I am such a lucky girl.
Some of the greatest blessings of my life have been the friendships I have made with my roommates over the past 13 years. I feel enormous gratitude for the women who have taught me, cried with me, laughed with me, understood me, uplifted me, spiritually fed me, and so many other things that are invaluable to me.
This weekend, I reunited with Kate (Wyoming), Tessa (Ohio), and Melissa (Orem), my roommates from Millrace #3 the year after I graduated college. We were three teachers and a social worker, all working professionals and navigating our way through difficult changes, decisions, and the general ups and downs of life. I am forever grateful for that time!
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Our first item of business as reunited friends was to eat at Cafe Rio. Ohhhhh man. |
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My parents generously let us stay in their condo for one night. Melissa had the brilliant idea to give Tessa a little surprise baby shower. I was in charge of secretly decorating before everyone got there. When Tessa walked in, she said, "Who had a baby shower here?" to which Melissa replied, "You!" It was a really fun moment. |
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For the baby shower activity, we made baby mobiles (inspired by Scotty Pendleton's mobile). It was unanimously one of our favorite parts of the entire weekend, and they were so inexpensive to make. While working, we were highly entertained by the movie Sydney White with Amanda Bynes. |
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For dinner, we hit our favorite roommate restaurant, Magelby's (now located in Springville). They had their seasonal strawberry shortcake this time! I was very sad to miss out on that, but I enjoyed ice-cream with raspberry sauce and frosting from the cake! |
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After spending the night in the condo, we worked together to make a killer GF breakfast. Tessa made the pancakes, I made the syrup, Kate did the fruit and whipping cream, and Many did the bacon. It was a true team effort and was VERY delicious. My sissy and my Scotty joined us, which was delightful. I love how comfortable my sister is with my friends and vise versa. Scotty continues to be hilarious and adorable and can now wave and give five! |
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Our reunion was in Park City. We headed first to the Olympic Park. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS! I loved this activity...and it was FREE! I would love to go back again soon. |
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I was shamefully proud of the reflection picture (top right). The bottom two pictures are props and costumes used in the opening ceremonies! |
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They had ski uniforms on display from different decades. Our personal favorites were the ones from the eighties, as pictured above. Check out the leg warmers on the top right! |
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Olympians have a tradition of exchanging pins. They had a display with lots of pins from the 2002 Olympics, including the "Mormon Muffin" in the top left corner! Top right picture are the Olympic mascots. The bottom right picture is the pool where the ski jump aerialists practice year round. More on that later! |
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I was excited about the ski boot from the 1930's. We also had the chance to have a virtual "experience" ski flying. We even got snowed on! |
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After our park visit, we headed to Main Street for lunch. This delicious restaurant now has a gluten free menu! Yessssss! I was stoked about the Mug root beer (my all-time favorite) and excitedly bought a fountain drink. Many had to sit me down when I got to the table and break the news that the syrup was gone. I was devastated. But, I found a frozen lemonade that eased my aching heart and the waiter even brought me a free bottle of root beer :-). |
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So what did we do on Main Street, you ask? Well, we went shopping for expensive jewelry we can't afford, which may have included Melissa and I trying on several wedding rings (though neither one of us are engaged). Good times. Really good times. I find my style has changed very little in the past several years! |
After our Park City jewelry tour, we checked into our hotel for a little
R&R. Kate got a KILLER deal on a beautiful Marriott hotel. We all
crashed on our beds and played each other in Scramble with Friends,
Words with Friends, and Quiz up for a good solid two hours. This was
one of my top three favorite things we did on the trip! It was so fun.
We then went to Red Rock for dinner. At Kate's suggestion, each of us
took turns telling the others about our lives as high school students.
We learned so much about each other! I didn't remember that Kate was
involved in mock trial, that Tessa had won 2nd place in a talent show
singing a Jewel song, or that Melissa was the mom in Bye, Bye Birdie! We
then came back to our hotel and hit the jacuzzi and pool and talked
about our favorite musicals.
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While at the Olympic Park the day before, we saw an advertisement for the Flying Aces show, a team of ski jumpers who train at the park. We decided to come back on Saturday with picnic lunches. It was $10 a person but was so worth it! In the top right picture, the athletes have climbed to various points on the ramps from which they will take off. On the bottom right, you can see the bubbles that are used to break the tension of the pool surface so it won't hurt when the skiers hit the water. |
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The announcer walked us through the steps of those who begin training in this sport. Top left is the trampoline where they first learn to flip. Top middle is the carpeted mini ramp where they first jump. We saw kids as young as 5 jumping! And the top left is the highest jump they have! There are a couple of other heights in between the second and third picture :-). |
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So many people came to watch! |
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After our picnic, we went to Cow's Ice-Cream on Main Street. This shop holds significance for us. We discovered almost exactly five years ago in Prince Edward Island where it originated. We took a picture on the cow (top right picture). Five years later, we recreated the cow picture (bottom left), which was slightly more difficult. Getting on and off a giant cow is not as easy post 30 years old (not to mention Tessa is 4 months pregnant!). But we were pretty proud of ourselves. |
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I introduced the crew to my boyfriend the bear. I was a little jealous of all the attention the other girls were giving him, but I am learning to share. |
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We got pedicures, took pictures of our matching bracelets from the Olympic Park, and saw the moose with jeans on. We also did a little outlet shopping (I got J Crew wedges for $21.99!). It was such a wonderful day! |
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Our final dinner of the reunion was Bandit's BBQ on Main Street. The top right picture is in the hotel just before we left. The food was INCREDIBLE! I definitely think we'll be back. During dinner, we wrote down all our memories from the trip (bottom right picture) to put in our time capsule for the next reunion. We made a time capsule before we all went our different ways as roommates back in 2009 and revisited it during one of our reunions. We decided it was time for an update! |
It was an unforgettable weekend. At dinner, we all went around and said our top three favorite things from the weekend. Melissa talked about how fun it was to remember all the things we love about each other. I loved that and it has inspired me to spotlight something each of these women bring to our friendship.
Many is so smart. If you need to know what to say in a text to a boy you like, ask Many. If you don't know where you are, have Many look at the map and figure it out. If you aren't sure what a word means, Melissa knows it. She's like our informal leader whenever we go anywhere because we trust her to do what's best for all of us. She's got the street smarts AND the book smarts!
The perfect word to describe Kate is gracious. She is loving and kind and looks to see that each of our needs are met before her own. She is supportive and makes us feel like a million bucks. Shopping with Kate is the best because she is so positive. She has a clear understanding of what is most important in life, like meaningful relationships and spending time with the people we love. She is integral in making sure these reunions happen.
Tessa never complains. Tessa is up for ANYTHING! Tessa is a fabulous, sympathetic, and thoughtful listener. We find ourselves pouring out our concerns to Tessa, because she always knows the right thing to say. We joke all the time about her "Missing Out Syndrome" because she always loves being part of the fun and hesitates to leave the room for fear of missing out on the party! She is an absolute joy to be around.
Thank you Kate, Tessa, and Melissa, for enriching my life so greatly!