My First College Drop Off

After that stunning realization, there was nothing to do but get up and get ready for church.  I was so tired I ended up taking a quick nap before our 11:30 sacrament meeting.  But in between those times, Bentley and I enjoyed hanging out some more with Jenna and Nick and their super-cute kids.  Church was fine.  I opted to go to YWs with Jenna (mostly because I figured I'd rather stick with her AND because Relief Society is boring).  But it was definitely weird having me and my Mom suddenly show up there, although everyone tried to be very gracious about it!  (Poor Bentley had agreed to go to YMs with Nick, but he hadn't realized until he was already sort of committed that Nick taught the deacons!  Oops!)  And then while I was trying to sit through the lesson, Craig was frantically texting me asking to call because he was stressing about our upcoming Tuesday activity.  Oh, well.

We left as soon as the lesson was over, raced home and ate my Cafe Rio leftovers, and then hurried to visit...  President and Sister Grames-- my mission president from my entire mission in Sendai, Japan (from 10/2000-3/2002) and sort of my backup parents for that entire time.  I love them dearly and was so happy to get to spend some time with them catching up!  Unfortunately, we were so busy chatting that I didn't think to take a picture.  Darn it!  Now I'll have to go see them again...  But it was really fun seeing them.  When I arrived, I had Bentley and my Mom with me so they could say Hi.  But I figured this would be a pretty boring visit for them, so my Mom headed off to visit a cousin on the other side of town, and Craig's brother Jason and his daughter Maya came and picked up Bentley after a few minutes.  (They were in town getting Maya settled at Weber State!)  And then after spending an hour or so at a park with Lindsy and Brayden, Jason collected me and brought us back to Jenna's house.  So that was a little crazy, but everything actually went really well.  I love it when my wacky plans actually work!

And once my Mom had rejoined us, we drove to Heber City to have dinner with Luke and Kat Hogan!  People who really read my blog might be familiar with the Hogan name-- they have been our family friends for forever and we have enjoyed countless Thanksgivings and other holidays with them!  Growing up Luke was Natalie's best friend, and the closest thing I've ever had to a little brother.  (Truth be told, when I realized that Craig was exactly two weeks younger than Luke, I was a little horrified.) Anyway, Luke and Kat lived in the Seattle area for quite a while, but then two years ago they defected to Utah, which was shocking.  Why would anyone leave the paradise that is Seattle for the little mountain town of Heber?  

It was fun to hear their answer, which (as I suspected) was well thought out and involved a lot of factors; it was nice to understand them better.  But more than that, it was just fun to hang out with them again!  (And they fed us really well, too!)  The best part of the evening though was probably when we figured out that Kat is good friends with Bentley's roommate's mother!  This was awesome for a number of reasons: first of all, she was able to reassure us that he's a good kid.  This was especially important because there had been some sort of mix up with their instagrams so that Riley was following Bentley, but hadn't allowed Bentley to follow him back and this had been a source of stress for Bentley.  The mom connection quickly sorted out whatever had gone wrong there.  The other good thing about this was now we knew that Riley was from Bothell, which meant we didn't need to worry about Bentley being stuck with a roommate from Orem who would go home every weekend to do his laundry, all while acting like he knew what it felt like to be homesick.  Those roommates are the worst.  So, yes, Bentley came away from this visit feeling much better about what was in store for him!

Luke and Kat, with their daughters Emi, Maya, and Naomi!

We'd planned on swinging by Bentley's dorm afterwards so that he could leave his church clothes and collect a few things he would need for his Foundations of Leadership conference.  But when we arrived there, Bentley realized he'd forgotten his ID card.  Someone was leaving and we caught the door, only for Bentley to admit that he'd ALSO forgotten his key.  So then we just drove back to Jenna's for the night.  Hopefully that will help him not make that mistake in the future!

We had to get up early the next morning, so we kept the car and dropped my Mom off at her hotel.  Bentley went straight to bed, and I stayed up hanging out with Jenna while she did laundry.  I could have stayed up chatting with her all night!

The next morning, we planned on leaving the house at 7am.  So Bentley was going to be up around 6 or so, and I was going to shower after he was done.  But this time, I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep.  

Me?  Stressed out?  Never!

