Utah, 2020

 That title should read "Cayman, 2020", but with COVID, we once again canceled our vacation plans (for an airline e-credit no less....I think we already have over $1,000 worth of those at this point) and decided to head out to Utah to see the girls.  We don't go out there very often except to drop off, or pick up, or catch a concert or a wedding, so this was a new idea.

I made a reservation through Vrbo for a rental apartment for the week.  The girls wanted me to basically cook every home cooked meal over the week because they are so tired of dorm/cafeteria food, so I needed a fully stocked kitchen...and I knew I wouldn't find that in a hotel.  I found a beautiful place right across University Avenue from the Provo City Center Temple.  The pictures showed the apartment's kitchen, and it looked really good.

I was very excited for this trip.  While John has stressful weekends pulling call in PA, I don't ever really leave the greater metro Detroit area anymore, so the thought of getting away was a really fun idea.   I didn't plan much except to go see the Boo Lights at the Hogle Zoo (preceded by dinner at The Melting Pot), and a trip down the haunted ski lift at Sundance...and I'm glad that was all.  The girls are still in school and still working, so they had to come and go as they could, and having a bunch of plans wouldn't have made things very easy.

John did take advantage of one of the apartment's perks:  a HUGE hot tub.  

Greenie had hit 300K ON THE TRIP TO THE AIPORT and NOBODY TOOK A PICTURE!

When we got there, we headed straight to Smith's to grocery shop.  I had brought several Ziploc sandwich bags of spices that I needed for specific meals I was going to make.  This was because I didn't want to buy new bottles of spices which are super expensive for just a teaspoon here or there, but Ethan wondered if I would make it through security with bags of white powder (I did!) ;-). We ended up spending $250 on food for a week for the five of us (I included Zach in the plans).  Holy smokes, I haven't spent that much on weekly groceries in a very long time!

We then checked into our apartment.  It wasn't easy--there are so many security protocols (locked outside door,  locked garage) that we eventually had to call the owner who buzzed us in.  After that though, it was a breeze with garage tags and a key card.  The apartment was AMAZING!  It was so beautifully decorated with new mattresses and linens and towels.  We all felt at home immediately.  And that night, we had "white man" tacos which is what Johannah had requested.

The next day was Sunday.  Being on EST, John and I headed out early in the morning for a walk.  We ended up walking to Glo's apartment.  The girls and Zach then came over for church, games and dinner (beef stroganoff).  The weather was so nice that we could just leave our balcony door open.  It was beautiful.

  

  

The next morning however, I received an email from the landlord's "security team" that they had counted more than the allotted six people in our apartment--I let them know that we had only five--and they asked if we had someone staying there with us (I had reserved the two-bedroom apartment for John and me, but I told the landlord that our daughters might be staying with us).  I told them that one of our daughters had decided to stay.  The emails then went back and forth about how we needed to pay for her....despite the fact that the apartment is cleared for six people staying there.

Honestly, I was totally freaked out by these emails and by the idea that someone was watching our movements.  I had read in the contract that there was a noice monitoring device in the apartment, but I didn't remember reading anything about surveillance.  We were told that we could count the number of days she stayed and pay $10 extra per day, but I worried that our records might not match theirs--and I was sick of getting emails from them--so I just paid for the entire ten days.

John and I went out walking the following morning, but as John said, I was "tortured" by their surveillance.  We finally figured out that they were watching us through their Ring doorbell--you know, the doorbell used to watch for thieves and criminals--so I began covering up the camera anytime we came and went.  Well sure enough, I received an email shortly after, telling me that they had over a dozen encounters of us covering the camera "and they take security seriously".

I did love walking to the Provo temple each morning though.  I know that temple is an "industrial" temple, churning out more temple work than any other temple in the world, but it will always feel like "my" temple, even more than the Washington DC temple.  It was where I really gained my testimony of temple work, because John and I would set aside time in our school schedules each semester to keep Tuesday mornings free so that we could attend the temple weekly.  And we did.  We never missed a Tuesday.  And not having Ethan for a year, we got a lot of temple work done.  It always feels good to go back there <3

You know, none of this would have been nearly so bad (well, maybe not) if I wasn't losing my hair.  I recognize that this is the first mention of this on the blog, and it probably deserves its own post, but having my hair falling out in chunks while knowing that someone was watching our every move was really just too much for me.  I finally gave up and tried to just stand in the way of the camera when I came and went.

