Like Going Home

In many ways, returning to Utah County always feels a bit like going home. I lived there for nearly eight years. I went to college there, started my married life and career in education there, bought my first house there and brought two babies home there. There is quite literally a memory on every corner.  (Like the corner of Bulldog and Freedom where Jon was victim to a drive-by fry-saucing while we were playing tennis one evening.  It's still probably the most angry I've ever seen him in our entire marriage!)  To go back is to relive those memories and we love to drive by all the old familiar sites.

We drove by our first apartment to show the kids where our family started.  Then we drove by Westridge Elementary and remembered the names of some of my first graders.  Many of them are probably married by now.

Then we pretend we're driving home from the school to see the old townhouse.  It still looks the same.  The neighborhood is hardly recognizable, but our old house hasn't changed a bit.

Meeting up with old friends reminds me that even though we go years without seeing each other, we'll always be friends and their kids will keep growing up even if in my mind they are frozen at the age they were when we moved.

But one of the best things about visiting Utah County is getting to stay with my Aunt Shauna and Uncle John.  They're great.  They make us feel so welcome and loved as if we were their own children and grandchildren.  Their accommodations can't be beat with beds and private bathrooms for each of us.  Shauna kept us well fed and I don't think we woke up before 9 a.m. any of the five mornings we were there.

Look at this view from their backyard deck:

It's hard to see, but BYU's new jumbotron can be seen in the distance, as well as the Provo Temple.  We watched them test the screen in preparation for the first game.  

Here's a zoomed-in version of the same angle.  Can you find the Y on the screen in the middle of the picture?

One afternoon, we went to visit my aunt and uncle at the employment center where they are serving their fifth mission.  My aunt's title is Director of First Impressions.  Isn't that funny?  But let me tell you, that's the perfect title for her.

And she serves game day meals on BYU plates.  Isn't that the best?  She invited all of her grandkids that are currently BYU students, as well as my cousin's family that lives locally, over to have dinner with us.  It was fun to see extended family that we haven't seen in years!

The kids table--Caleb, Alyssa and Natalie with my cousin Steph's two youngest, Ava and Corbin.

While we love seeing all the old familiar sites, exploring the new ones is a lot of fun, too.  Like Provo Beach Resort, which is just down the hill from my aunt's house.

The kids did the ropes course:

I suspected we'd have one timid climber and two monkeys.  I was right on the count but wrong about which children would fall into each category.

Caleb was quite confident while Natalie was very hesitant.  I thought it would be the other way around.

After the ropes course we played a few arcade games.  Caleb is a master at the hoop shoot.  He easily beat these two competitors:

He actually took a turn on each station just so he could set a record high score on each of them.  He's a darn good shot! 

Nat was decent on the little hoop:

Later in the week we spent some time at a trampoline gym with the cousins.  I'm telling you, the fun just wouldn't end!  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the jumping and flipping, but the kids had a blast.

Our last hurrah of the trip was a day at Lagoon with our cousins, which was fun, fun, fun!  We have lots of past memories here but they're mostly of the kiddie rides, since that's where we spent most of our visit the last time we went to the park over 10 years ago.

No kiddie rides for us this time!  Oh no.  The kids went from one big coaster to the next.  They all loved Wicked:

I would have loved Wicked a lot more if we hadn't lost our camera during the corkscrew.  And it was our very first ride of the day!  Jon had the camera case velcroed to his belt but the force of the corkscrew ripped it away and sent it plummeting to the ground.  We did get it back later in the day and though it didn't appear damaged on first inspection, we've since discovered that it does not function properly.  Grrr!

Still, the kids had a blast going from ride to ride with their cousins.  No more fear of loop-the-loop for Caleb, that's for sure!

Can you see us on Colossus?

