A Gathering Place

One of the best parts about living in Utah is that it seems like we are living at a crossroads for lots of our friends and family.   People are always coming and going from here to attend weddings, drop kids off at college, and visit family.  Most of the time, people are busy when they come here and have a million other people to visit, but on those times when people do have time for a visit, we LOVE it!   We also love that we have the accommodations to host people  more comfortably now, so when they do visit, we can set them up well!  

Having said all that though....this post is not about any long-lost friends coming to visit...it's about living 5 minutes away from my Mom and the family we get to see more frequently as a result of that proximity!  

In early October,  Nate came to stay with Mom for a couple weeks while Heather was out of town.  Nate is only 13-months younger than me, so we have a lot of shared history in the family and it was fun to be able to spend some time with him.   He lives in Tennessee and we do not see him as often as we'd like and I loved the conversations we were able to have!   Note:  You can also see that my darn eye issue (still ongoing) was in full swing back then!

Then Kristina and family came to visit from California during that same time.  

We always love having K's family around and I extra loved that this trip Jesus seemed like he was craving some one-on-one time, so he'd stay here with us while everyone else left for Mom's house.  We read lots of books together and he doted on Denali as much as possible.  It was absolutely delightful and  it felt a little sad when they left for home. 

My niece, Madeline, had some friends over one night and, as per usual, lots and lots of Legos and cars were played with while the K boys were here! 

One night while everyone was still here, Emma, Adam, McKenzie (my niece who is a BYU freshman), and Eva (McKenzie's roommate and one of my Thailand peeps) came over for dinner and a rousing game of Super Edited Family Version of Cards Against Humanity.   I might need to do a whole post on that game sometime.  lol

It was quite fun and I think it's so fun that Eva and McKenzie are now friends!  Eva is from Kentucky and this was the first time Ellie and I had seen her since Thailand.  

So, in summary, and to remind myself about why living in Utah is good: 

1.  We live close to our college kids (and my college age nieces) and get to see them regularly
2.  We get to spend lots of  time with my Mom and sister 
3.  We get to enjoy the relatives who come to visit my Mom
4.  We get to (sometimes) see long-lost friends that make their way through here
5.   We have this view out our back window.