Our Trip to Utah July 20-22nd

We ended up driving to Utah straight through the night starting Friday the 20th at about 7pm. It gave Rodney time to get off work and pack our things into the van. The girls did really well considering we only stopped to gas up the car. Every gas stop we would go in to use the restroom. Otherwise we were in the car. It took us 25 hours straight from what I recall.

We arrived at my sisters house in West Jordan Saturday evening. We were the only ones home at the time because my sister was preforming with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for their Pioneer Day Concert. This year they had Katherine Jenkins (one of the top contenders on Dancing with the stars) perform alongside the choir. Desiree' said she was amazing. Everyone talked about how great the concert was. We unpacked our things and my family arrived to Desiree's house a couple hours after.

The next morning Rodney, Chuck (my brother in-law) and myself headed to SLC over to the weekly taping of Music and the Spoken Word. Every week the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a 30 minute live taping of songs along with a spiritual message. It was so cool being able to see that in person. Afterwards they had Katherine Jenkins (who performed with them for their Pioneer Day Concert) come up onstage and they performed "God be with you." The choir performs this song for all their guest performers. It was so touching to watch Katherine while they sang, she teared up. You can view the video below.

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Here is the whole choir and orchestra

fuzzy picture, but the arrow is pointed to my sister ;)

Rodney and I in the conference center

(This video is the choir performing God Be With You to Katherine Jenkins after their taping of Music and the Spoken Word.) 

Afterwards we drove to Bountiful Utah to attend church with my niece and nephews and their parents. The presiding authority over the meeting was Elder Henry B. Eyring (pictured below). He is the first counselor in the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is a pretty big deal. My sister and I shook his hand as he left.

When church was over we headed across the street to my niece and nephews house for dinner. It was so fun getting to hang out with everyone! My girls got along really well with the youngest girls there. They were so cute together.

Des and I 

Group Photo! Des and Chuck on far left, next is Charisse with her 3 kids (Ethan, David and Ambri), My mom Kristy and dad Marlow. Front Row: Rodney, Copper, Me, Brian Charisse's Ex husband, his daughter Iiley, Paisley, Quincy, Bentley and Melissa (Brian's wife) Brian and Melissa were so nice to welcome us into their lovely home. My girls had such a blast playing with all the kids.

The whole reason we got together that Sunday was because my dad was able to give my niece Ambri her Patriarchal blessing. For those of you reading this who are not LDS, our church website describes Patriarchal Blessings in the following way,

"Patriarchal blessings are given to worthy members of the Church by ordained patriarchs. Patriarchal blessings include a declaration of a person's lineage in the house of Israel and contain personal counsel from the Lord. As a person studies his or her patriarchal blessing and follows the counsel it contains, it will provide guidance, comfort, and protection."

My father is a Patriarch and was able perform this service for his first grandchild so far.

My niece Ambri with my dad (her grandpa)


All in all it was a great day and full of wonderful uplifting experiences.