My Home Town

It was Stella's first trip to Utah. She only had three full days to spend with us, so it was impossible to do everything that we wanted to. For the past six years I have raved to Stella about a few things in Utah that we don't have here in Sacramento. I couldn't wait to take her to eat at Cafe Rio and Cracker Barrel. I am a diet coke/diet pepsi addict and was so excited for her to drink a soda from Gas N Go in Price. They have, hands down, the best soda ever. Period. It was so fun to take her back home and show her where I grew up. I have talked about where I grew up so much, that is was so awesome to get to show it to her in person. We got into town on a Thursday night. On Friday afternoon we took her to see Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake.

 Stella, me, Teague, Austin, Twyla



 Stella and me at the Salt Lake Temple. When we toured the temple grounds I thought that Stella would think it was beautiful, but I had no idea that she would be so fascinated by temple square. She teared up a few times and said that she was in awe. It meant so much to me to have her appreciate her experience as much as she did because it is such a huge part of my life.  

The boys with Grandma Twyla 

Twyla, Austin, me, Teague. I wish Stella would have been in this picture. I will never forget how moved she was on our way up to this Christus. It was awesome.

A few years ago Stella called me one night and asked if I knew where Castle Dale Utah was. Of course I said yes because it's the town I attended high school in. She said that she had just watched a documentary on PBS about a zebra farm in Castle Dale. I knew exactly what she was talking about. What a small world! Ever since then, seeing the zebra farm was on her list of things to do if she ever made it out to Utah. It had been so long since I had been there that I couldn't remember exactly where it was. We drove around and we were so excited when we found it! The only bummer was that we couldn't see any zebras. We got out of the car and I took her picture in front of the gate that said zebra farm. We got back in the car and decided to drive farther up the dirt road to see if we could spot them in the field. No luck. No zebras in sight. We turned around and were headed home when we saw the owner of the zebras opening the gate! We jumped out of the car and asked him if we could take a look at his zebras and get a couple of pictures. He seemed a little hesitant, but said we could get in our car and follow him. We were following him for just a minute when all of the zebras came running to get fed. They all lined up and it was awesome! Stella told me that seeing the zebras was right up there with whale watching in Hawaii. I'm so happy she got to check it off of her bucket list!

We went to Huntington Lake with my family for some boating and a bbq.

Austin and Harli

Only Teague can look this cool with a binki in his mouth. ;)

 Austin and my dad driving down to the barn.

 Grandpa showing the boys his baby chickens.

 Austin and Harli had so much fun playing in the water.

Teague playing aunt DeDe's piano.

Austin and his uncle Dustin. I think they look a lot alike. They both have those beautiful eyes!

Shannon and Dusten have a ginormous bath tub. It has bubbles and jets and the works. Austin and Harli really wanted to get in it one night. We couldn't figure out how to turn on the bubbles or the jets. Dusten got home and got them working. He was their hero! Shannon and I were chatting in the next room. We kept hearing them laugh and talk about bubbles. We assumed they meant the bubbles that Dusten just turned on. Peyton came in our room saying, "Mom! They dumped shampoo in the tub and there are bubbles everywhere!" We couldn't even get mad because they were having so much fun! The next morning Austin told me that their house was way cooler than ours because they have a big bubble tub.

Instead of going on a vacation with Luke's side of the family this summer, we had a mini staycation in Salt Lake with them. We all went to a lake in Herriman and the kids had a blast!

Teague and Grandma Twyla in her back yard.

Aust swimming with dad. 

Teague LOVES crackers. They are his favorite snack. He loves to carry the box around and help himself.

Every night when Austin goes to bed, Luke tells him a story. He makes up the best ones! He told Aust a story based on the alpine slide in Park City, Utah. In his story he talked about this big mountain with slides. He said that one of the slides was called Blue Thunder. While we were in Utah, Luke really wanted to take Aust to ride down "Blue Thunder." He was so excited!

Grandpa Danny is so awesome and raced down the slide with them. That is him on the left with his hat on backwards. 



I took the boys' pictures in Danny and Twyla's back yard. They work so hard in their yard and it pays off. It's beautiful! 

 Teague was wiped out after pictures.

 Luke LOVED the ninja turtles when he was little. He was Raphael for Halloween one year. While we were in Utah this summer Twyla pulled out Luke's old Halloween costume. Aust was so excited to put it on! He has been wearing this costume on a daily basis and can't wait to wear it for Halloween this year.

 Teague and Grandma Twyla.