Friday Rachel went back to work and Kori picked me and took me to her house, where I got to hang out with Carson and Chloe. Makenzie got home from school and got ready for ballet, and we did a impromptu photo shoot.
Saturday Greg picked me up and we went to the conference center to try to get into the morning session, but we found the stand-by line full and tons of people asking for extra tickets, so we headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial building where we sat in the chapel (the most ornate chapel the church has I suspect). We were entertained by drawing boats and watching the Morris code of the blinking exit sign until the session started. After it was done we met up with a few more people from Greg’s ward and Bryan M. (who used to live in Tucson and now lives in SLC and sings in the Tabernacle Choir). We all went to Chipotle (Greg’s choice) for lunch. I watched the second session at Rachel’s, then Rachel and I went to Ben and Kori’s.
Sunday found the two of us at Ben and Kori’s for Easter breakfast (Waffles!). We then watched the morning session of conference, ate a sub sandwich lunch, dyed Easter eggs, put a puzzle together and watched the last session (it went by so quickly!). Then we had Easter dinner- Kori is amazing and had the whole day planned out.
Monday I woke up early, drove Rachel to work and headed to Provo, where I was supposed to meet Greg and hike the Y. The forecast was for snow and it looked it, so I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to hike anyway, then I knocked on the door and it was answered by Greg’s sleepy cousin, Autumn. She looked at me not sure what I was doing there, Greg (still half asleep) showed up behind her. But in under 30 minutes Greg was ready, fed and we were on our way. It was cold!! BUT fun! It was my first time to hike it and Greg was a great tour guide. To continue with that role, we walked around BYU and Greg showed me where he lived and went to classes. We went back to his cousins’ where we ate some sandwiches and Greg was met by his ride back to Arizona and I headed back to SLC. Back at Kori’s I tried to help do some packing (what Kori’s been doing for weeks now- they bought a new house!). For dinner my cousins came in from Wisconsin, for David’s (my cousin) wedding. We had dinner and talked. Then Kori, her sister, Rachel and I went to a movie.
(If you guessed that is a little boy who likes to dress himself in stripes? You'd be wrong -according to him - if you guessed Anakin you would be right!)
Tuesday, we all congregated at the Salt Lake Temple for David and Vanalorin’s wedding. It was COLD!!! Snow covered everything! It was beautiful but frozen! The sealing was simple but beautiful. After a few pictures and meeting wedding guest for other weddings from Edinburgh and Nigeria., we took a detour on the way to the luncheon to get the keys to Ben and Kori new house and for Rachel and I to see it for the first time. It is such a cute little house! The luncheon was yummy - and we ate cake! Funniest part was that Rachel and I drove David and Vanalorin to their hotel! Aunt Louise’s car’s transmission went out! So we aren’t sure exactly how we are going to get home. Later for dinner we met with all the cousins and family in town for the wedding at Chuck-a-Rama, a huge buffet where we sat and talked for a long time, I even was able to give my little cousin Allison a lesson on French braiding (we even covered fish tails) and braid her hair.
(The wedding day - snow everywhere! A few pictures are out on temple grounds a few at the luncheon!)
Wednesday, started out well- Aunt Louise and I went to the Salt Lake Temple for a session! After that I met with Rachel, was able to met a bunch of people from her office, who I always hear about, then Rachel and I went to lunch at one of the places that she eats at - Thai Lotus. After that I went to Lehi, to help with the cleaning, Kori had her hands full coordinating carpet cleaners and kids, so when it was time for me to pick Rachel up, I took Carson with me.
Thursday, I thought that I would have a nice run in the park, since the days were getting warmer. So after dropping Rachel off at work I drove to Liberty Park and started around the running track. After three times around I was rounding by the parking lot when I saw an officer standing next to Rachel’s car. Not knowing what else to do, I ran up only to find a huge blue handicap sign right in front of the car. I was at a lose as to how I could have missed it and as to what I was going to say. I only had to run up and I was asked if it was my car, she then told me that she wasn’t going to site me because it had been covered up by the construction workers. It was then that I noticed that she was pulling a tied up trash bag off the sign. I really thought I’d been going crazy! But it was just the construction workers! She asked if I could just move it as soon as possible, I told her I could do it then and did. Once in a new parking space I took off for my final lap. After panting back to the car I reached for the keys - only to find that I hadn’t zipped up my pocket as I had the first time! Oh my - what a morning! After praying I started to back-track, covering the first half very slowly, because of course that is the time I chose to go cross-country. After 45 minutes or so, I saw two little old ladies and thought that I should ask them, so I did. They had found it! They said it was another 20 yards back, they had picked it up from the snow, and placed it on the edge of the sidewalk!
