Prologue

 I'll post about our trip eventually--get it all down for the memories--but I'm traveling light and won't be blogging while we're gone.

Here's a prologue, we decided we started our trip a little early on Friday.

We drove to Manti and met up with several carloads of girls as well as the boys, who had been camping.  (They had showered!). We went to the Manti temple, which is beautiful like all temples and also unique like all temples.  Since there were so many young men there, Adam didn't do any baptizing, but he and I sat in a tiny room with a recorder and the youth came in one or two at a time for confirmations.  I said I didn't have to be there, because the room was so tiny and maybe more youth could come in, but they said they wanted me so there were multiple females.

So I was happy to feel needed.

After the temple we went to the cemetery at the base of the temple.

I can't imagine a better setting for a cemetery.  I think it would be very comforting at a burial to look up and see the temple.

Molly, the excellent YW president, talked about their upcoming trek and encouraged the youth to find an ancestor to connect with.  Then she told about one of her pioneer ancestors who was in the Willie Handcart company.  She wanted Adam to speak, so he said that his story wasn't about handcarts, but the love of a grandma and the love of a sister.

He told about how his great grandma (Karoline Lang Simonsen--we're going to go see where she's from!) joined the church and moved to Utah.  His grandma, Kate, wasn't active in the church, but Adam's aunt Jeri took her siblings to church.  Jeri was really close to her Grandma and Grandpa Simonsen and Adam said because of her influence on Jeri and Jeri's influence on Linn, it blessed Adam's life.

It is remarkable to think about all the seemingly small but in the end huge relationships and influences that shape us.

I showed people the new to me app on Family Search where you can put in a location and see who is buried nearby.  I don't think anyone had relatives at the Manti cemetery, but a lot of us (including me) had people close by.

Karna Nilsdotter Yorgason (we're going to see where she's from!) is buried in Moroni.  It was slightly, but not too much, out of our way.  After a nice lunch at The Malt Shop in Ephraim, we went to Moroni.  It is not a huge cemetery, but big enough that we struggled to find the grave.  I knew how much Adam had to do at home, so I kept saying, "We can give up.  We don't have to keep looking."  

He said, "It's fine.  This is the start of our trip."  I love being married to a man who is always up for anything.

We had started on the exact wrong corner of the cemetery, but finally found her!

As we were driving away from Moroni, I was thinking about Karna and about how she left her home and never returned.  

I'm going back to Villie, Karna.  I'm going to the church where you were christened and to the streets where you surely walked.  You matter to me. You joining the church and moving across the world to join the saints matters to me.  You raised Ellen who raised David who raised Harvey who raised Mark who raised me.  You matter to me.

Grateful Friday

 First, I'm grateful Adam is home!  Hallelujah!

Next, I'm grateful this weekend (and always) for fathers.

I got Adam a Father's Day gift that reminded me of his dad, Linn.  Linn has been gone for over 15 years, which is amazing to me.  We miss him still.  I was feeling sentimental and looking back at pictures and these two sum up Linn in my mind:

His lap was the preferred spot for every grandchild (and I love seeing sweet Raelyn in this picture).  I also love that two out of the four children shown were not actually related but that made zero difference in how Linn and Geri treated them.  (Don't mind me and my derpy brace face....)

This shows the engineer side of Linn-carefully measuring Mark--and his fun side because I'm sure he is saying something to Mark that is eliciting that expression.

I'm grateful for my own dad.

This picture was taken on a freezing New Year's Day on my dad's sleigh--or buggy--I can't remember which.  

I will forever be grateful for my dad and his steadiness.  He is always who he is, which maybe doesn't make sense, but makes sense in my head.  He taught me the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I was growing up.  He also taught me to work and to be confident and to be creative.  

The main thing I could always be confident about was that there was rarely a problem so big that he couldn't fix it.

I'm grateful for Adam.  He is as good a husband as he is father.  I love seeing our adult children turn to him when they have troubles or complications because he is like my dad and his and can solve them.  He puts in effort to learn about our children's interests. He is an adoring Papa.  He is gentle and kind and would do anything for us and we know it.  What a blessing!

I'm grateful for the good dad Braeden is.  While he was in London recently, I talked to him a few times and he talked a lot more about missing QE and Anna than about his conference or London sightseeing.  

Every time I ask him how QE is, he says, "She's perfect!" What a lucky little girl to have the unequivocal love of her dad.

I talked to Braeden yesterday and I asked him if he remembered things in London from when we took him (he was 11).  He told me his hotel was near this wall that had been there in Roman times.  He said he walked around the corner and thought, "I remember this!"

