Feasting

This weekend was about feasting on the words of our prophets, and feasting on food, too.  We didn't mean to have a weekend a foodie would crave; it just worked out that way.  First, Ari and Ellison had their 12-year-old lunch at Pepperbelly's.  They went all alone, and were very polite, except that they stiffed the waitress.  We had a brief tutorial on tipping, after which they went back in to slip her a 5.  What darling, grown-up girls.  They first met in San Francisco when Ellison was three weeks old and Ari was negative three weeks old.  I'm sure she could sense her future BFF's presence from inside her amniotic sac.  And it's been friendship ever since!

Friday also turned out to be a World's Best Corndog day.  Earlier in the season, the Corndog Guy said he would stay open "until the first snow flies."  Freestone was highly dismayed when he woke up to a dusting of snow Friday morning.  That afternoon, it was one of those idyllic, sunny, crisp fall says at the corndog stand.  We don't want to take any chances and miss out on the last corndog of the season!

And THEN...Scott and I went to my favorite restaurant for dinner: Kim Long.  The sunny corndog afternoon had turned blustery and we were in the mood for pho.  We also found out Kim Long has "bubble tea," and theirs is the best we've tried so far.  It's not tea; more like a smoothie with bobas.  Mine was taro-coconut.  Like I needed another addiction!

Saturday, there was a brief respite from the food feasting while we knocked out nine ballet classes and two sessions of conference.  And a wagon ride to select our pumpkins at the neighbors' pumpkin patch.  After I dropped Free off at his Nutcracker rehearsal, officially the last class of the day, I set out on my solo journey to Park City.  I only made it as far as the end of the alley, though, before I decided that a corndog was what I really wanted for dinner.  They ARE the world's best, after all.

On the way up the canyon, I tuned into BYU Sirius radio and listened to Mormon talk shows.  A nice little nightcap to Day One of  General Conference.  I was feeling mighty inspired by all the messages of the day, and I didn't want to stop driving.  So when I made the realization that I hadn't brought any socks with me for my overnighter, I continued on to Heber City to purchase some fleecy socks at the dollar store.  See, it is physically impossible for me to sleep without socks.  I've tried, and I just lay there awake all night.  Strange but true.  Besides, it doesn't hurt to stock up on treats, right?  As an added bonus, I got to see Heber Valley in all its twilight splendor.  Look at those layers of mountains!  One is Timp; can't tell from the pic.

Not everyone enjoys solitude, but I do.  I think anyone would who has had little fingers appear under the door every single time she has gone in the bathroom for the last sixteen years.  Those cute fingers used to give me a sense of desperation as I thought, "What have I done!?  I can't even close a door without someone hunting me down!"  Now the inevitability of the little fingers under the door makes me laugh every time.

As much as I love my world and all the people in it, I recognize the deep nourishment that comes from a solitary drive, a fire that's all my own and a huge block of time during which I am not accountable to anyone.  Of course, what do I do with my alone time?  Tidy up, eat too much, watch videos of my kids on Instagram...

It doesn't matter.  I don't have to "make the time count."  I can squander it, and that's the beauty.  Scott has everything under control at home.  I wrap up in a blanket and go outside.  I admire the stars for ten seconds, I think a deep thought, and then I go inside because it's cold outside and I don't have anything to prove.  I check Facebook.

Sunday morning, Scott prepared a wonderful breakfast for the kids while I sat in front of my fire with a cup of sea salt caramel hot chocolate and nobody to jump on me and spill it!  For a mom, part of the satisfaction of being away is not having to prepare meals.  How sweet it was that, by the time I had wound my way down Immigration Canyon, breakfast was all put away.  All I had to do was snuggle in with eight of the most darling people I know and watch the morning session of Conference.

If there's anything better than solitude, it's being enveloped by those sweet faces.

Check out Freestone's notes on the Conference talks.  I'm assuming that's Minecraft President Monson.

Between sessions, we went to Ryan and Jennie's, where they fixed a great lunch and we had a chance to talk.  Just as the afternoon session started, Golda and I ran to the airport to pick up Josh and Emily, home safe and sound from Paris.  We love our families, Scott and I.  They are all so dear and important to us.  I sometimes wonder how we all stay so close, in spite of life getting in the way.  I keep going back to the quote from Vincent Van Gogh, "What's done in love is done well."

And I know that love is something that you can't run out of.  That's something I'm counting on to be true as our family grows older and bigger!