I'll Be Home for Christmas.... Eventually...

It usually takes a good solid 9 hours to drive from Rexburg, ID to Overton, NV. However, this time around, it took me almost 3 days!

My original plan was to leave Rexburg at 5 am on Saturday morning and arrive home later that day. I was going with someone on the ride board who was charging me way too much.

So when Eric called me at midnight on Thursday night asking if I wanted to make use of his extra ticket to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, I happily obliged. However that meant staying up til 4 am cleaning and packing and trying to finish up exams and projects. I woke up at 7 on Friday morning to finish the cleaning and packing and we left Rexburg a little after 9. That was the start of my "Change Of Plans" and from that point on, I was flying by the seat of my pants. I knew that Eric and his family could get me as far as Salt Lake, but I had no idea what I was going to do from that point on. But I wasn't too worried about it. 

So to Salt Lake we went! We made a few stops along the way:

Idaho Falls: To pick up Eric's dad and sister

Ogden: Where I was introduced to the wonder of "Smith and Edward's", an army surplus store that had everything from dancing cardboard pigs to dental tools.

Salt Lake City: We went and had thee most amazing cheese-steak sandwich at a little hole-in-the-wall "Moochies". Followed directly by a trip to Costco for samples galore!
Bountiful: Eric's grandma's house to change into concert dress and then back to 

Salt Lake: Where we were treated to dinner at "The Mandarin". Oh my goodness, amazing Chinese food!

Temple Square: It was raining a bit, but we were still able to walk around and enjoy the lights on temple square for a little bit before going to quite possibly the best concert I have ever been to in my entire life. I cannot wait for it to be put on TV so that I can watch it again and again. It was seriously incredible!!

 After an awesome day with the Hillam's, my old Riverton roommate, picked me up from temple square and we spent the night talking, laughing and remembering the amazing summer that we had spent together just a few months earlier. Bridgette is seriously the best and she deserves her own blog post, and one day, it will come :) We woke up, ate some breakfast and squealed in delight as we looked outside to find that Riverton had been attacked with LOADS of snow. So much of it! So we went out, shoveled the walk and had a grand time building a snowbride!

At this point, I had found a ride from Riverton to home, but wasn't super thrilled because they were charging almost triple what I usually pay for gas and they were leaving at an inconvenient time for me. So I called up my sister Natalie and asked if she had room in her car. Sure enough, they had one more spot!

So on Saturday afternoon, Bridgette drove me to Thanksgiving point, where I hopped in with Alexa and Dallin Seely (our childhood friends since FOREVER) and my siblings Travis and Natalie.

So off to home we go. Or so I thought.

We had a quick stop in Provo to spend some time at Alexa and Dallin's sister's house and to play with their five adorable nieces.

Our next stop was in Cedar City, Utah.  I was thinking we were just filling up for gas... little did I know that we'd end up going to see "The Hobbit", cooking ourselves a fantastic dinner of breakfast burritos (at midnight) and staying the night right there in  Cedar city.

We looked awful :(

But had so much fun!

 We woke up on Sunday morning and got ready for 11:00 church at a nearby chapel. We picked a keeper of a ward for sure! 80% of the ward was over the age of 80, so us Rust kids felt like we were right back at home in our Overton 2nd ward. The meetings were fantastic! Awesome talks, teachers, lessons and everyone was so friendly!

We even got invited to attend lunch at one of the ward member's house! Blog, meet Jewel Pitcher Skousen, our great-cousin-in-law and wife of Cleon Skousen!

Her son-in-law, Glenn Kimber, sat by Travis in Priesthood where he discovered that we were Skousens! So they invited us over to meet Mrs. Cleon Skousen and then offered us lunch!

Top: Glenn and Julianne Kimber, Jewel Skousen, Rust kids
Bottom: Dallin, Me, Sister Skousen, Travis, Alexa, Natalie

It was so fun to sit and chat with Sister Skousen about Cleon and about our family lines.  Oh man, we ate SO much. We had waffles and they just kept coming and coming and coming! It was an awesome way to spend our Sabbath and to kick off our final leg of the journey home.

We finally got home at about 6:00 pm on Sunday evening. Yes it took three days, but my goodness, they were three of the best days I've ever had! The fact that they were spent with awesome people and that I didn't once have to worry about homework, tests, projects or speeches was just icing on the cake!