Natalie's freshman year

Natalie and her besties

Monica, Natalie's friend in the making of rapunzel's braid

Monica, Natalie's friend and Claire helping out

the freshmen float

Natalie has decided to be on student council this year and she has been working on this homecoming float for awhile. The group of students dwindled down to only 3 including Natalie so of course we got roped in. Natalie asked Brian to build her a Rapunzel castle out of cardboard but no, that wouldn't do....he went into the garage and started building this castle out of sheet metal wrapped in some kind of insulation to give it texture. He did a great job and natalie and her friends did the base coat of painting and I did details. They also spent one night making a huge blonde braid. These girls worked pretty hard. We went to the parade and took a couple pictures.

Getting all settled

This is her dorm at Wyview.

BYU campus.......see the big Y on the mountain?

Her room that she doesn't have to share. She has 2 other room mates who share a room.

Talking on the phone in front of her desk.

We took Melissa up to BYU on the 23rd of August. I rode in her car with her and Brian drove our car in front of us. I think he was happy to ride alone as he listened to his book on ipod all the way. I kept thinking what an amazing husband and father he is to be taking her up there and finding a way to pay for this new expense in our lives. He has been her dad for 10 years and has helped raise her to be the woman she is. I am so very thankful.

I kept having teary moments throughout the trip but tried to not let it show much. I didn't want to make it any harder for her and she had asked me not to break down. So, we went to the orientation and she went to her stuff. We listened to speakers at the Marriott Center and heard the president of BYU speak. We met with an academic advisor who was in his 90's....not much help there. Throughout the trip I kept getting this reassuring feeling saying "this is the right place for her, don't worry, ALL will be fine" Brian of course was fine. We took her around to all her classes and we got a golf cart tour as well. (thanks to Debbie, Brian's mom) We bought her books and probably made 4 trips to Target to get MORE STUFF! We set up her room and Brian hung all her pictures for her. We had a couple dinners out with the Mc Cleves and saw Ashlyn's room too. Then the time came on Sunday morning to see her and say goodbye one last time. It was good it was early in the morning and she was tired. I know this will be hard for me and her but I know without a doubt that she will receive an excellent education there and that it is an honor to be at that school. We hope to be able to go up in the beginning of October for conference and see her. Life is different and I miss her dearly.