Glad to be back to Utah (lots of reunions)!!

When we came back to Utah I felt grateful for some things that I took for granted before going to Texas. Here's a few of the things I'm happy to have:

• My Bed
• A couch and rocking recliner.  So nice to have something comfortable to sit on again!
• Better tasting water (Texas water comes from lakes and tastes like dirt especially when water levels are low)
• A can opener that actually opens a can
• Maceys-one stop shopping for good prices on good produce, bakery, and meat.
• Not having to use the GPS anymore.  I've lived in Provo for 10 years now so I know where everything is that I need!
• Ability to park and walk up 1 short flight of stairs into our apartment. (our apartment complex in Texas we had to enter the parking garage, wait for the security gate to open, circle up 3 levels, park, then go through 3 big heavy doors, and across a breezeway to our apartment)
• Not hearing the trash chute and car alarms or cars driving in the parking garage at midnight.
• Cooler Weather
• Real Grass
• Family & Friends
• Cereal lasting longer (the humidity makes it go stale in Texas)
• Babysitters (such a blessing to have our 2 single sisters living so close again!)
• Temple within 5 minutes instead of 45
• Fast internet to post pictures to my blog (I used to go to the library because at home it was sooo slow!)
• Beautiful Wasatch Mountains 

This was after a rain storm at a park right by our house.  Love living right next to the mountains again!

We were able to see the full rainbow and it looked like it landed right on top of the mountain.

On the flip side, there are some things I missed from Texas too:

• More humidity for my dried out skin. Utah is so dry!
• Less traffic and less accidents.  Provo is so crowded with Universities.  Doesn't matter the time of day, there's just tons of people driving all the time and everyone going North/South is on I-15. There's not the maze of freeways to spread people out. And in Utah it seems like there are always accidents on every corner. I rarely saw them in Texas.  
• Gas was cheaper in Texas
• Grocery stores don't usually offer to bag my milk.  Almost everywhere in Texas offered. 
• Plano doesn't believe in speed bumps and I loved that!  They are in every parking lot in Utah and soo annoying!
• Wal-Mart was actually a nice place to shop and carts actually pushed smoothly and quietly.  I went to the Orem Wal-Mart and just laughed at how bad the carts are. Here's a video:

The best part of being home was seeing family and friends.  We had a lot of reunions in a couple weeks time and it was AWESOME!  That's what we missed most about being away in Texas! Here's everyone we got to see:

Cousins!

Justin's Siblings

Oh, how Grandma missed him!

Watching grain harvest on the Burley Farm.

Go Bobcats (my High School Mascot)!

Went to my 10 year High School Reunion.  Fun to catch up with friends.  

Dallin loved being outside on the farm!

Enjoying the tire swing at home in Burley.

Walking with Grandpa

Mercer Reunion in Salt Lake

Girls Night while Justin hung out with his brothers. Glad to be back to enjoy Becky's cooking!

84th Ward Reunion w/friends and Bishopric's wives.  Love these ladies!

Bishopric of the 84th ward (Colony ward back in 2005). These men are amazing!

Dallin & his cousin Gavin who is 5 months younger and loves to wrestle.  Dallin seems to be saying "stay right there..."

Dallin got distracted and moved in close to get toys.  Gavin is going in to take him down!

Me with Rachel Moon ( my replacement at Squire) who is amazing! We are at the Squire Alumni party so it was fun to see a lot of my past co-workers.

Hanks Reunion over Labor Day (separate post on this coming soon!)

We recognize that it's a HUGE blessing to live within 5 hours of every member of both of our immediate families again!! They are only spread as far North as Nampa, ID and South in Mapleton, UT.  We are planning to see them as often as possible this next year, since it's probably our last of living nearby!  And after that we plan to use all of Justin's vacation time to come back and visit!  We love you all!