No free lunches, but three free dinners

This was quite a week at our house.  If we can keep this up, I may never have to cook dinner again.  First, Wayne and I were invited to an "etiquette" dinner at BYU.  It was at the Gorden B. Hinckley Alumni Center, which is a beautiful building. They were looking for alumni who were willing to come mentor BYU students.  I don't know that we were actually helpful, but it was kind of fun.   We sat at a table with several BYU students and talked with them about their majors and life plans.  Anna King, an etiquette expert, was the speaker for the evening.  We had a fancy dinner so we could all practice our skills as they were taught.  We had vegetable soup, salad, rolls, pasta with braised beef tips, and chocolate cake.

On Friday, we went to the Blue and Gold banquet for Daniel's Cub Scout pack.  With boys running laps around the church gym, it was very informal.  We ate yummy taco salad.  The boys all decorated cakes for dessert, and various awards were given.  Daniel's won "The cake Baden Powell would most like to eat."  He thought that was pretty cool.      

It's a bear, in case you couldn't tell.

On Saturday, Wayne and I went to the Lincoln Day Dinner in the ballroom at the Marriott.  Wayne was invited by Utah State Representative Francis Gibson, who is a really great guy.  Our table was about 10 feet away from Senator Orrin Hatch's.  Whether you love everything about our elected officials or not, it was still pretty cool to be there with "celebrity" politicians.  Oh, and pardon the quality of the pictures--they were all taken with Wayne's phone.  

 

We also met Senator Mike Lee (no picture, though).  And this girl will look familiar to many of my blog readers:

Yep, that's my sister-in-law Wendy!  She's awesome.  We love hanging out with her.  She may not be an actual celebrity, but it sure seemed like everyone at the dinner knew her and wanted to talk with her.  She said it was because she met so many people while working on the Morgan Philpot's campaign last year.  I think it's because nobody can forget her beautiful face.  She was a little too popular for our liking, though, because we couldn't get Wendy to take our picture with Congressman Jason Chaffetz.  His wife Julie volunteered to take it for us.  Unlike some kinds of celebrities, politicians love meeting ordinary people and having their pictures taken.  Or at least they pretend to.