A Week in Utah (or a very long post)

I just spent a wonderful week in Utah. Emily Elizabeth and I were able to get a lot of wedding preparations accomplished and some good decisions made and it was nice to have time to visit with as many family members as I could. I was also grateful that we were able to support Emily & James as they performed together in BYU's Opera Scenes.

I arrived Sunday morning and settled in at Karen's. She enjoys the geese and ducks that visit the canal just off her back deck and I couldn't resist taking a picture of them against the snow.

Sunday afternoon James and Emily came up and we visited for a while. Then we headed over to Oma & Opa's for a lovely dinner and more visiting. I was pretty tired by the end of the evening because I had been awake since 3:00 am (so I could catch a 6:00 am flight out of Chicago).

Monday morning I headed down to Provo for a day of wedding dress shopping. Emily E and I met Mark & Emily at the University Mall where we hugged hello and sent Mark on his way to play with Jordan Peterson.

Emily wanted to start out looking for a dress at Alyce's Bridal because she had found a couple of dresses online that she really liked. We were the first customers in the store. Our sales associate, Macey, was so helpful and easy to work with. Emily was in a wonderful mood all morning and it was fun to see her in all the different dresses. There were some that were very definitely NO'S and she did a great job going through the dresses saying, "Maybe", "No", "Maybe". She only kept two maybes in the dressing room at a time and within an hour and a half had tried on about 12 dresses (I lost the exact count) and had decided on her two favorite dresses. She decided to try those two on again, this time with a veil and that helped clinch her decision.

Emily N and I took lots of pictures, but we decided not to put any of them up on the blog. If you want to see her dress, or even if you want to see some of the runner-ups, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll email you a pic or two.

I love the dress that Emily chose. It is different than what I expected her to wear. It is ivory with lace and beaded appliques and has a long train. It is very traditional and she looks so lovely in it. When she came out in what ended up being her dress, I caught my breath and got a little teary-eyed.

I am so glad that Emily was patient enough to wait until I could come out to Utah so that we could have this moment together.

permit a moment of whininess please......There were four or five children (pre-schoolers, toddlers and infants) in the store and they each took turns crying, shrieking, running, jumping and basically behaving like they were at a playground. PEOPLE! this is a Bridal Store! Not! a Playground! That stage and the large mirrors are for the bride-to-be to see herself -- not to see your children running in front of her or around her. You may think they are sweet and precious but that morning, they weren't. If you insist on bringing your children with you to a bridal shop bring crayons or quiet books, or even a portable dvd player. Take them outside the store to let them run off a little energy or to get them a snack when they are hungry and bored. Better yet, hire a baby-sitter. Show a little responsibility as a parent and show a little respect to the other customers that are trying to enjoy their once in a lifetime experience. I was talking on the phone with Rob (who was back in Illinois working) and he even commented on all the background noise.

After we were done at the bridal shop we found shoes, shared a lot of laughs and good conversation over lunch and even picked out a pattern for her temple dress. Emily is choosing to be married in her temple dress and I'm delighted that she trusts me enough to make it for her.

Tuesday morning, I met my sister, Marilyn and her daughter, Devon, for breakfast. We talked and talked and talked. Two hours after we got to the restaurant, Devon said, "We've been here All Day!" We headed into Salt Lake so I could run a couple of errands while I was in town. I really enjoyed having some time to visit the Resource Room in the Relief Society Building and wish I'd had another half-hour to spend there, but Devon had been an amazingly good sport and she was finished, as was the time on the parking meter.
Wednesday, I decided to stop at Hancock Fabrics for two reasons.
#1 - My sister, Sylvia, works there and I thought it would be fun to surprise her.
#2 - I figured I'd have better luck looking for white fabric (appropriate for a temple dress) in Utah than I would back home.

I was right on both counts. Sylvia didn't know I was in town and it was fun to see her face as she transitioned from a generic smile for a customer to recognizing her sister from out of town. She was very helpful and knew exactly which fabric would be ideal for Emily's dress. She even gave me a couple of good ideas for my mother-of-the-bride dress.

I met Linda Wayman, my sister-in-law, for lunch and we decided that I needed to try the infamous pork salad from Cafe Rio. It was fun visiting and catching up on our families and our childrens' lives.

