Salt Lake Trip

Mr. Mitchell and I had the opportunity to go down to Salt Lake City for a few days mid-December. The trip plan originated when we heard that one of my roommates was going to be back in the states visiting her in-laws in Utah. Then we discovered that that same weekend my family was going to be in Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert. Party!!

We started the trip at Kneaders with my good friend Talyn and her husband Colby. Talyn and I were besties in London, and it all started with a quote from Cold Comfort Farm. If you know anything about that movie it probably helps you understand our friendship a smidge. I miss her quite a bit, but she sends me terrific emails to help with the pain.

Isn't she a babe?

They're just a little bit taller than us.

After that very brief reunion we were able to spend some time with another bestie of mine, Heather.

We were assigned in the same dorm freshman year at BYU, and we became pretty quick friends. Our first conversation went something like this:

S: Have you cried yet?
H: Yes.
S: Cool. Me, too.

We were roommates from then until I got married three and a half years later.

After that very brief visit we went back into town to dinner with the family. Unfortunately, we have no pictures. We ate at Olive Garden with my mom and dad, Garrison and his girlfriend, and the Smiths. While it was very nice talking with everyone it was probably our least favorite visit to Olive Garden ever. We were a rather large group, but it was two hours before we had our food. We had about 5 minutes to eat before the group had to jet to get the Christmas concert, and the food didn't even taste that good. It was like they ran out of salt or something. My niece ended up feeling pretty sick so she went back to the hotel with Sprout and me, and Mr. Mitchell took her ticket. He was incredibly psyched about that because one of the guests for the concert was John Rhys-Davies. (For those of you that don't know: He's Sallah in Indiana Jones. If Mr. Mitchell could be Indiana Jones he would be in a heartbeat.)

In the morning, my parents watched Sprout while Mr. Mitchell and I went to Music & the Spoken Word. The morning after the Christmas concert they do a mini-concert, and so I was able to see most of the concert anyway. We had amazing seats, and the concert was fantastic, as always. We had taken a picture of ourselves in the Conference Center (which I can't find for some reason) and the flash had been off. I assumed the flash would still be off when I tried to snag a picture of John Rhys-Davies on stage. Silly, silly, silly me. The flash went off. The flash went off about 30 times. The flash went off and I was frozen in fear and humiliation. Just look at the stink eye I got from the guy holding the poster.

And to add insult to injury, the most obvious thing in the picture is random dude's ear. (In case you can't find him, John Rhys-Davies is next to the opera lady in red.) So, there's my confession. Come and arrest me Conference Center police. I am still mortified, and I accept my fate.

After the mini-concert we said goodbye to family and went to our little roommate reunion. We had lunch, watched A Christmas Carol, drank hot chocolate, talked, and watched the babies play.

You've already met Heather, but I need to introduce you to the rest. We were all roommates our sophomore and junior years at BYU in Raintree. Oh, the times we had!

Liahona showed up a few days later than the rest of us, and I totally missed when she arrived. I just realized one day that there was stuff in her room, and I totally went in and snooped with Heather. All I remember specifically right now are measuring cups and a beautiful picture of her. She's from New Zealand and is half Maori.

She met her husband, Mark, at BYU working in the same office together. They were married a couple of weeks before Mr. Mitchell and me.

They had their adorable little boy in the spring of 2013. He was born far away in New Zealand so this was the first time we got to meet him.

The first time we met Kristina she was moving her stuff in with her little sister's help. She was very quiet, and went home almost every night until the school year started. After a while she warmed up to us and showed us how silly she can actually be.

She met her husband, James, through a good friend of hers. They were married after they both returned from their missions. Unfortunately, James wasn't able to make it.

Click here and scroll towards the bottom of the post if you would like some insight into our friendships. Good, good stuff.

Enjoy the photo bombardment:

I have no idea what is happening in this picture.
I swear I was never this sad during our trip.

It was super awesome to see everyone again. I wish we could have spent more time together, but everybody was in a bit of a time crunch with work and/or travelling. Destination reunion next time? Hawaii, maybe? Start saving!!