Family Wedding and a Football Game...

Here's my journal entry for today...

Friday morning we got up early and showered and got ready to go down to Manti.  Megan had yogurt and fruit out for us for breakfast to eat quickly and take with us in the car which was really nice!!  We said more good byes (sigh) and headed to the Manti Temple and got there just in time to change into our white temple clothing for the sealing at 10am.  It was an all-white sealing as the sealing room was off the Celestial Room.  (That’s the first all-white sealing I’ve ever been to in a temple!)  It was a beautiful sealing for Maria DeGraffenried and Michael Freeman.  It was also fun to see the family again and visit with them before.  After, we did the whole picture thing and then we drove to Fillmore for the luncheon at the Old Stevens Hotel there.  It was really nice!  Then we drove to Jenell’s house and she and I sat on the couch and just visited for a couple of hours!  Brooke had Orientation activities all day.  We texted back and forth a bit… 

In the evening we went with Jenell and Owen to Jed’s HS Football game at Millard.  It was fun to watch a small town football game!  He caught 3 interceptions!  (He's #1 in the picture)  He played really well.  After, Jenell and Owen and Bill and I went to Costa Vida—we hadn’t eaten dinner yet and were hungry.  Got home and said our good byes to them because we had to get up super early to head back to Arizona!  Got to bed LATE again, too!

Brooke and CC went to the NSO dance on Friday night and met 2 cute guys who asked them on dates for Saturday night...

Freshman and Parent Orientation Day... Which Means Good-bye Day... Mom Is Having a Hard Time With This!!!

Here's my journal entry for today:

Thursday was New Student Orientation and Parent Orientation.  (NSO is Thursday through Saturday—3 days!)  We went to the Marriott Center and sat with Brian Brooksby and the Harts and saw Brooke when she came in with her Y Group.  It was a nice convocation and they showed a video that told all the history of BYU and how it came to be.  It was a really interesting video!  We heard talks by the student body president and other students and President Worthen also addressed everyone.  He encouraged the students to figure out the “why” behind the “Y”.  It was a great speech!  After, Brooke and all the students left—took them a long time to file out, and the parents all stayed in the Marriott Center for lunch and a speaker.  We just got the catered box lunch and listened to the speaker while we ate.  We went to our break out sessions at the MARB and then met up with Brooke at 3:00 when her sessions ended.  We took Brooke to Swig and got sodas and cookies and then went back to her dorm where Bill gave her a Father’s Blessing.  I’m so glad we didn’t forget to do that!  THEN, we had to say our good byes…UGH!  After we hugged and left I felt horrible, but didn’t have any tears… but they did come later!  I think all the emotions just made it so I couldn’t cry after we said good bye.  I didn’t want Brooke to see me emotional either because I don’t want her to be sad and/or homesick.  But tears or no tears, the whole thing was just awful!! 

Our plans changed for the evening…instead of going to Kanosh to the reception, we decided to stay one more night and stay at Megan’s house and spend some time with her.  I’m so glad we did!  So Bill and I went and got some dinner at the Creamery (Hamburgers…awful!) and then headed over to Megan’s house.   (We decided not to go to the stadium to see all the Freshmen make the Y in the stand and just go straight to Megan’s house.)  We didn’t let her know soon enough and she didn’t have enough food for us for dinner as she had Todd’s sister Jill over for dinner.  So we got there right as they were finishing dinner—a bit awkward!  Jill stayed and visited for a bit (seemed like forever!) and then left.  Then Tanner came over, which Megan wasn’t too happy about… apparently he’s over there a lot and eats their food and turns their A/C on, etc. without asking.  Megan just wanted it to be us there, without Tanner.  I guess he’s going through kind of a rough time, so I told Megan to be kind to him.  I did tell her to talk to Todd about it, which she had and also to talk to Tanner about it, which she had… so I guess she just needs to be patient!  She’s done everything she can.  We had a lot of fun though.  We played Shanghai  Rummy, which even though Megan wanted it to be just us, was a fun thing to do in a group like that.  I enjoyed myself and felt like we all had a really fun time!  We ended up going to bed pretty late after we finished the game.

At home, Katelyn had her first swim meet away at Valley Vista and Willow Canyon at the Surprise Pool.  She swam the Medley Relay and did the Fly, the 200 IM, the 100 Fly and the 400 Free Relay.  She said she slipped on the block for the 200 IM start.  I always worry about that.  Everything was ok, though.  She also sold muffins early that morning as well to raise funds for the team.  Boy, stuff that happens at home seems a million miles away when you’re on a different track somewhere else!  I try to keep up with stuff going on at home, but it’s just hard! 

