Home Sweet Home

Some of you may or may not have noticed my absence this past week. It turns out that I have been living my life instead of just blogging about it. Sad but true.

In a rather last minute decision, I went to Seattle to visit my parents. It was spring break for my husband, and so he didn't have to teach and could stay home and be the mom/taxi driver. I have been trying to get up to see my mom for the past 3 months. It was so happy that the stars finally aligned to let it happen.

Jared asked why he wasn't going with me. To which I rained on his parade by telling him that his coming would defeat the purpose of my having a break from being his caregiver.

I got there about Noon on Saturday, March 15th. My Mom and I went right to the Seattle temple to witness a sealing of someone in her ward. And the very special part was that my Dad was the sealer. That night, my Dad cooked a wonderful dinner of eggs with sausage, mushrooms, onions, and spinach. It was delicious.

I haven't been home for about a year and a half. My two week visit that was planned for July was canceled when Jared was in the hospital. My parents live in the same house we moved to when I was in fourth grade.

Some remodeling has been done, but the bare bones are the same. I wandered around and looked at pictures and remembered good times. It was also a very rare experience because I was alone. With seven brothers and sisters and 18 grandchildren, one on one time with my parents is not common. It was so good to have such great one on one time with both of them.

It came as quite a shock to wake up Sunday morning and see that it had snowed. I don't ever remember it snowing in March when I was a kid. Very strange. And cold.

Here is a not very glamorous shot of me and my mom. This was taken on my way to the airport. We are both still trying to wake up. But still it is documentation.

And here I am with my Dad.

And here is a shot of my airplane before I boarded it. Traveling by air is always so strange and surreal. I left Seattle where it was 55 and grey, and landed in Vegas where it was 85 and sunny.

And then less than 24 hours we loaded up the car and drove to Utah. But that will be a topic for another post.

Tales of Traveling

In case you didn't know........

....traveling to Utah is nicer in a large van than a small compact car. With Diana in the front seat, and Jared way in the back there was no danger of hearing "he's touching me". Although it did not disqualify the "he's looking at me" comment.

But then I couldn't leave well enough alone, and I stopped at a store called Everything Medical, and I bought Jared a reacher. This is a long stick with a claw like thing on the end that lets people who can't bend over, pick things up off the ground, or table, or harass people far away from them. It a great thing, every fourteen year old boy should have. (sarcasm)

Mistake number two I gave it to Jared at the beginning of the car trip. At first it seemed like a good idea. We could pass things back to him easily. Things like an Oreo McFlurry, or a bag containing large fries and a double quarter pounder. Or a water bottle. You get the idea, but then he figured out the he could use it to harass both of us in the front. All of a sudden Diana or I would feel our hair being pulled. Most bothersome. What was I thinking let him have it.

Today I did see him use it to scratch his leg. Yea, that was one time he didn't text me to come and scratch his leg.

For the most part our trip went very well. There was some rain storms, which I am not a fan of driving in down pouring rain. We did manage. The worst part is when you have to pass a truck and the spray from its wheels is making it next to impossible to see anything. And then I have this irrational fear the the truck will suddenly change lanes and force me off the road and the van will tip over and we will all be killed. You know little things like that make me nervous. But none of my fears became reality, so all was well.

We are having a nice time, but Diana has come down with a cold because that is what happens when you go on vacation, right? And today my throat is sore, bummer.

Flying Solo

Here are some pictures of Diana going on her first plane trip by herself. Here she is when we were waiting in line to get my pass to go through security. Notice her In'N'Out cup, we stopped for dinner after we saw Jared for a minute at the hospital.

Still waiting. This was the longest line we waited in, though it was probably only 15 minutes. I hate that Alaska has to start with "A". Darn for alphabeticalness of the ticketing counters, meaning we had to walk about a mile to stand in this line. Here is the full shot with her suitcase.

Here she is at the gate, with the special sticker that identifies her as an unaccompanied minor. We made our way through security and out to the gate. We talked to the airline worker about if she could sit by herself. She was very nervous about who might sit next to her. It ended up that they moved her to the last row of the plane and she got her wish and was all alone. After we changed her seat, they said to go over to the door. Before I knew it they were ready to take her on the plane. It was over so fast. And for the second time in two weeks I watched one of my children taken where I could not follow. While this was not as scary as watching a child wheeled into surgery, I was shaken a bit nonetheless.

There was a very nice man who walked her onto the plane. He even offered to take my camera on and take a picture of her. So here she is all ready for her adventure.

She called to tell me that everything went well and she was safe with Grandma and Grandpa. That was a big relief. So she is off having lot of fun in Seattle.

Trip to Salt Lake City

Friday morning about nine o'clock, my friend Elizabeth picked me up and we headed up to Utah. She has been training for the past 3 months to run the Salt Lake City half marathon. Her husband stayed home with her two small children and so she needed someone to keep her company and help her drive home. I was glad to take a little trip out of town. So off we went on our little adventure. We had fun on Friday stopping in Saint George at a kitchen store. I bought some powdered eggs and margarine for my food storage. Once we got to Provo, we went out to eat with her parents and Aunts. It was lots of fun and I had a chance to show off my football stalker pictures.

Saturday morning we got up at 4:30 am so we could be on our way. We went and picked up her brother and headed up to the tracks where we dropped the runners off. Then her parents, sister-in-law and I went out to breakfast. After that we drove over to the middle of the race just in time to cheer as they ran by. And then we drove down to the Gateway where the race ended. I was very proud of my friend, she finished in 2 hours and 32 minutes. She did great especially considering the fact that she had a horrible cold. It was fun and exciting to see everyone at the finish line. I have never been a runner my whole life, but I could almost see how it might be fun. So a great big congratulations and good job to my friend Elizabeth! You go girl!

We then went out to lunch in Bountiful and then my friend had a hair appointment. While she got her hair done, I ran over to my aunt and uncle's house in Centerville. I was able to see some cousins as well. Even though it was not very long, it was good to see them. After her hair was done, we drove back down to Salt Lake. I wanted to see if we could see President Hinkley's grave. Neither of us was quite sure where his grave would be, but we ended up driving right to it. It looks just like it did at the funeral on TV. I loved this part of the trip. As I watched the funeral, I wished I could be there, and this was the next best thing. After this we drove back down to American Fork where we spent the night with Elizabeth's aunt. Today we drove home. It was a nice trip and it felt good to get away even if it was just for a few days. Now I just have to wait 10 days until I drive back up for Women's Conference. Yay. And everyone survived just fine without me. So hurray for a great husband who sent me off for a fun girls weekend.

Springs Preserve

On Tuesday, a bunch of people from our ward went to this very cool place called the Desert Springs Preserve. It is a kind of museum/park where you can learn cool stuff about the desert. The fact that there is cool stuff to learn about the desert is news to me, but apparently there is quite a lot to learn, because we were there for 5 hours and did not see everything. We did have a lot of fun and this was due probably to the fact that we were there with other good friends. Here are some of the fun pictures that I took. One of the kid's favorite places was the outside playground. They played there for what seemed like forever. Afterwards, the younger kids were pretty tired. One of the kids we were with is named Jared, also. It is kind of interesting, but my Jared has a special bond with his younger namesake. He volunteered to give little Jared a piggyback ride. So here is a picture of the Jareds. I sometimes call them Jared squared. It was a very fun day for the kids and helped fill up the boredom of spring break. Here is a picture of Diana next to what looked like the skeleton of a wholly mammoth. One thing I have to say is that is was one of things that by the end of the day you can barely walk to bed. But usually there is some price for a fun time.