Dear Friends:
A week ago, our family traveled to Utah...for a variety of reasons. We originally planned the trip for my wife to receive some training for her new job. She's recently joined the staff of Deseret Book's Time Out For Women program. She'll be handling their social media, as well as a variety of tasks related to the local teams that manage to pull off the various Time Out For Women events across the country. Secondly, we wanted to see some of the family that lives in Utah. My wife grew up there, and her father, stepmother, sister and brother-in-law all live there. It gave out youngest kids a chance for our to visit their cousins, which is most definitely a blast! At the same time, I noticed that the local Scout council was holding some special training while we would be there. More on that later.
As it turned out, there was another reason for the trip. A week before we were to depart, my wife's grandmother passed away. She was a truly amazing and unique woman and the family was gathering for her funeral. We had to throw my wife's original plane tickets away (it would cost more than new tickets to change), and had her go to Utah early. G-Man and I would follow on the original schedule.
G-Man and I started with a very early flight. We connected in Dallas, where G-Man enjoyed one of his favorites - pancakes ; )
We made it to Salt Lake City and proceeded to ride their light rail system to the downtown area. The trains are a really easy way to travel from the airport. G-Man loved riding on the train, and watching everything out the windows:
It was a little overcast that day, but the Salt Lake City Temple is gorgeous - no matter what the weather is like:
The grounds were simply breath-taking, as all the spring flowers added so much beauty, everywhere you looked:
We met up with my wife, as her office is downtown, and everyone went to lunch. Afterwards, she had to return to work, and I took the kids down to Utah County, and made a stop at the Utah National Parks Council Scout office:
Inside you'll find one of the largest Scout Shops in the entire country. This local council supports over 80,000 Scouts - four times the size of our large council, here in Austin. The shop was like Disneyland to me. I'm a Scout Nerd. It's a fact. This is where I could spend hours, looking at the gear, patches and keepsakes. With two little kids in tow, I didn't spend a huge amount of time. I loved their selection of patches:
With the kids begging to leave, we eventually made it to their cousin's house. They absolutely LOVE playing together. It's never quiet when they get together:
That evening, we all went to dinner. One of the local chains that can accommodate a large group was JCW's. L's Grandpa spent some quality time tickling her, while waiting for food to arrive ; )
As I mentioned, the family was still grieving the loss of my wife's grandmother. We decided to pay a visit to her grandfather, to see how he was doing. I wanted to make sure that we had a picture with the four generations all together:
As this would be a really short trip for me, I wanted to see my younger sister and brothers who also live in Utah. They were kind enough to meet us for a little dessert that evening. I was reminded of how much fun they are to hang out with. I'm the oldest in the family, and my siblings are a lot of fun. It makes me think about having a family reunion soon.
Poor G-Man had been up very early that morning, and was a little tired. He's usually much more excited for ice cream ; )
The next day was the Scout training that I spoke of earlier. Let me explain. In Scouting, the entire program is run by volunteer leaders - at every level of Scouting. The role of "commissioner" is used throughout Scouting, as someone who leads and serves the Scoutmasters and other adults on the "front line" with the young men. There are many types of commissioners, each with their own area of responsibility. Since this commissioner role is so important, the Boy Scouts of America have organized the College of Commissioner Science - a formal program of training to help commissioners learn everything they need to know. Early this year, I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Commissioner Science. In Austin, they only offer the College once a year. I wanted to accelerate my training, so I had to go outside my council for further training. That led me to the Utah Scout council, as they were offering this College while we were there. I'm happy to report that I fulfilled all the requirements to earn my Master's Degree:
The story gets a little better, however. A few days before the College was to start, I received a message from the organizers. They were going to have to cancel one of my classes. The online reporting system that we use was retired in Utah last month - with a brand new system introduced at the same time. The class was based on the old system, so it didn't make any sense to hold it. I told the organizers that it was a shame they didn't know me. I have been using the new system (as part of a pilot program) for over 6 months. I told them that I would be able to teach the class ; ) Then something funny happened, they reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to teach the new class! I happily accepted the opportunity and began to develop the course that I could teach in Utah.
As it turns out, the class was a huge success. Not only did I earn the Master's Degree, but I ended up teaching one of my own classes:
As a Scout Nerd, I was fascinated by the cool patch that this Scout council used for people that spent time earning their degrees. At each level, you earn another corner of the patch. Not only did I earn the Bachelors and Masters portion, I was also able to earn the College Staff portion that day!
With all the Scout training over with, we took the kids to one of the local malls for a little fun. At the Provo Town Center Mall, they had these little motorized animals that you could ride. We put the kids on them and let them go....shoppers beware!
Sometimes, I was allowed to ride them. I will say that when someone my size is on there, it tends to make the poor animal travel a little slower...
As we were leaving for the Salt Lake City Airport, I forgot to take pictures of the mountains. This is another great reason to visit Utah, as they are just gorgeous. It had rained that day, and it was cold enough that it snowed in the mountains. Here are a couple of quick pictures (from the car) to show that the mountains are beautiful in any kind of weather:
We ended up on a much later flight than we had planned. We didn't reach Austin until almost 1am in the morning. I'm really proud of G-Man - he was so well-behaved and adapted to the circumstances. Wouldn't it be great if all of us could sleep this way on a plane? ; ) Love that kid...
That's it for this whirlwind trip to Utah. We were in town for barely 48 hours, but had a wonderful time. Degrees earned, respects payed, relationships strengthened, patches acquired, fun had...and memories created.
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