life has been a lot of fun lately. so let's have a recap:
last week the school district was on spring break so I had two days off, thanks to sickness turned into 3 days off and thanks to a conference turned into 4 days off. on tuesday, nat and i headed to slc to check out city creek, go to the u, the clinic, the u bookstore, temple square, the gateway and the hunger games. not to mention gourmandise and costco pizza. what more could you ask for, seriously? thanks for the great picture collage nat! :) it rightfully sums up a great and needed day!
being outside is finally a pleasant experience. on easter sunday, we enjoyed our first family fire of the year. i was too full from the delicious dinner to participate in eating my first s'more of the year but it felt so nice to be outside, smelling campfire and laughing with my family!
on thursday, i headed south via morgan/park city and a stop at carly's in heber. we had a wonderful time being crafty and catching up. somehow our fun times together seem to evade photographic evidence, however, we treasure the times in our hearts for sure! i'm so grateful "the clifford's" aka our dad's are lifelong friends so we can follow in their footsteps.
after my wonderful time with car, i headed to provo for a sleep at grandpa's on my favorite couch ever+a roasty toasty electric blanket! it's the recipe for sleeping perfection. friday morning, i woke up, went upstairs and grandpa informed me that it was raining. as we looked outside we watched the rain turn to snow and then watched it pile up over breakfast. oh utah and your blasted constantly changing weather. i was so grateful i could sleep at grandpa's so my drive to byu was so short. i spent the day at a conference on the management of childhood apraxia of speech up on byu campus. it felt so good to be back on that campus as more of a 'professional' than a student and to hear about apraxia from edy strand herself. she's a legend in the field and a fantastic presenter. during lunch, i went with 4 of my fellow colleagues to the creamery for lunch and 4 of the clinic supervisors followed suit. it was entertaining if i do say so myself. it was so great to hear about all the exciting times everyone has been having at their externships. i can't believe we'll all be 'moving on' so soon. finally, i dropped mary off at her sister's house which just happened to be on the same street as my great grandma and grandpa mcquivey's house. it looks just the same, only their chairs aren't in the window. i absolutely adore mary's nieces and nephews and had a great time going on a backyard adventure, attending an orchestral event and getting a big farewell wave from everyone at the doorstep! friday night, i enjoyed a quiet night with grandpa. first i enjoyed a dinner of ice cream and raisin toast (it was that, going and picking something up or a microwave dinner--the choice i made was definitely the best!) then we watched wheel of fortune, jeopardy (which as always, i only knew the answer to 3 questions--one of which none of the contestants knew the answer to which made me feel smarter), a complete hour of who wants to be a millionaire (this would be the gameshow i would be most successful on), and finally channel surfing before we gave up and went to bed--at 8:30. boy did that feel good! :)
saturday, it was time for an adventure. after breakfast, grandpa and i went up to BYU campus. it's always fun to go up there with grandpa because he watched the "upper campus" be built and knows what each building started as--for example: the now testing center was a library when he was there. as we walked into the wilkinson center, he told me how ernie was quite the guy...earnest "ernie" wilkinson. yep, he knew ernie. grandpa was also one of 3 students who had cars, so parking was never a problem for him. and tuition, well we can't even go there. the bookstore was as great as ever, got LB's requested hoodie and grandpa got his chocolate covered mixed nuts--can't go to campus without restocking on that supply!
after leaving campus and driving down 9th east, we made a stop at the cemetery. that's when spontaneity kicked in and we headed for payson to find the spot for the payson temple. grandpa doesn't travel too far from home on his own so it was a good chance for him and a fun chance for me to go with him and hear more about the way things used to be. we took the old road and relived the good old days when that old road was the only road! fyi, there is nothing built or dug that we could tell at the temple site. *see the picture above our journey ended with a trip to the new jdawgs by grandpa's house. i took him to the original jdawgs once upon a time and he really liked it. he was observant however that he was "by far the oldest one in the place" however, at 91, i wasn't too surprised.
finally i headed home.
i couldn't get too far without a stop at one of my favorite temples. draper is usually pretty out of the way for me, so since it was more on the way traveling north from provo, i couldn't help but make a stop. living at home with no ogden temple has been...challenging to make it to the temple as often as i would like however, i have learned that whenever possible...take the unexpected opportunity...like today. i now keep a skirt in my trunk with my temple bag. always prepared.
that was a long run down of my adventures but i had to share because it was so fantastic! craig has reminded me a lot lately about the value of a small vacation and the trip to provo was it for me. i'm so excited that he gets to have a vacation when our family heads west in the upcoming days.
