Utah

For the last couple of days, I've been in Utah.  Specifically, I've stayed pretty much in Utah County.  The main reason I'm here with my family, is for my wife to attend her high school reunion.  I'm along for moral support ; )

Utah County is home for my wife's family, several members of my own family, and Brigham Young University - my alma mater.  The fun thing about shopping in this area, is all of the BYU paraphernalia & souvenirs that you can find.  I saw this at the local Best Buy:

And at the local Costco, I found this awesome collection:

I wish it were cheaper to ship all this home!

One of the biggest things that I miss in Utah, are the mountains.  Utah is home to the Wasatch Mountains.  From Utah County, the biggest and - in my opinion - the most majestic, is Mount Timpanogos.  Just looking up from your car, front yard, the store...whatever...you get this EVERY DAY:

While here, my wife was also able to attend a fun photography workshop in American Fork.  Just a few blocks away from the class, you'll find this amazing building:

That gorgeous structure is the Mt. Timpanogos LDS Temple.  This is not only a beautiful building, but where my wife and I were married.  It's pretty special to me ; )

Utah County has seen a lot of development over the last decade - including the introduction of several retail and restaurant chains.  It's now a much better place, now that In-n-Out Burgers has established a foothold in Utah:

One other thing that I love about Utah County in the summer, are the temporary produce stands that pop up all over, giving you access to produce directly from local farms.  My favorite is the corn - there's nothing like it outside of Utah.

Again...check out the mountains just behind...these folks are spoiled!

As I said, we were here for my wife's reunion.  She was asked to sing at the event, as well as take some pictures.  She spent most of the evening like this - going from table to table, taking photos:

Everyone had a great time, and were lucky enough to hear my wife rapping with Vanilla Ice to "Ice, Ice Baby" - one of the songs from their senior year.  It was hilarious...

Staying through the weekend, we were able to visit with lots of family and friends.  Here, we were able to catch-up with my sister and her husband;

We had dinner at my Aunt's house, and were able to see even more family (my younger brother, cousins, another aunt):

G-Man jumped on the couch and asked to hold his little sister.  When we agreed, he yelled for me to come take their picture.  I'm glad I did:

We also met with some of my wife's family.  This is my wife with her paternal grandmother.  They're fun to visit with:

We were lucky to spend some time with my wife's sister.  They're fun to watch together.  As with most sisters, they have a "short hand" in talking with each other, so they have very quick conversations:

Although the kids look the same size, our nephew is several months younger...he's a BIG boy

We also caught up with some Boston friends, that had moved to Utah.  This is an amazing family - he was our first Bishop when we moved into our Boston house.  They lived in a gorgeous community, and it was just a blast to see them again.

We also took the time to visit the cemetery where my wife's mother is buried.  G-Man is getting old enough for us to talk with him about his Grandma that he doesn't get to see.  While there, we had awesome timing to run into my Father-in-law.  He's a funeral director, and was there conducting a service.  He's such a great guy - I love this picture that we took in a quiet corner of the cemetery:

We ran for lunch with my Sister-in-law and her family.  My niece's favorite place to eat is Taco Amigo - so we indulged her.  The kids had a blast playing at the table:

Then, we spent the afternoon at the BYU campus.  This school is very near and dear to me - I had a wonderful time attending classes there.  The campus is simply gorgeous, one of the cleanest that I've ever walked through.  My oldest daughter was born there, while I was in school.  I had a chance to return there a few years ago, to complete some classes - and that's when I met my wife.  For me, it's a pretty awesome place.

We started out at the BYU football stadium, where they've placed a statue of a cougar - the mascot for BYU:

G-Man and his cousin M - they have such fun together

We then walked into the stadium, and noticed that one of the gates was open.  Despite all the signs asking me not to - I ran on down to the field:

You don't get too many chances to take pictures like this...

We then headed up to the BYU Creamery, where they actually make ice cream, cheese and milk.  I loved the BYU Donuts:

The ice cream was much better than I remember.  The kids didn't seem to have any issue with it at all:

Even the little one enjoyed a few spoonfuls of Prailines and Carmel ice cream:

We finished the afternoon on campus.  No trip to BYU is complete without a visit to the BYU Bookstore.  Lots of books, shirts, and other souvenirs were acquired, trying to keep BYU in business ; ) Here, we tried to exhibit the true "Spirit of the Y" (see the mountain behind us):

I tried to instill a reverence for BYU in my youngest child, showing her the big "Y" on the mountain.  Hopefully, she'll remember the wonderful speech I gave her ; )

Well, that's it for our quick trip.  Now that I've written this post, I realize what a whirlwind trip it really was.  There never seems to be enough time to do everything we want.

Now, it's on to Seattle....