I am truly grateful for any opportunity I have to visit my mama, and when I knew there was going to be a party for her, and I wouldn’t be able to be there, I was so sad.  But then we found out that there is a cheap direct flight on Allegiant from Austin to Provo, and since I could swing the $100 ticket to do that, maybe I could rent a car and figure out the rest. Well, renting a car wasn’t going to be as easy as I had thought, until I looked into Turo – think Airbnb for cars – and soon, I had a reasonably priced rental for the week and a way to get to Twin Falls.

And so on Thursday morning, Kevin drove me to the airport in Austin and I was on my way. I always love coming in over the mountains – I am a western girl, raised alongside the Sierra Nevada’s.  I had never flown into Provo before, and it was cool to land there, especially because I got a great view of the almost complete Orem Temple.  So Cool! My friend, Angela, picked me up, we grabbed lunch and dessert for the road from Fillings and Emulsions – so good – and then she dropped me off at my rental car, and I was on my way to Idaho.

When I arrived, my mom and I got the afternoon and evening with just the two of us before everyone started arriving for the party, and then my Monday afternoon, it was back to the two of us.  We had such a wonderful week!  I started almost every day (when it wasn’t FREEZING, which it was, a lot) with a two mile walk along my mom’s road, which ends at a wheat field.  It is my favorite, and I love seeing it in the early morning light. Or late morning light, on the mornings it was too cold to start out super early ;).

Being at my mom’s always brings the adventures of drop-ins from grandkids and my sisters that live in Twin. I love it.  One day, when Savannah was over, she had to show me how she could fit her entire body in a cupboard – talk about talent!  Ha ha! I guess she used to be able to have the door close, but has grown a bit the past month.

Speaking of Savannah, she had a clogging recital one of the nights I was there, and afterward, she gave me a little performance.  It was super cute.

One of the especially awesome things about my visit, was getting to spend quality time with most of my siblings.  We had a dinner at Peking with Heather and Tom, Matthew and Susan, and my mom and Holly. I got to spend time with Preston and his wife, Heather, and more fun things. Like when my sister, Heather and I took my mom to go and see the new Top Gun: Maverick movie – which was fantastic, by the way. 

I also went out to lunch with my mom and sister Holly, and then was also able to go to dinner with my mom and my sister Cheryl. I wish I had gotten a picture of us together, but I did get a picture of my mom with her birthday desserts at both Sizzler and the Olive Garden :).

One morning, I carved out time in between all of my work and projects for my mom, to go out on a hike along the canyon with my friend, Marci. She is really good friends with my mom, and had mentioned wanting to go, and you don’t have to do much convincing to get me to go walk the canyon rim. It is so beautiful! We walked down toward the falls, and even though there wasn’t much water going over them right now (it is irrigation season), it was still gorgeous.

One of the big work projects I had during my visit, was to go around and take pictures of various cabinetry projects for Premier Woodworking. There were so many gorgeous homes with spectacular cabinets, and this is just a sampling. It was especially fun to take the pictures this time, as I have spent the last six month designing cabinets for Premier, and so now I have a completely different outlook.

And since I was driving all over creation – all the way to Heyburn and Rupert, I got to see a lot of beautiful Idaho scenery along the way. Some of the homes had the most fabulous views of either the mountains, the canyon, and/or the river. So pretty!!

One of the best parts of my week was getting to attend the temple with my mom. It is harder for her to get there alone, and so she doesn’t get to attend as often as she would like. And I am always happy to go to the temple, even more so after how long they were closed because of Covid restrictions. We had a lovely time there.

And later that day, we took care of business and got my mom a new phone. We had to wait quite a while for her new phone to get the info from her old phone, and so we wandered around the Magic Valley Mall for a while. I hadn’t been there in ages, and it was crazy to see the businesses that were no longer there – I think the Covid shutdown hit them hard. While I was there, I stopped by the jewelry store where Kevin had my diamond put in my wedding ring, and discovered that the prongs were wearing out and that I needed to get it repaired asap. How fortuitous!

On Saturday, I made my way back to Utah to drop off my rental car and get ready for my flight on Sunday morning. I had to take the opportunity to meet up with my good friend, Annalie and her daughter (one of my old YW), Natalie. We had brunch at a cute little place by where she lives in Syracuse, and had the best time talking and catching up. And my giant scone was so yummy – even though it was way more of a dessert than a meal – ha ha!

On my drive from there to Orem, I stopped in Salt Lake at a kitchen store I have been following on Instagram for ages, and have always wanted to go to – Orson Gygi. I had the best time wandering around and finding the random things on my list – although I had to stop myself from buying ALL the stuff.  It was like kitchen supply heaven. (I did have to leave most of my stuff behind for when we come back next month, since it wouldn’t fit in my carry-on. Oh well.)

I got to Angela’s house by dinner time, and not only did she make us a fabulous dinner of curry chicken Hawaiian Haystacks, but we stopped off at Crumble to get some cookies for dessert. We created a sampling platter for each of us, and they were so good!  Rob was out of town, but since Kevin wasn’t with me, it was actually better, because it meant that Angela and I could just talk and talk. She got to show me the amazing renovations they did on their back yard, and we really had the most wonderful time catching up. So grateful that my husband’s best friend married someone all those years ago that feels like a sister to me!!

Sunday morning came much too early, and soon I was at the tiny Provo airport, ready to fly out.  I am so grateful that I got there really early, because by the time we were ready to board the plane, there were so many people in the tiny waiting  area, that most of the people had to stand, and there wasn’t room to move. Craziness!

Before I knew it, I had landed in Austin, and although they were a bit delayed because of traffic, soon my boys were there to get me. It was such a wonderful trip, but there really is no place like home ;).