After our marathon drive, we made it to the Jones’ house in Harrisburg, Utah.  We love Brent and Marilyn, and have ever since we met them many years ago when we lived in Savannah together.  Arthur was especially excited to see them, and had talked about visiting them ever since they came to see us in Pennsylvania.  On Saturday night, we had a BBQ with them, and spent hours talking and enjoying being together.

On Sunday, after church, we went to Daybreak to visit Kevin’s brother, Randy.

It was so fun to spend the afternoon with them – especially their little girl, Elsie.  She is at the cutest age, and so much fun.  Our kids put on a puppet show for her with her Baby Einstein Puppets.  

And she let me hold and cuddle her :).

After playing for a while, catching up and eating yummy banana bread, we went to the park and fed the ducks.  The kids loved it!

After visiting Randy and Kate, we went back to the Jones’ for a yummy dinner, and more time talking and playing together.  Brent and Kevin even got in a game of pool :).

On Monday morning, before we left Ogden, we stopped at the Welfare Garden where Brent is the service missionary in charge.  It is an amazing garden, and it was so cool to have him show us around, and to see what the volunteers have accomplished.

After visiting Brent, we went with Marilyn and Stephen to Waffle Luv for breakfast – yum!!  Between the seven of us, we had some amazing waffles – yum!  And we ate them all :).  

Outside the restaurant, on the street, was a piano  as part of an art display.  Derek played us one of his recital songs, and Arthur decided to join in.  Awesome :).  It was such a fun morning, but it was sad to say goodbye to the Jones family.

We left Ogden and headed to Orem to meet up with Katie and her daughter Sabra for lunch.  We went to Wallaby’s – a yummy Australian BBQ place that I have always loved.  (The best part of lunch, though, was getting to meet Sabra’s boyfriend – they are so super cute together and we are all hoping that they get married.)  After lunch, Tony got home, and that meant playing pinochle – lots of pinochle.  And laughing, talking, and catching up.  Best afternoon ever :).

After our fun with the Steele family, we were off to the Drapers.  Rob and Angela moved to Orem back in March, which is so exciting for us, because it means that we get to see them any time we come through Utah.  Rob is like a brother to Kevin, and getting together with them is one of our very favorite things. The kids had a great time playing, we had a blast talking, and had a fantastic night.  (Even though Katie and I lost horribly, and we had five nines five different times.)

On Tuesday, I made plans to meet up with my niece, McKayla, and my nephew, Nathan, for lunch.  I love these kids, and it was so much fun to see them and catch up.  It is especially fun, because in August, Nathan is coming to the Baltimore mission – our mission.

After lunch, I came back to join the party at the Draper’s.  Rob, Kevin and the kids spent the afternoon having a blast in their pool.

The kids loved taking turns having Kevin throw them in the pool.  Angela and I sat in the shade talking and enjoying watching all the fun.  It was probably good that we weren’t in the pool.  You never can trust Kevin and Rob when they get together ;).

On Tuesday night, we went out on a double date to Station 22.  It had a huge list of fancy sodas, and so we each ordered one so that we could all taste them.  The soda tasting was very fun, and the food was even better.

After dinner, we walked around Center Street and over to the Provo City Center Temple.  It was such a fun evening :).

When we got home, we put the kids to bed, played pinochle and ate giant chocolate chip cookies that I had bought earlier in the day.  (They were so big, we cut them up into quarters when we gave them to the kids, and they were as big as a pretty big cookie.)  It was the perfect end to our time with Rob and Angela.

We had such a wonderful few days in Utah, and we loved getting to see family and friends.  Our time there alone would have made the crazy drive worth it.