So I got up, showered, and tried again to sleep, only to notice that I was getting texts from our poor seminary teacher who was locked out of the basement.  So I was up again trying to make sure someone let her in.  And then I went ahead and got dressed and packed.  We had no problem leaving on time!  We swung by Mom's hotel and she was also ready to go, so she accompanied us to Provo!  We swapped out all the stuff at Bentley's dorm (including grabbing his pillow, which we wouldn't have thought of the night before!).  We had time to kill so we took pictures in front of the BYU signage:

The flowers are sort of blocking the sign, but this one says "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve"

I like how my pants match the flowers, although I wish Bentley and I didn't clash!

And this sign says "The World is Our Campus" (it's so fun to be able to say "campus" again after UVA always has to be referred to as "the grounds"!)

He was mad at me for making him stand in front of the Brigham Young statue, since there were a couple of cute coeds walking by.  But he still smiled very nicely for me!

And then it was time!  We drove to LaVell Edwards Stadium and got him all checked in for the leadership conference.  He was group 18 and we gathered his stuff and marched him to the right number.  We were early (Bentley was understandably very antsy) so it was just us and some sort of counselor trying to make small talk with us while I tried to not start sobbing.  Finally I couldn't take it any more.  I'd warned Bentley that this would probably happen, but I tapped him on the shoulder, told him I had to go and that I loved him, gave him a hug, and walked away sobbing.  Grandma followed quickly after me (I really wish I'd asked her to get a picture of my hug, since a real Bentley hug is such a rare thing).  I sat in the car crying for a few minutes and then called Craig and cried to him.  Mom noticed the bug spray Bentley had forgotten in the car, but I couldn't say goodbye again, so I made her run it back to him.  And then we went to Waffle Love to cheer me, and then on to the airport.

Our flights were leaving within twenty minutes of each other, and were only a few gates away, so we got to hang out together looking at each other's pictures, which was nice.  And then it was time to say goodbye to my Mom, too!

Definitely a good day to NOT wear mascara

My flight was uneventful in the best possible way.  But when I stepped off the plane in Baltimore, I immediately got a text informing me that my next flight had been delayed three hours.  So that was pretty lame.  I cried on the phone to Craig some more.  I called someone with Southwest to see if anything could be done and when he couldn't help me I just sat there in silence until he finally asked if I had any more questions and all I could say was, "I'm just really sad and I want to go home."  But eventually I gave up and got myself some dinner, put on my pajamas in the airport bathroom, brushed my teeth and tried to not care.  Right before that flight finally took off (and well after I should have been home and in bed!), I got this picture from Bentley:

That lifted my spirits a little, at least, and made my extremely late night feel worth it.  Scream-singing Taylor Swift to keep me awake the entire drive home, I finally arrived at 3:15am and crawled into bed.  At least if you're going to be sad, your bed is a good place to be...

Utah, Day One

We woke up fairly early the next morning and got all ready and then had time waiting for my Mom to come get us.  (We were on east coast time and she's on west coast time, so we had very different ideas of what time we should be heading out!)  Jenna was wonderful and cut up a TON of fruit for me to eat, which was heavenly after whatever it was I ate while we were flying out (mostly french fries, goldfish crackers, and chocolate?  I don't even know...).  And I don't even like fruit, usually!  And it was so nice to sit around and catch up and watch her kids being crazy.  (These pictures are actually from different days, but it seems like a good time to introduce you to the Nelson family!)

There's me and Jenna!  (I never did take a picture of Jenna's husband, Nick, but he was around, too, and was an incredibly gracious host!)

Harper, the oldest, showing off her abs

There you can see Hunter, too

Here they're having fun torturing tickling Bentley

And Hazel, the youngest, also wanted to show off her abs.  She seemed so chill on the kitchen floor here-- she just cracked me up!

By the time we left to go shopping, Bentley was already complaining that he was hungry, but I told him we needed to get one thing done before we stopped for food.  We hit Costco and managed to find most of the things on our list: socks, underwear, some school supplies, and popcorn & goldfish crackers so Bentley had all the essential snacks in his dorm.  It was slow going since the store was set up just slightly differently from my Costco, so we had to wander around a lot.  By the time we finished, Chick-fil-A was no longer serving breakfast, so instead we introduced Bentley to the joy that is Kneader's French toast.  That was awesome, except halfway through my meal I realized that I was eating a huge breakfast at 10:45am and we were meeting Jenna at Cafe Rio at noon.  Oops?

