ST. George - Meet the Rodgerses

Carefull, it's a long one - So Ashley and Meredith and Marian and I all drove down to Ivans UT, just beyond st. George to visit josh and Candice, Ashley's brother and sister in law. Wow I should have written about this when it happened, because this is going to take some serious time to explain . . . anyways, the drive down was scary. I met ashley and Mer at 5 am to pick up mamma at the hotel. She was ready to go, chipper, hair done and everything! The drive down was wicked crazy. Snow was pounding down out of the clouds. Having had some dangerous winter expiriences earlier with my little volvo, I was very frightened that we wouldn't make it. As we were driving, mamma started swirving left and right across the road. Ashley called her and she said she was falling asleep - so ashley went and rode with her.
I was full of excitement and nervousness to meet her dad and brother and others as we pulled up to Josh and Candice's house. When we entered, I immediately met Skyler and Summer and the two little boys Seth and Christian (I think). Then I met Candice - she was a lot more soft spoken and calm than I had imagined her from her pictures. She had a calming and sweet personality that comforted me right off (she kind of looked like a funloving outspoken partygirl -not in a bad way). Then a few minutes later, Dad and Josh came home from some activity.
My intution told me that Josh wanted a handshake - not a hug - so I abliged. Larry was so warm and freindly that I felt like I could hug him and I did. Earlier in the week I had planned on whether on not to hug these men and I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't hide who I am and try to be someone that other people like - but just be myself. Then we all sat down in the living room and got to know eachother for a little while. This is all a bit jumbled. We watched conference on TV and the little kids and I drew on a white board, Ashley sat by me and held my hand a lot. Oh this one moment was so tender - At this one point, both Ashley and Meredith were sleeping on my oposite shoulders and the kids were sitting like on me and them and the dog was snuggled up against my legs - I have never felt so loved and accepted. One of the first moments of PaPa Rodgers that I remember is him, finding his grandaughter Summer in the kitchen, and in a soft and very sincere voice saying "your hair looks really pretty today summer". I felt that he was a sweet and warm man who I could relate to, even just in that first incling I got of him. It proved to be true, he is a sweet heart through and through.
Josh: Josh was sarcastic and loud and funny! I really liked his personality. I found myself laughing out loud at lots of things he would say. We really jelled. The personal joking back and forth started early and continued the whole time I was there. I think I did a really good job relating to this powerful male character - I think I remained confident, didn't plead for approval, and yet helped him feel that I accepted him and generally liked him and thought he was cool. We ended up becoming good friends, quoting Nacho Libre all weekend.
So I was expecting to like everyone and to get along with everybody, but I wasn't really expecting to fall in love with the entire family and really jell with everyone totally individually. This family is incredibly generous and loving and warm. They opened their arms to me, expecting me to be great and gave me the permission to be great! I really felt a special connection and freindship with each of them:
Meredith: oh Meredith Rodgers! New best freind! Even before we left for St. Ivans George, I was in love with the amazingness of Meredith! We deffinetly became like instant friends in like 5 minutes and that was incredibly wonderful, enriching and comforting. It felt so good to have maybe Ashley's closest confidaunt give me the 2 thumbs up. Meredith reminds me of one of my cousins - personal jokes right and left, hugging, hanging out just the two of us - I felt such great acceptance and warmth the whole time. Meredith is REALLY funny and sings like a frickin' diva black girl, which is totally awesome. I miss her.
Marian (momma): I really really like Momma Rodgers alot. I felt like she quite liked me as well. When we first all met up for the first, I was parking my car, getting out, singing 'heart of gold' and I heard a voice say "that's his voice!' I looked over to see Ashley, Momma and Meredith having just parked and getting luggage out of the car! I think I yelled something like "oh no!" and then Mer ran to me and jumped into my arms to give me a huge hug! That was a wonderful introduciton. Then I walked over to Ashley and Marian and gave the mom a hug. She put her head on my chest and said, "this is how I used to hug Chett." She looked at me over and over, as did Meredith . . . it was very magical and I'm sure to them, I was unreal. Then I hugged Ashley and Momma commented on how that was weird to see a boy touching Ashley like that. She made a lot of comments along those lines during the weekend (and still) which leads me to believe that in some families, that makes people REAL nervous - better watch out for that. Momma's personality is really fun, she is the extrovert of the family for sure. Unlike quiet powerful reserved Ashley, Momma is a talk out loud, meet strangers, ask the waiter to change her food kinda woman and I like that! In some ways she reminded me of my mom, only softer and more concerned about how people would recieve what she was saying. She was extreemely warm and made me feel like she was proud that Ashley was dating me - which was wonderful!
