Molly catching some rays and taking time to smell the dandelions.

I decided my tabletop needed a little something. I made a table runner, bought a cute wooden tray, and stuck several of my mason jars on it with a sprinkle of autumn leaves that my mom had sent a while back. I'm ready for fall!!

 Thursday I spent most of the day cleaning the house before the trip, running last minute errands, and making time for my friend's husband to come and put the skyboxes on the Suburban.  I didn't want to spend time doing my hair at all, so I tried doing something cute with a scarf. I've been watching several videos on how to tie a Jewish head scarf, and I think I would like to try to make a Tichel.

I tried making chaffles. I think I need a bit of practice. They weren't terrible, but they weren't stupendous either. This was my chaffle with scrambled egg, cheese, and avacado.

Rhaevyn wanted to get together with her friend, Terra, before she left for Utah. They had wanted to try a passion fruit smoothie at a little Cafe here in town. While they were doing that Meg and I walked around several shops. Then I treated her to a little bit of frozen yogurt because it was so hot!

 Friday.....it's time to load up the car and skyboxes. I had a step stool, and Myles was helping me as well. Chris came home and was able to do a better job at reaching to fit more stuff in the skyboxes. Then it was time for him to play Tetras..........loading the boxes in the back and getting everything to fit and the doors to close.

 Saturday morning we piled into the car and said goodbye to Chris and Molly. Rhaevyn was good to put together some music for our trip. We had everything from 80's bands, 60's bands, Abba, Mama's and Papa's, and Myles new favorite, Johnny Cash.

We made several bathroom and leg stretching stops along the route to Kuna, Idaho. I love stopping at the Loves stations. They are soooo clean!! It was pretty windy at each stop. 

 

 

It was so nice to stay with Mom and Dad Lindsay. We were able to see family that we haven't seen in quite a while. Sunday afternoon we had a bbq, good food, great conversations, and games. Myles and Elsa were so happy to be able to play Parcheesi with Grandma and David again.

 
Grandma and Grandpa were dog sitting this adorable little guy, Charlie. All the kids loved him, and Myles even had Charlie sleep with him Saturday night.

 Meg played with cousin Oakley.

 Meg snuggled with Ebony.

 Elsa and Myles enjoyed playing Chinese Checkers with Grandma.

 

 

 Bed time and we did a video chat with Chris so that he could read Meg and Elsa a bedtime story.

Monday morning we took some pictures with Grandma and Grandpa and headed for Utah. We arrived in Salt Lake in the early afternoon and went to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum. It was really, really neat!! There was so much to see, and only two hours of parking. No photos were allowed to be taken, so I have nothing to show except for this statue of Eliza R. Snow in front of the museum.

We checked into our hotel room in the late afternoon. After a bit of a frustrating kerfuffle that had us all freaking out, we got settled in a different room. We finished our dinner that had been interrupted by moving to another room  and went down to the pool. Elsa and I had fun racing in the pool, and I taught her some new swim strokes. She caught on pretty fast. She really enjoyed working on the new strokes and even jumped into the deep end several times all by  herself. Myles was close by in case she needed help getting to the side of the pool. 

The water was just a wee bit cooler than I would have liked, but it wasn't bad once I finally braved the jump in. 

 An ambulance showed up, and the kids were looking out the window to see what was going on.

 Tuesday was check in day. It was a bit stressful at the beginning for the girls. We had to park out in Timbuktu this year, as the parking lot up by Heritage Halls/The Wilkinson Center is now sectioned off for those with parking passes. Myles was good to help out unloading the skyboxes and taking several loads up to the  dorm rooms. It was super hot!! Aeva ended up stopping to rest for a bit, and I took over helping Myles and found that we could bring a dolly back with us. That made unloading go a lot faster. Rhaevyn started putting stuff away in her dorm room as we dropped her boxes off to her. It was really nice that the girls are right across the hall from each other.

 Meg was pretty bored for a bit.

 I love the mountains, and Meg is fascinated by the "Y".

 This huge grasshopper was nicknamed "Minty" by Aeva.

 All done. It took us over two hours to empty the car out and deliver it all to the dorm rooms. Time to rest by the little creek.

Everyone was starving, so we had lunch and hit the bookstore. They have redone the eatery, and it looks really nice. The bookstore is being redone as well. Meg loved this slide.

 Waiting with Cosmo while I make my purchase.

 We didn't get a chance to bowl last time, in April, because several of us hadn't brought socks. This time we were prepared. Meg, Elsa, Myles, and I had a really fun time bowling at BYU.

 Myles walking alongside Meg in case she needed help.

