New Year's in Utah

This year, Matt and I had the opportunity to be in Utah for New Year's weekend.
My group, Mountain Blue, was invited to perform at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building as part of the New Year's Eve celebration in Salt Lake. I was flown up for it, and asked Matt to come with me so we wouldn't be apart for NYE.
We flew in Wednesday morning. It was 3 degrees when we landed, which was just a slap in the face for both of us.

We flew separately so Jennie picked me up from the airport and we went to breakfast with her kids while we waited for Matt. We picked Matt up around 11 and met up with my parents so we could borrow a car.
That first day we went to lunch with my friends Scott and Mary, who live in Missouri and were in town for the holidays.
Later my group met with us at the condo and we practiced before our concert. Hard to believe it had been about 2 years since we had a show together. It was nice to sing with them again.
We had to be at the JSMB at 7 for a sound check so we all drove over together.
It was so fun to be downtown on New Year's Eve. There was so much energy going on, and it was even MORE fun to be performing for it all.
Once our concert started the room was already standing room only. I was surprised to see so many people. It was a great show and a great excuse to get together. I secretly hope they invite us back each year. I'd love to ring in the new year that way again.
Here is a link to our final song of the concert, and a crowd fave :)

 

                                                                Us during sound check

 After the concert Matt and I went back to my parent's condo. Our other plans had been cancelled and my mom was beyond thrilled to have Matt and me spend New Years with them. My parents made tamales, chicken wings, taquitos, egg nog floats, we had cookies, candy and snacks. You might think that is too much for 4 people, but nay.
We rang in the New Year playing 9's with my parents and almost immediately after midnight we went to bed.
New Year's Day started off right, playing wallyball with the regulars. Always a good time.
My group was supposed to record that night, but the studio flooded so instead Matt and I went to dinner with Jennie and Brock and watched some football.

Jan 2nd Matt and I had planned to go snowboarding. We got all our gear together and headed up the mountain.

On our first run we had just gotten off the lift and coasted down a little ways. I had fallen (because I suck) and just stood back up. Matt was about 10 feet away from me, so I started slowly gliding to him. I knew I wasn't going to have time to turn and stop so I just ran into him. He was facing away from me, so my running into him made him fall backward onto me. As we both fell back I twisted my body to protect myself and he landed just right on my ribs. I felt a pop and knew I wasn't getting back up.

I just laid there, so mad... we had JUST started. It was our FIRST run. I started to cry, in anger, and man oh man that hurt, so I had to stop myself. Matt helped me sit up and then went to get ski patrol (the lift was walking distance away so it wasn't too bad for him) sitting up was extremely painful and I knew I was going to pass out, so I laid back down and all went quiet. Ski patrol came over and loaded me up on the sled and skiied me down the mountain. I'm just glad I was covered from head to toe as he skiied me down. Listening to skiiers asking, "is that person dead?" and saying "sucks to be that person" was bad enough without them knowing who I was.

 

After I was checked out at the clinic Matt and I (thankfully) got a full refund and went and grabbed some lunch.
I had recording that night so we just hung out in the valley until I had to go to that.
Since we missed the first day of recording we had scheduled an extra two hours to our two remaining days. Let me tell you, 6 hours of recording with a cracked rib isn't awesome.

We were able to get all our songs down, and it will be quite the story to tell forever more.

Since the studio flooded we had to make due at our producer's house.

Saturday was more recording, and then we met up with the adults in my family for dinner, and then back to the condo for "games". Mom, Jennie and I played 9's which I had to quit after one game.

They kept making me laugh, and I've learned that laughing is what causes me the most pain. So I went in with the boys and watched the UFC fights for a bit before going to bed.
Sunday morning we got packed up and headed home, to warm and sunny Arizona.
It was so nice to be home with my family. I've been lucky to have had a lot of chances to see them over the last 2 months, which I'm grateful for because as of now we don't have plans to head to Utah any time soon.
2014 was the best year of my life, without doubt, and I got to start 2015 with my husband. This year is going to be even better. I can feel it.