Traveling back to Utah

Kaytie, Tricia, Aunt Geniel, Beth, Lauren, Mom, Me, Debbie

This last weekend I got the opportunity to spend a four day weekend with some of my closest female relatives. Back around New Years my cousin Kaytie brought up the idea of us all getting together for Women's Conference at BYU in May. At the time it seemed like a fun idea, but as it got closer I started to worry about it being on the 1st of May.

The 1st of the month is always really busy at work. My job has to be done every day so when I'm not around my co-worker has to cover for me and isn't able to do her own work. So I hesitated about asking for the two days off.

Then a few months ago my cousin Beth contacted me and told me I "HAD" to come. Everyone really wanted me there. And it wouldn't be the same without me....It's been a long time since I've felt like someone really wanted me around, that I'd be missed if I didn't come. So I got up the nerve to ask for the days off.

My co-worker gave me a hard time, but only in teasing. I love my co-workers, they are all really hard workers but know that everyone needs some time off. And I never ask for days off. So of course I got the days. And everything fell into place.

Mom got the time off as well. Kaytie was opening her home to us, she sent her little family away to St George, UT to spend some time with their grandparents. Beth, my Aunt Geniel, and my cousin-in-law Lauren, were all driving down from Oregon. My cousin Tricia was flying in from Colorado Springs, CO. And my sister-in-law Debbie was flying in from Seattle, WA along with my adorable niece Evie. We were all to meet at Kaytie's in Lehi, UT on Wednesday April 30th.

I had to work Wednesday, but as soon as I was off, I headed to my parents. And my Mom and I headed out.

Nothing but open road and blue sky ahead of us. Lehi, UT is about a 6 hour drive from Las Vegas, so we were expecting to get in around midnight. But Kaytie informed us that everyone would probubly still be up when we got in.

There is not much to see on the drive. But the best part is driving through the Virgin River Gorge between Arizona  and Utah. The road looks as though it's heading straight for the cliff face and then suddenly it opens up into the most amazing canyon. I only got a couple of pictures of it this time around.

 

And just after the gorge is the boarder to Utah and then St. George.

Sadly at this point we still had about four hours more driving to do. So we popped in the only CD we could find in the car (poor planning on our part) and sang out loud to the soundtrack to Frozen. The songs were stuck in our heads all weekend.

We stopped for gas in Beaver, UT, an old area of my mission. I love visiting that quaint little town. Very fond memories of that place. I've been home from my mission for three years now and this trip has really made me stop and think how far I've come from that bright eyed eager return missionary. I feel like I have fallen a little from that person and this weekend has helped get me motivated to become her again. More on that subject later.

The sun went down after we passed Filmore, UT and we struggled to keep each other awake. Finally we reached Nephi, UT and were able to see the lights of Provo, American Fork, and Lehi way way off in the distance. We knew we were almost there.

We rolled into Kaytie's driveway around 11:30 pm Utah time. And she was right, everyone else was still awake. They were gathered around Kaytie's kitchen trying to decide which classes they were going to take at Women's Conference. I had already gone through the list of classes and picked the ones I felt I needed the most. Sadly no one wanted the same classes as me for Thursday. But instead of giving in and going with someone to a different class, I stuck with the ones I had originally picked. I really felt like those were the ones I needed. And I'm extremely glad I did.

Shortly after everyone got settled we headed to bed. I crashed on an air mattress in Kaytie's family room, with Beth on the couch above me and my mom on another mattress across the room. And we went to sleep excited for a very busy day to come....