Christmas Letter 2012

Merry Christmas!

Ah, Miracle on 34th Street playing on my TV, eggnog in the fridge, snow in the forecast, and the end of finals and a tough fall semester - all signs that Christmas is upon us and so is my task of trying to write a Christmas letter! 2012 has been a wonderful and quiet year for me. Well, okay. Maybe not that quiet. 

I’m still working for BYU in their Human Resource Development office doing online training and now that I have a beautiful new Macbook at work, my work is that much more exciting to show up for! I’m now in my last year of my graduate program, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I’m also still in my little condo in Springville, and still racing and riding my mountain bike. 

This year’s travels included two trips to Seattle. (I really am obsessed, and I really do need to move there someday.) My mom joined me for the first trip - to see my friend’s wedding. While there, we explored the beautiful Bloedel Reserve and drove around the old haunts from back in the day when my parents and sisters lived in the area - long before my time! And the second trip was my dream-come-true trip of going hiking in the Olympics and along the coast. It was beautiful and everything I dreamed of. I also went to Houston to visit my sister, Joni, and her family at their new home. We went to the beach on a most perfect day ever and ate some alligator for dinner that her husband and son hunted and shot. 

This has also been the year of family with a skiing weekend in January with three of my sisters, and three nephews getting married. The cherry on top was when my mom came down for the Sundance Outdoor Theater production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Bless her beautiful hide! 

In August, I bought Ruby, my Subaru Outback. I {heart} my Outback. Because I have her, I purposely parked in a snow drift last month . . . because I could. It was awesome! And just the other day, I went to lunch with a friend during the peak of a snow storm. I watched a bunch of other people sliding around while me and Ruby drove around like it was no big deal. I should have bought her a long time ago. I’m excited for all the new places I’ll be able to go because of her! 

To wrap up here are some other highlights by the numbers: 100 miles of Little Red Riding Hood road bike ride conquered. 51 miles ridden in 36 hours for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde race. 23 miles ridden in the 12 Hours of Sundance race where we took 1st place! 4 quilts completed. 4 moose and 1 baby moose seen while out mountain biking. 2 mountain bike rides when my rear brakes quit working leading to 1 great tumble. 1 beast of a road ride over the Alpine Loop logging 45 miles and 4,200 feet of climbing. 1 tarantula sighting in Hobble Creek canyon. 1 kitchen faucet replaced by yours truly. And 1 new roommate! Jo is her name and she just moved in at the beginning of December! She’s perfectly wonderful. 

I hope all is well with you and your loved ones and that this letter finds you well and happy! May the spirit of Christmas, and the hope and joy that comes with it, fill your lives. Take care and keep the emails, blog posts, and Christmas letters coming! 

Best wishes, 

Jessika

A China Miracle?

1. Getting a roommate the day I find out about this China trip and being able to save nearly every penny of my rental income 
2. $3,000 for airfare, loding, tuition, side trips, and half of my food, all for six weeks (or less in my case) in Xiamen, China 
3. Getting the green light from work to go and work while I'm there so I can lengthen my time there
4. Interviewing for the study abroad with the program director and professor and then being told that I can pretty much count on going
5. Being told that my tuition benefit through BYU will help pay for part of the $3,000 (I'm talking about maybe $1,000!) 

Is all this adding up to be an amazing trip or what?! I can't believe it. It feels like this is being handed to me on a silver platter . . . as if I am meant to go. I don't think I could have been able to pull this off if I were in any other postion in human resources at BYU. My job is so internet-based and so independent contributor, in fact, that is one of the main arguments Tim, my director, used with my big boss, Forrest, to allow me to go. Is it way off base to think that maybe I declined the great-position-swap Forrest asked me to participate in last March in order to allow me to go on this trip to China?! I thought I declined because I might be moving next year and I suppose I still could, but maybe not now that this trip is taking place. I just sent my commitment email to Catherine. So I'm going! This is so surreal. 

