I can Sundance better than you

As you know, Brian and I just celebrated our fifth anniversary.

We have been so busy with jobs, callings, grad school, moving and internships for the past five years that we haven't had a vacation for just the two of us since our honeymoon.

And with the impending arrival of Baby Faye we figured we had better take a vacation sooner rather than later.

So we did what any other couple would do and went to the Sundance Film Festival for a week.

Actually, this trip wasn't entirely for pleasure only.

You see, Brian won an award at film festival called Angelus a little while back.

Angelus Film Festival took Brian's film and two of their other award winning films up to Sundance for a screening.

And according to my pregnant memory, this is what we did.

I re-fell in love with snow all over again.

Seriously.

I am normally hotter than most people (only temperature-wise, of course)

and being pregnant means that I constantly feel like

I am running a fever while sitting in a sweat lodge in Death Valley.

There is reason why people refer to pregnancy as having "a bun in the oven."

So, the single digit temperatures were like a breath of fresh air for me.

Brian got to hang out with all kinds of cool industry people at the filmmaker's lodge.

Pregnant wives were not invited.

We got to see lots of movies including:

An African Election

Margin Call

The Last Mountain

The Flaw

The God of Love

and

I kid you not, The Redemption of General Butt Naked

I hung out with this moose whenever Brian was busy with his filmmaker stuff.


There were some long days with lots of trekking through the snow, waiting in line, fighting off the paparazzi and adoring fans.
Understandably, we got a little bit tired and tipsy from one to many Dr. Peppers.
Or maybe it was lack of oxygen.
The air is thinner up there.


We decided to escape the madness that is Park City for a day
and headed up to the Sundance resort.

We took in the scenery and some fresh air and critiqued the snowboarders.

If I wasn't pregnant I could've totally shown those snowboarders a thing or two.

Before heading back to Park City we stopped and chatted with Robert Redford for a few.

Back in Park City,

Brian and Luke Matheny (aka the Oscar nominee) hanging out before their screening.

The Angelus crowd kicking it on Main St. before the screening.

Me, Brian and the MIL hanging out in front of the Egyptian Theater before the big screening.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the actual screening and the Q and A session that followed because I was too busy stuffing my face with all the yummy food they were serving.

But it went well, the theater was packed, over-packed actually.

After all the seats were filled, it was standing room only for the rest of the folks.

The programmers were worried about the fire marshall storming in

and making everyone leave.

For the screening they showed the three Angelus short films, one right after another

and then brought the three directors up on the stage to answer the audience's questions.

I remember Brian saying beforehand

"No one is going to care about my film after they see Luke's film."

(Luke's film The God of Love is up for an Oscar for Best Short Film this year)

But even with an Oscar nominee sitting next to him, the majority of the audience's questions

were directed to Brian.

Yep, his film was that good.


It was a fun but very tiring vacation.

I'm already looking forward to our next vacation

and hopefully it won't be another five years before we get one.