Utah Part I

After one incredibly LONG drive on I-80 through Wyoming (my least favorite of states to drive through), we arrived in Salt Lake and were greeted by custard from Nielson's in Bountiful, courtesy of Doug's brother Trevor. Not a bad way to start a vacation. The boys were immediately thrilled to have some uncles to play with even though it was way past bedtime.

Thursday morning we headed up to Ogden to spend the day with Zeke and Angela. I can't really express how much i miss them! Bode and Zeke picked up where they left off. They are such good friends and have so much fun together. They like the same things and get along so well. They are staying with her parents until their house in CO sells, so the bonus was that her parents are on somewhat of a farm and still have horses and goats and a huge, enviable garden. The boys got to ride Dusty the Horse (Bode didn't want to but Keegen did) and run around like only country kids can. Angela and i got to chat all day long with very little interruption and i got to eat all sorts of yummy tomatoes straight from the garden (Angela's dad kept bringing me different varieties to try).

Friday was our day in Provo. Trevor and his wife, Bethany, graduated from BYU. Holy memories, Batman. After the ceremony (which was in the Smith Fieldhouse, where i had PT in the early mornings for ROTC) a bunch of us headed up the RB stairs to check out the bookstore. It was when i got to the top of the stairs and found myself totally disoriented that i realized how much campus has changed in the past 11 years. So many new buildings. A much more modern campus than when i was there (which was at the dawn of the cellphone and email! Ouch!). I love perusing the BYU bookstore. I found some great, yes, dinosaur books for Bode on clearance.

The original Bell Boys, minus Randy

After all of that, we had a family BBQ with Bethany's family. The kids had a great time on the swingset and there was a fantastic two-story playhouse that connected to the upper deck (so now that's what i want Doug to build in our backyard!! I think i said, "Wow. If we had one of those, i'd never see the boys!" That's how much they enjoyed it).