Drum Roll Please!!

Without further delay, here is a new and very loooong post for all our adorable fans, yes that goes for you too Gary...

So, our trip to Utah this year was full of fun times. We flew out for J's sister's wedding. We are so happy for Elisabeth and Alex and wish them all the love possible in their new life together!

From the top...

We were all smiles on our 4th of July flight, because we made it to Utah without any issues (a big plus to an early morning flight...usually there are no delays). We saw tons of missionaries at the airport on their way home to Utah. With all the spiritual backup hanging around, J felt more comfortable reading his favorite magazine in public. Although, one of the missionaries had two broken arms! And his poor companion had to carry all of his bags. This sounds like something Sam would try to pull off :)

Once we made it to Utah, we couldn't wait to see our folks, but of course, our real excitement was surfaced when we arrived at the Stadium of Fire (fire, fire, fire) to rock it out with the Blue Men and Mylie Cyrus (who knew she was such a rock star?)


It was a great place to be to celebrate our wonderful nation's independence. There was a great spirit of appreciation for our troops and for our freedom! And, of course, there was a great fireworks show!

The rest of our trip included...
bowling with the fam., sub zero (ice cream made on the spot), shopping with the girls, J Dawgs, Smart Cookies, beetle bugs, babies biting fingers, 3 people in one! (Bee's friend, Amy, is having twins - cong!), Reams (they don't have Western Family out East), some yard sculptures, and Dumford's Donuts (J's a sucker for their chocolate on chocolate), eating out with Mom & Dad, and movies...wee!!







and then there was the wedding...




And we managed to squeeze in some Park City fun...



We hit the alpine slides (a first for J)


but if you really want a fun ride, you've got to check out the alpine coaster.
You load up and buckle in, head to the top

and ride it, without brakes, all the way to the bottom...

SWEET!

We also enjoyed a great seafood dinner and a tour of the resort in the new Swiss village of Zermatt in Midway.
And just when everything was great, we had to leave :(

But our adventures were far from over.... so we got up early Sunday (4:00 am) to make our flight so we would be home around 2:00 pm and have some time to catch up on our jet lag and chill out for a bit. On the way home I casually thought to myself how great it would be if we had Monday off work so we could have an entire day to just relax. Just then our pilot announced there was a thunderstorm over the Atlanta airport and we were being diverted to Birmingham to wait for the storm to pass and refuel. When we landed, we stayed on the runway and waited for fuel; the pilot estimated we would be there for about an hour or so....3 hours later, we took off for Atlanta. By the time we got to Atlanta, it was a mess. Tons of other flights had also been delayed and more had been canceled, because the airlines were running out of available pilots. The next available flight was Monday night at 8 pm. The airport was packed and we made our way through this long and eerily empty corridor between concourses as we tried to get on standby, but there was over 70 people on the standby lists.

So, we continued our vacation, by contacting Carl and Barb!
They were so gracious and hospitable enough to pick us up from the airport, put us up for the night, give us free food, and let us chill with them all day Monday. They were fantastic and we are so grateful for them.

All in all, it was a great trip! It was great to be able to see everyone for a short time and if we didn't get to see you this trip then come on out to Richmond (while we're still here!)