Welp, I better wrap up our little stint in Utah really quick.

Not only did we get Claire settled as a true college girl up in Utah (back HERE), we filled our time up with a whole slew of other things.

Utah is amazingly green right now, and the weather?? Well, I’ll be honest, anything in the whole wide world may feel better than the 115 degrees in the desert, but we sure loved taking advantage of all that beauty up there.

The first day we were there it was FATHER’S DAY. Couldn’t have chosen a better place to celebrate that Dave (he is in Heaven in those mountains).

Those four Utah kids of ours came up and met us at church, we had a special brunch and got to hang out together.

And we got to celebrate my dad with a bunch of Eyres as well.

(Lots more about Father’s Day back HERE.)

I wrote all about tucking Claire into her new life back HERE, but here’s a pic. I forgot to include that I made her pose for as we took a tour of the athletic facilities at UVU:

…and a couple extra tidbits since it’s not all so fresh and it’s pretty amazing to look back and see what has happened in such a short amount of time:

–She had to change every one of her classes (the ones she signed up were a pretty heavy load and the wrong timeframes to be able to work volleyball in).

–Unlike most freshmen she has been trying to maneuver two different campuses (BYU classes, places to eat, counseling offices trying to figure out her classes and a random changing of her “status” so she couldn’t sign up for a couple she needed, etc.) AND at the same time she had a UVU campus and athletic facilities tour with the volleyball assistant coach (I talked about that in the other post), trying to figure out summer scheduling with volleyball weights and practices mixed in with those BYU classes. Those are pretty big things for a new freshman in a new place with no car trying to figure out the bus system.

–It’s been fun to watch that confidence grow by leaps in days. It still is a lot to maneuver, and she’s added running summer kids UVU volleyball camps (all the girls on the team are the “coaches,”) into her days, but it’s such a great experience to get the dorm life under her belt and to meet so many new people in this environment while getting her feet wet with college classes.

It is all working together for her good.

Fun to see Grace thriving in her new environment as well.

We got to visit her at work:

And we got to meet so many of her friends:

Some of them came up to visit after a trip to the Alpine Slide and we had dinner and played games all together to Lucy’s delight.

There are some good kids she’s surrounded herself with, all stemming in different ways from her mission as well as a girl she met at a workout class who just got her call to that same mission. Missions are the best!

We got to spend her birthday together up there. The other kids came up from Provo the night before and walked Main Street for a “festival of food,” bands playing, long tables set up all up and down the street, pink cotton candy clouds above, everyone in the best spirits:

I talked about the rest of her birthday back HERE, including that we got to go to the homecoming talk of my nephew.

He is one of Grace’s friends as well as a cousin and she and Dave were able to go meet him when he got home at the airport (while I was helping Claire with her crazy schedule):

I’m not sure if I mentioned before that his talk was one of the best I’ve heard and we loved gathering with all the extended Pothiers at Julie’s house after.

Love all these people!

My parents came to join us for dinner and we basked in the Utah beauty before the Provo kids had to get back and my Mom took Lu to my sister Saydi’s for a cousin sleep over and my Dad stayed to go on a walk with us:

Lucy, Dave and I spent a lot of time together.

And we liked it.

I always think it’s interesting when the oldest kid leaves home and the next in line steps up to shine.

We played some good cards games:

She got to have her cousin Emmeline over to sleep over one night (and she got to go there too).

We tried to do the Alpine Slide with Grace and her friends and then tried another time too but it didn’t work either time (although we didn’t mind, just liked being there):

We helped her get in a mile of walking almost every day. We actually did a pretty steep hike one day. (She wasn’t happy about it, but she did it).

We even shopped together, for crying out loud (Lu abhors shopping, but she was willing to do it to prep for Grace’s birthday).

One day when we were walking together and saw our shadows stretching out before us we joked around that we are the “Three Musketeers.” Lucy didn’t like that name much at first but Dave made a joke about it and started calling us the “Three Muskies” and it stuck (and Lucy has grown to like it).

We have a lot of life to live together, the three of us, so I feel so thankful that it felt so good to be together.

We celebrated our anniversary:

All about that yesterday back HERE.

I got to meet up with my high school girlfriends and every single one of us was there (but one left before this picture, dang it!):

I hadn’t seen a couple of them for years (they weren’t able to come to Hawaii with us…back HERE). Although we sat there in the shade of a beautiful tree for hours, there is still so much more to catch up on. Love those women so much and how they have been part of me for as long as I can remember.