Larry (Dad): I've talked about dad a little bit, but not fully. Of course, men are a mystery to me. Having been raised by women, keeping mostly female freinds and gravitating towards boys of a similar situation, I have always felt a bit of a wall between me and men - especially dad aged older confident men . . . I guess it's only natural. I did my best to get some alone time with Larry to understand him and try my best to get to know him and I can report success. We became friends, although I would certainly like to know him closer and better. He is a great man, I can tell that the concern for the people in his family is the forefront thing in his brain. He is so soft and calm and strong, I can see where Ashley gets alot of her personality from. I really develpoed an admiration for him, just watching from a far during the weekend. He is deffinetly a role model for me! Unfortunatley I can't find any photos of him.

That day was ashley's birthday celebration, we ate cake and sang and opened a few gifts, and then we did a scavenger hunt, headed by Momma that lead us to the Debbenhams's house.
So, Ash Mer and Mom and Dad stayed at the Debbenham's house . . . a mantion of great proportions - pool, hot tub, piano, pool room, home theatre, ridiculousness! And I went home and slept at Josh and Candies. This was fun because I got to know them alot better and got to spend some time talking with just Josh - boy bonding time, I love it. Candice's family was over (thousands of sisters) and we all talked and had a little minnie dance party. I danced with Skyler (my favorite of Ashley's nieces - SHHHH don't tell) and it was really enjoyable. I wished that Ashley was with us, but it was kind of neat for it to be okay that I was on my own and taht we didn't need to always be together (even though I'm sure we wanted to be), I think that's how a healthy relationship works. In fact the next day she made a comment about how she was really happy that she didn't need to entertain me and that it was great that she could just leave me alone and know that I would have a good time. I appreciated that. After Candice's family left, Candy and Josh and I stayed up and talked. That night, I was coughing a lot and Josh came into my room to ask if I wanted some medicine. He brought it and a cup of water to my bed side and took care of me like I was one of his kids. It was very sweet and tender . . . in a VERY MANLY WAY! GRRRRRR! That was a neat moment in Ivans.
The next morning, I watched the first session of conference with the Josh Rodgers family. We ate breakfast and I got to spend some quality time with Summer and Skyler. Funny thing - I don't really know why, maybe it's just their personalities or maybe it's just me, but I really didn't ever feel drawn to spend any time with the little boys, infact sometimes I had a hard time remembering their names. Maybe they were scared of me, I don't know, but the little girls were about 2000 times more engaging. Hmmm. Then we went over to the Debbenham's and watched the second session with everyb0dy else. We watched it in their home theatre - HUGE screen style - and Ashley and I cuddle in a ginormous beenbag . . . oh I have never been more comfortable in my existance. I deffinetly fell asleep. We ate this amazing lunchfast of keish and eggs and french toast and fruit and it made me poop in my pants!
During Lunch, Larry took me out side and said he wanted to just spend a little time with just me. That made me feel really cherished, although I probably should've felt nervous. . . okay I did a little bit. He asked me about me and about what I like and what I do and what I think. He was very gentile and non intrusive. I felt like he really just wanted to get to know me. Yes, he was judging to see if I was suitable for ashley, but in a really kind and honest way. I love him. Then we took turns talking about our favorite things about Ashley, that was really fun. He had been open to me the entire weekend, but funny thing, after this talk, he was 100% open to me. I guess he just needed that extra knowledge about me. After our talk he hung around me and Ash more and made some jokes about what our future children would look like - talking about recessive brown eye genes - and invited me to come down to florida, infront of Ashley. . . this I take as his blessing.
The rest of the day was spent just hanging out and having fun. Ashley and I interacted a whole bunch during this whole trip even though I really havn't mentioned that a lot. It was beautiful, I felt like we were a real couple that really loved eachother and really looked out for eachother. I have never been so happy. A lot of our time was spent, Me Mer and Ashley at the piano, jamming and wailing away!
That night it was really sad to leave everyone. Ashley and I drove back to provo with a new sense of power in our union. What an incredible expirience! These could be my future family members.