A full weekend in Utah

One of my best friends, Mara, is having a baby in December. She was in Utah (from Atlanta) the past couple weeks and one of the reasons was for a baby shower. When I got the invitation in the mail I casually said to Paul, "These are the kinds of things I miss about being closer to friends." I had no plans of making it because we had a busy weekend planned, but Paul surprised me with a plane ticket to go. It was a little stressful getting prepped to go. Even though I was excited and thankful to Paul, I struggle with surprises (for a lot of reasons, but I won't try and explain my brain right now). The older two kids stayed home with Paul, and I took Charlie with me. They were a little sad to see me go, but I reminded them that they got to go to their friends birthday party after they dropped me off, so they were okay. 

Charlie fell asleep before take off and didn't wake up till I stood up to get off the plane. Same with the flight home today, and we even had a 30 minute delay while a toilet got fixed. And two screaming toddlers the whole flight and she slept through all of it.

Once we got to Utah we had just enough time to change, get the gift ready, and head to the shower. Mara didn't know I was coming and even though I don't love surprises, I love surprising! It was so good to see her, and her baby bump! And lots of other friends too. And by 'baby bump' I mean, my five month postpartum bump is bigger than her five months pregnant bump. 

I crammed as much as possible into this less-than-48-hour trip. Poor Charlie was worn out by Sunday evening but she was a little trooper. The only naps she got were carseat naps, and she went a lot of places and met a lot of people. 

After the shower, we went straight to dinner with these ladies. My mom is in the middle, and the other three are military/government friends we met in Germany. I used to babysit the one on the left and she just moved to Utah from Maryland for college. I also babysat her two older brothers. One of them is on a mission, and the other one is married. Not much makes me feel older than running onto kids I once babysat and seeing them as adults. It was such a great evening. Truly people you can go years without seeing and pick right back up without missing a beat. My face hurt from all the laughing. 

Sunday morning I met Dana, my (practically) sister for breakfast. Two hours flew by and we both wished we had all day to talk. 

From there we went to sacrament meeting with my parents. So, I don't do the three hours of church anymore, but how do parents of napping aged kids handle anything but 9AM church?? She'd had a good car nap right before, but was still so tired and restless. Hats off to you afternoon church goers. 

We headed back to Salt Lake after church to see Mara and Aron again. I'm so happy these two are having a baby. Mara is a natural with kids. All three of mine have instantly loved her and they are so excited to meet baby Elsie next spring. This women was made for motherhood. 

And from there it was off to Scott and Laura's brand new house in Farmington for dinner. 

Charlie Realene and her great Auntie Realene. 

And first thing this morning, we flew home. 

I was so happy to see Garrett and Addie. They seemed happy to see me too. Addie was more happy about the airplane animal crackers I gave her, but the tight hugs made me believe they missed me a little. And when we got home I made them breakfast and Garrett's prayer went like this, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the food. Thank you that we're all safe. Thank you for mom and Charlie coming home so we can play around. I love them. In Jesus' name, Amen." It's good to be home...

More on 'California is Home' coming soon.