Weekend in the City of the Lake with Salt

Saturday morning Darin and I officially began to feel that SCHOOL'S OUT feeling that we yearn for the entire semester (Okay, maybe not the ENTIRE semester, but when you have more homework to do then you have time and you're exhausted. You know the feeling). We started out the day by sleeping in. Yup, you heard it right, SLEEPING IN!! It was A-mazing. Rolled out of bed around 10am, packed a little suitcase with a few essentials and were off to Salt Lake City in perfect time to listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

Dropped our friend Erik off at the Airport (going home to Mexico for  break to see his family) and then headed over to my Sister-In-Law's apartment (Darin's mom also came down for the weekend :) ). Although we were STARVING and needing a lavatory we waited patiently outside for 29 minutes until the girls got home from shopping and were off to lunch.

We went out and ate at The Lion House. Delish. Have you eaten there? I'd heard so many good things about it and all were true.  The Apple Pie... TO DIE FOR. It was SO good.

(Chicken Dijon with YUMMY broccoli soup)

(The fam. ALWAYS so excited and willing to get their pictures taken)

                                   

(He didn't want his picture taken...I took it anyways)

PINEAPPLE!!! 

After our delightful lunch we walked around the temple for a couple minutes, and when I say a couple minutes, I'm not exaggerating.  Like 10.  And in those dear sweet 10 minutes, we must have seen AT LEAST 8 brides and grooms walking around getting their pictures taken.  WOW.  I knew Salt Lake City was a popular temple, but I had no idea. Just to prove that I'm not lying, I shot a few of these for your viewing pleasure...

Bride Numero 1

Bride numero 2

Bride Numero 3

Bride Numero 4

A little hard to see, but Bride Numero 5 nonetheless

 

I only got 5 before I started to feel a little awkward and decided to stop. But seriously, there were A LOT of brides.  Of course, it was the perfect weekend for getting hitched. First weekend after finals. Only weekend over break that doesn't involve Christmas and New Years. No doubt it was a busy wedding weekend throughout the nation.  Happy Wedding!!!

That evening we got all bundled up and went to the Conference Center to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform with Nathan Gunn and my childhood/preteen/teen/maybe even a little now idol JANE SEYMOUR. The only thing that could have made it better would have been having Sully at her side. But even seeing good ol' life-saving Dr. Mike in person was AWESOME. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman was by far my favorite show growing up and I have obviously reenacted episodes of the show, with me as Dr. Mike, so clearly I felt a connection.  Let me not get on a Dr. Quinn tangent, because I oh so easily could.

Back to the concert:

The stage was gorgeous and all decked out for Christmas.

Me and Sweet Bottom, getting ready for an awesome concert

The concert was really really really good. Great dancing, singing and story telling. At the very end, Jane Seymour read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 and then the choir and Nathan Gunn sung a very powerful version of Angels From the Realms of Glory. I could really feel the Christmas spirit so strong which I know comes from the spirit of remembering Christ at this time of year. It's amazing how powerful of a testimony music can be. I'm so thankful for Amelia and Sharon for inviting us this amazing concert with them. It definitely helped me get even more into the Christmas mood.

After the concert we walked around temple square and looked at the lights for a bit before calling it a night.

Merry Week of Christmas to all!!!