New Years

This New Years was the BEST New Years I have ever had. Chris and I had decided that we wanted to get away for New Years since we spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. So I started doing some research online, looking for anything fun that we could do in either Boise or Salt Lake! And I found this: A party at the Marriott hotel down by the University of Utah! It came with a package deal of 2 tickets to the party (a $45/person value), a room to stay in that night, all of the hotels amenities, and a 1pm check out the next day for $150. I knew that we could not pass this up! So we made our reservations and patiently waited for that day to come. We decided to leave Friday afternoon and head to Logan to visit Chris's friend Brandon and his wife Amanda for the night. They were nice enough to let us stay the night, and it was fun to catch up. We went and ate at a very yummy pizza place (where I ate half of our medium pizza!), chatted for a while, and watched a movie (I can't remember the name....maybe Transporter?) The bed we slept on was a little different then we were used to. It was a memory foam bed and we could tell that it would take more than one night to get used to that thing. haha but it was a lot of fun and my first time seeing Logan! Chris and Brandon had a little male bonding time by playing some Xbox while I browsed the internet, and then we got on the road to Salt Lake around 11am! Driving through Utah made me miss it a little bit. I miss the mountains and all of the things to see and places to go. There isn't much going on in Idaho Falls. :) I DID NOT miss the snow of course since we get a lot of it in Idaho. We found our way to our hotel (thanks to our handy GPS!) and got all checked in. This place was so nice! They had a nice old man to help with bags, a glass elevator, a warm pool and a gym, the bathrooms had granite counters, and the bed was SO COMFY! Chris still talks about that bed and how he wants to go back to it. :) After we got all of our stuff in our room, we went and ate lunch at Cafe Rio, and then we headed down to Eagle Mountain to visit my friends Carrie and Chris Carlton. I hadn't seen their new place and it had been so long since I had seen them, I was so happy when she asked if we could come down! But, once we got into town, we noticed that our battery light was on, so Chris wanted to get that checked out. We stopped at O'Rileys and had them test it.....he told us that our battery wasn't getting enough juice, and our car was probably going to break down in the next hour! We were kind of freaking out since it would take 40 minutes to get back to our hotel. We went to Carrie's and told them what was wrong. Thankfully, they had one of their family members visiting who knew a lot about cars, so him, and both Chris's went out to look at the car, decided it was the alternator, went and bought one, and switched it our themselves! I was very impressed with the men, and I got to chat with Carrie and play with her girls which was super fun! Hopefully we will get to see them again soon and be able to relax and enjoy our visit rather than having to worry about our car. Thanks for all your help Carrie and Chris! By the time we got back to our hotel, we only had a little bit of time to relax before needing to get ready for the party. We were wanting to go to temple square and the Gateway that night, but because of our car issues, it wasn't able to happen. So, before we went down to the party we decided to stay another night at the hotel so we could do those things, and make sure our car would be able to make it back to Idaho since we were almost out of antifreeze as well. So we got all dressed up for the party, booked another night in our room, and partied the night away!This party was very classy, not trashy which I loved. The men were dressed in tux's or ties and suit jackets. I bought a dress that matched Chris's new shirt and tie (which EVERYONE commented on throughout the night. They loved how we matched). This is a picture of our stuffed elevator :) There was a ballroom with dancing and an awesome DJ, food from all over the world, a huge dessert bar, a movie room to watch a movie with a candy buffet, a gaming room to play video games, mashed potato bar served in martini glasses, and a great jazz band. The theme was "An Affair to Remember" which is a movie that came out in the 50's, so they had a few employees dressed up as some famous people during that time, including Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlie Chaplin. It was so fun! Chris and I had a great time tasting all the foods, dancing our butts off, meeting some really great people (couldn't tell your their names though ;), and not worrying about any trashiness that could sometimes come with certain New Years parties. After our midnight countdown and kiss, we headed up to our room and crashed. It was such a good night! The next day we slept in, went and worked out in the gym, went and got some pizza from pizza hut and took it back to our hotel to eat while we watched The House Bunny. I then watched Confessions of a Drama Queen while Chris took a nap. :) We had been wanting to see New Years Eve movie, so we drove down to the Gateway, and saw it! It was a great movie! Funny, entertaining, and even makes you cry a little bit, haha. After that we went to Temple Square to see the lights, visitors center, and visit with the sister missionaries. It was the last night with the lights so I was so happy we got to see them! We grabbed some Del Taco on our way back to the hotel, where we ate, went swimming and sat in the hot tub, and then headed for bed. We did a lot of things, yet it was still a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Monday morning, I went to the gym and worked out while Chris did some laps in the pool. We got all packed, and started heading back to Idaho. But before we left town, we made sure our antifreeze was topped off, and got some lunch at In and Out!! Boy had I missed that place, and Chris had never had In and Out, so it was a treat for him too! We made it back to Idaho Falls safely, ready for the new Bachelor season! :) We will always remember that trip, always recommend that hotel to anyone going to Salt Lake, and always want to go back for more fun memories. Happy 2012 everybody!