Back to School and more House Pics!

Before my journey back to Oregon I got to do some fun things. I went to lunch with grandma a couple times and helped her clean some of her cabinets.We had a good time talking.  She also invited me to help can salsa. That was fun and I enjoyed picking fresh veggies from the garden.I forgot to take pictures but if I had there would have been a picture of a gallon sized ziploc over half full of garlic cloves (you'll have to ask grandma about that one ;)

I went on one last Utah hike with my parents up waterfall canyon. It was a beautiful hike and we had great weather. 

We also did something we've wanted to do for a while but have never done. We went to the Salt Lake Cemetery and visited the grave sites of many of the prophets. The cemetery was much bigger than expected and we were sure glad that we had a map to follow. It was a neat experience and I'm glad that we did it. Afterwards my parents surprised me by taking me by taking me to The Garden restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, one of my favorite restaurants ever! I took some fabulous pictures of the temple with the sunset while we ate.

My mom took the next day off and we went back to Salt Lake to hike to Ensign Peak, another thing I'd always wanted to do but never did. It was a steep hike but the view was pretty neat at the top. It was neat to think that I was standing where Brigham Young laid out the plan for the city and where they raised a flag as an ensign to the world. After our morning hike we headed to Hogel Zoo for a few hours before heading home and beginning to pack.

I wanted to go see the house one more time before I left. I am glad that I got to see the almost finished product. My parents will be moving in very soon to this beautiful home and I cant wait to visit it this Christmas and see the finalized house with all the furniture in place. Even though we went to the house almost every day it is still hard to believe that my parents are going to be living there soon!

Then, I headed back to Oregon but I didn't go alone. I brought my dog Scout back with me along with the usual menagerie of 2 turtles, 2 frogs, and 2 fish. It was a long drive and I split it over 2 days. Scout had fun staying in a hotel in Idaho and he was a great traveling dog. He's still getting used to apartment life but he's doing pretty well. Our favorite past-time at the moment is to hike around and pick fresh blackberries. They are all over and are so yummy! I'm really enjoying having a dog here and I plan to take him to the coast one of these days to see the ocean. I think he will like it.

My travel buddy