The Stories of Spring Break

Grandma's house is a happy house. There is music and there is love and there are delicious smells coming from the kitchen almost all the time.  A few weeks before Easter this year, Grandma sent a package through the mail.  I was delighted to find a beautifully illustrated book of one of my favorite songs.  It's called Gethsemane and it brings a tender message of Christ's love for me through its lyrics. On the CD that I own, it is sung by a child with a clear, pure voice and it moves me every. single. time I hear it.  I thumbed through each page of my new book, soaking in the pictures and words, and gasped for joy when I found that the very last pages held the sheet music.  Ever since I was introduced to the song I have wanted to hear Carson sing it... he has one of those voices that move me, too.

"Carson! Kenz!  Come here!" I yelled through the house as I bee-lined for the piano. "I want you to sing this song with me!"

Grandma had also sent a little note asking the children to learn this song so they could sing it for her the next time she saw them.  Which they did when we visited Utah for spring break.  Beautiful.

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It was an interesting vacation this time. Usually when we go to Utah our goal is to spend as much time with family as we possibly can.  And so we do - and we love it.  We sit on couches or stand in kitchens and visit and catch up on each other's lives.  But this time we went to see Utah.  Because even though we've been to Utah dozens of times in my kids' lifetimes, we've never actually taken them to the Utah things.

Now, most of the Utah things on my list of Utah Things have to do with the outdoors.  Hikes that climb beautiful mountains or end at waterfalls, exploring Park City or BYU's campus, for example.  And as luck or fate would have it, northern Utah was still winterish and cold and wet during the week that our school district had decided to deem as Spring Break.  So most of our things had to be transferred to a Next Time list.

Which opened up little pockets of time here and there that were filled by visiting friends that we love and eating food in their homes because, is there ever anything more wonderful to do than to share a meal with people you love?

Monday, however, did not play the same dreary-wet song as the rest of the week, so we piled into the van and headed to Temple Square with an open invitation for all family to join us.  My mom and sister took us up on it.

Which was a wonderful thing because my mom is a sort of Beauty Seeker herself, and I love having her by my side pointing out little spots of beauty that I otherwise might not have noticed.  This day the beauty was in the yellow daffodils lining a hedge, turning their necks to reach the sun.  And it was in the face of a sweet, Asian sister missionary that my mother, in sensing that the sister was Thai, approached to say hello to her in her native tongue.  The missionary, upon hearing her own language, beamed with excitement and threw her arms open for a hug.

We settled into the tabernacle benches to listen to an organ concert and discovered that organ music sounds rather scary and traumatic to the heart of Timothy.  "It's sc-eery," he said, body shaking and hands over his ears to block out as much sound as possible.  Thankfully he had a flock of caring people around him to help him feel 'safe'.  Power of Music, indeed.

My mom took Timothy home shortly after to put him down for a nap.  I was grateful, and it changed the atmosphere a bit without his toddler energy circling around us and tying our attention in knots. I had some beautiful conversations with the older kids about the power of serving other people, and about the power of Christ.  In one of the visitors centers on Temple Square, they have a whole section devoted to service, and I was stirred to tears through it.  Service has been on my mind a lot lately, and I was so grateful to have the chance to take my kids through and to tell them all that was in my heart.  We talked about the good Samaritan and discussed ways that we could be more like him.  We talked about the homeless people we had passed on the streets that very day who were begging for money and we agreed that, while unsure of the best way to help, we couldn't imagine that the Savior would just turn his face and ignore them.  We can give them something, we decided... even if it's just a warm smile, or a decent conversation, or a simple acknowledgment that we see them and understand that we are together in this fight of life.

The church history museum on the other side of the road was incredible and giant and impossible for us to get everything we wanted out of it in one single afternoon.  Brian and I were able to talk to McKenzie about some of the more difficult things in our church's history (such as polygamy) and to introduce her to the idea that not everything in the church is sunshine and roses.  There are hard questions, both in present times and from historical times, that she will face. And she will need to use her brain and mostly her heart to prayerfully come to terms with those questions. But that the goal of this life is not to be able to find all of the answers.  The goal of this life is to develop faith and trust in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and to use that faith, as a principle of action, to become more and more like the Savior himself.

If we had all the answers to all the questions, I suppose we wouldn't have much need for faith and trust.

My stalwart sister, Michelle, hung through with us until the very end, when the FOUR toes she'd had surgery on just a week or two before started slowing her down.  You know those people in your life that make everything more fun?  Michelle is one of those people... probably for every single person she knows.

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On the drive up to Utah I posted a picture on Instagram of our road trip.  A short while later, my dear friend Becky sent a text that said, "Where are you headed today? We are Utah bound..."

This was significant because Becky lives in Oregon and is one of the closest people to my heart. Friendships are weird sometimes and you can't always predict who will be in your life ten years from now.  Dear friends come and color your life for seasons and, even when nothing goes wrong, can fade away.

But not Becky.  Becky will stay.  She's a sister to me.  I fell on her like a crutch for several weeks through that series of crises back in 2012-13, and I might have broken had I not had her by my side. She withstood the weight and pressure with a strength I can only describe as Becky Strength... those of you who know Becky well will understand what I mean, and those of you who don't can't imagine. 

So, immediately upon receiving her text, I called.
"You're on your way to Utah?!" I said.  "Us too!"
Plans were arranged and rearranged and we met up with each other at the Bean Life and Science museum for an afternoon of Togetherness.
I love this friend.

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On the day we were to return back home, the Easter Bunny came to my parents beautiful home and set up an Easter egg hunt for my kids.

My mom is a master at creating Special Days.  Holidays, birthdays, just-because-I-love-you days, she has a beautiful ability to nail the Wow factor.  It was she who invited the Easter Bunny to come early, insisted that he hide over 200 eggs, and hang a pinata full of candy (if you'll remember, I only have four children).  She hard boiled 2 dozen eggs for the kids to dye, and made a delicious breakfast for us to eat all before we left her home for our 6 hour drive back home.

My kids left with their baskets entirely full of candy and had happy, we-love-Nana-stomachaches all. the way. home.