New Years trip to Utah

J.R. and I traveled to Utah to visit his family for the new year. I have been to Utah twice before, both during the summer months, so it was nice to finally see it in all of its snowing glory! I can finally appreciate the weather that J.R. experienced all his life. It was so beautiful there! I could not take my eyes off of the beautiful mountains.
For new years eve, we drove to Park City (where the Olympics were held!) with the couple that introduced us to each other, Jayson and Selina, and some of J.R.'s old high school friends. We weren't really able to explore, but I did manage to get one picture of some of the beautiful homes from the window of the van during the drive home.

We also traveled to Island Park, Idaho to visit J.R.'s aunt Sue, Roger and his grandma Rhea. This was the view from the drive in.

The roads around Island Park were pretty icy.

J.R. and I rented a snowmobile and went out for a very bumpy ride.

All I can say is, Island Park is one of the most beautiful places I have seen! This picture was taken at Big Springs, which is the head waters of Henry's Fork of the Snake River. It is one of the 40 largest natural springs in the world. I wondered how the wildlife (see the videos below) enjoyed the freezing temperatures, but found out that it keeps a constant temperature of 52 degrees year round. It produces over a 120 million gallons of water per day. Pretty incredible!



Here are a few pictures of J.R.'s family's cabin. They had decorated it with some of the most unique and beautiful things.

The view from the windows in the early morning was my favorite!

The next are a series of portraits from the trip:). I hadn't seen everyone in so long, I wanted to make sure and get some pictures!
J.R. and his beautiful mom... We had so much fun staying with her. She is an amazing cook and had a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and monkey bread (my favorite!) waiting for us when we came from the airport!

J.R. and his dad:)...Can you imagine having the mountains as a backdrop like this?

J.R. and his grandma:)...We got her this robe for Christmas. It matched her personality well! So cute!

Sweet Norman!!! I hadn't seen him in over a year and a half, and had missed him so much! I think he may have remembered me (at least I tell myself that:)). He was so excited to see J.R.!

J.R., Aunt Sue, and Roger:)...Roger and Susan actually put this fireplace in by themselves. They really put a lot of time and effort into fixing up and decorating the cabin! It was neat to have them show us the before and after pictures, hear the stories, and see the work they put into making it their home.


Here are a few videos we took at Big Springs (sorry for the shaky picture at times). The first will give you a better view of the area. I tried to catch some of the cute Muskrats in the second video:).