This is a big one!
The first week of May we started off on our journey to Utah. Ryan flew out to New Jersey early in the morning, and we hit the road nice and early too. (Though 15 minutes into the trip I realized I forgot all my fresh food stuff, which normally wouldn't be a big deal but we had one week left of our 8 week challenge and I was determined to stay strong. So I flipped around and went back for my food.)
Previous to this, my visiting teacher gave me a small jar of Mountain Peach Honey from Honeyville in Durango, CO. This stuff is liquid gold. So so good! Good enough that when I learned the Honeyville factory was in Durango, I decided to veer from my normal route to Utah in order to stop there. (Some argue that going to Durango is the same as going to Shiprock distance/time wise. I did find it to be a much prettier drive, but it definitely didn't save any time - even without the stop at Honeyville.)
This was our first big stop and totally worth it... even if I did take an hour to pick out honey. They had so many amazing flavors!
Watching the bees in their hive as well as the jars being filled with honey. P thought that was especially neat.
From there we pressed on to Utah. This was the longest the drive has ever taken us at 12.5 hours. Yes, the Honeyville stop added quite a bit of time, but it was worth it. It was a looooong day, but we made it in one piece.
We spent Saturday visiting with family and enjoying a day not strapped in the car. Sunday morning we went to church at BYU with Oma and Opa.
Sunday evening we had a wonderful FHE with all the local cousins. We talked about the early saints and why strength in numbers makes such a big difference. It was a very pleasant night and the kids loved spending time with family.
The girls: Jacki, (cute neighbor girl, I can't remember her name), Samantha, Devry, Issy, and Olivia. Funny though, that outfit that Devry is wearing is actually a dress that Kara gave us that is something like 6-9 months. She put it on as a shirt and refused to take it off. Love my tiny child. Kara had a bunch of clothes that she had purchased while working at The Children's Place that she didn't want to hold on to any more, so she gave them all to me. Thanks Kara!
All the kids, minus Freddy's bunch. We miss you guys! Back row: Tate, Zane, Deiderik, Preston, Paxton. Front row: Jacki, friend, Samantha, Devry, Issy, Pierscen, Olivia.
Getting ready for bed and taking silly pictures for daddy.
Monday the kids spent a little bit of time and Oma and Opa's while I went shopping for something to wear to the graduation in NJ.
Then we headed to Orem's new All Together Park to meet up with some of my dance friends and kiddos. We didn't manage to get a single picture of the kids, or adults together. In fact, I didn't get to talk to them much at all because Devry refused to play alone and only wanted to swing, but I spent most of the time in a corner playing with her. So not the most social outing, but the part was really neat.
The kids loved this tandem swing. When Pierscen first got on, or tried to, it wasn't as stable as he was expecting and he fell right off. I was that mother who couldn't stop laughing. He glared at me a bit, but wasn't hurt and eventually started laughing too.
Then he started being really goofy and biting her foot, which is actually pretty gross, but she thought it was the funniest thing in the world. From there we moved to these big chair swings where Devry and her "kitty" aka one of the cousins sparkly unicorns literally almost fell asleep. Those chairs must be pretty cozy! (Oh my. As I am typing this, Devry is sitting beside me looking at the pictures. She saw her "kitty" and is freaking out. She is actually in tears that it was left behind in Utah. Of course, she hasn't thought about it since the trip, but now that she see it again she MUST have it. To be fair, there was another little girl on the playground that had the exact same one. We happened to have "ours" in the car but I wasn't going to get it out. I really don't like taking toys to public places or on play dates. Anyway, she went into meltdown because she was so sure this other girl had stolen hers. That's why we had to go get hers out of the car. She was inconsolable!)
The next morning, Ryan's parents came to pick me up bright and early and we headed to the airport. First thing is first. This whole trip was made possible by my amazing mom. She volunteered to watch my kids so that I could go see Ryan graduate in person. What an amazing, selfless thing for her to do. I've never been away from this kids before. I was away from Pierscen one night during my first writers conference, but even then I was only an hour and a half away. I was sad to be leaving the kids, but knew they were in great hands. Thank you mom! You are incredible!
I would say these are obligatory pictures from the airplane, but I really took them because they are very mystical looking. The clouds pushed up right against the mountain just waiting to spill over. Reminded me of those fantasy shows were you can see the spell rolling toward you. Very cool.
We made it to NJ around 5pm and we took our first ever Uber ride. So glad we did. The drivers out there are crazy! I also had no idea that NYC was so close. Leaving the airport you could look over and see downtown Manhattan - the new world trade center and all. It was really cool! I've never been to NYC before, so that was weirdly kind of thrilling to be that close.
