Monday Night Surprise

I am someone who, for the most part, likes to have things planned out.
However, with so many different schedules and other factors coming into play,
I basically had to leave things open and just wait and see what would happen,
when it came to going anywhere and doing anything during the time I was in Utah.

But just like Inigo Montoya...

I already had one of my plans for Monday fall through,
so I was determined to be able to check off at least one of my
"Things to do while in Utah" on my list that day!

Now it was just a matter of deciding what that thing would be!

I had about a 3 hour window of time that evening,
so I chose to do one of the things that was near the top of my list...
visit my cousins!

After dropping Katrina off at work,
Robbie, Benjamin and I headed over to Valley Fair Mall.
[Benjamin got a pair of too small slippers that needed to be returned.]
I'd call it "a walk down memory lane", but the mall
[and the surrounding area] had completely changed over the years!
I think the dollar theater and JC Penney were the only places
in the mall that looked familiar to me.

Then after grabbing some dinner from Arby's [me] and Taco Time [Robbie]
we made our way to Kearns to visit my cousin, Holly.
It had been several years since I was last at her house,
so I was surprised that I remembered how to get there!

I knocked on the door and said, "SURPRISE!" when Holly answered.
It was her first time meeting Benjamin and only the second time meeting Robbie.

We visited for awhile and caught up on what we're all up to these days.
Holly would be the first of many to make a comment about
how Benjamin looks like his mama and that he's just as cute as
all those photos on Facebook make him out to be!

When it was time to go, Holly, ever the faithful photographer,
pulled out her phone to take some pictures.
[Don't know why I didn't think to get some with my camera as well!]

Then we made our way over to West Jordan, to visit my cousin, Jennifer.
Jennifer's 16 year old, 6+ foot tall son, John answered the door.
[All her kids are taller than me! Except for her almost 6 year old daughter.
But I'm sure she'll be taller than me in a year or two!]
Jennifer decided we should go downstairs to her preschool playroom,
to help keep Benjamin entertained as we had our visit.

We talked quite a bit about Hermana Asay and Elder Asay.
[Also known as Jayna and Jacob.]

Jacob is serving in the Little Rock Arkansas mission
and was about to be transferred that week to Memphis, Tennessee.
[I was surprised that was part of his mission and not a mission of it's own.]

Benjamin shares a birthday with Jayna, who is serving in the Dallas Texas
Spanish Speaking mission and is currently in McKinney.
So when she looked out the window on her birthday and saw snow falling down,
it made her feel like she was back home in Utah. Talk about a cool birthday present!
Jennifer recently found out Jayna's release date....Christmas Eve!
So I guess it's going to be a very Merry Christmas for the Asay family this year!
[Although I was bummed that they wouldn't be coming out to pick her up then!]

We talked about a bunch of other things [Frozen, preschool, family stuff, etc.]
as Benjamin continued to play and explore the room.
[Jennifer also remarked on how much he looks like his mama.]
But eventually we had to go so we wouldn't be late picking Katrina up from work.

I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures while I was there!
But I at least was able to get a hug from all the kids and give a "Texas sized" hug
to Jennifer, like I told Jayna I would in the birthday card I sent her.
So I hoped we would be able to get together again while I was here.

Little did I know how quickly that would happen!
When we got back, we realized we had left Benjamin's diaper bag there! Oops!
Looks like we'll be seeing each other again after all!