Utah Trip - Part Deux

Here is the 2nd and concluding post describing our trip in the great state of Utah.

Thursday Aug. 5th

Thursday morning we picked up Lara and headed to Peoa to visit Aunt Shelley, cousin Meredith, her husband Bryce and Grandma Bun at her nursing home.  We drove through the mountains to get there and it was beautiful.  The visit to Grandma Bun was nice, it was the first time I met her.  She had some pretty funny one-liners, too.

 Aunt Shelley, Lara, Grandma Bun, Meredith, Chip and Myself

Afterward we ate lunch and shared fun family stories.  It was a great visit!

 Chip, Lara and Meredith at lunch

We dropped Lara off and then went to the Jordan River Temple for Racheal's endowment.  It was wonderful to be there to support her along with Mark's family.  We had dinner with Mark, Racheal and family and then hung out at their house until late. 

With Mark and Racheal after the session

Friday Aug 6th

 Mark and Racheal's big day!

 Salt Lake temple

The temple sealing was beautiful, there was such a wonderful, strong spirit there.  The sealer gave fantastic advice and insight. 

 Coming out of the temple

Lara and Racheal

With the Newbolds (sorry it's a little blurry)

Mormon Connection #3 - We found out our friends Matt and Marianne Newbold (who met at Miami, were married, and are good friends with Racheal) are somehow related to Mark.  So now our friends are family with one another, yay :)

In between the wedding and reception we had several hours to kill, so Chip and I headed up to Bountiful for an endowment session. 

Bountiful temple

The reception in Salt Lake was great.  We had fun, saw friends and enjoyed some seriously good food.  Matt and Marianne brought their toddler Enzo, who was super cute and well-behaved.  Of course, I have to include a picture of the cake, 'cause it's what I love :)

Afterward Chip, Lara, Spencer (who served his mission in Cincy and is now in Utah), and myself met up and saw Inception.  One word: ohmygoshawesomemoviecrazyending.  So...I liked it, and would definitely recommend it.  

Saturday, Aug 7th

Chip and I took Lara to the airport in the morning, then headed to This is the Place Heritage Park.  If you've ever been to Colonial Williamsburg, it's kinda like that, except with Utah pioneer history.  They have a whole village set up with real artisans creating everyday essentials pioneers would use, like lanterns, saddles, blankets, and cradles.  There are interpreters everywhere dressed in period clothing, most with character stories.  We stopped by the school house and tried to learn the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet the Utah Valley pioneers created that never caught on.

It's like being back in my linguistics class all over again...

I couldn't resist.  Seriously, why would anyone name a port-a-potty company this?

Terrible name

We stopped into a textile house at the park where women were actually spinning, dyeing and weaving thread.  

 A loom in the textile house.  Chip's mom has one just like this at her house!

Mormon Connection #4 - While in the textile house we met someone spinning thread who, turns out, is good friends at BYU with one of Chip's former mission companions.  

After the park we had lunch with Matt, Marianne and Enzo at their apartment.  It was so great catching up with old friends, we sure miss having them around!

 I really wanted to hike Y mountain in Provo, so Chip and I decided to do that before dinner.  The "Y" is whitewashed concrete on the side of the mountain overlooking BYU's campus.  The hike was pretty steep in some places, but so worth it to see the views of the valley below.

Provo and BYU's campus below

After exercising and feeling great about ourselves, we decided to eat a healthy, nutritious dinner - er, nevermind.  We ate at In-N-Out Burger, yum :)

Back to the hotel room to pack, take pictures of the view from our room, and swim one last time

you're mine Y mountain!

Sunday Aug 8th

We flew home and were so happy to see our boys again!  We brought Trey a coonskin cap from the Heritage Park.  He enjoyed it.  

No clothes after a soaking in the sprinkler

We loved our trip, had a blast meeting up with friends and family, and are grateful for Chip's Dad who flew us out there, thank you!

O.K., you know all of the weird "Mormon Connections" that I posted about in Utah?  Well there's this thing called the 6 Degrees of Separation, which suggests that everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in six steps or fewer.  Well I think amongst LDS people, it's more like the 2 Degrees of Separation :) 

Utah Trip - Part 1

Earlier this month Chip and I were able to travel out to Utah for the wedding of some good friends, Racheal and Mark.  We had family that was good enough to watch the boys for us (for a whole week!!!  That merits a gold medal or something....).  Anyways, we did a ton of stuff out there, so I'll break it down by day. 

