Every spring I go on a fun trip with my mom and sisters to BYU Women's Conference. Three of us are returning to our alma mater and all of us have loved BYU our entire lives. It is fun to feel like I am in college again: sleep in dorms, attend classes, stay up late at night talking. I always come home motivated to be a better person…and a few pounds heavier and quite exhausted.
This year was great, and I wanted to share a few pictures and thoughts from our annual adventure. This is my 15th consecutive year and I think we have a pretty good system down. Here are some of the traditional things that we do:
-Food: Mexican on Wednesday night, Italian on Thursday night, and cupcakes in between. This year Mexican was at Los Hermanos in Provo, Italian was at Cafe Paesan in Orem and cupcakes were from The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Café (they did Courtnee’s wedding cupcakes).
-Mom and Sister Gifts: We usually exchange a fun memento with each other. This year Mom gave us all beautiful canvas WC bags, LeAnne knit boas for us to wear to the evening concert, Lynnette brought fun-colored fingernail polish, and Lesley brought her cute pregnant self from California to spend time with us (I think we would all agree that this was the best gift of all). I paid for the cupcakes.
-Our Agenda: Classes, concert, talking, eating, service, and lots and lots of walking and waiting in lines. I usually sneak a nap in somewhere as I cannot sleep on dorm beds and I cannot keep up with my mom. Really!
-Extended Family: I always have extended family members that come, too, and it is so nice to spend time with aunts and cousins sans children. We also have a “bonus sister” and her mom that come as well.
This year we had a few extras!
-Now that she is officially a “woman,” Courtnee joined us for the first time. We also had an aunt and her “officially a woman” daughter join us as well.
-We spent one afternoon in the MOA for the Carl Bloch exhibit…truly beautiful in every way. While I was there, I couldn’t miss the Dorothea Lange exhibit, which I wrote about here. I’m still so moved by her photographs. The Matter of Words Exhibit was equally impressive and I thought it was ironic that I was viewing it on the same day that I posted this.
-We got to see and listen to Nienie and Courtney and their sisters Page and Lucy! Can you tell I am writing this with great emphasis? They were funny and inspiring and Nienie said “boobs,” and Courtney called one of our church leaders the “silver fox.” Nienie waved to all of us as they were leaving with their driver named “Miles.” How perfect is that!
*Image of Nienie by Justin Hackworth
-We spent Friday night watching a recap of the Royal Wedding and eating cupcakes in honor of Will and Kate. What a great way to end our girl trip!
Hey Lori -- Wendy told me about your blog. Thought I'd check it out. Nicely done. I just wanted to tell you that Justin Hackworth -- the guy who took the photo of Nienie and to which you posted and linked to his website -- is a friend of mine. We've known each other for more than 20 years -- since our college days at the U. Justin was the best friend of my ex-boyfriend Brett. Justin's an awesome photographer. Glad to see you found that out too. Small world!
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