We said goodbye to our friends and siblings as they headed out on their mission adventures (all about that back HERE). I am so happy for all the adventures that await them, but we are pretty sad to lose them I have to say. In a way it feels like we have felt so many emotions right along with them as they have prepared.

We spent a fun evening with Max and Abby:

Had fun checking out their new scooter Max commutes to work on:

Love that we got to work in some serious time for being together as sisters to not only be together, but to get down to the nitty-gritties of this upcoming podcast. We were pretty naïve when we decided we’d just “whip together a podcast”…takes so much work! More on that soon, but it was grand to have time to hike through beauty and discuss all our “to-dos” before our new launch day (August 1st).

Gosh I love those sisters of mine!

Also, we had a BBS family gathering (back HERE).

I’m sure I’m forgetting all kinds of things, (we sure packed in a lot!), but there we go: a mid-summer Utah wrap up.

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19 Comments

  1. How long have you been to Utah? This sounds like a month has passed (but I guess it was probably three days in true, very active Eyre style ;-)).

    Does Claire attend BYU and play for UVU? I’m not American, so I don’t know how this is.

    You wrote “we have a lot of life to live together” – does this refer to the next years of high school or will Lucy not be able to live independently? I feel like I really overstep boundaries with that question, so if you or Lucy aren’t comfortable with answering, please just ignore it!

    I’m looking forward to your podcast!

    1. Hi kerstin! We sure packed in a lot in Utah but we were there just over a week.

      Claire is just doing summer school at BYU (where she can experience dorm life and get some classes under her belt) but will be attending UVU in the fall and playing volleyball there. Practices began last week.

      As far as Lucy goes, we just don’t know what the future holds for her. She is sure hoping to be independent and live on her own but we just don’t know how it will all pan out yet. There is a chance she could be with us for a long, long time.

      1. Where I live there are homes for people with special needs where they can live and sometimes work, and there is (medical and therapeutical) staff that takes care of them. Or a person with special needs lives alone or with roommates and a caretaker comes as often as necessary and helps them. Does something like this exist in the U.S.?

      2. Thank you!
        I very much hope that it will pan out! Considering what you have told us from Lucy, not being independent and being different will be especially hard for her. Regardless of the outcome, good that it felt good to be together! 🙂

  2. Hi Shawni
    Love your posts and your family so much>3
    Does Claire attend BYU but just plays volleyball for UVU?
    xxx

  3. Three cheers for the 3 Muskies! Whatever comes in the future you, Dave, and Lucy will surely work it through together with a whole lot of love.

    The more I hear about LDS missions the more I think they’re really designed to benefit the missionary and to lay a foundation to knit the young adult tightly into LDS culture for life. Not so much really about proselytizing. Wouldn’t it be amazing if missions became more and more focused on service projects and the young people developing their own religious beliefs and less and less about trying to convert people to the “one true church?!?”

    1. I can also get uncomfortable with proselytizing, for any religion. But funnily enough whenever I’ve encountered LDS missionaries out in the world, it’s been when they are doing service projects – I assumed that was a big part of the mission?

    2. If you look at the schedule of a missionary you will see they do weekly volunteering outside of converting activity completely unrelated. Some missions in areas where they are mainly there to support the existing Church membership as converting is banned, they spend their entire time doing service outside of converting people. They also spend hours each day studying scriptures and language if different than their own.

    3. Jenny, I always like your thoughtful questions. I didn’t serve a mission but have a son serving right now in Mexico. Their stated “missionary purpose” is to invite others to come to Jesus. He spends most of his time studying and teaching and in his experience I feel like he has definitely been developing his own religious beliefs (we love talking to him weekly about what he is learning). He does do service but the first responsibility in his area is to teach since they have so many people that want to listen to them teach about Jesus Christ. He has friends in other parts of the world that teach less and do a lot more organized service. I think as a church who believes we have something unique to offer I am glad at least that we want to share it with everyone, instead of keeping it just for ourselves. With that said, as I’ve gotten older I recognize how many ways there are for people to come to Jesus and hope that missionaries recognize that any time they direct someone closer to Him they are fulfilling their purpose, whether or not a person chooses to join the church.
      I know in my son’s experience he has felt like sharing about the Savior has brought peace and hope to lives with sorrow and addiction and family turmoil and that he is helping people even if he is not doing many large scale service projects.
      As a parent I see that for sure it has benefited him – he has learned to think of others instead of himself, become more patient and open minded and learned to work hard and to love more. My hope is that this experience will lead to life-long efforts to give selfless service in his family, neighborhood, and community.
      This is just my perspective and I am grateful to you for sharing yours! I have several family members who aren’t members of any church (or are even religious) who simply enjoy the happy attitude of missionaries when they cross their paths but for sure aren’t interested in listening to a message or joining and I hope all missionaries are respectful of that 🙂

      1. Hi Steph, I certainly agree with you the an opportunity for young adults to learn things like compassion and hard work seems like a valuable experience for them. Sounds like missions do that for many LDS kids.

