Ok, well, see you later.

We dropped off our oldest daughter, R., at EFY this morning. It was an interesting experience. It was a glimpse of the past and the future.

We've been tromping around Provo for a week now and seem to be hitting all of the soft spots in my mind. We went to Brick Oven for pizza- DH took me there on one of our first dates when I told him I loved cheesecake. Then I ate so much that I couldn't even stand the thought of dessert.

Driving around Provo Canyon and Cascade Springs reminded me of those feckless days of youth, unencumbered with children. It also brought up names of friends I haven't seen since our tubing excursions down the Provo River.

Today we went to Sconecutter for lunch, that goes back in my memory so far I can't put my finger on the first time I ate there. Scones are a uniquely inter-mountain delicacy, at least as far as I've found in my limited travels. Fry sauce falls in that category too, I was sooo excited to get it at Sconecutter and Granny's (in Heber).

The line to check-in R. for EFY was in the parking lot of the church building DH and I attended when we were newlyweds. DH's great church responsibility then consisted of preparing the sacrament table each week. Hefting that loaf of bread to church each Sunday sure got tiresome ;)

After R. checked in, we took her to her room at Heritage Halls. I never lived there, but many people I know did. As I walked into her small dorm room - which seemed far too small to contain two teenagers for a week, let alone grown college students for an entire semester - I was transported back over too many years that have past since I had ridiculously good times in dorm rooms: Art retreats, youth conferences, visiting friends in their dorms (how did we fit three people into a DT dorm room Jules?). I've been praying that all goes well for R. this week. After that wonderful feeling flooded over me I knew that she would have a such a good time that it would be seared in her memory so well that 20 years from now she'd want to laugh at the memory and cry that those days were past.

(this is the makeover version of the room R. is in)

R. had some time to burn until her group was supposed to meet up so we took her to the BYU Creamery for ice cream (you can't get freezes in PA either) and then drove around campus. We said it was to show her around, but really it was more like a memory game for DH and I. Could we remember the names and purposes for all the buildings or would we be confused by all that had changed since the good ol' days? Of course a huge point of interest on that drive was Campus Plaza where I lived for the first year of college and met DH. From a distance it hasn't seemed to change, I couldn't bring myself to pull into the parking lot.

So while some parents may say that dropping their kids off at EFY is too much like the first day of Kindergarten, I'm not one of them. All I see is a bright future ahead for my daughter who is wonderful enough to take it all in, walk away from her parents and say, "OK, well... see you later!"