Utah Trip Christmas 2017 Part 2 - Temple Square and Utah Jazz

What Spencer wanted for Christmas this year was to go see Utah Jazz play. He got his wish! But since the girls and I are also Jazz fans, we made sure his Christmas present included our tickets! That’s how we roll! The game we picked was Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs on December 21^st.

Since the arena where Jazz plays is just a couple of blocks away from the Temple Square, we decided to go there first to look at the Christmas lights. It was majestic! We had a wonderful time, and as a bonus we ran into our friend Svetlana who is serving a mission there.

With Svetlana (in the blue hat) and her companion Sister Deighton, who happened to be the best friend of Sister Dixon who is serving here in Kazakhstan.

We had a question that we needed to ask Family History workers, so we went to the Family History Center. While we were getting our answers,  the kids spent 30 minutes in this awesome interactive room learning about the origins of their names and other great things.

Here is Nika using an app that takes a picture of your face and tries to figure out your what nationality you belong. It put her in the Russian costume! Ha!

An outdoor Nativity

Salt Lake Temple at night.

Looking into the Reflecting Pool.

So magical!

Lina

Lexa

Nika

Sophie

Papa with the girls.

After visiting the Temple Square, we wanted to go eat at the mall across the street but their food court was just crazy with all of the Christmas shoppers, Jazz goers, and the like, so we decided to go eat at the arena. That one decision cost us a lot of money but fun was had by all! Since we showed up a whole hour before the game, Spencer took us to the gift shop just for fun. A couple of hundred dollars later we came out as fierce Jazz fans! Spurs, beware!!! We decided to eat at Papa John’s pizza which was another $90. It’s a good thing we don’t do this very often, otherwise we would have gone bankrupt. We found our seats, and the game began! It was a very intense game (especially because we were sitting right next to a group of Spurs fans) until about the last 6 minutes of the game when it became obvious that Jazz would win! The victory was sweet and a confirmation to me that we didn’t waste our money earlier in the night. As a bonus, we also got free Chick Fillet sandwiches the next day because one of the Spurs players missed both of his free throws in the 4^th quarter. I have never heard so much noise made by excited fans when it happened! It was an awesome game to witness in person!

Spencer wanted a picture in front of the Jazz Note. 

Armored in our Jazz attire, let the battle begin! 

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After witnessing this beginning, I am a true believer that every show should start with fire! Or at least with a cake and ice cream!

Here are two favorite players: Donovan Mitchell (looking up) and Rudy Gobert in his fancy maroon suit. Both of them had injuries and weren't playing. 

Fan zone in action!

The game is getting too intense! Only biting of ones fingers can help to ease the growing anxiety. 

Will he make the basket?

And of course our Jazz Bear is the best!!!

To be continued...