It’s been a while since I’ve visited Utah. The last time I was in Utah was for Thanksgiving in 2019. If you didn’t know, I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and we have quite a few relatives that lives there. I love visiting Utah because I love watching my mom hang out with all of her sisters. It’s always a fun time seeing the extended family!

Flying to Salt Lake City, Utah

My cousin Jimmy was getting married, so of course, we had to celebrate his wedding! I flew into Salt Lake City on Friday night after my work event. My work was having a bowling competition called Ad Bowl with other advertising agencies in the valley. It was so much fun! The theme of the event was a slumber party, and my team was called “Nightmare Wolves” – my favorite board game is One Night Ultimate Werewolf, so this was perfect!

Anyway, I flew to Utah right after the Ad Bowl event, and my flight got delayed by two hours. I didn’t land in Utah until 2 am local time, but luckily, my cousin Tammie was able to pick me up from the airport despite her having a long day with sorority recruitment – it feels like forever again since I was in a sorority, ha.

Wedding Tea Ceremony

The following day began the wedding ceremony. Because my mom’s side is Chinese (we fled China to Vietnam, and then we fled Vietnam to America) and my cousin’s wife is Vietnamese, we held a tea ceremony that blended both cultures. They asked me to be part of the tea ceremony since there was a total of four bridesmaids and four is an unlucky number in most Asian cultures. This is because, in Chinese, the word “four” 四 is very similar to the word “death” 死. I was so excited to help be a part of the wedding and we ended up with a total of 6 bridesmaids!

By this time, I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, so I was pretty exhausted when the tea ceremony ended. I took about an hour’s nap and my day started getting mixed up. I started referring to the tea ceremony as “yesterday” instead of “this morning”. Haha, it took a while for my brain to process everything that happened that day.

Later the day, they had a traditional American wedding. The venue overlooked the valley, and it was so gorgeous. I also got to play a part in the wedding and walk the flower girl down the aisle. Emma was so cute!

Oktoberfest in Park City

The next day we decided to go to Oktoberfest in Park City! Oktoberfest was so much fun, and Park City was so beautiful. Some of the cousins got matching permanent jewelry. Stephany and I got anklets, and Aimee and Breanna got bracelets.

We ended the trip with dinner at Ombu Hotpot.  I decided to do two different pots: a bone broth and a medium spicy. We also celebrated several birthdays – it was my uncle Sanh’s, my uncle Thanh’s, and my cousin Jayden’s birthday all around the corner, so we decided to kill several birds with one stone and celebrate their birthday with one massive dinner.

The trip was so much fun and congrats to my cousin Jimmy and his wife Emily! I can’t wait to see the family again in Utah. I’m planning on visiting again in early December! Hoping we can go snowboarding too.