I love my city.

I grew up in Midvale, Utah (about 15 minutes south of downtown Salt Lake City). I lived in 3 different houses growing up and they were within about 3 blocks of each other. When I moved out on my own I rented a studio apartment in the same neighborhood. My family didn't travel very much. We took a couple road trips through the western states but that's pretty much it. I always knew that I wanted to see the world and live somewhere else. So, it was exciting when I was 19 and I got married and moved to Las Vegas where my husband had been transferred for work. Sure, Vegas is a huge vacation spot for the world and people love to go there to party but I hated living there. I gained a huge appreciation for Salt Lake in the year and a half that I lived in Vegas. Las Vegas is dirty, hot, smelly, windy, everywhere you look you see a mostly naked person, and overall the people are not very friendly. Thayne said Hello to a guy when we were walking into the grocery store once and we were seriously afraid that the guy was going to hit Thayne in return. Salt Lake is clean, has beautiful landscape, four seasons, family friendly, and some of the nicest people. I'm still amazed at how often people say hello to me at the grocery store or walking down the street. I still want to travel the world and experience other cultures but I have realized that Salt Lake is my city and I love it here. I feel lucky to be able to live my life and raise my family in such a beautiful place. Home really is where your heart is and Salt Lake has a tight hold on mine.

The reason I bring this all up now is because Thayne and I were in Vegas just last week. It didn't take long for me to remember all of the reasons I hated living there. The trip was good. We saw some old friends that we hadn't seen since we moved back to Utah almost 6 years ago and we did some fun things with the Biking Convention that we went down there to attend. But I was so happy to come home and so happy that I didn't have to live there any longer than I did.