I'm Back

Every year, all the women on my dad's side of the family (all the female descendants of my great-grandma Mynoa) meet together and hold a Legacy Conference. It's very similar to like a Time out for women, or BYU women's conference, etc. Except it's way more awesome because we're all related!! I don't usually get to go. In fact, I've only been once, back when Tyler was my only child.

But this year. I have really been needing a get-away. I needed a few days of space; time to think, re-focus, and fill up my ever-draining well. I needed to be missed, and I needed to miss my kids as well. This legacy conference would provide exactly that, plus the added bonus of being with my mom and sisters! So with Kenny's understanding and support, we found a way to get tickets, arrange for babysitters for 3 days, and prepared for me being gone.

They dropped me off at the airport on Wed. around 8 p.m., but I didn't fly out until 1:40 a.m. We just didn't want to keep the kids up too late. Got into SLC at 10 a.m. Thursday. We all stayed at Kim and Caleb's little apartment at Wymount. I have never heard her complain about living on the 3rd floor, or not having a dishwasher, or a washer and dryer, and she's pregnant with her third. Great example to me! During the day we ran some errands, and hung out. Kerri made us a yummy dinner, and we ate at hers and Jeff's even tinier apartment at Wymount. They just live across the parking lot from each other which is so fun. That night we went to the "Sacred Gifts" exhibit at BYU art museum. It was amazing. We rented the iPads and could listen to details about each of the paintings, or spiritual music, or interviews, etc. I really loved it. After that we girls drove to the airport to pick up Steph!! We of course stopped at The Malt Shoppe on our way back to get some delicious late-night shakes and fries. with fry sauce! I haven't had that stuff in years. We stayed up late talking, of course.

Friday morning the Legacy Conference started at 9 a.m. It is always held in my old church building in Orem which brings back fun memories. I took lots of notes and loved what was said. I loved hearing good ideas from lots of other mothers and enjoyed even more discussing everything afterwards with my mom and sisters. We snuck out for lunch at Cafe Rio. We always have a list of food places we want to hit up while in Utah. Went back for more Legacy until 4:30. Stopped at the distribution center to get some things. That night we ate dinner at Zupa's. We had planned to go to the dollar movie and see the Walter Mitty show, but they were sold out. So we went bowling instead at BYU and had a great time. Laura and Tom met up with us there and now we were finally all together! (All that were going to come anyway). Again we stayed up way too late talking! :)

Saturday was more legacy. Lunch at In 'n Out. More Legacy. Dinner at The Pizza Factory. From there we drove down to Spring City, UT to stay with my Grandpa Backus and Joyce. We watched the movie, The Saratov Approach and enjoyed that.

Sunday went to church with Grandparents, enjoyed the gorgeous weather and their animal neighbors. Joyce made a delicious lunch for us all, as usual. They are the best hosts and I always love going down to their house. We drove back up to Mapleton, UT and stopped at the Tobler's. (uncle greg and aunt sharon) Grant and Marci and their kids also came to join us. We enjoyed visiting and ice cream. Reminded me of when we lived there and we would all get together on Sunday evenings. I do miss Utah. We went back to Provo, and Kim put her kids to bed. Then a few of us went to visit with Shirley, our cousin. We always love chatting with her!

Tom, Laura, me, Steph, Kerri, Jane, Jeff, Grandma Joyce, Grandpa, Eliza, Kim
Mom, Samuel, Sarah, Caleb

Monday my mom, Sarah, and I had a lazy morning. I went on a nice walk up to the Provo temple (yes it's in walking distance). We went to the Cougar Eat and bought some of their yummy mint brownies to bring back to our families. Then we went shopping! Lots of great stores there. I got some maternity clothes. We quickly ate lunch at Kim's and headed up to Salt Lake. We didn't have much time, but still stopped at the Church History Museum. Lots of great paintings about women and their acts of charity. Inspiring stuff. Then we went to the airport and said goodbye. Always sad to leave, but I was really missing my babies and hunky husband back home. 7 hours later I was back in Anchorage. They got over a foot of snow while I was gone :(.

It was SO good to be there. To talk about so much with other women whom I love and admire, and who are "in the trenches" just like me. Or, who have been there, done that, and I can learn from their wisdom. I felt very rejuvenated and ready to be a good mom again. I came home to a mountain of laundry, children that hadn't been bathed the entire time I was gone, and dirty floors that hadn't been touched. But I didn't mind at all. It was comforting, in a way. I am needed here. This is my job, and I try very hard to do it well. No matter how menial and trivial my daily tasks are, I keep life running smoothly for those I love most, and I take pride in that. Sometimes I just need to be reminded.

That next night I was woken up 3 times by Kelsey (who is getting used to sharing a big girl bed), once by Madison (who just needed to go potty and didn't want to pee in her pull-up) and once by Brynlee (who had a bad dream and spent the rest of the night sharing my pillow). Yes, it's good to be home. :)