All Gussied Up with Somewhere to Go!

Kendra invited me to join her for her work Christmas party Saturday night. She works for Ancestry.com and they know how to throw a party! The theme was 1940s (probably because the 1940 census came out this past year) and it was formal dress. I was so excited to dress up! I wore my new glittery heels with my black dress and dolled my hair up in curls to mimic 1940s hair as best as I could. This party had a sweet car from the era that Kendra and I took too many pictures with, they had a dinner and dessert buffet, and gambling for prize raffle tickets (where I learned to play poker).  They also had dancing, a comedian show, and a juggling act - which we didn't participate in. And they had rented the entire new Utah Valley Convention Center. It was crazy huge! And so fun. After that I was in the mood for something World War II and some more men in uniform so I watched the movie, Pearl Harbor, when I got home. Mmmmm. Check us out! Aren't we dishes? :)

Acting Reveals a Lot About Me

I had my work Christmas Luncheon this past Wednesday, and I was on the planning committee. My assignment was music and helping the emcees. The emcees were Greg, Marden, and Carl, who I now affectionately call the three stooges of HRS. They are hilarious and totally feed off of each other! That's the reason why they are the emcees. Our theme for the luncheon was a cowboy Christmas, and the emcees got this brilliant idea to film a black and white film with the four of us being the actors. The idea behind the film (and to make sense of the video below) is that we get the group to start singing "Here Comes Santa Claus" while we wait for Santa to come into the room, but Santa doesn't show up! So Greg and Marden (the two cowboy emcees) think something is wrong and head out to go look for Santa and that's when the video begins - of their adventures of saving Santa from the evil Black Bart.

Guess who is Black Bart? Yep. Me. I'm also Ms. Jesse Jane at the beginning. And let me tell you! I have a new respect for actors and actresses - or at least the ones that can do just about any role. The part where I have to swoon into Greg and Marden's arms? Yeah.... we took like four different takes of that because I couldn't do it! I make fun of swooners so there was no way I could do it myself. Ugh.  But as for being the evil villain? Piece of cake. It came so naturally to me..... wait.... yeah. That was the great reveal! I'm a natural villain! Oh dear.

Enjoy the video.

Mundane Monday: Old Posters from College

This weekend I did some spring cleaning and came across some posters that I used to hang up on the walls of my college apartments. I just wanted to memorialize these since I loved them in college and I've now tossed them.

An image of downtown Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics

Ansel Adams image of Denali National Park

Every girl should have this image in her apartment.

A Roommate & China

I'm getting a roommate. I know. You're shocked. I've held for several years now that having my own place was a step foward in progression for me and that getting a roommate (other than family) would be a step back in progression. Well.... this feels good - like I need to be doing it .... like it is a tender mercy from the Lord that I didn't ask for, telling me to beef up my savings faster than I could have otherwise ... as if something is coming that I need savings for. Initially, when I heard the voicemail from Sister Hooper from my ward wondering if I was interested in getting a roommate, I shut down the idea. But I started thinking about it and how helpful it would be to my savings. So I thought I'd at least get the details before I shut down the idea entirely. When I found out that she was older (38) and had very few belongings because she is from Taiwan and that Sister Hooper said she was very nice and a sweet girl, I thought I'd meet the girl and see how I feel. Thursday night she came over to see my place and meet me. Her name is Jo Kung. She is very sweet and I felt good about it! She is chattier than I expected, but she seems very sweet and on top of things. So I invited her to move in! She moves in tomorrow and Tuesday. And one other reason why I like this idea - is because I'm doing her a service. She's been living in a terrible situation with a roommate who has been having her boyfriend sleep over. I guess I'm a sucker for helping people out.

