So...
Ever go on a perfect vacation?
Me neither. But this one was pretty darn close...
Here's a travelogue:
First off, I spent two weeks flying solo because my family was already gone. Sad. I am one of those people who doesn't mind spending time by myself, but two weeks without my wife and kids is a long time. Really. So Monday the 27th I fly out of here. The flight was uneventful - Larry Aldrich drove me to the airport and the actual flight was smooth. More on that later.
Got to Utah all right and found Grandma waiting for me. We stopped in Orem to pick up the rest of the fam and headed down to Fairview. The grandparents and Jim live in a place called Hideaway Valley, which is just over the border into Sanpete County. It's a small little area tucked back into some rolling hills and mountains. You can see Mount Nebo from there, but just the tip. It's lovely - the stars out there are so bright and it's so quiet and peaceful...
Tuesday AM - we got up and had breakfast at grandpa's. Then we headed back to Orem to pick up a few things, stopped in for lunch at Lindsey's and stopped in Millcreek to see Shellie and then it was on the road to Idaho. I should mention that grandma let me borrow her truck for the duration of my visit, so I was able to get around fairly easily. It was so nice and convenient to have the truck - I'm so grateful...
Anyway, Wednesday we spent some time hanging around with mom at her work and... well, you know what? I can't really remember Wednesday much... Weird, huh? Youngshin and I spent the night at my parent's place in Hibbard (outside of Rexburg) that night but the rest of the time she stayed at her brother's place in Rexburg. It's a little surreal to see my parents in that house - I keep expecting Grandpa Joe to come walking around the corner. Alas, that won't happen again... They only have one spare double-sized bed and it was a bit cramped for us all to sleep in that room (the yellow room upstairs, if you're keeping track). The other bed was gone... more on that later.
OK, actually, more on that right now.
I called my brother Andy Wednesday to see if we could come down and see him. It turned out that Thursday they were celebrating Carson/Gabe's birthday. It was perfect timing! So Ammon and I drove down and spent the day in Logan at the Fun Park (that's the real name of the place!). It was fun - Ammon won like 1000 tickets on those silly ticket game machines (I think I would have won about 10...), we went and saw Transformers (fairly crude and inappropriate at places, the thinnest of plots, complete lack of any reality to geography, and the last 3/4 of the movie was a constant explosion... but the special effects were pretty cool...), and then it was time to come back home. Spring, Andy's (ex)wife (?) was there. I asked Andy what's going on with that and he was less than forthcoming. He is apparently no longer living with his family. I don't know exactly what's going on but apparently they're divorced - physically if not legally... Poor Andy. He's loved Spring for as long as I can remember. He desperately loves Spring... I don't know what could have happened to make this kind of thing occur... Other than that, though, it was really good to see him. We actually had a good conversation - we usually argue; brothers do that...
Friday I cleaned up my parent's garage and the yellow room we (just Ammon and I at this point) were sleeping in. Had lunch again with mom and went out to see Harry Potter. I liked it, but there were some pretty large assumptions made on the part of the movie makers about how much of the story we knew. And the ending was a little abrupt... Fun movie, though. I really liked Luna...
Saturday was the baptism. We spent some good time with Youngshin's brother and their family. After the baptism we (Ammon and I again - I got to spend a lot of good time with Ammon!) went to mom's work and helped her out there a bit. Then we hung out at home for a while just watching movies and stuff. It was fun... Nice to just relax...
Sunday we got up late and slowly got ready for church. I went and got the girls and we spent some more time with mom and dad. Church was good - the testimony meeting was not very well particpated in - the member of the stake presidency in attendance even said something about it - like "get up and share your testimonies, you bums" (my words, of course)... Dad taught the gospel doctrine class, and I went with him to the High Priest's group. I felt out of place. I was the youngest person in the room by far... Plus there was some interesting doctrine being discussed... That one deserves its own complete post.
Sunday night was dinner at Jim and Kelly Stark's place. Lots of people and food. Very good fun!
Monday we spent with mom driving us all around Yellowstone. I love Yellowstone... We went to Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (PS - if you ever go to Yellowstone go there, but go to Artist's Point - it's by far the best view of the falls...), and back home by way of Jackson and Driggs... So beautiful...
Tuesday I saw the sun rise over the Tetons again on my way back to Utah. I dropped off the truck at Lindsey's and she took me to the airport. Alas, this flight was not going to be as smooth... I think I left my stomach somewhere over the Colorado Rockies... The flight in to Houston was better... Mark Varnado came to pick me up from the airport (thanks Mark!). It was surreal to look out of the car on the bridge over the ship channel and see the moon reflecting on the bay. Gorgeous, but surreal. I had just that morning kissed my mom goodbye as I headed out of Idaho... Now I was looking at the Gulf of Mexico... There - 60 degrees... Here - 89 degrees at 9 PM... Our world is so weird...
It's good to be back! I love it here. It feels like home.
For now...
:-)
(Pics later)
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