Saturday Dec. 18th

Saturday was our big event. I was so excited about this one. 

It was all made possible by Paul's older sister J. and our brother in law D. While we were in St. George for Thanksgiving they told us they had extra tickets to the Christmas concert put on my the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with guest performer David Archuleta. The kids had wanted to go but we weren't selected by the ticket lottery. Of course we accepted the extra tickets and kept it a secret for weeks. 

Saturday morning we told the kids they were going to go to Salt Lake City for the night and that we got to go to the concert. They didn't give us the reaction we had hoped for. I think they were a little confused. As we packed their things and they asked questions they started to come around. We were out of the house and heading north after lunch. 

We checked into our hotel and immediately hit the pool. I just sat and watched, I didn't want to get my hair wet before the concert. They swam for an hour and then we got cleaned up and went to dinner. We went to Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill. It's like a Mongolian BBQ. We totally over ate and over stuffed our bowl. I thought I might be sick I ate so much and really, I didn't eat that much. I don't know what happened.

After dinner we went back to our room and put on our warmest church clothes. 

We got to the conference center right as the doors were opening. It was insanely crowded. The lines were wrapped all around everywhere. 

We finally got to the door and I was told that I couldn't bring in my camera because it was too big. I was so upset. I had to be escorted by security the bag check area. I'm still upset about it. It didn't say on the tickets that DSLR's weren't allowed, it said NO cameras but everyone had them and USED them but big cameras were a problem. When I asked what they thought I would do with it they couldn't answer. It was such a hassle getting it checked and finding the family again. 

Once I found the kids I took pictures with my phone. Aren't they wonderful? Not. 

The concert was amazing. The choir sang so beautifully. Man I wish I could sing. David Archuleta has a wonderful voice and was very sweet. The orchestra blew my mind. I think listening to them was my favorite thing. I told the kids it sounds like movie music but they were right there in front of us. There were dancers in a few numbers too that were fun to watch. Everything was great. I hope we can go again.

After the concert we met up with the cousins, M & M. We then walked across the street to Temple Square to see the lights. I didn't have a tri-pod so I was pretty limited with what I could do.

We got some hot chocolate, cider and cookies from a street vendor and started walking back toward the hotels with D, J, M & M. We got to Abravanel Hall where it was time to part ways. We stepped inside to the the glass blown Olympic Tower. It was sooo cool. We visited a while longer and them went our separate ways. 

It was getting late so we settled in for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and slowly got things gathered up and headed home. It was a fun little getaway. I am so glad we got to do it.