A Wedding Trip to Utah — Steadily Mobbing

August 20: Liz and I got on an airplane in Columbus and got off of that same airplane in Utah (with no stops in between!) A quick trip to the Avis counter and we were on our way to Utah County. First stop? Saigon Cafe in Provo to meet up with our friend Elizabeth, Liz’s college bestie/brother-in-law’s sister. OK but why did we go to Utah? Because my nephew Blake was getting married! Who is nephew Blake? Well this old post would be a good place to start learning about him. (but he was a lot younger back then)

We went over to our hotel in Lehi for a bit and got ready for the big night-before-the-wedding Garden Party at Kristen and Cory’s. It was a lovely evening of food, speeches speeches speeches, and certain wedding-party members jumping into the pool.

Did some late-night walking in the gym to work off all the wedding party excitement after the wedding party. I don’t get many chances to take gym selfies.

August 21: Up and at em and taking a walk around our hotel’s neighborhood. I want to add that it was a pretty ok but always a bummer when the pool is closed for renovations and using our phones to open all the doors was a little convenient but not as convenient, you know, tapping a card on things. But I guess it was nice to never speak to a desk person?

Now here’s something … during the party the night before we learned we had misunderstood the wedding dress code, so we had to rush over to the nearest DI to find something new for Liz. 30 minutes later, she’s found the perfect outfit that everyone goes nuts about all afternoon. She’s got it. To celebrate we went and got Liz her first Swig.

At Kristen and Cory’s — everyone getting ready!

And then … off to the Timpanogos Temple for the sealing! I’ll just mush the before-wedding and after-wedding photos together here. Dad got to marry them and did an excellent job. And a quick job! They told him he had 8 minutes and we were in and out of there real quick. Family of rule followers.

After the wedding: An out of nowhere decision to go to Sonic so I could try their pickle cheeseburger and pickle slushy. And Liz had a corn dog! That pickle slushy, though … not for the faint of heart, even among pickle-likers. You gotta be a real pickle lover to enjoy it. To the point of perversion, perhaps. Oh! But the big thing about this Sonic visit is that Liz took these incredible photos of me, I look so dang cool in them! Coolest guy at the Sonic, that’s me.

And later that evening — the big reception at the Springville Art Museum. The invite had asked for black, formal attire but I tried to skate by with just semi-formal. No one got on my case about it. It was a great reception, lots of family and fun and while my tux was a hit, my vote for best dressed would be Uncle Duke … look at that shirt!

And after the party it’s the after party … at Don Joaquin’s!

August 22 — You’d think this post was going to be over since the wedding has now happened but NO! We still have two days of posts to go! Started Friday with a walk with Mom and Dad to the Jordan River.

And then we were like…what do we do what do we do? After a little time at Kristen and Cory’s (and a lunch at Cubby’s) we went down to Provo to get food for poor Tawna who was sick and then didn’t take any pictures with her and then we went up to Salt Lake for Spaghetti Factory with Doug and Amy — and you know Spaghetti Factory is always gonna hit! After that we met up with Carol and Jendar and Lauren and … uhh… Kim? But also no photos of that but apparently I did take a picture of the side of the bakery where we met them so there’s that.

August 23 — We felt like taking a nice walk in nature, so we asked Kristen for a suggestion. She suggested this hike from American Fork Canyon to a place where you can see the back of Timp. It was a beautiful hike! But also — challenging? A challenging, rewarding hike that left us feeling good. Can’t beat that!