Hanging out with our visitors from NC

We have been so excited for the past few weeks to have special visitors from Harkers Island.  We've had my mom and dad visit before, but for the first time my niece Georgia was allowed to come as well.  It was her first flight and therefore her first visit to Utah.  We've been really busy, mostly just hanging out at the pool at the rec center, but have also done some sight seeing as well.  11 year olds aren't too interested in sight seeing, but we've done a few things that even Georgia has enjoyed.

Growing up on Harkers Island, the highest elevation you ever see is literally about 5 feet above sea level.  That's a hill for us!  Utah is blessed with beautiful sights in the mountains, so mostly we've been enjoying some of those.

One of our first adventures was to see Bridal Veil Falls.  It's one of the things I remember from visiting here when I was just 13.  I knew there was a lot of water in the rivers this year, but it was still surprising to see the rapids there.

Another fun adventure was to Antelope Island.  Even though I think the Great Salt Lake isn't really all that "great" when you've grown up by the ocean, it's an interesting place to see.  I love how Antelope Island is so close to a city, yet it feels like it belongs in a different era of time.  It's so quiet and peaceful.

 A nice volunteer gave us a ride around in a big golf cart at the ranch

 Morgan loves spending time with her Granny and Papa

Go cowgirl!

We really wanted to see the big Days of '47 parade in Salt Lake, but then we heard how people camp out the night before, so that was out for us.  Instead, we went to a parade float preview at the Southtowne Expo Center.  So much better!  In air conditioning and free!  The floats were so impressive!  Working waterfalls, "Wildford Woodruff" fly fishing, it was hard to pick a favorite.

 This simple float was one of my favorites, based on the movie Up, which I think was an instant classic.

How cool is this dog!  Don't you just want to pet him.

For Pioneer Day, my sweet mountain-grown husband took Georgia and I on a "simple" hike.  He said, "Don't worry.  It's pretty flat."  Has he met me?  Remember how I said a hill to me was 5 feet above sea level!  However, this hike was totally worth it, although the blisters at the end made the last mile pretty nasty.  We hiked to Stewart Falls, which quite frankly, put Bridal Veil Falls to shame.

Sorry this photo is blurry.  People actually stood under the falls, but the water was so cold, this was as close as I could get!  The sound of the powerful water coming down was amazing.

Last note to this long blog:  Nate and I are trying our hand at gardening again this year.  I didn't check the summer squash and zucchini for maybe 3 days and this is what I got:

The zucchini especially were huge.  I've been making lots of zucchini bread, which when you add in some chocolate chips, even 11 year olds will eat!