Lost in SLC

Last Thursday was supposed to be the beginning of my vacation. But it wasn't.
The morning started slowly but by noon it was obvious that this trip was much less about relaxing and much more about fulfilling family obligations. I had very few expectations, but was hoping to have some time to enjoy the company I was in and maybe go on a gondola ride through the canyon.
Instead, I spent the majority of the trip trying to convince my mother-in-law that it was impossible to please everyone, visiting neices and nephews at their soccer/football/ballet events and maneuvering my way through a city I'd never driven in before.
There were a few highlights... it wasn't ALL bad. For instance, I finally met Logic's uncle and his family. And I had a nice afternoon in Park City on Friday. But there was also a low point. A very low point where I found myself swearing and screaming up a storm in the car with Jade.
We had just finished watching Alexandria's ballet practice when we were finally free to do a little shopping. So the two of us got directions from Tanji (step-sister and Alexandria's mom) and headed south on the freeway. But we soon remembered that SLC has a funny habit of naming their streets by one number and using another for directions (ex: 2300 is known as 23rd. who does that?) and couldn't remember if Tanji was referring to the actual number or the local number when she told us to get off at 22nd. After driving for 15 minutes, we decided to get off at the next exit and call Jade's step-dad who grew up in the city.
It was a moment of desperation. We didn't have many options, but looking back - calling Stephen should have been our LAST resort. AFTER circling the city and trying to ask missionaries for directions. You see, Stephen has a habit of acting like he knows the answer when he, infact, didn't even understand the question. After 5 minutes on the phone Jade realized Stephen was giving us directions back to grandma's house instead of to the mall. She quickly got off the phone with him and shot me a look that could only mean we were on our own.
After much more swearing, screaming and laughing at how rediculous this situation was, we found the mall. Unfortunately, we only had 40 minutes to look around before we had to get back to grandma's for dinner.
On top of getting lost, we both found ourselves trying on clothes that happened to be unflattering and way too small. So the trip was a complete disaster. We left knowing we'd be late for dinner AND that we were fat.