Emily and I spent a little time together Wednesday afternoon visiting, talking wedding plans and then went to Duncan's for dinner. It was nice to meet James' brothers and sisters. After dinner I took the kids up to campus and enjoyed the opening night of Opera Scenes. James definitely stole the show as Prince Dimly.

Thursday, I met Suzanne Hall, a long-time friend from Naperville, for lunch. We haven't seen each other for years. Emily and Sharolee were friends when they were little girls. The Halls moved to Utah when the girls were in 2nd grade. We've always exchanged Christmas cards so we've seen each others families grow up through our yearly updates, but it was so nice to sit and visit face to face. Suzanne Hall is just as lovely today, and as easy to talk to, as she was thirteen years ago. After lunch, I took a little time and did some personal shopping. Can I just say, I love the service at Nordstrom!

Marilyn and her girls, Jessica, Celeste and Devon, drove down to Provo and we met for dinner before the show. Emily had a wonderful show of support from family! Including Marilyn and her girls, my mom and dad and my aunt, Anne and her husband Vern, came down from Salt Lake and Rob's parents came down from Logan.

Emily was Cinderella in one scene and was delightful as the girl who was so sweet and lovable, yet cried and cried and cried. In the second half of the evening, Emily and James appeared together as Anna Trulove and Tom Rakewell. They did a wonderful job singing a very difficult score and acted (?) very convincingly like two young people in love.

Rob and Alaina arrived very late Thursday night, and I arrived at the airport even later than they did since I was driving up from Provo after the show ended.

Friday morning we got up and out of the house pretty early. We were on the road by 7:00 am because we were meeting Mark and his friend so Alaina could take a campus tour of USU. Dustin showed Alaina all of the art studios around the Fine Arts Center and we were actually able to chat with one of the professors in Graphic Design. Mark then finished up by taking Alaina around campus and we finished up by taking her picture on the Aggie A, which has been moved to a much more conspicuous spot (much to my dismay).
After our campus tour we went to Grandma & Granddad's house where Rob was working. We had lunch and a nice visit. Laurie came down and spent some time visiting too.

Alaina has been asking for a haircut for quite a while so Laurie gave us the name of the salon that she goes to. Alaina decided to be brave and take a chance and I must say that the stylist did a wonderful job giving Alaina a haircut that is totally flattering to her face and her personality. We finished up the evening in Logan with Dinner at El Sol and then we headed over to Brigham City to see Matthew and Kristin's new house. It is a delightful first home for them and has a lot of really wonderful features, especially for a starter home. Kristin has a great kitchen with tons of cabinets and drawers. It was fun to see Axton again too.

Saturday we tried to sleep in, but it didn't work so well. Emily N made us a wonderful breakfast of buttermilk waffles and we had fun googling buttermilk and learning all kinds of interesting facts. Rob's i-Phone is too much fun sometimes.

We headed down to Provo and picked up Emily E for our big "Meet the Family" lunch with the Duncan's. This was Rob's first time to meet Stephen and Barbara. We had a wonderful visit and I enjoyed having a bit more time to visit and get acquainted with Emily's future in-laws.

All too soon, Emily had to head to work so we dropped her off and ran into the mall so Alaina and Rob could see Emily's dress in person. Unfortunately, it was no longer on display, but Emily N knows her stuff and went back into the racks and pulled out the exact same dress, just in a larger size. Seeing it on the hanger isn't quite as satisfying somehow. We managed to kill a couple of hours at the mall, wandering in and out of stores and stopping for a shake from the Iceberg. It's not a trip to Utah if we don't get a shake that is so thick it stands above the cup and must be eaten with spoons. This time we were smart and got one to share.

We met James and Emily and headed out for dinner. Rob and I both paused as we entered the restaurant because it was pretty amazing and momentarily breath-taking to look back and see our family all together.

Closing night was wonderful! The energy levels were high and the notes were strong and steady and right on. We all enjoyed the show and didn't want our time together to end so true to family tradition we went out for ice cream afterwards.

We finally acknowledged that we were all really tired so we had our hugs and said our goodbyes (until June).