"And it makes me wanna take a back road. Makes me wanna take the long way home..."

...And that's what we did!  There was no rush to get back home and we knew what general direction we were heading in, so we went out to the back woods. 

With the exception of one very exceptional stop (more on that later!), we spent most of the next day driving.  The view was beautiful, we worked on our lines for the upcoming play and went through our Assyrian cards while snacking and talking...okay, picture time!

As usual, Lilyana was quite perky that morning.  A good night's rest, and she was ready to hit the road once more!

In the last post, I put up a picture of our view at night...this is what we woke up to.  Purty, ain't it?

Ben and I love staying at Bed & Breakfasts, and this one is definitely on our "favorites" list.  It's a beautiful home that was built in 1906 for the same family that built the house we posted pictures of in this previous post.  Loverly wood paneling!

Ben is in his element...over-sized dining room, wood foors, beautiful table, breakfast...and a newspaper.

The view from his end.  But the paper has his attention at the moment...

...that is, until breakfast arrived!!!  Lilyana is getting more and more interested in food!  Can you believe that she's ALMOST 6 months old?!?!? :(

After our morning refreshment, Ben challenged me to a game in the billiard room. 

I really stink at this game, but playing on an old table in an old house is not an opportunity one should pass up!

One of my favorite rooms in the house!  Look at the detail on the wall and ceiling!!!

The grand staircase.  We were on the third story, so getting our luggage up and down was...fun! :)

The front of my new dream home!  The grounds were beautiful, too!  So, if you're ever in Salt Lake City, be sure to book a room here!

And no, they didn't pay me to say that. :)

On our way out of town, we drove by the Mormon Tabernacle.  They sure do know how to build a beautiful building!

While heading down the freeway, we passed this huge building.  It's a little hard to read...I mean, it was a little hard to get a photo once we realized what it was, so for that to take root in the brain, and then trying to grab the camera in time and snap a photo while cruising down the interstate at 80 mph is a little trying on one's nerves...

BUT...it's the Young Living distribution center!!!  We had NO idea that they had one in Utah.  

We also passed through a little town called "Benjamin."  Since finding a sign with the town name seemed impossible, we settled for second best. :)

Okay, okay....so our BIG stop of the day was...The Young Living farm!!!!  When Ben saw the sign on the side of the road, he asked, "Would you like to go?"  Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!  How fun!  We spent quite a bit of time there, which was nice, because I was suffering from some kind of allergy attack.  The ladies there were very helpful and got me set up with some oils.  

Since there is SO much to cover from that stop, we'll have a separate post about that later.

Moving on....

Down a small country road, we drove by this little antique shop.  Ben got all excited when he realized that he had been here before.  The last time he was there was when he was heading out to Illinois for our wedding.  The owner was just tickled pink that Ben was back with a wife and baby in tow! And yes, we left the shop with something else to pack into our car.  A new/old bedside lamp!!!

We pulled off of the nicely paved road to take this back road into the middle of nowhere to see the world's largest organism, Pando...or 106 acres of Aspen trees that have one massive underground root system.  Located in the beautiful park near Fish Lake, Utah, it's quite the drive.

On road was not only blocked by several large rocks that had to be cleared, but we also found this...

The car made it across quite nicely, too!

But our troubles weren't over.  A huge fallen tree blocked the road, too.  And we thought we took the easier route!  There was a "shorter" route, but the sign said that a 4WD Jeep wouldn't make it, so we didn't even consider taking the Subaru down there!

We pulled off to get some pictures and Ben took a quick jog to see the view at the top of the hill.  

There are these nasty yellow flowers blooming all over southern Utah that we're really making my allergies go crazy, so I stayed down with the car and the baby and my oils.

Our trusty rig...she remained faithful and kept going, no matter how tough the road appeared to be.

When the little warning signs on the side of the road have a picture of a cow, they are really trying to warn you in Utah!

We got around another corner, and this is the view that Ben saw from his hill.  We can practically see all of the way to Illinois!!!  Hellooooo family!!!

The Aspen trees.

A beautiful and peaceful drive.

After spending several hours on the road and only traveling about 10 miles, this sign cracked us up!

The sun set very quickly after this photo was taken...we found a place to sleep and it didn't take long for sleep to find us.  

Check back for the next installment tomorrow!  My baby needs some mommy time...

Tiffany for BLT