business trip to utah : i'm an adult!

by some stroke of luck i got to go to utah on a business trip!

it should have probably never happened since i got trained five minutes before i started training everyone i worked with all week buuuut that is a meaningless detail.

anyway.

as soon as i landed i needed to be reunited with the mountains so i picked up niece emmy and we headed to little cottonwood canyon.

i was a little sad that the leaves had already peaked but the mountains were still magestic and beautiful as always.





bless emmy's heart for being patient while i kept stopping the car and taking pictures of everything. we drove through big cottonwood canyon as well just to get in as much of those mountains as possible. the weather was just lovely and so was the company, my first afternoon back was a success. 

saturday night consisted of the general relief society broadcast (which was really great) and the traditional sollis girl gathering after any occasion at one of our many frozen yogurt places.



sunday started out with being reunited with the rest of kim's babes, meeting kamden's girlfriend, and loving on my newest niece girl stella.

sunday afternoon was spent eating dinner with becky's family and playing with lilly and janie in the backyard. it is weird how much those little babies grow in just a few months! i hate it.

i left for a bit to help out our friend take a few family pictures since her son was going on a mission that next wednesday and when i came back my favorite of all favorites dessert was waiting for me! this thrilled me to no end. nothing pleases me more than a good brownie, vanilla ice cream, grandma's fudge sauce, and slithered almonds.

and then all of the sudden the above dance party happened and i got to watch my sister be a fun mom and hoped i get to have dance parties with my own girls in my own kitchen some day. definitely something to look forward to. 

monday after work i stopped by to see emily and co. and then took a family picture with her husband since she didn't feel like being in the picture herself. i also spent some more quality time with the moysh's by attending their pumpkin patch fhe and listed in on story time afterward. my brothers are cute dads. 

something that is awesome about business trips to utah is not only was my flight and car rental paid for but we also got $61 a day to spend on food. natalie and i made sure to hit up zupa's, paradise bakery, and cafe rio since boston hates having any of those places. ps did i mention already that natalie was a part of this whole business trip? it couldn't have been a better scenario, it really couldn't. i even enjoyed how i got the most baby sized car and she got the biggest one because parking next to each other was entertaining all week!

working all week at the VA was actually a nice time. i loved all the cute old veterans and the grumpy clerks. jessie's (the mustache man below) countdown to christmas absolutely killed me and was just one of the many things that amused me that week. 

since i was working up by the U all week i decided to take myself to the "this is the place" monument park and might i say it did not disappoint! i feel bad i lived in utah for so many years and failed to take advantage of all the great things there.



after my park date with myself i drove to draper to meet up with these high school gals. it was fun to see rachel's boys, hear about dantzel's engagement, find out charlotte is pregnant with her third, and talk to hayley about how awesome it is that she works at a retirement facility. i feel very lucky to have such good friends who still care about each other even though all of our lives have taken very different courses. i definitely love those girls (and all the others who couldn't make it) a whole lot!

wednesday night my parents and i headed up to our cabin for a little sleepover. they know how much i love that place and are always the sweetest to make a way for me to go up there when i visit. just like i did in may, as soon as we got there i grabbed my camera and had some neature time with myself. the higher i went the better the leaves looked and the more color their was and i was happy i didn't completely miss cabin time in the fall (because it is the very best).

after my walk i came back in and watched the debate with them while we ate the traditional veggie papa murphy's pizza. then i somehow got one or the other (they switched off) to talk to me in true slumber party fashion until 1:30 in the morning. one-on-one time with my parents is very rare so i tried to soak up our quick trip and appreciate every minute of it. 

thursday (and every day) i enjoyed seeing the sun come up over the mountains. i enjoyed the utah desert scenery and i especially enjoyed having a lunch date with my brother scott, another occurance that is very rare but much appreciated.



 that night i got to go see my nephew play soccer and see my brother be coach and mindy be not only a soccer mom but a coach's wife. it was kind of awesome and i really love how much their family eat, sleeps, and breathes that game!

they played against a beautiful backdrop and i wondered if anyone else around me noticed how awesome the mountains looked. i've definitely gotten used to the east coast it looks like!



 later that night i got to spend time with some of my favorite people, kalie and melissa. kalie's husband was out of town so our night of eating chikfila, watching school house rock, and skyping with j-man turned into a full blown slumbee party. i even showered and had to use kalie's garments (don't judge me it was a desperate time) and all of her clothes since i was not prepared for a sleep over. this night was so fun and i always welcome the opportunity to feel like i'm in high school again so if anyone wants to have a slumbee party/sleepover ever, i'm your girl!

