Utah!!!

After our visit with Josh, Leigh and Sammy, we headed south to Utah County. One of our favorite things to do in Provo, is to go to the Havenlight Frameworks Gallery in University Mall. The art there is incredible! They have a bunch of original paintings, as well as prints. This one was painted by Yongsung Kim, and is titled Seeds of Joy. BEAUTIFUL!!!

We stayed with our dear friends, the Lyons. Shari and Howard, and their kiddos are like family. They always spoil us with kindness and love. Their dog, Max, is one of the sweetest dogs. I am not a pet person, but I even like Max. He is 14 and getting a little grouchy in his old age, but he is still adorable. He is totally deaf, but loves to play and thinks he is a puppy. Sara and I had a great time playing fetch with him. He would plow into the dandelions causing big puffs of seeds in the air. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was incredibly refreshing and cool.

It was nice to relax a bit and go to bed a little earlier. Well, we got in bed earlier, but we still talked for hours before going to sleep.

Tuesday morning, we got up and went to the Provo temple. Neither of us had been inside before. We did a 10:40 am session and then sat together in the Celestial room for the next 1 1/2 hours talking softly to each other. We love to hold hands and talk about the things of our hearts, our desires, our dreams, our plans, the things we've learned in the temple, and just share our love for each other. It is such precious time together. I will miss it when she leaves for her mission.

When we finally left the Celestial room, and were getting ready to leave, we started looking at the art. There are SO many paintings hanging in the Provo temple, it felt like an art gallery. We walked from room to room, hall to hall, really studying each painting. As we were looking at a stunning landscape, a lady noticed us. She told us she was a shift coordinator and that she could take us around to other paintings that are not usually seen by patrons. She took us in to the temple matrons office to see a magnificent, original painting of the Savior by Del Parson. Then she took us to the bride room. It was gorgeous! She told us we could wander where ever we wanted, for as long as we wanted to look at the paintings, and showed us a couple of other rooms of art. 

We spent about an hour looking around and it was wonderful!!! However, eventually our stomachs cried loud enough that we had to leave for sustenance. We were there for nearly 5 hours, and we were fasting. Our tummies were pretty audible at this point.

This is the view as you walk out of the temple doors. It is breathtaking!

It was a beautiful experience!

We grabbed salads at Costco and then went back to the Lyons for a little while. We talked with Zach and his wife, Emma. They were adorable and so sweet.

Then we went up to Mill Creek, in Salt Lake. We did some shopping at Deseret Industries and found a bunch of great deals for Sara's mission. Then we went to the Bytheway's. Kim took us out to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. She ordered the Thai lettuce wraps. They were DELICIOUS!!!! 

The sauces were amazing. Then we had our dinners. Kim had Crispy Pineapple Chicken and Shrimp, Sara had the Chicken Madeira, and I had the Thai Coconut Lime Chicken. And of course she insisted that we save room for cheesecake. We shared a slice of the Godiva Chocolate cheesecake and enjoyed every bite. 

The best part of course were the conversations. We could talk for days. We both adore Kim. She makes my heart smile. We spent a total of 4 hours together, but we all wish it had been 4 days. It was fun to see John, Natalie, Matthew, Timothy and Bethany as well. They have all grown up so much. for some reason, we never remember to take a picture until the end of the night, when we all look tired and ready for bed. It was a great evening.

Again, we tried to go right to bed, but ended up talking for a long time before falling asleep.

Wednesday, we spent a lot of the day shopping for Laney's birthday presents. She was turning 13 the next day and we didn't want to show up at home empty handed. We looked and looked before we found just the right things for her.

This was while shopping in Hobby Lobby.

Then we had an early dinner / late lunch at In-N-Out before heading back to the Lyons.

We relaxed for a bit and talked with Howard and Shari. Then Shari left for an art gig she had in Salt Lake. Howard had his live portrait night, and Sara was the model. She sits for 3 hours while a bunch of artists come and practice their skills. It was fun to watch the process. She has modeled for his portrait night 2 other times, but this was the first time I was invited to watch. Normally only the artists are allowed in the room. 

It was fascinating to see the different styles and skills of the artists. They have different specialties, landscape, fantasy, digital, murals, etc. They all are working to improve their live painting skills. It is a different beast to paint something from a 3D live model, rather than a 2D picture of a model. 

Sara is great at meditating while sitting. The artists needed the hourly breaks more than she did.

These are the results after 3 hours. Some of the paintings were only inspired by Sara, while others were going for a likeness.

 This is Howard's post of the painting on Instagram. It is a time-lapse video of the evening. I love what he said about Sara. He is such a sweet man.

Here is the video: https://youtu.be/Dd7f0JW-7d4

After the portrait session, he did a photo shoot for a series of paintings he wants to do of Sara as the goddess Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. My pictures are nothing like his. His camera settings were amazing, and that lamp behind her looked, like the rising or setting sun, bursting in her hair. At one point he had her turn and her hair moved from off her back. The dress has a V in the back. He flipped out, saying that her skin was like marble. Shari was there and just giggled. She said that he always flips out about how much he loves to paint Sara's skin. Sara laughed and said that it was glowingly white because it has never seen the light of day. 

The best thing about Sara is that she has no idea how beautiful she is. She is pure, meek and humble, and as sweet, loving and kind and a person can be. The people of Hungary and Romania will love her, and whoever captures her heart, when she returns home from her mission, will be one very blessed fella.

This frame is a replica of a very old frame he saw in Italy. He had it made for the painting he is planning of Sara. This is the sneak preview, the Goddess Sara, ha ha!

After all of that, we had midnight quesadillas and visited. We love Shari and Howard. It is always a delight to be with them, and we never feel like we get enough time.

We tried to get a decent night's sleep so we could drive home safely the next day. We got up about 8:30 and Howard made buttermilk waffles for us. We visited a while longer and got out the door around 10:15.

Here we are on their front porch saying our goodbyes.

All throughout our trip, we had been listening to The Children of the Promise series by Dean Hughes. It is a 5 volume story about a family, in Salt Lake City and what happened to them and the world during WWII. It is an emotional story and we cried a bunch, on and off, as we drove to and from everywhere. We finished all but the last 17 minutes of the first 3 books. We listened to those last precious minutes before going to bed. 

Sara and I love driving together. We never run out of things to talk about, the gospel, dreams for the future, music, family, art, school, the beauty of the earth (we both love the desert drive home), boys, the way our brains work, and on and on. It was a beautiful time, that I will treasure forever.