utahr

this shouldn't surprise you but, hello loyal fan(s), i am back from my sojourn in utah and i had so much fun. i have felt the pressure to blog about this trip because of the enjoyment level and the sheer amount of pictures i have taken. it was a breath of fresh air and just what i needed to get over my crap attitude. my flight there was fine. i was excited and anxious to get there and the time flew by. i was picked up by marn and hen and max and amelia. this was mine and amelia's first meeting. i held her and she slept. this is how most of my first meetings go, so nothing new there. then i got to go to lunch with the afore mentioned four where we were met by two other faves, kenz and aunt trev, and had lunch at zubs which i adore. go springville. (if you were wondering if this was going to be a play by play, you bet it is.) that night i was sitting with the family at home and i hear someone talking to my elva and i thought it was my brother mike and so i walk outside and it was not my brother, it was brant!!!!! he had been telling me he could not come from san francisco because of work but that little sneak had been lying all along and had plans to come the whole time! it was a fun surprise and it made my mom cry just a little because of her love for brant. for this evening's activities, we went to marn's house and had a shindig so we could all be together. there was me and marn, hen, max, amelia, dave, elva, dave, nakole, adam, nash, lola, marg, and brant. there was clogging involved and even a little cheer but we will not see that performance again as it is retired. friday was the day we had been waiting for and why we were all convening in payson. MATT was coming home. we cleaned the house and painted a sign and then we were off to the airport to see our little missionary come home from thailand. elva deanne was so nervous to see her true love finally return. we waited for a long time and max kept asking if everyone in a suit was him because he didn't remember his face. he asked about all races and genders. "is that matt on the left? is that matt in the hat?" we were excited when he finally came! excited to tears. there were a lot of them. then we waited for bags and drove home where we were met by a barrage of visitors. it was a crazy night but oh so good to see brother again. saturday, matt was not released so he was no fun. he hung out with benny all day and did errands so i decided to take up nate and meri's invitation to go boating. it was loads of fun although we got hit by a tsunami wave and nearly capsized. good thing nate's boat is super fancy. they also had a sweet new tube
called the ion which is impossible to fall off of, so meri, nakole and i had a wild ride because we were the virgin riders and they wanted us off. sunday was the homecoming and beforehand was really funny because matt was a little awkward so it made for fun times for my dad and me. he is however a very eloquent speaker so it was good to hear his talk. after we had a shindig with tons of food and tons of folks at the house. it was fun to see everyone. randi and dani were finally here too so we cousins were all reunited! we played night games that night at adams and koley's house. we played sardines and hide and seek and steal the flag. it was so fun. hooray. monday we had a funeral for our uncle and it was the most interesting funeral i have ever been to. a tad white trash but it was good to see that side of the family. if you need to hear more about the funeral, talk to marnae; she took copious notes because of the oddness of it all. after the funeral, we went to kole and adam's and made dinner and played games. matt and mike joined us. tuesday was an interesting day. all the girls (minus marg) and kids decided to go and ride the ski lift at sundance and hike around and ride the ski lift back down. well that all changed at the top of the ski lift. we started a hike and then we saw a sign to stuart falls. of course elva deanne thought we should go there and it was only another mile so we went for it. we were ill prepared. we had crappy shoes and out of towners not used to hiking. it was funny and sad all at the same time. nash got tired so kole had to carry him and i carried lola. she is not a light girl but it was funny. she kept her arms open wide and would grab at anything. she got about 20 leaves and would try to shove them in to her mouth as fast as possible. don't worry, i got them all from her. all her hard work for nothing. i am a little embarrassed to say that all of us except elv and brenda had the sorest calves for days after. on wednesday, we floated the provo river. it was bitter cold but oh so fun. i fell in and lost all feeling in my legs for a little while. matt kept complaining about his boy parts but brant was brave. this is not the end of the adventure, but i have to get some work done and this post could already take years to read. sorry about the length but i had a lot of fun.