My Utah Getaway: All by myself!

We love living in NC. And the longer we live here, the more it feels like home.
But then there are those days.

When you have a brand new niece and a brand new nephew born the same week.  And they both live TWO THOUSAND miles away.

Those are the hard days.

Facebook and Instagram and picture texts help... but it's not the same as snuggling a new baby!

So, I asked Andrew if I could take a little getaway to Utah to meet those babies.

And, being the amazing husband that he is, he said YES.

Yippee!

I never fly. And I never travel by myself. It was different.

I flew from Greensboro to Charlotte first. I sat next to a nice man who works in Winston and flies home to Florida every weekend to watch his daughter play in badminton tournaments. I don't know any competitive badminton players, but apparently that's a thing.

From Charlotte, I flew right to SLC. I sat next to the NICEST woman who became one of my new instant BFF's. I asked her where she was from. And we talked for the next TWO AND HALF HOURS without stopping. It was hilarious. I love her. She told me I can look her up when I'm in Florida. Yay.

When I planned the trip, I was going to stay my first night with Andrew's parents. But since we made those plans, Wyatt was diagnosed with leukemia and they have temporarily moved to MN to help Ang and Forr. So, one of Barb's best friends, Debbie, who is also AMAZING and I could talk to her all day, picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at Barb and Dennis' house, where I got to stay all by myself. It was so quiet.

The next day, I headed down south to spend a couple of days with Tony, Cindy, and their SEVEN awesome kids. Woo hoo!

First, I got to snuggle with TRUMAN.

Such a sweet boy! 

 I had lots of great auntie bonding time with him.

LOVED it.

Babies are the best.

When there are seven kids in your family,

there is always something going on.

The house is so full of life.

I loved sharing little moments like these.

Reagan making letter pancakes for her siblings.

Such a great big sis. 

Cindy and I snuck over to campus and sat it on one of 

Brother Sweat's religion classes.

He is such an awesome teacher.

I would love to take his classes.

(But I heard his tests are hard!)

One of my requests while we were there was to 

HIKE THE Y.

These kids are awesome hikers. 

It was a first for both Truman and me! 

It was a tough hike!

Or else I'm just not in hiking shape.

But we had a gorgeous view from the top.

And got to watch the sun go down as we hiked down.

You could see FOUR temples from up there.

So fun.

The next day, Cindy and I headed to the 

newly-opened Provo City Center Temple.

It is spectacular.

We left a few minutes late because my stupid alarm didn't go off.

And we didn't make it into the session we were hoping for.

So, I hope we get blessed for our good intentions. 

We spent the rest of the day playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf and then Tone and Cind took me out to dinner at the Art City Trolley restaurant. Tony said I had to try a quesadilla. What? How can a quesadilla be that good? Oh, it is. Soooo good. I want to go back and eat another one. Darn two-thousand mile problem.

The next morning I said goodbye to these cheeks.

And everyone else.

And drove over the mountains to meet my new niece.

It was hard to believe that I was snorkeling in the 

Caribbean the previous week

when there were SNOW DRIFTS on the side of the road!

Brrrrrrr..... 

I love driving around Utah.

Gorgeous! 

Look at Trinity!

She's a doll! 

She's cuddly and let me rock her to sleep,

which I TREASURED. 

She has the biggest eyes. 

I LOVE them!

I'm afraid if she were my kid,

she could get away with anything

by just batting those big eyes at me! 

Went to church with Mom and Dad on Sunday morning.

It was stake conference and they both sang in the choir.

I also had a great time hanging out with Olivia and Quinn.

They are such fun girls. 

Auntie heaven. 

And, of course, it's always WONDERFUL

to hang out with Destiny.

Sister time is the best!

And then, too quickly, it was time to head

back over the mountains. 

And back on a plane to NC.

I made another friend, Julie, who was about my age with four kids really close to our kids' ages. We also talked and talked and talked on the way to Dallas. So fun to share experiences and learn from each other.

All of my travels had gone so smoothly.... 

but we were delayed a couple of hours at DFW.

It was a lonely couple of hours

sitting on the airport floor.

I was afraid I was going to have to stay the night,

but we eventually made it out of there.

And sweet Andrew picked me up at 1:30 in the morning.

He had quite an adventure with the kids while I was away.

Many, many bus mishaps.

Things that have NEVER happened in our 10 years of bus riding.

But he handled everything like a champ!

I got just enough auntie love to tide me over until July when I can see those cuties again!