ReDiscovering Utah

Scott and I had an excellent time in Utah visiting with friends and family. The drive was fantastic on the way to Utah from Cali. We kept getting texts from friends suggesting we figure out who Jim Bridger was. Puzzled, we watched, and as we came closer to Salt Lake City began to see SO many yellow billboards like the one bellow. "Jim Bridger - Discovered The Great Salt Lake", aka the Pacific Ocean.

I was kind of shocked at the number of yellow billboards taken up for this cause. For those of you who don't live in Utah County or SLC, these billboards are for a marketing campaign SLASH research program. We heard from some friends that a survey would be conducted after having these billboards were around for awhile to see if the information was retained. Maura and I also had a discussion on how the website data should be used to show the effectiveness of billboards. Though, I feel like you would have to adjust the data for the massive amount of billboard space this campaign used. It was everywhere! We literally saw this billboard every few blocks and even on two sides of a four way intersection in Provo.

Friday night we played games with Westover relatives in the Provo area, including Christie and Bree who drove down from Logan. It had been a little too long since we all last played Loaded Questions, and as usual it was a doozy! I kept wanting to take pictures of the group, but felt like I would be the Blogging Cousin if I took out my camera. Is it uncool for me to be a touristy every where and just take pictures because I want to blog? I'm still struggling with that camera confidence. Though I couldn't resist taking this picture of Michelle and Erik's little girl, Brynlee, who automatically showed me a "Cheese" pose when I brought out the camera.

On Saturday we visited Springville and all of our friends there. I asked Scott if we could stop by the Real Deals in Springville, since the store is only open on Thursdays and Saturdays. I had to take pictures of their very cute items since I was using a gift card and only purchased one thing! Too difficult to choose! Spring was definitely busting out all over.

Saturday was a jam packed friend day! At lunch I randomly saw Cindy (my French study abroad buddy) with her friends from Korea at Cafe Rio. Cindy's the best, because she knew Scott before his mission, and then met me in France before I ever moved to Provo and met Scott. Had my camera... and I definitely contemplated a picture with Cindy or even just of Cindy at her table eating Mexican with her Asian amigos. Saturday night continued the friend tour with an amazing Springville peeps party, where I again shyed away from my camera. Stacy made an amazing white chili, and there were treats galore and babies to cuddle.

On Sunday we went to visit our old ward in Springville. It was so fun to see everyone, and they even made Scott go up during Sacrament Meeting to give an update at the pulpit to the ward since we were in town. We felt a little embarrassed, but mostly very loved!

The weekend was packed full of family and friends, food, and games. I told Scott that he could plan whatever he wanted during the weekend, but Monday and Tuesday were my days to spend with my BFF, Maura! Scott would then tell everyone we visited that we only plan trips to Utah when there is a one-year-old birthday party. Thus everyone needed to remember to invite us to their babies' birthdays, so we had another excuse to drive out. But if there aren't any one-year-old birthdays in the near future, don't be too worried...

Kneaders is always calling me from the four corners of the earth to come back to Utah! No trip would be complete without a Turkey Bacon Avacado on Foccacia! Being back in Utah surrounded by friends and family made us feel right at home, and maybe like we'd left a little too soon!