This week was a lot of fun. I missed my family, but I had a good time nonetheless and I wasn't near as homesick as I generally am during Thanksgiving and everyone else is off with their families and I'm, well, not. I had planned to get some homework done this week, haha yeah no. That so didn't happen, I took a quiz but that was about it.
Anyways I went to Utah with Allie and stayed at her Aunt and Uncle's house. On the way there we stayed the night in Hyrum in a church that has been turned into a church- which was super neat. The six of us (we traveled in a group of 6) stayed the night in the basement, and we were so lucky they had a ton of blankets to offer us! The heater for that area had gone out that afternoon, and for those of you who don't know- daytime in Idaho or Utah right now is pretty cold, but nighttime is awful! Especially since moving around keeps you warmer. We stayed in the basement at the house we stayed at the rest of the week, but we had a fire and a space heater which kept it fairly warm down there.
So we left Tuesday night and got to our destination Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday we went out for lunch with Allie's aunt, uncle, brother, and grandpa at a really nice restaurant, called Elements, where we were served pre-plated Thanksgiving dinners (mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, stuffing, and turkey). In the evening I skyped my family (as tradition requires) until their phone battery died. And I honestly think we spent the rest of the evening watching movies and reading.
On Friday, Allie and I took the train into Salt Lake- with the intention of going Black Friday shopping (don't worry, we had specific things we were searching for) but we ended up starting at Temple Square, and spent a long time there. Even in the winter, it's so beautiful. Someone told us that around sunset they'd be lighting the lights for the first time (well for this year) and we could come back and see it if we wanted. We ended up at City Creek next, which is where we had lunch, I got lasagna and it was wonderful :). We wandered the stores and then walked to Gateway- where we got lost in Barnes and Noble for a long time, I managed to limit myself to one book, which I've been wanting, and a journal which I do need a new one- plus it's super cool! We finally escaped the grasp of the bookstore and happened to wander into a little candy shop- yeah I know... By the time we finished there the sun was setting so we walked back to temple square to see all the Christmas lights. They were amazing. We sat down on a random concrete thing and were looking at the train schedule to figure out where and when we should meet a train. As we were sitting there Elder L. Tom Perry walked past us and with a smile asked, "You girls tired already?" We responded that we were starting to feel tired since we'd been walking all day , and with a smile he continued on to the large nativity set with his wife. Definitely one of the neatest moments from this semester.
Saturday was our actual celebration of Thanksgiving. Allie's cousins and their families came over and we had a traditional, large meal. It was nice to sit down to an actual meal with people- that hasn't happened in my world in a while, one of the things that happens when you're in college, the closest thing I've gotten to that is taking a quick break from homework to eat something.
Now it's Sunday evening, I'm actually sitting in the car listening to the album Lead Thou Me On by Vocal Point (my favorite) typing this, and we're headed back to school. I'm so not looking forward to finals here in a few weeks.
