An Award-Winning Weekend

One week ago today, Scott and I were in the midst of a whirlwind trip out to Utah, where Scott was invited to receive an award from BYU's business school.  Initially, it was just going to be Scott traveling on his own, but once I decided I just had to be there, too, I went about trying to make that magic happen!  Hahaha.  Since Isaac won't be two for another week, we managed to squeeze him onto the flight with us for free and after checking to see if Kristin (my sister-in-law extraordinaire) would be willing to host the other five while we were gone, I went ahead and booked my ticket.  And I'm so glad I did!

For one thing, it's always nice to have a little getaway.  Even if it wasn't a TOTAL getaway from all the kids.  Hahaha.  For another thing, I love Utah/BYU in the fall!  It's my favorite.  Also sweetening the deal was the fact that I have 3 siblings out there in addition to Scott's parents.  The icing on the cake, however, was attending the banquet dinner where Scott's award was a MUCH bigger deal than he had let on.  In my mind, I was envisioning a free dinner with various awards handed out to several different MBA people.  In actuality, there were only TWO awards being given out -- one lifetime-achievement type award and an "Ascendant Leader" award of which Scott was the winner.  He'd be quick to say that he was certainly not the keynote speaker (and he wasn't), but I was super proud to be there and know that other people think he's as awesome as I do.  :)   The other award -- the "Distinguished Alumni" award -- was given to someone who has actually been a mentor to Scott and a huge asset to him in his career, and I think it was a lovely full-circle to have them both be honored that night.

 Giving his "remarks."

 That's my boy!

 L --> R: Trent (who recruited Scott during the MBA program), NJ (the Distinguished Alumni Award winner), and Scott.

But I guess I need to back up a little!  Hahaha.  We flew out EARLY last Thursday morning, and in a stroke of magic (or miracle), Isaac did amazingly well on the flight.  There were a few moments of iffy-ness when the novelty of movies on the iPad wore off and he started to get antsy, but then, just like that, he fell asleep in my arms and napped for about an hour!  {He never does that.}   Once we touched down in Salt Lake, we got our rental car and headed over to my sister, Emily's, where Isaac and I chilled for the day while Scott went down to Provo to get some work done while we played.  It was so fun to see Isaac play with his little cousins and obviously so fun for me to hang with my sister.  ;) 

My brother Freddie headed over when he was done with work and drove me and Isaac down to Scott's parents house so that I could start getting ready for the dinner.  Freddie came to the rescue as babysitter extraordinaire that night, so that Scott's parents and I could all attend the dinner together with Scott.  I'm pretty sure Freddie had Isaac at "McDonald's chicken nuggets."  Hahahaha.  From the looks of things, they had a pretty dope night themselves.  :)

On Friday, the Hansen party continued while Scott was in classes all day at the OB/HR conference that was the reason he was there.  Emily checked Pearce out of school early so that we could all go to Cornbelly's for the day at Thanksgiving Point.  Freddie and my baby brother Jacob joined us and it was an absolute blast!  Isaac LOVED running all around and playing with Kate, Henry, and Pearce, and it was an amazingly perfect and beautiful fall day. 

 I like how my legs are dangling here like a toddler's.  Hahahahaha.  My brother Jacob (next to me) is 6' 3" or 6' 4" and I'm only 5' 2" for reference sake.

 

He was so proud of this new Mario shirt.  Hahahahaha.

 Corn bellies!  Hahahaha.

 {Corn Cob Beach}

 Corn Angels!

 It was surprisingly comfy and relaxing to chill in the corn.  :)

 Whee!

After heading back to Provo that afternoon, we couldn't NOT hit up BYU campus while there!  An added bonus was meeting up with Jacob's girlfriend, Kaitlin, and hitting up the BYU store for chocolate covered cinnamon bears and other fun stuff.  Once Scott was done with his conference, he joined us as well and we finished the day with some ice cream at the Creamery on Ninth.  I was pretty bummed that they didn't have any peppermint ice cream out yet, but it was a fun outing nonetheless.  Once we headed back to Scott's parents' house, everyone met up with us to eat some Thai food and hangout for as long as possible before the night was over. 

After Emily and Freddie headed home, Scott and I took Kaitlin and Jacob back to their dorms with the express purpose of getting Isaac to fall asleep while driving in the car so that he would actually get some sleep that night.  Well, that completely backfired.  When we got to Jacob's place, I made the mistake of getting out of the car to go see his dorm -- the new and improved Heritage Halls, which is MUCH nicer than the Heritage Halls I lived in back in the day -- and Isaac lost his freaking mind.  He was NOT happy that he didn't get to leave the car as well, and he let us know it.  He was so overtired and insane at this point in the trip -- he hadn't slept well the night before, and the only naps he got during the two days we were there were brief little catnaps in the car -- that he couldn't stop screaming.  Once I finished checking out Jacob's apartment, we got back in the car to bring Kaitlin to her place (only a couple minutes away), and Isaac literally screeched like a banshee the entire course of the drive.  Poor little lovebirds.  Not exactly the idyllic picture of family life we'd like to project for them. ;)  Hahahaha.  After dropping them off, Isaac proceeded to freak out for a good 20 or 30 minutes in an empty parking lot at Kiwanis Park before we were able to FINALLY calm him down and drive back to Scott's parents house.  He fell asleep in my arms on the way and successfully made the transfer to the pack 'n play, only to wake up a few hours later in the middle of the night and continue the scream fest, intermittently, for the next 2 or 3 hours.  Spoiler alert, he had screamed himself hoarse by morning. 

 {Unrelated, but look how beautiful the mountains are when the setting sun turns them red.}

It was at this point, somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, that I became legitimately terrified for the plane ride home.  My worst case scenario vision was of our making headlines for the plane being forced to land early due to a screaming toddler that wouldn't chill out.  What happened instead, was the REAL miracle of the trip.  After offering up many, MANY prayers, and dosing him with some Benadryl right before boarding, Isaac literally fell asleep at take off and didn't wake up until we were landing.  That's an almost 3 1/2 hour nap!!!  {He NEVER does that.}  It was quite honestly the BEST case scenario possible.  We got back to our house that evening and he went right back down at a normal-ish bedtime and slept straight through until morning!  Whew!  It was a whirlwind weekend, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  Even WITH the screaming toddler.  ;)