Trip to Utah

We met some wonderful friends in med school who helped us survive the insanity of those four years.  We stumbled upon Ben and Jamie during orientation at Loyola and clicked with them right away.  They love to play games, they love to read books, they love to travel, they appreciate history, they enjoy the great outdoors...  It was practically a match made in heaven.  We went on several trips with them during med school - to Washington D.C., Disney World, Springfield (IL), the Minnesota State Fair, and my parents' house in Michigan - and created many memories along the way.  We adore these people and were blessed with the chance to see them this past weekend.  They've spent the last year in Utah while Ben did a fellowship after residency and we snuck a chance to visit them before they move on.  What a joy and a blessing it was to see them again!

This was our first trip to Utah.  As we descended into Salt Lake City, we saw what looked like snow in the middle of June, but it was actually the salt flats.  The landscape kept changing and it was interesting and beautiful, like nothing we'd ever seen before.  What a welcome to Utah!

I didn't realize before we arrived that Salt Lake City (and Provo, where our friends live) is in the middle of the Wasatch Mountains.  It was picturesque to say the least.  We walked in a canyon one day and were rewarded with views like this:

It was fabulous!  The mountains greeted us everyday with their splendor and we enjoyed every moment of it.  We even had the chance to watch some paragliders jump off a mountain and sail away into the sky. 

Although the kids were also impressed with the waterfall and mountain creek, their favorite part of the weekend was playing in the splash pad in downtown Provo.  It was a hot and sunny day, and Eli and Ben played with all the kids in the water while Jamie and I stayed dry and ate snacks.  (She's pregnant too and we thoroughly relished every chance to relax and let our husbands tackle the kiddos.)  Caleb was hesitant at first, but eventually realized the joy of the splash pad and had a great time.  Kai couldn't get enough of it and was despondent when it was time to go.

We also tried drinks at Sodalicious, a popular spot in Provo with a unique variety of soda.  Eli got one called The Viking (of course).  Those Mormons love their soda, and so do we!  (They also love everything family-oriented, which is fabulous.  Jamie joked that playgrounds in Provo are like Starbucks in Seattle :)  It's definitely a family-friendly place to be!)  After quenching our thirst, Eli and Ben went ziplining through the mountains while Jamie and I napped with the kids, which sounded way better to me at the time than ziplining.  I slept for over an hour and it was amazing!

The weekend went too fast but we're so thankful we made it to Utah for a visit.  It's a beautiful place and we loved spending time with our friends again.  Despite the frumpy faces on our kids in the picture below, they also had a great time and did remarkably well with the time change and uprooting of their normal routine.

Surviving medical school together is a tie that binds and we're glad to be tied to these people!