Sundays in Salt Lake City

It's been nice, while we've been in Utah, to be able to attend church with friends and visit family. Sunday July 22th, we realized at the last moment that Taylor's cousins, with whom we'd thought we would go to church, were out of town. Luckily we reached Mike and Kristen Atkisson, friends from Bloomington who moved also moved away last August, one day ahead of us; we were able to go to church with them in Salt Lake City. In the evening we went to visit Macy Halverson, our niece, so she'd feel more comfortable driving to Yellowstone with us.

Yesterday we went up to Salt Lake City and spent an hour before church at Matt & Jessica Sherry's lovely home. They've painted and put in crown molding, decorated and landscaped it so beautifully. There is a house for sale across the street from them, whose owner is a horticulturist, whose yard is just about on par with theirs! They've made a beautiful home for themselves. (And it's so tempting to want to buy a house across the street from them! Homes seem so cheap out here after the Bay Area! And we'd be even closer than the Sherry & Rampton parents will be once Mom & Dad build their new house just down the street from Tom & Anne!)


It was fun to talk with them about our coming adoptions -- they have been selected by a birth mother who is due on October 18th, and are having a girl. We're so happy for them! You can read more about their adoption story on their blog.

After church with them, we drove to South Jordan and joined Rock & Teri Ballstaedt and their kids for dinner. I had known two of the Ballstaedt cousins (Joel & Brooke) from BYU Jerusalem, and hadn't seen Brooke since 1994, so it was fun to catch up. Taylor has such interesting and fun family!

As we drove away Taylor repeatedly remarked how he loved the time with family and friends this summer. It definitely has!