Home Sweet Home

The kids and I headed up to SLC recently to attend my friend's wedding and to spend a little time with Pa and other family members. The drive went well, but my favorite part was when we entered Utah Valley around Pason. I instantly have this nostalgia feeling of this is where my roots are. I love seeing the majestic mountains with the blue sky and everything was so green. I had to point out to Carter that these are real mountains unlike the hills above Anthem that he always calls mountains. Then we came into Provo, where I feel, I came to know myself years ago, where I formed lasting friendships, where I met my husband, where I gave birth for the first time and where I graduated college. I have so many fond memories of Provo. I pointed out the big "Y" on the mountain and told my kids that we would hike there someday as a family and bore them all with details of my past life there.

Next we came into the Salt Lake Valley. Here is where my heart starts to race a bit, cause I know that my childhood home is only 20 minutes away. As we headed north on the 2-15 that runs parallel to Wasatch Blvd, I love to look down onto the valley and see all the trees. You can barely make out the roof tops of the many homes because the trees are so grown and lush. And then I turned my head to the east and I see again another mountain - Mt. Olympus.

By this time it was 8:30pm and the sun was still in the western sky, not quite ready to set. I love Utah summers because the evening lasts forever. Once we stepped out of the car in front of my parents home, there was a distinct smell of my childhood. The cool breeze mixed with freshly cut lawn. I never thought that I liked this smell, but it is one that I don't get very often living in the desert.

That night I slept with the windows open and had to pull the comforter over my legs in the early morning hours to warm myself. Then around 7:30am I woke again to a familiar sound. A neighbor was cutting his lawn. When I was a teenager I was always so bugged by that sound during the summer when I was trying desperately to sleep in. During the summer, lawns were mowed every morning during the week, not just on Saturdays as was the case during the fall and spring seasons. I was surprised that I wasn't at all bothered, but excited to find my kids and send them off to play with the neighborhood kids or to get them swimming in the pool. I was excited for them to experience what I experienced as a child. So for a week, they played with friends, swam multiple times a day, ate pizza on the basketball court, enjoyed seeing their cousins, aunts, uncles and Pa - Nana and Kerry were out of the country. We had runs to Holiday Oil to get fountain drinks and treats. We had snow cones with Uncle Mark and stayed up late until the sun finally set. I had a fabulous time growing up and hope that my kids enjoy their childhood and make lots of memories that they can dwell on when they are thirty-something. Ahhhhh, it was great week of remembering!

Here are some of the fun times we had, mostly in the pool :) This is Kamryn and her friends.

Beckham - my sister's boy, Carter and Mason



Jody lounging by the pool. My sis and I hung out each day with our kids. We took them to IKEA and met my sis-in-law and her little girl, Molly. That is a way fun store that I recommend to anyone. We need one in Vegas!! We also took the kids to my friend, Sicley's home to get our hair done one day. Can you imagine us showing up with all our kids, plus Sicley has two kids of her own? CHAOS! What a great friend!! We swam at my parents and even went swimming one day at Murray Park. That is a way fun pool with more relaxed rules than the community pools here in Vegas. I was able to take Mason down the slide on my lap. He even braved the slide all by himself, but decided to quit when he came down backwards a couple of times!

Mason and Beckham laying out poolside!



This is Jody's new baby, Liam. He was such a trooper while we were at the murray park pool. Jody brought his swing with us and he was content as cam be to just swing the afternoon away.