Tour de Utah

My little sister McKenna was in Provo this past week for EFY which meant we got to be her Utah tour guide for the weekend. I feel like it's been long time since I've seen Kenna, and even longer since we've gotten to do things with just her. She also brought along her best friend Chloe for their EFY adventure, and the three of us, along with my hubby & best friend Jacie, had an awesome weekend in Provo.

I picked up the girls from the airport on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. and then headed home to get ready for an afternoon of tubing down the Provo River. The water was pretty close to freezing, but at 1:15 p.m. on a day that when it was more than 100 degrees, it felt great after you got used to it.

Kenna and Chloe.

Jacie showing off her sneakers.

In an attempt to hide our car key on the tire while we were tubing, the pesky little key fell off behind the tire to the weedy ground behind it. It took a good 7 minutes of searching on our hands and knees to find where it had fallen. At least we found it.

Jacie and I.

After a long afternoon on the river, we stopped by the shaved ice stand close to campus. The girls thought it was delicious!For dinner, we made our own tomato sauce to put on our homemade pizza. This is us cooking in our bathing suits:

Putting the pizza together...

Yummy sauce for the yummy pizza!

Jacie helped with the salad dressing.

The finished product. Two homemade pizzas: a meatlovers with bacon & sausage and a veggie delight complete with spinach, zucchini, squash, and onion. I love that veggie pizza.

Later that evening, we drove back up the canyon for a late night bonfire. While we waited for it to get dark outside, the girls taught us how to play Ninja.

Look at Chloe's agility.

The infamous split move.

Hi-yah!

Throw a few squats in there...

Or you can pretend you're like a bird.

Since Shane was at work when we ate dinner, we brought some with us and he grilled his pizza over the fire.

Making S'mores.

There's so many emotions going on in this picture. I love it.

On Sunday morning, instead of taking the girls to our married student ward, we drove up to Salt Lake City to watch "Music and the Spoken Word". For those of you who have never had the chance to attend, this is a 1/2 hour broadcast put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on every Sunday morning. Wouldn't you know it, "Music and the Spoken Word" is actually THE longest running radio broadcast ever. Cool, huh?

The guest performing group for the week was the National Youth Choir of Great Britain (you can see them in the middle) and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir flanked them on the side. They sang an amazing couple of songs, only amplified in greatness by the phenomenal architecture of the conference center. Anyone who has the chance to go, should definately take the opportunity.

Looking at the Salt Lake Temple from the roof of the conference center:

We also walked around to look at the art exhibit inside the Conference Center. I loved this picture:
... and of course this one is always a favorite.

Salt Lake City Temple.

Does this picture look familiar to you...?

For Sunday night dinner, we went up to see Grandpa Peter and Grandma Renae's house. Our job for dinner was to make dessert. I was trying a new recipe and made Samoa bars. They were delicious!
After dinner, Grandpa regaled us with stories of his grandfather and amazed us with little snippets of the past. You gotta love grandparents.

After a long week of EFY, Chad picked up the girls from campus and brought them back to our house before we had to drop them off at the airport. For lunch, we met our cousins at the park to meet our two newest second cousins. They're so darn cute.

Meet baby Boston on the left and baby Harley on the right.

On our way to the airport, we stopped by Ikea, one of my favorite stores in the whole world. Chloe and John took advantage of a second to sit down and relax for a second,

grab a quick drink,... and then just zonk out. Apparently it was a long trip with little time spent actually sleeping.

We miss you Kenna!