We made it to the hotel, but Ryan was still at an awards night so we set off to find food. The hotel is super, super nice. Way above what we would normally stay in - but this was where the school put the students and they offered a pretty significant discount to family. We were actually going to share a room with his parents, but when they booked the students they didn't have any rooms with two queens, so we ended up with separate rooms. Anyway, we really didn't want to pay the big bucks for something simple like a hamburger. We asked about our options, but there wasn't anything terribly close. We took the shuttle service to Walgreens to get something for Ellen. On the way, we passed Friendly's, a hamburger/ice cream place and asked to be dropped off there on our way back. We told the driver, who was going to be getting off shift soon, that we would walk back. It was only about a mile, but he was still surprised by this. The girl at the hotel desk told us people don't walk anywhere because there are no sidewalks. We had a good chuckle over that. Yes, it's a little more dangerous because again - the drivers are crazy, but not having a sidewalk seems like a silly reason not to walk! Besides, it's gorgeous out there! Why wouldn't you want to walk?!
So we enjoyed a nice, not expensive meal, and headed back to the hotel. By this point, Ryan had made it back and was swimming. We headed to the pool to say hello and to meet his college Matt - who is a very nice fellow. :) From the award ceremony, the rest of his cohort members went to the bar in the hotel. Ryan said they wanted to meet me. I opted to get in a short workout (as we were still in the last week of our 8 week challenge) and then we headed up. Everyone was SO nice, but I have never felt more uncomfortable in my life. And it had NOTHING to do with them. It was the fact that the bar/restaraunt was super nice - far fancier than anything I had ever been to, and there I was, in my workout clothes 22 weeks preggo. Classy, Diana. Classy. It was still really nice to meet all of these people I had heard so much about. We didn't stay long and headed back to the hotel to call it a night. Well sort of. Ryan still had a massive paper to work on. Lucky him. Haha!
But guess what? He wouldn't bring it up himself, but when pressed, I asked Ryan about who won the Student Leadership awards this year (cohort vote and teacher vote). Ryan won them both. Again! I am so proud of this guy! He gives whatever he does 100%. He is an inspiration to me in so many ways. He is very humble about it. Love him!
The next morning Ryan only had class until about noon, so I did some wandering around the area. Here's my official 22 week photo, new shirt courtesy of my mama bear. :) Mom was super generous and in addition to watching the kids, she gave me some money to buy some maternity stuff. I really like this shirt!
Here are a few photos of the hotel - The Madison, inside and out.
The conservatory. Isn't everything so beautiful?!
Just down the street there was a building with some really cool architecture that looked like a cathedral. So I went exploring. It is a women's college. I felt like I was trespassing a bit, even though it says it's open for visitors. The campus was really beautiful. So I took a couple pictures and then headed back to the hotel. On the way I discovered that the train station was literally on the other side of the hotel parking lot. I picked up a schedule, studied it, did some price checking against Uber, then went back to report my findings.
This was important because when we were at Friendly's the night before, Clair and Ellen learned that I had never been to NYC. Apparently Ryan didn't know this either. So they proposed going to see a show on Broadway and go play in the city for a few hours, their treat. How awesome is that?! I did some research and found that Phantom would be the cheapest - as it has been playing the longest. I have seen it once in London and Clair and Ellen saw it in NYC years ago. It is my favorite, but there were half a dozen I would have been thrilled to see too. But everyone voted Phantom. Then it was my turn to learn that Ryan has never seen it. Ahhhh! Then we must! I can't tell you how excited I was to get to share this part of me with him. So as soon as Ryan finished with his class, we opted to take the train into the city. I'm actually very impressed I was able to figure out the train schedule. It was an enjoyable way to get to the city too because we were just able to relax and take it in. It is so so beautiful out there. I can see why so many of the real estate shows focus out there. I just can't believe it costs so much to live out there. I don't know how any one can afford it.
Here's Ryan and Clair looking out the train window at NYC.
It took us a bit to navigate the underworld of the train/subway systems, but when he surfaced we came out on 34th street right by Macy's. Miracle on 34th street anyone?
We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. The city is... overwhelming. So many people. So many buildings. I've never been in a truly big city like that before. It's hard to comprehend living somewhere like this. Yes, there is an energy there, and it's fun to visit - but I like my space.
We first found The Majestic where we would be coming for the play. Then we kept walking.