Below is all these girls at registration for orientation and they met up with Mark Anderson, who is a Y Group Leader--small world on BYU Campus!  In the next picture Brooke is in the sea of Freshman at the Marriott Center second row down on bottom section pictured and the 3rd one over, the second to last picture is the "You are the Y" picture they took later that night...Bill and I missed that because we went to Megan's house, instead.  Brooke says she's in the upper left section of the Y!  We missed the swim meet but I found this last picture on the team website.  Wish I could be two places at once!!!  I HATE missing my kids' activities and I missed Katelyn while we were gone!!!!! 

Fun Day With Brooke!!!!!!

Today Brooke and I had fun!!!  Here's my journal post:

Wednesday was another fun and FULL day!  I went for my run early and then Brooke and I went down for breakfast at the hotel at 8am—per Brooke’s request!  She wanted to be over at the dorm’s early to finish organizing all her stuff before CC got there.  She also wanted to get some pictures on campus first, so we left the hotel at 8:30 which was our goal, as well, and got some pictures by the entrance signs of BYU—“Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve” and “The World is Our Campus”—both right next to Helaman Halls.  Brooke is such a pretty girl.  CC’s sister Dani came from Rexburg that morning with her daughter Charlie to surprise CC!!  I thought that was so cool!  So she met us there in the dorm room and then around 9:30 or so CC showed up with her mom and dad and Preston and his wife Ashley and their little boy.  It was a FULL dorm room with all those bodies—Brooke and I were so grateful that we’d gotten all our setting up done the day before and our boxes and garbage cleared out of there, because it was a super big mess plus all the people in there.  Brian got their router and internet wi-fi all set up and they also brought a printer, so that will be super nice for Brooke and CC!  It took Brian the whole time they were setting up the dorm and unpacking to get all the tech stuff set up!  That was SO nice of him!  I just love Debbie, too!  She’s so much fun!  We helped them as much as we could with bringing stuff up and helping to unpack her clothes and get them hung.  Meanwhile, Dad flew into Provo that morning—Megan went and picked him up at the Provo airport.  He went over to her house and helped them get stuff situated, which was a big help to Megan.  Then back at the dorm room, the Brooksby’s and Brooke and I decided to go get some lunch at the Wilkinson Center, so we drove over there.  It was fun to visit with Debbie while we ate-- CC and Brooke finished eating quickly and went to get CC’s ID.  (Brooke got hers back in July when we were here.)  Then we went to the bookstore and picked up Brooke’s textbooks upstairs.  After, Brooke and I went shopping for a winter coat at Burlington and we found one right off the bat!  I was glad that it didn’t take too long to find one she liked.  It’s super cute and kind of a sage green color.  We went to Wal-Mart and got all the stuff we realized we needed after unpacking and setting up Brooke’s dorm up.  Then we met up with Bill, Megan and Todd at Bed Bath and Beyond to use up their wedding money there to get the things they needed for their new apartment.  That was fun.  Then we headed back to the dorms and got lots of cute pictures of Brooke and CC on their beds with all their cute decorations.  Both turned out SO CUTE!  I got some with Brooke too!  Then Bill and Megan and Todd showed up and we got some with them too!  It was just a big party in the room, because Brooksby’s and all their crew were there as well!  Later, after running more errands, Brooke and I met up with Todd and Megan and Bill at a Korean BBQ Restaurant in Orem called Yummies.  It was really good food!  Todd helped us to know what to order.  Brooke ended up staying at the dorms that night with CC and Bill and I at the hotel.  I’m glad she decided to stay there even though I missed her!  Ugh… it’s starting (those awful emotions of change and good-byes) and I feel so yucky!  I’m already missing her and we haven’t even said our good byes yet!  Brooke and CC went to the dance at the Cannon Center but came back to their dorm pretty early because they were so tired.  I’d texted her around 11:30pm and never got a text back thinking it was because they were having so much fun, but it really ended up being that they were already asleep!  Hahahaha!  I thought that was funny because I was up and she wasn’t and she’s a free college student now!  That’s role reversal! 

Picture 4 and 5 are the view out Brooke's dorm room...so pretty!  That is the football stadium and we could hear the band practicing at night!  (They are SO good and fun to listen to!!!)  The very last picture shows Allie Hart... she is downstairs on the first floor, so they will be nice and close although not in the same ward.  I'm sure they are excited to all be together! Notice before I ironed Brooke's tapestry versus after it was ironed!  I had to beg her to do it, but she finally agreed that it looked better ironed!  Hahaha!  It was so fun to help her get her dorm room all set up and organized! 

