Beautiful, beautiful Utah, friends, good food, and Kate's grave

My dear friend, Emily, wanted to arrange a trip to get together in between camp. She is a dear and also very smart and she suggested that we meet in Utah, so that we could hang out and I could see Kate's grave. A most excellent suggestion - I haven't been to see it since right after the headstone was laid in October. Too long. 

This last weekend was our long awaited trip! Sometimes I feel like Emily and I are long lost sisters - we can talk about silly things or serious things for hours, we both LOVE us some good food, we have a lot of similar ideas and things in common, we both have only daughters, and then there's the whole dance and colorguard bit. Emily has been someone since Kate died who I have felt like I could go to on my really hard, ugly days and who would also understand when it wasn't on my mind the next day and I just wanted to joke around. That is a special friend, indeed. 

Friday morning, she picked me up in Provo and we headed out in search of some lunch. I had been daydreaming about the food options on this trip for weeks. I really like food. We decided on Sammy's in downtown Provo and I introduced Emily to the glorious thing that is a Pie Shake (an apple pie shake in my case and a peach cobbler pie shake in hers). Sammy's did not disappoint. 

Then we headed to the Provo Cemetery to visit Kate's grave. Kate had some new neighbors - well, at least her neighbors had new gravestones since we had been there in October. That visit was interesting for me - in a lot of ways it was easier than it had been in October. I felt peaceful and just glad to be there. I was glad to feel like I had been healing and making progress. Emily and I sat and talked for close to an hour and then decided to head up to our hotel to get checked in. 

We rounded out the evening with yummy Indian food and got to bed early because we were tired from our early morning flights.


Saturday morning, we slept in and then had breakfast at the hotel. It was raining and chilly, but that was exciting for me coming from bone-dry, hot AZ and Emily is from Oregon and she is hard core when it comes to rain. So, we decided to go try out a hike to Stewart Falls in Provo Canyon. I hadn't done that hike like since Eric and I were first married. I read some guides beforehand that said you shouldn't go until after early spring because of avalanche danger. But the end of April is hardly early Spring, right? The snow had been just at the tops of the mountains the day before, so I figured we were good to go! Well, the rain in the valley was snow coming down the mountains. By the time we got to Sundance, we saw snow on the ground around us. And at the trail head, there was really snow all over. Which was so fun after not getting winter in Arizona! I'll take it - April or not! We quickly realized there wouldn't be any hiking for us in our tennis shoes and sweatshirts and laughed it off.

And decided some Space Camp pictures were in order....

So, we enjoyed the pretty drive and headed back down the canyon to walk up to Bridal Veil fails where we'd just be dealing with rain and not snow. We had fun walking and talking and enjoying the beautiful sights. I love Utah county, have I ever mentioned that?

We were pretty wet and cold after that so we headed to lunch at Pita Pit and tried to dry off a little and then went to Home Depot in search of a few things for Kate's grave. It was very windy, so I wanted to find a stake of some sort to try and help her Orchid stay up. And while we were searching through the garden center, we found a happy little bird that was just perfect to stay at her grave year round since we are all big bird nerds to the max. It sure made me happy to look at and think about leaving a piece of our family there even when we are far away.

It was a harder day than the day before. Something about sitting in a cemetery in the pouring rain. It just seems right. It's like everything slows down and matches my mood. I was feeling pretty sad that day at the cemetery. I just miss Kate so much. It seems like forever until I'll get to see her again. Sometimes it's hard to wait. But I felt at peace - even with those sad feelings. It is a hard thing and it's ok to be sad.

We were officially very wet and very cold by the end of our cemetery visit and decided to finish up the day with indoor activities. We made an impromptu stop by the Museum of Art at BYU and it was so great! I used to love going to the MOA when I was a student and before we had kids. I haven't been in forever, but I have wanted to for so long. What a treat! Then we went and got ice cream and sat and chatted some more (because it's never too cold outside for a little Cold Stone). We were nice and dry for the most part and headed out to Los Hermanos in search of dinner.

We saw the new Provo Temple on the way there - so exciting!

Downtown Provo

We were thoroughly stuffed after dinner and ready for bed. We headed back to the hotel and got ready for an early morning of flights at the airport (Emily was up by 3am for her flights both ways - she is such a trooper!). Julie and Rob were kind enough to take me to the airport on Sunday morning, so we got a little chat in. It was a quick, but wonderful trip. I loves Utah. Til we meet again!