Sad

Stories like this and this make me really sad.  Whenever I hear a story about someone killed in a car accident I first think about the poor person who died, and then about the poor person who was involved in their death.  I think about how awful it must be to have to live with that on their conscience for the rest of his or her life.

Reflecting on my own experience, I don't often think about the person who hit and killed my dad, but when I do I feel sorry for her and I hope that she's been able to live a happy and fulfilling life.  As sad and as hard and as tragic as it may be, it was my dad's time to go, just as it was for that little 2 year-old, and for the teenager as well.  My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those families involved.

St George / UFDA

Last week Connor got a call from his boss.  He asked if we wanted to go to St George for the Utah Funeral Director's Association (UFDA) Mid-Winter Meeting.  An all expenses paid trip?  Sure!  So on Thursday we headed down to St George to the Lexington Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn).  It was really great.  We got there later than we planned, and ended up missing dinner.  Partly because we were late, partly because the hotel had no sign so we drove right by it.  So instead we went out to dinner (which was paid for), then went back to the hotel and relaxed a little.

The next morning Connor had meetings so I went and got some breakfast, lounged around the hotel room, and then went to a luncheon for the spouses of the funeral directors.  That was fun.  It was nice to meet some people and I won a gift card to the Olive Garden!  I heart the Olive Garden so I'm pretty stoked about that.  Then we had a few hours to go sightsee.  I had never been able to really see anything in St George before.  When I got home from my mission, I went with Eric and Kari on a trip and we went to Tuacahn where we saw Annie.  But that's pretty much all I saw.  So we decided to go see some church history with the little time that we had.

First we saw the Jacob Hamblin Home, which was pretty interesting.  We actually were there with some descendants of  Jacob Hamblin so the guide showed us a room that they don't normally show to people.  After that, we went and saw Brigham Young's Winter Home, which was pretty cool too.  It was pretty interesting to learn more about the history of St George. (As a side note, the photo in that link of his home isn't really accurate.  This one is what it actually looks like.)  After that we went back to the hotel and got ready for the banquet that they had, which was also really nice.  They had a raffle there but unfortunately we were not lucky enough to win a quesadilla maker, or a shop vac.

Saturday morning Connor had more meetings, and then we checked out and went to the beautiful St George Temple and did a session there.  It's a really beautiful temple and designed differently from any that I've ever been too.  Interesting factoid, the land that the St George temple is built on was actually a swamp.  So the pioneers packed it with volcanic rock.  (Read about it here and here.)  Pretty interesting, huh?



After our session we changed at Metcalf Mortuary.  (Apparently that's where you go when your husband is in the funeral business.)  I met the man who worked a funeral just a little while ago for a family friend who passed away.  He was very nice.  Anyway, after that we drove home with a stop in Provo so I could buy some jeans because I just noticed that my jeans have a huge hole in them in a very inconvenient place.  And for some reason, I only have 1 good pair of jeans.  I really should buy another pair.

P.S.  We forgot our camera, hence the lack of photos.