We did a lot of weekend travelling at the beginning of December. The very next weekend after our tree hunt we headed the opposite direction to St. George to be with our niece Iva as she was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a really quick trip for us - normally we would have driven down on Friday afternoon or evening, but Romney is in her madrigals choir group and December is a busy month for them. They had performances all month long, including one at the zoo during their Zoo Lights celebration on Friday the 3rd. So we ended up leaving early early on Saturday morning.
Speaking of Zoo Lights - we really wanted to come up and see Romney sing. We got tickets for Troy and Emma and me for that night, though Romney got a ride early with a friend, and it's a good thing she did. I'm pretty sure the entire valley tried to get to the mouth of Emigration Canyon that night, and the next night as well. The zoo is across the street from a destination called This is the Place State Park, with a pioneer village and attractions. I guess on that weekend they held a German craft market called Christkindle Mart, and they also had a live nativity display in the farm area. What that added up to was an absolute standstill in traffic for a couple of miles in each direction and no good way to get to the zoo. Luckily Romney was only a little bit late for her call time, but as for Troy and Emma and me, we sat in traffic for a good long time before bailing out and giving up. We simply could not get to the zoo! It was pretty frustrating. At least Romney made it.
So we got up early the next morning and made our way south, leaving Chase behind to celebrate one of his best friend's birthday with games and a sleepover. He was thrilled. We arrived in St. George only an hour before the baptism began, and that was a good thing, because Peter let me know upon our arrival that he needed me to accompany him on the piano as he played a cello solo. I guess he doesn't know that my sight reading skills are sadly lacking and I spent the next hour trying to get comfortable playing the piece. I did ok. But not great. Luckily Peter had the spot light.
The baptism was very sweet. It's really fun to be with Sheri's family - there are a ton of little kids and the siblings all live nearby and so it's very active and busy. We have no littles in my family, either on Troy's side or mine. No great-grandkids, no young grandkids - and everyone is far away! I love watching the active dynamic togetherness. And Peter and Sheri had a great idea. Traditionally at a baptism, there are two talks given. One about baptism and one about the Holy Ghost. We have all heard talks very similar to one another about a million times. So for Iva's big day, the asked a handful of people, Troy and myself included, to just share a memory about our own baptism or a time we felt the Holy Ghost. We got to hear some really beautiful stories from a much bigger group of people. I loved that.
The rest of our time there was spent enjoying some Christmas sights, like the luminario garden up above the boulevard. We climbed around on the rocky hills nearby as well.
So the trip was very quick but it was definitely worth it to celebrate with and support Iva.
We beat a hasty retreat back to Salt Lake on Sunday because we had even more plans! I think we started decorating gingerbread houses with the Mayfields when Emma was just over a year old, and we've only missed a couple of Christmases since. It tickles me that even though their youngest is 15 and ours is 12, we still love gathering for food and gingerbread construction. I can't stop myself from participating. There is something so pleasant to me about the process and result of making gingerbread houses.
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