It wasn't Israel

Over a year ago, I scheduled a trip for Gerald and me to the Holy Land. The break between spring and summer semesters is the only time I can travel for the length of time needed for such a trip, so we booked our tour reservations for mid-May, 2024. 

Then, the horror of war. 

For months, we watched the situation escalate. My heart hurts for everyone involved in this awful mess, and it feels selfish to be concerned for my own vacation plans. Ultimately, we canceled and rescheduled our Israel/Jordan trip for May, 2025.

"So what do we do this May?" We decided to fly over to the Pacific Northwest, our "home," and visit Gerald's family (Everett, Washington) and mine (Portland, Oregon), along with a couple stops in between for me to visit friends. I promised myself I'd get pictures of everyone I saw along the way, but I only kept that promise 50% of the time. It wasn't for lack of dedication; it's just that I was so invested in the moment, visiting all these beloved friends and family members, that preserving it in a picture too often escaped my mind. Sorry.

We flew to Sea-Tac, rented a Turo, and drove up I-5 to Everett. Gerald's mom is currently in rehab, mending a broken hip, post surgery. She's doing great, and it was good to see her making excellent progress for someone who is 93! Keep walking, Vi! The second day in Everett, we had the pleasure of lunch with Gerald's brother Glenn and his wife Monica. Glenn always brings us the best Thai food, and the whole afternoon was a delight. And yes, this was one of the times I forgot to take a picture. 

Both mornings in Everett I took long, lovely walks. The first day was sunny, but the second day was perfection: my favorite overcast skies with just the slightest drizzle of rain. Every time I walk in Pacific Northwest rain, I tell myself I'm staying forever. (Every time, I ultimately miss my kids too much and return to Utah.) 

The following day, Gerald stayed in Everett with his family, and I drove south. I stopped at SouthCenter Mall near the airport to meet up with my cousin, Diana. We've kept in touch through socials, but hadn't seen each other in person since her wedding in 1993!! I was there with my four little kids, Eli only eight months old, to witness Diana marry her sweetheart Jeff. Diana and I had the best, best visit as we looped the mall together; I had over 12,000 steps before I got back in my car to continue on to Portland. (Note: It will not be 30 years before this reunion happens again!)

South I went, just in time to encounter rush hour traffic on I-5 coming into the Portland area. Eeeeek! We like to complain about traffic here in the Salt Lake Valley, but we don't even have a clue. Finally, I made it to my mom's/brother's house in Happy Valley! I hate driving generally, and especially in craziness traffic, so I was grateful to get into my mom's car and let Tom drive us to a food truck corral for dinner, where I had super yummy Indian food. The next morning, my mom and I met my niece Carley for breakfast. I hadn't seen her since her wedding either (Is this a pattern?), though hers was just this past November. And this was another time I forgot to get a picture (sigh). 

Saturday, Tom and my mom and I had breakfast together, and look! I got a picture!

Then Tom went home, and my mom and I became mall rats. I basically grew up in malls, shopping with my mom and grandma, whose words still echo in my mind: "Tannie, if we get separated, meet under the clock at Meier & Frank." Malls will always be a happy place for me, though I fully own up to my role in their demise, whenever I go to my front porch and retrieve my latest Amazon order. That said, Clackamas Town Center was surprisingly busy. We wandered through stores, I tried on lots of clothes (!), and we finished with decadent Cinnabons. 

That evening, my niece Leslie came for dinner with her two kids. Tom's friend Yvonne make incredible Mexican food, and we all laughed and visited and had so much fun. And, you guessed it: no picture. 

The next morning, I climbed into my Turo, waved goodbye to my family, and began the trek home to Utah, which meant driving back up to Sea-Tac to return the car, meet up with Gerald, and fly home. Here we are on FrontRunner.

Driving north that day, I stopped for three hours in Vancouver, Washington to hang out with my best friend, Lorelei. I use the word "best" with a bit of elasticity, so just go with me on that. Of course my immediately family are my best friends, but I also have a small handful of other besties, who are not related to me by blood or marriage. Only one lives near me up in Sandy. The others are scattered here and there, in places like St. George, Rexburg, Billings, and Vancouver. Of these dear souls, Lorrie is the one I've known longest. We met when I was 13 in Rainbow Girls and became instant homies. We were honor attendants in each other's weddings, corresponded through email for decades, and most importantly, we've prayed for each other with constancy through the many highs and lows of mortality. 

It reminds me of one of my favorite relationships in scripture, between Jonathan and David. In 1 Samuel 18:1, we read, "...the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." This, to me, is the definition of covenant friendship, that which is eternal, forever bonded. It's like that with Lorrie, along with a few others, and I am so very grateful. I could call any one of them if I was in need. And they would rescue me. Because like Jonathan and David, our souls are knit together. Once again, no picture, but if you want to see Lorrie, click the link above to my post about Rainbow. Lorrie is the beautiful girl standing to my right with long, brown hair. 

