Utah: Provo

Because Todd's new job starts later than his old one was supposed to, we got to go out to Utah for 9 days. Going to Utah is always a weird experience--it's a great place in some ways and straight up weird in others. We're out of the Utah Mormon Culture loop now and I don't understand Davis County's love of Kate Gosselin hair, Ed Hardy knockoffs, and mispronouncing Ts and words ending in -ing (snarky... also true). But I love being at Mom & Dad's house in Provo.

We spent the first half of the trip in Provo. We taught Cait how to swing a (real) golf club, went mini golfing (she's a cheat) and spent an afternoon driving Provo Canyon and the Alpine Loop.



Utah looks astonishingly brown from the air, especially coming from the bug jungle where we now live. But from the ground, it is beautiful--especially Provo Canyon.

And you really cannot beat Sundance. If we hadn't been married in Nauvoo, I would have chosen Sundance for our wedding reception. It's one of my favorite places in the state, after home and possibly the south campus path at BYU.

 Todd tried hard to get Scooter running, but she seemed to be past saving.

Cute Cait, cute scoot.

We also celebrated my birthday. It's still two weeks away--longest. celebration. ever. It was weird to celebrate just my birthday-- Richard's birthday is two days before mine, so they've always been celebrated together! But he was in Seattle, so it was just me this time.

Mom and Dad were sneaky and got me to the Apple Store after lunch at Tucanos. I was supposed to tell Todd exactly what I wanted so he and Dad could come back later to buy it and surprise me. But unless I'm given a directive, I blab and philosophize and generally do not give a straight answer. So they gave up and just told me to pick something out. New MacBook Air, hooray! 

My after-dinner party request was badminton. Playing with Cait was a riot, like wet-your-pants funny. We were horrible-- but you can't beat the view from home!