utah adventures

Warning! Most thrilling travelogue ahead!!

We got back from Utah on Monday. Whew, what a whirlwind trip. Our tired bodies (and chapped lips) were happy to get back safe and sound to Washington. A recap of our adventures (with lots of shout-outs!):

Friday

Our flight went well. We flew Southwest, which was a first. If you know airlines, you know that Southwest has a "first come, first served" seat policy, as in, get on the plane and find a seat and sit in it, quick! The flight was completely full and Wesley had to sit on our laps. We kinda sat near a business guy who wanted the aisle, and he didn't seem overly cautious to let us in. Wesley was a good little flyer.

He's in this phase now where it likes motion. When we're driving (or in the plane or on a shuttle this weekend, as it were), or if he's in his stroller, we better be moving or he lets everyone know he doesn't like being static. It's interesting. Shane thinks we're raising an impatient kid. I don't know if he understands the concept of patience yet.

So anyway, as long as we were moving, Wesley was good. We had lots of toys, books, snacks, etc., to keep him occupied. It went well!

We landed and got our bags with no worries and got our rental car with no hassle. Let me just say I LOVE how Salt Lake International is laid out re: the rental cars. They are RIGHT THERE! No awful shuttle to wait for that takes you 10 miles away, where you stand in line waiting for a car and you have no idea where you are. The Salt Lake rental cars are right across the street in a big garage. So nice.

We put my new fancy phone to good use and used GPS to meet my brother Brad and his wife Leslie at the Gateway Mall. We got lost at first since I put in the wrong address. We realized this when we were basically at the University of Utah in the foothills of Salt Lake and not at an outdoor mall. Yikes. I put in the correct address, and voila, we made it alive.

Brad needed to go to store, but he also wanted to show me my name carved in stone. That's right kids, here I am, in the glorious Gateway Mall in Salt Lake:

Woot woot! That's right kids, the name is Angela Twining. And why is my name is stone? I was one of the kabillions of volunteers for the 2002 Olympics. I had a ton of fun, and one day Brad was wandering around the Gateway and saw my name. He took a low-resolution picture of it on his camera phone, so it was nice to see it for myself.

As were walking around the mall, I was running my mouth about something and who walked past us? L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Brad, Leslie, and Shane all saw him and recognized him. I completely missed it. They said who it was and I turned back and saw the back of his hat. It was a debonair kind of hat with a little red flower in it. How cute old-man is that? Anyway, our brush with fame.

We also ran into another kid I new growing up in Maryland, Jacob Long. Very cool to run into people I know in a city I haven't been to in years!

It was really cold. So we left.

We drove to Provo and checked into our hotel. We rested and then took Brad and Leslie out for dinner at Los Hermanos. My goal was to eat all Utah-ish food all weekend, reminiscing of the past.

Saturday

Our adventures Saturday were such fun. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures!

In the morning, Leslie met us and one of my old co-workers, Megan, and her little boy Quinn, on BYU campus. I desperately wanted to walk around and see what had changed. Wowsers. We met at the ginormous and gorgeous new alumni building. Brad even told me later that if you go sit in one of the cushy chairs in the alumni building, some sweet old patron lady walks up to you and asks if you're an alumni, since only alumni are allowed to sit in the cushy chairs. Yeah baby.

(stock photo I swiped from the Internet)

There was this huge hill from Helaman Halls -- freshman dorms -- up to campus. I walked that sucker every single day when I was a freshman (and sophomore, since my apartment was just past Helaman Halls). Well, the new alumni building is on top of the pathway. They graded it to level the building and put the path in a tunnel. Crazy how some stuff now only exists in memories.

Anyway, moving on, we checked out the new communications building (Megan and I both majored in communications), which moved our department out of the Fine Arts building. A lot of the other stuff was the same. They are constructing a new broadcast building, which is very cool, and they finished in the last several years this monstrosity of an athletics building that is on top of the soccer fields where I used to play. And they knocked down Deseret Towers, the dorms my brother Kurt lived in. (Nothing's there, there just knocked them down. Weird.)

We let Wesley and Quinn run around the quad, then Wesley had to go up and down the stairs in the library atrium. It was really cool being back.

That afternoon we got Sconecutter for lunch. YUM! And then I met my old roommate Krysti (who is back at BYU getting her PhD!) at the BYU Creamery for some ice cream while Wesley got a nap. My buddy Krysti rocks. She is even coming up to Washington around Christmas and we're going to hang out again!

At some point around here, Wesley lost his hat and mittens. So sad! Aunt Leslie and Uncle Brad came to the rescue by driving back to the scene of the crime, looking for them, coming up empty, then buying some new ones. Thanks again guys. My little man needs a warm noggin!

