I love the temple!

I received my endowments on the 9th in the Bountiful temple. What a beautiful experience! I really had no idea what to expect and temple prep didn't really prep me for what was going to happen. Everyone I talked to about it always told me the same thing. "Don't think to much about it. Don't let it overwhelm you. Just relax and feel the spirit." I must've subconciously taken their advice to heart though because I felt really relaxed and my mind was clear. I definitely felt the spirit as well but that's a given. I also learned A LOT but know that I have so much more to learn through-out my life about God's plan for us.

It was so nice to have my best friend, Natalie, there with me as my escort and as soon as we walked in, the temple workers were there waiting for me and they all seemed to know my name and were so happy to be with me that day. I loved it!

After the session, my friend, Heather and her mom took some pictures of me and Bryant in our whites outside with the temple in the background then we went back in to the atrium and took a few more pictures with all of us. I'm really glad that they were there for me and willing to take pictures so I could always remember that day. I can't wait to do another session. Bryant and I are planning on doing one on our honeymoon in one of the temples in Hawaii :).

Ringing in the new year

For New Years Eve, my sister, Bryant and I went to 3ve in downtown Salt Lake for the night. They had all kinds of things to do all day long but we got there about 6-ish and just in time for the fire dancers! I was totallly expecting something different when I heard there was going to be fire dancers there, like polynesian dancers or something... but these guys were pretty good! They seemed to have more of an martial arts feel to their dance. There was also spray paint booths set up near the fire dancers. I've noticed that spray painting has become a big thing in Utah lately. And for good reason! I don't think I could ever be creative with spray paint and a blank wall like these guys. Bryant would be good at it though...

I think my favorite part about the night was the ice skating. I've always wanted to go ice skating outside! It wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be but it ended up getting packed through-out the night. We only skated for about 20 minutes when they opened the ski/snowboard ramp so we stopped to watch some people go down the rails and attempt to do tricks. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't very impressed. Maybe with the first 10 people but it got really repetative and boring. They all did the same thing but they also didn't have enough room to do anything really cool. We watched them for a while then walked around looking for something to do. We tried to get to a laser show at the Clark Planetarium but they were all sold out. We even got there about 40 minutes early! But we ended up playing around in there. I feel like such a kid when I go in there. I love it!

After the planetarium, we went to a free comedy improv show at the Broadway Theatre. Meh. They were slightly funny. I've been to some awesome improv shows so they had a lot to live up to but, given more time, I think they could have put on a decent show. After the show, we walked around some more and took some pictures then ended up listening to a band called Voodoo Orchestra for the rest of the night. I LOVED THESE GUYS! They finished playing about just in time for us to have 7 seconds left to countdown to 2010. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Everyone kissed then they shot off the fireworks :). It was a happy day.

I fell asleep around 3:30am and woke up around 7:30 because I couldn't sleep for some dumb reason. Bryant ended up coming over around 10-ish so we could go snow shoeing up at Alta. It was really fun although I am soooo out of shape! We didn't make it very far because we got distracted by the 2 feet of powder next to the trail. We climbed up some huge boulders and did flips off them into the powder. Bryant even got buried by the snow one of the times! It was a lot of fun but it started to snow and we knew it would start getting dark around 5 or 6 so we headed back down to the car and spent the rest of the day with his family :). It was a perfect start to the new year. ACTIVE! Hopefully that means I'll have a physically active year. :)