We slept in the church parking lot

So, I need to pick up from where I left off. I was telling you about my crazy-fun weekend, last weekend, remember? REMEMBER??? Good. Cuz it just kept getting better. You'll want to hear about it.

So, let me introduce you to this girl:

(the one in green--if you're colorblind, she's on the right. If you're not colorblind, she's still on the right.)

Shannon is freaking AMAZING. She was new to our branch this spring. She's probably the most positive and friendly person I've met. We hit it off right away and I was SO excited when Kylee and I got made her visiting teachers. Shannon was in Idaho Falls for the summer going to school to be a dental assistant and working on her mission papers. We had fun playing volleyball, attending softball games, washing dishes, eating bananas ... She got her mission call to the Bolivia, Santa Cruz mission and leaves in a week and a half! Kylee and I wanted to come to her farewell to surprise her.

First of all, when Kylee said she wanted to go to Montpelier (about 2.5 hours away) on Saturday night and "find somewhere to sleep," I was a bit skeptical. I don't sleep well unless the circumstances are PERFECT. We were going to bring a tent? How was I going to get pretty for church in the morning? Kylee laughed at me. I knew I'd be forfeiting a night of sleep, but I went with it. The fun's in the adventure, right?

So, after my bike ride on Saturday, I drove my exhausted self to Idaho Falls to shower and then to Pocatello to meet up with Kylee. She'd been in Poky for a few hours, hanging out with her mom and aunt, and I made her wait for me. She sat in the Walmart parking lot and painted her toenails while a gang fight went on a few hundred yards away. She missed the whole thing, but dang, her toes looked good.

I left my Captain in the Walmart parking lot and rode with Kylee to this place:

Montpelier, Idaho (see the M? Shannon's house is near there somewhere.)

We got there around midnight and considered a few motels. We googled all the small-town motels, but when we found them, the signs all read "no vacancy." REALLY? In Montpelier? We're pretty sure the three sisters of the Three Sisters Motel just went to bed early. After cruising the whole of Montpelier at least thrice, we settled on a bathroom break in Maverick and then found a nice parking spot next to a bush in Shannon's church parking lot. At least we'd get there early!

Our biggest concern was the bored, local policemen who we were SURE were going to come knocking on the windows at 4 in the morning. "Sshh. Sleepin'." I could NOT stop laughing at the concept of sleeping in the church parking lot. What if I had to pee in the middle of the night? Is it appropriate to squat behind a bush on church property? Luckily, I didn't have to worry about that. Street lights glared in our eyes, so we spent a good amount of time arranging blankets and hanging up a tshirt in the window to block the light. Here's how we finally settled.

There was a bit of flailing and snoring and ... other things to keep the night entertaining and at about the time I finally started dreaming, my alarm went off. People were starting to show up at the building for early-morning meetings. We got dressed in the car and found the bathroom through the back door of the building to finish getting ready.

We walked in to sacrament and surprised the pants off of our Shannon and also off of this girl:

(the one on the right. I wasn't surprised. I knew I was coming.)
whom I hadn't seen in about two years. Shayla (Goldie) and I were room-roommates one summer at BYU-Idaho and she married Shannon's brother, so now they're all just one big, happy family! Shay and I were CRAZY when we lived together and had so much fun. It was awesome to pick right up where we left off! "Friends don't spy!" "I spy because I CARE!"

Shannon's talk was AMAZING and then Kylee and I got to follow Shayla and Casey to the family's house to spend the rest of the afternoon eating and talking and laughing. Kylee and Shay had never met, but they'd always reminded me of each other, and the three of us had a BLAST. My favorite part was all the poking and grabbing during the blessing of the food. We're going to hell, but we'll have fun there together! :)

Shayla (Goldie), me, Shannon and Kylee.

I just love these girls and it was awesome to make a little road trip to be able to hang out and see our Shannon off. And it made it even more fun to say we slept in the church parking lot!