We hurried to Target where we got the rest of the school supplies Bentley still needed (and fun stuff like a desk lamp!) and then enjoyed Cafe Rio.  I tried to not eat so much that I would be ill.  It was so good.

And then we went back to Jenna's house for some MUCH needed napping!!!  Much refreshed, we then drove to Provo.  Our first stop was the Creamery, where we got ice cream with my nieces Kamryn and Lindsy and their spouses, Connor and Brayden.  This was my first time meeting Brayden and he was just as nice as I'd heard, and it was fun sitting around catching up with everyone!

Then Bentley and my Mom put on nicer clothes and we went to cousin Shaunna's wedding open house!  It was just over in Orem, so a short drive, and it was so fun to see my cousins Kyle and Monica, and Uncle Bruce & Aunt Leanne!  My Mom had a TON of cousins she hadn't seen in a while, and we all got to sit around chatting and eating cake.  It was lovely.  And I only took one picture, so that was super lame of me.

Me and Monica

When the open house wrapped up, we headed back to Target.  Brayden had pointed out that Bentley was going to want a mattress topper for his dorm room, and we managed to get the last twin-sized one in the entire store!  Huzzah!  And then, then, we drove to Helaman Halls and got Bentley all checked into his dorm.  Ohmygoodness it was starting to get real!  We got him all moved in.  It didn't take very long at all.  

We need to get him some push pins so he can hang up his Kanye flag

I told him to look studious.  It turns out that's harder than you'd think!

I like this picture!

By the time we finished, we were both tired and hungry.  So we stopped by In-N-Out in Orem on our way back to Jenna's.  I was surprised at how many people were there at 11pm on a Saturday night-- who knew Orem was such a party town?  Mom and I felt very out of place amongst all the teenagers there.  And Bentley felt weird being there with his mom and Grandma, but what can you do?

By the time we got to Jenna's it was LATE and she and her husband had just barely gone to bed.  (They were SO NICE about us popping in and out!)  We'd decided we could go to church with them in the morning, but their meeting started at 11:30am, so we'd be able to sleep in.  I set my alarm for 9am just in case.  And instead popped awake at 6:30, way too early.  I laid in bed thinking about all the things we'd be doing that day, mentally preparing myself with the assuring fact that I would be returning home the next day right after I dropped Bentley off and with that thought my heart dropped into my stomach and it was all I could do to not burst into tears.

Somehow, I hadn't really FELT that I'd be saying goodbye to my son until that moment.  How in the world was I supposed to do that???

Heading to Utah

And then, before I knew it, it was time to take Bentley to school!  Now it would have made sense for Craig to have flown out to Utah with him.  Craig is very calm and good at getting stuff done.  But unfortunately, it being the beginning of the school year, Craig couldn't really take time off of work.  So Bentley was stuck with me.  I was very worried that we'd both be emotional wrecks and take it out on each other by fighting the whole time.  So I was very relieved when my Mom announced that she would like to go to her *cousin's open house in Utah the same weekend, and would it be okay if she joined us for our trip?  That seemed like an excellent idea!

So!  We got up Friday morning and as everyone headed off to school, they had to give Bentley their final hugs goodbye!  It was awful and sweet all at the same time.  (I should note here that Bentley has sort of made himself infamous in our family (and ward!) for only giving very awkward side hugs.  The week before he was leaving, he told us that he would finally be giving us real hugs.  Unless we made a big deal of it, in which case, he'd go right back to the side hugs.  So we complied by trying very hard to pretend we weren't noticing the change.)

And then once everyone had left, I finally started packing!  And Bentley finished emptying and cleaning his room, stripping off sheets, dusting everything.  We taped up the boxes of stuff he was leaving behind.  He actually still had space (and weight!) left in his luggage, so I made him take a few things he wasn't going to bother with, like his tennis racket and winter coat.  We'd already bought a ton of stuff and shipped it all to my cousin who we'd be staying with-- bedding, towels, hangers, stuff like that-- and she had graciously washed everything that needed it.  I was also puttering around doing laundry and other things as we got ready.  We weren't leaving the house until 1:30, which felt like way too much time.  Bentley kept asking, "Can we just go already?"

