My Surprize trip to Utah!

My nephew David went into the MTC on Feb 18th to prepare for the Rome Italy mission. As most of you know, Dave and I are quite close as we "grew up" together. When Andy and I got the email about his call, Andy looked at me and said, "So are you going?" So, Andy and I sat down and started to figure out how to have me leave in the middle of the week. Because of WONDERFUL friends who took my kids I was able to go. But after talking with Dave's little sister Melanie, it was decided that my showing up would be a surprise.

Now I know my friends in Utah are reading this and wondering why I never called and visited them. This was a VERY short trip. Originally I was going to stay 5 days, but then I realized the roadshow was that weekend and I was the piano player so I couldn't miss it, and by the time I realized this the tickets to leave the weekend before were outrageous, so I was only in Utah from Tuesday night to early Friday morning. So I apologize that I didn't get to see everyone, but I will be sure to see you all next time I'm down there.

So, my niece Nicole picked my up from the airport and we went out for a late dinner after Melanie's test and Nicole finished practicing. Then Wednesday morning I visited some of the people I used to work with at the BYU Bookstore than headed to Melanie's apartment to surprise her family. Due to a slip up from Melanie (love ya girl!) Claire figured out I was there, so she was surprised, but not shocked. However, David was so surprised to see me he came running across the street screaming my name (not a big surprise for those who know him *grin*). It was so wonderful to get to see him and watch him go into the MTC. After seeing him off into the MTC (and seeing Shawn Bradley there!! He is tall, I only came up to his shoulder and I was in my heels) Claire and Eric took Melanie and I out to lunch to the Brick Oven. We had a nice visit, too bad Karen and Julie weren't there. After that, Melanie had more school work to do and Nicole was still in classes so I did some more visiting up on campus until everyone was done with their schoolwork for the day. We then had a sleepover at Nicole's apartment. We made cake, and talked until I'm not sure (I want to say it was after 2 am, but I really don't know).

Nicole eating the cake batter Nicole licking the bowl Crazy girls Silly Girls And of course, the back of the head picture, no family get-together would be complete without one

On Thursday, I made my way up to SLC to visit with my friend Lynette who was letting me crash at her place and took me to the airport at 6 am. As soon as she picked me up we started talking and we didn't stop until her husband sent us to bed around 1 am. Her mom watched her kids so we could go out to dinner (Rick was working), and we had a WONDERFUL visit.

I did realize how much I miss living right by the mountains, aren't they beautiful?

I had an amazing time in Utah pretending I was young and could survive on just a couple hours of sleep a night. However, I wasn't done getting just a couple of hours of sleep yet....