Namesake

This weekend was amazing! I got to go to St. George, Utah to see some really good friends of mine and meet my namesake. His name is Hadley Taylor Young. He's an awesome little baby. I am so used to my niece and nephews who are now getting so big that I was stunned at how tiny Hadley was. He's a beautiful baby with a great head of hair thanks to both his parents who both had full heads of hair when they were born as well.

I left for St. George on Friday, but I stayed in Sandy with my mom, sister, niece, and nephews that night. It was nice to split up the long trip into two days, but I totally could/should have just gone all the way on Friday. Oh well. Live and learn. Besides, I did have fun with my family that night. We just went out to lunch, shopped for a bit, then ordered pizza in at the hotel.

The next day I drove down to St. George where it was sunny and beautiful weather. I have completely fallen in love with this city. It's a great place to be.

Once I arrived, I called Jeremy (Hadley's father) and then we went to lunch at Arby's. At Arby's we met some interesting people including a pregnant girl who was not shy to tell Jeremy how great he smelled, a guy who told us the history of vampires, and an odd but friendly employee at the fast food joint. I began to question the sanity of St. George residents, but Jeremy assured me they're not all like that.

After lunch, we went to another lunch (not because we're pigs but because we weren't sure about the plans) at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. This was my first time at the new chain. We do have one in Idaho Falls. I was not too impressed. They don't even have milkshakes. What kind of burger joint doesn't do milkshakes? And, while there, I randomly saw an old friend, Chelsea, who was working there. It's a small world.

Also, at Five Guys I met my namesake. Pictures don't do the little guy justice. He's awesome. Maybe I'm just biased.

The rest of that night we just hung out at Megan's parents' house (Megan is Hadley's mommy) with her parents, siblings, and nieces and nephew. Somewhere in there we watched the BYU game. By the end of the night I was so very tired.

On Sunday we had the baby blessing. It was a great experience and Jeremy did an excellent job as voice in the blessing. After that they had a great testimony meeting in which I got to hear both Jeremy and Megan's testimonies, both of which were very powerful and spiritual.

We had lunch at Megan's parents' house that afternoon. I got to meet Megan's grandparents and Jeremy's mission president.

That night I went to Matt and Meree Hadley's house for a great Italian dinner and then we just hung out. Matt's mom made some amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My head was spinning during dinner because of all the different conversations going on. It reminded me of the dinner scene in While You Were Sleeping.

The next day we had lunch at Cafe Rio and then I hit the road with abandon. The miles were a blur to me, but I clocked them. It was 518.5 miles from St. George to Rigby, so I did 1027 miles (approximately) in one weekend. It was all worth it. What amazing friends I have in St. George! Jeremy, Megan, Matt, Meree, and crew I love you all. Thanks for everything!

(Note: Jeremy Young is an amazing guy. Matt and I taught and baptized him in Bradenton, Florida nearly 8 years ago. In those short years he has become a solid convert to the church, proclaimed the gospel in the Idaho Pocatello mission, married an awesome girl in the St. George temple, and bore a beautiful son whom he named after Matt and me. What a great honor to have a child named after me.)