Sunday Aug. 1st

Skip, Tracy and Lara came down after church and picked up the boys to take them back to Piqua, where they stayed for the week.  I cried when we put them in the car seats and as they pulled out of the driveway.  Chip felt sorry for me and we went on a walk around our neighborhood.  

 Monday Aug. 2nd

We landed in Salt Lake and picked up our rental car.  I was hoping for a flashy sports car.  Well, we got a Kia Rio.  Hey, at least it got terrific gas mileage (good thing too, since we drove nearly 900 miles that week).

our sweet ride for the week

We immediately took a tour of the Conference Center.  The last time we were in Utah (Spring of '07) we finished our trip with a very short, rushed tour of the Conference Center (we were about to catch our flight).  This time we took the normal tour.  Funny story, in our tour group there was a family with wild little boys whose mom kept telling them to "make smart choices" as they ran around.  It made me laugh.

We did manage to get a picture on top of the Conference Center, just like 3 years ago

 August 2010

April 2007

After that we took tours of the Beehive House, the Tabernacle, had lunch at Rumbi's Island Grill (sooooo good, I wish we had these in Ohio!), checked into our hotel in Provo, and met up with our friends Garrett and Mandy.

We then went to the baptism of one of Garrett's nephews, who is also from Ohio, then went to his baptism/pool party.  While there Chip decided it would be a good idea to eat his cake in the hot tub

It didn't take long for Garrett and some others to catch on to the idea

Tues Aug 3rd

Weird Mormon Connection #1- During breakfast we ran into one of Chip's former mission companions, who is a manager at the hotel we were staying at.  

We met up with Garrett and his family to go drive the Alpine Loop.  It's a scenic highway that twists its way through the mountains.  It was beautiful, and we even saw a mountainside where all the trees were dead and flattened from an avalanche this past winter.

Afterwards we went on a hike with the same group to Stewart Falls.

Chip decided to climb to a higher position on the falls.  I stayed behind because I kept slipping on the rock and got nervous.  Looking back I wish I would have made it up there!

Chip victorious

The falls were so pretty, but when you turned around and looked at the valley behind them, it was even better

Chip and I went back to our hotel and swam for a while, then met up with Mandy and Garrett at Olive Garden.  Afterward we went back to their apartment for some games, just like old times.  We sure miss them and can't wait until they eventually move back to Ohio ;) 

Wed. Aug. 4th

Mormon Connection #2 - During breakfast at the hotel, we met an older couple from Australia who we later found out knew and worked with Meredith (Chip's cousin) when she served her mission in Melbourne. 

Chip and I went to the Provo temple after breakfast.

We were half hoping we would see someone we know.  It happened to be P-day at the MTC, and tons of missionaries were at the temple.  We knew 3 guys who are currently at the MTC, but alas, we didn't see any of them.

We had lunch at the BYU Creamery.....as in, we had ice-cream, and called it "lunch" :) It was very tasty.

We had to pick up Lara at the airport that evening, so we drove up to Salt Lake and went back to Temple Square to the Visitor's Center.  Right now they have a giant model of the Salt Lake Temple, which was a very popular attraction (and why I could never get a clear shot of it).  It was so neat for anybody to be able to see the inside of the temple, and there was a touch-screen display that explained the uses of all the rooms as well as gave 3D walkthroughs for each room.  

I'm glad the model is there to help people understand that temples aren't secret, they're sacred.  Anyone can attend the temple, if they prepare and are faithful.  

After picking up and dropping off Lara, Chip and I ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (and thought of Casey!) which was uber-tasty, as always.  More swimming in the hotel pool was in order after such a rich meal.  

It's Alive!

I know, I know.  I haven't posted anything in over a year.  Let's be honest, I just haven't made the blog a big priority.  I've let other things get in the way when I have free time....like napping.  However, since family and friends have been, ahem, nagging me to update the blog, I will start being diligent.  Actually, I'm glad you guys have been urging me to keep up my posting, it's a great way to share a little bit of my life with you.  So keep on reminding me, I need it!


But be prepared, many posts are about to emerge.  When it rains it pours :)