Journey to Logan

The girls are all smiles in their car seats...before they realized it is a long drive!

Brett is going to live in Logan for six weeks while he takes some college courses toward his Master's Degree.  Although Brett has been taking courses from Utah State here in Salt Lake none of the summer classes are taught remotely or over the internet.  It is not required to attend the summer courses, because he could complete the same courses during the fall or winter semester in Salt Lake.  But the summer courses are condensed into a relatively quick two week period, which in the long run saves a lot of time.  Without this summer semester it would probably take Brett and additional year to graduate.   We decided as a family it would be more convenient and advantageous for Brett to live in Logan since classes are held every day and the work load is demanding.  Thankfully Logan is close enough to Salt Lake that he is planning on coming home every weekend!  So on Sunday, June 12th we set out as a family to take good old dad back to school.  I we mean "old."  He'll probably be the oldest man living on campus, in a dorm.    Unfortunately the Department of Education holds the summer courses off campus at a Junior High near the campus of Utah State.  This is great for the program because they can allow students more constant access to resources (they do not require you to leave, so technically you could study all night in the building), but not so good for practical reason, like commuting.  We only have one car.  It was decided we would take the moped up so that Brett could use it to scoot around town, and to the middle school At only 150cc's, there was no doubt it Brett would not be able to survive driving it up Sardine Canyon.  Once again our wonderful neighbors the Pender's bailed us out by loaning us their truck.  We packed up all Brett's gear and the scooter and set off with three kids in tow.  

Don't look too close!

Once we made it to Logan we were greeted by Brett's cousin Lauren, who is an undergraduate at USU from California who is living in Jones Hall, which is right next to the hall Brett will be living at, Morgan Hall.  Good thing too because Brett could not find his paperwork and couldn't remember what hall he had been assigned.  Thankfully he had told Lauren back when he got the assignment and she remembered.  Plus she guided us to the dorms over the cell phone, because Brett didn't have a map either.  In an attempt to live on the chip we signed Brett up to live in the dorms with the undergraduate and share a room.  When we walked in the apartment the first thing we noticed was the distinct smell of Asian cooking that permeated every nook and cranny.  The next thing we noticed is that the apartment had not been cleaned since the start of the summer semester.  It is important to note that Brett's summer semester is different than the rest of the university because his program is designed for working teachers.  Everyone else started over a month ago, so the apartment had not been cleaned for over a month, not even the bathroom because there was crap and urine stains all over the floor.  At first Brett thought all "kids" lived this way, and it would be something he just had to get used to; besides it has been a long time since Brett was single.  But after one night, the thought of living in a cesspool was enough to convince Brett these living condition were at best not for him, and condemnable at worst...worthy of a visit from the Health Department.  The next day, he transferred to a new unit, which you can read about in more detail in a different blog.

The kitchen was a disaster too!

We went shopping at a local grocery story and spent way too much money on groceries for one person, so Brett has to make it last all six weeks or starve.  Just kidding!  The girls had a blast helping dad unpack his supplies and groceries.  It was a big adventure to them.  Unbeknownst to mom and dad while we were trying to figure out where to put food (the refrigerate was literally full of exotic looking and smelling vegetables).  It was finally decided to put everything in a bag to avoid contamination with the raw exposed mean, and label everything with Brett's name.  When we returned to the bedroom the girls had unpacked everything themselves and had neatly arranged most of it on the shelves.  What good helpers!

 Having worked up an appetite we grabbed a bite to eat at Jimmy John's "Gourmet" Sandwiches.  There are quotes around "gourmet" because we had never eaten there before but heard such great things about it.  We were not impressed.  We said our goodbyes and the girls drove home with mom leaving dad all alone to wonder what the heck he'd gotten himself into.