Saturday, November 04, 2017

Idaho!

When we moved back to Utah, we decided we needed to make it a top priority to get up to Idaho to visit Clark's 97-year-old grandmother.  Everything finally came together this weekend!

First off, you should know that our girls are expert road-trippers.  They have perfected the art of the pit stop, and they don't complain one bit about sitting in the car for long stretches.  When we drove across the country this summer I was alone in the car with the girls, and they were amazing at taking care of themselves.  They got their snacks (and mine too!), they worked the DVD player, they took care of everything they needed, and they were cheerful and happy to boot.  Champion road-trippers.  Because of this, we cruised right on up to Boise with no meltdowns, potty emergencies, or long stops.  It was glorious.

The girls had Friday off of school, so we left Thursday afternoon.  Friday morning we headed to the Meridian Temple Open House. Clark's aunt Carolyn has been involved in a lot of the planning for the open house, so we got the inside scoop (and a great parking spot).  The girls loved going inside a temple, and we all enjoyed seeing the beautiful details put into a House of the Lord.


After the temple, we had a little down time before going to visit Grandma Meme.  Once they discovered Carolyn's enormous backyard, and in particular the large maple tree that was losing its leaves, the girls decided to spend some time out back, raking those leaves into a pile for jumping.  They spent quite a bit of time getting that pile built up to be "as tall as Ella" before jumping in.  Then we moved the big pile over to Carolyn's garden.  A little bit of work, a little bit of play.  Everyone was happy.



Then we headed over to Meme's.  This was definitely the highlight of the trip.  Seeing Clark with his grandmother, having the girls see their great-grandmother...we won't have many more opportunities to do this, and I'm so glad we made the time now, while we can.  Meme's memory isn't too great, and I don't think she recognized the girls, but hey, they didn't recognize her either!  We visited, looked at photo albums, listened to Ella and Clark play the piano, and just enjoyed being together.  Meme has always been cheerful and upbeat; she is a joy to be around.  Even if she isn't quite sure who you are or what's going on, she's just happy to go along. I was worried the girls would get bored, but they did great.  It was only near the end that I had to find a deck of cards so Ella could play solitaire (best investment I ever made was teaching her that game).



We rounded out the day with dinner at Clark's cousin Andy's house.  The girls loved playing with second cousins, the adults loved catching up, and everyone loved the fabulous food.  Seriously, Wycherlys.  You guys are fun. 

Today we slept in, watched a Blockburger home movie (The Eve of Mert, and other snippets), gave Meme a thimble (which we had forgotten yesterday), went to a Wycherly basketball game, and headed home.  It was a quick trip, but it was one of my favorite things we've done.  We loved reconnecting with Clark's family and hearing family stories.  I'm pretty sure the girls were enamored with Aunt Carolyn and would jump at the chance to visit her again.  Idaho, you were good to us.  Thanks for the memories.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Fun! I'm glad road trips are a fun and easy thing to do. Gives me hope that one day it will be the same for me. :-)

And I giggled at your "investment" comment about solitaire!