A Visit to Utah.

I have been feeling SO homesick lately. We have been in Oregon for just about FOUR years (can you believe it?!) and I'm kind of to the point where I've had fun but now I'm ready to go back home. It's really been such a fun adventure to live on our own away from friends and family, but you really start to get lonely after awhile.

So a trip to Utah was just what the doctor ordered :)

Landon and I had to work on Wednesday, but we managed to get off early and leave Oregon at 2 p.m. It's a 12 hour drive to Utah so that meant we arrived in the middle of the night. The drive really wasn't too bad and when nighttime rolled around, we just blasted upbeat music and ate an entire box of chips ahoy chocolate chunk cookies to keep us awake :)

If you didn't know, radar detectors are a MUST on a road trip :) Especially when you are driving through Oregon on 65 mph highways. The minute you cross into the Idaho border the speed limit changes to 80. I hate Oregon sometimes.

We arrived at my brother's house in Herriman at 3 a.m. but decided we didn't want to sleep in too late because we wanted Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. One of the things we miss most about Utah is the FOOD. So our trip was dedicated to 3 things: family, friends, and FOOD :)

So at 9:45, we rolled out of bed and even though we felt like we had been hit by a truck... we were pretty dang excited to eat some chicken biscuits! :)

Our next stop was Sandy to go to my parents' house and Cafe Rio with the fam. I can't tell you how excited I was to see everyone and to eat at my FAVORITE restaurant in the world. It was basically the best day ever.

After Rio we went back to my parents' house to hang out. I love my family!

That night we went to my friend Jenna's house to see her cute girls. I wanted to see my friends Toni and Trina too and have a little high school reunion, but Trina didn't end up getting my text because my phone is DUMB. So it was really good to see Jenna and Toni, but we missed our Trin! :(

Friday morning we actually got to sleep in and take our time getting ready before meeting up with my family for Pei Wei... another restaurant we LOVE and have missed. Yum yum yum!

Then we headed to City Creek. I seriously love that place. And it started SNOWING. Which was basically magical.

I have the cutest mama!!

My niece Jolene is SO sweet and decided that I am not her aunt, I'm her sister. And not just any sister, but her TWIN to be exact. She is so dang cute!

We rode up and down the escalator quite a few times :)

That night, the WHOLE fam (minus 10 people who couldn't come/live out of state) came over for dinner. Have I mentioned that my family is ginormous? Because it is. It's basically a circus and I LOVE it! All of my nieces and nephews are getting SO old. I can't handle it.

This isn't even all of them..we were still missing 6 of my nieces and nephews!

I asked my dad if he would play The Beatles on the piano for me. I have missed hearing him play and sing SO much. I grew up listening to him play and that's part of the reason why I'm so obsessed with The Beatles. 

Saturday morning we went skiing with my brother Tim and his family. Utah finally got some snow and it actually snowed on us the whole day at Brighton. I got to hang out with my nieces and sis-in-law and her sister on the bunny hill while Tim and Landon went to do some of the more intense runs. I tried to help my niece Atlie and give her some pointers on skiing--but considering I barely can ski myself it was quite the challenge :)

After that, I was able to go on some blues with Landon and Tara. I am such a wimp and HATE steep hills. But I only fell three times, so that was an improvement from our last trip!

Landon took me snowboarding on our first date, so of course we had to take a kissy picture. Our story kind of started on the mountain after all :)

I just noticed that person in the background covering their eyes. Haha! 

It was such a fun day! I'm so glad Tim and Ang came with us!

Next we drove up to South Weber to see our friends Jen and Dave and their baby Lydia. We love them SO much and considering we live two states away--we manage to see each other quite a bit! They come to visit us all the time and we of course get to see them every time we visit Utah. We really love spending time with them!

We went to this really yummy restaurant up Ogden canyon called Taggart's. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it is SO yummy! Then we went back to their house and chatted and played a fun game.

In the morning they made us the cutest/yummiest Mickey Mouse pancakes. We love the Egberts!

Since Sunday was our last day, we decided to squeeze in one more trip to Cafe Rio. We went with my sister Mary, her husband Zack, and my brother Joe. I swear I could NEVER get sick of that pork.

That night my whole family came over again. All of my nieces are obsessed with our boys, so I was basically Ms. Popular all night. But really, they just cared about my dogs :)

My niece Eowyn is SO sweet and such a love bug. Since she was only 4 when we moved to Oregon, she doesn't remember me too well. So I started showing her pictures of us together when she was younger and told her a story of how cute she was on my wedding day. At the reception, she would play with her little cousins and then run up to me and kiss my cheek, go right back to playing with her cousins, and then run back to give me a kiss five minutes later. It was the CUTEST thing and I'm so happy the photographer caught it on camera. So after I told her about it, she decided she was going to kiss my cheek the whole night just like she did on my wedding day. Oh my goodness, it melted my heart! :)

Later that night we played a few games and then it was time to say goodbye. I did pretty well, until I got to my mom and then my dad. Ugh... I'm such a cry baby. It was just SO good to see my family and I was NOT ready to leave. Landon and I kept saying how it felt like we should just be driving back to our apartment in Provo... not driving back to Oregon. I think that's a sign ;) 

We left Monday morning, but not before one more quick stop to Chick-fil-A. Yummmm! :) It was SO nice to drive home during the day instead of the middle of the night. 

I was pretty depressed and did NOT want to go back to Oregon, but luckily I had these cute boys cuddling on my lap to cheer me up.

We really had the best time and loved being around our family and friends! I'm already counting down the days until our next visit!!!!