Like Going Home

In many ways, returning to Utah County always feels a bit like going home. I lived there for nearly eight years. I went to college there, started my married life and career in education there, bought my first house there and brought two babies home there. There is quite literally a memory on every corner.  (Like the corner of Bulldog and Freedom where Jon was victim to a drive-by fry-saucing while we were playing tennis one evening.  It's still probably the most angry I've ever seen him in our entire marriage!)  To go back is to relive those memories and we love to drive by all the old familiar sites.

We drove by our first apartment to show the kids where our family started.  Then we drove by Westridge Elementary and remembered the names of some of my first graders.  Many of them are probably married by now.

Then we pretend we're driving home from the school to see the old townhouse.  It still looks the same.  The neighborhood is hardly recognizable, but our old house hasn't changed a bit.

Meeting up with old friends reminds me that even though we go years without seeing each other, we'll always be friends and their kids will keep growing up even if in my mind they are frozen at the age they were when we moved.

But one of the best things about visiting Utah County is getting to stay with my Aunt Shauna and Uncle John.  They're great.  They make us feel so welcome and loved as if we were their own children and grandchildren.  Their accommodations can't be beat with beds and private bathrooms for each of us.  Shauna kept us well fed and I don't think we woke up before 9 a.m. any of the five mornings we were there.

Look at this view from their backyard deck:

It's hard to see, but BYU's new jumbotron can be seen in the distance, as well as the Provo Temple.  We watched them test the screen in preparation for the first game.  

Here's a zoomed-in version of the same angle.  Can you find the Y on the screen in the middle of the picture?

One afternoon, we went to visit my aunt and uncle at the employment center where they are serving their fifth mission.  My aunt's title is Director of First Impressions.  Isn't that funny?  But let me tell you, that's the perfect title for her.

And she serves game day meals on BYU plates.  Isn't that the best?  She invited all of her grandkids that are currently BYU students, as well as my cousin's family that lives locally, over to have dinner with us.  It was fun to see extended family that we haven't seen in years!

The kids table--Caleb, Alyssa and Natalie with my cousin Steph's two youngest, Ava and Corbin.

While we love seeing all the old familiar sites, exploring the new ones is a lot of fun, too.  Like Provo Beach Resort, which is just down the hill from my aunt's house.

The kids did the ropes course:

I suspected we'd have one timid climber and two monkeys.  I was right on the count but wrong about which children would fall into each category.

Caleb was quite confident while Natalie was very hesitant.  I thought it would be the other way around.

After the ropes course we played a few arcade games.  Caleb is a master at the hoop shoot.  He easily beat these two competitors:

He actually took a turn on each station just so he could set a record high score on each of them.  He's a darn good shot! 

Nat was decent on the little hoop:

Later in the week we spent some time at a trampoline gym with the cousins.  I'm telling you, the fun just wouldn't end!  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the jumping and flipping, but the kids had a blast.

Our last hurrah of the trip was a day at Lagoon with our cousins, which was fun, fun, fun!  We have lots of past memories here but they're mostly of the kiddie rides, since that's where we spent most of our visit the last time we went to the park over 10 years ago.

No kiddie rides for us this time!  Oh no.  The kids went from one big coaster to the next.  They all loved Wicked:

I would have loved Wicked a lot more if we hadn't lost our camera during the corkscrew.  And it was our very first ride of the day!  Jon had the camera case velcroed to his belt but the force of the corkscrew ripped it away and sent it plummeting to the ground.  We did get it back later in the day and though it didn't appear damaged on first inspection, we've since discovered that it does not function properly.  Grrr!

Still, the kids had a blast going from ride to ride with their cousins.  No more fear of loop-the-loop for Caleb, that's for sure!

Can you see us on Colossus?

Caleb and Seth are in the sixth row, I'm with Sam in the seventh row and Alyssa and Natalie are in the row behind us.  Isn't this a cool picture?  Lucy was the photographer and I borrowed it from her. :)

We did have some crazy thunderstorms rain on our day--the kind that cause you to run for cover.  One even ripped branches from trees and pelted the ground with hail.  When one came late in the evening and many rides closed due to the lightening, we decided to call it a day.

We weren't happy about leaving:

But we weren't complaining, either.  We'd enjoyed a full day of thrilling fun with cousins and plenty of sunshine.  The kids will tell you our day at Lagoon easily qualifies as a highlight of their trip!

Phew!  Can you believe all that fun we had on our trip to Utah?  Just recapping it all has worn me out!  I'd also be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Sarah and Maureen who fed us and gave us a place to stay our first night in Utah, and to my parents for giving us a stopping point both coming and going.  It helped to break up the long, long drive. They also treated us to a nice dinner, some swimming, pedicures and more.  

We couldn't ask for better family and friends and the memories will last a lifetime.