Utah Wedding

August 20-24
Salt Lake City, Utah

We just got back from a fantastic trip to Utah for Dustin's wedding. Karen flew to Salt Lake, so we were really excited to see her again this summer. Lora, Eric's girlfriend came with us. We left home on Wednesday, leaving Maia with Steve and Christiane in San Diego.
Our trip started out rough. Just outside of Victorville, we hit terrible traffic. But TERRIBLE doesn't quite describe it. Traffic was completely stopped. No one was moving, and many people, starting with us, turned off our cars and got out to stretch. Eric led us out onto the freeway to play Perudo, the dice game. We can now all say that we have played games on the freeway. I even got out my pillow and blanket and laid out on the road for a picture. We were stopped for almost an hour. Eric and Lora went for a walk.
Finally, we got moving again, and almost lost a shoe as Lora tried to hurry back into the car.
We got into Las Vegas later than we hoped, and our wonderful host was still awake, waiting for us with lots of make-shift beds. It was more than we expected and we all plopped down and were asleep in minutes.
The rest of the trip up went much more smoothly. We stopped to get Dad his cheese curds and had lunch at Subway. We got to the Nicholes' in the afternoon and relaxed until we all went to the family picnic. We loved eating and chatting with all the extended family that we haven't seen for a while. The food was great, but there were a lot of bees- making me and many other girls very uncomfortable the whole evening.
After the picnic, some of the girls and guys left for bachelorette and bachelor parties, while my family went to Iceberg, one of our favorite Utah fast food restaurants. They have delicious, thick shakes that we buy every time we are in Utah. We were eventually joined(kind of) by the bachelor party.
Before going to bed, us kids enjoyed the wonderful Theater Room with a big screen and surround sound at the Nicholes to watch Olympics and the Phantom of the Opera before turning in.
On Friday morning, Karen, Kristen, Lora, and I went to get our nails done. Karen and Kristen had never gotten sets before. It was a lot of fun, and not too expensive. Our family met our cousin Jeannie for lunch at the Red Iguana before dropping my
parents off at the Salt Lake Temple for the wedding.
We went back home to finish getting ready; then we all went back down-town and waited for them to come out of the Temple. There were a lot of wedding parties waiting outside also- the temple was pretty busy. We took pictures on the steps before going BACK to the house to pick up Carl and wait for the reception at 7:00. Karen went early with Kathy to help with setting up and preparing the cake.

The reception was held at the top of the Wells Fargo building- on the 23rd floor. It was beautiful, with a big grand staircase, and tall windows, letting us see across the city and sunset as we ate and danced to a live band. Eventually, the beautiful sunlight was replaced by the beautiful city lights and blue dancing lights. The atmosphere was very fancy and exciting.

There was a lot of food- yummy sandwiches and salad- and lots of delicious deserts to try, like creme puffs and éclairs- not to mention the delicious cake made by Kathy with a different kind of cake in each layer.

All the traditional activities of receptions were taken care of. The bride and groom shoved cake in each others' mouths; they had their first dance as a couple; and the groom threw the garter and the bride threw the bouquet.
It was very funny and ironic that Eric caught the garter and Karen caught the bouquet. I guess I better get ready for some weddings in our family.
Elise came back with us to sleep at the Nicholes'. She and I watched a movie until we were too tired to keep our eyes open- I was exhausted.

On Saturday, we relaxed around the house during the morning, but not
wanting to be bums on our last day in Utah, we decided to go to SnowBird- the closest ski resort. Even when there is no snow, there are still things to do. They had a large zip-line, an Alpine slide, a tram to the top of the mountain, and other smaller rides like a mechanical bull and jumpy things.
Since the lines were so long, we spent the whole rest of the day there, but only went on the rides once. But they were all a lot of fun. We had a contest on the mechanical bull for who could stay on the longest with one hand in the air. I won on my second try with a solid 1 minute, 10 seconds. But I don't think the operator was trying very hard to throw me. Even two days later, I can still feel it in my thighs.

Dad, Eric, Lora, Nathan and I rode the tram up to the top of the mountain. It was a quick ride and the views from the top were amazing. There was actually a couple that got married while we were up there. They took cupcakes for the wedding cake. It was pretty funny.

When we all got back down the mountain around 8 o'clock, we all left and went to a fun restaurant called The Pie. It is a pizza place next to the University of Utah. It was a lot of fun, and full of people, mostly college students. The pizza was delicious! I could definitely go back there again and again.
We got home really late and went straight to bed because we had to get up early on Sunday to be ready to leave. In the morning, we packed up all our stuff, made waffles with delicious buttermilk syrup, and said our goodbyes before we loaded back into the suburban.

The ride back felt much longer than the ride up because we went straight home, not stopping in Las Vegas. Eric took over some of the driving so Dad could have a break. Dad took the opportunity to watch Back to the Future parts 2 and 3 (we had watched part 1 on the way up).
We stopped in St. George for lunch at the Iceberg. We had hoped to go to our favorite restaurant called Larsen's, but it was under new management and closed on Sundays. But we still all enjoyed good food and shakes at Iceberg.
Before going home, we picked up Maia from the Staningers. We got home and unloaded the car. I was very disappointed that my scheduled recording for the Olympic Closing Ceremony failed, so we only got to watch a bit of the end- but I was glad that we didn't miss the extinguishing of the torch.
After getting some stuff ready for school on Monday, I went to bed.