Nie Nie Night

As promised, I said I would post pictures of our Nie Nie Night (interchangeably called Nie Nie Adventure). I'm super excited right now because Nie Nie, Stephanie Nielson herself, read my last blog post and commented! Yay! Thanks to my brother-in-law Abe, other family members, and lots of friends and people I don't even know who showed their support on Facebook. Somehow...I don't know if Nie Nie was bombarded or if she just received a few emails or tweets, she got the link and was nice enough to check it out and send her love. So thanks for making my dream come true. :) It's almost as good as meeting her in person and giving her a big hug. Now this seems kind of awkward to post this, in case she sees it and thinks I'm crazy.

But alas, I just had the brilliant idea one day before Christmas, that Hey! We should go down to Provo and check out Stephanie's neck of the woods! My mom, sisters and I all read her book and we all love her, AND we love Provo since we're all BYU graduates. So why not??

This was my mom's present for Christmas. Instead of gifts, she likes to get "experiences". haha. Cute Mom. Like last year, I took her with my sisters to get mani/pedis for Christmas, and it was fun girl bonding time. So this year, I wrapped up a paper saying we'd be going on a Nie Nie Adventure, complete with perusing Provo, visiting the BYU Art Museum Carl Bloch exhibit, dinner at Cafe Rio, shopping at The Riverwoods, and dessert at The Sweet Tooth Fairy. Does that not sound like so much fun??

So that's just what we did. After driving up to the Y trailhead and taking that lovely picture with my beautiful Mama, we drove back through the neighborhoods and may or may not have seen Nie Nie's house (old house now....they moved), and then ended up on BYU Campus. Ahhhh it's always fun to go back. We got to the museum and they were all out of standby tickets for the Carl Bloch exhibit, but Mom played the "I came all the way from Pennsylvania and this is my last day" card, and so we got in! (haha)

The paintings were amazing, and it was really spiritual- all centered around Jesus Christ. We saw the same paintings here that Nathan did in their real home in a church in Denmark. Pretty cool. I love that Love art, too. From the museum, we walked around the BYU bookstore, and then headed to Cafe Rio.

Mind you, I can't eat anything at Cafe Rio. Well, I guess I could nibble on lettuce or a tomato, but they'd all be glutenated anyways so I just steer clear. But Mom loves Mexican (enchiladas, to be exact), and so do Britt and Bree, so it was fitting. But the MAIN reason we went there is because it's one of Stephanie's favorite places to eat. And it's also the first restaurant that she went to with her family after the accident, and sat and ate in public, which was a big deal for her. So yay for Cafe Rio. P.S. I really really really miss their pork barbacoa salads. Mmmm.

WELL....wouldn't you know: We sat down and started to eat and visit, when out of the blue, Nie Nie's two daughters and their grandma walked in and sat down at the table next to us. Whaaaa??! It was so randomly perfect. I just know her girls from pictures, and her mom is a politician and a big part of Provo. (And side note- Nie Nie's dad was the mission president in St. Louis, where my brother Nathan and his family live now). Anyways, that was a fun addition to the night.

After Cafe Rio, we went to the Riverwoods and visited Blickenstaff's, a fun toy store that is adored by Nie Nie's family. Gumball, anyone?

I love my sisters!

The lights were up outside for Christmas, and it was beautiful.

And then we ended the adventure at The Sweet Tooth Fairy, a yummy cupcake place that Nie Nie's a huge fan and advocate of. They even named a cupcake after her.

Sadly, I never visited the place before I developed all these crazy food intolerances, so I've never tasted anything from there. But I hear it's good. And they won on Cupcake Wars, so that's a bonus. :) Mom and Britt and Bree shared 3 different cupcakes, and I think the peanut butter chocolate was the fave. I enjoyed my homemade junior mints.

All in all, it was a lovely adventure and fun Christmas bonding time with my favorite women in the world. In honor of the woman we all admire. :)