and theeeen all of the sudden it was friday and we were done teaching everyone how to use check-in kiosks. i was sad to say goodbye to nat and our good VA times/friends but thrilled that in just a few hours from that time i would be attending my mission reunion!

this might have been the biggest business trip miracle of them all, the trip got pushed back two weeks and i would like to think it was because God knew i like those reunions and he wanted to help me attend! the crowd was a lot different than when the hoer's first came home but i still got to see a lot of my favorite people and appreciated the few moments where i felt like i was in zone conference again.



bnotd john's flight got in early so he got to come too! he didn't arrive till 11 pm but that wasn't a problem, we just stayed and talked to them until one haha. i love that mission president of mine and thoroughly appreciated the quality time we got to spend with them - even if it was kind of in the middle of the night. 

another business trip miracle was that i was now in utah for conference weekend! this was an awesome thing and a terrible thing all at the same time. awesome because lots of other people were in town too and it was great to see them - and terrible because i was the worst at actually watching conference and i'm going to have to watch it all over again soon. friend reunions included (but are not limited to) brynne and tanner, grace and dantz, brynne's sister and mama, ashley and joe, and my dearest beth chon.

sunday night was the time designated for the fam to "get to know john" and "see if he is a good fit" so that was fun. aunt jeri came down to see me, emily and co. came back over for a few more laughs, and john got to meet baby stella! he might have been overwhelmed since even a portion of my family is like 10x bigger than his but he handled it like a champ and i think the general consensus is that the sollis family likes that guy!

monday was my last day and all i wanted to do was go up to malad and see my grandpa and baby kevin. once again my sweet parents made it happen and it was such a nice afternoon. i loved hearing my grandpas stories and his laugh and felt so happy we finally got a picture where we both look nice!



my only regret was that i did not get to ride cortina but everything else was perfect. even having enough room for some grandma sycamore bread and the pretty sunrise that greeted me back on the east coast. 

..aaaand ironically i will actually be boarding a plain in like three hours to go visit again! So this post needed to happen.

ward campout in NH ya'll!

 can i first say that i didn't think i was going to get to go camping at all this summer and i was SO sad. 

then all of the sudden i went camping twice within two weeks of each other and i was really happy about that. 

anyway.

ward camp out in new hampshire. happens every year apparently and i had been hearing about it ever since i moved to boston in january. a few weeks before i was told that each year the three different wards do skits and have themes. this year was pop culture (or something like that) and our two artists assigned to us were justin bieber and lady gaga. 

i was then told that i had been nominated to actually portray j. biebs. 

i didn't know whether to feel flattered or offended but i reluctantly said yes and then all of the sudden i was going to script meetings with curtis dressed in his dubai outfit and trying on bieber outfits in the church bathroom after institute. 

and then the day before i was stressed about finishing up work for the week, learning my lines, having time to exercise, pack, and shower all before we were supposed to leave. because of this i decided to just run to work (in my super cool vecna tie dye shirt that maybe i will tell you about someday) and practice my lines the whole way there and back so i didn't have to worry about exercising later. i was happy to be so smart at multitasking and it was just a bonus that when i got to work i was wearing the exact same outfit as my boss - wicking black leggings and all hahahaha

then the multitasking and looking way gross at work all day thing didn't even matter because john and i ended up eating at our favorite thai place and then felt tired and didn't want to go up that night anymore so we rented a movie instead and decided to go in the morning 

which worked out great because then natalie got to come with us and we had a great morning full of driving, stopping to eat at one of triple d's restaurants (sisters - be jeal!), and stopping by a thrift store where i bought a skirt that rang up as FIFTY CENTS. we were also de-virginized at the diner since it was our first time eating there. this consisted of our waitress ringing a bell and screaming that we were red arrow diner virgins - but are no more - and then everyone cheered. it was a great experience for everyone!

 upon arrival we grabbed another car to go pick up some bikers who rode to the beach so that was a fun detour. at this time i also gave john the vecna tie dye shirt i made for him. he liked it. 

i was real happy to be in the woods again! and the weather was perfect which was nice. 

look at those huge rocks! i liked those rocks. 

the afternoon was filled with practicing our skit (is that not the best place to put an amphitheater?) and ward olympics that i did not participate in because i was way too stressed about the skit - the success and laughs of the audience were pretty much riding on my shoulders and i could not relax. even worse than being in a ward skit is being in a ward skit that is lame. 

but i did watch the games/john for a bit and i would like to verbalize all 

of the awkward parts of this relay race photo

a. each person had to spin in circles 10 times. is john, instead, twirling friend filipe? 

b. filipe's twirling pain face

c. filipe's hand

d/e. boyfriend's wet clothes and rolled up pants. 

somebody forgot their swimsuit but didn't want to miss out on the canoe race fun. then capsized. 

i felt happy i needed to head back to my cabin to change into a few bieber items before dinner because first off, look at where my cabin was! it was definitely locked and someone climbed through the window to unlock it for us since the other cabins were full haha. and second, the sunset was beautiful. 

