Christmas Adventure

While Matt and Cami were in town we tried to get the whole family together to go downtown and enjoy all the lights on Temple Square. Several attempts had been unsuccessful but we finally were able to gather the troops the week of Christmas. Sorry Matt and Cami. Jill saw that it was also the Larry H Miller 25th Annual Sing-Along and thought that would be a lot of fun also. The enticement of free Trax, free hot dogs, free drinks and free Jazz and Bees tickets was too much to resist. We quickly discovered that it was also too much to resist for 20,000 other crazy Utahns! Maya, Noah and I bundled up and headed to the 90th South Trax station where we were supposed to meet several others from the Family for our fun ride into to the big city on the train. The station platform quickly filled up as we waited for our train. We did not see any one else but as the train was about to approach I got a report from Mom, Dad and Justin (who were on the arriving train) that it was standing room only. I quickly removed Noah from his stroller, struggled to fold it up, assigned Maya to carry the diaper bag and camera bag and then we struggled to force our way onto the train. We made it, just barely, one car in back of Mom, Dad and Justin but still no sign of any others. For the next 60 plus minutes, we stood shoulder to shoulder in the stairwell. As the train stopped at each over-crowded station, people just stared in amazement. Each stop, a few people would force their way into the train. There was no room for 'personal space' on this adventure. Trying to keep track of a stroller that wanted to fall over constantly, an 8 (almost 9) year old struggling with two bags, and the increasingly heavy weight of a wiggling 11 month old was a whole lot of fun! I was sweating and my arms were going numb. Luckily everyone had pretty great attitudes about the situation. Jeff, Kendra and the boys watched 4 completely stuffed trains go by before they walked back to the car and drove into town. A wise decision indeed. It only took them about 10 minutes to drive AND park then meet up with us as we waited in the huge line outside the arena. Jill drove from work, waited in the long ling somewhere ahead of us, grabbed a whole bunch of hot dog vouchers and found us a spot to all sit together in the upper sections. Yay, Jill. The Barbers and the Clarks all braved the train somewhere behind us. Chris met us at the Arena straight from his downtown job. The sing-along was entertaining, although for me, not worth the hassle of the free Trax ride. We left the sing-along a bit early and walked a couple of blocks to Temple Square to look at all the lights. Surprise, surprise...it was very crowded. Then the sing-along crowd caught up with us and it was VERY, VERY crowded. Then the wind picked up suddenly and it was VERY cold. Everyone had split off, mostly heading for home before the real cold wind struck us. The reports I received were that the Barbers and the Clarks made it home relatively quickly and uneventful but Mom, Dad and Justin did not make it home until after 10:30. I think next year we will think long and hard before getting sucked into the enticement of free stuff. The sharing of the Holiday Spirit with 20,000 other crazy people was definitely memorable but probably not going to be repeated any time soon for this clan. You can find more pictures here.