And then China. Well. I received an email from my master's program director inviting us students to go to China with her and one of our professors next summer. It would be a mini summer study abroad since we'd be going to a Chinese university, living on it's campus, and attending a class there taught by our professor. The whole trip would be six weeks and they would do a bunch of cool side trips on the weekends to Beijing, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, Shanghai, the terracotta army, Hong Kong, and other places. Guess how little this trip would cost me? $3,000. That price includes airfare, lodging, tuition, side trips, and most meals. I'm skeptical because that seems too good to be true! Flights alone cost nearly that much. I'm going to grill them with questions at their information session this week. Then I'll have to figure out some way to make it work with work, like maybe they'll let me work from China, or else I'll have to go for only three or four weeks since I won't be able to save enough vacation days for the full six weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Mundane Monday: My HRD Job

A few years back, I did a post on my current job at that time . . . and now that I've changed jobs . . . three years ago this month, I think it's high time I document this job too! I still work for Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I also still work in Human Resource Services, but now I work in the Human Resource Development (HRD) office that falls under the scope of Human Resource Services (HRS). My office's focus is to develop employees through professional development workshops, online training, and even our employee wellness program. 

My Co-Workers

We have three full-time employees: my director, Tim Black; my coworker that oversees the instructor-led trainings and workshops, Collette Blackwelder (who actually just came to HRD in March as part of the great musical jobs shake up that moved  Greg Danklef out); and then I oversee the online training. We also have one part-time non-student employee: Marie Harris who acts as our Administrative Assistant and also as the Wellness Program Coordinator. Then we have ten part-time student employees: three wellness coordinators, two web-masters, three graphic designers, and one editor. I supervise the graphic designers and the editor. 

My Responsibilities

As the Online Training Consultant . . . I do a bunch of random stuff. There are a few things that I do that are routine, but mostly it's kind of random. I'm the functional system administrator for our learning management system that houses the online trainings and handles all the registrations for our training workshops. I troubleshoot all the online trainings that have technical difficulties. I create opportunities for the online training developers around campus to collaborate. I develop a few online trainings myself - currently I'm working on what I call the Student Professional Series that will have courses on customer service, professionalism, working with the generations, communication, etc. Then I have fun random projects that I get from my vice president, Brian Evans. I have to add here that it is interesting working in a job that is so particularly interesting to my vice president. He has me send him monthly reports of all the online trainings we have available - by name - not just the statistics . . . he wants to know the detail. Anyway, back to the project: I have the opportunity to develop the university's first training certification. It is based on one of our values: Innovation. The certification process will consist of three online trainings (basically covering how to innovate) and a capstone application project where the employee will have to actually implement an innovative idea. We're going to pilot the certification idea with Innovation and see how it goes. If it is well-received, then we'll develop certifications for each of our other values: competency, respect for sacred resources, integrity, teamwork, accountability, respect for all persons, etc. Student Auxiliary Services and Physical Facilities are my biggest training developers with most of their trainings focusing on safety topics. Financial Services, Risk Management & Safety, and the College of Life Sciences are also big users. We have over 400 trainings in use with 4,000 users taking trainings during our peak months and about 1,500 users taking trainings during our low months. What else . . . I think that covers the big things. 

How I Came into this Job

Previously, I was one of the Area HR Consultants (I so loved that job). But during the hiring freeze, in November 2009, the previous Online Training Consultant left for another job and of course, because of the hiring freeze, we couldn't replace her. But we couldn't let the position remain vacant since online training seemed to be one of our vice president's pet projects. So my assistant vice president, Forrest Flake, talked with his directors to figure out who they could move into the position. Apparently, I was the one deemed tech-savvy enough and design-savvy enough to be able to transition the best. Holy moly. It took me a year to get up to speed. I was calling the people that I was supposed to be consulting to learn how to do my job because my predecessor did not give me any helpful training. It was a rough adjustment - not only to learn all the technical aspects of this job, but to also go from a very social and central position to one of complete, utterly complete, autonomy and individual contributor. At the time I moved over, HRD did not have a director since the previous one left during the hiring freeze. So Greg, Marie, and I were on our own - although we did have Forrest's oversight, albeit very removed oversight. The hiring freeze didn't lift until January 2011, and by that time we were six months away from an even more previous director, Matt Smith, returning from being a mission president so Forrest decided to keep the job open for him to return to in August of 2011. Matt passed away this summer - just one year after being released from being a mission president. 

