Utah Trip 9-11 November 2012

Since we had decided that there was no way for any of us to fly to Hawaii in December to go to Andy's wedding, we decided that we would take a weekend trip to Utah to meet his fiance.  We had some vouchers from our last trip to Hawaii so our trip was also very cheap.

We drove to Denver shortly after Ryan got off work on Thursday and spent a few hours sleeping in the van.  We then headed to the airport in the super early hours and took a short flight to Salt Lake.  When we got there, we got a free upgrade on our rental car and were able to get a Kia Sorento with 4 wheel drive. This was greatly appreciated as it was snowy the whole time we were there.  On a slight tangent, the Kia Sorento is a really nice car and Ryan was surprisingly impressed by it.   Back to our actual trip, we had decided that we would go see stuff in Salt Lake first instead of wasting time driving back and forth from Provo.  We started of course, with DI since my shoes got soaked through at the airport.  After buying a sturdier pair of shoes, we went over to Temple Square.  I don't know how many of you know this, but Nolan loves temples.  He actually prefers us to take him and Shelby with us, each month, up to the temple instead of  leaving them with a babysitter.  He loves seeing the temple and being in the waiting room.  I must say he's a good kid.  He was pretty excited to see the Salt Lake Temple and thought it was pretty cool when we told him that Hawaii Grandma and Papa got married there.

The beautiful Salt Lake Temple

I love temples in the snow

As it was snowing and we didn't have a lot of time to spend at Temple Square, we only stopped to look at the temple and the tabernacle and then went into one of the visitors centers.  I think it was the north center but I'm not sure.

The Tabernacle

They were getting the nativity stuff all set up

Snow covered flowers

The kids sure like seeing Jesus

After Temple Square we headed to a burger place to have lunch with Amanda Chew-Stebbins.  We had a really enjoyable visit with her for about an hour and a half.  I was glad to hear that her marriage is going a lot better and that she is happy.

After lunch we headed over to meet Kate and Winston at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  Kate had volunteered to watch Nolan and Shelby so Ryan and I could do some temple work.  We did some initiatories while Nolan and Shelby got to know Aunt "Cake" and Winston a little better.  Winston sure is a little cutie and I love how chubby he is.  Chubby babies are the best and I should know because I have chubby babies.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

After we finished up at the temple we headed to Provo and our hotel so we could get checked in.  We then headed to Walmart and then over to Mary's apartment to make dinner and get to know her a bit.  We had a it of an adventure getting to Mary's place.  We had the address for the apartment complex but before we could get a hold of Andy for the apartment number, we had a phone snafu.  We had just switched over to Viearo wireless and what they neglected to tell us was that we had very limited roaming minutes.  Anyway, we asked a random girl and she was able to look up Mary in her ward roster and tell us where she lived.

We made some great fettucini alfredo and then spent some time visiting with Andy and Mary.  The kids really liked Uncle Andy and they loved Mary.  Ryan and I also thought she was great and Andy sure was lucky she agreed to marry him.

After a decent night's rest, we went to visit the Thuesons.  For those of you who don't remember who they are, they were friends of mom and dad when they were at Provo and then they wound up serving in the Taiwan Kaohsiung mission with Ryan and I.  We had a really enjoyable visit with them and they were able to recommend an authentic Chinese place for lunch.  This place was sooooo very good!  They had real dumplings and real beef soup and real Taiwanese drinks.  It was amazing!

After a lunch were we stuffed ourselves silly, we went to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat.  We really enjoy visiting with them.  We were also able to visit a bit with Van and his girlfriend Sarah who was really nice.  We had so much fun visiting with them that there was no time to visit Aunt Lois. Shucks.

We then headed back in to Provo and to the Chinese restaurant to meet up with Andy, Mary, Kate, Winston and the Barclays for dinner.  We had a great time re-stuffing ourselves and visiting with family.

Freezing outside after dinner

After dinner we headed back to our hotel, which the Barclay's were also staying at.  Andy, Mary, Step and Zach went to the BYU football game.  Amy, Kali, Adelyn, and us Johnston's went and hung out at the pool for a while.  Nolan actually fell asleep on the drive home, but only after we went by the Provo Temple.  Another slight tangent, we drove by where they are doing the new Provo Temple, which was kind of cool.  Anyway, Nolan slept on a pool chair while the rest of us enjoyed some pool time.   Nolan woke up in time to head up to the Barclay's room and visit for a while before heading to bed.

Provo Temple at night

On Sunday morning we were able to spend a little more time with the Barclays.  Nolan and Shelby really liked there cousins and sure had fun playing with them.

Cousins on the bed 

After checking out of the hotel, we headed up to Salt Lake City were we ran into a nasty snow storm.  We met up with a friend, Ben Layton, who served in our mission, and had lunch with him.  It was an enjoyable visit and then we had just enough time to head over to the airport, turn in our car and check in for our flight, which of course was somewhat delayed because of the snow.  I think it only was about an hour's delay.  We made it back in to Denver and then drove home to North Platte.  It was a fun little trip but it was really nice to be back home.