Miss Utah Weekend

Two weeks ago was the Miss Utah competition. Attending this event has become a tradition for my husband and I; in the many years we've been married, I can only think of a couple of times when we were not there together. Normally, we try to make it a kid-free vacation, but there have been a few years when the kids have come for one reason or another. This year Krissia and Mathison came with us, as Mathison had an appointment to remove his cast, and Krissia wanted to help cheer on Miss Dixie College. The three of us drove up on Thursday, joining my husband who had been in SLC since Tuesday.

The Miss Utah pageant is the second largest one in the nation with over 50 girls competing. As a result, there are four nights of competition - three preliminary nights, and one final night where the top ten contestants compete. This was taken just after the Thursday night preliminaries:DEl and I are with Alana Lee, Miss Dixie College. She is a very intelligent, energetic girl who has done a great job as Miss Dixie College. Prior to the Dixie Homecoming competition, Alana had never competed in a pageant before. She worked very hard at preparing for the state pageant and represented Dixie College very well.

Krissia had stayed at the hotel with Mathison on Thursday evening, so on Friday it was my turn to entertain him during the pageant. We decided to walk down to the Gateway. There happened to be a sidewalk chalk festival going on at that time, and it was fun to walk around and look at all of the colorful pictures:

We also discovered a fun water feature. Mathison was a little unsure at first:
But he finally found the courage to join in the fun:

On Saturday, I took Krissia and Mathison to see Toy Story 3 while DEl was in a director's meeting. It was a very good movie! However, there is a very intense part near the end that really upset Mathison; I had to actually take him out of the theater for a few minutes. DEl's niece, Mariann, and her husband Nathan were kind enough to watch Mathison Saturday night so that DEl, Krissia, and I were able to attend the final night together. Mathsion loved playing with their son Talon, and has been asking ever since for Talon to come to our house and play :)

It was a fun little getaway, and we look forward to going again next year. Hopefully, without the kids :)