My Pride and Joy

Just in the last two weeks I received my pride and joy at work: my MacBook Pro. It's been like Christmas at work because just a few days before getting my MacBook Pro, I also got an iPad. Online training development is tough on a computer - the authoring tool we use to develop our trainings (Adobe Captivate) is very memory-hungry and my old PC laptop was not cutting it. It would take 5 minutes just to open the program and then sometimes it would take several minutes just to move about my training as I worked on it. And don't make me talk about how it wouldn't publish my training. Ugh. That was super annoying. But with my new and beautiful MacBook Pro . . .  sigh . . . it is so blissfully fast . . . and beautiful. I didn't realize how bad my PC was until I got my baby. I'm truly the fair-haired child to have this set up since everyone else in HRS have PCs even though some have requested Macs but didn't have the business case for it like I do. The iPad has been indispensable as well since I'm in the midst of testing HTML5 published trainings to see if they'll work from our learning management system on an iPad. Currently, they do not and it is quite frustrating. 

Here is my office in the Jesse Knight Building

And here is my baby - my MacBook Pro

Thanksgiving in Review

We had a treat this year for Thanksgiving - Jill and Mike and their family came to Logan this year!! It's normal for my mom and me to go to Logan to Teri's house for Thanksgiving, but to have the Hansen's there too was so much fun. Two of Teri and Kelly's kids were there as well, of course: Jeremy and his family, and Nick and his wife. Thanksgiving day was mostly the normal fare: cinnamon pull-a-parts for breakfast, snacks galore for lunch, and then the traditional dinner on Grandma Bertha's old china. But one thing that was different, beside the attendance of the Hansens, was warm enough weather to go for a bike ride! So Spencer, Parker, Kelly, and I went for a little mountain bike ride up Green Canyon. (Teri, Kelly, and I also got a ride in on Friday.) It's wonderful to be able to burn a little bit of the calories off that I consume over the entire weekend.

Kelly & Spencer

Me & Parker

Friday night, Teri, Kelly, and I took my mom to get a new cell phone. Her cell phone was too many years old, losing its ability to keep a charge, and she couldn't hear very well while on it anyway. After two hours, we came home with a new one for her and with her nerves in tact, mostly. The excellent thing is that she can hear much better on it than her old phone! And we've taught her how to text message and now she's on fire! She's been texting a bunch.

On the last day of our festivities, Saturday, we went to Salt Lake City to see the new  City Creek Mall, to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights, and to the old ZCMI building to see the Christmas candy display windows in the new Macy's. Everything was so beautiful and amazing.

Christmas candy display: Santa! 

Christmas candy display: a beehive with a trimmed tree and fireplace inside. See the bees with the Santa hats on?

Christmas candy display: The Nutcracker and the King of Mice (on the opposite side - not pictured)

Snow is Even More Glorious....

When you have a Subaru Outback! I woke up to this on Saturday, November 10:

I was so excited to go drive my Subaru through it to my boot camp class. My Ruby Subaru did not disappoint. It was awesome in the snow! Then on Tuesday, when I had to meet up with my carpool to go to class, there weren't a whole lot of parking options but there was one spot that had a snow pile from the plows .... I hesitated for a minute, but then remembered that I had a Subaru so I pulled in. Getting myself in and out of the car was trickier than getting Ruby in and out of that snow drift. Why did I purposely park in a snow drift? Because I can. :)

Mundane Monday: Today's Favorite Song

I'm currently obsessed with this song: "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz. Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic to like such lovey-dovey songs while single, or maybe .... I'm not giving up hope that I'll be able to share this song with a husband someday, maybe I'm not giving up hope on other loved ones, or maybe I'm not giving up hope on people in general.... maybe all of the above and some that I haven't thought of yet. I just like the thought of not giving up...

