Utah will always remain a special place in our hearts--after all, that is the place where we met, got married and started our life journey. Every time we get to go to UT, we have dozens of people and places we want to visit. This time was no different.
When you think about it, we actually don't go to Utah that often...
The main person I wanted Katya to connect with was my former host mom, Lisa. It was so great to be able to stay at her house, to catch up about life, to show Katya a glimpse of the life I had when I was a foreign exchange student there.
Lisa still lives in the same house as twenty three years ago. She gave me comfort that Katya always had someone reliable really close by, in case she needed help.
We got to go to church in my first official ward, Hillcrest 6th ward in Orem. Katya and I got to meet a few people that were still in the ward and who remembered me!
Heather stopped by to hang out with us. She and Merik (her son) live nearby. Heather was my younger host sister. It was wonderful to see her!
Here are Lisa and I. I believe Lisa hardly has changed! I have so many pictures from my high school/college years taken in front of that fireplace!
We also drove to Rachel's house for a quick visit. It was great to see her! I am wondering if the last time we saw her was when we were in Budapest as they were living their on a state department assignment.
And on Sunday evening, we got to hang out with the rest of the Wilson family--Ralph's family. All these people are like my second family and have known me for over two decades! When I was a foreign exchange student, we used to go over to "next door" every single Sunday to hang out with the extended family--grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. It was surreal to me to that so many people from the same family lived so close by. I know it wasn't always easy because sometimes they had drama, but overall, it seemed it worked great to create unity and a feeling of family ties.
This time Tori, Brett, Elaine, Katya, I, Clarice (my youngest host sister), Sherisse, two of their kids, Mark (my host brother), Roger, Berkley, Jack, Diane and Brabara are in this picture. We are missing Ralph himself, my cousins Alicia, Adriane and Alexis and their families and their mom Connie. It's a BIG family.
I was so happy that I was able to introduce Katya to them!
On the next day that we had free before checking Katya into the dorms, we decided to set up a "college friends reunion". I know Katya knew, but still it was fun to tell her and prove to her that I was once a college student myself as well-haha. This time I decided to visit my friends that I met my freshman year--they were not in my ward, but we became really close buddies from December till the end of the winter semester in April.
Gary-Anne--I mean, Gary and Alice-Anne--were just good friends to each other their freshman year, although we all knew they had a major crush on each other. After their missions and dating they actually got married and now live in UT. It so happened that Gary's 40th birthday fell on the day that we were visiting. Alice-Anne managed to keep the secret about the "special guests" (us) and we showed up completely surprising Gary!
Alice-Anne managed to invite our two other great friends and their families--Will and Rob! We all were a gang our freshman year! It was amazing to catch up, to chat about where our lives have taken us, to reminiscence about the past and share how much we all have learned. It was so natural to talk to them all although we truly hadn't talked to each other for twenty years!
I know it's not the last time we'll be in UT, so we'll have to pick out another set of friends to see when we come! Grateful for these opportunities.
Lyana.
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