Home again, home again

jiggety jig.

We're back from our fab-o vacation to Utah, where we stayed with my youngest sister Julie and her adorable family. We did so much in what seemed like a short period of time.

Day 1 we were out the door at 6 a.m. to see the hot air balloon festival. My camera was left behind, which is just as well because it ended up being too windy for the balloons to launch. Still pretty cool to watch them get set up and inflated anyway. Then came breakfast at a local restaurant....absolutely delicious french toast with a syrup that was almost as good as my homemade buttermilk syrup, but not quite. Then later in the day my brother-in-law Greg had me follow him up a harrowing canyon drive (all narrow, winding canyon roads are harrowing to me, but that's what a healthy fear of steep mountain drop-offs and a car accident at the age of 16 on a similar road will do to you) to visit Cascade Springs and it was worth the white-knuckle drive.

Absolutely gorgeous. And thanks to a Sesame Street episode involving Jimmy Fallon that we viewed a few days before our trip, we were able to discuss nature a little differently than we would have otherwise. In the episode, it was explained that nature is anything not made by people.

Me: "Hey, Nate, is that tree nature?"

Nate: "Yes."

Scott: "Is water nature?"

Nate: "Yes!"

Me: "Is that rock nature?"

Nate: "Did a person make rocks?"

Brenna: "Jesus made everything."

Good point. So in the Kinghorn family nature is now anything that Jesus made, including us.

By the way, have I mentioned that in spite of the fact that I love toys, movies, theme parks, etc. I really, really enjoy doing things with my family that don't involve consumerism or child-focused marketing? It's so nice to be out in nature, appreciating the Lord's creations and discussing all of it with your kids in your own simple way.