Caleb and Seth are in the sixth row, I'm with Sam in the seventh row and Alyssa and Natalie are in the row behind us.  Isn't this a cool picture?  Lucy was the photographer and I borrowed it from her. :)

We did have some crazy thunderstorms rain on our day--the kind that cause you to run for cover.  One even ripped branches from trees and pelted the ground with hail.  When one came late in the evening and many rides closed due to the lightening, we decided to call it a day.

We weren't happy about leaving:

But we weren't complaining, either.  We'd enjoyed a full day of thrilling fun with cousins and plenty of sunshine.  The kids will tell you our day at Lagoon easily qualifies as a highlight of their trip!

Phew!  Can you believe all that fun we had on our trip to Utah?  Just recapping it all has worn me out!  I'd also be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Sarah and Maureen who fed us and gave us a place to stay our first night in Utah, and to my parents for giving us a stopping point both coming and going.  It helped to break up the long, long drive. They also treated us to a nice dinner, some swimming, pedicures and more.  

We couldn't ask for better family and friends and the memories will last a lifetime.

We Love to See the Temple

As soon as we arrived along the Wasatch front, the kids noticed that the landscape was dotted with the characteristic white steeples of LDS churches. Alyssa started to keep a tally of how many churches she saw but eventually gave up and said, "There are as many churches in Utah as there are Starbucks in Washington."  It's true, they're everywhere.  We even saw two buildings sharing the same parking lot on several different occasions.

We saw many temples too, mostly from a distance, but a couple of times we got up close and personal.

First, on Monday, we went to see the progress on the future Provo City Center Temple.  We used to attend our stake conferences in the old Provo Tabernacle.  I think it's fantastic that the church decided to rebuild it into a temple after it was damaged by a fire.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Then on Friday, we had the opportunity to go to the Brigham City Temple open house.  I am thankful for any chance our children have to walk through the halls of a temple.  It is, of course, absolutely beautiful.

Just look at this stunning photo:

And this girl, she's pretty stunning, too:

It was fun to experience it all with our cousins.

Cute girls--Erin, Alyssa and Popeye

The introductory video, shown before you enter the temple, was presented in the underground parking garage.  It was pretty hot and stuffy, but I can tell you that I've never seen a parking garage that clean and white.

When we came out of the temple, some ominous clouds rolled in on one direction while the bright sun shone on the other.  It made for spectacular lighting in this picture of the Brigham City Tabernacle:

Our family

The Lynn family

Lucy and three of her boys

Since Wellsville is only twenty minutes away from Brigham City, we decided to make the quick drive through the canyon to give the kids a little family history tour.

This was the home of Jon's grandmother.  He remembers making summertime visits to this house.  Jon got out to explain to the owner, who was outside, why we were taking pictures of his house.  He found out the man's last name was Maughan, which would mean that they are cousins of some sort.

Then we continued on to the cemetery.  This is Uncle Fred's headstone:

This is the grave of William Harrison Maughan, Jon's great-great grandfather.  Look at the last line of this marker.  He was the bishop of Wellsville for over forty years!  I won't ever complain about the five that Jon has been serving.

And here are a few of William Harrison Maughan's great-great-great grandchildren standing next to his grave:

This is the marker of Heber Parker, Jon's great-great grandfather on the Parker side:

 

Jon did exactly what Grandpa Hatch would've done if he'd been there.  He gave the kids a run down of the genealogy followed by some questions to check their understanding.  Like father like son, for sure! If I'd have closed my eyes, I might not have been able to tell if it were Jon or Carl talking.  It made me smile.  

I am, however, quite sure that Carl would not have worn this on his head:

It's one of those protective booties that they put over your shoes when you enter the temple.  Jon decided it would make a funny hat.  Yep, he looked pretty funny alright.

Here's the whole crew--minus me because I was the photographer--at the headstone of Jon's maternal grandparents, Fred and Edna.

It was a great day that I hope the children always remember.

Future Employee of the Month?

Caleb has a dream. He loves Brick Oven so much that he wants to work there some day.