Back to the story.  Monday was actually kind of a special day.  Knowing that John wanted to be there when Hannah picked out a wedding dress (no, this is no kind of announcement), and not knowing if he would be able to be there because his schedule is so crazy, Hannah set up some appointments at wedding dress shops.  We went to the big name stores that had dresses in stock, but while walking Sunday morning, I had found a hole-in-the-wall place on University that looked interesting.  After spending all day at all these fancy stores, Hannah found THE dress at "Affordable Bridal Boutique"...and John bought it for her.  Who knows when she'll be wearing it, but it was exactly the dress she pictured for herself, and John and I will both admit that she looked AMAZING in it.  Here are two of the dresses that were high on the list, but that didn't make the cut:

  

<----Hermana Knapp came to one of the stores just to be part of the experience.

That night, John and I picked up Bok Bok Korean Fried Chicken.  We had seen the hole-in-the-wall restaurant on our walk to campus, and honestly, it just looked so cute AND Glo loves Asian food AND Zach loves trying new foods.  The kids LOVED it, but I got a couple of pizzas for good measure.

And the next few days were no different.  John and I walked in the morning (often meeting Hannah for her 9 a.m. break), hanging out with the kids, eating turkey sandwiches for lunch, making dinner and watching "The Haunting of Bly Manor" on Netflix with Glo and Hannah (while Zach studied in the other room).  We did meet up with Mike and Katrina in Alpine for lunch--I always enjoy getting together with them and talking to them.

  

      

I made a whole lot of food over the week, and each meal was accompanied by Crescent rolls (since I wasn't set up to make homemade bread or biscuits).  I made a LOT of Crescent rolls!  AND we ate a LOT of candy.  I bought several bags, thinking we would never get through it all and I would leave it for the girls, but I imagine 50% of our garbage for the week was candy wrappers ;-)

  

The find of the week though was CREAMIES! These are the ice cream treats that are served at the finish line of the SLC marathon each year, and as John says, they are sometimes the only incentive for him to keep going.  Not only did Smith's have them, but they had multiple FLAVORS!  We started out with a bulk-sized box of Chocolate ones, but mid-week we went back, and bought boxes of four other flavors.  Along with those, John found the original Bomb Pops and he bought a box of those.  While we got through the Creamies fast (minus help from Zach who says he can taste the wooden stick throughout the entire popsicle), those Bomb Pops were all on John.  So, on the drive to the airport, John downed the final six....and isn't sure he wants to see another one any too soon ;-)

I did gain an appreciation for Zach and his dedication to school.  He mentioned being THE top of his class--I don't know if that's of his chemical engineering class, or the senior class at BYU.  He could be either because he has a 4.0 GPA at BYU.  He studies every minute of every day except when he's eating.  He and Hannah have a "date" night each week just to get him away from school.  But something more I learned is that he truly loves school.  He would be on his computer, working on some problem with a friend, and no joke, his smile grew the longer they were working on it.  I mean, he's naturally the smiliest person I've ever met, but he really smiles when he's studying.  And he loves what he does at well.  I had no idea that he wrote code, but he does, and in fact, it's easier for him to write code to solve a problem than to solve it without writing code (and even that he does on his computer without paper so I don't know what's happening there...)

  

We also met up with Hermana Gibson, one of Glo's mission companions.  I can hardly believe we took her out for $1 tacos--I mean, is that even a treat?--but it was so good to meet her in person.  She was seriously such a good companion to Glo.

We had fun on our "date" night, going to The Melting Pot and Boo Lights.  I guess Zach is a germaphobe so the idea of sticking his fondue stick in with a bunch of others gives him the heebie-jeebies, but he made it work.  We got out a bit early, so we walked over to Temple Square (with a stop at a random pub so Hannah could empty her guts out).  It's crazy seeing the square all torn up!  But then we were off to Boo Lights.  Wow, I thought just a few things would be hung up, but it was great!  Miles and miles of walking and so much fun stuff to see.  It made me wish Baby was there with us.

    

    

  

  

The next day, we woke up to a wildfire on Mt. Timpanogos which ended up shutting down the highway to Sundance, so we didn't get to ride the haunted ski lift.  Too bad too, because it's always a favorite of the girls.  But we still had fun.  Glo brought over a couple of her residents for a home cooked meal (pork tenderloin and brown rice), and later that night, we met them again for an escape room.  But this wasn't just any old escape room.  John had chosen "Zombie on a Chain" at Level FIVE which meant the entire time, we had a zombie grabbing at us and "killing" us.  Yeah, I don't think I did a single thing to help solve that puzzle--I just spent the entire time basically sobbing in the corner ;-)

And that night, after Zach told Hannah yet again that he wasn't sure she was THE one he was supposed to marry, the two of us just sat in the apartment eating cardboard pizzas.

I only really recognized how stressed out I had been living in that apartment and my every move being watched when I drove away.  It was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders....and it wasn't my hair....although it certainly could've been.