Zions Mercantile and Robert Boyd

A few weeks ago I spent an amazing day at Shops at the Riverwoods in Provo with some of my blogging friends.  And one of my favorite stores that we visited was Zions Mercantile which is an amazing LDS bookstore and church history gift shop.


The owner of Zions Mercantile told us stories about her experiences running the same shop in Nauvoo Illinois.  She also told us stories behind some of the merchandise and displays in her store (I almost felt like I was in a museum - except that I could look and touch and BUY STUFF!) 

The whole store was amazing.  Really.  (Especially if you like church history and/or heritage decor and gifts.)

But my favorite part about spending time at Zions Mercantile was meeting Robert Boyd.  Robert is the amazing artist behind all of those wonderful temple photograph/paintings.  You know the ones I'm talking about?  The ones that look like the temples are literally glowing?  (My favorite is his popular Salt Lake Temple detail with red leaves - do you know what photograph/paintings I'm talking about now?  Yeah, HIM.)

Robert told us the story behind his amazing artwork, about how he wanted to capture the feeling of the temple; and portray not only the image of a building but the spirit of peace and comfort that surrounds every temple.  It was very inspiring.  And Robert is just a really nice and extremely humble guy.

He's the one on the right (obviously) with the shop owner in the middle.

Basically, the whole thing was a touching, awesome, inspiring and spiritual moment.  Which obviously wears off quickly with me, because I really just couldn't help photo bombing other people's pictures:

Do you see me back there?!  Photo bombing is not touching, inspiring or spiritual.  But it is REEEEEEEALLY HILARIOUS.  

Oh man, I'm funny!  And also, yes, I am a mood ruiner.  But you should check out Zions Mercantile and Robert Boyd anyway.  Because they're pretty awesome and they'll probably never photo bomb any of your pictures (no promises from me though).

Zions Mercantile and Robert Boyd compensated me for writing this with the best swag bag I have EVER received.  E V E R.  All the amazing photos were provided by Bryce Olsen Photography.

P.S.  Dear fellow bloggers, I'm sorry I photo bombed your picture.  Ok, not really.  But let's pretend I'm sorry anyway.  SORRY.