Provo Love

At Girls Camp I only wore BYU t-shirts.  At one point in time a girl commented, "I like your shirt."  One of the other leaders piped up, "You just found her favorite subject to talk about."  I corrected her that my favorite subject is my kids.  And the Gospel.  But BYU is seriously up there.  Maybe tied with dessert?

So of course we planned a whole day for Provo.  I have the best memories of Provo.  I met my husband there.  We were newlyweds there.  We made the best friends and had our first beautiful girl there.  I remember football games and dates, taking tests in the testing center, walking the campus, girls nights in while the boys were at the Nicklecade (we had no money), Mario Kart and mafia parties, church in the Wilk and I strengthening my testimony out on my own.  Dustin and I have 3 degrees from there.  Is it any wonder I love that place so much?

Friday morning we took the kids to hike the Y.  Dustin and Nate did it in October and we decided to take all the kids back to do it together.  At the beginning of the trail, Dustin told the kids that everyone who didn't whine would get to buy something at the bookstore.  The kids actually did well, but there were definitely some murmuring.  At one point in time Dustin reminded Sadie that she wouldn't be able to get anything at BYU and she told him, "I'm not whining.  I'm complaining!"

I decided the best plan of attack was to just head up the hill as fast as we could even if it meant dragging them.  And I literally dragged (and carried) Sadie a few times.  Dustin stuck in the back of the pack with the stragglers while I set the pace.  The kids alternated being in the back although if Nate was in the back he would end up sprinting to beat us all to the next switchback.  I was actually shocked that Luke climbed pretty much the entire thing by himself.  It's an 1,100' elevation gain in just under 2 miles.  Early on he did slip and fall and cried for a little bit but when we asked if he wanted to get in the hiking backpack he just said, "No!  I do it myself."

On the way down we would see families resting or kids whining and Sadie would call out, "My baby brother did it and he's only 3.  In his flip flops!"

We met up with Kathleen, Kyle and the girls for lunch at the Cougar Eat.  Ellie and Nate discovered that they love the repulsiveness that is Taco Bell.  Even worse -- they love that Dorito taco.  And then we went to spend some money.  I seriously cannot resist the BYU bookstore.  I won't go farther into my obsession because most people already know that.  Just know that I seriously seriously love that place.  Everyone found something they liked, although it did take us awhile to find something with the baby cougar logo in something close to Sadie's size for her.  Oh, and it had to be pink.  We also relented and got her the BYU Hello Kitty.  You might be thinking, "What are you ROCKEFELLERS?"  To which I would reply, no, but big thank you to Kyle for introducing us to that awesome tag line.

All in all it was our most expensive trip to the bookstore ever!  You're welcome college student whose tuition we just paid.  And can you please take Dustin's unpaid parking tickets from when he was in Grad school off of his record?

 Ellie wanted a mint brownie but everywhere in the dang Wilk was sold out, so we were FORCED to walk to the creamery for mint brownies and ice cream.

The kids all fell asleep driving to my sister so we went for a drive up the canyon.

My sister was sweet enough to babysit while we went out to dinner and even fed the kids pizza, although Luke only ate breadsticks.

We met up at Zupa's and then headed out for dessert with more college friends -- Holly and Damon and Dirk and Vanessa.

By the time we got home, sometime after 10, my sister had become somewhat irrational about us leaving for Arizona the next day and resorted to throwing all of our BYU swag all over her house in effort to make us stay.

We were sad to go home too.  If you move to Connecticut I will connecti--cut you.