Were we the ugly Americans who let their children climb on relics and statues?  Apparently we were....

I love the can do and loving fathers Adam and I both have.  I love the opportunity unlocking and loving father Adam is and I love the thoughtful and doting father Braeden is.

Fathers.  What a gift they are!

Finally, I'm grateful for Mark.  He's not a father, but has father potential.  Yesterday he went around with some tools and tightened everything that needed tightening, which is a very Mark thing to do.  I love that he is home.  I love that he is funny and a good listener.

On Saturday I saw a woman in the airport with a hat that said, "Men are Trash."

When I think about Adam, our dads, our sons, my brothers, my brothers-in-law, my nephews, the men I work with, our friends, our neighbors...I think, she needs to know better men.

The list making commences

 I felt a lot better yesterday.  Being absolutely lazy is sometimes exactly what I need.  I also went to the chiropractor yesterday, which was also what I needed.

Marie Louise dropped by some See's chocolates for our trip. She said, "I know you can get excellent chocolate in Europe, but this will get you there."

(She doesn't think I can go on a trip without bringing me some sort of treat.  I can't express all the ways that woman is an absolute gem!)

I started thinking about my packing list.  As in, pulling clothes out and laying them on my bed to ponder.  I want to strike a balance between packing light and variety.  Everything has to match with two other items or it doesn't make the cut.

List making is in overdrive.  I am listing things I need to remember to bring, where my houseplants are that I need Mark to water, what I need to remember to do before we leave, what I need to remember to do when we get back.

Good thing lists make me very happy.

Another thing making me happy is that Adam comes home today!  It's been an eight day trip and that is a long time to be without that guy.  

Sick day

 Hello from the land of I have nothing interesting to say.  I got whatever Mark had and I have felt sort of rotten. 

Which has resulted in two things:

1-I realize I should have been more sympathetic with him because now I know he felt awful.

2-I spent a day doing a whole lot of nothing.

I did talk to Olivia and Braeden on the phone which was nice.  Braeden presented at his conference and had a good time connecting with other scholars.  He was telling me about it and I said, "You're one of them!" 

My son the scholar.  I should buy him a tweed jacket with elbow patches.

He told me about the wacky route he took on foot through the London suburbs because he couldn't figure out his bus. I'm glad he's a big strapping boy so I don't worry about him too much.

He's really happy to be getting home to his girls, eventually. (Not a short journey.)

Mark ran an errand for me and drank the last Powerade.  He checked on me several times and is very sweet (besides drinking the last Powerade).  He tried to persuade me to go to La Costa for dinner since it was his half birthday and I didn't feel like cooking.

I told him that going to a restaurant sounded less desirable than cooking.  He succeeded in convincing me to get Thai food.  I told him I would pay for it but otherwise, I didn't want to be involved in ordering or picking up.

Happy half birthday to Mark.

My dad sent me a picture of the yellow roses at our house in Starr Valley and I wished I were there.  Mark and I had been planning to go this week, but switched plans which is good since I got sick.

But I also wish I were there.

Pulling together

Yesterday was a day for the Davis family!  The biggest exclamation point goes to Emma with her smashed window.  Braeden is in London, which is great, but also hard on Anna and QE.  I remember those days and they weren't fun!  Mark was sick and Adam was in LA amidst protests.  According to him, the protests aren't as bad as portrayed in the news and (big surprise) are being politicized and amped up unnecessarily.  Americans can politicize just about everything though.  Our superpower....

Adam and I were trying to support Emma via text and she really did very well until the end of the day when the rental company was not actually going to bring her a rental car like they said.

(Guess who we love around here?  Rental car companies!)

She had a little come apart and I was having dinner with Janelle, so she called Mark.  He drove to Salt Lake and scooped her up and brought her home.  She took Adam's car back home.  

For my part I gave her chocolate and hugs and told her it was awful but figure-out-able.

Everything's going to be OK.

A delight of my day was story time with QE.  Yesterday I read to her and we cataloged the stuffed animals and reviewed all of their names.  

I told her that I had to go because I was meeting my friend for dinner.

She wanted to know the friend's name.

Then she said she wanted to come too.

Anna said, "That would be fun, but we have to say good-bye to Nana."

Sweet girl said, "But I want to."

And it's a good thing I'm not in charge because every time I hear her little voice wanting something I want to give it to her.  Here are the keys to my car and don't forget my credit card.

She is the bee's knees!  I'm grateful to have her in our family. Forever.

Amazing!

