Feelin' Blue At BYU

By Friday, June 14, the "Nash reunion" part of our vacation was beginning to fade a bit. Individual families started embarking on visits of their own. My brother Ray and his wife Adrienne spent much of the day visiting her brother's family, who had recently moved to the Wasatch Front. My parents spent part of the day visiting with my grandmother, who I'd visited a couple of days before.

Nathan and I decided to make this Friday a "Barrett family" day for the most part as well. However, Jocelyn and her family did help us out for a few hours; they were able to watch our kids so we could catch a morning endowment session at the Mount Timpanogos Temple. We got there early enough to eat a quick breakfast at the cafeteria. That leisurely breakfast was good for me; it helped me "slow down" and enjoy my experience in the House of the Lord (too often, I am in a huge rush to get into the endowment session, worrying about our kids & their babysitters).

I'm so grateful to the many family members who help watch our children on our vacations, so we can attend the temple as a couple (something that very rarely happens these days). Plus, the Mount Timpanogos Temple is just so beautiful, and I never get tired of visiting it and feeling the spirit within its walls. It was very good for my soul.

LET...the INDOCTRINATION...BEGIN!!

After our spiritual boost to start the morning off, we decided to take the kids to BYU and play around on campus for a few hours. It is always fun to visit our alma mater and reminisce about the good old days. Nathan is definitely more of a "Zoobie" than myself, but I would be lying if I said I didn't love my time at Brigham Young University and think of it often. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my girls can go to school there, too!

We decided to eat lunch in the Cougareat before wandering all over campus:

Mmmm, delicious Subway sandwiches! As usual during the summer, the EFY teenagers were swarming all over BYU's campus. Luckily, they (mostly) let us eat lunch in peace.

Here are some of our other campus adventures:

Playing with the "Eternal Family" statue

Showing the girls one of the bigger lecture halls on campus; can anyone guess which building?

Of course, we also took a trip to the BYU Bookstore and bought ourselves some new Cougar memorabilia. The girls each got a small trinket (Lorelai & Celeste each got teddy bears wearing BYU gear, and Aurora got a 3-D cup with a cougar on it). Nathan and I each bought new shirts (I'm *ahem* getting a little big for my old one). Nathan hadn't planned on getting a new shirt, but we saw a whole bunch of shirts with BYU coloring and Marvel Superheroes on them! It was such an odd cross-promotion that he couldn't resist. I mean, come on...Thor and The Hulk aren't even in conformance with the BYU dress code!!

We also checked out the main study area of the Harold B. Lee Library.

Hello, scholars...ANYTHING is possible when you're in the library. I'm on a cart...HEEAAAAYH!

Taking a short break on the HFAC stairs.

My old stomping grounds...the Harris Fine Arts Center. I love seeing the new weird art exhibits every time I come.

We even walked over to the Carillon Tower, and heard the bells chime on the hour. The girls were a little freaked out, but mostly enjoyed it.

It wasn't all fun and games on this trip to BYU, though. Some of the changes to campus were bittersweet; my dorm building (part of good old Deseret Towers) had been demolished, and a newer, fancier apartment-style student living complex was crouching in its place. To make things even more poignant, Nathan's dorm had been demolished as well (Robison Hall was part of Heritage Halls, which was also being "upgraded" building by building). I'd heard about Deseret Towers being destroyed, so seeing it gone wasn't a huge shock. Seeing Heritage Halls on their way out, however, was very unexpected, and it definitely made both of us feel old, and feel that our past was being "erased" somehow.

On a happier note, we were still impressed by a lot of the new things we saw. While Nathan was more interested in looking through old buildings that he'd studied in, I was interested in a lot of the new additions to campus...like the brand-new huge shiny BYU Broadcasting building:

I remember the days when BYU broadcast their channels out of a basement in the Fine Arts Center! And from a lonely office building in South Provo! Those days are long gone now. Even though I specialized in the print side of journalism, I was still close enough to the broadcast side of things to be invested in its evolution. Seeing such a massive, state-of-the-art building was truly exciting for me. I hope BYU is very thankful for the huge donations that must have made this place possible.

A look inside the broadcasting "command center"; very high-tech!

The awards cabinet, loaded with local Emmys and other accolades. Yeah, they're confident. They've got swagger.

After yet another long hot afternoon of walking around, the kids were ready for a break. As luck would have it, a BYU Creamery outlet was just around the corner! Hooray!

Nathan and I had forgotten how good their ice cream was. So. Good. I almost wish we could have stayed for a second helping!

Alas, our girls had had enough. We bid farewell to BYU (until next time, that is!). We had to head back to the Carlins' for one more night; most of the evening was spent loading up the car and buying supplies for the drive home the next morning. We were also lucky to have one more board game night with my siblings and parents. It had been such a busy, fun week that we were sad to see it end.