We found Times Square, because you must, right? Haha. I can't say I really understand the draw to this one. It's a big open area with lots of billboards. I saw the ball that drops on New Years, so that was cool.
I don't know what the building was that's pictured below, but it was covered in really cool carvings.
At last we found Central Park. It is gorgeous! And such an amazing haven. The founders of that park really had some amazing foresight when they decided to build it in the middle of the city. It was incredible to walk even a few feet into the park and notice how the noise of the city just melted away.
I had one goal in the park, and that was to find the Balto statue. I loved the movie Balto growing up and when I realized we were going to Central Park, I remembered that that's how the movie starts - with Grandma Rosie showing her grandchild the statue of Balto. I would have been geeking out on my own anyway, but then I learned that none of the others had any clue what I was talking about. Then I was even more excited to find it. Here I was, the only one who hadn't been to NYC, and yet I was getting to share with them things that are big parts of my life!
I was a little worried at first about finding the statue because Central Park is HUGE, but thanks to good old Google Maps, it literally led us straight to him. Ta da!
Balto!!!
To be fair, if you look up the history of Balto, the movie definitely took some liberties and gave him a lot more credit than he probably deserved, but it's still an amazing story.
From there we just wandered. Ellen was hurting a bit, so they stopped to rest while Ryan and I just meandered. I think you could go there every day for a long time and still not see everything.
We went as far as we dare with the time we had, then looped back. It was a really nice, enjoyable time. (Even though Ryan was CRAZY exhausted, he was a great sport.)
On our way back to the theater, we stopped for some true NY pizza, which was totally delicious. We made it to The Majestic, picked up our tickets, and found our seats. I was really nervous because Ryan was so tired that we started dozing as soon as we sat down. I was desparate for him not to miss anything. The Phantom is just too amazing to sleep through! Thankfully, as soon as it started he was captivated.
It was SOOOO good! I love that show so much! I probably cried through the majority of it - not because it's sad, but because my little sensory feel goods get overwhelmed and I can't help it. Hahaha. When it ended, I turned to Ryan and said,
"So, what did you think?"
Keep in mind that "Fine" is high praise for him.
"It was really good."
I just about died. He liked it! He loved it! He thought it was REALLY good! I know, this is a strange thing to get all hyped up about, but I was so excited! Impromptu day in NY for the win!
As we were leaving, I was told that we needed to stop by... Juniors? (I can't actually read the label on the picture below now.) It's a cheesecake place. Ryan and I were torn because, as mentioned this was the last week of our challenge. This wasn't our sugar day AND it was after 9 pm. But we were good. We bought a couple slices, carried them home on the train, and put them in the sink covered in ice. Then we enjoyed them for breakfast the next day and oh was it delicious!
Thursday we headed over to Seton Hall University to walk around see the beautiful campus before graduation. It is a Catholic school. It was really neat to see the gorgeous church and architecture. But I think my favorite thing was being at a school like BYU, that still has a firm belief that science and religion can and do go together, rather that serving in opposition to each other.
Take this picture for example in the science building. The hand of God in the top left corner, the branches of science in the middle, and a scientist in the bottom right corner. Very cool.
Below is the Seton Hall crest. It's found sort of in the middle of campus. There is a superstition that if you step on it before graduation that you won't graduate. Ryan, of course, didn't know that for a while and walked across it a few times. Thank goodness that didn't turn out to be true!
Me and my man. So proud! This dress is also courtesy of my mama. I spent a few days looking for just the right dress for graduation and was feeling discouraged. But then the last place I went, which also happened to the be one store I was most skeptical about, I found this right out front on sale. It's not a maternity dress, which I was actually kind of glad about. It was perfect!
Mama bear, Papa bear, and son. So glad we were all able to go out and do this together!
If I haven't mentioned it before, their mascot is a pirate. That's what he's standing in front of. :)
Ryan got checked in and we went to find seats. As we were waiting, I flipped through the program and found this little tid bit:
You see that name there at the bottom? Yup! That's my man! Another award. Squeal! I went back and forth between feeling super giddy and slightly annoyed, figuring that he had known about it all along and once again didn't say anything. Turns out, however, that he had no idea until he was looking through the program either. Surprise!
None of the pictures below are terribly fantastic. I still need to get on the website and look at the professional ones and see how much they cost. These were taken from my lowly phone up in the balcony. But here come the graduates. Ryan is about smack dab in the middle in this photo.
Again, not great, but he is the third row back, right by the aisle, grinning.
