Utah Trip

We were so excited to go to Utah this time. We drove out there again this time. Everyone kept telling us we were crazy to drive it again, but we can't live our lives in fear and that was a freak accident that pretty much never happens. I was at Girls Camp the week before we left. Collin was able to come to Girls Camp the night before we planned on leaving and just spent the night there and we left straight from Camp once our ward's cleaning was all done. It was about half an hour North of Des Moines so leaving from camp took off about 2 hours of our drive. We had a pretty uneventful drive out there. We did it in two days. The first day we drove about 12 hours and decided to stop in Rawlins, WY and small little town. However, we had to go to 4 different hotels before we finally found one with an available room. We had to pay $100 for a room that had mold on the bathroom ceiling, smelled like smoke even though it was a non-smoking room, and for breakfast all they had was Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, and donuts. WAY overpriced if you ask me. But it was 11:30 at night when we stopped and we weren't going to keep driving around til we found someplace else. We finished the drive on Sunday and only had about 4 hours to do. It was nice getting to North Ogden at about lunchtime.
We had so much fun seeing our family and friends. The first Tuesday after we got there, my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law gave me a baby shower. It was fun to see the Cragun family and to get lots of cute and fun things for our baby. We then went to St. George with the Cragun family. I've already written about it in the previous blog post so I won't say much about it other than we had so much fun spending time with the family. We especially loved going to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and swimming back at the house.
After St. George we got to meet up with our favorite people from Davenport. We were so lucky to have Dawn & Bryan and their kids as our neighbors! They were the greatest neighbors and friends! We love them all and are missing them like crazy! They just recently moved to Vegas for Bryan to start up his chiropractic office, but as they were driving out there we got to meet up in Salt Lake and have breakfast together! It was so much fun! It didn't really hit us that they were gone until we came back home though and they weren't here.
We also got to go to the temple several times while we were there. Dallin's fiance Megan received her endowments at Bountiful and we were there for that, we went to Brigham City for my parent's ward temple night and another time to do sealings with my family who were endowed, St. George with Collin's brother and niece for Baptisms for the Dead, and then my brother Dallin and his fiance got married in Bountiful that we were able to be there for! It was so nice having the temple so close that we were able to go a lot in the 3 weeks we were there.
There was a busy day full of showers while we were there too. It started out with a Baby Shower for me that the Barker Family and my friends came too. We got more cute things at this one! Lots of people that I have thank you notes to write to! Then the Barker family gave Megan a Bridal Shower which she got lots of groceries and food at! Lucky her!!! Then at night I had a Bridal Shower for my friend Rachael. It was so fun to see tons of family and friends in one day!
For the Fourth of July we went with my family to the North Ogden parade. It was pretty lame other than a few things. But it was very hot and we didn't have much water. By time we were done I was SO SO hot, dehydrated, and ornery. I was not a pleasant person to be around for a little bit. Even when we got back to my parent's house and had been there for a few hours I could not cool down. I was then forced to take a cold shower which I'm very grateful for since afterwards I felt MUCH better. Then that night we were invited to a swim and BBQ party at my parent's neighbors and then came back to my parent's for our traditional homemade ice cream & fireworks. The fireworks are shot off pretty much right behind my parents house so it's awesome watching from their house!
We got to see tons of friends too! We were able to get together with Zoe & Brienna, my 2 most favorite pianists from Weber! We went and got ice cream like we used to! It was so fun seeing and talking with them again. We miss talking and venting with them. We also got to hang out with Tucker & Kim. We were super good friends with them before and loved playing games with them. We got together to play games but then just ended up talking the whole night. It was fun to catch up with them.
Collin got to do lots of yard work for my dad, his parents, and even got to haul hay for my Grandma. My sister Emilee and her family came up to Utah as well as my Grandpa. It was good to see them all again. My brother Taft came home from his mission, which will have it's own post. Dallin and Megan got married, which will also have it's own post. We had a lot of fun while we were there, but we were definitely ready to come home and have life calm back down. Too much excitement and busyness for 3 weeks, hopefully I didn't forget anything.
And of course in my usual style, I did not take pictures like I should have! I only have a few to put on this post...

My wonderful sisters-in-law who threw the baby shower. Somehow my mother-in-law Mitzi didn't make it in the picture. Also we were missing Mandy and her girls who are in Vegas!

The best neighbors ever!!! We love you guys!

The pianists and our husbands/boyfriends