Utah!

We went up to Utah for the first week of October. It was in the middle of Wizard of Oz rehearsals, but I am glad I took that break. Unfortunately, I was sick almost the entire time. However, my awesome parents watched my kids in the morning so that I could sleep in and get better. I hadn't slept in consistently like that in a long time.

While we were there, we did a few things (despite my sickness):
-One of the first things we did was go on a family walk with my mom. We took the trail near her house that she walks almost daily. It was so beautiful! We don't see much of fall in Arizona, but Utah's autumn is spectacular. Even Asher noticed how beautiful it was there. He went on and on about it.

-We visited the Adairs in northern Utah (without our kids, and Dan spent the night so he could work and hang out).
-We went to dinner with my sister Tracy and our brother and his wife... and I met their sweet little baby girl. I also saw their condo for the first time, which was fun.
-We took the kids to the Springville Museum of Art. They had a strange style of art featured, but I loved the water sculpture. The kids got to draw a little, and see the big Bronze Indian. The Russian art was amazing! I took a few pictures. But my favorite part was something that my mom and I discovered by accident as we were trying to leave. It was an exhibition of Fred Howard's study of the Tabernacle and the organ. I loved the style of his paintings.

-We ate at Magleby's with our family and Jon and Lisa Williams, which is funny because the last time we saw them was when they got married... and their brunch was at Magleby's. (Different location, but still.) We met their cute daughter Jane, and they came over to my parents house so that we could talk and hang out.
-Chad and Clara hooked us up with a guy who cooked dinner for the family. It took 4 hours, and in return, he wanted us to buy his super expensive cookware. Ever heard of SaladMaster? Yeah. I was actually interested in it, but it was far too expensive, and it was presented in a way that turned me off. The guy was like "you are going to die of cancer and obesity unless you buy and use our cookware." And he somehow took 3 1/3 hours to give us that information. At the very least, that experience will give our family something to joke about for years to come.
-My dad gave Asher and Gwen tractor rides, we ate my favorite childhood salsa (made from garden grown tomatoes-thanks mom!), we watched the first presidential debate, we saw the movie Hugo (in 3D!), Dan went shooting with Jess, the kids and I saw my sister Kristy's new house, we visited Grandma Great on our way in and our way out, and we enjoyed everyone's company. We also got to chat with Dan's parents for a while. They were in town for General Conference. Asher and Gwen were confused.

-Dan and I also went to the first session of General Conference at the Conference Center. It was amazing! I had never been. We were in "nosebleed" seats, but we had a good experience regardless. Afterwards we at ate at an amazing hamburger place called JCW's. Everything was SO good. We have to remember that place for our next Utah trip.    

To sum up: We had a great time, and we are wishing we could go up again soon. I feel like I don't see OR talk to my family enough. I wish I was better at keeping in touch, and I wish we saw them more. Ah well, that's life I guess.