Back in May one of my best friends and old roommates got married in Utah.  Rachel and I decided to fly in a week early and go down to Zion National Park for a few days.  We drove straight down to Cedar City after we flew in, and the next morning just happened to be my cousin’s daughter’s baptism, which was the most perfect timing ever.  We were able to go to the baptism before going to the Cedar City temple and then driving down to the St. George temple in the afternoon.  We of course got Cafe Rio for lunch just as soon as we could.  I really love St. George, I think it is a beautiful city, but it gets sooo hot there, I really have a hard time with that.  Also for some reason Utah seems to be the only place that sells really good Frozen Custard, so we had to get some after the temple, with that heat.  Actually the heat was pretty intense for me most of the time we were in Utah, and it was just May… that is actually one of the reasons I moved to Washington.  I just don’t do heat.  I may have mentioned that a couple times before… or more like 20…

We spent a few days in Zion doing the hikes.  It is probably my favorite Park in Utah, I love all the red rock canyons with the river runneing through it bringing so much beautiful green vegetation.  So amazing.  We drove back up to Provo on Wednesday morning and visited BYU where we both graduated from then because it has been a while since we had been back we drove around our old neighborhood, church, high school and stuff before driving up Provo Canyon to Squaw Peak and staying up there to watch the sunset.  We went back to Provo Thursday morning and went to the Provo City Center Temple, which was so great and one of my favorite temples that I have ever visited, it is so beautiful.  Then we spent the rest of day with the bride, Joella.  We helped her with some wedding stuff, got lunch and pedicures and then she had an event with her future in-laws so we met up with an old friend for dinner before sleeping at Joella’s and continuing to help her with wedding stuff all night.  We got up early in the morning and went to the Provo library where the reception was and helped set up.  Then in the afternoon we went to the Payson temple before heading back over for the reception that night.

The wedding was on Friday, there was a family and friends breakfast and her siblings gave the greatest gift/program where they all picked a star (she loves stars) that represented their relationship with Joella and gave her a gift that went with the “star”.  It was so creative, I loved it.  We had some time before the sealing at the Oquirrah temple so Rachel and I went over to the little pond close by and hung out for a bit.  The sealing was so good, she was soooo happy! It was great!  I am so happy for her!  After all wedding festivities ended we went back up to Salt Lake and toured the capitol building.  Sunday we hiked Ensign Peak, visited the Salt Lake Library and went to Liberty park where we were just leaving when it started to rain.  And then it was a big storm.  Which was amazing!  I love Utah storms so much!  My brother made a bunch of smoked meats for dinner and we had a big pot luck with whatever extended family could make it, which was so much fun and delicious.