October was a wild and crazy month. The start of a wild and crazy time for our little crew. It is a month that will forever be emblazoned in my mind. We started it off with a good bang. Cori had a trip to BYU to do some recruiting for Honeywell at the business school. We called my mom who was sweet enough to buy herself a plane ticket and come out to TX to hang out with our kiddos so Cori and I could enjoy a little time alone. It was a quick trip but oh, so very nice.
I flew into Salt Lake. Cori was in meetings on campus and wasn't free to pick me up until later in the evening. Sara works not very far from the airport and took off work a bit early so we could have a little sister date. We shopped the River Woods. We strolled through Temple Square. We ate a fancy dinner (the first of many for me that weekend). And we took in the current exhibits at the Leonardo. We also laughed for hours. It was such a treat for me.
Cori and I stayed that first night at a hotel in downtown Provo. The next morning, I lay in bed and read until I was good and ready to do anything else with myself. Heaven. Cori had work and conference calls all morning. Then we met a bunch of MBA students and their spouses at Tucano's for lunch. I got to answer questions for nearly two hours. It was almost surreal. I can remember so vividly what it was like for us in the MBA program during interview/placement season. It was strange (and completely relieving) to be the veteran on the other side of that. After lunch we headed to campus.
We spent a load at the bookstore and made a few other rounds. I got in contact with my London pal Jessika and we ran up to her office for a quick visit. It was so great to see her! We were amazed by the number of people we kept running into. The Church makes the world a tiny place. BYU makes it even smaller. We saw someone that I worked with in our last Stake in AZ, as well as a young man Cori worked with when we lived in Illinois.
Once we had spent all our money on campus we checked into our next lodgings up at Sundance. We had fancy dinner #2 at the Foundry Grill that night and then drove down the hill once more to catch the football game.
It was no surprise when we ran into Cori's old college room mate, Paul. So much fun to catch up with these folks face to face.
The next day was the start of conference. We slept in and rolled out of bed in time to grab some breakfast down at the cafe before morning session began.
In between sessions we set off on a little hike up to the waterfall. We hiked out straight from our little cabin. The small hike turned into a much longer one than we had planned. We ended up walking from the waterfall to the top of the chair lift and taking the lift back down to the main resort area. It was a gorgeous day. And we were able to stream afternoon session over Cori's phone as we went along.
Future home site? I have this not-so-secret plan that we will buy our retirement home at Sundance. Cori will teach as a part time professor at the Marriott school and our kids will go to college there in Provo and in between missions I will spend my summers hiking and my winters skiing with Robert Redford. I was in full campaign mode the entire weekend we were there. Cori's on board. He just needs to make his millions first...
We scrubbed up and met Sandy and Ray for dinner that night at the Tree Room. That was our fanciest dinner by far- I loved every succulent bite. We enjoyed having them all to ourselves for the evening and visited a while after dinner was cleared away.
Everyone in, but mom with her eyes closed. Then, mom with her pretty eyes open, but Cori is partially decapitated. Can't win them all!
And then this lady! She did it all while we were away. Volley ball game, soccer game, conference weekend, dinners out and dinners in. Everyone was sad for her to go!
