UtaR

The reunion ended Friday afternoon.  We spent the morning packing and cleaning and were off to American Fork.  Along the way we stopped in Tremonton to visit two of my old young women.  I patted myself on the back for still showing them love even though they've moved on and I've been released.

We arrived around 4.  But I had also promised the kids Creamery ice cream for dinner and a show at the BYU planetarium. So we said a quick hello and were off to Provo.  They've redone all the parking so I played it safe and parked behind the law building, ran to the Creamery, noticed the line was too long to wait and then make it to the 7 o'clock showing at the planetarium so we bought protein bars and cheese sticks instead then basically ran across campus to the Eyring Science Center and made it with about 10 minutes to spare while praying for seats.  But it was closed.  The internet did not tell me they don't open the planetarium during the summer.  Boo.  To assuage the children's disappointment we spent about 45 minutes playing with the science experiments in the main lobby then were walking back to the Creamery to get ice cream when I noticed they had added a back entrance to the library where I had always wished there would be one.  Of course I had to check it out. So we walked through the library.  I intended to just walk back out at the atrium but then the stairs to the second floor were there and my feet walked down them and as I did a rush of the greatest happiness blew over me like a summer wind.  It was the breeze of gentle hug from a 3 month-old mixed with the finger holding of a toddler and 4 of the greatest years of my life all in one flight of stairs.  It shocked even me.  I knew I loved BYU and the library especially, but I didn't realize how much I loved it.  I don't remember being as happy as I was as that moment walking down those stairs nearly ever.  It was all my happy moments ever in 14 steps.  We made it to the second floor and I decided to show the kids the windows at the end of periodicals and then we tried out the moving shelves and then I decided we should let people get back to studying even though I could have spent hours there (as I often did in my heyday) so we left.  But it was a glorious 15 minutes.  We nearly perished of thirst and hunger and heat exhaustion but we made it back to the creamery, got ice cream and were back to Grandma and Grandpa's by 9.

And that's how the entire week went.  Running from happy thought to happy thought.

See the problem with visiting Utah is this: there are too many people and too many things to do.  We did maybe half of what I would have liked to do and we saw maybe half of the people I wanted to see.  As I complained about people in Utah not appreciating the greatest of Utah, I realized that I probably have just as many things to see and do around Charlotte as Utah, I just need to make a more conscious effort to do that.  And I will, once I finish gushing about how great Utah is.  The point is we did and saw and much as could in the little time we had.

Saturday morning Greg went mountain biking at Park City with one of my friends from Charlotte who is actually from Salt Lake, while the kids and I along with Jess and her kids went to see my cousin Cameron and his kids.  The rest of the day of video games and naps and laundry--moms don't get real vacations.

Sunday was early church followed by naps and visits from various relatives.  This was going to be my day to visit people but then they all said they'd come to Grandma's and then not everyone did so we didn't get to see everyone I would have liked.

Monday we went to Salt Lake.  Henry really wanted to ride the train and Greg had a few errands to run with the van, so we rode the train and Greg met us later.  I must insert a quick story--while transferring between FrontRunner and TRAX and man came up to me and asked if I spoke Spanish.  I told him a little and helped him find his way to the city center with me.  We parted ways.  Later, we ran into him twice more.  The second 2 times with Hannah and Greg who ended up helping translate the Conference Center tour for him.  It was a fun experience to feel like I served someone and to practice my Spanish and realize that after all these years, it still isn't good, but it's not bad either.  Also inspired me to take some Spanish classes again, which I'll do, when I finish blogging about this trip.  End of side story--We enjoyed a long lunch and play time at City Creek with Deb then toured the city.  We went straight from there to dinner in Lehi with some old friends (the Thayers) from our student days.  We got back after bedtime.

Tuesday I dropped Greg off at Sundance to ride his bike then met up with Whitney and Leigh in Sandy to catch up while the kids played.  We came home for about 2 hours, which was not a long enough nap for Zora, then headed right back up Provo Canyon to pick up Greg and met Hannah and Preston for more boating.

Noah left on Tuesday.  Alice had to say goodbye.  She just loved Uncle Noah.

Wednesday we spent the morning at the Provo Rec Center (why can't we have these in Charlotte!?!), headed home for a too-short nap before heading back to Provo to drop the kids off with Kjersti and James and have them hold a session for us at the Provo City Center temple, which was so gorgeous that I didn't hear a word of the session.

Thursday Greg took the kids back to BYU while Zora took a decent nap and I cleaned Grandma's basement, which is bigger than my house.  We left around 1 to head to St. George.

See what I mean?  There is too much to do and too many people to see.  Just too much.  Looking on the bright side, I can appreciate it more because I don't live there, though I wouldn't mind appricating it less and living there but such is life.