On Friday evening, July 19th, Ryan and I met up with my parents for a date night in Salt Lake. My Mom had secured us tickets to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Temple Square Orchestra perform with special guests Nathan Pacheco and Lindsey Stirling. Ryan and I weren't sure what to expect, but I love watching any live show. There are no words to describe how much we loved the concert! Before it started, we were pleasantly surprised to watch President Monson be escorted into the room. Lindsey Stirling danced all over the stage while playing her "hip hop violin" pieces, and Nathan Pacheco has one of the best tenor voices we've ever heard. Ryan goes along with much of the "culture" I enjoy, but he was genuinely impressed with the performances. I absolutely love listening to the full orchestra play while the choir sings, because I'm not a fan of the organ that is usually played. At one point in the concert where Nathan Pacheco sang a beautiful song, Ryan turned to me and whispered, "That was pretty bada**." I whispered back, "I don't think you can say that when you're in the presence of the Prophet, but I have to agree!"
The next morning, we drove to my parent's house at lunch time to meet up with Kara's family, Scott's family and "Brangela." My Mom had a great assembly line going to pack lunches for the kids to take with them on our activities.
We all drove to "This is the Place Heritage Park" in Salt Lake City. It was a super hot day, but we had fun touring the pioneer buildings and catching up on each other's lives. I hadn't seen Ann or their kids for many years, so we had plenty to talk about. Brynlie enjoyed spending time with Sydney and Alexa while Lindsey and Lauryn immediately welcomed their cousin Cameron into their gigglefest. The three little girls even talked Kara into buying them all matching necklaces so they can always remember each other!
Brandon and his girlfriend, Angela. Also known as "Brangela" by the coolest family members (namely, me).
My favorite brother and the females who rule his world.
One of my favorite big sisters with most of her brood (minus Ashlyn who had to stay in Idaho to work).
My ragtag bunch of kids. Ryan had to do some big presentations at PMI this day, so he didn't meet up with us until later.
We rode this train to a different part of the park where the kids rode horses, visited an old schoolhouse, ate ice cream, made Indian necklaces, watched an Indian perform a dance with 15 hula-hoops, toured more buildings, and dug for gold in the gold mine.
We nicknamed these girls "Triple Trouble." All of these girls have a lot of spunk! They could do some serious damage if they lived near each other!
After a fun but HOT 100 degree day, we cooled off in the cars while driving to Cafe Rio. Oh my, how I love that restaurant. I didn't quite understand the fascination with it when I lived in Utah (where there are a lot of good Mexican restaurants) but now that I live in the Midwest, it tasted like a little piece of heaven. I may have eaten here several times during our vacation! Ryan met up with us to devour the deliciousness.
Then we all went to Scott and Ann's hotel to swim in the pool. The girls were super excited about their sleepover together in the hotel this night. After they had worn themselves out in the pool, Ann gave them the room key and said she would be up soon to help them prepare for bed. When she walked up the stairs 10 minutes later, she could clearly hear all the girls yelling and giggling from way down the hallway. Then she noticed that some of the girls had begun stripping off clothing along the way to the room, because she found a trail of wet items. As she opened the room door, she saw Lindsey and Cameron on the toilet. Together. Pooping. The cousins that poop together . . . .
We were up early the next morning to attend The Music and the Spoken Word at the Conference Center. We had heard that Nathan Pacheco and Lindsey Stirling would be there again, and we wanted our children to hear the beautiful music and feel the Spirit in the room. I had been texting the Napiers, who also decided to attend the broadcast. When the broadcast ended, I ran into an old boyfriend who I happened to be dating the same time as Ryan. Let's just say Ryan does not have kind feelings toward him. After some small talk, I quickly got out of the situation by claiming that the Napiers needed us. We met up with them for a few minutes before dodging any more awkward moments on our way out of the building.
My Mom had prepared another picnic lunch, so we went to a park with Scott's family to enjoy a bit more time together before we needed to head out of town. I'm grateful that we were able to see them for a couple short days while we were all in town. It was nice to catch up while our kids got reacquainted. I love watching my kids play with their cousins.
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