Life is full these days, and it isn't slowing down any time soon. I had to force myself to sit a few minutes and take time for an update. We just returned from a fun visit to Utah. Now we have a day of catch up for laundry and a bit of house cleaning before packing up for several days of spiritual inspiration. In fact, posting will probably be a bit sporadic for a couple more weeks, and then hopefully I'll be able to resume my normal posting schedule (whatever that is).
I thought I'd share a few highlights of our Utah trip. We hadn't been back for more than a year so we had a long agenda of shopping and visiting plans. It was difficult to get everything done and see everyone we wanted to in just a few short days (between two LONG days on the road), but we did a respectable job. In the end we did less painting the town with our credit card and more catching up with friends. Which was just fine.
We stayed with our ex-next-door neighbors (love you guys!) and shamefully didn't take any photos of them. Our time with them was fantastic and it was a blast to fall right back in to our old patterns—hanging out outside while the kids played and playing Settlers of Catan. We even took time to play at the park and visit a few others in the neighborhood. Speaking of our old neighborhood, I had to sneak a couple of photos of our old house:
The new owners get to enjoy the fruits of all my planting labors. Everything has gone crazy.
Perhaps just the motivation I needed to patiently tend to my new garden and dream of the day it matures like this. I mean, how about those lilies? They're huge!
Something we don't miss so much:
Incessant road construction and traffic.
I popped by my old office for lunch and a visit with old coworkers. Tom did the same the next day while I checked off a big item on our shopping agenda—Ikea. They were under construction :( and out of stock on a lot of items (grrr) but I still left with a much lighter wallet. I'm sure you'll see some of my purchases in future posts.
We spent a fun-filled day with friends downtown, shopping and attending the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway. The kids were so happy to see their old friends.
Sure loved meeting this beauty of a baby also:
The chalk art was fun to see:
From the Gateway we rode the tracks to the new City Creek development, across from Temple Square. Tom worked on that job when we were there, so it was fun for him to see the finished project. It was a bit depressing to see how many stores had pulled out of other shopping areas to go there. (Even my beloved Anthropologie that I so looked forward to stopping at was closed at Gateway and not yet reopened at City Creek. That saved me some money, I guess.) I hope places like Trolley Square and Gateway don't die because of this development—however nice it is. It was a shopper's paradise, but it was hard to do much real shopping with lots of kids in tow.
We ended with a bit of time at Riverton (church) Convention. We certainly could have profited from spending more of our time time there but enjoyed the time we did have, and the people we saw.
And then one final visit on our last night:
A reunion of two-year-olds and their mamas. The perfect way to cap off the trip.
For those faces we regretted to miss, we hope to see you next time. For those we did see, thanks for the great time. And a huge thanks especially to our gracious hosts. Miss you already!