Well what do you know? The sign says, "We hire energetic, friendly people." Perfect.  He's just the guy they're looking for.

Given his love for this restaurant, eating at Brick Oven was high on Caleb's must-do-while-we're-in-Utah list.  It was for all of us, really, so we planned to go early in the week--Free Root Beer Monday to be exact.  I'm not much of a soda drinker but you'd better believe I accepted a free frosty mug.  It really does go well with pizza, I must say.

But Caleb opted for red cream soda.  Brother Curtis (Jon's counselor and Caleb's former scoutmaster) told him to make sure to try it when he went to the Brick Oven.  It was love at first sip.  He was blessing Brother Curtis' name.

The pizza (even gluten-free), the pasta, the salad bar, the sodas and oh, the garlic bread!  We were reminded why we love this place so much.

Jon treated all of us to a feast--Maureen, Alyssa, Caleb, Me, Jon, Natalie, Sarah, Aunt Shauna and Uncle John

We loved it so much that we went again in Layton at the end of the week.  Though Caleb was still madly in love, it was rather disappointing for the rest of us.  So here's my advice: When visiting Brick Oven, stick to the original Provo location and you'll leave ever so happy.  And full!

I loved the Brick Oven, but even more enjoyable was re-kindling my love affair with Macey's twist cones.  Best. Ice cream. Ever!  (And the fact that they are so stinkin' cheap may or may not make them taste even better.) We went two days in a row.  Reminded me of one hot July when I was pregnant and daily twist cones kept me alive.

If Brick Oven doesn't work out, maybe Caleb could work at Macey's, at the ice cream counter of course.

 I hope his dreams come true.  But if not, we'll still visit the Provo Brick Oven any chance we get.

A Back to School Birthday

A fortieth birthday really should be more exciting. Don't get me wrong, it was a big day at our house, but the attention fell more on the children and less on the birthday boy.  I feel sorry that Jon's big day did not involve more pomp and circumstance even if he always declares his birthday as "just another day." He did get to work from home so that he could see the kids off on their first day of school and so we could go out to a birthday lunch together.

Three kids, three different schools and three different departure times.  I knew it was going to be crazy so I was grateful that Jon was home.

Alyssa was the first to go.  I watched her sweet curls bounce as she walked toward her middle school bus.  And I cried.  Of course.

Alyssa--sixth grade

Caleb was next.  He wasn't quite so concerned with his first-day-of-school fashion as his sisters.  I decided not to worry about it.

Caleb--ninth grade

I felt my throat tightened as soon as we passed the "Auburn Riverside Senior High School" sign.  He opened the car door and a Raven Crew member shouted, "Welcome to Riverside!"  He actually looked quite confident as he walked through the door.  I cried again.  All the way home.  

I dried my eyes in time to turn my attention to my second grader.  Of all of the kids, she was the most excited to go back to school.

Natalie--second grade

Natty and Emma--all is right in the world when these two are together.

Natalie got to have the same teacher she had for first grade.  She was so excited to see her after a long summer away.  Perhaps I was all cried out or maybe it was the familiarity of having her same teacher, but I managed to keep my emotions in check when I hugged my sweet girl goodbye.

It also helped that she has so many church friends in her class.  And they're all sitting so close together!

Emma, Carson, Chloe and Natty

So close, in fact, that Natty can touch Emma's desk from her seat.  Could second grade get any better?

Jon did work, but not too much and we enjoyed a nice lunch together.  He called it "a perfectly relaxing day."  And he did get an unexpected surprise that will involve an exciting outing for the two of us this Saturday.  (You'll just have to check back then to find out what it is.)  It was ever so convenient that the surprise came on his birthday.

The kids had a great first day and we handled the afternoon cross country and gymnastics juggle quite deftly.  We ended it with some candles and cheesecake and a little Happy Birthday singing.

Happy 40th Birthday, Honey!  It's impossible to describe how much I love you!