The keynote speaker was wonderful. And awful. I'm kidding. I'm kidding! He did a spectacular job. He was once a very accomplished tri-athlete. He competed all over the place and won lots of events. Then he was hit by a car and paralyzed. Since then, he has worked like crazy to be able to compete once again in these same sports, but in the paralyzed division. There is a word for that and I cannot figure out what it is. Urg! Anyway, so when I say that he was awful, I mean that I knew Ryan was probably about to explode with enthusiasm and desire to train and compete. So in this sense, awful = inspiring. Haha. Really though, it was great!
Here are the photos of Ryan being hooded. Such an amazing experience. Love this man so so much!
I couldn't be more proud of this guy. Not many people could do it. Full time Masters program, with traveling for residency, full time work, amazing husband and father, and still fulfilling his callings. I am so thankful for his incredible example, work ethic, and drive. Love you Ry!
And then returning to the stage for his Nicholas Deprospo Award.
The sea of graduates moving their tassels. It is a small gesture, but such an awesome one. I remember with my Bachelors moving the tassel over and feeling like I had just climbed Mount Everest. Haha. And trust me, a degree in English doesn't even come close to what Ryan accomplished.
Following the ceremony, they served refreshments in the gym. The food was beautiful and very fancy. And not to my liking at all. Haha. I guess I don't have a very refined palate. Ryan's friend Matt drove us back to the hotel, but not before stopping at Friendly's for some "real" food. Yum yum yum.
Here are the two awards Ryan received, though the Servant Leadership Award on top is really two in a way - since that was the one where the students vote and then the teachers vote.
The next morning we all headed to the airport. Ryan's flight left before ours, but we didn't have a super long time to bum around either, so that was good. Below is the view of NYC from the Newark Airport.
Below is probably one of the world's worst pictures, but I was pretty dang excited. Can you tell what it is? It's the Statue of Liberty! I'd love to visit one day, but at least now I can say that I've seen it from the air. Pretty awesome.
Below are some pictures of the kids at Oma and Opa's before the trip...
And playing with cousins during the trip. They had a truly fantastic time. They went to the orthodontist with Deiderik, to his baseball game, and to Issy's school performance. Devry has not stopped talking about Uncle Asa since we got home. She will ask randomly to call him or will rattle on about Asa at Grandma's. She really loves her Uncle! Thank you again, mom, for taking such great care of these kids!
The morning after we got home, I woke up bright and early and headed to Provo for the 2017 Race for Red run at UVRMC. Necia and I opted to do the 10k. It is a small run, and kind of a random one, but it was the right distance and nice a close. Because really, if you are in Utah, you can't NOT do a race. They have millions of them! :)
I did better than anticipated, especially considering I was 22.5 weeks preggo. I planned on doing walk/run intervals, but managed to keep running the whole time. There was a pretty beastly hill not too far in that wasn't fun, but other than that, it was a fun experience. And just like that, we were able to add another 12.4 miles to the girls team for the Run the Year Challenge.
As we were leaving, I asked to see Necia's card. After a closer look, we realized she actually took 2nd place in her division. So we flipped the car around and went back for the awards part so she could get her medal. Go Necia! (The card below is mine.)
It was a great experience. Thanks for being my running buddy, Nec!
I came home and found Dev passed out on the couch. She wasn't feeling so hot. You can tell a kiddo is under the weather when they fall asleep like this.
Later when she was up and feeling better, she disappeared for a while. I had to go hunting for her and found her in my mom's room with Flynn the cat. This cat is amazing. He is so sweet and so patient. I seriously love this kitty. And so do my kids! It was kind of sad because while I was gone, my parents did their best to keep Devry away from the cat because she will end up with swollen eyes. It was very kind of them, but I do not blame Devry one bit for risking it to get in some snuggles with this kitty.
We did stop by at Ryan's parents so they could say hi for a few minutes. Snagged this picture mostly for Ryan because this little log cabin was in the back of the house we lived in while we lived in Utah. I was glad to see it moved back to Oma and Opa's so it can get some good use!
One really special thing about this trip was that coming into it, we (my dance girls) learned that Lynne, the director of Academy of Ballet where we all grew up dancing, was retiring. Then we learned that the stars were really aligning and that for the first time probably since most of us graduated high school, we would almost all be in Utah at the same time. This NEVER happens. We had to do something! So we arranged a dinner at Los Hermanos in Provo with Lynne to thank her and tell her how much she means to us.
