Winter Wedding Wonderland

WARNING: This is a fairly long post, with photos.  View with delight.

Kevin and I flew to Utah this weekend for the fabulous Julie Black's wedding.  Our mission was to make sure the bride got to the event; Julie spent Thursday night at our house and was on the flight to Utah with us.  We delivered her into her fiance's care and went on with our touristy day.  

The first stop was "This is the Place" Heritage Park.  It was closed for winter, so we didn't see much, but it was neat to see the place where Brigham Young first saw the Salt Lake Valley and declared that the Mormon Pioneers arduous journey had finally ended and they had found a place to settle.

 Handcart Pioneers at the end of their journey.

 Brigham Young declaring "This is the place."

 

The Salt Lake Valley and mountains

Our next stop was Temple Square and the LDS Conference Center.  We took tours of all the buildings and saw the sights.  The Salt Lake Temple is one of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen and the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall are always architectural delights.  I'll admit to some bias in my love for these buildings as well, since it is part of my cultural identity.  Kevin had some photography fun and spent most of our time at Temple Square doing some artsy shots.  He got some pretty good ones.  I, of course, took what I could get from my iPhone and did a pretty good job.  

 The Conference Center.  It has seating capacity for 21,000 people (that is not a typo).

Christus in the Visitor's Center. 

 The organ in the tabernacle.

Some architectural details in the Assembly Hall. 

 The obligatory shot in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

  

My artsy shot from the iPhone of the temple.

The next day was wedding bliss.  We saw Julie get married for time and all eternity in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple.  She was beautiful and glowing, Justin looked happy, and it was just a good day all around.  

 Some of the Long Beach Gang

 The Hexbergs!

 Sharon and Wendy

 Patty babysitting Rocky

 The newlyweds!

 Julie's girl posse

  Aren't they cute? 

We woke up to snow on Sunday.  I have never seen snow falling before.  I'm a California girl; born and raised.  I don't do snow.  But it was pretty to look at, and not so fun to walk on or drive in.  The rest of the evening was spent lazing about the Hexberg's residence, just catching up and having fun.  It was the perfect ending to a weekend with friends I do not get to see enough of.  And then off on the plane and back to reality.  

Leaving on a jet plane