Everything about families is amazing.  It is wonderful that you can rely on people who know your foibles and inside jokes and can pick up the slack when you need them.

And then you have a granddaughter who is just the icing on every cake and adds so much goodness to the mix.

What a great system!

Mishaps and mayhem

 I wrote that in a text message and Marianne said it should title the blog post, so here we are.

Our weekend was also marvelous, which could be added to the alliteration.

We took an early flight Saturday morning, picking up Emma along the way.  She had been gone to Wichita  all week for work and because of flight delays, she'd had a 10 hour turn around with the airport!  She was a trooper.

Renting the car was a hassle because I waited in a long line and then decided that since I'd already checked in I didn't need to wait in the long line.

I went to the place where you get your actual car and it was for "members only".  I promise I don't want to be a member.  After our awful rental in Oklahoma City last year, I vowed never to rent from Avis.  I rented from Budget, which is accidentally the same company.

Ugh.

I went back to the original long line.

When Adam does it, he walks straight from the terminal to the car his phone tells him belongs to him for the trip.

I am no Adam.

We got on the road, running behind where I wanted to be.  It was late morning and feeling kind of warm.  Emma messed with the AC a bit, but we got to Black Bear Diner where I decided we would eat before the game.

I wanted to go somewhere I knew Mark could get a good amount of food because I didn't know what the food situation would be until dinner (when Jennifer was getting him gluten free pizza).  It isn't always easy to find a restaurant where he can eat.

My good plan was a fail.

Mark doesn't like when I intervene at restaurants and talk to the servers about gluten free, so I ordered my French toast and didn't even pay too much attention to what he was ordering.

Neither did he.

He ordered a scramble, with eggs, potatoes and ham.  It was also covered in country gravy.  (Which seems kind of gross to me.)  He didn't realize it would have gravy and he couldn't eat it.

I gave him the eggs and ham that I got with my French toast and he ate around the edges of his scramble.  He already had a cold and he was a cranky Mark.

We got to the game, late, and by then we confirmed that the AC did not work.  At all.  We had the fan running, but it pumped out hot air.  It was in the 80s and climbing.  I called Budget and they said to return it to any Budget rental place.

Narrator:  they didn't actually mean any Budget rental place.

We went to the game and it was so fun to watch Savannah play!  We weren't there for all of them, but she scored either 6 or 7 three pointers and some two point shots as well.  They are moving and this was her new high school team and I can imagine that they are very happy to be getting her!

Here's her fan club after the game:

Isaiah, Boston, Luke, Olivia, me, my parents, Savannah, Justin (Jennifer's brother), Mark, Emma, Enoch and Carol (Jennifer's mom).  Jennifer was taking the picture.

Edgar and their boys had gone on a deep sea fishing expedition so they weren't there for the game.

Everyone else was going to lunch.  We'd just eaten, so I thought it would be quick to return it to a Budget rental place in Beaverton. 

Narrator:  Little did Thelma know, it would not be quick.

Here's the thing about Oregon.

They drive so slow!  It is like Washington (which is slow), but slower.  I don't know if it is more remarkable that the speed limit is 55 on the freeway or that people drive 55 on the freeway.  In Utah you get passed on both sides doing 80 on the freeway and under no circumstances is someone going to let you merge if they can possibly stop it.

In Oregon everyone pokes along and if you turn on your blinker they slow down and wave you in.  Remarkable.

But slow.

It took forever to get to the place and then the man there, who seemed unnecessarily surly, said he didn't have a car for us.  I asked him if he could tell me if other Budget rental places did and he said he could not.  He said, "I can give you the number of the place in Hillsboro."  That was where our hotel was, so that seemed like a good option.

I sat down in the little soulless rental office (because it was air conditioned!) and dialed the number he provided.  I got the national Budget/Avis line (still irked that I didn't know they are the same company).

As I was on hold with them, surly man said, "The national line won't be able to help you.  You need to call the Hillsboro office."

I held up the sticky note he had given me.  I think it was one of those cases where my mouth didn't say it, but my face did and he realized I had dialed the number from him.  He said, "Well," and was quiet.

They told me on the phone that I needed to go back to the airport, which I should have done in the first place.

By then it was in the upper 80s and felt much cooler outside than in our black minivan.  Even with the windows down, we were miserable.

We drove back to the restaurant in time to see Enoch in the parking lot, since they were done.

I was regretting all of my life choices.

Everyone was going to see the new house Enoch and Jennifer are moving into so we drove there.  We debated about trying to get back to the airport or just tough it out.  We decided we would just tough it out because we didn't want to miss out on any more family time.

