More about Utah trip...

A couple days after Easter I met with Candace Salima for breakfast. It was so fun getting to know her better, she's such a cool lady. Not far into our talking did we realize the reason she's to be my mentor and I still can't believe this blessing I've been given of having her walk me through my first novel. It was an inspirational and fun visit. Candace has given me homework to read up on along with a few other things before I continue on writing.

As we planned, we had Family Night at the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. It was very neat to sit there and have a talk with the kids about temples. It was hard to keep 9 children from running wild on these quiet grounds but we did alright. This is the temple James and Melissa were married in.


Our family was able to tour downtown Salt Lake one day. We had an amazing time learning and enjoying the unique and sweet spirit you can only find at Temple Square. We went to several places and loved every bit of it.
I took our children out to my friend Bethany's home for a two day visit. Our kiddos played so well together so much that they had a hard time leaving. My kids call the Cruz girls their 'other cousins'. So cute! Bethany and I had a blast catching up, talking till the wee hours of the morn and playing on her computer doing digital scrapbooking. Bethany turned me on to a Mexican restaurant called Bajios. Oh, it SO good! My mouth is watering thinking of it. I'm so sad...no Bajios in Phoenix. WHHAAAAAA.
Anyway, I got to thinking while we were visiting- that it's hard to believe that we've been friends for 16 years now! Now that makes me feel old! {Bethany, email the pictures you took of our kids so I can post it here.}

When I drove back to James and Melissa's place, Sharon, one of Warrens little sisters, who is not so little anymore, was waiting for us. Melissa, Sharon and I went up to Mutual Dell, a church owned cabin and recreation site, for a 'Back to girls camp' night with sisters in Mel's ward. It was a celebration for the Relief Society's birthday. We had SO MUCH FUN! We had a blast laughing and laughing and laughing the whole night.

We enjoyed getting together with two more of Warren's sisters and their families the rest of the weekend. Our kids just loved goofing off and playing with their cousins they never get to see. The bonus was I hadn't met one niece and one nephew yet, so that was a delight. {Your kids are darling, Courtney & Jared!} Below is SOME of the Weber cousins:
Our family drove about an hour north to Kaysville to visit some friends we made several years ago in Phoenix, the Goetz family. Celeste made a delicious BBQ chicken dinner for us. Our children had a grand time with theirs and Warren and I had fun playing the game Settlers of Catan with Celeste and Eric. {Oh, I won! That was pretty neato.} It had been such a long time since we'd seen the Goetz family. Thanks for having us over, we loved our short but fun visit!
We left for our trip home with full tummies of sausage gravy and potatoes that James and Mel made us as a going away breakfast. It was yummy. Even though it was a bit sad to leave, we were happy to be heading to our home, sweet home.

One of the stops was a detour trip to Manti, Utah. We've never been to the temple there and I was really looking forward to seeing it. It turned out to be one of the most gorgeous temples I've seen. We got only a few snap shots of it because it was freezing cold with cutting winds so we cut the 'walk' around the temple grounds into a quick jog! But it was worth the short stop. Then we stopped overnight in Page, Arizona. For dinner we took the kids to The Dam Grill. {reference to the dam you have to cross over to get to Page} and it was a cool place to take pictures. The dam and Grand Canyon are so beautiful. We took our time getting back to Phoenix yesterday. Over all it was a fantastic trip!