Saturday evening was -- of course! -- a football game Shane just had to watch. Texas vs. Nebraska, a big rivalry, plus we're huge Nebraska fans. Brad and Leslie came over to our hotel to watch. We had pizza and salad.

Leslie and I took Wesley on a football break and went across the street to the Provo Tabernacle, where one of the stakes in Provo was performing a live nativity. It was nice. The best part was all the farm animals they had on the Tabernacle's lawn. Wesley about mauled an unsuspecting black sheep. It was really fun. Why did I not take any pictures?

Sunday

The next morning we headed to Clearfield, which is north of Salt Lake, to visit Shane's sister Bonnie and her husband Manny and their new teeny baby Evan. Again, no pictures. I'm lame!

We bought some groceries and we did a brunch and a dinner for them. It was fun! We let Wesley nap in Evan's crib and we talked about baby stuff: baby sleep, baby poo, baby schedules, baby milestones, baby cries. And I promised Bonnie I'd go through all my old Wesley clothes and send her a nice package in the next couple weeks of some stuff she could use.

That evening, thanks to Aunt Leslie, we had tickets to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional! How cool is that!! When I realized I'd be in Utah the first Sunday in December, the day the devotional is every year, I started doing some searching to see if we could get tickets. I asked my Church at home (sometimes we get some), I asked Leslie to ask around, we checked Craigslist, etc. Leslie had a friend who had 6, but he was using them all. So, we gave up.... until a couple days later when the friend called and said his plans fell through! He now had 5 extra tickets! We took 4 of them. Bonnie, me, Leslie, and Brad all went. We left the babies home with the dads!

There are three sections in the Church's conference center: ground level, terrace, and balcony. Our seats were for the terrace, but when one of our party was there saving seats, someone came up to him and upgraded him to the ground floor!! We were in row S -- and row A was the very front! What great seats. I've only ever sat in the balcony before.

Yup, those two teeny little people you see sitting in front of the gold-lighted trees are President Eyring and President Monson. Awesome!!! President Uchdorf was hidden from my view behind the podium.

It was a great devotional. President Uchdorf talked about not letting other things keeps us so busy at Christmas that we lose sight of the reason we are celebrating; President Eyring encouraged us to tell and retell Christmas stories, because in doing so we speak of Christ and service and love; President Monson encouraged us to look for opportunities to serve, at this time of year and always. He always tells such good stories that make me want to be better.

The story he told this year was of a packed airport, full of delayed flights, in the early '70s. A business class traveler had a confirmed ticket on a flight home, but a weary soldier in uniform pleaded with the gate agent to get him on the flight. He said his battalion was getting ready to go to Vietnam, and he didn't want to miss what very well might be his last Christmas at home. The agent couldn't accommodate him.... but the business class traveler gave up his seat. Wow. What a story of selflessness.

When we got back to Bonnie's house, Wesley was a crying mess. He was cranky. We left for our hotel soon after that. We stayed in a super cushy nice hotel near the airport! It was definitely for businessmen. It was AWESOME! And I pricelined it for $20 cheaper per night than the hotel we stayed at in Provo! Crazy! And it was worlds nicer.

Monday

We decided Wesley needed to sleep in, but I got up early to go on an adventure of my own.

My company is the structural engineer on a huge project in downtown Salt Lake. I told my boss I'd do her a favor and go takes some pictures of the construction. My goal was to get up high, if I could, and get an aerial shot. Well, that is 100% impossible since the project is SO HUGE. But I did have the audacity to go up the highest high-rise nearby, knock on the glass doors of the KeyBank executive offices (26th floor), and ask if I could snap a picture out a window. Hehe. I felt kind of silly, but people in Utah are super nice! They let me do it!

It was really cool to just walk around the site. It was cold and the weather wasn't too clear, but I got to see this cool project under construction. Our company has a guy there on site, handling construction administration stuff, who was going to meet me and give me a narrative of sorts, but because of the weather he didn't come in that morning. Oh well! It was still cool to check it out.

Our flight was later that day, and it was mostly empty so we were able to bring on Wesley's car seat and strap him in. That was nice. He fussed a bit (mom wasn't smart for booking a flight during nap time), but overall he did well. He's a good little traveler.

We had so much fun visiting with our friends and family, but it is good to be home. The static electricity in my hair is waning and my chapped lips are feeling much better. Utah was such a part of my life for 5+ years, it feels funny to just be a tourist at this point.

It was a great visit. Go Cougars!