Utah

SO this post comes 6 months after the fact - but I FINALLY made it to Utah.  It has been a running joke in my family that my non-member grandparents were more Mormon than I was as they had not only been through Temple Square/Visitors Center right there in Salt Lake, they have stopped along the Mormon trail in their travels and specifically went to Kearney, Nebraska to see a handcart reenactment.

Erick's sister, Katrina, was getting sealed in the Manti temple and we were determined to go.  Erick's teaching schedule for SOS would only allow us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - but that would be enough.  We awoke Friday morning with plenty of time to make it to the airport.  However, there was a massive storm blowing through Montgomery and Alabama's bad drivers were, for some reason or another out in droves at 5:30 in the morning.  We arrived for our 6:40 departure time at 6:05.  They would not board us.  So we sat in that teeny tiny airport waiting for a new flight.  We were booked on the next fight, which was scheduled to leave at 11:00, but bad weather delayed this plane and we didn't leave Montgomery until almost 1PM.

We arrived in Dallas just as our connecting flight left for Salt Lake, so we were back to waiting.  Thank goodness for USO's.  I must also take some time out and give super praise to Elise.  She was all smiles this whole time.  Finally at 7PM we jumped on a flight to Salt Lake and landed there a little after 9.

The first thing that struck me, driving at night through Salt Lake, was how many temples there were in the 10 miles we drove to our hotel.  They were EVERYWHERE.  The next morning when we walked out of our hotel I was astonished that there were mountains RIGHT THERE.  How did I miss those???  All the way to Manti I tried to keep track of how many church buildings I saw and how many temples, but there were just too many.  I loved going into Wal-Mart and seeing all the LDS materials right there in an aisle of their own.  I really felt like I was in a totally different world.

The wedding was great, the weather was wonderful.  We went to the reception that night, and then the next morning Erick, Elise and I had breakfast with Erick's oldest brother, Dave and his girlfriend at the Grand American in Downtown Salt Lake.  We then went over to watch Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle where Sister Dalton just happened to be in attendance.  I actually got to go up and meet her and then we did a quick tour of Temple Square and the Conference Center before catching our flight back home to Montgomery.

It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it.