I am so blessed to have Lesley in my life. I was extra blessed to get to meet up with her in Utah this summer. I was planning on going to see her sometime in New York and she was planning on coming to see me in Alaska but when she found out that she was going to be going to Utah to drop her daughter off at AFY she suggested that we just meet there instead. I figured that would be a win win for me getting to see her and also getting to see my family. I arrived in Utah around 8 pm on the 29th of July. Lesley picked me up from the airport and I was almost in tears seeing her that is how excited I was. After all I had not seen her for over 2 years which is the longest amount of time that I have gone without seeing her at all. We then headed to Mapleton to stay at my parents house. We didn't get to my parents house until almost 10. We visited with them for a little bit and then went to bed. It is a strange thing trying to go to sleep when the person sharing a room with you is 4 hours ahead of you where they live. I was laying in bed thinking it is like 8:30 in Alaska what am I doing trying to sleep while she is thinking it is 12:30 in New York why am I not asleep yet. But of course all of that gets thrown out the window when you also take into account that we can talk to each other for hours and still have much to say. We ended up staying awake until the wee hours of the morning. The tiredness that came the next day was well worth it.
Another cool thing about going to Utah at that time was that It was my sister's birthday. I made everyone swear that they wouldn't tell her that I was coming to Utah. So the following day after we got up and ready my dad called Joy and told her that he had a present for her birthday and that he was going to bring it over to her work. We went to the hospital floor that she works on and I hid around a corner while my family went to get her (my family consisted of Rock, my mom and my dad). When she had a little bit of a break they took her into the foyer of her hospital floor and told her to look out the window that her present was in the parking lot. She looked but couldn't find anything. Buy this time I am right behind her. My dad told her to look harder. To which she replied that she wasn't even sure what she was looking for. My dad told her that maybe if she turned around she would be able to see it better. So she turned around to see me! She was surprised! No one told her that I was coming. They kept the secret. She smiled and gave me a huge hug!!! I was super excited to see her too! We only got to visit a short time before she had to go back to work. After we went to see Joy we went to lunch at Good Wood BBQ which happens to be one of my favorite places to eat in Utah so I was extra happy when my parents caught on to the blaring hint that that was where I wanted to go and eat.
The following day was my sisters birthday. We (Lesley and I) took her out to eat and then went swim suit shopping at the mall. I can't remember that order that we did many of the things we did in Utah so from here on out I will just tell you some of the things that we did.
One of the coolest things that we did while I was in Utah with Lesley is we went to the Springville Folk Festival. The Springville Folk Festival is a gathering of people from different countries that travel to Utah for a week and dance their native folk dancing. People of all different ages participate in this. The had people from Chile, MARTINIQUE, NETHERLANDS, and TAIWAN to name a few. There was also a group that comes out every year they are a native American tribe that comes and does hoop dancing. That one is always my favorite part! We got Hawaiian snow cones and bought presents from the different countries for the kids.
We also went hiking up Maple Canyon with my Dad and the Dogs. I love hiking and I really love Maple Canyon so it was fun to show Lesley how close I was too the canyon from where I grew up.
On Thursday we went up to Park City to hang out with her family. We went to eat and to the outlet malls. We also walked around the main street and did the ritzy shopping that they have there. After park city we went to her other brothers house in Farmington (Lesley has 2 brothers that live in Utah). We spent the night there which made it easier for us to leave to following day to go to Idaho to pick up her daughter, Kassy and two of her daughters friends from AFY. It was about a 8 hour car ride to Rexburg and back. We just chatted it up like the old days. We made so many car trips with each other wither it was a trip to the mall or a trip to Utah we put in a lot of hours in the car together. One of the great parts of having Lesley as a friend is that we always have something to talk about. Even if its been a while since we have seen each other or talked to each other. But to be honest there usually isn't a week that goes by where I am not on the phone with her even if its just for a few minutes.
After we made it back to Utah we met up with her brother and sister in law at a shopping center and had dinner and did a little window shopping. Lesley and Giniel were showing off some of their favorite pieces of clothing from H&M. After we had dinner we went back into Salt Lake City and spent the night at her friends house. We of course stayed up all hours of the night talking (who needs to rest when you have your best friend to chat with and only for a few days. Sleeping is over rated).
The following morning we got up bright and early and headed to drop 2 of the girls off at the airport. Then we headed over to one of my other favorite places to visit while in Utah, the farmer's market. We wandered around that for a little while and met up with my parents, Joy and Korey. We did some shopping there and then headed over to the cheesecake factory for lunch. At this point my ankle hurt so bad from being so busy on it for the last few days and I knew that we were going to be doing the whole temple square thing I just couldn't do it. As much as it pained me to say goodbye to Lesley, I packed up my stuff and went home with my parents. I may have definitely cried when I left. I always have such a great time with Lesley that I just don't want it to end. Until next time good friend. I miss you!
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