Utah! Day 7 (The Wedding!)

Whitney's wedding was, in my opinion, everything a wedding should be.  There were numerous times throughout the day that I thought to myself, "This moment, right here, is part of a dream wedding."  I can only hope that Whitney and Dustan felt the same way.

I started out taking a few pictures.  Here we are outside the temple, Dustan's family is lining up for pictures:

Getting everything just right:

Whitney and Dustan are totally absorbed in each other (as it should be):

And then I realized, there is a photographer here, whose whole job is to take pictures of this event.  What makes me think I could ever get a better picture than she will?  So I gave up.  Wholeheartedly.  I chose to be in the moment instead of behind a camera.  I do that often.  This time, it didn't matter, because someone else was taking the pictures.  If you're my friend on Facebook, then you've seen some of them.  They look stunning.

I don't think I could possibly recount the entire day to you, but here are some of the highlights:

• They were sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, and it was beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful.  The building, the sealer, the spirit.  Beautiful.
• After the sealing, we were all waiting in the waiting room for the couple to come out.  After a little while, a temple worker came to get Kim and me, so we could help my mom help Whitney into her dress.  At the time, it felt like we were rushing to get her ready and out the door, but as I look back, it's one of my favorite memories of the day.  In the brides room of the temple, helping my little sister put her wedding dress on.  All three of us, along with our mother.  It was a beautiful moment.  
• It was a hot day.  A hot, hot day.
• Julia and Ella looked so adorable in their yellow dresses.
• Jessica deserves a boatload of credit for bringing our girls to the temple, and generally helping out.  She was (and is) amazing.
• The reception was beautiful.  Beautiful, beautiful.  That's the word of the day: beautiful.
• It was so convenient that Whitney planned an event that allowed me to see all my family and friends while I was in town.  Thanks, Whit!  I wasn't sure I'd ever see some of those Yale Ward friends again.  It was delightful catching up and seeing so many familiar faces.  Made me grateful for the people I grew up with.
• Whitney got to throw the bouquet from a balcony.  How romantic is that?  And my cousin Susannah caught it.  She caught the bouquet at my wedding, too.  Apparently she's good at catching bouquets.
• At some point, Julia told me, "This is boring."  Thankfully Aunt Michelle saved the day by taking the kids outside.  They played with my cousin's kids (their 2nd cousins), and had a great time.  
• When the happy couple left, we all rang bells and blew whistles.  I thought it was a very clever way to be sent off.  It was another one of those perfect moments that seemed like a dream.
• The one fiasco of the day?  My skirt ripped.  Kim's did, too.  It's amazing what duct tape can do!  All things considered, that's a pretty minor mishap.  I was glad to take one for the team and let Whitney have the day of perfection.

All in all, it was a great day.  Congratulations, Whitney and Dustan!

Utah! Day 6

Tuesday we decided to dedicate to Provo, and all it's glory.  We headed down to Utah County, and got to enjoy construction on the freeway, and traffic, 2 staples of life in the UC.  Then we headed toward the mountains, and went for a hike up to the Y.  We borrowed a backpack for Ella, and Julia was a trooper and hiked the whole thing.  Well, almost the whole thing.  Clark was carrying 2 girls for small segments of the up.  But she did most of it.  Not bad for a 4 year old.

And now. . . . prepare yourselves. . . I TOOK PICTURES!   And more than one, even!  I had to include them all, to make up for the lack of pictures every other day.  Scroll away.

After the hike we headed down to BYU campus to get us some chocolate milk and stroll around for a minute.  It's always fun to go back and relive the memories.  We also decided that Jamba Juice was too good to pass up.  And we were lucky enough to go visit Stewart Dr. Anderson and see his office.  He's, like, a grown up.  How strange.

When we were finally done with BYU, we visited with the Adams family.  They fed us some delicious taco salad, and we stayed and chatted for way longer than we intended.  We (and by that I mean mostly Clark) just like talking!  Hopefully no one minded.  I know we didn't.

