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???