Fabulous Friends & Temple Square

This morning Autumn thought she had hit the jackpot when Rufio got out all her stuffed animals and let Autumn use the dishtowels in the kitchen to cover them all up.  Rufio’s living room looked like a little baby cemetery.

Autumn was so pleased w/ herself and when she was done she stood over all the babies and told them to lay down and go to sleep.  Look at how she has one leg crossed over the other.  What a cute little bug.

After getting cleaned up, Autumn & I headed up to Draper to visit Lawson, Enoch, Jade, Dez, and a few other people I used to work with.  It was SO GOOD to see all of them again, and they were almost able to tempt me to move back to Utah.

After saying hi to all of them, I had to stop at Cafe Rio to get a pork salad w/ the creamy cilantro dressing.   I told the guys behind the counter that I came all the way from Texas for this salad and one of then gave Autumn a little cup of strawberries.  She was so happy.  It was just as good (if not better) than I remember.

After savoring every bite of my salad, we got back in the car and drove down to Lehi to meet up w/ Jobi and the boys.  Jobi got an ice cream cone for all the kids, and as you can tell, Autumn really enjoyed hers and got it all over her mouth.

Bryton & Jett are TOO CUTE!  I kept telling Jobi that I’m planning on Autumn & Jett getting married someday and not to let Jett talk to any other girls.  The kids had a blast running around and playing on the toys there at McDonald’s.

Jobi & I sat and talked and caught up w/ what’s been going on in our lives over the past 2 years.  I can’t believe it’s been that long since I’ve been in Utah.  I am so thankful that Jobi took time out of her busy day to bring the boys to come meet up w/ Autumn & I.  She’s such a great Mom to those 2 cute boys and she’s also pregnant w/ their third child…a little girl.  She is such a great friend and I’m so glad we were able to sit and talk for a while.  I just love her to pieces.

The Lehi Roller Mills is directly across the street from McDonald’s and I just had to take a picture of it, b/c that is where they filmed part of Footloose w/ Kevin Bacon.  Every time I see the mills I think of that movie.

Autumn & I rushed home so we could get two pairs of pants on, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of socks, and 2 coats so we could go up to Temple Square to walk around and see the lights.  We got up there around 5:00, which was good so we were able to miss all of the traffic and find an awesome parking spot.  It’s especially good that we got there early b/c there was an event going on at the Conference Center and by 6:00 the streets were packed!

The lights didn’t come on until around 6:15, so we went into the visitor’s center to sit and wait inside where it was nice and warm.  We of course had to go upstairs to see the Christos statue.  Autumn kept pointing at the statue saying, “Jesus.”  There is such a feeling of peace and reverence there.

I love all the cool water features and architecture they have around Temple Square.  Isn’t this gorgeous?

I know this picture (and the next one) are kind of dark and you can’t see our faces very well, but I wanted to show off how many lights there were behind us.  Every branch of these trees was covered in lights.

It was so magical, and I’m glad we made time to go to Temple Square.  I think the last time I went to Temple Square was back when I was in college, which is strange since I used to live just 5 minutes from Temple Square a few years ago.

Just more lights…and I know these pictures don’t do it justice, but it was so enchanting and beautiful.

They had this huge nativity scene set up, and there’s just something about snow all around that makes it seem so much more Christmas-y.  I love all the lights and excitement of Christmas, but it’s good to remember the real reason for celebrating Christmas.

This was a cool picture of the temple spires and these tall lights.

After looking at all the lights and walking around, we were pretty frozen so we loaded back into the car and drove back to Provo.  We were all hungry by this point, so we stopped  at Rumbi Grill to eat.  I LOVE the pina colada drink they have there, and I also love the decor b/c it’s all tropical.

We got 3 different bowls w/ different types of meat and sauce, and they were all delectable.  My favorite is the chicken w/ Jamaican jerk sauce and brown rice.  They have a new thing (well new since the last time I ate there 2 years ago).  It’s that tower thing in the middle, and it’s sweet potato fries w/ fry sauce.  They were super tasty.  I also love the bamboo looking tables.  We had so much left over food that we can make a whole new meal out of the leftovers.

We came home and Autumn went right back to rearranging her stuffed animals around the Christmas trees in the living room.  Grandma is so wonderful to get down there on the floor w/ Autumn to play w/ her.

This is my favorite picture that I took at Temple Square tonight.  They have a white nativity scene in the middle of the reflecting pool w/ the temple behind it.  Such a great remind of the reason for the season.