Finally, back in the car I drove to Ben and Kori’s where I tried to help pack and clean. Rachel got off and we had a fun dinner, watching some TV, and even though we didn’t have to get up in the morning we went to bed early.
Friday, Rachel and I got up and for a relaxing morning. We ate the Gordon Special at the Blue Plate Diner, when we ordered it the waitress pointed out the cutest little old man heading to the register, and told us that it was Gordon! We did a little shopping, but without much money it wasn’t really worth it to spend our time doing it, so we headed over to Ben’s; today is Moving Day (the first half). Rachel took Ben to U-haul, and he came back with a truck, and it all started. We started moving everything into it, as we progressed so did the number of Ben’s Elder’s quorum that came to help. Thanks to them it didn’t take much time to fill the whole huge truck. After chatting for a few minutes and saying their goodbyes, the help left. As a reward Ben took the rest of us to Café Rio for dinner! Yumm barbacoa! We were all set to have a nice sit in at the restaurant, when Chloe got sick all over Ben! So we changed our orders to-go and went back to Ben’s where we sat around the kitchen on a few random chairs left - or the floor to eat, which funny enough, weirded out Kenz and Carson. Ben and Kori worked on cleaning, while Rachel and I went back to her house where we made cupcakes and cinnamon rolls for the next day. It was midnight when we dropped off the warm googy rolls for Ben’s house for Kenzie’s birthday breakfast. Completely tired we all went to bed!
Saturday we got up, ate the cinnamon rolls and went to Ben’s where we all split up in different cars to get them all to Lehi. Ben drove the truck and I drove his car. Carson was sick on the way - you can’t have a normal move when you involve kids. We got to the new house and started unpacking, which went so well because Kori is the queen of organization! Kori’s family came and helped and again it went quickly, though we were tired, working around a sleeping Carson! With the U-haul returned and the family working on unloading boxes, I took a paper with orders on it and found the nearest Subway to get Kenzie’s birthday lunch. When I returned and passed out subs, we all sat in a circle on newly put together chairs, to eat the first family meal in the house! Kenzie made sure that we took a break to open presents, telling us exactly how we would preform the ritual. We were to give her the gifts one at a time going clockwise around the circle! Rachel and I both gave her princess books, but the big gift was a new bike that Kenzie knew she was getting, but Ben tried to play mind games to make her doubt it. We worked for a little longer, then Rachel and I went to her house to take a much needed shower - we had planned on going out again for dinner, but with sick kids there was a change of plans and Rachel and I picked up pizza and ice cream and returned to Ben’s new place, for Kenzie’s birthday dinner. Rachel and I left when the kids were put to bed to go to a movie - we saw “Letters to God” which looked like a tear-jerker, and it would have been if it hadn’t also been badly acted, badly directed and had more of a plot. The storyline was great, it just needed something more. We almost walked out, but lasted for the full five hours (it was only like two but felt much longer!).
Sunday, Rachel and I went to her ward, then we decided to see how many temples we could see! So we started our Temple Tour in Salt Lake (where we walked through the church history museum as well), then we drove up to Bountiful, getting pictures at both. Next we drove back down the valley to Jordan River and Oquirrh Mt. Then across the freeway to Draper, and over the mountain to Mt. Timpanogos, stopping in Pleasant Grove to witness the birth of some lambs, and in Provo, to retrieve Greg’s pillow that he left and I said I'd return to him, we ended our tour at the Provo temple. After our last picture we jumped in the car and raced to Ben and Kori’s to eat dinner and play with the kids. This time only Rachel left, I stayed at Ben’s for the night because it was our (Aunt Louise and I) plan to leave for Arizona in the morning if her car was fixed.
Monday, the car place called and said that it might be another week before the part to fix the car was even there! After a few minutes of indecision, Aunt Louise decided to rent a car to take us back to Arizona and she would use the jeep or Dad’s truck for the next while, she and dad were planning on going up to Utah again in May. So Kori drove us to the rental place and we loaded our stuff into a white dodge minivan and started down south. We stopped for lunch at a grocery store, and got enough food for a week, so we didn’t have to stop again except for gas, so we cruised on down, fighting the one giant wind storm that was the bottom half of Utah and the top half of Arizona, driving through constant sand clouds of low visibility. We made a quick stop at the Monticello and the Snowflake temples - just to say we did! When I drove the rental through Mesa, I had to stop and get a quick picture of that temple too!