Their new house is a nice one and Savannah and I consulted about furniture placement in the Christmas tree room (she picked the perfect spot for their tree in front of a big window).  Enoch said the airport wasn't too far from where we were so we decided to head there.  It was a pretty seamless trade and we were SO happy to get AC, especially since it was an hour to Enoch and Jennifer's current house.

We had a lovely evening, leaving our troubles behind.  I had told Mark they had a pool, but not Emma.  She took some pictures and sent them to Fam-a-lam and said, "not pictured: my seething jealousy."

I liked this poolside picture of my parents that she took.

We ate pizza and visited and enjoyed being together.  Mark enjoyed his pizza (a lot) and then spent most of the time asleep on the floor.  Poor sick Mark.  Eventually I hit my limit and we left the party.  I was a happy kid when I finally made it to my bed in the hotel.  It was a long day!

Sunday, Mark felt even worse so we left him behind and went to church.  It was so GOOD!  Well worth the mishaps and mayhem!  Jennifer spoke and Enoch played the piano and then Luke spoke.  I love them all so much!  They are a wonderful family and it was such a blessed day when Jennifer joined us!

A lot of us just cried through the whole meeting (a lot of us are related and inherited the extra water in our heads gene).

I went back for Mark and we all joined up at Enoch and Jennifer's for a lovely meal.  They had some friends from their ward come and it was nice to meet them, even though some of them hurt my pride.

I stood up to shake their bishop's hand (that was actually Saturday night when he had stopped by) and he said, "Well you didn't get any of the height."

Hmph.

At church a lady asked me if I was Jennifer's mom.  As you can see above, Jennifer's mom is a lovely woman and I would be proud to have Jennifer as a daughter.

Still.

After everyone else left, we stayed and visited awhile, then headed back to the airport.  Emma was so ready to be home after being gone the entire week and Mark and I were pretty ready to be home too.

This morning, Emma went out to her car to go to work and one of her windows was smashed.  When I saw the picture, I assumed it was from Adam (who is in Los Angeles and sending us pictures and videos of protests), but it was from Emma.  It could have happened at any time all week because she was gone and had taken an Uber to and from the airport.  Sad!  Poor girl.  

Mishaps and mayhem.

I will never regret our trip though.  Family time is the best time.  And I'm so proud of Luke and the wonderful boy he is and the wonderful missionary I know he will be.  I had lunch with my friend Shannon on Friday and I was telling her about the trip.

She said, "You must really love that nephew."

I really do.

Grateful Friday

 I'm grateful for:

• Time with Mark.  We love having him here.  For one thing, it is super handy to have another adult around--he's basically our butler--but he is very sweet and very interesting to talk to.  Also, he doesn't mind going on errands with me now.  It's such a magical age when kids return to you like that. We went to Costco to get new tires for Joan and Mark knew so many answers to the questions that I didn't know, the guy started just asking Mark the questions.  (In my defense, I 100% knew that Joan is white.  The colors of cars are the main thing that sticks in my brain.) Last night we had dinner and shared a peanut butter milkshake at JCWs before he went to institute.  I just love hanging out with that kid.
• All the sunshine June has to offer
• The Follow Him podcast.  It always makes me think and makes me happy.  It is a wonderful enhancement to my Come Follow Me study.
• Going to Oregon this weekend.  Adam is on the road (in the air?).  He flew to Louisville, KY then he will go to Los Angeles, so he can't join us.  Emma and Mark and I are flying to Oregon to see and celebrate with Enoch's family.  Luke will be speaking in church before serving his mission and we are looking forward to it.  Adam is always the travel arrangement guy and I have never rented a car before.  I told Emma and she said, "Well I've rented a car one time and it was in the Portland airport."  So she's the expert.  I'm really grateful to have this trip with 2/3 of my kids.  It's fun to be with them and they will make my trip better (and not just because of Emma's Portland rental car expertise).  I am happily anticipating family time.  We don't see Enoch's family nearly enough since they moved to Oregon. My parents and Olivia and Edgar's family will be there too, which will be great. We will get to see Savannah play in a basketball game which is a wonderful bonus to the trip.  (When we leave our house in the 5:00 hour on Saturday morning to make our flight, I will be holding these things I'm excited about close.)
• My job.  I say it a lot, but I think it a lot.  I feel so fortunate to work at a job that I love in a school that I love with people who I love.  We were sitting around the faculty room Wednesday, eating Nate's amazing brisket and people were coming in and out and we are all just good friends.  
• Summer time!  It is so good to have a break.  I am looking forward to catching up on things and resting from other things and I am grateful.