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.
