A Utah Long Weekend

Coming home from Isaac's wedding I was sad. I barely got to see Isaac and Molly and I barely got to see my sister. Between not having enough time off of work, Thomas leaving for his mission, and all the money spent on the wedding, Suzanne wasn't able to come to Canada this summer. I can't remember exactly when I started planning to go see Suzanne, but I did. And goodness what an awesome long weekend I had! I kept my trip very quiet. I didn't post about it on social media, and I didn't tell my Miller cousins I was coming. As it turns out most of them were away so it didn't matter, but I just wanted to spend time with my sister and my brother and their families.

It turns out I had enough airmiles to pay for most of the flight. I think I only had to be $200 ish for my return direct flight from Toronto to Salt Lake!

Thursday

I started the day walking the dog with my favourite human.

And it was 7-11 day, so after some weeding in the garden, we went to 7-11 to get slurpees. I was so excited about potentially celebrating 7-11 day in two countries!

And then it was time to finish packing and leave. Ken and I chatted, it was in the middle of the work day for him and he would lose so much time to drive me to the airport, so instead, he dropped me off at the GO Train. I was really nervous, but it ended up being really easy.

Step One: GO Train Ajax - Union Station

Here I am on the train.

Step Two: Walk from one place to another in union station and get on the UP Express. (UP = Union - Pearson)

Step Three: Shuttle from one terminal to the other.

Step Four: Check-in.

Step Five: Go through security, customs, and then wait at the gate.

Step Six: Fly on an awesome flight. Watch silly movies, but mostly text back and forth with Kate as she watched my flight the whole way across - it was fun!

(I brought chips at Michelle's request - and they puffed up like crazy on the flight!)

Step Seven: Find your sister and her cute kid and go to her house! The day of travel was easy and great and I'm so happy to be in Utah for an extra long weekend. We missed the exit for 7-11 and Suzanne was exhausted and just didn't want to backtrack, so my hopes and dreams of an International Celebration of 7-11 day were dashed lol.

Friday

Today was hang out with Ben and have lunch with Suzanne day. 

Ben got stung by a wasp, so that stunk. He did eventually recover poor kid.

The doggies had just gotten haircuts and they looked so cute!

Suzanne dropped Ben and I off at the Church History Museum. 

It was really, really hot out, but we went for a short walk around temple square anyway. There is so much construction. The only building that you can visit is the tabernacle. Ben and I didn't go inside but we looked at the construction a bit and the gardens.

After that Suzanne picked us up and we went for lunch around the corner with Lois, one of the reporters that works at Deseret News. Suzanne wanted the two of us to meet and so we did. Lois was delightful to talk to. She's fascinating, and has an awesome sense of humour. 

Suzanne worked for the afternoon and then Tommy, Suzanne and I went to do an endowment session at the Layton Temple. The temple is so beautiful. It was dedicated on June 16  - so basically a month ago.

Thomas wanted Moe's and so that is what he had. It's South West grill - I guess Tex Mex? It was yummy.

Meanwhile at home, the girls took the bus and went to the Minion Movie today. They enjoyed it.

Saturday

I thought Fiona would have an easier time than when I did the same thing two years ago (ran off to Utah by myself), but she was having a hard time again. We chatted on messenger a few times during the trip. We started the day with a chat on the porch. I love sitting on Suzanne's front porch. I did not enjoy getting stung by a wasp, but then at least we figured out that the wasps were building a nest, and Matthew was able to get rid of it. And apple cider vinegar for the win! The pain was gone really quickly.

Suzanne and I started the day with a trip to Harmon's grocery store. The one in Farmington is huge and glorious. There are so many fun gf products!

The number of Katz products that don't exist in Canada - or at least I haven't found yet. I took a pic so I could remember them. I bought the mini muffins. 

Today is Thomas' birthday. He's 19 today. I remember when he was born. And because he's born in July, I've had the fun of celebrating a number of birthdays with him!

Waffles with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast.

It's also Farmington Days. There was a parade and Matthew took Ben. Ben got a lot of candy and fun stuff.

The Bacons arrived! It's crazy and awesome that I saw Jon, Michelle, Seth and Lovey in May, in June and in July!

Michelle and I took Ben to target and Ben picked out a card for Thomas, it was too cute. We also did a bunch of food prep this afternoon for tomorrow. Suzanne was going to help us out but instead someone attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania so Suzanne was glued to her computer reporting and watching the news.

And because it was Farmington Days there were fireworks. Even better was being able to watch them from the porch. The fireworks display was epic. It went on for so long, it was crazy.

Sunday

It's farewell and setting apart day. Thomas was so stressed about speaking in church today. Everyone got ready and we got there in good time, seats were saved. All was good.

I was jokingly telling Tommy how disappointed I was because I wouldn't have a selfie with him speaking in church! I have a selfie with Isaac at his homecoming and selfies with Joey and Marcus for their farewells. So I snuck some pics in church!