It wasn't Israel. It wasn't my plan for May. But it was good, nonetheless. I came home to Eli, Amanda, and Jane temporarily living here in our house (the nest is once again full, and I couldn't be happier!), but that is a story for another post, another time, so stay tuned.

Pomp and Circumstance + Mother's Day Joy!

Also known as the graduation march, "Pomp and Circumstance" always floods my mind with nostalgia and my eyes with tears. I go all the way back to memories of my own two commencement ceremonies, marking my undergrad degree from Willamette University and my master's from Western Oregon U. But those two days pale in comparison to watching my own children march boldly into various celebratory venues and receive their degrees. 

We made education a priority in our family, vowing to help our kids financially as much as we were able, if they chose the path of higher education. They all did. Luke graduated from Whitman College in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and religious studies, and in 2014 from Indiana University with a Ph.D. in psychology. Shulamith graduated from Westminster College in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Isaiah shares Shulamith's alma mater, earning his bachelor's degree in computer science in 2014 from Westminster. Eli graduated from BYU-Idaho in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education.

And now...........................SETH! 

Just over a week ago, I stood in the UCCU Center on the campus of Utah Valley University, as the familiar music began to play, and a flood of green caps and gowns processed through the center of the auditorium. I was crying before I even found Seth. I quickly texted him. "I'm standing up near the stage. When you find your seat, look left of the orchestra and wave!" 

A couple minutes later, he texted back, "I see you!!! I'm waving now."

Our glances met immediately. My crying turned to sobbing, as I jumped up and down, clapping and waving to Seth. My baby. My last graduate. I am so blessed to be his mom and so proud of all he has accomplished in his brief 23 years. And for some reason, all this crazy emotion was tied up in this one moment. 

It was, indeed, a moment.

The ceremony, itself, was less than stellar. The keynote speaker was a self-made billionaire, who spoke for an entire hour (yes, you read that right), and basically said this: If you work very hard and never give up, you can be a billionaire like me, because rejection is just God's protection, and there is only one "you" in the whole universe, so make sure your soul reminds your brain of that every day. 

Over and over and over. For an hour. Not kidding. I was able to escape for a break in the middle and go to the bathroom, but poor Seth was stuck down there in his seat. At one point he texted, "Okay, I'm really starting to get annoyed now. I might start playing chess. I think I see why you love giving talks so much. Hearing this speech makes me want to write a good one."

,,,and bit later, this: "She has a book! We should buy it! I wonder what valuable lessons it holds."

...and finally this: "Okay this is ridiculous, I'm gonna lose my stuff, Mom. She just said the same thing. Word for word. Again. I can't. This is so bad."

It really was that bad. 

We thought it might never end, but eventually it did....until the next afternoon, when Seth had a smaller ceremony, for just the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This one much better! We got to hear Seth's name read and see him walk across the stage. More tears. More pride. More joy.

That night I hosted a party for him, well more accurately, Amanda and I hosted a party. She decorated our clubhouse in black and gold, and built a balloon arch, and did all sorts of things I could never do. Thank you, Amanda! Our family gathered, along with several of Seth's friends, to show Seth how proud we are and how much we love him. I think he felt it. 

Mother's Day came along way too close on the heels of that huge weekend, and I was also buried in essays, so we decided to keep it small. Shulamith and I felt that the three mothers in the family should not have to plan, cook or clean, so we went to a park where Shulamith's and Eli's kids could play. I got to sit in the breezy sunshine and chat with Eli. Then we grabbed some dinner at Cafe Rio, where Isaiah and Seth joined us, so I could have all four of my Utah kids with me for Mother's Day. 

And I came home to a clean house without doing any work at all. Fabulous! 

The Luck of Texas

Me (a few years ago): Wouldn't it be fun to take each of your kids on a short trip of their choice around their 12th birthday?

Shulamith: Yeah, let's do that.

Then we blinked, and Swen was coming 12. Crazy. During the past year, we've talked to him about where he might like to go. He had no idea. As it came closer, we needed to settle on something so we could make a plan. Still no idea. Finally, we made a list of possibilities, and let him choose. 

#1 The Oregon coast or California, where we could spend time at the beach.

#2 A short cruise out of Los Angeles, stopping for one day in Mexico.

#3 Washington D.C.

#4 Texas

As an aside, Swen is obsessed with Texas. I think this stems from one of his favorite shows, Young Sheldon, but true to form, Swen took it to the next level, and even made a giant Texas state flag to hang in his room! A while back, every day he would shout questions at us, and make us answer in a certain way: WHAT ARE YOU? (A true Texan.) WHAT DO TEXANS DO (They never give up.) WHAT DO THEY LIKE? (Guns!) To be clear, neither Shulamith not I has even the slightest affinity for the state of Texas, and we both detest guns.With all our hearts and souls, we do. Nevertheless, we complied with all this babble because we pretty much do whatever Swen tells us to do.

