Musings of Kyooyoo: School

Well, most of the siblings got together for a whirlwind Idaho/Utah weekend. We even dragged some cousins along! I would say it was crazy fun from the time I landed, but you'd need to fast forward thru 5 hours of me working from the Salt Lake City airport to when the real fun began. Somebody (that would be me) messed something up RIGHT before leaving and was frantically trying to fix it with less than stellar resources.

One of these days, I'm going to be able to take time off work and actually not work while I'm taking time off work.

But it was crazy fun from the very moment Adam's plane landed. I was waiting at the gate for him, more than a little excited to hear how his FIRST EVER plane ride went. He informed me that it was pretty cool but he was stuck in a middle seat next to a woman breastfeeding so he mostly just stared at the back of the seat to avoid awkwardness. Cue first fit of riotous laughter.

We desperately tried to convince Morgan to skip her little work-shadow-class thing and travel to Idaho with us but she was all "Nope, I need to graduate" so we ate dinner and left her behind. Sadly! Also, Brynnan joined us, and while that seems like a side note, she was really the star of the show. We love Brynnan.

The most memorable moment on the drive to Idaho Falls was trying to open an abused can of Mountain Dew. We talked. We laughed. I love all of these people. Greg sent me pictures of Roscoe.

THE NEXT MORNING began Adam's official tour of BYU-Idaho and Rexburg, guided by me. I took him to all of the important spots. Broulims. The duck pond. Old Craigo's that isn't even Craigo's anymore. Smith 4th floor. We even saw a man proposing, I kid you not, 5 seconds after we pulled up to campus. I was like "Adam, welcome to BYU-Idaho!"

Unless you're me and you skip that part of the degree.

Truthfully though, it was fun to see how campus has evolved over the past 6 years. It's bigger and there are massive new buildings and suddenly there's a huge shopping row right across the street from my old house.

My old house!

By the end of the day and after walking a few hundred miles and enduring all of my stories, Adam was just chomping at the bit to go to school there. Just kidding. He's Adam so most of his excitement was hidden under a thick layer of sarcastic humor, but I sensed it.

At least until he had to sit down with his calculus tutor and get some homework done.

(I think they got thru half of a problem but if this is mom or dad reading then they got thru 12).

Oh yeah. We went bowling on campus and it was abysmal. Unless your name is Dylan and you start with a spare and two strikes. Congrats on breaking a hundred, Smil.

What else to say about this weekend? We spent a good portion of Saturday evening hanging out with Brynnan and Kirby at the mall...because Kirby was working there. Cousin bonding time. The Internet doesn't get to read about all of those transpired events.

Here's one picture though:

Then, at the craziest late hour, after dinner and games with grandpa (ICE IS NOT A SNACK FOOD DYLAN) we jumped on trampolines. And I got the picture of all pictures.

There it is. One take. All props go to Brynnan.

Brynnan was like an acrobatic rocket that night. I need to harness her enthusiasm for 11pm and zest for life in general.

Most importantly though, I finally got to jump into a foam pit. It was amazing until I had to get out. Then it was an ordeal.

Church and more games with grandpa and driving back to Utah listening to Dylan lecture Adam on calculus and some "I" word. Integral? Intercept? We paid a quick visit to another aunt and uncle and then headed for Provo and Morgan!

Morgan finally gave me a tour of her apartment that's been her home for over 3 years. Then we stayed at the Springhill Suites. Adam quickly claimed the couch and Dylan, Morgan, and I were all sandwiched on the bed. Morgan was the sandwich filling. Naturally we woke up giggling at 5 in the morning for no reason while Adam threw pillows at us and told us to shut up.

In between first "free" breakfast and second "free" breakfast, Morgan and Dylan gave Adam a quick BYU tour. Quick meaning it only spanned a couple of hours. We grabbed Adam a copy of the campus dating magazine but then he left it in the racquetball court where we found a ball and tried to play with our hands.

Awkward family photo! We were all concerned with where Dylan's hand was going upon post-picture inspection. Also, Morgan, never wear white for photographs again. It's hard to tell where your skin ends and your shirt begins...

And the play-by-play is finally running out of weekend. CHEERS! The next part is really sad because we all had to say goodbye. I about cried sending my little brother thru airport security and off on his flight. That was ridiculous. Then Morgan and Brynnan killed some more time with me at the mall waiting for my flight (WE SAW A DOG).

It was all too fun. The whole weekend. We visited a lot of family that we rarely get to see and we formed a lot of sibling memories. There wasn't even any fighting! I feel like we're almost maybe maturing a little.

Sunset at the Phoenix airport.

Have a great day :-)

open parenthesis greg had this idea once that we should say our punctuation so our kids would learn it faster comma or something comma and i'm not sure that would be effective AT ALL but sometimes i do it to be ridiculous and jest period i love my husband period close paranthesis

Enough of that confusion.

Finals are over! Another semester is done!

And that semester just flew by...said me never.

I'm thankful we're down to just 1 1/2 semesters till this little condo houses two (hopefully employed) graduates, but there are a few things I'll miss about school.

And I'll tell you what those things are when I figure them out. Probably ten years down the road.

This semester wasn't all bad though. The classes were harder (i'm told) but they were all neatly arranged into Tuesdays and Thursdays so the Gregman got to work on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. I got the school evenings to myself which was beneficial because I get a lot more done when my distraction is away...

But this is all boring stuff.

Want to get a little gross? The Gregstudent took a final on Thursday in between throwing up all night and sitting on the porcelain throne all afternoon. How's that for mental imagery! The "storm" calmed long enough for him to get thru his test.

Let's give him a collective "Ahhhhhhhhh". He especially deserves it because he was a gentleman and cleaned the toilets after.

Moving on.

I was getting really stir-crazy by Friday, and upon realizing that after his last final we had 24-hours completely free from responsibilities and obligations, I decided we must go camping.

And camping we went. To celebrate!

We fueled up on hamburgers on our way out of town, and brought along potato chips and pop tarts for the trek. There are no healthy diet rules on camping trips.

The sky was a bit frowny-faced when we got to Lost Maples and started hiking in, but then the most incredible thing happened. IT DIDN'T RAIN UNTIL RIGHT AFTER WE'D SET UP OUR TENT. That's right. It's unusual for the weather gods to smile upon us with such favor...

We relaxed in the tent for about half an hour while the clouds drained, and then the evening was sunny and perfect and beautiful. With butterflies, no joke. I cannot verify the presence of any rainbows, however.

Matter-of-fact is, I'm so happy when I'm camping. I love having everything I need neatly packed on my back and miles of trail to explore. I would backpack everyday for a month, take a week off, and then do it again on repeat.

But, responsibilities and obligations and means. Blech.

Now I must photo dump!

^^ on a hike, we came to a sign that said "to monkey rock" and i thought "yeah right, like it actually looks like a monkey" and then it really did!

^^ it's kind of creepy and kind of cute at the same time...we fed it rocks.

^^ it's always harder to climb down than it is to climb up...this is the gregman bracing himself to catch me with his shoulders...it went about as well as expected. that is to say, not well.

^^ i have yet to get here in the fall when the leaves are turning!

^^ earned our dinner hiking up to this bench.

^^ story time. we got eggs all mixed up for breakfast, and then the stove wouldn't light! i even ignited the lighter, which i usually am not capable of, and then something was wrong with the gas can. at least i hope it was the gas can and not my stove. this is when the poptarts came in handy.