Utah Trip

Because Bill's grandma passed away recently, we were able to fly back to Utah for the funeral this past weekend. We were glad that everything worked out as far as flight plans, school and work schedules, and other things so that we could take a few days off. We flew out of St. Louis on Thursday morning (had to get up at 4 am for a 7:30 am flight - not so fun). I had been worried that Will would have problems with flying, since this was his first time, but he was amazingly well-behaved, thanks to countless readings of Cat in the Hat and Clifford.
Once we got to Salt Lake, my dad picked us up at the airport and drove us down to Provo. We made a quick stop at my grandparents' house to "surprise" them (we found out later that my dad had already told them we were coming - I had forgotten to tell him that we wanted to surprise them. They were gracious enough to fake it). We had a nice visit with them for a while, then we went down to BYU to visit some old friends and professors, as well as stopping by the bookstore for some of their amazing fudge.
Friday was spent primarily with Bill's family. Most of them either flew in or drove in sometime that day, so there was quite a crowd at the house. But it was fun to have everyone together. Someone told me that this was the first time in over 10 years that the whole Evans-Luce family had all gotten together. There was a lot of laughing, reminiscing, and just a good time.



Saturday was the day of the funeral. Bill woke up early in the morning with an upset stomach, which lingered throughout the day. But he got a blessing from his dad and Michael, which seemed to help enough for him to get through the day and be one of the pallbearers. The funeral itself was beautiful. Grandma Luce was an amazing woman, so the service was full of stories and memories from her children and grandchildren. We all laughed and cried and remembered this wonderful lady who had touched all of our lives.


Sunday we went to church with my mom and my sister Erika. Coincidentally, my mom had been asked to give a talk that day, so it was fun to be there to hear it. After church we spent a lot of the day driving around visiting some of our old friends. We went up to Wymount, where we had lived for 2 years and saw people like the Wheadons, the Ballards, the Pattons, and the Jones. We also got to see our old Wymount bishop and his wonderful wife, as well as one of my best friends, Jason. By the end of the night we were all beat, so we called it a night.
On Monday we had the opportunity to do an endowment session at the Provo Temple. This was so wonderful, because in Illinois we have to drive about 3 hours to go to the temple in St. Louis, so it was nice to be able to drive just a few minutes and go. Afterwards we came home and started packing so my mom could take us back up to Salt Lake. We had to stay in a hotel that night so we could catch ANOTHER early flight back home the next morning.
The trip home was not quite as pleasant as the trip to Utah. We had two flights that day, the first one to Denver and the second to St. Louis. Will wasn't too thrilled to be going back on a plane this time, so we had to deal with a lot of crankiness throughout the day. Luckily we made it back to St. Louis in one piece, and, even though we had a wonderful time in Utah, I have to say I'm actually glad to be back in Illinois.