 

 Elsa was the winner!!! Myles came in second; I came in third; Meg was last place. Once we finished our game it was time to pick up the last of the girls' belongings at my friend Sam's house. It was nice to stop and visit with her, although it was a really short visit. The kids were able to play out in the backyard and watch the neighbor's bunnies wander and hop freely. I got back to the dorms later than I had anticipated. We unloaded the last of their belongings and had dinner at In and Out at almost 9:30 pm. Myles had to get a second hamburger because his first one was raw inside. It had been a very long and very hot day. We were ready for bed. We dropped Aeva back at her dorm, and Rhavyn opted to spend one last night with the rest of us.

 I love the sunsets. It is hard to see in the picture, but the mountains seem to have a pinkish hue. So very pretty!!

Wednesday morning we were up early, but not as early as I had hoped. We slept in a bit as we were all so tired. We picked up Aeva and headed up to Salt Lake City so that Aeva and Myles could do baptisms at the Temple. It took us forever to get the parking app to work. I finally just sent Myles and Aeva on ahead, and told them just to call me when they were done and we'd meet up. Thank goodness for Rhaevyn. She finally go the app to work on her phone. We strolled a portion of the mall across the street from temple square, and then we walked to the temple and the church office building. Once again, we were not able to go up to the observation area. It was closed, again. One of these days we will get to do it I'm sure. We went across to the Joseph Smith building instead and went up to the 10th floor. What a great view we had from up there. Our parking time was about up, so we headed back to the car and took the girls to do a bit of grocery shopping at Costco, Walmart, and Winco. It was kind of fun and rewarding to watch the girls  budget their money while shopping.

 

 

 Myles loved the chandelier at the Joseph Smith Building:

 

 We thought it would be funny to do the same pose as the statues. Myles was the same height as the statue of the boy. I, however, was a lot shorter than the mom. I had to stand on the pedestal to be taller.

I think Wednesday was even hotter than the the day before. We were ready to pass out by the time we got the groceries up to the dorm rooms. Rhaevyn had plans to get together with a friend from the last school year, so we bid farewell to her and had dinner with Aeva. After dinner we walked Aeva back to her dorm and said goodbye. We had a leisurely walk back to the car and then treated ourselves to some DQ ice cream.

 This duck crept up to the side of me while I was taking a picture of the kids.

 This dragonfly was flitting about the kids.

Just like that it was Thursday. Time for one last goodbye, and we were on the freeway headed north. 

 There was no parking at all, so we just pulled up to the curb and we all gave the girls hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes.

 On our way towards SLC we stopped off at a really fun park. I wasn't sure, time wise, if it was a good idea. The kids really wanted to stop and play. I'm so glad that I decided to do it. The kids had really helped out so much during this trip and had not had a lot of fun time. They had a great time at the park. I'm so happy that we made a great memory by stopping off there.

 The wind was nice, but it was still pretty hot. I decided to kick off my shoes and dip my feet in the cool water too. It felt soooo good!!

 

I gave the kids 30 minutes of playtime, and then it was time to get back on the road and head to Idaho. We were humming right along, until after Twin Falls, when all of the sudden the car started acting funny. The car was hesitating a lot and really did not want to go up the hills. I had semi-trucks passing me 😱 I turned off the AC and the radio, and I rolled down the windows so we wouldn't roast. Myles was good about texting Grandpa and keeping him up to date on where we were, how the car was, and letting him know our phone battery was extremely low. Every time we had to go up a hill we all said a prayer. It was a great lesson in the power of prayer. We made it up every single hill, the car didn't breakdown, and we made it to Mom and Dad Lindsay's house. Dad Lindsay took the car out later when it had cooled down, and it performed just fine. The conclusion was that because it had been so hot out (102 degrees) and the gas had dropped just below half a tank the car had vapor locked. I was so glad it wasn't something more that involved getting the car fixed.

Early Friday morning we said goodbye and headed home. The car ran like a dream all the way home!! I'm so thankful for all the prayers offered by family and friends that we'd have a good trip home.

About an hour into the drive home I started to cry when the song Leaving on a Jet Plane (by Peter, Paul, and Mary) came one. Myles took one look at me and started to ask what was wrong. He quickly realized why I was crying. Rhaevyn and I love singing that song together. He was cute to hand me a kleenex, say something to make me laugh, and then handed me a powdered donut. He said that times like these call for emergency donuts. Myles was a great copilot! He was such a good helper with directions, the little girls, texting Grandpa and Chris, and managing the music. 

It was a good and fun trip, but it went too fast. There just wasn't enough time to do all the things we had wanted to and to visit everyone we had wanted to. Hopefully next April, when Chris gets to come with us, we'll be able to have more of a leisurely trip. It seems so different and quiet with the older girls gone. We are slowly getting back into the routine of having just the three kids. The rooms have been mostly put back together. Elsa has been hanging out on her bed listening to music and reading the friend. Meg wanted braids this morning for church...........no curls. Also, I have another quilt top done(It's my scrappy quilt). I really need to complete the binding on the four that I have so that I can take then over to the hospital.

I think I am now completely up to date 😄