So we sat him down and reviewed these four options for a trip. He reacted with nominal interest in the first three, but when we mentioned #4, his eyes lit up to match the stunned smile on his face as he said, "You could take me to Texas?"

There was no further discussion. Shulamith decided that San Antonio was the best place to go, because they have both SeaWorld and Six Flags. We spent three days there and experienced the luck of Texas, both bad and good:

Bad luck

Food. We did not succeed very well with food. Evidently, we needed Isaiah to tell us where to eat. The food at SeaWorld was edible, barely; the food at Six Flags was not. We literally threw away our hot dogs. How do you ruin a hot dog, though? The last night we wanted to find some Texas barbecue, and Shulamith used google reviews to find a place, and it seemed like it should be good? But not really. 

Boomerang ride at Six Flags. It was the first ride we went on, and the wait was two full hours. Just as we reached the landing to load, they shut it down for some sort of maintenance check. The ride, itself, was amazing (as were the other five or six roller coasters we had time for), but a two-hour wait for your first ride of the day? Ugh.

Very bad luck

Stolen AirPods. Can you even believe that? We returned from our day at SeaWorld to find Shulamith's AirPods missing. She had left them on their charging station out in plain sight, sadly. I guess all it takes is one dishonest housekeeper. Shulamith called the front desk, and they said they would leave a note for the head of housekeeping, but we don't think that happened. We asked about it again as we checked out, and the person at the desk seemed entirely disinterested and disengaged. Awesome.

The worst luck

Horrible Diet Coke everywhere! Okay tell me, what is the deal with Texas and Diet Coke?? The first day we stopped at a Maverik, like we do most days, and expected our normal fountain Diet Coke. It was wretched! We tried another gas station. Same. I can't explain what it tasted like exactly, but I'd definitely recognize it if I ever had the misfortune of tasting it again. Which I did the very next day at SeaWorld!! Gross. Seriously, what the actual heck?

Bad luck for Shulamith and me; good luck for Swen

Gun store. More than anything, Swen wanted to visit an actual gun store. Whyyyyyy? But this was his trip, so we sucked it up and took him. I can't describe how uncomfortable it felt in there. Eeeek. I mean it wasn't quite as bad as being in the reptile house at the zoo, but almost.Wall-to-wall firearms. Not all were assault weapons; they had hunting rifles, which make some semblance of sense to me, though I wouldn't ever want to get near one, but one entire wall displayed giant assault rifles, whose sole purpose is to kill people. That's it. How very, very sad. In the back of the store they had a target practice room. We weren't allowed in there (Thank you, Jesus(!), because Swen really wanted to go), but windows provided a full view. They had big papers with outlines of human beings, so you could practice shooting them in all the right places. Meine Gute. Well, that's all I'll say about that.

Good luck

Cheap flights out of Provo Airport. For real, if you've never flown out of Provo, I highly recommend it. It's a cute little airport, with one restaurant counter, no line for security, and nice TSA agents. I stopped and offered my heartfelt thanks to the guy for treating me with the respect I deserve. I'm so tired of those people yelling at me and telling me what to do, without so much as a simple please."SHOES OFF, ELECTRONICS OUT, FEET ON FOOTPRINTS, HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD!" Shut the "F" up. They irritate me so much that I refuse to make eye contact with them and move through the process as slowly as I possibly can, because you know, that's definitely the mature response. But this guy provided excellent service and was kind. Wow!

Meal at Torchy's Tacos. The only exception to our bad luck with food was the one meal we ate at Torchy's Tacos. Yummmm! I had one taco with barbacoa, avocado, cotija cheese, onions, and cilantro; and another with grilled chicken, onions, and peppers, pico and cheddar jack cheese. Shulamith got that one too, along with a breakfast one. All were, as the sign informed: "Damn good tacos." We need a Torchy's here in Utah.

Pills that allow Shulamith to ride rides. She generally can't ride anything that spins without feeling nauseous, and even some roller coasters make her sick. But these pills helped so much that she was able to ride almost everything with Swen and me.

Very good luck

The weather both days. We thought it was gonna be so hot, but our two days in the parks were overcast and pleasant. Shulamith doesn't love the humidity, but for me it's a win because my skin feels so soft, unlike here.

No lines at SeaWorld. Not even kidding. We literally walked onto the rides. Swen and I rode the Tidal Surge three timers in a row! It's a giant swing that goes high and fast. Shulamith did this one only once, but at least she did it!

Alligator. Swen and Shulamith petted an alligator! Fortunately, it was a baby, and small enough not to bite them! I did NOT pet the thing, which is gonna grow about a foot a year and eventually be 12-feet long.

The best luck

Spending four uninterrupted days with our favorite Swen! He says it was the best trip of his life, and that is all we could have hoped for!

(I don't think he's ever seen one before!)