Atlanta, Georgia

I have to admit, that I totally forgot a blog post.  As you may have noticed, I haven't been travelling very much lately.  That's both good and bad.  I get to see my family a lot more, but I also have a bit of "cabin fever" ; )  With a little break, I decided to take a very short trip with my wife.  As many of you know, she's a performer with Deseret Book's Time Out For Women tour.

I was lucky enough to see her very first performance with the tour, almost two years ago.  A few weekends ago was her last performance - with this current show.  So, we made the trek out to Atlanta, Georgia:

My wife traveled to Atlanta early, to visit with friends and set-up the show.  I arrived on the day of the performance.  As you know, Atlanta's Hartfsield International Airport is actually the busiest airport in the world these days.  One of the things that I love most about that airport, is the fact that they have a Nathan's Hot Dogs inside one of the terminals:

I'm a HUGE fan of hot dogs, and Nathan's are some of the best.  I grabbed a couple and headed right for the Georgia Convention Center, which is located right next to the airport.  There was a rail system that delivered me to the convention center, as well as our hotel next door:

When I arrived, my dear sweet wife had another treat ready for me - queso dip from Moe's Southwest Grill!  This is a restaurant that we discovered in Boston...and LOVED.  I'm amazed that there's one in Atlanta, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?? ; )

At the Convention Center, the women were lining up outside the doors to get in.  I'm amazed at how passionate these women are, for this event.  Make no mistake, it's an incredible gather of amazing women and amazing speakers and performers.  In Atlanta, there were over 1,400 women gathered:
 

My wife was one of the featured performers for the evening.  The rest of the event took place the next day.  As usual, she as a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  Through speech and song, she tells her life story and inspires women to overcome obstacles and live incredible lives of service and "mothering" - whether they have children or not:

This is a moment of levity from her performance, talking about how she saw her future from teen-age eyes

Every time I am lucky enough to watch her perform, it brings me to tears.  I can't always articulate how I'm feeling - just that she has the ability to bear her testimony through music.  Her voice was in fantastic shape and the songs really came alive that night.

Afterwards, it's FUN to watch the number of women that rush up to talk to her.  Many thank her for the unbelievable performance, others really want to share their own stories that mirror my wife's own.  Hugging and crying are part of the deal...my wife is like this emotional rock star ; )

After spending a lot of time talking to these women, we were hungry.  We set off for the airport, hoping to find some food.  With us, was this hilarious group of women from Atlanta.  We have good friends that now live in Atlanta and they brought an eclectic group of gals from their local congregation.  This is a crazy group of women...all in good fun.  After eating, one of them wanted everyone to go to the Interfaith Chapel in the airport:

What came next was unexpected.  We actually held a prayer meeting - at about midnight - when almost no one else was around.  I don't think I've ever delivered a prayer like that - and don't think I'll ever have those circumstances again.  Crazy!

The next day, my wife was using yet another of her arsenal of talents.  She set-up a photo booth just outside of the Time Out For Women event, taking fun pictures of women from all over the Southern U.S.  These pictures will be used in TOFW marketing in 2013.  It was fun to watch her coax crazy reactions from the women:

Overall, it was a wonderful 24 hours in Atlanta.  I'm a lucky guy, if you can't tell ; )  I'm so glad that my wife has these kinds of opportunities...and that I was able to see just how amazing she is.