Utah!

We broke up our trip to CO by stopping in SLC, UT to visit my sister Juliana and her family. RD kept checking the weather the days previous to our trip, and there was supposed to be snow in the earlier morning on Saturday, but he thought if we left later we'd be fine. SO we hit the  road around 10:30, and it seemed fine near town. Later on, we ran  into a snowstorm though

that we would've turned back for, but it was too crazy to even get off the road. There were semis and trucks and cars littering the sides of the highway, one semi lay on its side amidst twisted side guards, and we barely made it past a semi that couldn't quite make it up one steep hill. It was pretty crazy. The kids were pretty oblivious, and even I was fairly absorbed in a book, but RD brought us through! I think lots of prayers helped that happen.
So the normally 4 or so hour trip took us almost 8 hours, but we finally ended up at Elaine's French Bakery in Provo, but I forgot to take a pic. We got our favorite authentic french pastries, and Elaine's son, (who remembers RD and they speak in French together every time we go, which is a little unnerving for the rest of us) gave us a couple free baguettes. sweet!
We then headed to BYU campus to eat at the creamery like we did during our Ph.D. times. yeah for fun memories!

We finally headed back up to SLC to see my sister. I didn't know if the two-hour roundtrip drive was worth it just for pastries and burgers, but now I think it was. Now that the driving is over.
Anyway, Juliana was so kind and went to Ikea with me to pick up a couple things I'd wanted for awhile, but had never been close enough to one to get. That was fun, and Juliana was so patient with my frequent "squirrel!" distractions, though I didn't buy anything that wasn't on my list. Except a bamboo plant.We barely made it out before it closed. I still can't believe we did all that in a day!
We hung out with them on Sunday, played some Jumbling tower (off-brand jenga) and jungle speed, which was fun. We were all rolling with laughter when only Reese and I were left, and I made a mistaken grab and got a Huge pile of cards. And we all loved seeing James. Aubree couldn't get enough of him. It wasn't mutual, but he was good-tempered about it. I didn't hear him cry, but he has this awesome growl when he's fussy. He's super cute.

That evening we all went to Temple Square. Grace has talked a lot about how the Salt Lake Temple is her favorite; i don't know if she gets that you can get married in all the temples. Nevertheless, I was excited for her to see her favorite one!

You HAVE to touch it to believe it, right?!

It was really cold, so we quickly went into the visitor center and went around the exhibits, which was cool. We wished we had more time, but it was getting late, and we had a long trip the next day. We love Utah! On to Colorado!