Utah Trip

Last month, Jude and I took a quick trip to Utah so we could visit extended family and attend my cousin Jordan's wedding. As nervous as I was about leaving Josh with Matt and friends for five days, everyone did amazingly well with the arrangement. Matt was happy to have some company at home, Jude was happy to get so much attention, Josh was happy to see so much of his friends and his Daddy, and I was happy to hug and kiss relatives for the first time in years.

First stop after arriving at the SLC airport was my sister Melissa's apartment. Second stop, of course, was Costa Vida! I've been missing my Mexican food. Now don't go telling me that Costa Vida isn't Mexican, because I won't listen! It's just a different kind of Mexican and I appreciate it in a different kind of way. I made sure to get some so-so dirty Mexican while I was there too. The sibs and cousins and I went out late for Alberto's one night. (Baby free! Can you believe it?!) I got a huge cup of horchata. Mmmm.

That little Star Wars label up there is from a breakfast place we went to in Melissa's neighborhood. She lives on the Univ. of Utah campus, so she has to put up with crap like that even though she bleeds blue.

After breakfast that first morning, we stopped at Kay Cummings chocolate shop and stocked up for the weekend. Jude did his best to draw in customers from the window, but apparently nobody thought he was cute enough.

We also walked around the park a bit so Jude could yell at the ducks and dogs passing by. When we went to the store for baby supplies, Jude stuck to Uncle Mike like glue. Those two are buddies. 

We visited Grandpa John's grave and got to see his beautiful new headstone. Aunt Beverly gave us a tour of some of our ancestors in the cemetery, as well. 

That night, we went to Oakley's house for a barbecue and some volleyball. Jude loved meeting Baby Scarlett. His enthusiasm was a little overpowering for her, especially when he tried to squeeze her, and point out all her pretty facial features, and feed her romantically from his plastic cup.

I just had such a great time being with my cousins. I miss Oakley all the time. We grew up together, and I kind of wanted to just snuggle up with her every night and talk about girl things and boy bands til we fell asleep. When we were little, Oakley and Melissa would always make Christiana and me be the boys when we played pretend. So there we are, in the bottom right, holding our princesses like old times.

But I didn't get to stay with Oakley this time. Instead, we had a great hotel room next to the Ludlows and my grandma. Jude slept amazingly well, and we had a nice hot breakfast every morning. Have you ever seen a hotel cafe with a separate TV in every booth? Crazy! 

Practicing his eensy weensy spider with Aunt Stephanie.

Friday was the day to make Stephanie do my hair, and then get lost on the way to Brickerhaven for a huge family dinner. I got to see so much family that I hadn't seen in years. Cousins, cousins of cousins, kids of cousins, aunts, uncles, Grandma. It was lovely. We also got to see a video of Jordan and Fan's Chinese wedding, which took place a month before. It was not official, but it was very colorful, Chinese traditional, and really important to Fan's parents, since she is their only child. I love Fan already. She is an amazing woman, and a babe. Good job, Jordan.

Saturday was the wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony. Jordan literally had tears dripping off his face the whole time. There was just so much happiness in that room. 

I ended up running around quite a bit helping with the luncheon and such, and I'm glad I only had one kid to pawn off so I could be useful. That night there was a beautiful reception in Alpine.

After the reception, we stopped for a few minutes to visit some old friends, the Loudens. They are amazing people who used to live in Redding. They are great friends to my parents, and my old seminary teachers. 

The next day after church, we all went to lunch at Uncle David's house in Provo to celebrate Grandma's birthday. We ate amazing brisket, then shared stories and one-liners about Grandma. It was a really full house!

The trip was too short to do all the catching up I wanted to do. I wanted to do a session in the Salt Lake Temple, to revisit BYU for chocolate covered cinnamon bears, to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform, to shop through the new City Creek Mall, and to eat frozen yogurt. Not enough time, but I was definitely starting to miss this little guy.

I told him I'd bring him back something special from Utah. I'm so lucky he was satisfied with extra airplane cookies and Fruit-by-the-Foots from Grandma Sara. Easy to please.