...la la la our trip to Utah....

During August Josh & I traveled to Utah to visit my lovely grandparents.

It's no secret that they are beautiful now, but I absolutely loved these paintings of them when they were first married. My talented grandmother, Betty, painted these in the mid 1950s. I'd love to have them in my home someday. Josh and I had so much fun spending time with them and we love them so much. We sure wish that we lived closer.

Grandma and Grandpa are wonderful hostesses. We did numerous things with them, some the highlights included a review of their mission from Mongolia, playing hand & foot, Cafe Rio for lunch (something I've been deprived of living in the South), family Sunday barbecue, the famous Aggie Ice cream Creamery, and a nature hike along Grandpa Jimmie's golf course.

Another reason for going to Utah during August is to see beautiful weddings. Josh and I had three weddings to go to this week. Two of my cousins got married (the third to be reported on later): Aaron to Ginger (pictured on the right, sadly I didn't get any pictures of them) and Lindsay to Preston. After attending 8 wedding events in 5 days, we decided that we needed to be professional wedding critics (all three weddings passed with flying colors).

With their being two weddings in the family, JOsh and I were able to see most of my cousins. I had so much fun catching up with all of them. I obviously didn't use my camera enough on this trip, but I did manage to snap a few pictures.

Me and my sweet Maria.

I was also so happy to see Megan and Dallin's beautiful twin girls, Isabella & Avery.

The last time that Josh and I went to the Salt Lake Temple was on our wedding day 28 months prior. We had so much fun reminiscing about our perfect day. I love temple square in the summer.

Being in Utah again made me forget how much I missed the majestic mountains. I have also forgotten about the high altitude and the lack of humidity aka extreme dryness. Josh and I had a few issues trying to run there, but Josh sure loved the cool 60 degree weather (I seriously regretted not having a jacket).

My mother drove down to Utah from Washington for the weddings also. I am such a mamma's girl, I was so happy to see her. We hiked up to castle rock together.


Reason #3 for our trip was to see Elizabeth, who lives about one mile from my grandparents and is attending Utah State for her masters degree. Elizabeth took us on a tour of the beautiful campus and showed us her building.

Elizabeth also took us to replenish our supply of Gossner's milk, exposed us to a demolition derby (Utah style), introduced us to papusas and took us to get wannabe bear lake raspberry shakes (that were every bit as divine as the originals).

Reason four to go West was to find Cherry Dip Cones at Dairy Queen--I still have yet to find these east of the Mississippi.

I was shocked that Elizabeth and Joshua had never had one before.

Being the caring person that I am, I made sure that our trip to Utah didn't end with out a visit trip to the DQ.

and yes, they were just as good as I remembered :)

Y.U.M.