Finally it was time.  We loaded his huge suitcases into the truck and headed for Richmond!

Here we are at the airport!

We had a long flight to Denver, and it wasn't too full so we got to have the middle seat between us empty!  That was awesome.  The next flight we had crying babies in front AND behind us, so we were happy that it was a pretty short flight!  Then when we made our way through the Salt Lake airport, my Mom was waiting and had already picked up the rental car!  The only thing we had to do was take a few minutes to add my name to the contract so I could drive it, too.  And then it was off to my cousin Jenna's house in Sandy!

It was late by now-- I think we landed around 10pm?-- so it was dark, and also cloudy, although there was a nice half moon trying to poke its way out of the clouds.  As we drove, Bentley suddenly asked, "What is that?  Are those the mountains???"  It was really hard to even tell, but as the moon sank lower, we figured out that yes, that darker shape in a dark sky looming above us were just the really huge, close-by Utah mountains.  They really can't compare to our Carter Mountain here!  (Which Bentley has assured me he will definitely be referring to as Carter Hill when he comes back at Christmas time!)

So that was fun!  We arrived at Jenna's house, she got us settled in the guest rooms in her basement, and we went to bed.  It had been a long day!

*My Mom's cousin who, at the age of 69, just got married for the first time!  I seriously could not be happier for a person to finally find true love!

First Day of School

And suddenly... it was the first day of school!  It felt... weird.  Like a soft start or something?  Because while most of the kids started school, Bentley was still here!  So rather than enjoying a quiet, empty house, I was bugging him to finish cleaning and packing up his room and figuring out what stuff he was taking to college and whether or not it would fit in the luggage we bought him...  It was a bit of a slow-but-still-slightly-stressful, painful process that was best done at the last minute.  But it meant that nothing felt like school has actually started!

But we still got pictures!  Camille-- who is in 4th grade now!-- was the first to head to the bus stop:

We had a bit of a cold snap, so she actually got to wear her sweatshirt without cooking!  Also-- her hair is getting so long!

Camille is very excited for the school year!  She got Ms. Simpson and Mrs. Wilson, who both Ryder and Colton have had and loved, so that was awesome.  And two of her good friends are in her class!  So she's been coming home very happy these days, which makes me happy, too.  It was weird taking her to meet her teachers and only having one kid at the elementary school.  The last time that happened, Bentley was in 1st grade...  {Sniff, sniff...}

Everyone else was up to see her off (and to do our Come Follow Me lesson!), but as you can see, some of the kids were still in their jammies!

Craig was the next to leave, so I made him sit for a picture, too, and he was very sweet about obliging me!

He's so good about always eating an apple and a salad.  Also, I never expected him to still have such fantastic hair in his forties.  That's my man!

Next it was Ryder and Colton's turn to head to middle school!  They're also pretty happy this year: Ryder is excited to be an 8th grader, and Colton's BFF is in all his classes with him, so he's happy, too.  What a great year for my kids!

And finally, Bentley dropped Kendra off at the high school because he wanted the car (I think she was pretty nervous about driving herself that first day, too).

I kind of love that she stole my sweatshirt for the first day of school.  I'm fine with not being cool.  But maybe I'm not embarrassing?

So everyone came back happy and Bentley and I had gotten some good work done on his room while they were gone!  And then, that evening, we went out to Citizen Burger Bar with Tom and Donna as a last hurrah before Bentley left for school!

Kind of proud of myself for getting all nine of us into one selfie!

The weather was PERFECT for sitting outside, we didn't have to wait long, and it was just an overall lovely evening!

Bentley loves his grandparents!

Summer Portraits

Adam has continued to make sure we get family portraits for each season, so we had to rush to get our summer pictures done before Bentley left!  I have to admit, I had no idea how to look summery without just being drenched in sweat.  (Have I mentioned already what a hot summer we've been enjoying?)  We finally just went with Hawaii shirts and tried to get a shot of us jumping into the pool.  It was harder than it sounded...