Moving Into Helaman Halls Taylor Hall...

It was move in day and very nostalgic for me as Brooke is living in Helaman Halls... I lived in May hall but it brought back so many memories!  I'm so excited for Brooke!  Here is my journal entry for today:

Tuesday morning I woke up at 6am and went for a run.  Jenell and I went for a walk and when we came back I had to hurry and get ready.  Brooke was already ready and said that Maskovich’s had called letting us know that Alex needed the stuff we’d brought up right away, so I hurried and showered and we got out of there by 9:30 or so.  We drove to Provo and the first thing we did was find Alex and give him his box of stuff.  (First we picked up a new key to our Condo from FCS because it was on the way to do that first, and then we headed to BYU campus to meet up with Alex.)  I got a bit confused with buildings, but we found him.  On the drive up, Brooke and I decided to do early check-in at the dorms.  It was only $15 and we thought it would be good to beat the rush of everyone moving in on Wednesday.  We had so much fun unloading and setting up her room.  She and I both brought stuff up and then we’d try to put it away as we went but I realized that Brooke needed to decide where things went, so I brought most of the stuff up.  After it was all up, I helped Brooke with her bed and putting her Cactus Tapestry and lights up on her wall.  Her room looked super cute when we finished!  It took us pretty much all day from about 11:30 to about 4:30!  We didn’t think it would take that long!  We went and saw Todd and Megan’s new apartment in Wyview—they moved in on Tuesday as well!  (Lots of moving!)  It’s a really cute place!  I felt badly that I couldn’t be there to help Megan too!  Then Brooke and I dropped some stuff off at the Condo and then went and checked into our hotel at Springhill Suites.  After, we went with Todd and Megan to Costa Vida for dinner.  It was fun to all be together.  After, we went to their apartment which was still full of boxes and stuff, as they’d just moved in.  We visited with them there and then decided to go back to our hotel to watch a movie.  Todd didn’t want to come, so we made it a girl’s night!  We watched Ocean’s 8 which I’ve seen, but Brooke and Megan hadn’t seen it and it’s a pretty cute movie.  It was a fun, full and EXHAUSTING day!  Brooke’s dorm is on the 3^rd floor, so I was packing heavy loads up those stairs for a good part of the day, so I was really tired!  Megan drove herself home after, so we went to bed right after the movie was over. 

In the first picture, we'd mostly moved in by then (we forgot to get a before picture and a during picture), the 2nd picture is Brooke's new address for her first home away from home and the 3rd picture is of our girls night at the hotel...

BYU or BUST!!! Brooke Is On Her Way! The First of Many Hard Good-byes...

Here is my journal entry for today...

Monday Brooke and I got an early start… we left at 6:15 in the morning.  I didn’t expect it, but it was really hard for Katelyn and Brooke to say good bye!  There were some tears as they hugged!  It was hard to watch!  I’m feeling that way, so it was hard to watch them deal with all those feelings!  We had a really fun drive up and she stayed awake for most of the drive to help me stay awake!  She fell asleep just before Kingman and I was feeling REALLY sleepy, but we stopped for gas and I was ok for the rest of the drive!  We made it to Kanosh  by 3:30 Utah time  so we made it in just over 8 hours.  We had fun laughing and talking the whole way up!  Brooke is so much fun!  She just has so much personality!  We stayed with Jenell and Henry LOVES Brooke.  She’s so cute with him…while Jenell and I visited, she was downstairs with Henry playing Memory and other games with him and he LOVED it!  We went and helped Lisa and Dan set up for the wedding reception in their yard for Maria and Michael and then Brooke and I took all the kids home and fed them and got them to bed.  It was a late night as the chicken took a long time to cook and the kids did NOT want to go to bed!  It’s a school night for them but we eventually got them all to bed.  Jed, Mary and Luke were still up—Mary with Hyrum, trying to get him to bed, but when I went up to check on Mary, he’d finally fallen asleep.  Brooke and I shared Mary’s bed and Brooke was already asleep.

This was a LONG day but we made it as far as Kanosh! 

Paisley's Birthday Bath!

Here's a picture of Paisley after her bath and the other 3 are after she got blow dried.  She turns ONE today!  Happy birthday Paisley!  She's such a little nut and was running around like a crazy dog after her bath... we couldn't get her to settle down for a picture.  She's going to miss Brooke!