        I’m questioning why talking to folks about the LDS brand of Jesus/Savior is “serving” people. As a Jew I find the belief, and subsequent actions, that your “savior” is the ideal path for everyone you meet to be deeply problematic. Your son is not really serving others; he’s serving your specific (very wealthy) church and the LDS lifestyle and rules (which are deeply problematic to many including women and LGBTQ folks.).

        1. I appreciate you sharing more about where you are coming from, and your concern makes a lot of sense to me.
          I actually believe that truth and goodness are found in many places outside my church and outside of Christian faith, and that there are many valid paths in life. When sharing things that have made our life better and brought us joy (what missionaries do) that seems like service to us, but I appreciate your perspective that that is not service to you and possibly many others.
          Thanks for helping me reconsider something from a different viewpoint. 💛

        2. It is kind of like a new are you a member of the communist party line, but a new target. There are many sects within Judaism, Christianity and Islam who do not religiously officiate the sacrament or sealings or marriages of same sex couples. I can’t think of any within Islam that actually do. I really don’t understand this new mindset. It used to be a person was not vilified for the religion or organization they were card carrying members of. People were free to be different. There is no gov sponsored church. Not all have to show up weekly to services of any particular sect. If you think those unions should be officiated then go to the flavor of Jewish or Christian churches that do officiate them. You are not saying it is not okay to be a particular Jew or Christian are you? Or that someone can’t stand on the side of the road holding up a sign staying out of the weather and not blocking traffic believing something you don’t? That is how it sounds. That would be a very scary world. I don’t love the door to door or standing in front of other people’s religious buildings in the town square but I think they moved away from that. I don’t like anyone choosing an inappropriate place to express themselves and trying to persuade people either. Imagine being peer pressured to hold in your own perspective on things? The world has gone goofy. There is a shadow entity who is deciding what the rest of us should think. Some are very happy to become members or just attend on occasion and some are not happy being members and leave and some don’t want to even attend as a visitor and don’t. It’s free will. It’s a free country. Half of members don’t live in the US. I would say saying members of the COJCOLDS are ‘rich’ is a stereotype and a wrong one and the lifestyle you see on a blog of an American member not the same as someone in another country, or even another state. Planned Parenthood has a lot of money and real estate equating to even more wealth. An org having money and assets of worth means evil? You may want to look at Margaret Sanger. They only just disavowed her. The incarceration rate of people of color compared to whites is the evidence for racism, the termination of pregnancies among women of color is similarly disproportionate compared to white pregnancies. It’s not prolife church members up all night unable to sleep because women of color may abort less. Not to mention the high percent of terminations of the disabled. You walk around with your sign telling all what you think, a missionary walks around wearing their name tag and all is right with the world. This is how it should be. There was a modern family episode where Mitchell and Cam just decided they would have their favorite cheeseburger cause they were tired of keeping track of all the people they were supposed to be mad at. Most will never satisfy the us or them side and falling in line perfectly.

        3. I am so grateful so much of missionary service is concentrated on just that: service. Just loving people where they are. I’m so glad it is built into missionary work, and what Molly said is true, it is a big part of the mission. And I can definitely agree that a mission really does convert the missionary more than converting others. I do think we need to make sure our missionaries are reaching out and learning from others as well. As Steph said so beautifully, there is truth everywhere and I hope we are respectful of where others find it if it is not in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you want to hear a beautiful podcast about that, here you go: https://faithmatters.org/gods-many-voices-a-conversation-with-s-michael-wilcox/
          I love it so much. There is also a “part 2” that I link to in this post back here: https://71toes.com/2021/09/i-shall-speak-to-all-nations-of-the-earth/

          As a believer in Jesus Christ I do think it is serving others to introduce them to Jesus and the atonement. It is a path that can bring so much happiness. But I also think it is service for you, Jenny Also, to introduce us to your way of thinking as a Jew. Because I’m sure what is precious to you can help me as well. So I appreciate your thoughts and would love to hear more.

  4. I’m loving the pants in your anniversary photos. Whiteish with zippers near the ankle. Can you please share the brand? Thanks!

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