Me, Myself, and I

"In America there are two classes of travel--first class, and with children." (Robert Benchley)

My seat may have been in Coach but it felt like first class all the way. I took a trip to Utah this past weekend. Yep, just me. All alone. My first time flying solo since being married. The only other time I've flown without kids is when Ben and I went to NY last December. I got fluttery travel butterflies the night before I left and wondered how I could possibly leave my babies and my man behind but I was all smiles as I went bounding onto the plane with only my little purse as a carry on. No diapers, no Cheerios, no DVD's, no bag load of trinkets for entertainment. Just a good book and some Swedish fish.

My good book was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. My mother-in-law gave it to me for Christmas and I was saving it for this trip. Had I known how good it was I never would have waited. I absolutely devoured it! I read the first page on take off in Moline and the last page as I was descending into Salt Lake (not the Salt Lake, Salt Lake City). If you have not read this book I command you to run to the nearest library or bookstore and start reading immediately. Fabulous!!

My first stop in Utah was to see Ben's sister, Emily and her three cute children. We don't get to see them very often so it was fun to have a chance to chat in person. Alas, I drove away without snapping a picture but you can catch up with them on her blog, here.

I was also able to see my good friend Rachel and her family who moved from Iowa 2 years ago. I wrote about her on this post. She lives in Idaho but just happened to be coming down to Utah the weekend I was in town. She was nice enough to let me crash a family party at her Dad's house in order to have a chance to see each other. It was fun to meet all her brothers and sisters (save one) and their kids after hearing her talk about her family so much over the years. It was also fun to see how much her girls are growing up. You can catch up with them on her blog, here.

I wasn't sure how we would be able to swing it but I was finally able to meet up with my long time friend, Kristen. She was my roommate at BYU, let's see...13 years ago! The last time we saw each other was 8 1/2 years ago at my wedding. She lives in Texas but was in Utah for her sister-in-law's wedding. She was booked with wedding festivities and I had family stuff going on but we managed to meet up in the mall parking lot for literally 5 minutes. Not nearly enough time after so long but it was great to have a hug and a peek at her kids in the car. Her husband, Michael, was a friend from way back when as well so it was fun to see him too. I wish I would have snapped a picture of all of them. Don't you love the mountains behind us?? I am already dreaming and scheming of a trip to Texas in the near future so we can have a real visit.

Here we are over a decade ago with our other two roommates who are sisters. I'm the second from the left and Kristen is on the far right.I have two sisters and two brothers in Utah so there was lots of family to hang out with. Here I am with my sisters Becky and Emily. I'm holding Becky's new little baby, Esther.Esther is the sweetest, most content baby I have ever seen. I probably heard her fuss or cry only a couple of times while I was there. Here I am being 100% Aunt with no Mommy responsibilites. It was fun!Becky with Esther.Her husband Daniel with their little boy Spencer.My brother Neil being silly. He sent these necklaces home with me for Katie and Annabelle.My other brother Kevin ended up being out of town on some training while I was there. I was bummed since he will be heading out with the military for a year and I already haven't seen him for a while. I did get to see his wife, Stephanie and his two adorable girls. We don't get to see them very often either so it was really nice to have a chance to hang out.

Stephanie with Maddie who is almost one.

I labeled this picture with color coded names since all the parents and kids are mixed up. Spencer and Esther belong to Becky. Sade and Maddie belong to Stephanie. Emily and I are the carefree Aunties. It was fun to see how well Sade and Spencer got along. They were so excited to see each other. Made me wish we lived closer to cousins.

Ben held down the fort and kept everything running smoothly while I was gone. He even did the girl's hair and told me I would not have been embarrassed about the way it looked. :)

I was excited to go on this little trip alone and I was so excited to come back home. That's exactly how a vacation should be.