Visit With Stephanie

The purpose of trudging through the snow to Utah was a visit with my daughter Stephanie.  (Ok, so we did not have to trudge through the snow…and we hope that we don’t have to trudge through the snow on our way back home, but we won’t know that for sure until we get back on the road Wednesday morning.)  Stephanie is 25 years old, works in Park City for a company which essentially manages and rents out nice houses that people have purchased as rental income and occasional use.  Winter is their busy season, and she is very busy.  We knew that we would probably just have a couple of dinners and evenings to visit with her…but we won’t see her for a year so it was worth the travel for.

She asked me to look over her car while we were here, just some basic stuff like putting on new windshield wipers, stuff like that.  So Monday night after eating at the DoDo Restaurant, we went over to Walmart to pick up new wiper blades, a tire pressure checker, some windshield wiper fluid, a deicer and a flashlight.  She just got new tires a few weeks ago, and the only thing she has left is a oil change and a back brake light, which requires the entire light assembly to come out to get to…so she will have that done with the oil change.  It sure was cute when she tried to pay at the checkout…”do you really think daddy is going to let you pay for this?”, I asked.

   

Tonight we ate at the Olive Garden, and her roommate Jenny came along too.  She was invited last night, but she was under the weather….doing much better tonight.  After the Olive Garden Steph asked if she could take us out for Ice Cream since “Daddy” was having a birthday before month’s end.  So we went to Baskin Robbins.  As you can see above, these two are a real crack-up. 

We had the good fortune to meet Jenny a couple of years ago when Stephanie had surgery down in Orem.  She is a real good friend to my daughter, and Steph is a real good friend back.  Glad we were able to see Jenny tonight.

And my girl surprised her dad with a real nice birthday card….

   

The envelope says enough, but the card inside was more than touching…

Don’t ask me how, but I did not tear up over this….

…and the handwritten part will not be shared, let’s just say that I am one of the luckiest fathers on earth.

So we head back to Sacramento area bright and early Wednesday morning.  But a piece of my heart will remain in Utah….and I know that Stephanie is in good hands.  Sure love you girl…see you in a year.