Well, most of you know I refer to Utah as "Hell", due to my experience trying to live there as a college freshman. And although it's still a fun joke, I do usually like to visit there now, but this trip was a little nuts. I came back sick just from the stress of it all (this is according to Shauna, whom we pretty much consider a doctor, having just graduated from BYU in Public Health and all. Just kidding, but she does know a lot about the body : )).
We got there Wednesday evening, and C was pretty good on the drive over. A couple of fussy spells, but I would be if I were strapped into that carseat the whole time too. That night we thought we'd be helping Denise move some of her stuff to a storage space, but it turns out she had schedule a Mary Kay party. She's a consultant for them now. So, I did some hair at Shauna's and we had dinner at Cafe Rio (yum) with Rick and Kathy. Eventually we went and spent the night at Denise's. C woke me up at about 5 the next morning, and around 8 we really started moving Denise's stuff. I admit, I wasn't much help, as C didn't want to be confined to his pack n' play. The rest of Thursday was me doing more hair at Shauna's, everyone loading Shauna's stuff into the van for the ride home (again, I was not much help), and doing a little shopping here and there. The girls had the general ceremony for all of the BYU graduates at 4, but C and I opted to take naps. Friday morning we had to be up bright and early as Denise's graduation ceremony was at 8am. So, we went to that and then back to her place in between. I did Shauna's hair for her ceremony, and much more of our family came to that, as it was at 2pm. We learned from Denise's and sat in a better place. Thank goodness, because it turned out to be even longer. We knew at least a couple other graduates at each ceremony, which was kind of nice. And while these ceremonies are pretty much as boring as they sound, I really am so proud of the the girls for all of their hard work. I kept tearing up just thinking about it and watching them. During this whole time, in between everything, my parents were running around trying to get the car they just got Denise to pass the safety and emissions tests. After all of the ceremonies, we headed up to South Jordan to have the open house and stay the night at Janae Christensen's. By this time, C was pretty mad anytime we put him into the carseat. A couple of times, he didn't cry much, but just glared at me. I felt like I already have a teenager on my hands! We had the little party and visited with Janae and family a bit, and then next morning did more shopping and then headed over to Ogden for Audrey Katherine Monson's baby blessing, which was beautiful. I'll have to get a picture of her up on here. THEN, we headed back to Layton to stay with Anna and Dale Hansen for the last night. They made awesome food for both dinner and breakfast and were amazingly hospitable. And they have plenty of grandkids, so C loved their house with all its toys (and of course food, because my son is a pig!). The next morning we headed out, which quite frankly, I was dreading, because those last two trips in the car, C was horrible. And he was really hyper all morning. But my dad gave him a blessing as he strapped him into the car, and I swear, I have not seen him that docile in a long time. He was, for the most part, an angel on the way homme considering. We rode with Shauna in her little car and my parents followed in the van. We got home last night a little before 9 and C and I were both very excited to see Joel. Although by this point I realized I really was sick, and had a fever and was freezing and achy.
So, all in all, it's good to be home, but we're really proud of the girls and realize something like this may not happen again for a while. They are the first ones to graduate college in quite a while in our family. I am glad we made the trip, but I really do wish someone would invent that beaming thing they do on Star Trek : )
