Valentine Get-Away and Logan Follies

Let’s see, do we need a get-away? Maybe not but we committed to do a speech in CA on March 10 about 9 months ago and it just came on the heels of this other wild trip! 

We got home on Friday night and did “Time out for Women” with Shawni on Saturday morning. I taught the Old Testament lesson on Noah on Sunday, we unpacked and packed again to leave Tuesday morning to give a speech for the new class on Work/Family Balance at USU and then taught a class and visited with Grandma and Kevan. 

That night we unpacked and packed for CA where we had a pleasant Valentine surprise to greet us in Riverside with the coolest hotel we’ve ever stayed in. It’s called the Mission Inn which has an amazing history and which the whole town sort of revolves around:

 

This was one incredible place…full of history and antiques gathered from around the world:

It was So great to see flowers again!

One of the guys in this group happened to know the owner so they got a great deal on the room…including this VERY nice bathroom:

And balcony!  Too bad it was only 62 degrees!

Then it was back to SL, unpack, pack again and head back up to Logan to speak at the “Religion in Life” series at the LDS Institute on Friday morning.  That was so fun because Grandma came with us and they gave us a tour of that beautiful building which holds so many memories for both Grandma and us!

Grandma was engaged to Dean in that building exactly 67 years ago to the day and she also talked the church authorities into letting her Dad walk her down the aisle of the chapel there on the day of her wedding, even though she had just been married in the temple earlier that day. A definite “no no” nowadays!  They said she could do it if she cleaned it up because I guess it wasn’t very clean (?) and she did! 

Dad and I met in the parking lot of the Institute one night after we had called it off for two years and “hit it off”. Also Dad was the first LDSSA President which was so fun to remember!

Of course, Dad told the engagement story and in hindsight, we’re just hoping that it doesn’t cause a stampede to Old Main Tower for similar engagement stories.

That night we took Sheri and Lynn along with Jan Benson out to dinner at Hamiltons!  It was such a fun evening which included a special five course Valentine Dinner for Sheri and Lynn. The main course was lobster for Lynn, which he loves and some great stuffed chicken for Sheri. It was such a fun night and afterward we headed for a tour of Jan’s beautiful home, which he has built almost entirely by himself! They watched a move but we went home to watch Grandma!  She is doing so much better. Soon we will have her history in hand! 

So now it’s back to the real world, unpacking for real and getting rid of a month’s worth of dust at the house (since Eric built some new shelves for us while we were gone). In addition to being the cleaning lady, I’ll be attacking the pile of “to dos” and an avalanche of mail after our fairy tale adventure! 

Ah, there’s SO much to love! Happy Valentine’s Day to ALL!