‘Krysta Lee Cox Whitmore, is one of my bestest friends in the world. As most of you know, we met while serving as missionaries in Albania. As missionaries at night, while getting ready for bed, after planning was over, conversations often followed the same theme: home. I heard all about a magical place called Moapa Valley Nevada. While meeting new investigators and members we had little photo books we kept with us, and I would see pictures of Moapa, of her dad’s 5 acres, and of her family and friends there. Since our missions I have heard more stories, and more memories of the magical land of Moapa.

This weekend, the time finally arrived, I actually visited the Magical Valley, Moapa.

We drove through the afternoon and into the night. It was about 7:15 our time when we rolled into Mesquite Nevada. We ate at Los Lupes for dinner, which randomly we had once eaten at before late one night on our way home from Rexburg. It was a Mexican place…yep, and the chips and salsa were awesome, and it was where I finally met…Burton Cox. I had met Krysta’s mom MaryAnn Cox earlier this summer while they brought her youngest daughter Amelia to college in Rexburg. It was wonderful, he was just as I imagined.

That night we stayed at Krysta’s house in Moapa. It was dark as we drove in, all we could see was the house itself. As we went to bed, MaryAnn warned us about the cow (who I called Topas, Krysta called it Dark, which in Albanian means dinner), she would probably start mooing early in the morning.

At 5:30 am, I heard her. It sounded so close. I waited another hour to get up. By then, I looked out the window and saw the view I had seen so many times in Krysta’s photo book:

I texted Krysta who was sleeping downstairs…”Its just like the picture!”

Soon enough I got my tour. Burton was already hard at work, and in fact you can see him in the above picture too, already hard at work feeding the animals.

They have four horses: Syrocco, Sage, Arrow and Magik.

Here is Burton telling us about the groundhogs that he had been trying to get rid of. While he told this story, Krysta told me about a time when the cat brought one of them in…and it was still alive. Needless to say it freaked her out.

We moved on, and I met the cow…Dark

I tried to pet it and it tried to lick me!

Check out that tongue! Yikes! PS. Krysta got this amazing picture. It was also very early in the morning. Don’t judge my hair.

Here is MaryAnn, Karen and Burton. They were so excited to see her.

She had a great time, and had a lot of fun with the toys that her Grandparents had at the house, and we found out what a great dancer she is.
To get to Moapa we take the same exit as you would to go to Ely Nevada, my moms home town!
Next we went to Zacs house in Logandale, which is also in Moapa Valley.

Zac, ever the bike enthusiast showed us his bike collection of bikes…this is just one of the many piles…it was amazing.
We also met Zac’s Papa D in Overton, also in Moapa Valley.

He had some awesome Goats who like the taste of car.

Karl was in heaven. He loves baby animals.

Both the Cox’s and the Whitmore’s have deep roots in the valley, so they both have streets named after their families. Here we are at the crossing of Whitemore and Cox. So freaking cool.

Here’s a better shot.
For dinner we drove up to St. George and ate at a place called the Gun Barrel…Steak AND Game.

Yikes. Very expensive game. Christmas-y

Here’s Karl having a buffalo burger. He said if no one had told him that it was buffalo, he would have thought it was beef. I had a bite and agree with that sentiment.

Later in the party we had a gift exchange. It was a watch extravaganza!
Karl got another Casio Calculator watch.
I got this amazing Paul Frank watch.
Raaawww-One tooth, Karen the ruiner!
She seriously was going NUTS. Too many new people, sitting in the car and not being at home.

We spent the night in a hotel near Hurricain Ut. The four of us shared a room with one fold out bed, two small down blankets and one little baby. On this trip…we got closer to each other than we ever thought we would. When we woke up the next morning both Karl and Zac commented…”I think I heard everyone in this room fart last night.” We got home Sunday just before noon. We were even able to go to church. Overall…all my hopes and dreams of Moapa, came true.