Don't be jealous of my photog skillzzzz

A few weeks ago Chris and I went to the Draper Temple. We want to eventually go to every temple in Utah, and I have decided that we obviously need to have a picture in front to document the visit.

But it was dark, so it wasn't like we could have a nice full body shot one. And it was windy and cold, so we weren't really too concerned about spending much time on photography, but I really wanted to take one. This is the order I took them in, and you can see we're laughing more and more with each one, because I would take it, and then we would look at it and see how awful it was, and then try again. And yes, we're in the parking lot, next to the car. We don't have a lot of dedication to our craft, ok?

And I will admit, there was a part of me thinking, "I'll take cute pics, and then I can blog them. PERFECT." Because I like blogging with an accompanying photo or two, I think it looks good. (Plus with the new Blogger version it's so much easier, my gosh. I used to hate it.) And then after looking at them, I thought, "These are hilarious. I was right. I have to blog them. It will just be different than I thought. Like instead of being cute, they aren't."

Also, going to the temple that day was quite an adventure. We live like half an hour away, and the last session is at 8:00. They are every hour. So we got home at 5:00, got changed into our Church clothes, and we knew we wouldn't make it to the 6:00 session because by the time we were ready it was already after 5:30. So we planned to grab some dinner on the way and be at the 7:00 session. We live really far away from the freeway, so by the time we even got there it had taken us like 25 minutes from our house. Then we got on the freeway and I said to Chris, "You have your wallet, right?" because we were getting dinner. He said yes. Then I suddenly realized I didn't have MY wallet. And my recommend is in my wallet. (For anyone who may be unaware, you have to have a temple recommend, a little card signed by your bishop and stake president, to be admitted inside.) We had JUST gotten on the freeway when I realized I didn't have it, so we got off on the next exit, drove back home and got it, and started out again. Just doing that took nearly an hour, it was crazy.

I told Chris that we were being one of those inspirational stories where things went wrong and it would have been so easy to say, "Never mind, let's just not go," but then you go anyway and it's really great. And he said, "Yeah, maybe if we didn't live like 1 minute from the Provo Temple. And we're passing Mt. Timpanogos on the way too. We're CHOOSING to drive far. So . . . " A point well made, but I told him that didn't matter. We are super inspirational.

The point is this--we got In N Out, we ate it in the car, we got there with plenty of time to spare, we took some gorgeous pictures, and we had a wonderful time. I really am thankful to live so close to so many temples. Within 2 hours of me there are 9. That's pretty amazing. I don't know if we'll live in Utah for the rest of our lives. I would certainly like it. This is my place, you know, this is where I'm from, this is where the fam is, not to mention the mountains. I know I could love living somewhere else too, so if that happens--great. Whether we ever move or not, I want to be sure that I'm grateful to live here where practicing my religion is so easy. I think that's something too many of us Utahns don't appreciate. I know I don't. But I want to try.

Also, I think the problem with my photos is probably the aperture or the white balance or something. The Nikon Coolpix has those, right? I don't know if you guys have heard of that camera, it's PRETTY advanced, but uh, yeah.

p.s. Blogger's spell check is telling me to change Utahns to Utahans. But I've always spelled it Utahns. Doesn't it seem like Utahans would have to be pronounced Yoo-taw-uns? I can't feel good about that. Because Utahns is obviously just pronounced Yoo-tawns. And that's something I can get behind.

p.s. again--how does everyone else spell it? Am I a lone reed? Please tell me if you spell it Utahns or Utahans. I need to know.