Utah trip so far...

The past few days have been great! Thursday evening after we landed in Utah we traveled to Provo and visited some of our friends in the area. We miss the wonderful ward we lived in, but like us, most of the people we knew have moved away to other phases in life. Friday we had lunch with Andrew (my little bro) and then went to the Hill Air Force Base Air and Space Museum. After going to the new Smithsonian a few weeks ago, this was a little lame. We enjoyed the time with our family though and that is what counts. Today we started out by having breakfast with my grandma (great-grandma to the boys). After we finished eating we decided to go to her house so the boys could run off the yummy chocolate chip pancakes. During that time Matthew mowed the back lawn (twice! It was long!) and we put the boys to work. We cleaned up all the tree branches and leaves from the neighbor's tree and put them in a trash can for compost. It was so great to help gram for a while. Oh, and Matthew helped her put her new microwave in and has the old one in the back of our rental. There will be more to come on what happens with it later this weekend. My parents met us for lunch, which we truly enjoyed and Courage somehow packed it all in. (Seriously, he is NOT a teenager yet...I'm worried what it will be like then!) I then went shopping with my mom and Matty took the boys home for a nice long nap (3 hours)! As a conclusion to this day we were able to go to the temple! Temple trips are not an easy thing for us at home. They take 6 hours minimum because of the 2 hour one way drive and 2 hour session. Then add in finding a babysitter and scheduling a full Saturday of not being at home doing things there, like mowing the lawn. It was great to drive less than 20 minutes and make it to the temple! The amazing thing is, we could have gone 1 hour and made it to at least 3 temples! I love the temple and am so grateful to those who attend and who serve in them. Well, back to tonight, I have this awful cough that is getting better, but is due to the horrible allergies I've been suffering from lately (blasted PA!). I forgot to take my meds before going and was fighting coughing the whole time, but one of the sisters gave me some mints to help soothe my throat. I kept thinking she looked familiar, but couldn't think of where I knew her from. After the session we talked and I asked her name: Brigette Smith! My English Professor from last semester! I couldn't believe it. I truly enjoyed my English class and can't wait until I go back to school again. I'm excited to take another English class from her and plan on it once Matty allows me to take classes again (long story.) I am amazed at how the gospel brings us together in so many ways. Now, I am exhausted from this schedule and going to bed!