As if this wasn't enough adventure for one day, we then had to get home and get cleaned up for Anderson family pictures that evening.  Patrick (Kim's husband) couldn't make it to the wedding (he had to work), so we thought it would be good to take a couple photos of everyone all together prior to the big day.  Unfortunately, Patrick fell deathly ill (though we don't suspect The Michigan Flu, as he had a fever), but he put his head down and powered through.  I think they turned out well.  These two are my favorites.

PS?  We love Dustan.  He's funny and clever, and I think he fits in well.  Good work, Whit.

To round out the evening, we headed to Hires for dinner.  Cafe Rio and Hires were the only restaurants on my list this year.  The Big H did not disappoint.  And, perhaps more importantly, there was fry sauce in abundance.  Then we all headed home to get some rest and prep for the Big Day: Whitney's Wedding!

Utah! Day 5

Monday was our day to head downtown and see the sights of the S L C.  Unfortunately, Clark's dad became ill Sunday night and was unable to join us.  It may or may not have been the same bug we had, dubbed "The Michigan Flu," by Steve.  I'm so very, very sorry if we passed that to him.  So.  Very.  Sorry.

We thought it would be a grand adventure to take the Trax.  It did not disappoint.  Julia and Ella were thrilled to be taking the train.  And Clark and I were thrilled not to have to deal with driving and parking downtown.  We hit up the new City Creek plaza, which was incredible!  We are not what you would call "shoppers," and we still thought it was neat.  The fountains, the creek, the layout.  It was really neat to see.  The girls enjoyed stopping at the Disney store, where Aunt Jessica bought them a little something.  (Julia got a Mickey Mouse playset, and Ella got a Finding Nemo playset.  I would like to take this moment to note that Ella has latched onto Pearl, named her "Baby," and never looked back.  We have to have Baby everywhere we go.  She sleeps with Baby.  She eats with Baby.  Baby reads stories with her.  She is in deep smit with Baby.)  We also go to visit Grandma at work, and go out to lunch with her.  Which was when we discovered the awesome soft playground right by the food court.  The Midland Mall has a little play area in the middle of it.  This was very similar.  Only MUCH bigger.  And DINOSAURS.   You can imagine Julia was in heaven.  It was a great find.

We also managed to mosey over to temple square, walk by the temple and tabernacle, and check out the Christus statue.  The statue was lost on the girls, but they were happy about seeing the temple. 

AND, this was the day we made our first trip to Cafe Rio.  So.  Delicious.  I've tried to make Cafe Rio style burritos before, and they are good, but they aren't the same.  I was left wondering what it would take to get one here in Midland.  Please?  Pretty please?  I'd even take on in Detroit.  Put it right by the temple, and you'll do big business. 

Utah! Day 4

Our first Sunday of the trip, we trekked across the valley to spend the day with the Andersons (my parents).  We spent the morning (and early afternoon) playing hide and seek with Grammie and Opa and moving all the stuffed animals from the giant dollhouse to the small closet under the stairs.  It was GREAT fun.  We also discovered their brand new DORA potty seat.  That makes noises.  Both girls were in 7th heaven, but Ella was especially happy, as she is our resident Dora lover.  (Personally?  I'm not a huge fan of Dora.  I feel like she's always yelling at me.  Luckily we don't watch Dora so much as we read Dora.  Thank goodness for the slew of Dora books from the library!)  We also got a chance to meet Dustan's family, and they are all delightful.  What a fun group of people.

At the late hour of 1:30pm we headed off to church.  Having church right during naptime was AWESOME.  But we powered through.  It turns out my parents' ward was reorganized a couple of weeks before we came to town, and this particular Sunday was their first real Sunday with all 3 hours of church.  So no one really knew where they were going, or who was who.  This was great because we fit right in!  Julia seemed to have a fabulous time in Primary, and Ella was all smiles after nursery (even though they thought her name was Darla).

After church we headed back across the valley to have dinner with Kim and Patrick.  We planned this kind of at the last minute, and I'm so glad we did.  We got to see Patrick's police car, and sample some of Kim's fantastic cooking (seriously, I need the recipe for that bread!), and the girls got to play with their Aunt and Uncle.  It was such great fun, and I was sad to see it end.  It really made me wish we lived closer.

