This week I had the chance to travel to Rexburg for a conference at BYU-I. This is my third semester working with BYU-I and I still hadn't been to Rexburg... or Idaho. So I went to Idaho. But... since the university was paying for the trip and I had meetings... all day, I couldn't take the boys. I hadn't ever left them... so I was a little bit anxious. Let's call it that instead of obsessive, sick with worry, etc. My sweet friend in Dallas took them both (because she's awesome). We drove up, got them settled in and I flew out the next morning.
Unfortunately these pictures are in the opposite order but still great.
So I flew in to DFW last night. I got in about 1am and after a quick chat with my friend I went in to bed. I thought the boys would stay asleep... that was hilarious. They both popped up and refused to sleep. By then it was about 2am. So we all settled in the bed and tried to sleep. But there were a few problems. First, these two do not sleep well in the same place. They kick, bite, hit, trying to get the other one out of the bed. And they were both pretty sad that I had left them so they wanted to be cuddled. So they fell asleep around 3am and I pretty much didn't. Oh and I failed to mention that they take up the entire bed, you are literally bracing yourself on the bed (because they won't let you leave to sleep on the floor) with one foot. This was great, especially after sleeping alone in a hotel room for two days... yeah not actually great. I had planned to hang around this morning, see our friends, but the boys had other plans. They woke up at 5:30am and then stayed that way. We left at 9am. Zach woke up and said "car, bye bye, home!" he repeated this over and over until we actually got in the car. He screamed when I left the room, stopped holding his hand, etc, but when we got home he was perfectly fine. And Michael, he was just ready to go. These were taken around 5:45am...
See not sleeping
So do you know what is less stressful than flying with two kids under 4? Not. I read a book, watched a movie, only worried slightly about my tight connection. It was great. Not to mention that my gates were LITERALLY 80 gates apart, I totally made it in 10 minutes through the crowded airport alone with time to spare, B86 to B21 is no problem if you are alone. I had forgotten so many things about traveling without kids. Security is so easy, the flight is actually quite relaxing, getting back to the parking lot was a cinch (despite the 30 minute wait), amazing.
My sweet friend took the boys to a splash park near her house. She says they loved it.
Because this was a professional conference (you know because it's work) I had to dress up. I had forgotten what it was like to dress up, to stay clean all day, and to war non kid friendly clothes. It as actually quite nice. I stayed clean all day. I only had to pack one shirt per day knowing that I could handle myself. There was the slight problem that all my church clothes were either not BYU-I approved or showed evidence of my two sweet kids. Oh and my dress clothes from my former life... well they didn't fit quite as well. But it worked out and I remembered what it was like to be a grown up so that was cool... yep, cool.
My "little" brother goes to school in Idaho so we got to spend some time together. We went to lunch and dinner and then to get ice cream from Emmy's favorite place. He was pretty pleased that his cone only cost $0.75. He also tried to go for the most adventurous combination- cherry coating with chocolate and vanilla ice cream- I know living on the edge.
Michael took me on a walk around the Burg. We walked over a river and some train tracks. Rexburg is a beautiful place. It was 80 degrees and people were commenting on how hot it was. I loved it, I don't plan to ever go in the winter but the "summer" was nice. When I walked off the plane in Dallas the reality of a Texas summer hit me (the humidity is like a brick wall) and I quickly remembered I wasnt in the Burg anymore.
I thought the boys would appreciate this photo near the tracks.
We hung out in my room for a minute or two while talking to Emmy.
My boys watched some Daniel Tiger.
The first day the dressing up was a little bit unnerving. Back in the day dressing up was not a big deal. It wasnt dressing up it was wearing your normal clothes, now it is fancy pants. These clothes have to be dry cleaned, I just laugh thinking about that with my boys. Today Zach colored on my pants with sidewalk chalk while I set the table. Oh farewell fancy clothes, I may have to dust you off from time to time just to remember what it was like.
I FaceTimed with the boys. It caused quite a bit of crying so we didn't do it again.
The boys had fun... I think.
Michael gave me the official tour of campus.
And we went to the local Broulim's. Ive heard so much about this place during Muggle's time in Rexburg.
We walked up past the temple. It is almost on campus.
The official sign.
We went for a walk in the gardens. They are beautiful and this tree house was awesome.
BYU-I has an apple orchard on campus. It was so cool! I heard you can pick the apples in the fall, I wish I could do do that.
The orchard is part of a museum.
University gardens.
I took Muggle to lunch (twice) at the Crossroads, the BYU-I equivalent of the Cougareat. I'm a huge BYU fan and always the first to remind people that the "real" BYU is in provo, but this is one thing (this and the orchard) that BYU-I has done better. The Crossroads is cool, they had a sushi place, salad place, woodfire pizza place, wrap place, grill with burgers and awesome quesadillas, chinese place, crepe place, sandwich place, and Mexican food place. I'm sure I forgot something in there, but it was good. If for some reason you are going to Rexburg, go there. It's probably the best place to eat in Rexburg.
I met up with Muggle! It was good to see him in his element.
I forgot that I like hotel rooms. This is pretty much how clean the room stayed the entire time. Yep, it's possible. I was only mildly lonely, but the uninterrupted sleep did make it better.
Before I left for Rexburg I took the boys to Kroger where we used the tiny carts. They loved it. Zach only made it halfway through the story before abandoning his cart and trying to sit in his brother's. I didn't get a picture because... that seemed unsafe.
We drove by our old house. The trees are getting so big! It makes the tiny trees we have now look even more pathetic, but gives me hope that someday they will be big. The neighborhood is almost built out, it has changed a lot in a year and a half. We also drove by the pool, Michael told me "Mom I wish we lived there!". I guess he forgot that we did once and we went to the pool all the time.
The view as we drove to my first trip in 4 years. Overall a great experience but Im glad that next week we will be home.
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