Breaking the Surface

I feel like today was the first time in several weeks that I finally took a full, lung-filling breath of fresh air. I feel like I've been under water for a while. One of my classes has been nuts with lame busy work, and I feel like it's been a waste of my time since I've learned nothing. I've been traveling quite a bit, which is great but also exhausting when combined with everything else. I was up until 3:00 am one night this week getting a group paper edited and ready to turn in for my awesome ethics class. I've loved my ethics class except that it has come at a tough time and created the perfect storm: I've had a disappointing situation with a loved one that I've probably over-analyzed because of my ethics class and the notion of forgiving and yet protecting myself. And then add onto that an entirely messed up routine because of everything that has been happening. So today I finally broke the surface and filled my lungs. Today I slept in - in my own bed! - did a little laundry, did some homework, had my car's oil changed, put away my Halloween decorations and put out my Thanksgiving decorations, went for a road ride with Kendra, had an Austrian-themed dinner with some friends to celebrate last week's Austria National Day, and then watched a movie. All of that has been so .... wonderful! So routine. So normal. So me. So just what the doctor ordered.  I'll be putting up some overdue blog posts and back dating them so look for them!

Coin Quilt Finished

One major perk of road trips when you don't have to drive: you get to finish hand-stitching the binding of a quilt, which is the last step before completing it.

Quickie Trip to Boise

This past weekend, my niece (Jen) and nephew (Spencer) and I took a quickie trip to Boise to go to the Boise Temple Open House. They recently renovated it and so it's having an open house before the church rededicates it on November 18. The weekend ended up being a very busy weekend since Jill and Mike decided this would be a good time for Spencer to receive his endowments in the temple. So Jen, Spence, and I drove up to Twin Falls Friday afternoon where we met Jill, Mike, Mom, and Wayne and Marsha. We all went to dinner at Sizzler beforehand and then Jen left to finish the drive to Boise when we went to the temple. It was a wonderful experience, of course, to be there with Spencer and everyone else.

Then on Saturday, I did some homework in the morning while Mom helped out at a funeral for one of her ward members. Then we met up with Jill and Mike and family to go to the Boise Temple open house. The open house was wonderful and beautiful. Mom and I were dressed in blue jeans while Jill and Mike and family were in Sunday best! We laughed that Mom and I would be their "investigators". Ha ha! While there, I ran into Barbara Dopp who was the wife of a bishop of mine and my seminary teacher from high school. It was so fun to see her and catch up. And then I ran into Sandy Embry, an old young women's leader of mine! She was so darling - hugging me and asking me what I've been up to. She also offered to set me up with some guy she knows that is moving to Utah. She got my phone number and email address ... so we'll see if anything comes of it.

I went to Mom's ward on Sunday, and her ward had a primary program in Sacrament! I so loved it. Afterward we met up with Jill and Mike and family again because Parker was receiving his Patriarchal Blessing and invited us to come along. It was such a great weekend.

First Snowfall in the Valley!

Outside my house. 

Looking out my office window. 

Houston, You've Got My Sister

This past summer, my sister, Joni, and her family moved to Houston and I promptly bought my plane ticket to come visit them this month. I flew in on Thursday night and they took me to their favorite restaurant for dinner, which was very yummy.  When they picked me up at the airport, Ethan was all decked out in his cowboy boots and plaid western shirt, which is apparently his normal attire now! He offered to carry my backpack like a true gentleman, but I had to laugh when I saw that he was carrying it in his hand by the handle and not slung over his shoulder. That's when Joni laughed and informed me that my backpack was too girly for him to carry normally. Ha ha! Ethan has definitely become a man's man or maybe more aptly a firearm's man as you will see below.