It was seriously incredible. Lots of tears were shed. Lots of laughter. Lots of love. It was amazing. The friendship that I have with these girls - still after all these years - is totally unique. Especially coming from a dance studio. Most girls grow up competing with each other. They may be friends to a point, but no - these girls are my very best friends. We have our own chat group and we are in contact almost every day. Even the group of girls that went through AOB right after us don't have the same connection that we do. It is so special. I am so grateful for these girls and for the environment that Lynne created to make this happen. We are so thankful for her and excited for her to get to move on to something else. She is an amazing woman who we couldn't love more. Thank you Lynne!
Back row: Baby Annie, Camille, Me, Margaret, Chelsea, Stacy, Kim and Jessica
Middle row: Lynne, Allie, Alyssa, Leah and Alicia
Front: Tyne
Allie flew in from California for this. Chelsea had traveled from Nebraska. Kim had just barely moved from Carlsbad, NM back to Utah. There are other girls that are part of this that would have been there in a heartbeat if they were able - or if we had spread the word near and far. We decided to keep it small and simple as to not overwhelm Lynne. She's had a million students and her memory isn't the best right now. But it was a really special night.
As mentioned in the baby reveal post, all of our baby clothing had been in Holden at Grandpa's. Clair and Ellen had picked it all up and brought it to my parents before I got to Utah in case I didn't make it down to Holden for a visit. There were five big barrels full of clothes. Thanks to my mom, we were able to sort through all of them, separate them out, and re-bag them. It was a huge undertaking, but so grateful for her help! And relieved to have the clothes back in my possession. The goal was to at least get the boy stuff home, but ideally, if I could take it all, all the better. Guess who did it? ME! I managed to get five barrels worth of clothes stuffed in my car along with everything else. Hooray!
A picture of some of the gals from Mother's Day and my parents. It was a lovely day!
On one of our last days Oma and Opa had planned to go to Holden and asked if we could go. I really didn't think we could pull it off. Too much to do and people to see. But I started feeling that it was a good idea to go. It's not like Grandpa is in horrible health, but he is almost 90 and not doing super fantastic. In other words, you just never know. And I want my kids to have memories of Holden too. So we made a mad dash down. And it was the fastest trip we've ever done because I needed to be back to pick up Issy from school.
When we arrived, we expected to see Oma and Opa, but apparently they got a really late start. Grandpa was asleep in his chair, so we just puttered around the house for a bit. Devry was standing over by the chair, totally unaware that Grandpa was there, when suddenly he woke up.
"Well hello there!" he said.
Devry jumped really bad and ran. It's hard to imagine which one was more startled by the other. Hahaha!
We talked to Grandpa for a while then went out to explore the canal. So glad there was water in it!
Ryan's parents arrived just in time for us to have lunch with them and Grandpa. We loaded up a couple things left in the chicken coop and headed out. It was a good visit.
We made it home to pick up Issy. Then we met up with Katie and kids for a quick play date at the McDonald's play place. It was so good to see her!
After that we went to Springville to visit Rayola. I was impressed by Devry because when we arrived the first thing she asked was, "Where turtles?" So she remembers the last time we were there!
It was another great visit. We headed home and I spent the evening loading, packing, and cramming everything in the car that I possibly could.
We also had dinner with all the cousins on Ryan's side, but we failed to get a picture. Bummer. Glad it happened though!
I woke up the kids early to head home. My parents got up to see us off and we snagged a couple pictures.
I really can't thank my parents, especially my mom, enough for making this trip possible. She was a total rockstar. She went above and beyond to take care of my kids, give me money for new clothes, and be an amazing support. The kids had a wonderful trip. This was a strange trip for me, because even though it was just shy of 2 weeks, I really didn't feel like I was there for much of it. It was hard. But I am so grateful that the kids got to spend such wonderful time with my family. It was really special. Thank you Mama Bear!
Well the weather was... not great. Haha. We were in and out of rain and snow and when we arrived it was almost white out conditions. I asked P what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to see it regardless. So we waited in the parking lot until the snow let up. Then we bundled up and got out. It was horrifically muddy, wet, and cold, but hey - memories!
Go figure, Pierscen ended up being the most interested the in the streams of running water everywhere. That boy loves moving water. So even though we were freezing, he wanted to just play in the water and watch things float around. Haha. It was a horrible mess getting back in the car, but we did it.
From there it was a few more hours to home... but we made it. It was a very long drive, but it was a great experience.
Congratulations to Ryan!
Thank you Oma and Opa!
Thank you Mom and Dad!
Thank you for AOB gals and friends.
It was a chaotic, but wonderful trip. Until next time, Utah!
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