It was so fun to trade pictures of what they were doing and what we were doing.
First stop was Cedar City. I was able to give her a detailed tour.
But also there are so many new upgraded buildings at this school! It was same, but different.
One majorly cool thing is the new Globe Theater. There was all these new Shakespear character statues.
I loved this. One of my favorite things was teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream. What a fun story.
We walked up and down the entire campus, into buildings and the library.
We bought SUU swag at the bookstore, then ate at Costa Vida.
Overall she really likes Cedar City. The size of it, the accesibility of it all.
When we got in the car to leave, she said she felt "comfortable" here.
That's the perfect description.
"Not overwhelmed, not excited, but comfortable."
Then we continued on to Provo. It was kind of late when we got there, so we checked in to our hotel.
It was cloudy the next day, which bummed me out because the mountains are so beautiful! They are show stoppers.
We bought a ton of swag at BYU bookstore, walked around to a few buildings, the library, etc.
I don't really know the campus so we just kind of wandered. We ended with the Art Museum.
Then we headed over to UVU with a stop at TJ Maxx along the way.
This was the coolest part about UVU,
but otherwise, Avery said it felt like an airport.
To be fair we didn't look at all the buildings, but the ones we did see gave her the feeling of NO.
It was nice to check this one off the list.
On a whim, we decided to head up to U of U in Salt Lake.
She hasn't applied to the U, so it was kind of a random thing.
As we were driving along 1300 East, we passed this really cool High School. I said "wow that's a pretty high school!"
and she yelled "that's because it's High School Musical!!"
Don't worry, we returned to that school after exploring the U.
It is a pretty campus, and for sure has the best styles, variety, and prices for school swag,
but that's it. She doesn't want to go there.
Back to High School Musical people!
Look at her smile! She was way more excited about this school than any of the other schools we toured.
haha.
So we were just gonna get a picture of the front, but on a whim tried the front door to see if it was open.
And yep it sure was. There was a table that said "all tours are self guided today!"
and there was a map with points of interest - go a head and wander on your own.
We had to pay 8$ a person, so this school just gets a steady influx of funds all day every day! Brilliant right?
If you've seen the show, you recognize all these landmarks.
Later we would watch HSM with the Kelvingtons and it all looks exactly like this.
Then this was super meta: the high schoolers were rehearsing their upcoming play HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!
We walked into the humongous auditorium and sat and watched them for a minute.
When it was time to return to Provo, the I-15 was super backed up going southbound, and the back way through Park City was showing faster.
Which was awesome because the back way is so pretty.
I will forever remember this drive with Avery. She played music - women country singers
sang to us as we drove. We didn't chat - just sat in silence listening and thinking.
There was so much touring of schools.
So much imagining if this will be me next year?
Is this the right campus?
The only time we talked was for the ooohs and aaaahs of the sunset on the back of Timpanogas.
We displayed all our swag.
We were about ready to go to bed. Saturday night.
Avery was brushing her teeth and checked her email.
There was a notice from BYU: we've made a decision! go check your portal!
She gasped and our hearts started pumping.
It was 11:30, so her phone was all shut down. I had to unlock 3 different things, and there it was:
Congratulations! You've been accepted to BYU!
We died. We looked at each other and giggled and gasped. No way.
Here we are in the shadow of the university when she got her acceptance.
Knowing she could go there changed the whole way we looked at the school when we toured it.
The next day the sun was shining and the mountains were showing off.
We went back and looked around with different vision this time.
We walked by the dorms, Helaman and Heritage.
We got ice cream at the creamery.
PS she still didn't know what she wanted to do at this point.
She said she wanted to go home and not be influenced by being on campus.
I told her she had to decide within the week.
It was between BYU and SUU.
We stopped in St. George real quick for one more school tour.
Too bad the other schools didn't have this St. George weather.
We drove back to Vegas and spent the next two days with the Kelvingtons.
Sammy had to work, so we went and got ice cream from her in her cute hat.
Jamie had a presidency meeting downstairs, so we hunkered in Damon's room and watched High School Musical on my phone. Damon fell asleep cuddled up beside me.
But not before spraying the room with his new cologne.
Lyle came over and we headed down to the "Orb".
The street leading to the Orb is Twain Street.
Jamie told us about the time when she was going to UNLV, and she was in a class when the teacher mentioned something about Twain (Mark Twain) and a black girl piped up:
"Twain....aint that the street I live on?"
haha I love that story.
Then before heading home, we stoped at Andy's precinct and got a tour of the police station.
So many tours on this trip.
PS we have been home for a few days and Avery finally landed on the decision to go to BYU!
Go Cougs!
yay!
I feel such relief that we have landed on a decision. We have a clear vision of where she will be and it feels so right.
