10 days in Utah

Like most things in my life, this post is backwards. From end to beginning, back to front. Either way we look at it, we had an awfully good time.




A lovely Sunday evening at the Boise temple.



The most beautiful sunset we've seen in years was from the Y on the mountain above BYU. After a delicious Thai dinner, we hiked the Y in 20 minutes. It was a much easier hike than in my fat freshman days.



Debbie organized a wonderful Swedish celebration of Lundbergs. We played Koob, opened julgranskarmel and tried to find the almond in the rice pudding. The highlight was discovering that Kathryn Nelson, who plays Emma Smith and Abish in LDS movies, is a Lundberg! We are related to a movie star!







On Friday we spent the day at Heritage Park in Salt Lake. It was a recreation of pioneer life and was a perfectly relaxing day. The kids especially liked panning for gold, taking their gold nuggets to the bank, doing chores and going to pioneer school. Cooper got a shave from the barber and Marcos got the paddle from the teacher for speaking out of turn.



Eliza especially liked being with girl cousins of all ages. Grandma and Grandpa are always good sports about family reunions. Aunt Debbie sure knows how to throw a party. Her potatoes on the grill were the best I've ever had.

The Winwards introduced us to a new Utah tradition: The Kong Kone at Maceys. It is an obscene amount of ice cream in a cup (a cone won't hold it) for a ridiculously little amount of money. We went multiple times.


We had a great time with Kate and Evan at the beginning of the week. Chelsea ad Tyler "comped" us with tickets to Seven Peaks Water Park and we had a great time hiking up to Timpanogas caves. Chelsea has got to be one of the best cooks I know and I am always inspired by her amazing meals like homemade calzones and marinara sauce. It's still a pretty empty house without Beck, but I am inspired by Tyler and Chelsea's ability to keep living life for Kate and Evan. Tyler and I tried skiing on Utah lake twice. Both times were unbelievably terrifying. It isn't right to have that nice of a boat with that crappy of water. Tyler introduced us to our first "glaciers"; snow cones with ice cream and whip cream.

On Monday we dropped Wilson off at BYU for the week to attend EFY. He loved it. What a great place to attend you first dance. I am convinced it is the best testimony money can buy.

Eliza and Marcos say hello to the goats at Fairmont Hot Springs. The hot springs are almost exactly halfway between WA and UT and are the perfect place to stop for the night. We swam in warm water by the light of the moon with at least a half dozen honeymooning couples. We ought to serve as good birth control for the newlyweds