Monday marked my first full day of Utah and to welcome me, there was loads of snow. Not just a little snow, like I left in Virginia. Loads. It was snowing when my friend’s kids went off to school. We seriously questioned our plans for the day.

Finally we deemed it safe to travel, but it was definitely an adventure!

The first thing on the busy schedule was to take my friend’s son to the doctor’s office for a pre-mission appointment. Like the good loving people we are, we left him to deal with the doctor on his own. Welcome to adulthood! HA!

We went over to the Bountiful Temple grounds nearby. Why? Because it was close and I like to take pictures! The problem? It was Monday! What on EARTH were we thinking? Hello? Monday is set aside by the LDS Church for families. No church activities. Which means? Yup… the Temples are locked up tight.

But that did not deter us! Yes, there’s a large fence around the grounds and it was as closed as closed could be… but we were in Utah. Yay for mountains, right? Well thank goodness for the mountains, we got some great angles by driving around the windy mountain roads!

I don’t know what my deal is, but I seem to travel and then end up with needing to take creative Temple angles. On the bright note, that makes for interesting photos!

After we got back from our travels, I did borrow my friend’s car and went back looking for more shots and managed to get this one as well:

After we checked out the Temple, being sorely disappointed about the closed gates, we tried to find something for me at a local music shop. You see, my husband wants a particular book of guitar music and we can’t find it out here in VA. I thought, well, it’s worth trying out west. After all, what’s the point of going to Mormon-land if you can get Mormon-type-stuff right? Absolutely! And guess what? THEY HAD IT! AWESOME! From now on, I’m just gonna email my poor Utah friend and be like, “Could you go see…” Hehehe. I’m bad. I know!

We picked up my friend’s son again and then raced to get him back to BYU in Provo before his scheduled class. The snow was still falling in Provo and so we had a bit of a white out situation going on. It was crazy bad. Like apparently there are mountains there… guess what? We couldn’t see them AT ALL! Crazy!

We walked around the BYU campus and I managed to find a little something for my kids and a friend back home. Not telling though because hello… that would totally spoil the Christmas fun! Right? Yeah! So you can be left in suspense. Sorry!

So wanna hear my shame? This former dancer, AKA humungo clutz girl, totally fell flat on my back like some sort of cartoon character in the parking lot. Nice, right? Go me! I so rock. This is why you should totally have me out taking pictures. Because I just randomly fall down and will bring much laughter to everyone.

Before leaving Provo, we decided to just try to go see the Provo Temple. I mean, how many times am I going to end up at Provo? In the snow? Right. Besides, we found ways to get photos before. So we could do the same, right? Yeah. Except the snow was crazy and we couldn’t hardly see anything. However, we lucked out. They were plowing the parking lot so I quickly got out and snapped some pictures in the freezing cold with snow-wet pants.

There’s a mountain RIGHT behind that Temple. Squint and look by the flag. You can get a hint of it. I know, crazy white out! Is it even crazier that I thought the white out effect was neat? Yeah, I’m weird. I’m blaming the fact it was around 0 degrees and a blizzard or whatever and I was in wet pants.

The last picture of the day was also at the Provo Temple. There was this statue… I loved it!

Back through the snow, waving at the MTC, we headed north once more. My friend had some piano students coming and then we made popcorn, old school style! I took some photos for her website and she posted about popcorn. Pretty awesome!

That was my first full day in Utah! Fun, right? And for those wondering? Yes, I am such a dork that I kept my eyes peeled and nearly squealed with delight when I saw the Salt Lake Temple! Yay, Temple!

–Have Camera, Will Travel (To UTAH!)
–Lady O