As many of you know I was once upon a time a tour guide. Well, this weekend I put the act on again. I had some dear friends from my mission (Kentucky - Ohio Cincinnati Mission) in town for the next two weeks. Our first order of business was for Holly and I to go straight to the SLC airport and pick them up! We picked them up a little after 12:00pm and headed over to the super cute Gardner Village in Midvale - correct me if I'm wrong. As it would be, the place was jumping with little goblins and lot's of Mom's. We ended up eating at the tasty Archibald's and then wander through the cute little boutiques. One in particular was the candy shoppe. I have a new favorite dessert, which is sinfully sent from Satan - not to be dramatic, but it's known as banana cream fudge. I literally died and went to heaven, or hell, depending on, I don't know...nevermind? What happened first was just a sample. We left the store to leave Gardner Village, and as we were getting situated in the car I ran back to purchase me a "big sample," if you know what I mean. Move over peanut butter pie, there is a new guy in town and his name is BANANA CREAM FUDGE!
Along with finding me a new dessert, we had gotten tickets to two sessions of General Conference. However, my friends forgot the Saturday morning session. Holly and I weren't to bummed because going to two morning sessions is a lot of work. So, as Saturday morning approached we took our time getting ready, relaxed and enjoyed the two sessions in the comfort of our temporary living quarters. That night, why all the men in our lives (to which there isn't any) were at the priesthood session we ventured out on the town of Happy Valley and went to the beloved Mormon bookstores. Where I bought Sister Oaks new book, "A Single Voice" and have almost finished it. SO GOOD!!! SO GOOD!!! Did I say how good it is??? (For those of you who don't know much about her, Sister Oaks, she is married to Elder Oaks - the apostle, is his second wife, AND she didn't get married until she was 53!) After bookstore shopping it was off to a Brazilian grill where it was all you can eat meat on a stick. Another moment for me visiting HEAVEN! Although, about two hours later I wasn't quite in heaven, rather hell - you get my drift...and that drift didn't smell so good? After bathroom break we had to top off dinner, so it was off to JCW's for an awesome "small" shake! When we are all together we eat a lot!!!
Yes, let's talk General Conference shall we...I know you don't want to know about my bathroom time. As Sunday would have it, they, the Mazing Mormons had two more sessions of General Conference. We got up early, got ready, rode the tracks, and got hit with rain just as we got off the train. Made our way to the Center and got ourselves situated for another moment of being in the presence of an AWESOME PROPHET. I love attending Sunday Morning Session because it means we get the Spoken Word, and they sang two of my favorite songs. So peaceful and wonderful. Soon after the Spoken Word the conference began, and the head bobbing bobbed.
After conference we left and went to a dear friend, and an old mission companion that I have stayed in great touch with to see her off before she headed back to Alaska, where she recently has moved. She just had a precious little baby boy, and we literally got to spend 20 minutes with her and hold the baby. For you Seinfeld folks, "We had to see the Baaabbbby!" Boom, and it was off to eat, pack, and drive back to Southern Utah. It was a fast trip, but extremely fun, and I am so blessed to have made such dear friends from my mission, and to stay in touch with them even after seven years. Yikes - can you believe I've been home that long?Well, I'm sure that was a lot of reading for you all, and I have to say if you READ IT ALL then props to you! That really touches my heart that you would take the time to read about me and my adventures, and time spent in the bathroom! Speaking of bathroom...Got to run, I think that grilled cheese sandwich I just ate is needing to be disposed!
Oh Crystal, my coworker who taught me a lot of patience!!! However, even though I couldn't stand her most of the time, not to say I'm not a pain in the butt, I told her today if she is working on the Flower Crew next summer I would be happy to be her "companion" as she called us, next summer. (Note about flower bed: this flower bed is in front of the President of SUU's home - Crystal and I would take care of it, and boy did it take a lot of work to make it look this good! If anything the people that drove down this street got to enjoy this beautiful flower bed. Also, it's a lot bigger than what is shown in the picture.)
The trip started out Friday morning July 31, 2009 and my family and I headed up to Boulder Mountain to stay with our friends the Griffin's, in their cabin. The cabin was so nice, and the stay was wonderful! We had great friends to be surrounded by, wonderful food, and awesome weather! On Sunday we all drove down the Burr Trail. We did a little hike, and on the hike found some geocaching. We took the leigh and left a dollar and bracelet. Next year when we go back we'll check it out and see what's new. After our hike Jessie and I took the Burr Trail to Bullfrog to catch the ferry. Little did we know they take cash only, so we went with our original plan. I was so bummed, but I guess that's what happens when you don't stick to plan. That's a long story, and this story is already going to be long, so that is all you get about that detour.
That evening we headed up through Monticello, and on to Durango. I didn't get any pictures of the cute little city Durango, but I fell in love with the town. They have a tourist train...Oh you know I'm going to look into that! We stayed the night and then were off to Mesa Verde. We spent all of Monday in the park exploring and going on the tours. It was a little frightening at times climbing up the ladders, and crawling through small tunnels. I was so pleased with Jessie - since she has a fear of heights.