Friday morning, Joni and I sat around and talked for hours: catching up, decompressing, and all that good sisterly conversation stuff. Then we jumped up and went shopping. She was so excited to help me pick out and buy my outfit for the New Year's Eve Gala that I'm going to this year. We found a turquoisey lace shirt with sequins on it, a matching necklace, and these awesome glittery heels. You'll have to wait until New Year's Eve to see my full outfit.

Then that night Adam and Ethan took Joni and I to the gun range in Katy - where they used to live 15 years ago! We bought the most hideous zombie and hogzilla targets, and Joni showed us how it was done with the 357 revolver by hitting the zombie in the head repeatedly. The range worker told Adam he had better watch his back with her in the house! :) I shot the 357 too, as well as the 9 mm, but only a couple of times. I've decided I'm content to let the menfolk shoot the big, loud, kicking guns. Give me a field, some clay pigeons, and a 22 and I'll play along a little longer. But it was fun to see Adam and Ethan having such a ball.

Saturday, we all packed up and went to the Natural Bridge Caverns near San Antonio and toured them. They were really cool! And it was really hot - although not as hot as it could be for sure. The weather was supposedly pretty decent while I was there: 80s and humid. But it was hot to me! Then after that, Ethan and I went on the zip line outside of the caverns. We wrapped up the day by going to Cabela's. The guys checked out the guns and cross-bows while Joni and I roamed around the home decor, clothes, and candy. :)

Sunday was church, a nap, a video tour of their house, family home evening brought to you by me, and a very adventurous trip to the wildlife reserve. We waited until dusk to go check out the reserve thinking we might see animals - and we did! As soon as we crossed the bridge, we saw an armadillo cross the sidewalk and start digging into the ground. Ethan, and even Joni, took off running to get a closer look at it before it disappeared into the bushes. So I took off running too all while trying to follow Adam's mandate of keeping the flashlight on it so it will be paralyzed by the light. We got up within a few feet of it and just as I was about to take its picture, it jumped into the bushes. :( It was so cool and cute! Then we continued our walk for a while without flashlights and all the while it was getting creepier by the minute because I had visions of hogzilla (a wild hog as big as one ton) chasing after me or me stepping on a fire ant hill since we were on a dirt-packed path by then. We finally turned around and when we did, we think we saw a coyote on the path ahead of us, but we weren't sure since we only saw its eyes in the reflection of the flashlight.

On Monday, Joni and I went to Galveston and did a little shopping and went to the beach. Joni found the cutest little tea towels that had "Sisters make the best friends" stitched on them. She got one for all of us sisters since, truly, all of us are best friends. Then the beach was awesome! We basically had it all to ourselves since there was only one other family on it. The air and water temperatures were perfect! Not too hot and not at all cold. I never got goose bumps - even when wet and out of the water. I tried out Ethan's skim board - unsuccessfully. And Joni and I body-surfed or boogie boarded in the waves. It was such a pleasure to be there and just enjoy each other's company and not have to worry about anyone else being there and feeling self-conscious of what we look like in our swimsuits. Then that night was another adventure: Joni cooked up some of their alligator for me and the guys for dinner!! It was quite delicious! She cooked it up like chicken nuggets.

Overall, the weekend was lovely. I love visiting Joni and Adam!!

Time to Go Private

I've kept this blog open for ease of access, however, I think it is time to go private .... as in require my readers to enter a password in order to read my blog. The purpose of my blog is to chronicle my life .... kind of like a journal or personal history - for my friends and family and for my future posterity. I struggle to do that and keep my anonymity in order to ensure my safety. And apparently I have some readers from Russia and I don't know who they are. So, I've decided to go private on October 24.

Here is the good news: For those of you that follow my blog and I know you, please leave a comment, email me, or send me a Facebook message. Be sure to leave your email address so I can add you to my list of readers. For those few of you that receive my blog posts via email, you don't need to do anything - you'll continue to receive my blog posts via email.

Cheers!

