Women's conference-the fluff

Early early this morning in the wee hours Dan and I returned from Salt Lake City where we attended Women's Conference in Provo. It was a really fun trip. At the last minute on Wednesday, Danny invited his brother Ryan to join us. So instead of getting a fairly early start right after Dan finished his classes, we found ourselves driving to Maricopa to get Ryan's stuff together for the trip. No one else knew he was coming, so when Sara called and texted me to ask if we had left yet, and what the hold up was I responded that it was because of her brother. And that her brother was making me crazy, and her brother wasn't packed yet. I just failed to mention which brother. Hee hee. We ended up leaving Phoenix around 4:30 so we got into Salt Lake super late.
Sara was really mad at Danny on my behalf, so I texted her that as a punishment for making us so late, her brother had to sleep on the floor on an air mattress. The next morning Sara and I were supposed to leave together because Mom and Kami were going to be in the instant choir so they had to be at the conference center a lot earlier and neither Sara nor I were down with that. So when Justin knocked on the door, Ryan ran into the bathroom and hid. Justin was shocked to say the least when he saw the air mattress on the floor because he didn't think I was serious about it! (we brought Ryan an air mattress b/c we had originally booked a one-bed room, and they were all full b/c of the Women's conference and a dog show in town) He was really surprised when Ryan walked out, and when Sara knocked on the door a moment later, she said "what are you doing here?" So that was our little prank. It was funny.
Sara, Kami, Mom, Nana and I spent the days at conference and in the BYU bookstore. I bought a bunch more prints to put up on my walls, and I found another copy of the painting that the ward members gave me and Sara after the accident-the one that was lost in the corolla that my mom drives now. And that weekend, they actually had Simon Dewey there, so he signed my picture which makes it even more cool. I was literally sobbing as I stood looking at all the art, when a woman came up to me out of nowhere and gave me a hug and asked if I was ok. See, women are smart like that. When I went up to Simon Dewey and asked him to sign the painting, I was nearly sobbing again, and he said that he was glad that his work had touched me. I told him that it had a special meaning to me and reminded me of my son. He replied that in another of the prints I had bought he had his son model for him. In the painting he was about 10, but now he's 18, getting ready for a mission and 6'3" I told him that my son is three, and not getting any bigger. He thanked me again for appreciating his art. Men are oblivious like that.
And since we were in Provo, and my Temple dress is so tight it shows the indentation of my belly button, and I need a dress at the end of the month for the sealing, and I don't want to rent a dress for my first time-all of the girls went to White Elegance to shop. I found a dress that is soo pretty and has such neat embellishments and then Sara found a gorgeous empire waisted dress with an embroidered panel in front all medieval style. As I tried them both on I fell in love with both. And I absolutely could not decide which one to get. So I bought them both. So now the girl who has never been through the Temple is the proud owner of not one, not two, but three Temple dresses. As Sister Raines said, I'll just have to go a lot. Now that I'm home and I've hung the two new dresses in my closet next to my first, and I wonder if Dan has Temple clothes (I think he does, but I'm not sure-also starting to think I should have asked him while I was there and could have picked something up for him) I'm beginning to think that I was being just a tad ridiculous, and maybe I didn't really need everything I bought.
While we were in town, we met up with one of Dan's mission companions, Elder Snyder-as Dan still refers to him-aka Drew. He met up with us for dinner and then we joined him and one of his friends (a cute girl) to watch Juno. It's an interesting movie that honestly I hadn't even heard of before. All in all it was a fun experience. Snyder is really the only ex-companion that Dan has kept in contact with, and I had only met him once before but it was still a lot of fun to see him. I've heard so much about him I kinda feel like I know him too. And as an added bonus, he has lots of funny stories about Elder Anderson that he is more than willing to share.
On Saturday as we were all getting ready to head our separate ways and say good-bye we had lunch at this crazy Mayan themed restaurant. The food was awesome and the entrance was shaped like an ancient Mayan pyramid. And on the inside there were vines and jungle noises playing in the background. But the best part was that every 20-30 min. they put on a show. It was this crazy Mayan priest guy in a loincloth and a big, bright, feathered headdress pounding away at a set of bongo drums while other guys wearing only speedoesque loincloths accompanied him on another set of drums before diving off the cliff into the water 30 feet below. There were about three or four divers and while they were diving there was also a light show going one. And one guy actually scaled the cliff to get back to the top to dive again instead of climbing the rope.
I think that lunch was Ryan's favorite part of the trip. Between the shows, he got everyone to react to his own antics. He really does love to be the center of attention. Almost as much as Jack, who flirted shamelessly with the waitress.
When the meal was over and we all got into our separate vehicles we were all sad to say good-bye. Mom and the Illinois gang will be back at the end of the month, so it's not too bad, but still. And we Andersons met up with the Lines family in Page for dinner at Denny's, then saw each other again at church today and again for dinner, so for us it was more of a see ya soon than good-bye. All in all it was a really fun vacation.