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!!

Bucket List & Barbecues

I'm finally connected again! For those of you that don't know, we're currently living with Mr. Mitchell's grandma to help out for a bit and the internet here was dial-up. Dial-up! Did you know that still existed? I didn't; I thought it had gone the way of speakeasies and flappers. We have progressed here, however, and now have high-speed internet. Until I didn't have the internet I didn't recognize how much of what is done in the world today relies upon it. I didn't even miss blogging. All I wanted was to see a stinkin' bank statement! Is that too much too ask? Apparently so when you're using dial-up. I'm sure you've all been held in suspense waiting to know what has been happening in our lives so, I'll share.

We decided at the beginning of February that we needed to get out of Utah for a few reasons: to keep our sanity and to save money. We decided to make a bucket list of things that would be worth doing before we left. There were actually quite a few things we couldn't squeeze in because they would involve travel, but we managed to do our local things.

First: a visit to the Salt Lake City temple.

Mr. Mitchell's photography skillz.

We had wanted to go because everybody told us it's worth the drive and wait to attend a temple session there and they were right. It was very cool and the inside of the temple was beautiful. Afterwards we walked around Temple Square for a bit and then went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for pictures and to watch the Joseph Smith movie.

Second: We went to the Provo Beach Resort. We have been fascinated with that place since it opened and we just never did anything there because it's a little expensive. Since it was our last month in the area we decided to splurge. We went and played mini-croquet (that's right...mini-golf is for losers)...

*Don't judge my face too harshly: Mr. Mitchell never tells me when I'm in his videos.

After mini-croquet it was time to get ready for the Flowrider. We had been on several dates where we would just go to the Provo Beach Resort and sit in the bleachers to watch people crash on the Flowrider or watch the people that were ridiculously good. It was, at last, our turn to try it out. It was expensive, but we'd recommend it to people. It was very fun and if you get cold they have a hot tub you can sit in. Warning: The crashing will kick your butt the next couple of days.

At this point in our adventuring I was dreading the crash - hence the unwillingness to move my arms in case they made me fall. Seriously, though, watch the video to the very end and see how hard I hit my head on the back wall.

Mr. Mitchell never lasted as long as I did, but he could at least start all on his own. By the end I was still using a rope to help me get out 'cuz I was too chicken to try getting out on my own. I say he wins.

Third: We went on a motorcycle ride all the way around Utah Lake. I about froze to death. It was pretty and it was sooo nice to be away from the madness, but our handwarmers didn't work properly and it got quite windy. Still, it was on the bucket list and we did it!

All of the madness is on the other side.

Sweet old Sinclair station.

We did a few other smaller things on our bucket list, but we have no photo documentation and so I will not bore you.

More importantly than our bucket list was making sure we said 'goodbye' to people that we'd be leaving behind. We didn't make it to everyone, and we're sorry for that, but perhaps we can squeeze a few in when we go back to walk in April. (BYU doesn't have a ceremony in December because of the weather.)

Our first goodbye was with some of the best friends I made while going to school in Utah. Heather and I were roommates our freshman year in the dorms and then lived together after that until I got married. Our sophomore year we roomed with Kristina and Liahona in Raintree Apartments. We fondly refer to that era in our schooling as the "208/210 Days." Why? Because we lived in apt. 208 and became fantastic friends with apt. 210 - where Mr. Mitchell just happened to live. Us girls lived together for two years.

Here are some flashback photos for your enjoyment:

Me, Heather, Kristina, Liahona & Mr. Mitchell on Ninja Day.

(Death to King  Henry.)

Kristina, Liahona, Heather & me after Liahona's luau performance.

Three of the four of us are now married and so we decided to have a parting dinner with the four of us plus spouses. It was quite tasty (thank you Mark & Liahona!) and we had a good time talking and playing Liahona's memory games. Team Mr. Mitchell, Mark, and Sabrina rules! (Even though Mark technically was forbidden by his wife to score any points. We still don't know why.)

Just the four of us.

Girls & spouses.

This picture might truly epitomize the relationship we have.

Here's a video for your enjoyment (Mr. Mitchell really digs pretending he's taking pictures while actually taking videos) of how ridiculous we are:

I love those girls - seriously.

Fortunately for me, my London Study Abroad group decided to have a reunion two days before we moved away. We had a pretty good turnout and it was so great to get to see these people and catch up. We also got to meet the first London baby - congratulations Alison & Weston! Mr. Mitchell did great in a room full of people that he mostly did not know and I was very happy to get to spend time with these wonderful, talented people and to meet the spouses.

I felt like I was being a nuisance with the camera and now I wish I had snagged more pictures - sorry Londonites!

Our last goodbye was at the house Mr. Mitchell lived in while we were engaged. There used to be a big Sunday dinner there every week with lots of people and then people were suddenly all over the country and the dinners stopped. Before we moved we were asked to come over for one more dinner with Bradley and Bryan. 

Bryan with his oh-so-tasty ribs.

We had a good last couple of weeks in Utah and we were so blessed to have so many helping hands around while we were packing. Collette - thank you for keeping me sane. EQ - thank you for your muscles. Dave - thank you for helping with the obnoxious stuff. 

We're both alive and healthy and we're looking forward to the summer. (Mr. Mitchell because of work; me because I want it to be warm.)