I love Provo

It's funny how absence makes the heart grow founder. This will be my last blog for a week because we are heading up north for a family reunion in Aspen Grove. I can't tell you how excited I am to go back to Provo and walk around BYU campus on our way to the reunion. I have so many fond memories of BYU. Every fall I get "home sick" for Lavell Edwards Stadium and the changing colors of trees on the mountains.

But it's funny because when we were living there, I was ready to get out of Provo and away from BYU. It seemed like an eternity until my husband would finish his schooling. I came to hate our little apartment and wanted to move on. If you told me I would one day look back at that time with fondness, I would have laughed at you. Now I see all the fun times we had and muse at all the oddities of our very old and unique apartment. I love BYU and all the time I spent there. It was a big changing point for me in my life. I figured out who I was and where I wanted to be going. And I met my husband there. However, I don't think I would love it as much if I didn't have the chance to move on and put some space between myself and that time.

The same formula applies to law school. I thought we would never finish school and get out of Valpo. We had three kids in a small second story two bedroom apartment. Ah! I wanted to get out of the student mode and move on! But I look back at the time we spent in Valpo with fondness because we are no longer there, scraping by and unsure about what the future holds.

So as I get ready to go to Provo this week, I am excited. Not only for a family vacation, but also to see a place that holds a lot of special memories for me. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.