Utah! Day 3

The big event of Saturday was Whitney's family Bridal Shower.  I had sent out the invitations from Michigan, which means Julia and I had talked about the shower.  I ended up taking just Julia and leaving Ella home with Dad for naptime.  But in the days leading up to the shower, Ella expressed her desperate desire to go. 

Julia: "The shower is tomorrow!  But just Mom and I are going, Ella.  You're staying with Dad."
Ella: "Ella come?  Too?"
Me: "No, Ella, just Julia and Mama."
Ella: "Ella come?  Too?  Ella come too??"


Tears from Ella

But despite the begging, she stayed home.  And it was probably a good thing, as I think Julia thought it was a bit boring.  I can't imagine what Ella would have thought.

Anyway.  It was a delightful chance to see everyone pre-wedding, and eat yummy food, and shower Whitney with presents and recipes! 

Saturday night Suzanne and Elliott brought the party to the Blockburgers and we went out for a late night Slurpee run.  And stayed up way later than we should have.  I was regretting that decision after only 4 hours of sleep, but once I was awake enough to think, the regrets were gone.  It's not every day you get to see family :)

Utah! Day 2

Friday morning our kids woke up at 6am (which is 8am Eastern Time, and really, later than we had anticipated), and we were up and running.  We headed to the Natural History Museum of Utah so Julia could see some real dinosaur bones.  We have a family pass to our local museum, which is part of the ASTC Passport Program, which basically means we can get into science center/museums around the country for free.  It has paid for itself in vacation destinations alone.  I am so glad we bought that thing, even though our local museum is somewhat small.  It was money well spent.  

So, the museum.  We had built up these dinosaur bones for Julia, and I for one could not wait for her reaction to seeing them in person.  Unfortunately, I think the kid was a bit overwhelmed by everything.  We were on vacation, we'd done a fair amount of traveling the day before, we were with extended family, and we were at a museum with lots of things to see.  And then the "dinosaur sounds" started playing.  And she sort of flipped out.  She said the noises were scary and she didn't want to hear them anymore.  I think the noises scared her a bit, and it was the straw that broke the camels back.  The floodgates opened, and she was in full meltdown mode.  Thankfully we got away from the noises and calmed her down a bit by pointing out the skeletons.  Specifically, I asked her for the name of a nearby dinosaur skeleton, and she told me, "Parasaurolophus," like it was no big deal.  I then repeated it back with the incorrect pronunciation, for which I was scolded.  But the scolding seemed to bring her back down to earth, and she was happy the rest of the time, so I'll take it.

I had hoped for a lot more excitement and awe, but at that point, I was just grateful we weren't crying.  Julia quietly enjoyed discovering all the dinosaurs and guessing at their names.  I think she liked it a lot.  Ella found a window, so she was happy.  We eventually moved on and saw Native American ruins and gems and got to put together the parts of the cell.  Then Ella and I spied some ants, and I thought they were pretty amazing, all those little black creatures working together to dig tunnels.  I guess Ella thought they were neat, too, because she kept kissing the ant dome. 

To finish it off, the girls fed Al the Allosaurus some money (which brought back childhood memories for me), and headed home with Grandpa and Aunt Jessica (stopping at McDonalds for lunch on the way!).  We split ways at this point because my sister Whitney was going through the temple for the first time - hooray! 

Clark and I picked up my grandma and headed out to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I was glad we could have grandma on the drive with us; it gave us a little extra time to visit with her.  And really, I was honored to help her get into the temple and get dressed.  It's one of the thousand little things that I wish I was around for more often, so I'm glad to do it when I get the chance. 

I was so grateful we got to do a session in the temple.  It's pretty tricky getting to a temple out here, and while we try, we don't get there as often as I'd like.  And to be there with all my siblings and my parents?  It was a tiny taste of what heaven will be like.  It was a great moment for the Anderson family.

Afterwards we met back at my parents' house and ate some delicious pizza from Mountain Mike's.  What a gift, we had an entire afternoon without children.  We owe Jessica big time.  Someday, we'll return the favor, I promise. 

*As an aside, you might notice that I have no pictures.  I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but I took very VERY few pictures our whole time out there.  Most of the time I saw someone else taking pictures, so I didn't even bother.  If you have any pictures of this trip, would you be a dear and send them my way?  It'd be ever so appreciated.