Thomas did an amazing job speaking in church. He spoke so well, with so much poise. His testimony was beautiful. It was funny though because I was starting to get worried he wouldn't get to speak at all! The first speaker kept going and going and going. Thankfully Tommy pulled his thoughts together and shared them in the time he had in such a beautiful way.

After church - we only stayed for the first hour, family and a few friends came back to the house. Jan, Chris, Danielle and their boys came. Jon and Michelle, and then some friends of Jon and Michelle - Tim and Kim - the couple who took our family pictures in 2009 were in town from Texas and they came over with their girls. As well as a few of Thomas' high school friends and baseball teammates. It was a lovely gathering.

After everyone left we sat down to watch a movie. Thomas chose the movie "Interstellar" as his last movie. I'd never seen it before, Thomas made me sit and watch it, he even went back to the beginning - I hadn't been watching. It was such a great movie. 

Then it was setting apart time. The Stake President came to the house and sat with all of us for a while. He gave Thomas a beautiful setting apart blessing. I took the following notes:

Anna prayer - your family loves you and we all know you'll be a great missionary

Suzanne advice - charity

Matthew advice - Book of Mormon - learn it love it preach it 

Pres Crowley - cherish every moment, it goes by so fast

Set apart blessing 

Enjoy your MTC experience 

Gift of tongues - study you will learn Spanish

Learn to teach 

Love of the Guatemalan people

Love their culture

Teach them the culture of the gospel

Cherish your relationships with your companions - special friendships for a lifetime

Companionships that are difficult - bless with patience

Blessed with safety and protection 

Blessed with discernment - to know when to stay and when to go, where to go

Your family - loves you supports you

After that we took lots of pictures with the newly minted Élder Bates.

Talking to Fiona on messenger gets more and more interesting!

Monday

The morning started with saying goodbye to Jon and his family. They left really early to drop Lovey off at soccer camp at BYU.

I had originally thought that I would go home on Monday, but there were no flights available, only red eye flights that would get me home on Tuesday, so what's the point of that?! When I knew I was going to be there I reached out to one person, Heidi. She cleared her schedule and she and Todd drove down from Rexburg, picked me up, and then we spent the day in Provo visiting her Mom, Sister Jeanne, Brother Chris and Son Sam. It was the best. I felt honoured that Heidi and Todd drove down to be with me and it filled my soul to spend the day with her. It was a perfect day and a perfect visit.

We visited Rob to give him a bottle of Strawberry stuff that Heidi had made him for his birthday. But he's allergic to strawberry, so he didn't get a birthday present.

Sam makes these for Dungeons and Dragons gaming. They're amazing!

Sam was so excited to show Heidi and Todd his gardens.

We went for lunch at Cafe Rio. 

And then we went to this cute little store in Provo filled with all sorts of fun things.

The day didn't last long enough, but I was so grateful for every minute of it! 

Suzanne's cute dogs love me, so the snuggles were a good end to the day.

And sitting on top of Rex's head is an original print from Mama Buchert. The fox looks like Milo and even though I have no association with tomatillos the whole print just made me happy. Now to get it home and get it framed! I needed an Ellen Buchert original!

Tuesday

Anna left bright and early for a babysitting job. She's 16! She's got wheels, and she's on the go a lot. She had been really sick before I got there, but thankfully she was feeling better before the Thomas festivities began.

And it was goodbye to Ben.

Goodbye to the dogs and the porch.

And goodbye to my sister, although sadly I forgot to take a selfie. Oh well! Next time!

I got to my gate to board my flight, after almost leaving Ellen's print at security, and who did I find?! Sarah Peck and her fiancé Ken Stewart. They were on the same flight, flying home to visit with family and have a reception in Hamilton on Saturday night. It was so crazy to see them. I visited with them in the gate area which was really neat.

I had a middle seat on the way home and didn't take quite as many pictures, but I still took a few. 

When I was talking to Ken about coming home I could just tell he didn't want to come to the airport to get me. I really wanted him to come get me, but I lied and told him that I was happy to take the train home. It wasn't that bad really, but it did take a while! Here I am on the UP express.

And standing part of the way home on the GO train. It was a crazy day today. A crazy line of storms went through Toronto and there was crazy flooding. There had been flooding in Union Station and GO train service had been disrupted. Thankfully I got there after most of the crazy had cleared and I was able to get home.

It was good to come home. I love my family. I left family to go to family. Having my heart divided geographically in so many ways is hard sometimes, but it does make for fun adventures.

Fiona and I took Milo on a great walk with a beautiful sunset.

And I finished the day eating some of the yummy cookies I had brought home with me.

I'm so so thankful that I was able to be there in Utah for Thomas' birthday, farewell and setting apart. I'm thankful I could attend the temple. I'm thankful for families and specifically for my family. I'm excited for Thomas. He's going to be a great missionary. Oh and I suppose I should add, he is called to serve in the Guatemala City, Guatemala mission. He'll do a week of home MTC and then he'll fly to Mexico City to the MTC for the rest of his training. Godspeed Thomas!