A couple weeks ago, Taylor and I took off on a spontaneous weekender trip to Virginia. I hadn’t thought to write about it, but some big things came from it, so here we go now.

We took off on a Saturday evening planning to return back to Utah that following Monday. It was as a flyby visit as it can be. The entire purpose of this trip was to visit a campus Taylor wanted to attend for grad school.

Sunday morning we landed, exhausted and suddenly without a car. (The car rental company didn’t accept debit cards. Nice finding that out at the counter 🙂 ) We moseyed on over to Enterprise and they hooked us up right away. This is the third time this year we’ve had car rental problems (It’s not me! It’s them!), and so I’ll just say right here that we’ll probably only ever drive with Enterprise from now on.)

(Traveler Tip: Expedia’s travel insurance doesn’t mean a lick to most car rental companies, including Enterprise. That’s a wasted $20 fee, FYI.)

With our new comfy car in tow, we drove to the town of our stay, and right into the church parking lot. This is where we passed out for the next hour until Sacrament started. I felt completely sick to my stomach from lack of sleep, so once the bread and water were passed, I was right back to the car to pass out for the next three hours. Taylor stuck it out, and it was a good thing he did. In one of his meetings, he met a graduate from his school-of-choice. His new friend shared contact info and his experience at the grad school. His knowledge was incredibly helpful.

Once church ended, we drove into our little Airbnb apartment. Also, another travel plugin, traveling via Airbnb is almost magical. Oftentimes, it’s much cheaper than a hotel. This link will give you something like $25 off your first trip if you sign up 🙂 Our apartment was basic, simple, and private. Here we slept for another couple hours before going out to explore.

We toured the sleepy little town, checking out potential places to live, elementary schools, tennis courts, yadda yadda.

So much green.

As we drove by this grand cemetery, Taylor claimed to see a beaver running through the grass. I can’t imagine still what a beaver would be doing at a graveyard, but it made for excuse to visit the graveyard.

I absolutely love graveyards.

(READ WHAT THE HEADSTONES SAY!)

In case the picture is too dark: The lamp family is buried by the shade family and I can’t handle it.
The next morning we made the open house for Taylor’s grad school. The program was fantastic, the people were great, and our fingers are crossed his application will be accepted.

After the open house, we took a drive out to a school that I was interested in. I didn’t know if it’d be probable for me to go to school while Taylor finished his master’s degree. (It’s an intensive program that excites and tires us at the same time.) I had already graduated a year ago with an associates degree in marketing, and currently work in video production, which is my current dream.

Still, we thought we’d take a look.

To our surprise, we fell in love with another school that day. The program wasn’t quite as aligned as I’d hoped, but it was close enough to what I wanted to finish schooling in. I committed to at least apply and see what came of that.

That night, we missed our flight by arrived ten minutes late at check-in. The next flight wouldn’t leave until Wednesday night, two days away. We literally ran miles through the airport trying different airlines to get us home. One airline offered Taylor get us home right away, but it just so happened that I was on the opposite side of the airport. By the time I got there, the plane had started boarding. Feeling defeated and exhausted, we both cried on a bench.

Another night was spent sleeping uncomfortably and feeling sick from exhaustion. We found incredibly expensive tickets to get us on a plane the next morning. It would take us 13 hours and two layovers to make a usual 4 hour, direct flight home. That was a blow to the emergency savings. Earlier that day I had thrown out all the food I’d packed, hoping to rush the check-in process, but not realizing we wouldn’t make the flight anyway. So we were hungry, exhausted, and feeling quite low on funds.

Good news did come our way though. Our first plane landed in Georgia. At the last minute, I noticed a direct flight heading to Salt Lake City. We dashed to the Delta counter and asked to be transferred. It just so happened to have two middle flights seats with a friendly man in between who didn’t mind moving over. We chatted with him the entire flight home and very much enjoyed his stories as one of the first flight attendants after the Vietnam War. As we landed, Taylor and I reflected that we essentially had paid out a large amount of money to meet this man. And you know what? We don’t regret that.

We hopped off the plane, kissed our babies (after realizing we were locked out of our home), and chewed on the idea of me going back to school.

I’ll wrap up this lengthy story to this:

I put in an application for funsies. Two weeks ago, I got a letter that announced my acceptance into this university.

Last week, I received a phone call that I had won a full ride scholarship to the school.

Last night, Taylor and I sat out under the stars, still wondering if this was the right choice. I would have to work hard through the school year to get as many credits finished before Taylor started grad school (his program is so intensive that it doesn’t have room for students to hold jobs). We hummed and hawed over all the decisions: Do we take the opportunity, even though it means leaving family, leaving our current jobs that we love, living somewhere foreign (the east coast, in short, is not Utah 🙂 ), and try finding work in a small town to support the family while I study? I wanted the answer to be both “Yes! Go for it!” and “No! Life is great as is!”

We bowed our heads and prayed.

The answer we received was that it was time for me to go back to school.

Right now, I still feel sort of stunned at the change of events. I think I’m excited, but the kind that makes me want to throw up 🙂 Only a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t been planning anything of the sort. We both felt that change was coming our way, but didn’t know what it was. This was pretty much a total shock.

There we have it: This Utahn born-and-raised family will be moving out to the East Coast this fall.

Ahhh!