Sun Valley

Every year there is an IFT convention in Sun Valley, Idaho around my birthday. I went with Nathan a few times earlier in our marriage, but since we had kids, I've stayed home. Last year, he left the day after my birthday. My fabulous friend, Julie, offered to watch my kids so I could go with him. She said she would watch them again this year, so I was able to go again. It was so nice to have a break and be able to be Mikelle, the person instead of Mikelle, the mom/the homemaker/the maid, etc. I did miss my kids, but it was nice to get away. I didn't take any pictures until the last day, so that's why our room is a mess.At first we thought we thought we'd have to take Zoey because she had suddenly developed stranger anxiety, but Julie worked with her and by the time we left, there was no way we could have talked her into staying. We were worried about Julie's husband because her stranger anxiety seems to be worse with men, but three days before we left, she decided that she LOVED Phil and wanted to stay at his house. Because we thought we were going to have to take Zoey, we reserved a room with two beds. It was HUGE!! But, that's why there's two beds in our room.We had a nice closet leading to a hallway with a sink that led to the bathroom. Here's the closet.And the hallway with the sink and the door led to the bathroom. For a hotel room, it was awesome!!

Here are the two beds. Every morning, they would come clean the room, then at night housekeeping would come and turn back our sheets and leave us Sun Valley chocolates on our pillows. The resort we stayed at employs people from all over the world. The first day we got there, the guy at the desk was from Laos. Nathan started speaking Thai to him and his face was hilarious. He was doing an internship in Sun Valley. It's more common to hear people with accents than it is to hear people who don't have them.This is the lobby of the hotel. I actually ended up spending quite a bit of time here. They didn't have our room ready when we got there, so I got to relax here while Nathan started on the convention. Then, the last day I had to check out before the convention was over, so, once again I got to relax here.

And another view. Luckily for me, it was comfy.

Here's a view of Sun Valley. It was a cool little town/resort. You couldn't really get around with a car. You just parked and walked everywhere.Here's Nathan standing on one of the walkways. Most of the convention was in our hotel room, but we did go out a few places. We went out with two couples I met last year for dinner on the first night and had a banquet the second night.

Here's a view of Nathan walking up to our hotel. Pretty cute, huh? It was a fun convention, even if I didn't go to all the stuff. I was able to read lots of books and relax a lot. There were some social things I went to with Nathan and I loved talking to adults.

Nathan was asked if he would be the chair elect for next year, so he is in charge of helping plan it for next year. I felt like a lot more people knew who we were this year. I don't know if that's because we were both there for two years now, or if people wanted to get to know the chair elect. I think it was probably a little of both. We had fun relaxing and being away from stuff here, but we were also glad to get back.