. Bryan told me I could do furniture refinishing more often if I want to and I would love to refinish more furniture and he had the excellent idea to just get furniture off of KSL for free or real cheap and refinish that. Yeah, I love starting new hobbies.

Saturday night was actually a blast for Bryan and I. We ended up walking down to The Pizza Stop in downtown Magna and having some of the best pizza we have ever had. It was awesome and we had the pizza called "The Magna." It has Colissimo's sausage, pepperoni, olives, cheese (obviously), and bacon. OMG! It was so good with such fresh ingredients. Bryan and I will definitely be going back. Then we walked back home, ran and got some pretzels, and then went home to watch The Next Karate Kid (one of Bryan and mine favorites) and had a lazy evening. It was wonderful.

Sunday was wonderful too. Bryan and I to get out of the house, but due to the rain we could not go for our usual walks, we drove around to different stores just to see what is new. We went to the Guitar Center, a couple Petsmarts to see the dogs and cats up for adoption (just for fun), KMart for their closing sale (we ended up some new collars for the dogs for only $4 and a zipline for them to run between when we are camping instead of using the chain which Blue hates), then we used a gift card I got from a co worker for Christmas to have dinner at the Olive Garden. We only spent $25 for the day. We then ended the evening by watching the new Simpson's, Family Guy, and Alaska State Troopers. It was just a nice relaxing weekend which was much needed.

Hopefully this week will not be as stressful for me but Bryan is doing great. He is still just working and loving his job.

I also got my acceptance letter to Utah State University's Bioveterinary Program. I am excited to started in classes but wondering what I am going to do about work. I will have to start looking for a new job which I really do not want to do. I love where I work and love the people I work with. If only it was something I could do the rest of my life.