We do pretty well when we're all wearing sunglasses and you can't tell if we're blinking!

But it's a lot harder without the sunglasses!!!  These two turned out pretty good, though...

When we tried to all jump into the pool, somehow everyone jumped in but... me!  I don't know what happened.  Everyone was mad at me and I felt so embarrassed for chickening out that I couldn't stop laughing.  So we got this picture which I actually kind of love...

I love how Bentley and Craig are both holding their hands up like, "What the heck happened???"

We did finally get the shot-- I like Bentley and Kendra's awesome jumps!

And then we let the kids actually swim and have fun!

Thanks, Adam, for making us do this!  Sorry we're so bad at it!  😂

Last Weekend of Summer 😭

The school year was rapidly approaching as we absolutely packed our final weekend with activities...

Once again, we managed to join the Manassas II ward as they camped at Matthew's Arm in Shenandoah!  It was a little different this time because Bentley and Kendra didn't come-- Kendra had band camp until 9pm, and Bentley had to work the next morning.  Normally I might have fought harder for him to somehow join us, but I didn't really want Kendra home all alone anyway.  Since we only had three kids, I almost took the truck, but after loading it, decided I was worried it might rain and moved everything over to the van.  I hate making decisions like this!  (But it did, indeed, rain for a few minutes in the night, so I was glad our stuff stayed dry!)  Also, the kids would have been awfully crowded in the back of the truck for the two hour drive...

Speaking of Kendra doing marching band-- someone took this picture of her, and I totally love it.  Also, this year she switched from doing color guard to playing the bass drum!  So that's fun!

And here's her section all dressed like frat boys

The campout was really great.  Our food turned out awesome (just foil dinners, but with teriyaki sauce, and cooked to perfection!) and I loved sitting around the campfire chatting with Emma and Betsy.  And Craig loved being somewhere with church friends where he didn't have to be The Bishop.  And it was nice just letting the kids run around with their friends.  Also, after such a hot summer, the weather was so nice and cool.  Perfect sweatshirt weather, it felt delightful.

We had a slight miscommunication where I thought we were in charge of our own breakfast, but actually Emma made breakfast for everyone.  I wish I would have realized that before I made Craig cook for our family!  But I'll know better next time!

We'd meant to go hiking or something in the morning before we headed home, but somehow it just didn't happen.  Too much hanging around talking, I guess?  What a problem to have!

Camille and Ryder wanted to try sleeping in hammocks.  Imagine my surprise when we got Camille's all set up and she immediately flipped herself upside down and grinned out at me like a crazy caterpillar!  I never would have guessed that that would work!  Anyway, she slept great until the rain, at which point she and Ryder both quickly dove into the tent they shared with Colton.  (I was also super impressed with how quickly Craig popped out of bed and closed our rain fly when those first few drops hit our tent!)

Most of the gang.  You can see Craig cooking in the back while I (sleepily) keep him company...

Colton, with Oscar and Henry in the background

Me and Emma

Gotta love a good photobomb

Me, Emma, and Betsy

Sleepy Colton on the way home...

Usually after camping I just want to take a shower and a nap, but there was no time for that this day!  I had about an hour to unpack, and then I dropped Camille off at a birthday party and took Colton to Lake Monticello for an end-of-summer Activity Days activity.  Craig, meanwhile, got the tents all dried and put away, vacuumed out the van.  He picked up Kendra and some friends from the downtown mall, fed them all pizza, and then drove all the older youth in the ward to Harrisonburg for a Stake activity/dance.  It was a very late night for us, so it was good that we'd actually slept pretty well at the campout!  

How cute are these girls having their spa day?  L-R we've got Camille, Olive, Noelle, and a friend I don't know...

This girl!

In the middle of our time at the lake it thundered and poured, so Colton and Gideon took that time to build themselves mermaid tail (merman tails?).  When I took this picture, they were singing sea chanties for me.  Also-- it took me FOREVER to clean the sand out of everything!  Blech!

But I did appreciate the name of this boat!

And finally, after a couple weeks of having only one counselor , Craig finally got a new 2nd counselor called, Scott Huff!  As if Megan and I needed another excuse to hang out!

And they managed to keep the yellow tie tradition going!  Good job, Scott!