To Utah Onward Ho!

It's not very often one gets the chance to write "ho" in a post title. I had to jump on this opportunity.

After we left Vegas but before we went to Leatherby's, we drove further north to Annabella, Utah to spend the night with my sister, Charloe, and her family. They have a beautiful home on a hill, located in a quaint little farming suburb of Richfield. Just down the street from their house were two new baby horses, so we went to admire them that evening. We also hopped in the truck to assess the damage of the Sevier River flooding, which is taking over parts of the valley with overflowing water. Thank goodness for sandbags! They certainly had a good winter and have lots of water melting off the mountain. Annabella is pretty, peaceful, and so quiet. We stayed up until almost 2:00 AM talking with Charloe and her drug-dealing pharmacist husband, Brian. What fun people!

The next morning, Monday, we packed up the car with Charloe's oldest kid in the backseat for our continued drive to Nephi. We've known Corban is brilliant since he was obsessed with planets at the ripe old age of three years. He could easily tell you every fact known about each and every planet, its moons, and characteristics. Now that he's six, his latest fascination is with Presidents of the United States. Because he's brilliant, George Washington is his favorite president, too! It was fun to hear his sweet little voice from the backseat quizzing us on presidential facts. Did you know there was a president named Andrew Johnson?! Me, neither.

Tuesday morning meant we started our manual labor for the week. Our entire purpose for this trip was to help my parents get some projects finished on their house. Just a few weeks before we arrived, the decision was made to wait on some major renovations, like flooring and paint, for a few months. So we did what we could to make some small changes around the house. I finally swayed Mom to the evil world of spray paint, and she let T'liese and I update all of the brass fixtures in the house. Some were changed to Satin Nickel while others became a beautiful Oil-Rubbed Bronze. It's hard to pick a favorite because they both look so good (especially next to each other) in the house. Of course, I don't have any "After" shots to prove that statement, but it's common knowledge that getting rid of brass will improve any situation! We even changed some brass and wooden picture frames, too, and printed off some new leaf artwork for her living room. Then we rearranged the furniture and voila! A new room for the price of a few cans of spray paint.

The small local hardware store only carried Krylon spray paint in multiple colors, so that's what we bought. I wasn't impressed and will definitely stick with Rustoleum's Painter's Touch for all of my projects. Sometimes one must work with what small local hardware stores provide! We used Rustoleum's Hammered Black to create the Oil-Rubbed Bronze look, and it turned out amazingly! If I do say so myself...

It was fun to work together as a team to knock out so many small projects. And it's always fun to have someone else jump onto my spray paint bandwagon! Satisfaction is instant with a can in my hands! The entire house looks different with just a few small changes, and I am tickled with the (not pictured) results.

We conveniently timed our visit to Utah during my brother's Little League Baseball Tournament, so we spent several of our evenings at the ballpark watching him play. Though his team lost their last game, Kippy had the game of his life with several in-field plays, killer hits, and fly balls caught. He was a machine! It must run in the family! We all enjoyed cheering him on and watching his game skills in play. Despite being left-handed, he just found out this week that he was named to the All-Star team. Whoop whoop!

More adventures from Nephi coming up soon!