Utah! Day 1

We left for Utah on a beautiful Thursday afternoon (June 7th to be precise).  But let me back up a bit.  Give you a preamble of sorts.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning, Clark fell ill.  He claims it was due to copious amounts of Bugles consumed on Monday evening.  He asserts that they make him feel awful every time he eats them.  He awoke at about 2:30am and proceeded to spend the next 5 hours in and out of the bathroom (though it is uncertain whether he actually threw up).  This made for a fitful night of sleep for Shanny, so I ended up sleeping with Julia.  Clark continually assured me that it was the Bugles, and that it wasn't a bug.  And he is sticking with his story even now.

Tuesday night, Ella threw up.  Ella is a funny little barfer: if she is sick, she only throws up once per day, about an hour after we put her to bed.  It does make the clean up easier than if, say, she threw up in the toy bin or some other random place.  It does involve stripping a bed and bathing a child, but it could be much, much worse.  She seemed better the next day, and in fact didn't throw up again.  I was hoping this was another fluke puke.

Julia went to a friend's house Wednesday afternoon.  She seemed her happy, chipper self.  I got a call a few hours later informing me that she had thrown up.  The guilt I felt at giving my sick child to someone else, and thereby leaving someone else to clean up a giant mess and possibly infecting their children, was immeasurable. Oh, I felt so bad.  Julia came home and looked ILL.  Pale and weak and sad.  She sat on the couch for the rest of the day.

And then we were down to one.  By Wednesday afternoon, I was sort of freaking out about getting sick myself.  A) I hate being sick.  Hate, hate, hate it.  B) I couldn't afford to get sick.  Not when I had to spend all of Wednesday packing and preparing for a trip, and then all day Thursday traveling across the country!  Commence prayers.  Many, many prayers. 

I think the prayers were answered, just not in the way I had hoped.  I worked like a mad woman Wednesday afternoon and evening, packing and cleaning.  I finished sweeping the kitchen floor, the very last thing on my to-do list, at about 9pm, sat down, and felt sick.  I then spent most of the night throwing up.  It was reminiscent of my pregnant days.  It was also a good reminder that I hate being pregnant, and don't want to do that again anytime soon.  However, I finally got a few hours of sleep, and woke up Thursday feeling pretty good.  Not 100%, but pretty good.  What a blessing that I got everything done before I got sick, and then I was feeling better before I had to board a plane full of strangers.  What. A. Blessing.  Julia was still sick Thursday morning, but by the time we got on the road, she started perking up, and was feeling much better when we boarded the plane.  We all made it through the flight smashingly well, with no sickies at all.  Again: what a blessing.

I was unsure how the flight would go, and prepared with beaucoup treats and snacks and "presents" from the dollar store.  Seriously, wrapping them all up made it all the more exciting for the girls.  The thing that surprised me the most were the window clings.  I had heard those were great, but didn't expect them to entertain my kids for more than about 3 minutes.  But both of them, Ella especially, loved them.  Ella would go back and forth between the plastic sheet they came on and the tray, peeling and sticking over and over.  I think she did it for a solid 30 minutes.  She LOVED it.  She also got a princess puzzle (9 interlocking squares), that she played with quite a bit.  I had no idea she would like this kind of thing so much.

And after a few hours, we made it to Utah!  We crashed at the Blockburger home and spent the rest of the night recuperating and storing up our strength for the excitement yet to come. 

We also got to meet Dustan (my sister Whitney's fiance [now husband])on Thursday night, and discovered what a delight he is!  We are so glad he is part of our family.

Utah!

We have returned from a very successful, long-yet-not-long-enough, dream-come-true trip to Utah.  Oh wow, it was a whirlwind.  There was so much to see and do, so much yummy food to eat (and pounds to gain!), and so many people to see that I can't believe we did it all.  But we did!

I've decided to update Ye Olde Blogge with a day by day rundown of the trip.  I fully understand that this might be boring for most readers.  So no one will take offense if you skim the blog these next few days :)

Hold on tight, cause here we go!!