A New Kitchen Faucet

It's kind of funny to me that the builders that built my condo gave it so many upgrades (granite countertops, knotty Alder cupboards, tile floors, 9-foot ceilings, brushed-nickel hardware) but then put in the cheapest chrome faucets they could find. Good grief. My kitchen faucet has been leaking a little and to shut it off you had to put the handle in just exactly the right spot. So I enlisted Mom's help while she was in town to pick out a new one and I installed it this weekend! I think I really like it. It just feels a little big for my shallow sink and in comparison to my old one, but I think I'll get used to it. It was a bit of an adventure to install it since I have a water filter system at my kitchen sink.... I still have to do a little bit more work to get my water filter system working again, but at least I have a working faucet. And... while removing my old one, I kind of destroyed it because of corroded nuts and screws and it being very cheap - so I was committed to installing my new one. There was no turning back! What do you think?

The old faucet

The new faucet close up

The new faucet, further away

Two More Nephews Married

These last two weekends have been filled with family, weddings, receptions, food, and traveling. They've been wonderful! First was Nick and Sierrah's dinner and s'mores bar open house in Teri's backyard in Logan. It was so fun. Spencer and I came up early to go mountain biking up Green Canyon. He was a riot: he was full on squeaking like a deacon because he was having so much fun. We had a blast. Robyn, Jill and Mike and their kids, Mom, and I went to the Willow Park zoo to pass the time until the dinner and to keep out of Teri's hair until she was ready. But we had too much fun because we ended up being a bit late for the dinner! Mom didn't have the primp time she needed and she swears it shows in the pictures - of how bad her hair looks. But honestly, I can't tell the difference when she's having a "bad hair day".

The next morning was the Brigham City Temple dedication that Mom, Jill and Mike and their kids, and I attended. It was wonderful. And while there, I got another strong impression that I need to get Great-Grandma Brooks and her husband, Johnny Butler, sealed and soon!  I was balling terribly as I told Jill about it.

Then came Adam and Whitney's marriage in the Salt Lake Temple and a reception afterwards in Lindon. Robyn, Mom, and I went to dinner at Em's in Salt Lake City behind the conference center and it was quite yummy! And a fun atmosphere. We did that while Jill and Mike were still driving down from Idaho and while Joni and Adam were at dinner with the bride's family. But after that was a grand reunion and a late night of talking and laughing. But the morning came quickly and we had to be at the temple early for Adam and Whitney's sealing ceremony. After the ceremony, we waited outside on the temple grounds for Adam and Whitney to come out. We were laughing how we were Team Coral (since that was one of the colors) and that Team Purple, from another wedding party, had crowded in front of us - but rightfully so. Their married couple came up first.

Then we all drove down to Lindon for the reception that followed. They had a nice lunch, but I think the bacon-wrapped steak pieces were my undoing because I started feeling gross pretty quick after the reception and ended up getting really sick that night and the next day. Joni even took a picture of me feeling gross in my bed the next morning! Mom had to drive my car and the both of us back to Springville after everyone had left. That's how sick I was. Yuck. But the reception was lovely. We were all pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Uncle Earl and Aunt Sterla! It was such a pleasure to see them and visit with them for the few minutes they were there.

Afterwards, all of us partied after the reception by going to Snowbird's Oktoberfest. Most of us rode up the tram to the top of Hidden Peak, took pictures, and watched the Hansen boys run all over the mountain. It was a shame we didn't get a sisters picture when all of us were together!

Quintessential Wasatch Crest

Kendra and I took today off of work and rode the quintessential Wasatch Crest trail in Salt Lake City. We took the shuttle to the top of Guardsman Pass so we could do the 24ish mile ride one-way and mostly downhill. Max elevation was 9,880 feet and we descended all the way down to Wasatch Blvd in Salt Lake City - which is lower than 5,000 feet. The views were so beautiful. We took our time and took lots of photos. Afterward, we went into downtown to eat at the Chow Truck. Apparently it was Food Truck Festival today because there were several other food trucks lining the same street as the Chow Truck. I love my life. :)