October 2009 – Week 1.

The first week of October, we found ourselves flying off to good ole’ Utah. It was Aaron’s birthday on the 3rd of October, so we spent some time with Adam & Jessica and little Ephraim and then went to the Scera Shell Theatre in Provo, UT.

That’s right – I hung out in Provo but only because of this – we went to see a play called “Into the Woods”. It was a wonderful play and we totally enjoyed the first half of it, or most of the first half of it. Let me explain – this play has a melange of actors whose characters are all intertwined in some way to the plot – Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel & the Witch, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, and a strange heavily shrouded narrator/conscience person. Well, the play was going along famously, when suddenly, Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s tree trunk that also doubled as Little Red’s grandmother’s cottage, on one of its turns on the stage, went one way, while Little Red, who had jumped in a few moments ago, well, her leg went the other. We all heard this hysterical scream, followed by “I think I have broken it!!!”.

The script being as it was, I was impatient to know what was next. Then the fairy godmother comes flying down the trunk, and screams, “Dad! Dad”, at which a person in the audience does a flying leap onto the stage and also goes into the tree trunk. At this point, we have the wolf, grandmother, the fairy godmother, and her real father, and Little Red Riding Hood! I thought – wow this is some show!!! Aaron turns to me and says, I think she has really hurt herself – and me being optimistic and unbelieving say – Nah, it’s part of the act! How cool! Then the real father jumps out and says, someone please call a doctor!!! Call the doctor – are there any doctors in the house?” I still did not believe it was real – what can I say – I just wanted the show to go on 🙂

It turns out that Little Red really did something bad to her ankle in her enthusiastic leap into the tree trunk ( maybe she was excited to see her grandma again) that they did not know if she had sprained or broken her ankle. The show was stopped for about 25 minutes till this was all figured out. The narrator apologized and we all took a short break during which time the understudy was to take her place and we were back to the show. Boy, I am glad the understudy showed up that day! The director might have had to play the part! It was a wonderful play with an amazing cast who were very talented, and it had a great looking set, and it was written so perfectly well. Aaron and I totally enjoyed it but did not stay for the second half as it was a long day ahead of us the next day.

We then spent all day at Temple Square on Aaron’s birthday – listening to and enjoying the sweet spirit that General conference brings with it. Since Aaron had to go to priesthood session, I went to a photo shoot for a dear friend, Anderson Gonzalez whose work can be found at Gonzo Imaging on Facebook. It was long overdue and we did an ethnic photo shoot with me being in my Indian outfit. He does great work and we enjoyed it!

The highlight of going to Conference that day, besides the conference itself, was running into my very first roommate – Sarah Fox/Brand!!! I have thought about her often and she was there with her husband Mike, both of whom I had known very well and had grown close to. I was thrilled to see her and she looked the same to me – so beautiful and so fun! We made plans to meet up later that evening after my photo shoot and I was very excited. So the photo shoot went great and Anderson was very pleased with the photos. I then hurried back, so I could get to see Sarah and Mike and their babies. Well, needless to say, it was so awesome to catch up with Sarah on 10 years of not seeing each other, and I got to hold her new baby boy – Matthew. I was so grateful for this time to be with friends. I loved spending time with Mike and Sarah! I hope they meet Aaron next time!

The next highlight of my day was this: Aaron and I were going to see another old friend of mine – my first friend in college here – Diana Endrek and Max Brown, her husband!! I had not seen her in about 10 years!!! I was so excited to see her and Max, whom I had also been very close to. Diana and I were like sisters. I picked up Aaron from the train station after his session and we made our way over to Diana’s. It was a joyous reunion of souls and to add to this, she has three adorable kids, who I fell in love with!!! It was a fun-filled and great day with friends and family and so much love. You can’t go wrong that way!!

In fact, I loved those kids so much, Aaron and I went back the next day to hang out with them and have family night with some of Max’s family and we had a blast! We love you guys!

On Sunday, we got to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma Taylor, Evan and Julie Taylor with Ben and Leigh Anne and have lunch between sessions. We are so very thankful for loving families around us who love and support us through everything.

It was a very fruitful weekend for us and we made the best of that weekend we were in Utah!