Utah

We left the Grand Canyon in the evening and headed toward Utah, thinking we'd get a few hours of driving in, stay at a hotel, and have less to drive the next day. Apparently, southern Utah is a really happening place because we drove and drove and could not find any vacant hotels. Finally past midnight, after five hours of driving, we found a Comfort Inn in the middle of nowhere.

The next day, we stopped for lunch in Bryce Canyon on our way to my grandparents' house.

The first thing we did with my grandparents was go to a rodeo. My grandparents are so funny at the rodeo - they know a bunch of facts about the competitors and they keep track of all the scores.

This picture cracks me up because my grandma would NOT let me get a picture of her, and this was the closest I could get.

Michael flew home on Saturday night, and the next day, the boys and I had Sunday dinner with Grandma Alley and a house full of my Alley cousins, aunts, and uncles. Love them all!

The boys and I filled up our last few days in Utah by doing some sightseeing. First we went to Temple Square, where I took a bunch of pictures of flowers. Temple Square always has the best flowers.

The boys mostly seemed bored with Temple Square, but this was a fun shot of them posing for their "wedding photos."

We also spent an afternoon floating in the Great Salt Lake at Antelope Island. 

The following pictures make it look pretty nice, but the Great Salt Lake is actually a really disgusting lake where I've been told the locals never go.

As evidence...you see that black, curved line in the sand in the picture below? Those are tiny flying bugs that fill up the whole beach and scatter every time you take a step. Cole would jokingly stomp around the beach saying, "Look how powerful I am!"

It's been 7 years since my last visit to Utah, and it will probably be another 7 until my next visit, but we loved the time we were there and the wonderful family we got to visit with!