(and third, later on in this story, i leave my bathing suit in this forbidden cabin and the lady over the campsite refuses to answer my phone calls to this day or care that i liked that thing and want it back! i can see why she is mad but lady - get over iiit)

seriously, i'll say it again - best location for an amphitheater. 

i know people were taking pictures of our skit but none have found their way back to me.

 so all i have is this:

and this:

and these.

just me and ginormous lady g! and calvin in green, who wrote the skit. 

it was creepy how as soon as i had that outfit and wig on i had no problem getting into character and didn't even laugh one time (which kept happening in rehearsal because i was so embarrassed). we came in on a canoe, jake was the grossest lady gaga with size 12 heels, and i sang our revised version of "boyfriend" and made the girl i was singing to super uncomfortable so all in all i think it was a success! and the comments i received afterwards like "i had no idea you were a girl!" or "it is scary how well you portrayed a pre-pubescent boy" are all compliments in my book.

after the skits people usually just make their way back to their cabins but this year my friend chelsea started an impromptu dance party and it was seriously the best.  everyone stormed the dirt stage and began dancing with the pretty lake next to us and million stars and moon above us. at one point "baby" came on and since i was still dressed as bieber everyone turned to me and since i knew every word of that song we had a mini concert! it was so funny to me how everyone just went with it. afterwards i'd throw my wig to someone and then spotlight them with my flashlight phone app and they would dance and dance then throw it to someone else. bieber really brought us all together that night! 

warning: this part should be written in my journal but it isn't so i'm writing it here

as i was dancing next to john and observing everything going on around me i felt so content and happy with where i was and who i was with. i had a moment where i realized that a year ago i didn't know any of these people or anything about the east coast and i just felt so grateful that night for the experiences i've had in the past year. moving to boston was not easy and sometimes still isn't easy. i miss my family and utah and sometimes i miss what i thought i was going to have with a certain person that is no longer even in my life.  but. with all of that said-  i've learned lessons and grown in ways i couldn't have done elsewhere and i'm grateful God knows where i need to be better than i do. i'm grateful he led me to this place which is now such a big part of my heart. 

aaaand back to the campout recap. :)

since we were hot from dancing a bunch of us decided to jump into our swimsuits and get in the lake. i am usually the person who is like "noooo it's cold and dark" and a baby but i felt so hot that nothing sounded better. the water was freezing but getting used to it happened quickly since everyone already in the lake would just be like "oh! megan is here! hiiiiii megan" all the while splashing me/anyone to death. this happened to each and every person and i wish someone had recorded it because it was so funny to me!

we then stood by the fire for another hour or so until my body was too cold to handle being in a swimsuit any longer so we changed and probably should have gone to bed but instead went and had hot chocolate and ice cream with the other people in the mess hall (yes, i'm aware everything about this post makes it sound like we are at youth conference and not 25+ year olds). i mainly let it happen because i wanted to charge my phone and fell asleep while john talked to people about politics. as we left and he walked me back to my cabin it began to pour so we sat on the enclosed deck and listened to the rain and watched it fall into the lake for probably an hour. it was a perfect end to a perfect night. 

i woke up thrilled to see favorite friends rachel and mccall to my right and that pretty lake to my left. i wanted to lay there all day but instead we got up, got dressed for church (which no one else thought to do - i admit i got so judgy (unsurprisingly) as everyone partook of the sacrament in their pajamas), had a wonderful testimony meeting, and then packed up. 

then our really great 26 hour camping trip ended with austin showing us what he learned on the discovery channel about how to get a lobster to fall asleep (it really worked!) and soaking in the camping smells and trees for just a little longer. i was sad to head back to boston so early (if it were up to me we would have made pit stops along the way to enjoy various parts of new hampshire) but sometimes you date people with responsibilities (slash people who have to fly to new york every sunday) so you take what you can get. :)